Talking about that high rise they say, "do you remember Don Amechie?"
As if he was through.
Hey, from 1971 onward he had 27 IMDb credits including Cocoon and Trading Places.
"It's the system, Lara. People will be different after the Revolution."
Believe it or not, I wondered for a while if that line in this film didn't spur Don Ameche to get back into the game, because to your point, he appeared in all those credit after THE FRENCH CONNECTION. But what was he in the previous 10 years of this film (from 1960-70)?
Also, of some irony, there is some 30 year old out there who can reasonably say, "Hey, do you remember Gene Hackman, the actor?"
When this film was made, Don Ameche was a has been. He had been a good looking leading man in the thirties and forties, but made mostly tv work since then. From 1949 until Trading Places in 1983 he only made five films, the rest was mostly tv work, mostly cameos. He got a sort of resurrection late in life, with Trading Places and Cocoon, but in 1971 he was very much a has been. A little like how John Travolta was a joke before Quentin Tarantino ressurected his career...