Pre-Game: Early Roles Of Game Of Thrones Cast Members

Before blundering his way through Westeros as the too-noble-for-his-own-good Ned Stark, Sean Bean was already an established international actor with roles in high-profile projects like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Troy. He also had a lengthy run starring as Richard Sharpe in the British TV series Sharpe, based on the Bernard Cromwell novels and short stories. But in 1984, the same year he got his first screen credit, Bean booked a commercial for Barbican Lager that remains arguably his finest screen credit. It includes not only the suggestion that getting smashed on canned beer makes you prepared to fly a plane, but also a sick '80s mullet and leather jacket combo that would put Full House-era John Stamos to shame. It's also pretty clear at the end that he's totally going to score with one of the flight attendants. Sure, he dies so often onscreen that it's become a meme, but there was that one time Barbican Lager made Bean a hero, and no one will ever take that away from him.

Jason Momoa has made a career out of appearing shirtless and roughing people up. He played Conan the Barbarian in the 2011 reboot, will soon make his debut as Aquaman, and, of course, was the barbaric and nearly mute Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones. Not saying much and being jacked is evidently his wheelhouse...which is not to say he hasn't taken any roles requiring dialogue. In fact, Momoa actually had to sing during his appearance on Baywatch Hawaii. Based on this clip, he'll never win a Grammy—although in Momoa's defense, it doesn't help that there's a guy with an amazing voice singing alongside him. Now we know why Drogo never serenaded his bride.

Last Action Hero is Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie, but Charles Dance steals entire scenes out from under him as the one-eyed marksman and assassin Benedict. If Tywin Lannister enjoys his evil deeds, then Benedict absolutely relishes in them: he gleefully delivers lines like "If God was a villain, he'd be me."

Granted, the whole thing is meant as a loving nod to action movie clichés, and Benedict is the amalgamation of every ludicrous villain stereotype, right down to his death—which happens when his fake eye is replaced with a bomb. But at least that's a pretty epic way to get taken out. Tywin Lannister should have enjoyed his own villainy this much. Maybe he would have been a little nicer to his kids and not ended up dead on the toilet.

Jonathan Pryce has been a respected character actor for so many years at this point that it almost seems unfair to go digging through his formidable catalog in search of something embarrassing. Instead, we've opted to spotlight a project which relatively few Americans know about: his turn as the Master. Yes, we're referring to the long-lived Doctor Who villain, but it's not an incarnation you would've seen battling Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, or Peter Capaldi. No, Pryce found himself doing battle against...Rowan Atkinson? Yes, in a very special Doctor Who serial made for Comic Relief, Atkinson played the Doctor...and so did Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley, for that matter.

Like Sean Bean, Iain Glen is an accomplished veteran of the British stage and screen. His credits include many TV series, an acclaimed Macbeth adaptation, and some recognizable film roles in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the Resident Evil series. But before all of those (and before he swore his oath to the Khaleesi and contracted Greyscale), Glen had a small part in Gorillas in the Mist. In what was his first film role, he played Brendan, a cowardly, self-interested research assistant to legendary gorilla conservationist Dian Fossey (Sigourney Weaver). In one particularly memorable scene, Glen has to act terrified of an aggressive gorilla that looks so fake it belongs on Gilligan's Island. Then there's the constant berating he takes from Fossey, which allows him to showcase that signature Iain Glen brooding. Though his research stint for The Mother of Gorillas didn't really work out, it probably prepared him well to take orders from The Mother of Dragons.

As Davos Seaworth, Liam Cunningham helped Jon Snow achieve victory in The Battle of the Bastards, one of Game of Thrones' grittiest and goriest fight scenes. Before that, his long list of credits includes Clash of the Titans, Harry Brown, and a small, odd film called Sweety Barrett. Cunningham plays Detective Mannix Bone, a hardass crooked cop who meets his end at the hands of the title character, played by Brendan Gleeson. These are two killer actors, which is why it's so odd that this fight makes professional wrestling look real by comparison. Bone's punches couldn't be farther from Barrett's face, and when Barrett finally snaps Bone's neck, it's only shocking because it doesn't even look physically possible from that weird side hug position.

Jack Gleeson, the actor who would go on to play the universally loathed Joffrey Baratheon, made his feature film debut with a small part in Batman Begins. In an early scene, Gleeson's character, the unremarkably named Little Boy, gets a souvenir from The Dark Knight himself after a chance run-in. Later, Little Boy reappears in the chaos of Scarecrow's attack on The Narrows in Gotham City. Though he didn't have much scenery to chew, he did share the screen with the film's leads, Christian Bale and Katie Holmes, which means he also got to interact with the film's director, Christopher Nolan.

Speaking with Vulture, Gleeson recalled his experience working with the visionary filmmaker, who he said was "very cool." Gleeson remembered Nolan walking around set sporting a "detective-style trench coat" and "being just really calm and collected," which he found impressive. As he put it, "If I was a director, I'd be running around and freaking out, losing my hair." 

Sure, but that probably wouldn't make him foolishly order the death of Eddard Stark, plunging all of Westeros into full-scale civil war. So, you know, he's had worse reactions to stress is what we're saying.