# Absolutely exceptional Very Short supporting roles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118 "2006-02-05T18:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/1 "2006-02-05T18:07:51Z")
Judi Dench received the Oscar for her 8 minutes in _Shakespeare in Love_ and Anthony Quinn for about that long an appearance in _Lust for Life_. William Hurt is currently nominated for a performance that was even shorter I understand (I haven’t seen the movie). Sometimes, however, there are actors who are onscreen for an even shorter amount of time, maybe as cameos by famous stars or maybe actors you have never even heard of before, who just absolutely mesmerize or totally nail a character though they’re only onscreen for less than 5 minutes. These are the people who seem to prove that, at least when the script is good, there really are “no small parts”. What are some performances that come to mind for you on this- i.e. if they gave an Academy Award for "_really_ short supporting roles\*, you’d nominate them? I’m not sure how long Vincent Schiavelli was onscreen in _Ghost_ but it can’t have been any longer than Dench and Quinn in their Oscar winner roles. I don’t think anybody who saw the movie would deny, however, that he was absolutely perfectly cast and gave depth to both the comedy and tragedy of that character he played. I hope he nabbed some awards for it somewhere but I find no evidence that he did. I recently watched the movie version of Arthur Miller’s _The Crucible_. An actress I’ve never heard of named [Ruth Maleczech](http://imdb.com/name/nm0539300/) was onscreen for less than 2 minutes but I swear I’d have nominated her for an Oscar. She played Goody Osborne, a character referred to but not actually seen in the play, and yet in that two minutes you _know_ a huge part of her life story thanks to Maleczech. She’s a pauper and clearly mentally ill, a homeless person in tiny Salem who annoys her neighbors by her begging and her clear derangement, and one of the first brought in to stand trials for witchcraft. As a person who has seen _MANY_ psychotic episodes (not just in my family but from the four years I worked in residential facilities for the severely mentally ill) I can say with some expertise she _nailed_ the strange logic schizophrenia. (Her character honestly thinks that “I can dance as fast backwards as I can forwards!” is a valid defense and that “I can only say me commandments outdoor!” is something so logical it needs no further elaboration.) Her body language, expressions and everything, especially when she tells the girls to “stop your funnin’, you’re bringin’ me to harm!”, conveys such incredible pathos and yet at the same time threat (Goody Osborne isn’t somebody who just needs love and understanding, she is honestly batsh!t crazy and not necessarily a good person)- just wow. I’ve actually thought of writing the woman a fan letter even the performance was almost 10 years ago and she’s essentially unknown. There are others that come to mind that would be applicable for this thread, but I spent so long on that one I’ll open it to the floor. What are some of your favorite 1 or 2 scene very short roles that were just performed perfectly? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/2 "2006-02-05T18:21:50Z")
Good idea! I guess you could include Brando’s contribution to _Superman_ which is probably overshadowed by how much he got paid for it. Then there are the “character actors” whose contributions have helped movies work all the way back to the B Westerns. A few Favorites, without pointing to specific movies they helped along: Jack Elam Strother Martin L.Q. Jones M. Emmet Walsh Harry Dean Stanton Jo Van Fleet assisted the power of both _East of Eden_ and _Cool Hand Luke_, and that’s even kind of odd since Newman did a screen test for EOE. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/3 "2006-02-05T18:45:30Z")
Alec Baldwin in _Glengarry Glen Ross_. Best cameo ever. “Fuck you. That’s my name.” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/4 "2006-02-05T18:52:07Z")
I would add Pulp Fiction, \*\*Christopher Walken’s \*\* small role but amazing role. Would \*\*DeNiro’s \*\* role in Brazil be short enough? \*\*Marlon Brando \*\* in the 1978 Superman. Jim ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/5 "2006-02-05T18:54:35Z")
Billy Crystal and Carol Kane in **The Princess Bride**. Too much dialog to be a cameo\*, but I don’t think they were onscreen more than five minutes. James Cagney as George M. Cohan in **The Seven Little Foys** is much like a cameo, but he does have a dance number with Bob Hope as Eddy Foy, so it’s a bit more. Marlene Dietrich is great in her short scenes in **Touch of Evil**. Jack Albertson’s role in **Miracle on 34th Street** is essential to the plot. \*A cameo is an appearance of a well-known actor solely so the audiences can recognize him. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/6 "2006-02-05T19:12:02Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > \*\*Marlon Brando \*\* in the 1978 Superman. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, but I don’t really remember being blown away by Marlon Brando. In my memory, anyway, all I remember is him putting the baby in the space shuttle and pushing the launch button. Obviously I missed something. Why was his bit in Superman so remarkable? ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/7 "2006-02-05T20:18:47Z")
How long was Anthony Hopkins on screen for in “Silence of the Lambs”? It’s remarkable, on seeing the film again, how little time he actually gets, and yet he won the “big” Oscar! mm ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/8 "2006-02-05T20:52:35Z")
Linda Hunt in \*“The Year of Living Dangerously”. \* 😃 What? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/9 "2006-02-05T20:57:02Z")
I second Andy Garcia in _GGR_. Stunning performance. I’ll add the cop from _Withnail & I_, with only one line, but one that really stands out: “GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/10 "2006-02-05T21:00:21Z")
Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson) in _Groundhog Day_. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/11 "2006-02-05T21:15:42Z")
**Dennis Hopper** as the Photojournalist in Apocalypse Now… _You don’t talk to the Colonel, well, you listen to him. The man’s enlarged my mind. He’s a poet-warrior in the classic sense…I’m a little man. He’s a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across floors of silent seas._ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/12 "2006-02-05T21:15:44Z")
Sean Connery’s brief appearence as King Richard in Robin Hood. John Cleese as the English sherriff in Silverado. John Cleese & Sean Connery in Time Bandits. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/13 "2006-02-05T22:18:33Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > Sean Connery’s brief appearence as King Richard in Robin Hood. As well as Patrick Stewart’s brief appearance as King Richard in that _other_ Robin Hood movie. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/14 "2006-02-05T22:23:16Z")
Peter Cook as the priest in _Princess Bride_. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/15 "2006-02-05T22:24:55Z")
It occurred to me that there’s another category of these roles: the ones played well by actors who had yet to become big stars. A trivial example would be Bill Paxton as one of the punks in _The Terminator_ who winds up giving Ahnold clothing. I suspect Paxton was happy for that role at the time. Another would be Jeff Goldblum’s punk in _Death Wish_. These could be argued against as being nothing special. But I suggest that James Gandolfini’s contribution in _True Romance_ may have been a factor in how he became Tony Soprano later. It’s fun looking through IMDB for early roles by now-established people. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/16 "2006-02-05T22:38:18Z")
Rowan Atkinson as the very nervous minister in **Four Weddings and a Funeral**. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/17 "2006-02-05T22:42:50Z")
It’s a slightly larger part, though still “just” a supporting actor with only a few minutes on screen, but Ben Kingsley in _Sexy Beast_ is one of the most electrifying performances I’ve ever seen. He should have got an Oscar for that. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/18 "2006-02-06T01:04:18Z")
In the “early movie” catagory, Matt Damon was the little brohter in " Mystic Pizza". ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/19 "2006-02-06T01:52:12Z")
Here’s a nice article about some of last year’s short supporting roles. Some of my favorites from the article: > [@](#): > > [Two Minute Oscars](http://seattleweekly.com/film/0552/051228_film_oscars.php) > > _ **The Two-Minute Oscars** _ were created more than a decade ago for Interview magazine to celebrate the great but fleeting performance: full rounded characters who live in our memories well after their brief time on-screen. > > … > > 1. Roberta Maxwell as Jack Twist’s deeply understanding mother, at the end of **Brokeback Mountain**. When the mourning Ennis visits Jack’s room, you know who has maintained it, in one of the few gestures of love tolerated under his father’s flinty, queer-hating meanness. > > 2. Graham Greene as the courtly romantic rancher, Calvin Manygoats, in **Transamerica** (now delayed in Seattle until Jan. 20), struck mightily by trannie Felicity Huffman, although possibly not the man to learn her whole story . . . quite yet. > > 3. Allie Mickelson as Laura Kinney, the poised, quiet Kansas high-school girl who finds her best friend’s body as **Capote** opens. Later, when Capote and Harper Lee interview her, Laura’s empathy with his lifelong “outsider” status makes her entrust them with slain Nancy Clutter’s own diary. > > 4. Omar Metwally, the Palestinian who meets Eric Bana’s Israeli assassin in a stairwell in **Munich** , bringing so much young energy and passion to what is essentially a political treatise that you miss him when he’s cut down, virtually seconds later. > > 5. Dallas Roberts as Sam Phillips in **Walk the Line** , who won’t listen to Johnny Cash’s wan imitation gospel and instead, single-handedly goads him until “Folsom Prison Blues,” when the true Cash sound comes into being, right there in the studio. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118/20 "2006-02-06T04:22:45Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Judi Dench received the Oscar for her 8 minutes in _Shakespeare in Love_ and Anthony Quinn for about that long an appearance in _Lust for Life_. William Hurt is currently nominated for a performance that was even shorter I understand (I haven’t seen the movie). I haven’t seen _History of Violence_, but I think that Hurt is onscreen for something like 10 minutes. And [Sylvia Miles](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587249/) was nominated for being onscreen for around six minutes for _Midnight Cowboy_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-exceptional-very-short-supporting-roles/343118.md?page=2)