20 biggest stars to crossover to/from Broadway

Most people know Lin-Manuel Miranda best as “the ‘Hamilton’ guy,” but he actually made his Broadway debut with “In the Heights,” a musical he wrote and pushed all the way to Broadway from its beginnings at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. Although he had minor roles on “The Sopranos” and “House” in the late 2000s, Miranda continued to work as a playwright and actor for numerous musicals during this time, including the Broadway renditions of “West Side Story” and “Bring It On the Musical.” “Hamilton” wouldn’t make it to the stage until 2015, after Miranda had already begun his successful transition to TV and film.

Aftering appearing in numerous plays and productions in her youth, an 11-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker broke into Broadway in a revival of William Archibald's “The Innocents,” as well as a small role in “Annie” the following year. By 1979, Parker moved up to the lead role in the latter musical and held it for a year before getting cast on the CBS sitcom “Square Pegs.” Although her TV and film career would take off after this, SJP has returned to Broadway three more times to date for “The Heidi Chronicles” (1989), “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (1995), and “Once Upon a Mattress” (1996).

Five years before earning an Academy Award nomination for his first feature film role (1966’s “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming”), Alan Arkin made his Broadway debut with the The Second City improv comedy troupe in “From the Second City.” He followed this up with a starring role in “Enter Laughing” - Joseph Stein’s farce play based the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Carl Reiner - and won a Tony for this performance. After one more Broadway acting stint (“Luv” in 1964), Arkin’s film career began, but the veteran would return four more times to Broadway as a director with “Hail Scrawdyke!” (1966), “The Sunshine Boys” (1972), “Molly” (1973), and “Taller Than a Dwarf” (2000).

After a run with a few of Tom Eyen’s Off-Off-Broadway productions, Bette Midler made the jump to Broadway when she was just 20 years old after getting cast as Tzeitel in “Fiddler on the Roof.” From there, Midler bounced around between theater and music, putting on several of her own Broadway shows before eventually earning her first film role in 1979. Her movie career took off at this point, but Midler would never forget her roots. She returned to Broadway to produce the musical “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” in 2011 and star in “I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers” in 2013. Even today, the Divine Miss M can currently be seen in the Broadway production of “Hello, Dolly!”

Of course we had to include the host of this year’s Tony Awards, Kevin Spacey. His first film role was a small part in 1986’s “Heartburn” and his first TV gig was on “The Equalizer” in 1987, but his Broadway debut actually came back in 1982. That was the year he was cast in “Ghosts,” which was followed by five more Broadway plays in 1984, 1986, 1991, 1999, and 2007 - and that’s to say nothing of his non-Broadway theatrical roles. As for film, you probably know him best for “Seven,” “L.A. Confidential,” “American Beauty,” “21,” and/or his latest, “Baby Driver.”

Two years before her film debut, Diane Keaton landed an understudy gig for the role of Sheila in Broadway’s “Hair” in 1968. She held this job for nine months, until Woody Allen cast her in his Broadway show “Play It Again, Sam.” This would prove to be quite valuable in the future, as Keaton was not only cast in the film 1972 film version of the play, but numerous other future collaborations with Woody Allen - including, of course, “Annie Hall” in 1977.

John Travolta’s first taste of stardom came when he landed a role in the touring company of the musical “Grease,” followed by another Broadway gig in “Over Here!” However, his stage career was short-lived. Travolta moved to Los Angeles in 1972 to pursue TV and film roles, which resulted in his first gig as a fall victim in a season two episode of “Emergency!” Next came “Welcome Back, Kotter” (1975-1979) and a part in “Carrie” (1976), which were followed by his breakthrough film roles in “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) and, appropriately, “Grease” (1978).

After spending four years in the United States Air Force, Morgan Freeman moved to Los Angeles to take both acting and dancing classes. He landed his first Broadway gig in in 1964 at the age of 27 in an all-black production of “Hello, Dolly!” Even after crossing over into television and film, Freeman continued to dedicate himself to theater, and appeared on Broadway in several more productions over the next few decades, including roles in “The Dozens” (1969), “Purlie” (1970), “The Mighty Gents” (1978), “The Gospel at Colonus” (1988), and “The Country Girl” (2008).

While honing both her singing and acting skills, a 19-year-old and extremely hardworking Barbra Streisand finally received a real stage role in 1962 when she was cast as Elliot Gould’s secretary in “I Can Get It for You Wholesale.” She stole the show and received her first Tony nomination, which was followed by a stint as Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl” in 1964, and a Tony Award win for Star of the Decade in 1970. Streisand is now one of only a dozen people to ever win a Tony, Emmy, Oscar, and Grammy.

Most people are unaware that not only was Al Pacino’s first major acting role a Broadway show (“Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?”) back in 1969, but that he also won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor that same year. Of course, the legendary actor and filmmaker’s career took off soon afterward when he was cast in “The Godfather” in 1972 and “Serpico” in 1973, but he never forget about his love of theater. Pacino has returned to Broadway 11 more times since then, including a Tony Award-winning performance in “The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel” in 1977, a Tony-nominated role in “The Merchant of Venice” in 2011, and, most recently, “China Doll” from 2015 to 2016.

Although Julie Andrews made a few brief television appearances as a teenager, most of her early work was exclusively on stage. Andrews got her big break early, as she was cast in the Broadway adaptation of “The Boy Friend” in 1954 at the age of just 19. Two years later, after her previous contract expired, she was cast as Eliza Doolittle in Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner’s “My Fair Lady.” Loewe and Lerner loved her performance so much that they later gave her the role of Queen Guinevere in “Camelot.” It was this play that led Walt Disney to offer her the titular role in 1964’s “Mary Poppins.” She declined due to her pregnancy at the time, but Disney insisted, telling her, “We’ll wait for you.”

When it comes to the biggest stars, there’s really none larger than Meryl Streep. But before she won six Golden Globes and three Oscars, Streep began her acting career onstage. After moving to New York City in 1975, Streep almost immediately earned numerous theater roles, making her Broadway debut in “Trelawny of the ‘Wells’.” Although she soon began auditioning for films, Streep continued to act on Broadway, appearing in both Arthur Miller's “A Memory of Two Mondays” and Tennessee Williams' “27 Wagons Full of Cotton” (for which she received a Tony nomination), as well as “Happy End.” Additionally, Streep also appeared in “Secret Service” and Anton Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” before landing her first film role in 1977’s “Julia,” and her breakthrough in 1978’s “The Deer Hunter.”

Neil Patrick Harris first found fame as a 16-year-old kid when he was cast as the titular lead in “Doogie Howser, M.D.” Since then, he has continued his successful acting career with starring roles in shows like “Stark Raving Mad” and “How I Met Your Mother,” as well as films like “Starship Troopers” (1997), “Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog” (2008), “Gone Girl” (2014), and the Harold and Kumar franchise. However, Harris also transitioned to and from Broadway numerous times, appearing for a few months each in “Cabaret,” “Proof,” “Assassins,” and, most recently, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in 2014.

Philip Seymour Hoffman always had a passion for live theater, but he didn’t get a chance to perform on Broadway until appearing in “True West” in 2000 - which was after his film roles in “Scent of a Woman,” “Twister,” “Boogie Nights,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” In addition to later films such as “Capote” (2005), “Synecdoche, New York” (2008), “Doubt” (2008), “Moneyball” (2011), and the “Hunger Games” franchise, Hoffman also returned to Broadway twice. The first time was for “Long Day's Journey Into Night” in 2003, and the second was “Death of a Salesman” in 2012. All three of Hoffman’s Broadway plays earned him Tony nods.

Bryan Cranston doesn’t appear to have ever had trouble finding work, as he’s appeared in a multitude of films and had regular or recurring roles on TV series such as “Seinfeld,” “The King of Queens,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” and “How I Met Your Mother,” as well as numerous cartoons. The biggest role of Cranston’s career, however, was without a doubt Walter White in AMC’s “Breaking Bad” from 2008-2013. When the show ended, Cranston surprised fans again by opting to go to Broadway for the Lyndon B. Johnson biopic “All the Way.” The veteran actor not only dazzled with his performance, but he also earned a 2014 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Cranston also returned to Broadway in 2015 to produce “Finding Neverland.”

Thirty-five years after launching his wildly successful acting career, Bruce Willis made his debut on Broadway in William Goldman’s adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel “Misery.” It only lasted for four months, but the critics were kind, and Willis’ co-star, Laurie Metcalf, received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. In those 35 years in between, Willis was plenty busy, as he starred in the TV show “Moonlighting” from 1984-1989, as well as films such as “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “The Sixth Sense” (1996), and the “Die Hard” franchise.

After soaring to superstardom with films like “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” and “Analyze This,” Billy Crystal decided to do a one-man show based on his autobiography “700 Sundays.” The 2004 Broadway production was a hit, earning Crystal a 2005 Tony Award for Special Theatrical Event. Although it only ran for six months, Crystal revived the play for another two months in late 2013/early 2014.

The late Robin Williams began his showbiz career as a stand-up comedian, and eventually starred in the TV show “Mork & Mindy” and films like “Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987), “Dead Poets Society” (1989), “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1992), and “Good Will Hunting” (1997) - to name just a few. Although Williams first appeared on Broadway in 2002, it wasn’t in the traditional sense, as he was performing stand-up for a comedy special. However, he returned nearly a decade later to make his Broadway acting debut in “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2011.

Helen Mirren has been acting professionally on both stage and screen since 1966, but she didn’t earn her first Academy Award nomination until 1994 for “The Madness of King George.” That very same year, she had a breakthrough stage performance as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's “A Month in the Country” alongside John Hurt and Joseph Fiennes. The next year, Mirren not only made her Broadway debut in “A Month in the Country,” but she also received her first Tony nomination. The world-renowned and respected actress returned to Broadway in 2001 for “The Dance of Death” and in 2015 for “The Audience” - earning two more Tony nods and winning Best Actress in a Play for the latter production. Among countless achievements in film, Mirren won a Best Actress Oscar in 2006 for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.”

Tom Hanks starting acting professionally with the Great Lakes Theater company in Cleveland, Ohio, appearing mostly in Shakespearean plays. This lasted for about three years from 1977-1979, and his television and film careers both began the next year. Hanks is now one of the most successful and famous actors/filmmakers of all time, with credits like “Splash” (1984), “Big” (1988), “Philadelphia” (1993), “Forrest Gump” (1994), “Apollo 13” (1995), and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), among many others. Although 34 years had passed, Hanks returned to the stage in 2013 in a big way, starring in the Broadway production of “Lucky Guy” at the Broadhurst Theater. The play was written by Nora Ephron (“When Harry Met Sally...,” “Sleepless in Seattle”), who died in 2012 and received a posthumous Tony Award the following year.