Jesse Spencer made the leap from Aussie soaps to Hollywood big time.

HOME AND AWAY

Chris Hemsworth

Hollywood hunk. Picture: GettySource:Getty Images

The Summer Bay years.Source:News Corp Australia

Hemsworth is now a Hollywood A-lister, which is surely a creative comedown from the frantic working pace he was used to during his three-and-a-half year stint on Home and Away as lifeguard/good bloke Kim Hyde. Hemsworth’s star potential was clear as soon as he set foot in the Bay, so producers quickly began throwing juicy storylines at him: an ecstasy binge, a stalker, various love affairs, a helicopter crash, three separate pregnancy scares, and all the other fun things that Thor simply doesn’t get to take part in. I’m sure Hemsworth is okay with how it all turned out, though.

Points: 10 (In the middle of a purple patch)

Heath Ledger

Ledger as The Joker.Source:News Corp Australia

Hittin’ on Sally.Source:News Limited

Heath was only in the Bay for a short time, but he certainly made his mark, taking Sally’s virginity in the back of a surf wagon, as is customary for teenagers in the Summer Bay District. He stalked the surf club like a menace, circling the impressionable Sally, and was at turns charming and conniving – so I think it’s safe to say this was the role that sparked his ‘Dark Knight’ character.

Points: 9 (Lost a point for his Bay brevity)

Isabel Lucas

Lucas today. Picture: Sarah MatraySource:News Corp Australia

A fresh-faced newcomer.Source:News Corp Australia

Before she was propping up ‘80s toy franchises in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Lucas played the spaced-out, cult-lovin’ Tasha who first entered the show by wandering the beach, talking gibberish. Lucas is a real-life renegade who slots in being arrested at dolphin-culling protests in-between activism work, and star roles in films such as Daybreakers, Immortals and Red Dawn. There is still a warrant out for her arrest in Japan, too, which is bad-arse but may limit her J-pop career, should that be a path she chooses in the future.

Points: 8 (Would be a 9, but she may disappear into the literal wilderness at any point)

Julian McMahon

McMahon made the leap to US television.Source:News Limited

A Summer Bay wedding.Source:News Corp Australia

Here are some things Julian McMahon probably wishes he could nip and tuck from YouTube now that he is a massive Hollywood star: His starring role in the Danni Minogue clip ‘This Is It’, which is the most brightly-lit video in music history; news coverage of his short-lived marriage to Baywatch bunny Brooke Burns; and this meticulously edited collection of fifty (!) YouTube clips, containing every second of every scene from his 15-month stint on Home and Away as Army corporal Ben Lucini, a character so devoid of … well, character, that the official description of Ben calls him “easygoing for a twenty-one-year-old male.” Meaty role!

Points: 9 (Bonus point for ‘Charmed’)

Ryan Kwanten

Star of True Blood. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:Supplied

Lookin’ sharp Vinnie!Source:News Limited

Vinnie ‘V-man’ Patterson is the greatest non-Alf character in the history of Home and Away. A one-man comedy revue each time he entered a scene, his loveable slacker persona meant he got all the fun stories across his five years in the bay – a fate that was repeated on the massively successful vampire porn True Blood, where being marked as the V-man meant an entirely different thing.

Points: 7 (Needs a Hemsworth-sized role next to bump him up to 9)

Isla Fisher

Pippa gettin’ in her face.Source:News Corp Australia

Isla played the role of rabblerouser Shannon Reed for three years. Her episodes are currently airing every morning, and 20 years since they originally screened, three things have become apparent: a) Her acting was great, even during her teenage years b) Her character would be writing excellent disruptive features for ‘Daily Life’ if this was set in 2016 and not 1995, and c) She doesn’t appear to have aged at all in the years since. Despite her dramatic range she has since appeared in Wedding Crashers, Definitely, Maybe, Arrested Development, Hot Rod and numerous other vehicles for her great comedic timing. (Those ING Direct ads are pretty awesome, too.)

Points: 8 (Bonus point for being funnier than her hilarious husband, Sacha Baron Cohen)

Naomi Watts

It took time, but Watts broke through in Hollywood.Source:Getty Images

Just loving life on Home & Away.Source:News Corp Australia

Years before she confused and scared the shit outta everyone with Mulholland Drive and The Ring, Watts spent six weeks in 1991 confined to a wheelchair as Julie Gibson, who wins the heart of local police officer Nick Parrish. In 2000, Watts described the experience as “six miserable weeks”, after which we can only assume Ailsa banned her from the Diner for life.

Points: 8 (Like Heath, lost a point for Bay-brevity – and trash talking Alf Stewart’s town)

Guy Pearce

Look at those Pearce-ing eyes (SORRY)Source:Supplied

Guy Pearce on Neighbours. Yes, he’s a double dipper!Source:News Limited

So, we have a problem. Guy broke the unspoken rule of Australian soap acting: pick a side and stick with it. Instead he spent four years in Ramsey Street as the affable Mike, before surfing over to Summer Bay – where he romanced Rebekah Elmaloglou’s character Sophie, helped rescue a distressed cockatoo and then was killed off in a car crash for daring to tempt the wrath of the Soap Gods. His Aussie soap career never recovered, although he can still be seen from time to time starring in huge Hollywood blockbusters.

Points: 9 (5 for each show, then one point deducted for being a soap-traitor)

Total points: 59 + 4.5 for Guy = 63.5

NEIGHBOURS

Margot Robbie

Vanity Fair cover girl ...Source:Supplied

... Rockin’ it on Ramsay Street.Source:Sunday Style

Before seducing Leo in Scorsese’s Wolf Of Wall Street, breaking the fourth wall in The Big Short and being drooled over just last week in a lecherous Vanity Fair feature, Margot Robbie spent two-and-a-half years in Ramsay Street as Donna Freedman, a free spirit who first entered the show as a Dean Geyer groupie. Funny how things change.

Points: 10 (She is a god-damn superstar)

Alan Dale

Now a TV veteran.Source:Supplied

Alan Dale on Neighbours (front left).Source:News Limited

After more than 1000 episodes playing Ramsay Street patriarch Jim Robinson, Dale reinvented himself as the perfect villain on a string of American television shows. Sure, more recently he has acted in massive blockbusters such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but in certain sunny circles he will forever be known as the diabolical Caleb Nichol from ‘The O.C’.

Points: 7 (Bonus point for being the on-screen grandfather of Seth Cohen)

Jesse Spencer

Spencer (front) in House.Source:Supplied

The teen heart throb years.Source:News Corp Australia

As one half of the enduring, endearing Anne/Billy couple, Jesse Spencer knew the only way to escape this career cul-de-sac was to relocate to America and practice spelling mum with an ‘o’. Luckily for him, around the same time, someone at Fox decided to steal the Scrubs character Dr. Cox, give him a limp, rename him ‘House’, and create a 177-episode series around him. Spencer was on the show for the entire eight-year run, leaping across to Chicago Fire after the end of ‘House’, because America loves a procedural drama.

Points: 7 (Needs more movie roles where he acts in front of a green-screen for months on end.)

Russell Crowe

Crowe at the premiere of his latest film, The Nice Guys.Source:AFP

His short-lived Neighbours stint.Source:News Corp Australia

This is a stretch. Russ le Roq only appeared on four episodes of Neighbours, playing a criminal, but we consider his early work here a gateway of sorts to the terrible Neo-Nazi he played in Romper Stomper; after all, once you get banned from Lassiter’s for stealing money, it’s a slippery slope.

Points: N/A (Disqualified due to lack of screen time on Neighbours, as well as for his later work in Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts)

Liam Hemsworth

Didn’t he grow up nicely. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

We barely remember him on Neighbours tbh.Source:Supplied

Part of The Hemsworth Dynasty, as we will know them as in 30 years, Liam started his gold run on Ramsay Street, playing a paraplegic ex-surfer for close to a year before aiming overseas. He landed a role in a Disney-produced Nicholas Sparks adaptation, playing Miley Cyrus’ romantic interest, which is basically the perfect recipe for falling in love IRL.

Points: 9 (One of the most famous young actors – and young Hemsworths – in Hollywood)

Holly Valance

Valance in 2013. Picture: Holly Blake.Source:Supplied

On set with Blair McDonough in 2002.Source:News Corp Australia

Someone thought it was a fantastic idea to make a film adaptation of plotless video game series ‘Dead Or Alive’ – in which females battle in various states of undress – and instead of laughing, Holly Valance used this terrible (I can only assume) film as her Hollywood springboard, following up by starring in movies alongside the likes of Liam Neeson and Paris Hilton, because variety is important.

Points: 4 (She married a billionaire, so film roles seem less important)

Kylie Minogue

Minogue at the Ab Fab premiere recently. Picture: GettySource:Getty Images

SCOTT N CHARLENE 4 EVA.Source:Supplied

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Kylie, she is a pop star! Big in England, sure, friend to Nick Cave and Robbie Williams, sure, sister of Danni, sure, but hardly a Hollywood star.” Firstly, calm down – you’re taking this list far too seriously considering what’s happening in the world, and secondly, Kylie scores points for being in the Street Fighter film, which I admit is one of the worst crimes committed to celluloid, but was also both a Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle at the height of his career, and a Street Fighter film at the peak of that franchise’s history. So there!

Points: 5 (Bonus point for ‘Confide In Me’ secretly being one of the best ‘90s songs)

Ben Mendelsohn

He’s carved a unique career in Hollywood.Source:Getty Images

Ben in 1990.Source:News Corp Australia

First things first, if you haven’t seen Mendelsohn in the current Netflix series Bloodline, he is absolutely captivating, and should win every award available — even the ones that aren’t relevant to his performance, like ‘Best Sound Design’ and ‘Best Rap Album’. He is that good! Three decades earlier, he spent a month-long stint on everyone’s favourite cul-de-sac during the Kylie/Jason glory years, even causing friction in their Angry Anderson-soundtracked romance for a short time. It was his first major role, and came a few months before his star turn in classic Aussie flick The Year My Voice Broke.

Points: 6 (Will go up to 9 once he wins a Golden Globe this year)

Total: 48 + 4.5 for Guy = 52.5

RESULTS

Despite Neighbours having an extra three years on Home and Away, it’s the latter show that has built more solid Hollywood careers. The clear lesson here is that the quickest way to break America is to go via Summer Bay Diner, perhaps putting in a call into your Hollywood agent from the hamburger phone while there. The other lesson is that splitting whole numbers helps make statistics seem more accurate, although we assure you even without the decimal points, there is still no real disputing these findings. So if you wanna be a star, join the cast of Home and Away, work hard, and you’ll find you are getting closer each day.

Follow Nathan Jolly on Twitter at @nathanjolly.