13 Celebrities Who Appeared In Fast Food Commercials Before We Knew Who They Were

It can be fun looking back at celebrities who appeared in vintage fast food commercials when they were unknowns. At the time, they appeared as nameless faces in television ads that only lasted a few seconds. Granted, you might have seen them over and over again for a few weeks until the next ad campaign got underway, but not many of us have been sitting in a movie theater and said, "Hey, isn't that the girl from that one Burger King commercial?" Still, we occasionally stumble upon a celebrity in an old fast food commercial, and it makes us wistful, knowing what we know now about their rise to stardom, which was only a glimmer of a dream for them at the time.

Burger King seems to have been extremely good at scouting out future talent, as six celebrities on our list made their commercial debut selling Whoppers. Five of the celebrities on our list acted in McDonald's commercials before they were famous. Taco Bell and Pizza Hut also seemed to luck upon some future stars with a claim to one celebrity each. A look at these vintage fast food commercials is often a glimpse into the very first paid acting job the actor had, so it's interesting to see how they've grown and changed over the years.

Long before Corey Feldman was following a pirate map through a booby-trapped underground cave in "The Goonies," he was making fast food commercials. In fact, his very first was in the 1970s McDonald's commercial when he was only three years old. However, he wouldn't appear in a television show until he was in an episode of "Eight is Enough" in 1978. 

In the commercial, an adorable, chubby-cheeked Feldman wakes up on Christmas Eve and rummages in a box for a McDonald's gift certificate. He then runs downstairs and leaves it for Santa along with the requisite milk and cookies. A narrator explains that each gift certificate is "worth $0.50 at McDonald's" and that "a book of ten only costs $5." In 1975, a McDonald's hamburger would have cost around $0.30, so it's still a small gift certificate, but not as worthless as it sounds. As the toddler Feldman runs away with a cookie he exchanged for the gift certificate, he hears Santa "ho-ho-hoing" in glee over the gift certificate and turns around in surprise.

Michael J. Fox had small parts in several TV series and TV movies before he got a part in his first McDonald's commercials. His acting career started with a series called "The Magic Lie" in 1978, but it wasn't until he was 19 in 1980 that you may have seen him acting in a McDonald's commercial. The commercial is called "First Kiss," and it brings back all those memories of high school awkwardness and nervousness around someone you liked. Fox sits with a girl on her front steps, eating McDonald's together. The girl asks if he would like some of her fries. "Yeah. I kinda ate all of mine already," he answers. Then he pulls a stack of 20 napkins from inside his hoodie (sleeves rolled up to his elbows, of course), and asks if she'd like any. She doesn't. His voice cracks while telling her he had a good time. When he starts to make an awkward exit, she thrusts her fries at him, kisses him on the cheek, and goes inside.

Fox had parts in a few more series after his McDonald's commercial. However, it was two years later in 1982 that he became Alex P. Keaton in "Family Ties." Even at age 21, he could still pass for a high schooler, as he did in the McDonald's commercial. He was still playing the part of a teen three years later when he got iconic roles in "Back to the Future" and "Teen Wolf."

Between small parts in TV and movies, Jason Alexander managed to get the leading part in a McDonald's commercial for the McDLT in 1985. Alexander was doing a lot of acting before most of us knew who he was. His first role was on a TV series called "A Capitol Fourth" in 1980. That first television role happened nine years before we met him as Jerry Seinfeld's neurotic sidekick, George Costanza, on "Seinfeld."

We've never seen anyone get as excited about a new hamburger as Alexander. He takes to the streets in his white sports coat to talk to people about their burger problems. Alexander quizzes, "You say that, just for once, you'd like your hamburger hot and your lettuce and tomato cool and crisp, all at the same time?" Luckily, it turns out that McDonald's has a solution to this problem with its new double-sided, environment-killing Styrofoam container that keeps your burger hot while keeping your veggies cold until you're ready to put it together and eat it. Everyone is so excited about this new invention that they dance and sing through the streets along with the over-animated Alexander — because this is just the sort of thing we all did in the 1980s (if commercials and movies are to be believed).

No teen heartthrob of the 1980s could make you feel how in love they were with a deep, penetrating stare like Andrew McCarthy. That lovestruck stare features strongly in the 1983 Burger King commercial he stars in alongside another aspiring actress we recognize now — Elisabeth Shue. McCarthy and Shue sit together on a front porch, occasionally staring deep into each other's eyes as they announce their new relationship to the world. McCarthy is wearing his Pepsi uniform, while Shue is wearing her Burger King uniform. However, the relationship they're announcing is Burger King's decision to partner with Pepsi. It turns out that the relationship only lasted for seven years before Burger King broke up with Pepsi to start an enduring relationship with Coke (like most fast food chains).

The same year McCarthy appeared in the Burger King commercial, his movie acting career took off with "Class." It wasn't long before he was moving on to classics like "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985) and "Pretty in Pink" (1986). Oddly enough, it was the last time McCarthy and Shue appeared in anything together. Although, he did invite her out for drinks after filming the commercial. McCarthy wrote in the New York Post that "Elisabeth, a bright light of youthful optimism, endured my jaded pronouncements — and the drunks surrounding us — as long as she could. Then [she] was gone. I never saw [her] again."

Sara Michelle Gellar was another actress who appeared in more than just one Burger King commercial. After appearing in her first BK commercial in 1982 at age 5, McDonald's sued her (along with Burger King itself). Who sues an adorable little girl who can barely say the word "burger" in her advertisements? In the ad, Gellar said, "When I order a regular hamburger at McDonald's, they make it with 20% less meat than Burger King," and McDonald's wasn't used to getting called out on anything by anyone. While the lawsuit was ongoing, Gellar was banned from McDonald's. Gellar told the Sunday Express, "It was tough because, when you're a little kid, McDonald's is where all your friends have their birthday parties, so I missed out on a lot of apple pies."

Gellar was only 5 when she appeared in the 1982 Christmas Burger King commercial with 19-year-old Elisabeth Shue and 21-year-old Lea Thompson. As such, she's the only one singing around the fire and tree who is not wearing a Burger King uniform. Still, she holds her own. By 1983, she was acting in her first movie, "An Invasion of Privacy." However, it wasn't until 1997 that she landed roles we remember her in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

After moving to Chicago in 1984 and joining a comedy troupe, it was five years before Steven Carell started acting in local fast food commercials. You'll recognize his dry humor acting style immediately in his early commercials since it's the same one he uses playing everyone's favorite boss in "The Office" in 2005.

The first commercial Carell landed (in 1989) was for a Chicagoland restaurant called Brown's Chicken and shows him on a ladder putting up a sign for "cholesterol-free cooking." When the words "cholesterol" and "cooking" fly away in the wind, hordes of people descend on the humble restaurant for free food. Yet, Carell thinks they're there for the healthy chicken. Carell moved up in the acting world with his second commercial in 1990 — another local one about a 3 for $3 deal at McDonald's. In this commercial, a mysterious third hand appears to help him display all three items and even help him wipe his mouth with napkins. It was only a year after his silly McDonald's commercial that he landed a part in the movie "Curly Sue."