After roles on a handful of BBC television shows, British actor Mark Addy made a splash on the international film scene with his turn as a rotund exotic dancer in 1997's surprise hit The Full Monty. With the filmmaking boatloads of cash stateside and garnering a handful of Academy Award nods and Addy's ability to effortlessly adopt an American accent, it took little time before he was working on the U.S. side of the pond.
Addy's first high-profile Hollywood role was a supporting gig playing Michael Keaton's pal in Jack Frost (1998), a family flick about a jazz musician who is reincarnated as a snowman. Two years later, Addy took on his first lead in an American film, filling the pelt worn previously by John Goodman, playing Fred Flintstone in the prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. Unfortunately, the project failed to keep the franchise's flame burning. The next couple years saw Addy in more supporting roles in a series of projects that ranged from barely-profitable (A Knight's Tale) to downright unsuccesful (Down to Earth and The Time Machine), but in 2002 he landed the lead on the CBS sitcom Still Standing. With Addy starring opposite Jami Gertz, the show became a hit as the lead-in to the network's wildly popular Monday-night lineup.
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