Before Jane Lynch became the queen of prime time as Sue Sylvester (come to think of it, before she was Christy Cummings or Laurie Bohner or Cindi Lightballoon), she was just another actress in Hollywood, flitting from bit part to bit part, appearing on everything from Cybil to Party of Five. In fact, her resounding success on Glee didn’t really come as a surprise to us, since her presence had built so steadily and subtly over the years.

Lynch, who can go from understated to overblown faster than a Ferrari can go from 0 to 60, turns 51 today, and in honor of her prestigious present, we take a look back at her less-than-glamorous past. Here are four of our favorite pre-Glee bit parts.

Frasier, 1996

Married With Children, 1994

Frosted Flakes Commercial, mid-1990s-ish

Spiderman, the Animated Series, 2003

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This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2011.