Thin TV Actors/Actress Who Got Really Fat During The Course Of The Series

The Two and a Half Men kid.

Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry both had wild weight fluctuations over a decade on FRIENDS (up AND down). During his drug rehab, Perry became frighteningly thin. LeBlanc was usually fighting to keep the weight off.

ALLY MCBEAL was sort of terrifying. Lisa Nicole Carson was dealing with a bipolar disorder and became enormously heavy before leaving the series. In the meantime, the other female cast members were pressured (allegedly by David PK himself) to keep their weight down, and with the exception of Jane Krakowski, who consistently resembled a healthy adult woman, the others became skeletally thin over the run of the show. Check out one of the later episodes sometime.

Most viewers have no idea how many actors struggle with weight and eating disorders. It's gotten so much worse in the past decade or two.

Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner both gained weight during their last season on All in the Family. They were very thin at first

Not an actress, but the much-loathed Kelly Osborne is one who loses drastic amounts of weight quite rapidly, only to regain it all again gradually in front of the camera, again and again.

You might call it karma. If you're not a nice person.

Current topic boy Tom Welling started out young-boy skinny then sort of let himself go in the middle of the series and started looking ripped again toward the last few years.

R2, actually, if you look at shows from the 90's, the weight drop is really frightening. TV actresses today, while still thin, look much more healthy. And yes, David E. Kelley is to blame for the insane prevalence of eating disorders in the 1990s.

Lisa Whelchel on Facts of Life.

Lucille Ball when she was pregnant with Little Ricky.

In Delta's defense, she was more like a Southern woman when she gained her weight. It served her character better.

Kim Fields

R2, I couldn't even watch the latter seasons of Ally MacBeal for that reason. Ugh. Portia was gorgeous, but, suddenly had the horrid lollipop look, which Calista had down. CF always looked like he left set and was put on several IVs to keep her alive.

Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock. Went from husky and barrel-chested to beach ball in a couple of seasons.

Delta was drop dead gorgeous in the first couple of seasons when she was thin. When she porked up she started to look like a drag queen playing an aging Southern belle.

Vincent d'onofrio in criminal intent

Anthony lapaglia on without a trace

Jason Alexander on Seinfeld

Anna Maria horseflies on amen

Leah remini on king of queens

R6, I remember when David E. Kelly had an Ally McBeal-The Practice crossover episode. The seriously underfed Calista Flockhart sizes up the equally underfed Lara Flynn Boyle and advises "Maybe you should eat a burger," to which Lara responds, "Maybe we should share one." I thought, Wow, how classless, making light of anorexia.

Yep R12, Alec Baldwin got heavier during 30 rock. But the biggest weight change was Tracey Morgan (of stab your gay son fame), he gained so much weight over the show it was shocking. They even make jokes about it in the later seasons because it wasn't really something that could be ignored.

I just gained mass

Patricia Arquette wasn't slim to start out, but during Medium she really packed on some weight.

Newman gained a shit ton of weight on Seinfeld.

Kirstie Alley gained some weight during her time on Cheers.

Keely Shaye Smith ballooned up during her last season on Unsolved mysteries.

Wentworth Miller. First season of Prison Break he looked amazing, then suddenly turned into a flab.

Nicholas Brendon got fat on Buffy, while Sarah Michelle Gellar went from sexy to malnourished. Jessica Alba on Dark Angel also lost a lot of weight between season one and two.

I think Norman Reedus got fat, but he looks so dirty on The Walking Dead that it's hard to tell.

Ken Olin on Thirtysomething.

The guy who plays Tony on NCIS has gotten a lot thicker. I used to think he was gorgeous but now? Meh.

Same thing with George Eads on CSI. In the early seasons he had a lovely body and then plumped and grew a beard. Ugh.

Jonathan Frakes is the male Delta Burke. Started clean shaved and thin then ballooned. The costume department had to keep altering his uniforms.

From Voyager Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Beltran & Garrett Wang all porked up, so much so they could no longer fit in their uniforms and management told them to lose weight. It was even mentioned in the show.

Aussie soap time now. Emily Symons who plays Marilyn Chambers who constantly yo-yos with her weight was fat shamed by the producers. She was whisked up to the producers office asked why she was so fat and told that they have spent a lot of money on her characters clothes and none of them fit. She was told to diet quickly and lose the weight pronto. This was back in the 90s.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. They threw a hissy fit at Melissa George for dying her hair red when the character was supposed to be blonde and had a go at Sharni Vinson's over tanned leather skin by making her character get all sun conscious and praising sun screen and saying how bad and gross sunbaking was.

Matthew Perry

Tina Yothers

Susan Flannery

Speaking of B&B John McCook turn to fat too so did Hunter Tylo's lips.

R18, in all honesty, I don't think she won the Oscar for her acting in Boyhood. I think they gave it to her because she allowed herself to be seen as a young sexy woman at the beginning of the film then slowly gain weight and become a heavy middle-aged woman over the course of 3 hours.

R22, Norman reedus has alcoholic bloat. there's a difference.

Actually R2, Matt Perry didn't lose weight because of rehab,but because of his addiction to speed.

Ken Olin was so hot the first 3 seasons of Thirtysomething and that last season he ballooned. And now he looks like Jabba the Hut.

Roseanne owns this thread. Fat thin,Fat thin.

Nell Carter was actually at her fattest in the early years of [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic] and lost weight in the middle of the show's run.

Michael Weatherly gained a bunch during the run of NCIS, but lost it before last season. I don't know if he gained it all back. Incidentally, he was was charged with a DUI and speeding earlier this month.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Mariska Hargitay. She's really thickened up the last few years of SVU. They try to disguise it by having her wear long shapeless coats, but it doesn't help much. She's gained a lot in her torso, so much so that she's got linebacker shoulders.

James Spader was starting to gain weight before Boston Legal, but IIRC most of the gain came during this series

One should never indulge the servants.

Nathan Fillion in "Castle" owns this thread. He turned from a hunky leading man they wanted to a chubster. I remember someone on the DL even said it affected his paycheck because he violated his appearance clause.

......

Wasn't Lisa Whelchel chubby from the beginning. I don't remember a svelte Blair.

In the early years she weighed about what was considered normal for a teenage girl in the 1970s. It wasn't until the Edna's Edibles years that she started gaining weight, and even then she never got into Mindy Cohn territory.

Compare this to today when most people are overweight or obese, and they were like the canaries in the coal mine!

George Eads

I remember the actress who played Monica in Friends gained a few pounds. But she went from anorexic to skinny.

Courtney Cox was never anything but rail thin during Friends run.

R41: That's why I never believed her as a former fat girl.

It was also funny since Monica was supposed to be a chef. Chefs tend to enjoy food and are not bone thin.

[quote]Leah remini on king of queens

How would anyone notice when porker Kevin James was around?

R44: maybe they can also walk and chew gum at the same time!

Lisa was never fat.

Mindy was considered heavy back then, but compared to now, she really isn't that overweight. Plus, she got very svelte towards the last two seasons of the show.

R46: She had breast reduction surgery, supposedly to avoid back problems.

The guy who played Leo on Charmed was a hottie when he first joined but gained a lot of weight, especially in his face.

Leo on TWIN PEAKS got chunky. By the time the movie was made, he must have doubled in size. (Maybe he ate all the commissary food Laura Flynn Boyle threw away.)

The cast of the Sopranos.

Closet case George Eads in CSI.

George Eads is not gay, r51. He is married and has several children.

When Sherry Stringfield returned to ER, she got heavier and heavier with each season. Then she had a baby (actress and character) and lost the weight. Then she left again.

Married to who R52 ? I heard that he and Monica split up awhile back.

Jared Pada-Whatever got porky at one point in that ghost hunter show. Of course, now that he's depressed, I'm sure he's slimmed down.

Kirstie Alley was a bit heavier at the end of Cheers, but it wasn't a big deal. Then she got somewhat svelte again for Veronica's Closet where Kathy Najimy was cast as her chubby sidekick. But as the show progressed thru three seasons, it was like they had morphed into each other. By the end, Kirstie was bursting the seams, and Kathy looked thinner than Kirstie at the beginning.

James Roday on Psych gained a bit of weight after being scrumptious in season one.

Though I adore she, Whoopi Goldberg has packed on the pounds on the View.

Nathan Fillion has gained a lot of weight since Castle started.

Mindy Kaling went from normal weight to plump on The Office.

[quote]Mindy Kaling went from normal weight to plump on The Office.

Craft table

Steve Carrell also gained a few pounds, but that was just hair plugs.

R52, George Eads has just divorced from his beard. She was a friend of Jorja Fox.

Steve Carell lost weight between Season 1 and Season 2 of The Office.

William Shatner on "Star Trek".

Although the really massive gains were yet to come.

Kevin James actually lost some weight for a while and they made a plot point of it with his wife becoming jealous that he started getting the attention that she usually did.

Of course there's that guy from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but he gained the weight to protest that TV stars always get really skinny when their shows are successful.

I listened to Mindy Kaling's first audio book on Scribd sometime back. I was interested in juicy stories. She talked about her weight in a few essays. Her weight has fluctuated since she was a teenager. One essay was about her being bullied by African kid in high school and she lost weight because of the bullying. Towards the end of the book, Mindy talked about how she did a photo shoot for People's Most Beautiful issue in 2010 or 2011. She and Ellie Kemper were picked partially because they both went to Ivy League schools. I think Mindy is ugly and Ellie is very average looking. But anyway, Mindy broke down crying at the photo shoot because she couldn't fit into some of the dresses that stylist brought.

Darrell Hammond gained some weight during his SNL run.

R67 Mindy's first book was wonderful. I haven't read the second one, though.

Katey Cuolo from Big Bang Theory has gained weight since the show started. So has Johnny Galecki.

ALL the Facts of Life actresses battled their weight during the show's run. There are episodes where Tootie is as big as Natalie. True, a lot of that weight is her breasts but she got big in the hips as well. Nancy McKeon had quite a few episodes where they dressed her in awful matronly getups to try and hide her weight.

Michael E. Knight gained a lot of weight over the years he played Tad Martin on All My Children. Ditto Susan Flannery as Stephanie Forrester on The and the Beautiful.

Sasha Pieterse on Pretty Little Liars. In the first four seasons, she was mostly a guest star and then this past year she gained weight when became a regular. She has said that the weight gain is due to imbalances.

Tyne

[quote]Same thing with George Eads on CSI. In the early seasons he had a lovely body and then plumped and grew a beard. Ugh.

Yeah, George went from this:

Sharon

To this:

R62 Shut up Jenna. You only got popular on The Office because the other female cast members were either fat or ugly. I wish Mindy Kaling and Phyllis Smith would have eaten you.

Beck Bennett gained a lot of weight during his two years on SNL, probably due to all the stress of trying to get airtime (a common problem among the SNL cast). But last summer he lost a lot of weight and looks fantastic now.

I feel sorry for the girl who plays Alex on "Modern Family." She was so cute when she was little, and grew up to be a big girl with huge tits. She's had the breasts reduced, but she's still fairly noticeably heavy.

I agree Nathan Fillion and Patricia Arquette are the two most noticeable in this category. Nathan used to be such a hunk, and now he's such a tub.

[quote]Mindy's first book was wonderful. I haven't read the second one, though.

I have read most of her second book. She again mentions her weight and how she will never be skinny. She also admits to not always eating healthy foods. The Emmy announcement and snub from 2013 are brought up. Mindy admitted that she actually thought she would get an Emmy nomination and was pissed when it didn't happen. She wrote about going to a McDonalds afterwards for breakfast.

I have a book about masturbation that I could give you, dear Mindy!

I got thinner during the run of Growing Pains

You're still fat, Tracey. You should really try to lose some weight, dear.

Mindy Kaling really is unfortunate looking, it makes me sad for her.

Don't be, R83. She has her own TV show that she writes, so she can have wildly out of her league guys falling over themselves to be with her. Of course, the TV viewing public quickly rejected it, even as sci-fi, and it had to move to online streaming video, but who cares when it's funny?

It's funny, right?

Yikes...

[quote]Mindy Kaling really is unfortunate looking, it makes me sad for her.

I was never sad for Mindy or the other ugly women on The Office. I was lucky to have the "pretty girl of the cast" title.

I googled Ken Olin and Ken Wahl... but neither are the actor turned director I'm thinking of. He was a brown haired hunky type - possibly on night time soaps and action series - mainly in the 80s. I only found out a while back that he'd moved into directing episodic TV... Can anyone supply his surname?

It's Ken Olin of thirtysomething. He directed Brothers & Sisters.

Ken Olin C. early Thirtysomething had a Jon Hamm thing going on.

No, it's not Ken Olin. Think more lightweight hunk type - like a Maxwell Caulfield. But his name was Ken.

Are you thinking of Ken Ryker?

Ken Olin and Ken Wahl both were smoking hot in the 80s. The only other Ken who comes to mind is Ken Marino, who did a stint on Dawson's Creek.

The Beav

Rachel Ray

I misdirected you all with the director thing. Apparently he expanded into producing. It's Ken Olandt.

Alex Winter is not fat. Shapely, yes. I have figure like hers and if I dressed like her character does on MF, I would look chubby, too. There's a pic of her in a bikini and she looks fine. I'm not into the actresses looking like matchsticks for me to watch them on TV. Plus, she got a breast reduction.

John Corbett and Chris Noth on Sex and the City

r33, I think Hargitay gained weight because of menopause. Her waist, her face just tell that. She's still a good looking woman for her age. Not sure being thin would do any favor at her age either.

Yeah, r95, menopause makes women thicken at the waist no matter how skinny they were before. Not sure why that is.

Has anyone mentioned Allen Leech (Tom Branson) of Downton Abbey? Somebody give him Lady Mary's corset.

Some examples:

Jason Lee, “My Name Is Earl”

Justin Theroux, “The Leftovers”

Barbara Walters, “The View”

I think Brian Baumgartner kept gaining weight through The Office run.

Lauren Ambrose had weight gains on Six Feet Under.

America's Sweetheart

James Spader

Cybill Shepherd on Cybill.

I think James Spader has gotten ugly over the past several years.

Considering that he was supposed to be the leading male character on shows like "Boston Legal", it's amazing how fat the producers let him become.

Would they let an actress gain that much weight?

I've only gained six pounds during "Girls"!

Poor Lisa Whelchel. The producers of the Facts of Life would WEIGH HER IN on set each morning and sent her to fat farms when the show was on hiatus. Imagine being a teenaged girl and having a bunch of grown men ridicule your weight every day? She seems to have a healthy attitude toward it, surprisingly. She's written a lot about her struggles with weight, but from what I've seen of photos over the years she was never anywhere near obese.

She was average weight in season one and two...seasons 3-5 were the chubby years. But in all honesty, she never looked that big to me. It seemed like most of the weight went to her boobs and hips, so she still had a nice shape.

One of the things I liked about the Facts of Life was that all the girls looked like normal girls. They were all average/normal looking (well, Whelchel really was beautiful, but the "pretty one" on a show nowadays would never be anything close to overweight)...compare that to nowadays, when everyone on "teenage" shows look like models. It would be refreshing to have a show like that now.

I think Nancy McKeon was prettier than Welchel. Kim Fields was hindered by her hairstyles.

Not me! Oh, no!

[quote]She has her own TV show that she writes, so she can have wildly out of her league guys falling over themselves to be with her.

She figured it worked for a total schlub like Adam Sandler, so why shouldn't she do the same thing?

R111, you are my hero.

Thank you, R112.

R92, Ken Olandt's major claim to fame was playing Derek on Y&R (soap), and a show called Super Force (sci-fi).

He also played a student-cum-stripper in a Mark Harmon vehicle called Summer School. He's aged better than the other two Kens.

Was Mindy Cohn sent to fat farms or was she sent and then escaped?

Most of these people were already fat and don't come close to being Delta Burke.

Lisa Whelchel was "normal" the first season of the FoL and then blimped out during the high school years. She was also fat the first year of Edna's Edibles, then she dropped a ton. People like Matthew Perry gained weight bug weren't Delta Burke fat.

Leah Remini gained weight cause she was pregnant and then had a bit of a time trying to lose it.

Did BJ Novak actually fuck chubby Mindy Kaling or was Mindy pretending that he was her boyfriend? Novak is a kind of a fug.

When Lisa was a New Mouseketeer, they actually had her sing "A Spoonful of Sugar." Then when they went to Walt Disney World, she invented Instagram:

I'm not sure if the actors dated in real life, but the Ryan/Kelly "romance" was one of the funniest parts of the show.

That, and mancrush Michael had on Ryan, especially when it came out after HR demanded to read M's journals.

David Boreanaz during Angel. Nathan Fillion owns this thread. James Roday of Psych Matthew Fox (a bit) during Lost

The dad in 8 is enough

Oh come on, r117, I don't think Lisa was ever really fat. This picture is her at what I would say is her heaviest on the show...I wouldn't describe her as fat, chubby maybe, but not fat.

(also, why the fuck did they hang out with Tootie? Nosy thing always getting everyone into trouble...)

Tootie was like the annoying "little sister" of the show. Jo was the no-nonsense type sister, Natalie is the sweet and chubby sister and Blair the bossy and vain sister.

To the poster that asked about Mindy Cohn--her weight battle was much different. As she went though puberty, she lost weight, and the producers were always on her to gain it back. A lot of times they layered her up to give the illusion that she was heavier than she actually was.

The dad from Nell Carter's show

Girls! Why don't you all turn off the TV for an hour a day and take a walk around the park, yourselves!

My BF was watching a Lifetime movie and I notice Dean Cain in it. He really chunked out. For a second, I thought it was Wayne Newton

I second Cagney and Lacey. They both blew up like Macy's parade floats.

James Roday before.

James Roday after.

Steve Howey from "Reba" went from a tall, good looking guy with a swimmer's body to a noticeably chunkier version by the end of the series.

He then muscled up impressively.

R 108, Most of Lisa Whelchel's weight went between her ears, as she is a massive C@@T