I was re-watching The Leftovers recently and two actors come to mind from that show: Regina King and Christopher Eccleston.
Here’s one that isn’t a household name. Alanna Ubach. The fact that she is completely different from role to role makes it hard for her to be noticeable. She was the hooker Frank tried to marry in Its Always Sunny and she’s the mom in the tv prequel Ted. She’s been in a lot of things you have probably seen but you couldn’t tell she was the same actor. She also does a lot of voice work.
And scary as Drexl Spivey
Does Benedict Cumberbach qualify?
He’s done Alan Turing, Doctor Strange, Sherlock Holmes etc…
Oldman does scary very well in a variety of his work.
Fifth Element and Leon come to mind…
I mean really - 11 year old Natalie Portman along side Gary Oldman and Jean Reno …oh my!!!
…
I think Cumberbatch is in the hunt. Large body of work.
Daniel Day Lewis as well for variety and intensity. Never did see My Left Foot. Adored him in Mohicans.
Last of the Mohicans was a class act all around and I think you can heap the praise on Michael Mann for that one.
Val Kilmer. FBI agent. College student. Jim Morrison. Doc Holiday.
At that point in his life he could have been a credible action star. Instead his next role was The Age of Innocence.
Charlize Theron also comes to mind.
Isn’t that kind of the definition of a character actor?
I’d say Paul Giamatti, Stephen Root, and Alan Tudyk kind of come to mind as being particularly versatile.
For leading men, Sam Rockwell is kind of the king of that sort of thing.
Not really. A character actor is someone who takes supporting roles with some kind of eccentric characteristic. Character actors are quite susceptible to being type-cast.
Stephen Graham is the correct answer. Been a fan of his for many years.
If you compare Samuel L Jackson in:
- A Time to Kill
- The Long Kiss Goodnight
- Pulp Fiction
I think you’d have to agree that the man has some range.
I would disagree - Sam Jackson is recognizably himself in almost all his movies, chewing the scenery in his patented style. Same goes for Alan Rickman and Val Kilmer - people whose stylings - vocal or otherwise - make them instantly recognizable. I am on the fence about Helen Mirren; I have yet to see her in the Yellowstone prequel. I am not sure of her ability to do an American accent, except for maybe an old school mid Atlantic one.
Christian Bale, Sam Rockwell, Day-Lewis, Oldman - now these guys disappear into the role effortlessly
In recent years, he has become typecast and quite willing to be so. That doesn’t mean that he can’t play diverse roles, or do it believably.
I want to put in a vote for Eli Wallach. He could go from Tuco in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly to a clean-cut insurance investigator in How to Steal a Million in the same year.
On the TV side of things, Arlene Martel was excellent. I looked her up once on IMDb and realized I’d seen her in different shows for years and never noticed. She was on everything from The Outer Limits to The Love Boat, and just disappeared into her roles.
As a kid when my favorite TV show was Batman and my favorite movie was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly I would have never guessed Mr. Freeze and Tuco were played by the same actor.
Nitpick: he was interested in buying the art, hot or not, and also very interested in marrying the Hepburn character. It was Peter O’Toole who was the undercover investigator.
But your point stands: I’d never realized they were the same actor.
I think there were three Messrs. Freeze over the course of the series, so you were mostly right.
Thank you for the correction, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.
Has anyone done an Eli Wallach film festival, or at least a day of his films on TCM?