Steve Guttenberg: Did Tom Hanks steal his career?

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I maintain this to be the case and will offer up proof if need be. Let us jsut say that at the inaugural London Bad Film Festival the program of Stve Guttenberg films will also include a seminar on whether in an alternate universe Guttenberg starred in Saving Private Ryan. The evidence is out there.

But anyhow, do you think Guttenberg was done wrong. Is he classic - or dud.

― Pete, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

he was tom-hanks-ok in police academy1

― Geoff, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Turner and Hooch is patently worse than anything Guttenberg has ever done, so you may have a point.

― Nicole, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He was pretty good in Diner.

― Michael, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wish I lived in the parallel universe where Steve Guttenberg had Tom Hanks' career. I might have gone to see "Philadelphia" had Steve Guttenberg starred in it.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

people talk about all of the weight tom hanks lost for cast away, but guttenberg beat him to it in 1990's don't tell her it's me. he goes from fat, dowdy cancer-stricken cartoonist gus, to buff, harley-ridin', lady-killin' lobo, and production wasn't shut down once to facilitate the transformation. truly an actor's actor.

― fred solinger, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And let's not forget the sheer emotional weight he brought to his role in Three Men and A Little Lady.

― Nicole, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I still can't believe he didn't get nominated for an Oscar for his stirring work in "Cocoon".

Oh wait. I was thinking of Zhang Ziyi in "Croucing Tiger, Hidden Dragon". My bad.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The academy is obliged to nominate aging horsey-faced types, Dan.

― Nicole, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I now understand Michael Caine! Thanks!

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Steve Guttenberg, ah yes. Those were the days. Hey, didn't he invent movable type? To bad he didn't live long enough to see the age of computers, like me.

― Nude Spock, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Did Tom Hanks star in Bachelor Party? That was TOTALLY a Guttenberg role. But Hanks got it. And it was a hit. Led to other "big" stuff (Hanks winds up w/ Oscars; Guttenberg left contemplating whether Porkys IV would be a good step) = Hanks stealing Guttenberg's career?!

― AP, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Porky's IV = GRATE step.

― mark s, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, 'Bachelor Party' is Hanks. Tom boy must have a better agent than Guttenberg, since Pete is right - they're pretty much interchangeable. Hanks "did a George Michael" by crossing over from teen fluff to adult contemporary, Guttenberg didn't manage it, perhaps because he was even less picky than Hanks (or S.G. inherited T.H.'s rejected scripts...)

― Andrew L, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

huh? Guttenerg's entire acting career - curly haired brunette guy standing around with smug, eyebrows raised, look of intimated innocent amusement a la Ferris Beuller. At least Hanks screeches and flails his arms about every once in a while.

― Kim, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All this talk of Guttenberg and not *one* mention of his work in _Can't Stop the Music_. What the hell is wrong with you people? He delivered the immortal line "Anyone who can swallow two Sno-Balls and a Ding Dong shouldn't have any problem with pride" -- now imagine Hanks saying it.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 23 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Guttenberg had a likeable affable charm which marked him so much more out for the latter day Jimmy Stewart role currently occupied by Hanks. Look at his work in The Bedroom Window, a fantastic piece of Hitchcockian tomfoolery and as if Tom Foolery Hanks could have pulled that kind of blandly deceptive role.

As menioned above the rot set in with Guttenberg during his Three Men And A Baby phase where, alongside Danson and Selleck, he was lumped as a TV actor. Hanks was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of this. When you think what a dud his first serious flick was though (Bonfire Of The Vanities) it is remarkable that he ever got that far. Especially when you think that not only did Hanks do a dog movie, but he also did a Body Swap movie too (and the one with the most paedophilic implications too).

Smart directors out there could do worse than give Guttenberg a supporting actor role. If Todd Solodnz had thought of that instead of getting Belle & Sebastian in to do the soundtrack to his new movie it might have turned out half decent.

― Pete, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ned: yes! for that opening sequence alone, guttenberg tops hanks. he's like a travolta on wheels!

― fred solinger, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You people are psychotic.

― Ally, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

TH: first serious flick = Splash!
Second (as mentioned): Big

― mark s, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pete, are you trying to say that Guttenberg being typecast as a televison actor is what gave Hanks the edge? I mean, Hanks' career was born on TV after all, in the hilarious situation king of all situation comedies - Bosom Buddies. Next we'll be arguing over the criminal way Peter Scolari was left in the dust when he was clearly the greater talent of the two (or four, depending.)

― Kim, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Who gives a care about Hanks and Guttenberg when you've got Peter Scolari. He may have been no Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, but he was still good on Newhart.

― Otie Wheeler, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah but when Hanks when to the big screen he did not return. While Guttenberg had alwasy been a movie actor whose status got mixed up with the other two no hopers Selleck and Danson. Neither S or D ever really made a big movie in Hollywood, and don't you Quigley Down under me here. You know what I mean.

Guttenberg is obviously better at the everyman shit - he hasn't got huge frizzy hair like the Hankster.

― Pete, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pete, you obviously never saw Sellek in Folks, with Don Ameche no less! Funny ha ha! No really. It was. He loses a nut. Even.

― Kim, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think me not seeing it is grand proof that Selleck's career never made it. I see lotsa movies. I'm off to see two tonight, both of which would probably be improved if Guttenberg was in them. (Well, maybe not the French one. I don't know what his French is like).

― Pete, Wednesday, 27 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five months pass...

Steve Guttenberg is hot! What's up with the Tom Hanks scenario? I might be gay, but you guys are disturbed.

― lance gayhart, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

i for one am glad that hanks has made it in the poncey world of hollywood.the films may be big for a short while but are then forgotten like the overhyped,over budgeted pile of manure that they are.all of guttenbergs films are warm,emmensley funny,endering films which i still watch today with a tear in my eye and a warm glow of nostalgia in my heart.who can forget the lovable rogue,charting his journey from law breaker to top law enforcer in police academy 1 through to 4.note:5,6 and7,without steve i might add didnt match up.proof that he is the greatest.now a cult figure for us to love and remember without the primma donnas of hollywood ruining him with special effects that his talent quite clearly doesnt need! i thank you.

― tom holtam-capricorn, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, thank you for reviving the thread.

Now imagine Guttenberg in The Road to Perdition.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

Hanks killed Guttenberg... and should be prosecuted...

― pablo ramierez, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Revive!

― Patrick Kinghorn, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

What has Peter Scolari been doing these days anyway?

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Playing Rick Moranis in Honey I Shrunk The Kids: The TV Show (I think Hanks tossed him a bone in From Earth to the Moon, too).

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Playing" in the heart-stringing sneaky lovah sense? (oh please, oh please)

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Shrink rays turn you gay! Just ask Tiny Spider-Man!

Unfortunately no, though :/

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's kind of touching how Steve tried to reinvent himself as serious leading man at the start of the 90s. There's this film that's been shown several times on BBC1 (forget title) where he's trying he's trying to solve a murder he witnessed on the street below his appartment, and he gets implicated. It's so bad.

― pete s, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Steve Guttenberg is hot! What's up with the Tom Hanks scenario? I might be gay, but you guys are disturbed.

this is the best thing i have ever read on ilx. Lance Gayheart took the words right out of my mouth.

― jed (jed_e_3), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I now realize I was so tired last night I mixed up steve Buscemi and Steve Guttenberg. Which is disappointing, because I thought Steve G. was having a career revival.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 03:10 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

I had no feelings toward Mr. Gutenberg whatsoever, until one evening I heard Bill Maar on TV talking about how much he hates him. Mr. Gutenberg all of a sudden became a person of great worth to me. Anyone that causes such jealousy in the huge ego of Bill Maar is AOK in my books.

― Mrs. Potato Head, Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

it's only fair, Steve Gutenberg stole a career that justly belonged to Peter Scolari

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:05 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

Steve would have been better than Hanks in virtually everything. He's the greatest.

― CRW (CRW), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

are you steve guttenburg?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Man, just because you are jealous of the man's limitless talents. Face it - if "Police Academy 5" had starred Steve Guttenberg it would have taken in $100 billion and the franchise would still be going. "Police Academy 16: Assignment Mahoney in Kuwait" would be the best one yet.

― CRW (CRW), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I get him confused with that other jewish guy from Aliens.

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

A fondness for apparently mindless humor with subversive
currents of intelligence in it -- for example, old Warner Brothers
and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, the Marx brothers, the early B-52s,
and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Humor that combines this trait
with elements of high camp and slapstick is especially favored.

― huckster blue, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah Paul Reiser right? Not half the talent I tell you. Guttenberg will likely, as one person mentioned, go on to cult-dom which commands more respect (and more likelihood of a Tarantino movie) than any big Hollywood film ever will. Compare fan enthusiasm when talking about Oliver Stone to Jack Hill and see which sector it is better to reside in.

― CRW (CRW), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

tom hnaks totaly stole david grafs career. he was the real star of the poliec adacemy series.

― :|, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

CRW, you're beginning to show a pattern...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

ten months pass...

Steve was in The Boys From Brazil! Like, woah!

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 00:37 (twenty years ago)

And this in a film where Gregory Peck is the bad guy and Larry Olivier is the good guy? My mind is totally blown.

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

PURE GOLD.

― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 16 July 2008 19:59 (seventeen years ago)

Skipping 8 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

“I’ll lie to make myself feel better,” he said. “If I feel shitty, and someone says, ‘What are you working on,’ I’ll get really pissed off and go, ‘Yeah I’m doing a thriller with, you know, George Clooney.’ I make myself feel better by that . . ."

Coincidence: I was working on a thriller with, you know, George Clooney just last week.

― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 16 July 2008 20:13 (seventeen years ago)

I feel better now.

― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 16 July 2008 20:13 (seventeen years ago)

“I go in spurts”

― Oilyrags, Wednesday, 16 July 2008 20:17 (seventeen years ago)

lol prostate humor

― HI DERE, Wednesday, 16 July 2008 20:22 (seventeen years ago)

Did anyone bring this up in the thread? I think it's weirdly relevant:

Police Academy: Neil Israel (story) & Pat Proft (story), Neil Israel (screenplay), Pat Proft (screenplay), & Hugh Wilson (screenplay)

Bachelor Party: Bob Israel (story), Neal Israel (writer) & Pat Proft (writer)

Also, and don't ask me how or why I know this, the "hidden hooker gives unsuspecting guy a blowjob" scene from Police Academy originally appeared in the screenplay for Bachelor Party. (Scroll to page 70.)

The Hanks/Guttenberg connections go deeper than we can possibly imagine.

― Pancakes Hackman, Thursday, 17 July 2008 13:32 (seventeen years ago)

a cult figure for us to love and remember without the primma donnas of hollywood ruining him with special effects that his talent quite clearly doesnt need! i thank you.

― stevie, Thursday, 17 July 2008 13:44 (seventeen years ago)

The Goot is on the loose!

― gnarly sceptre, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:16 (seventeen years ago)

Smokes weed and says fuck you.

― gnarly sceptre, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:22 (seventeen years ago)

My god, it's true. It's all true. Hanks totally stole Guttenberg's future. I wonder how many times Guttenberg's friends have had to sit through that drunken rant.

― burt_stanton, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:32 (seventeen years ago)

Makes me wonder how many actors would be this awful if left to their own devices in interviews

― Niles Caulder, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:35 (seventeen years ago)

I think he's being tongue in cheek for most of it.

― burt_stanton, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:38 (seventeen years ago)

Upcoming Goot pictures include Mojave Phone Booth, about a phone booth in the middle of the desert, and Major Movie Star, in which he plays Jessica Simpson’s dad.

“I guess that’s just an artist’s life,” he said, gazing out over the park.

Very nice transition.

― some dude, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:43 (seventeen years ago)

This is the second hilarious interview I've read with him this month. I had no idea. He's a genius.

― dan selzer, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:48 (seventeen years ago)

So wait, where's the first?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:49 (seventeen years ago)

i think he comes across great. really knowing. he should totally work with judd atapow on something, or guest star in entourage, or something. didn't we discuss another interview he gave, a coupla years ago, here too? where he kept talking about how important "the little people" were?

― stevie, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:50 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah, he's actually kind-of amusing. What's funnier, though, is reading sites like Gawker.com where people think he's being totally serious. Self-deprecating and tongue in cheek humor definitely misses the mark a lot of the time here in the US.

― burt_stanton, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:51 (seventeen years ago)

The problem is that he looks totally frightening now, or at least he did in Veronica Mars. His neck is weird and leathery.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:55 (seventeen years ago)

he just needs to tighten the strings on his instrument a little.

― some dude, Thursday, 17 July 2008 14:57 (seventeen years ago)

two weeks pass...

http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-photohub/dims/NEWS/1/618/412/60/http://o.aolcdn.com/photo-hub/news_gallery/5/6/565448/1217017885612.JPEG

Steve Guttenberg loses his cool with the paparazzi while walking in New York with a banana.

― omar little, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:27 (seventeen years ago)

that cannot actually be steve guttenberg can it?

― horseshoe, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:28 (seventeen years ago)

totally the goot

― cutty, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:34 (seventeen years ago)

note the shaved legs

― cutty, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:35 (seventeen years ago)

his hair!

― horseshoe, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:36 (seventeen years ago)

lol banana

― rrrobyn, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:40 (seventeen years ago)

Steve Guttenberg looks like a motherfucker with some dark secrets

― rrrobyn, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:44 (seventeen years ago)

yeah, i think that was the whole reason for his casting in the second season of veronica mars.

― horseshoe, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:45 (seventeen years ago)

i like the pigeon

― gabbneb, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:50 (seventeen years ago)

you don't often see them in paparazzi photos

― gabbneb, Friday, 1 August 2008 19:50 (seventeen years ago)

Steve Guttenberg is the new Johnny Rotten.

― Øystein, Friday, 1 August 2008 20:31 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

Steve Guttenberg Dancing with the Stars Jogs Naked Through Park

― jaxon, Wednesday, 5 November 2008 07:32 (sixteen years ago)

What!?!
Got to be fake, hasn't it?

― not_goodwin, Wednesday, 5 November 2008 07:37 (sixteen years ago)

gotta love the goot

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1084832/Police-Academy-star-Steve-Guttenberg-reveals-criminal-fake-tan-preens-panto-role.html

― Peanuts are the perpetual movement at man's reach (stevie), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 11:55 (sixteen years ago)

Blimey: Star looks not the same as he does on a PANTO poster shockah.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:00 (sixteen years ago)

i know. i really couldn't believe someone could be bothered to write the story...

― Peanuts are the perpetual movement at man's reach (stevie), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:01 (sixteen years ago)

GOOT!

― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:02 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A5hf-VUCUAAvFpg.jpg

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 October 2012 23:10 (twelve years ago)

Well, that was a gimme.

― Burgled Hams (Old Lunch), Thursday, 18 October 2012 23:13 (twelve years ago)

ten years pass...

Did Emma Stone... steal Michelle Monaghan's career?

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 5 August 2023 17:53 (two years ago)

I just watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), a pretty distasteful post-Tarantino movie, and literally thought it was Emma Stone for the first half of the picture

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 6 August 2023 12:38 (two years ago)

Glenn Howerton kind of resembles Steve Guttenburg, he's kind of the Evil Spock version.

― earlnash, Sunday, 6 August 2023 12:49 (two years ago)

The Stonecutters giveth, and the Stonecutters taketh away

― underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Sunday, 6 August 2023 12:55 (two years ago)

Okay, I think this also happened with Jane Krakowski (30 Rock), who stole the career of Glenne Headly (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 12 August 2023 15:59 (two years ago)

ten months pass...

Pretty much every part Jesse Plemons plays I can also imagine being played by Philip Seymour Hoffman

― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 20 June 2024 15:27 (one year ago)

Can’t imagine PSH as Plemmon’s character on breaking bad.

― Gigi Allen (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 20 June 2024 15:45 (one year ago)

I totally can!

― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 20 June 2024 16:04 (one year ago)

Plemmons does have a similar vibe as Hoffman. I’m just bummed that Hoffman did not live long enough to play Philip K Dick in a movie.

― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Thursday, 20 June 2024 16:12 (one year ago)

General point is fair, but another exception (although maybe because of age--don't know what PSH was like at 18 or 19): Landry on Friday Night Lights.

As part of an upcoming Zoom on tennis movies, I watched the possibly-not-as-terrible-as-you'd-assume Players from 1979. Steve Guttenberg's presence in that film is quite puzzling.

― clemenza, Thursday, 20 June 2024 16:41 (one year ago)

was going to say Landry was one of the few times Jesse played a part that avoided violence, then I remembered that one episode

― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Thursday, 20 June 2024 16:50 (one year ago)

Except for murdering someone, a gentle soul.

(Kidding--the killing itself was honorable and chivalrous.)

― clemenza, Thursday, 20 June 2024 16:54 (one year ago)

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