# Actors forever playing one minor role
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 25, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887 "2002-10-25T20:31:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/1 "2002-10-25T20:31:12Z")
Here we go: how many actors can you think of that (in movies at least) always seem to play the same bit-part character?
Number one: **William Atherton** always seems to play the snivelling, arrogant git in every film I’ve seen him.
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### Author:  [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/2 "2002-10-25T22:01:20Z")
William atherton is just waiting for someone to make a David Duke biopic. They’re dead ringers for each other.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/3 "2002-10-25T22:03:25Z")
Al Leong, who has rarely even spoken onscreen. But whenever the director needs an Oriental actor with martial arts abilities, he’s there, the long-haired guy with the narrow eyes.
Arguably best known for his role as Genghis Khan in _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure._
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### Author:  [@flapcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flapcats)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/4 "2002-10-25T22:31:28Z")
More mainstream, but William H Macy, Steve Buscemi and Rip Torn spring to mind. Feel they should have a spot to themselves someday (not via Pixar, mind).
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### Author:  [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/5 "2002-10-25T23:19:49Z")
Desmond LLewelyn as Q in the James Bond Films. and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/6 "2002-10-25T23:23:21Z")
My father has mentioned jokingly that he’d like to make a gag reel of movies in which Elisha Cook, jr. gets beaten up.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/7 "2002-10-25T23:29:16Z")
Malcolm McDowell as the over-the-top villian.
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### Author:  [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2002, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/8 "2002-10-25T23:53:47Z")
Can’t remember his name but the guy who looks vaguely like Jerry Falwell and played pompous fundamentalist blowhards in every sitcom from the 70s and 80s. Remember the “list of bad songs” episode from _WKRP_, that guy.
James Hampton as the easy going guy who knows more than he lets on as the sidekick/buddy/adviser to the main character, especially in Burt Reynolds movies.
Anthony Zerbe being slightly creepy in the background of any film he is in.
Mako as the “inscrutable” wise Asian.
Dub Taylor as the cackling old coot in a beat up derby in tons of western and action flicks.
If Dub Taylor is unavailable, substitute Strother Martin as the cranky old coot.
Michael J. Pollard being the “weasily, whiney, slightly out of it” guy, usually a low level criminal, informer, drug dealer, or amusing drunk. Kind of a latter day Elisha Cook Jr.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/9 "2002-10-26T00:03:58Z")
Steven Gilborn…I don’t know how to describe his characters, but they’re all essentially the same.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/10 "2002-10-26T04:01:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by widdershins \*
> \*\*Can’t remember his name but the guy who looks vaguely like Jerry Falwell and played pompous fundamentalist blowhards in every sitcom from the 70s and 80s. Remember the “list of bad songs” episode from _WKRP_, that guy.
>
> \*\*
I’m not sure who you mean, but the description brought to mind the fundamentalist guy opposite John Denver in Oh God! His name is Paul Sorvino (yes, father to Mira.) Of course, Paul has also played mafia-type guys, ala Good Fellas.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/11 "2002-10-26T04:18:16Z")
His name was Richard Paul
[http://us.imdb.com/Name?Paul,%20Richard](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Paul,%20Richard)
(BTW, I’m always very touched when people write bios for minor actors like him for the IMDB. Once while surfing there I discovered an old aquaintance had died, and I was very grateful for the kind words someone had written)
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/12 "2002-10-26T07:36:27Z")
Arthur Houseman made a minor career of playing comic drunks in the 1930s and 1940s.
I wouldn’t call William Atheron a “bit-part player”. He has starred in several big budget pictures, including **Day of the Locust** and **The Hindenburg**.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/13 "2002-10-26T07:51:38Z")
Ah, but he’s now more of a bit player. Die Hard, Ghostbusters…
Then there’s the slimey guy, like M. Emmett Walsh and the late J. T. Walsh (no relation)… Or even Dan Hedaya, for that matter.
And then there are the tough, authoritative types: R. Lee Ermey, Kurtwood Smith, James Remar…
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/14 "2002-10-26T12:18:27Z")
Michael Ironside, although I know he’s probably had more notable roles too.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/15 "2002-10-26T12:56:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Baker \*
> \*\*Al Leong, who has rarely even spoken onscreen. But whenever the director needs an Oriental actor with martial arts abilities, he’s there, the long-haired guy with the narrow eyes.
>
> Arguably best known for his role as Genghis Khan in _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure._ \*\*
If they ever film Andrew Vacchs’s Burke mysteries, maybe he should be cast as Max the Silent.
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/16 "2002-10-26T13:51:08Z")
Ooh, how about [Danny Trejo](http://uk.imdb.com/Name?Trejo,%20Danny) as the goon? [Tony Todd](http://uk.imdb.com/Name?Todd,%20Tony%20(I)) as the mercenary? Or [William Sadler](http://uk.imdb.com/Name?Sadler,%20William) as the psychopathic plotter?
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/17 "2002-10-26T13:53:19Z")
One of the joys of watching films from the great days of the Hollywood studios is seeing all those faces of the bit-players. They were cast because their faces and bodies told the audience immediately that this character was a wuss (like Franklin Pangborn or Donald Meek) or a villian (like Jack Elam or Dan Seymour) or a banker (like Thurston Hall or Raymond Walburn) or a society dame (like Margaret Dumont or Mary Boland) or a tart (like Iris Adrian or Gladys Blake) or…
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/18 "2002-10-26T14:27:09Z")
Or a patsy, like Ralph Bellamy or Don Ameche!
Or a heavy, like Sydney Greenstreet or Robert Morley!
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/19 "2002-10-26T14:41:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dantheman \*
> \*\*…Kurtwood Smith… \*\*
I keep waiting for him to go mental on _That 70’s Show_ 😃
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### Author:  [@ThatGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatGuy)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/20 "2002-10-26T15:27:38Z")
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Ben Stein…always the boring teacher/proffesor
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