Early Roles That Blue Bloods Actors Would Like You To Forget About

The CBS series "Blue Bloods" has become a mainstay of television thanks to a winning combination of criminal investigation and family drama, anchored by a tight-knit multigenerational clan of Irish-Catholic law enforcement officers in New York City. That formula might not work if the series' producers hadn't picked a strong cast to play the Reagans. Frank (Tom Selleck) oversees a sprawling brood led by his three children — NYPD detective Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), assistant district attorney Erin (Bridget Moynahan), and officer Jamie (Will Estes) — as they navigate both the professional and personal side of police work, while still finding time to meet every Sunday for dinner.

Each of the series' leads, as well as regulars like Len Cariou and Amy Carlson, bring their collective talents to the series, which have been honed by years of work in feature films and on television. Like all performers, the "Blue Bloods" crew has navigated huge successes and occasional failures and they've all been in some less-than-stellar projects that typically linger at the bottom of their resumes (if at all). Let's shine a light on those mishaps and misfires for a moment as we crack the case — with plenty of spoilers — of the early roles that "Blue Blood" actors would like you to forget about.

Prior to his role as police officer Jamie Reagan on "Blue Bloods" and in films like 2012's "The Dark Knight Rises," Will Estes was a busy child actor and appeared regularly on television and in feature films. In 1993, he lent his voice to the 20th Century Fox animated feature, "Once Upon a Forest." Produced by TV animation legends Hanna-Barbera, the film performed poorly upon its release, due in part to the bad luck of having to open on the same weekend as "Jurassic Park."

A well-intentioned but sticky-sweet parable about environmental conservation from the perspective of young woodland animals, "Forest" lacks the storytelling strengths of Disney projects. Because of this, the characters are broad, one-note figures and the script's messages are driven hard by a combination of clunky dialogue and sledgehammer emotions. The reviews weren't too favorable either, with critic Roger Ebert writing that "the movie is kind of dumb."

The cast, which includes Broadway veterans Michael Crawford and Ben Vereen and a young Elisabeth Moss as an ill-fated badger, does what it can to lend the material some appeal. Estes has a minor role as Willy, a field mouse who falls for Abigail (voiced by Ellen Blain), a wood mouse, and the film's plucky hero. His screen time entails a brief tangle with a squirrel bully and a kiss from Abigail in the final reel. In short — Will Estes completists can leave this one alone.

Bridget Moynahan has played Assistant District Attorney Erin Reagan on "Blue Bloods" since it hit our screens in 2010. The smart, professional character is a far cry from some of Moynahan's early roles, which include ornamental characters in films like "Coyote Ugly" (her feature film debut) and HBO's "Sex and the City." She went on to play more developed parts in "The Sum of All Fears," "I, Robot," and the "John Wick" franchise, but one particular title stands out as the role she'd probably like viewers to forget.

The 2000 comedy "Whipped" follows a trio of men who simply can't shut up about their sex lives until the arrival of Mia (Amanda Peet), who dates each guy and threatens to upend their juvenile camaraderie. Peet carries the weight of the film with her sharp comic timing, but the rest of the characters are uniformly awful people. The three friends are repugnant misogynists, and Moynahan, who plays one of their conquests, Marie, has nothing to do but pretend that these guys have some redeeming qualities.

Erin's headstrong daughter Nicole, or "Nicky" as she is known to the Reagan clan, was initially played by Marlene Lawson in the first episode of "Blue Bloods," but she was replaced by actress Sami Gayle. Gayle had some experience playing on-screen daughters prior to joining the show, featuring as Christina Hendricks' overachieving offspring in the Netflix romantic comedy "Candy Jar" in 2018, as well as Robin Wright's daughter in the eclectic live-action and animated hybrid, "The Congress." Here, she inspires Nicolas Cage to kick into revenge overdrive in the little-seen 2012 action thriller "Stolen."

Cage is actually quite subdued in Simon West's film, which casts him as a career criminal who goes to prison after botching a robbery with his partner, Vincent (Josh Lucas). Fast forward eight years and Cage is now a free man, hoping to repair his relationship with his daughter Alison (played by Gayle). Unfortunately, their reunion is put on pause by the appearance of Vincent, who's ticked off enough to kidnap Alison in exchange for the loot from the failed robbery.

Gayle does well with her feisty character and, for once, Cage is not the most overamped person on screen. That award goes to Lucas — outfitted with scraggly hair, a prosthetic leg, and the ability to withstand tremendous pain (apparently due to nerve damage), he pushes the material into gonzo cartoon territory every time he's on screen. Lucas almost makes "Stolen" worth watching, but even his villain superpowers have their limits.

Character actor Robert Clohessy has played Danny's short-tempered former superior, Sergeant (and later Lieutenant) Sidney Gormley, in more than 190 episodes of "Blue Bloods." Clohessy is a veteran performer with a long list of film and TV credits ranging from "The Avengers" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" to "Oz" and "Boardwalk Empire." He's always been a solid presence in everything he's done, but even his skills can't save a 1990 episode of "Monsters" called "One Wolf's Family."

Appearing in Season 2 of the syndicated horror anthology series, this particular episode follows Victor (Jerry Stiller), his wife Greta (Anne Meara), and Anya (Amy Stiller) as a newly emigrated European family who hopes to keep their secret identity as werewolves under wraps in America. Posing a threat to their domestic bliss is Stanley (Clohessy) as Amy's new boyfriend, who also happens to be a were-hyena. The script by DC Animated Universe writer Paul Dini tries to poke fun at small-minded prejudice and broad sitcom humor but ends up with an episode that feels as leaden as the TV comedy it attempts to lampoon, even with the help of pros like Clohessy, Stiller, and Meara.

Steve Schirippa has done a remarkable job of parlaying his star-making turn as Bobby Baccalieri on "The Sopranos" into a sprawling media career that includes co-hosting a podcast, self-help books, producing movies and television series, and even launching his own line of Italian foods. Schirippa also finds time to continue to act, most notably in more than 100 episodes of "Blue Bloods" as Detective Anthony Abetemarco.

Though TV viewers might consider "The Sopranos" as Schirippa's first project, he was acting in films and on television for years before his debut as the mobster. The majority of these appearances were minor roles that traded on Schirippa's imposing frame — he played Goon in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and Beefy Jerk #2 in "Detroit Rock City.". The rest included a number of independent movies, as well as a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as a croupier in "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas."

Schirippa would probably prefer that you miss this unnecessary prequel to the already woeful 1994 live-action "The Flintstones." The feature, which replaced John Goodman and Rick Moranis as Fred and Barney with British actor Mark Addy ("Game of Thrones") and Stephen Baldwin, adds more dinosaur flatulence but it was deeply disliked upon release, failing to recoup its huge budget and earning a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Schirippa certainly looked the part but still escaped with his dignity intact.

There's a good chance that if you're not closely watching the 1999 comedy "Three to Tango," you'll miss actor David Ramsey of "Arrow" fame, who played Mayor Carter Poole in "Blue Bloods." Ramsey is one of several faceless friends of the film's star, Matthew Perry, and as such, can't be blamed for the film's humorless script or lifeless performances. That fault lies largely on director Damon Santostefano and screenwriters Rodney Patrick Vaccaro and Aline Brosh McKenna, who take a stale premise for a romantic comedy and somehow manage to make it even less palatable.

The manic energy that Perry exhibited on "Friends" is very much in play in his performance as Oscar, an architect whose working relationship with partner Peter (Oliver Platt), who is gay, somehow convinces wealthy businessman Charles Newman (Dylan McDermott) that he is also gay. This puts a crimp in Oscar's pursuit of Charles' mistress Amy (Neve Campbell), with whom he has fallen. Far-fetched as many romantic comedies are, "Tango" muddies the charm with numerous scenes in which Perry panics over being perceived as gay.

This conceit reaches its absurd apex in a scene in which Perry receives a man of the year award from a gay professional organization, whose basis for the recognition appears to simply be the fact that Perry is believed to be gay. The screenwriters make this cringeworthy moment even more unpleasant by having Perry admit that he's actually straight — and receive a round of applause from the organization.