10 Actors That Quentin Tarantino Brought Back From The Grave

Aside from being a great and individual filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino also has a knack for reintroducing forgotten actors to the world. Working with up-and-coming talent can be his forte, too (he gave Michael Fassbender something of a mainstream break with Inglourious Basterds, while Tim Roth got a boost from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction), but no one utilizes underrated and under-used actors like QT. It's something he's done his entire career, from his first film (Dogs) to his last (The Hateful Eight). Each Tarantino movie has its merits, and each one invariably finds Tarantino bringing an actor - figuratively, of course - back from the grave. All of the following were considered box office duds when Tarantino gave them prominent billing in one (or more) of his films. Given the opportunity, all of them gave career-defining performances for the director. So, join us as we take a look at ten actors that Quentin Tarantino gave back to the film world. 10) Harvey Keitel In the 1970s, Harvey Keitel worked with some major filmmakers: Robert Altman, Ridley Scott, Paul Schrader. He was also Martin Scorsese's muse, for a brief while, taking parts in Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Taxi Driver. Then came the 80s, and a period of lulling in films and TV movies that nobody remembers today. With Reservoir Dogs in 1992, Quentin Tarantino gave Keitel one of his great roles (as Mr. White) and allowed the actor to prove why he was once something of a minor star. Then, more work with QT followed with Keitel playing Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction. It brought Keitel back into the mainstream, his new role as an elder statesman of cinema bagging him prominent roles in movies like The Piano, Bad Lieutenant and Copland. 9) John Travolta John Travolta had a similar career path to Harvey Keitel: breaking out as a star practically from nowhere in the 70s, before losing it spectacularly in poor and unmemorable 80s fare, and finding his career resurrected after working with Tarantino. In the 70s Travolta had Carrie, Saturday Night Fever and Grease; in the 80s he had Staying Alive and Look Who's Talking. Then there was Pulp Fiction in 1994, and an Oscar nomination for Travolta for playing the heroin-using gangster Vincent Vega. After Pulp Fiction came Get Shorty, Primary Colors, The Thin Red Line and a brief flirtation with becoming an action cinema star. He's stumbled since somewhat, but Travolta's barely been off-screen since 1994. 8) Pam Grier It was Quentin Tarantino's love of blaxploitation cinema that saved Pam Grier. In the 1970s, Grier was the queen of blaxploitation movies, taking the lead in films including Coffy, Foxy Brown and Sheba, Baby. Roger Ebert called her an actress of "astonishing form," with a "physical life" lacking in other actresses. After the 70s ended, however, so did Grier's career as a leading woman. Until Jackie Brown, that is. In 1997 Quentin Tarantino cast Grier as the title character in his black-comedy crime drama, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress. After this Grier's career was somewhat revived (though she's had more substantial work on TV), but her very best role remains that which Tarantino gave her. 7) Robert Forster In the 60s, Robert Forster flirted with becoming a new kind of leading man. Major roles in 1967's Reflections in a Golden Eye (in which he was cast, as a complete unknown, alongside Marlon Brando) and 1969's iconic Medium Cool should have led to great success, but alas, Forster never quite capitalized on any goodwill he took from the decade. Stints in TV and bit-parts in film followed. Jackie Brown saved Forster the same way it saved Grier: Forster didn't become a leading man anew, but he's barely been seen off the big and small screens since. Nominated for an Oscar for playing lonely bond broker Max Cherry, Forster followed up Jackie Brown with Mulholland Drive, Lucky Number Slevin and more recently, The Descendants and Olympus Has Fallen. Rumor has it he'll be in the new Twin Peaks, too. 6) Daryl Hannah Daryl Hannah had a great 80s: roles in Blade Runner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Roxanne and Wall Street. And, of course, there was Ron Howard's Splash, in which Hannah played a mermaid who Tom Hanks develops the hots for. Big movies - not all of them great, but commercially successful nonetheless, which made Hannah a household name. The 90s were not so kind to Hannah (anyone remember Grumpier Old Men or My Favorite Martian?). It took Quentin Tarantino to remind everyone what the actress could do, with the director casting her as the ferocious Elle Driver in Kill Bill. Since then Hannah's career has remained a bit of a rollercoaster, but a pivotal role in Sense8 seems to have put her back on track a bit. 5) David Carradine It was the 70s TV show Kung Fu that brought David Carradine the bulk of his fame, but - as one of the ridiculously hard-working Carradine brothers - the actor's credits run and run way beyond his most famous small screen role. He had his best luck in the 70s, mind you, starring not just in Kung Fu but in prominent low budget B-movies like Boxcar Bertha and Death Race 2000. Tarantino must have figured Carradine deserved better than the tiny parts he'd been taking since, because he decided to cast the former Kwai Chang Caine as the title character in his Kill Bill two-parter. Carradine died in a bizarre accident some five years later, but that didn't stop him from working on literally dozens of projects between Bill in 2004 and his death in 2009, using his newfound Kill Bill fame to be more prolific than ever. 4) Michael Parks It might be hard to believe for young cinema-goers who'd never heard of Michael Parks before Tarantino cast him twice in the same film (as detective Earl McGraw in Kill Bill Vol. 1, and as gangster Esteban in Vol. 2), but Parks was once hailed as cinema's next big thing, a kind of James Dean for 60s cinema. No shit - the great Montgomery Clift once told him he was "the best American actor." Sadly for Parks, after starring in the series Then Came Bronson in 1969-70, the actor was 'blacklisted' by a Hollywood that opposed to his anti-establishment attitude. He spent years in DTV hell. It's only after Tarantino (who, similar to Clift, called Parks "the world's greatest living actor") gave Parks the Kill Bill roles that his career has been revitalized, taking parts in The Assassination of Jesse James, Argo and other movies by Kevin Smith and, of course, Tarantino. 3) Kurt Russell Just where did Kurt Russell go in the late 90s and early 00s? After a fruitful 80s collaborating with John Carpenter (the cult classics include The Thing and Escape From New York) and an early 90s that saw Russell at the peak of his fame in Backdraft, Tombstone and Stargate, the roles became fewer and decreasingly prominent. 2007's Death Proof, which found Russell playing a homicidal stunt car driver for Tarantino, reminded everyone what a presence Russell could be. A role in the seventh Fast and Furious film and the already-cult western Bone Tomahawk followed, along with another turn for Tarantino in The Hateful Eight. Next up, Russell headlines Peter Berg's actioner Deepwater Horizon and will potentially take a vital role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It seems, that at aged 64, that Kurt Russell is back on top. 2) Don Johnson In the 80s, everybody knew who Don Johnson was: he was Detective Crockett. Thanks to Miami Vice, Johnson was synonymous with the decade, its bad fashion choices and even worse music. After being such a major part of such a huge show, of course the 90s and 00s proved a comedown when Miami Vice finished airing. Luckily, it was Tarantino to the rescue, casting Johnson in his 2012 western Django Unchained as the Colonel Sanders-alike slaver Big Daddy Bennett. Since Django, Johnson has been making some (perhaps surprisingly, considering his lacklustre career before now) savvy choices, appearing in acclaimed indies Cold In July and Alex in Venice, as well as securing a recurring role in the well-received From Dusk Till Dawn TV series. 1) Jennifer Jason Leigh By Jennifer Jason Leigh's own admission, "until Tarantino, I had forgotten who I was as an actress." Though a big fixture in the 80s and 90s, picking up Golden Globe noms and appearing in major movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Last Exit to Brooklyn, Leigh - before Tarantino - hadn't had a starring role in a movie since Margot at the Wedding in 2007. Then there was The Hateful Eight, and awards attention that will likely result in an Oscar nomination for Leigh for her turn as sociopathic gunslinger Daisy Domergue. Leigh's next set to appear in LBJ, as Lyndon B. Johnson's wife, and will also star (alongside Robert Forster) in the Twin Peaks revival. Apparently, she's back.