How about Tony Shalhoub in these two Coen Bros. movies:
Freddie Riedenschneider, the criminal defense attorney, in The Man Who Wasn’t There. He was just brilliant, especially in his speech about how if you examine something long enough, it disappears - even if it’s criminal evidence.
Ben Geisler in Barton Fink. “You couldn’t avoid hitting writer in here if you threw a rock. And do me a favor, Fink - throw it hard.” (paraphrasing)
Although he is seldom cast in supporting roles, it’s hard to overestimate just how thoroughly Anthony Hopkins dominates any film that he’s in. How do you define this quality? Whenever an actor possessing it is onscreen, you just have eyes for no one else. I recently saw AH in Remains of the Day for the first time and he simply blew me away. I can barely remember who else was in the film! We just bought The World’s Fastest Indian off of e-bay and I’m hoping to watch it soon. It wasn’t a big earth-shattering movie, but I can’t wait to see him steal the whole film again.
Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here. I’ve always had a crush on Rosanna Arquette. But from what I understood (and I’m no entertainment maven), what was supposed to be Arquette’s path to stardom ended up launching Madonna instead.
Maybe this doesn’t apply, because all are such fine actors on the show, but there is just something so compelling about Michael K. Williams/Omar Little and his performance on The Wire. When he’s on the screen you just can’t take your eyes off of him and you try not to miss a word.
He’s not the best actor on the show, but he’s the most watchable for some odd reason.
Hume Cronyn as a psycopathic and sadistic prison guard in Brute Force
Boris Karloff as the title character in The Body Snatcher
Fisher Stevens as the sidekick in Short Circuit
Jay Tarses as Coach Finestock in Teen Wolf. It’s the only reason to watch the movie, and I bet Tarses (a former writer on The Dick Van Dyck and Bob Newhart shows) wrote all his own dialog, such as “There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese.”
John Glover as Alan Raimy in 52 Pickup
Mark Rydell as Marty Augstine in The Long Goodbye. Two unforgettable scenes.
Sextette – one of the best “bad movies” EVER! Though ostensibly a starring vehicle for Mae West, she is overshadowed by just about every cameo appearance in the film: Tony Curtis as “Sexy Alexei”, Ringo Starr as her director ex, and Keith Moon as the mad fashion designer.
Galaxy Quest – Sam Rockwell (again) as Guy Fleegner, “Crewman #6”.
Silence of the Lambs – Doesn’t appear to fit the OP, until you realize that Anthony Hopkins was on screen a total of only 18 minutes – the pinnacle of show-stealing!
I thought Madonna was the star name and top bill. I did not think the movie helped or hurt her career. I could well be wrong. I know it helped develop at least a small following among young males at the time for Rosanna.
Psst… see post #5, Shirley covered Alan Rickman pretty well.
Glengarry Glen Ross iss probably David Mamet’s best play. And the movie version had an awesome cast, every one of whom gave an Oscar-worthy performance. And yet, if you asked a dozen people who’d just seen it to name the most memorable performance, I’d wager they’d all say Alec Baldwin stole the show with a performance that couldn’t have lasted more thana few minutes.
One of my favorite films is Holiday (1938) with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. It’s hard to believe that anyone could steal a scene with those two in it, but Lew Ayres brilliantly underplays his role as as Ned Seaton, the alcoholic younger brother. In almost every scene Ned is trying his hardest to be invisible. But as played by Ayres, you can’t take your eyes off him. His subtle performance gives poignancy and depth to a role that could easily be ignored as insignificant.
Bernard Hill as Theoden in the LotR movies. He throroughly buries Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen in each of the scenes in which they interact; quite a feat, considering the dialogue is not written to his character’s advantage.
Andre Braugher in Homicide: Life on the Street. I don’t remember much about that series but I remember Braugher stole it. It was an ensemble cast that eventually became more and more centered around Braugher’s character. I think it was also the launching point for the character of Det. Munch who has now moved on to Law and Order.
One episode that I clearly remember, one of the older detectives had killed himself. Because of this the department said the other detectives were not allowed to wear their dress uniforms for the funeral procession. This caused a lot of turmoil for all the detectives, especially the deceased’s partner. Braugher’s character, who wasn’t even the deceased’s partner, put on his dress uniform and stood on the steps of the station and saluted as the procession walked past. That was probably the episode that cinched his stealing of the show.
I’d have to put my vote for “any scene that Johnny Depp is in.” I cannot take my eyes off that man on-screen.
David Boreanaz on BTVS.
My husband’s vote - Sean Connery in any role he’s ever been in.
I know we’ve seen hundreds of scene stealer, but I can’t think of many right now. I’m pretty sure Gary Sinise has stealen a scene or two, but I can’t think of them right now, either.
Once Upon a Time In Mexico, despite giving top billing to Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi, really stared Johnny Depp as Special Agent Sands, a quirky CIA Operative playing power games in Mexico between the Barillo Cartel and the country’s president. This in a movie full of solid acting, including Antonio Banderas, Ruben Blades, and Danny Trejo (playing the same character he has played in every other movie he has been in, minus Spy Kids). Wilem Dafoe, for once, did NOT steal the movie, since his character really didn’t get much to do other than speaking Spanish in a Wilem Dafoe accent and speaking English in a thick campy Faux-Mexican accent.
Oh, that reminds me: Wilem Dafoe grabbed Boondock Saints and ran with it. He was just all kinds of fun in that movie (portraying an FBI Agent who was an expert in… Nameology.)