In the early days, television was filled with either faded movie stars whose Oscar-worthy days were a distant memory (see: Loretta Young), or young upstarts who would be forever tainted with the TV stigma and shunned by the Academy (see: Bob Denver). But not anymore! Today, TV is a training ground for future Academy Award-winning performers. Let's take a look at the top stars who started on the small screen before taking home Oscars.
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Goldie Hawn
One of the first TV stars to successfully transition to Oscar-winning film star, Hawn got her start as a giggly go-go girl on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the psychedelic SNL of the 1960s. While only in her second year of small-screen fame, Goldie rocked her feature film debut as Walter Matthau's young mistreated girlfriend in the 1969 comedy Cactus Flower, wowing audiences and earning herself an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Proving the win was no fluke, Hawn went on to become one of the most sought-after film female comedians of the 1970s, '80s and '90s.
Sally Field
After becoming known to TV audiences as the perky surf gal on the 1965 sitcom Gidget, a young Sally Field took the title role on the uber-corny series The Flying Nun and then struggled for years to be taken seriously. Finally, after studying with Lee Strasberg and nabbing an Emmy for tackling the mentally ill title character in the 1977 miniseries Sybil, Field was rewarded with a Best Actress Oscar for 1979's Norma Rae. A second Best Actress statuette came in 1984 for her work in the Depression-era drama Places in the Heart, and -- yes, it must be said -- we liked her.
Who knew Mork had such acting chops? Breaking into TV as off-the-wall alien Mork (from Ork) on Happy Days and the spin-off Mork & Mindy, Robin Williams rose to fame as an improvisational comic actor. Little did late-'70s TV audiences know that Williams had studied drama at Juilliard and could hold his own in serious films like The World According to Garp and Dead Poets Society. But it wasn't until Good Will Hunting in 1997 that Williams took home Academy gold as Best Supporting Actor. Now if the Academy would start handing out awards for animated sequels, Williams might be honored again soon.
Television was the medium in which the Malcolm X star found fame -- first as the bunch of grapes in those Fruit of the Loom underwear commercials (wasn't he great?!), and second in the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere. But the small screen couldn't contain Washington for long -- in 1989 he scored a Best Supporting Actor award as the embittered Pvt. Trip in Glory, and in 2001, he made history as the second African-American (after Sidney Poitier) to win a Best Actor Oscar, for Training Day. Boasting three additional Oscar nominations, two Golden Globe wins and a Tony, Denzel has become one of the most lauded actors of our time.
Do you realize there is at least one generation that only knows Tom Hanks as an award-collecting dramatic film presence? But to those of us over 30, he'll always be the hilariously cross-dressing Kip Wilson on Bosom Buddies and the Keatons' dysfunctional Uncle Ned on Family Ties. If Ron Howard hadn't cast Hanks in 1984's Splash, he might have stayed in sitcoms forever -- but instead he went on to Oscar glory with two consecutive Best Actor wins, in 1993 for Philadelphia and in 1994 for Forrest Gump. Tom then took over the world as a producer and director, while racking up two more Oscar noms for acting, all while maintaining his reputation as the nicest guy in the biz.
Mo'Nique
From humble beginnings on the Baltimore, Md. standup comedy circuit, Monique Hicks shot to fame on the late-1990s sitcom Moesha and its spin-off, The Parkers. Mo'Nique spent the 2000s becoming a television and movie fixture as she hosted the BET Awards and Showtime at the Apollo, did her shtick on Hollywood Squares and appeared in feature comedies like Soul Plane and Phat Girlz. But none of these prepared the world for her 180-degree turn as the mother from hell in 2009's Precious, a turbulent performance that earned the actress heaps of honors, including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
George Clooney
In a kooky twist of fate, the chiseled superstar got his TV start on a 1984 series called E/R before eventually landing the role that would make him famous on the other ER -- the '90s one that people actually watched. In between the two came scads of cameos on sitcoms like The Facts of Life and Roseanne. Though Clooney seemed destined for bigger things, his early film roles in the lackluster One Fine Day and the widely panned Batman & Robin kept him from Academy notice. 2005 was the year Clooney finally scored as Best Supporting Actor for Syriana, kicking off a string of nominations, including this year's awards where he's up for Best Actor in The Descendants. Envelope please?
