That Actor Whose Name You Don’t Know: Annie Golden

One has to wonder what it feels like to be in the public eye and still not have people recognize you by name. Some might say it could be a little embarrassing, but others might state that at least the actors are there and can state that they’ve been successful for a while. That’s definitely a better take on it since lamenting the idea that a lot of people don’t know your name would be kind of ridiculous for a lot of people such as Annie Golden, who’s been a part of the entertainment industry for quite a while now. A lot of people are going to recognize her as Norma from Orange Is The New Black, but she’s had a much bigger carer than this one role since she’s been a part of the music industry in the past and she’s been a stage actor as well. One has to wonder just how a person can go from being known to almost forgotten save by appearance when it comes to show business, especially since she doesn’t have a hard name to remember or one that might be a tongue twister like several others. But for one reason or another, a lot of actors have slipped past a lot of people when it comes to identifying them by name, though the reason why is usually kind of hard to guess considering that they’ve usually done enough to be remembered by a lot of people.

There are so many different facets to show business though that one can’t help but think that trying to sort them all out is a team effort, meaning that it would take a group of people really understand why anything happens in show business, and even then it’s almost never a unified front that can give people the answers they want unless it’s about something that has to do with pretty much everyone in the business. Even the pandemic isn’t able to pull people together as well as many might have thought since there are still many that have been affected differently enough that would give different accounts of why the business is the way it is at this time. But in Annie’s case, it does feel as though she’s just one more name among many that have kind of slipped from peoples’ minds simply due to happenstance since yes, it is a thing. Looking over her list of credits it’s very easy to see that she’s deserving of the regard that many others get and has been pretty successful in her time in the business. But stating that bound to be remembered for her contributions feels a bit premature since not only is she one of those that has been just about forgotten by many people, even though she’s still acting and is still doing quite well, she’s been a supporting character for a while that kind of gets looked over the moment that someone with more fame is on screen.

This is pretty normal, no matter who we’re talking about. Depending on who’s more famous in a scene it’s easy to skip over those that might not share the same level of fame and not think twice about them being there, even if you happen to recognize them. A lot of fans might want to go back and watch certain movies and shows once they realize that Annie was a part of them for even a brief moment, but it’s likely that a lot of people will say ‘oh, cool’ and move on. That’s one of the harsh realities of being a movie and TV star, their fame kind of comes and goes depending on what they’ve done recently and how effective it was in relation to the entire project. In OITNB, Annie was one of those that became a regular face that a lot of people enjoyed simply because her gimmick was to not talk that much, if at all. But even that started getting old after a while as the other storylines started to play out and the other stars started to rise and become noticed. If you’ll notice throughout much of the time on the show she’s seen as somewhat important, but at some point, she does kind of take a back seat to the rest of the cast as she continues to be seen less and less and her story is kind of buried among the others. The show was definitely one of those that had a lot of stars to get through and a lot of backstories to tell, but to be fair, Annie was one of those that was there from the beginning and as such it could have been understandable if she would have been given a slightly bigger role. But hey, that’s show business for you.