| SECONDFIDDLE | One's not the lead in another scam |
| UNSCRUPULOUS | Being devious, you two plot another scam with surplus (12) |
| INAPTLY | Apartment left in New York behind one, not the proper way (7) |
| COPIED | Managed to secure one, not the original (6) |
| CORIOLANUS | Twelfth Night character (not the lead) transfixing my students in play |
| ACTOR | Film star in part, not the lead character (5) |
| UNCANDID | Macbeth's king (not the lead) performed without frankness |
| ACTORS | Cast parts but not the lead (6) |
| SECONDWIND | Not the lead horn player getting renewed energy (6,4) |
| SHARONSTONE | Basic Instinct star succeeded with character of ferryman (not the lead) |
| CLAUDERAINS | Actor whose film roles include the lead in 1933's The Invisible Man and Herod The Great in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told (6,5) |
| CHASTAIN | Jessica, U.S. actress who won the Best Actress Oscar in 2022 for playing the lead in the film The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (8) |
| BRYANCRANSTON | American actor who played the lead in Breaking Bad and also starred in Malcolm in the Middle: 2 wds. |
| TYPIST | Heartless in Endeavour, the lead in Porridge and the original key contributor to The Office (6) |
| REEVE | What was the sumname of Christopher, the actor who played the lead in the 1978 film Superman? (5) |
| SIGNORA | European woman in The Omen or the lead in Alien (7) |
| EXTRACTION | Film industry worker takes legal proceedings having lost the lead in Roots, in the original sense (10) |
| SCHOOLOFDRAMA | Where one is taught to take the lead in the nursery with the play-actors (6,2,5) |
| JAMESMCAVOY | Actor who plays Bill Denbrough in the movie It Chapter Two and also played the lead in Split: 2 wds. |
| LENGTH | Linear extent of a swimming pool, typically calibrated in metres; or, the span of a horse from nose to tail as a measure of the lead in a race (6) |
