Sweet, home Alexandria. Lord, I’m comin’ home to you. The Walking Dead returns for its sixth season on Sunday, Oct. 11, and not a day too soon. Although the prequel Fear the Walking Dead quenched some anticipation for the zombie series, it’s safe to say we’ve reached a fever pitch of anticipation for the show’s return.
Since premiering in 2010, the AMC series has elevated some of its cast to superstar status. Actors who once found themselves in bit roles are now household names. A look back at the resumes of some of the show’s leads (specifically, those that were billed as a main character for more than one season) shows that before The Walking Dead brought fame, the stars were collaborating and shining bright in a variety of other projects.
Norman Reedus
It just might be that Norman Reedus‘ Daryl Dixon has survived so far into a show with a death count only comparable to Game of Thrones due to his own pliability. Earlier this year, Reedus, 46, admitted that for much of his life he was a nomad, drifting from “job to job.” While he saw early success in big roles (but small films), it wasn’t until The Walking Dead that actor truly gained star power.
One of his earliest parts was that of an 18-year-old hitman for the Jewish mob, the son of Debbie Harry in 1997’s Six Ways to Sunday. Many know Reedus as one half of the Irish vigilante MacManus twins from 1999’s cult classic The Boondock Saints (and its subsequent installments), but did you see the actor in 2000’s Gossip, a cheesy teen psychological thriller (in the same vein as I Know What You Did Last Summer) with James Marsden, Joshua Jackson, Kate Hudson and even Edward James Olmos?
After steady work throughout most of the early 2000s, it was only bit parts until scoring Daryl. Seen Ridley Scott’s Denzel Washington-vehicle American Gangster? Then you saw Reedus as Detective Reilly greet Russell Crowe briefly in the city morgue.
Andrew Lincoln
The Walking Dead‘s protagonist, Rick Grimes – as portrayed by Andrew Lincoln – was once just a boy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to love him. Wait… wrong romcom.
Aside from several roles on British television (including a turn on the BBC’s This Life, a melodramatic tale of twenty-somethings), Lincoln’s pre-AMC career highlight was playing that dope with the cue cards in Love Actually.
While dissenters do exist, it’s safe to say the British flick has retained an enormous fanbase. We get it, Mark – we’d want to steal our bestie’s wife if she was Keira Knightly, too.
Melissa McBride
And with Carol, thus begins the list of Walking Dead stars that were in The Mist (seriously, there are four total – two of which are on our list). Melissa McBride, 50, starred in the film installment of Stephen King‘s monster mystery as the woman who leaves the grocery store, facing the strange fog and the creatures hiding in it to reach her children. It’s revealed during the story’s tragic ending that McBride’s character survived, and rescued her children.
Before that, a notable career point was a three-episode stint from 1998-2003 as two characters on teen drama Dawson’s Creek. At least one of her scenes involved kissing James Van Der Beek.
Lauren Cohan
Lauren Cohan has a flair for science fiction. Before becoming Maggie Green, Cohan had arcs on not one, but two CW shows about mystical creatures. First, she played (much reviled) Bela Talbot on the third season of the Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles series Supernatural. Talbot was essentially a con artist who made money by stealing and selling objects of the occult.
Cohan also had a role on The Vampire Diaries in 2010, playing Rose, a – you guessed it – vampire. Before joining The Walking Dead, the actress had a recurring part for five episodes of Chuck as Vivian Volkoff, the heir to Volkoff Industries.
Danai Guirira
Before she was sword-wielding Michonne, Danai Guirira was making her mark on the stage. Most of Guirira’s career pre-Walking Dead was spent as a playwright and a Broadway actress. She starred in and co-wrote 2005’s In the Continuum, which won her an Outer Critics Circle Award. She also made her debut on The Great White Way in 2009 in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
There were sporadic TV roles though. In 2004, she went the Law & Order route, appearing on an episode of Criminal Intent. Later, she played recurring character Jill for six episodes of HBO‘s Treme, which centered on a New Orleans’ community rebuilding after Katrina.
John Bernthal
R.I.P Shane Walsh. John Bernthal’s character is no longer one for this world, a TV fate he’s suffered on more than one occasion.
The Class, a short-lived 2006 comedy series in which the actor played Duncan, a dumb jock, lasted only 19 episodes before getting the axe. The show, which was about the reunion of former third-grade classmates, bore more successes than just Bernthal, however. Namely: Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Lizzy Caplan.
Bernthal also appeared alongside Robin Williams as Al Capone in Night at the Museum‘s second installment, and was in 12 of the 13 episodes of Rebecca Romijn’s ill-fated witch show, Eastwick, in 2009.
Sarah Wayne Callies
The late and (not so) great Lori Grimes (wife of Rick and mother of Carl) was once best known as Dr. Sara (freakin’) Tancredi on Prison Break. What began as an illicit affair between the Sarah Wayne Callies’ prison doctor and ‘ol blue/green eyes Michael Scofield arguably became the plots’ underlying driving force – even though she disappeared for a season.
Prior to the Fox drama, Callies had parts on Numb3rs, SVU, and even starred in a reimagining of Tarzan as a crime procedural.
Laurie Holden
Laurie Holden, A.K.A. Andrea, has had a varied career. The 45-year-old starred as Mary Travis in the TV-version of iconic western The Magnificent Seven, and played Jim Carrey‘s love interest in the ’50s drama/romance The Majestic.
In 2006, she was Cybil Bennett in horror film Silent Hill, a police officer who paired up with the film’s protagonist to (spoiler alert!) her own demise. On the seventh season of The Shield, Holden appeared as Olivia Murray. She’s also #2 of our The Mist–Walking Dead crew.
Perhaps her most iconic pre-Dead role, however, was that of Syndicate agent Marita Covarrubias on The X-Files – an informant character introduced during the series’ fourth season.
Jeffrey DeMunn
The victim of a mercy kill, Dale Horvath had a short, two-season run on Dead. The same, however, cannot be said about 68-year-old Jeffrey DeMunn’s acting career.
Some highlights? He was Mayor Jacobs in 1992’s Newsies, Andrei Chikatilo in 1995’s Citizen X in 1995, and guard Harry Terwilliger in The Green Mile. Not only did he appear (as the mayor) in The Majestic with Holden, he also rounds out the mentioned cast members also in The Mist.
Michael Cudlitz
Cudlitz‘s acting credits go back as far as 1989 – long before joining the AMC series in 2014 as Sgt. Abraham Ford.
The star’s first memorable role was “Chub” of A River Runs Through It in 1992. He then took Brenda Walsh to prom on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Tony Miller. He lived for three hours on 24, and eventually took the helm of police drama Southland from 2009-2013, lasting through a channel jump as the lead character, Officer John Cooper.