He was in Out of Sight before that. Not a psychopath, but not a funny guy, either.
And in Little Miss Sunshine.
Check him out as Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago Seven. Brilliant, a real standout amidst a LOT of strong performances from the other actors, too.
Generally speaking: amongst newer actors, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd have impressed with good dramatic turns. Hill in Moneyball, Rudd in Living With Yourself, along with some serious and touching moments in his Ant-Man role.
Don’t forget The Lego Movie - Ferrell hams up his voice part, but plays the live-action Dad completely straight, and it works perfectly.
And in “The Way Way Back,” where Carrell plays a jerky dad (well).
And in that sweet, melancholy film about four Vietnam vets.
Saw him in that too. As good as it was I thought he was even more impressive in The Spy. Holding those two performances next to each is most head shaking. Hard to believe it is the same actor doing those two very different parts.
I was just talking about this earlier while watching Law and Order: Organized Crime. Denis Leary is always a chain smoking comedian in my mind, but he is nailing the dramatic role of dirty cop in that show.
Biĺly Connolly, of course.
Johnny Vegas as Krook in ‘Bleak House’
He was downright scary in Suicide Kings.
SNL’s Will Forte (MacGruber, etc.) was excellent starring with Bruce Dern in Nebraska.
I haven’t seen “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind”, but found him great in “The Truman Show”, and I’ll add “Man On The Moon” to the list. Yes, he played a comedian, but it’s really not a comedy. He was great in it, and I’m another one who can’t stand Jim Carrey in comedic roles.
You should see it. Very strange. Reminds me a bit of Brazil in some hallucinogenic way. Plus, anything with Kate Winslet in it is probably worth it.
Bill Hader does drama very well. Barry is ostensibly a comedy but it only works because he plays it extremely straight and very dark. He was also very good in It.
You have to see Eternal Sunshine. But let me give you some suggestions…
Have all refreshments at hand. Don’t plan to answer the phone or the door or anything…you’ll need to pay attention. Also I’m not sure what forms may exist (director’s cut, etc.) but try to get the one with director’s commentary available for after you watch it.
You really made me curious about the movie, so I looked up the imdb page and put the DVD on my amazon wish list. I had heard about the title of the film, but never was really aware of it. I saw on imdb that the German release has the idiotic title “Vergiss Mein Nicht”, which I’d never noticed either.
That was the movie that made me a huge Kate Winslet fan. I’d seen Titanic, of course, but Eternal Sunshine was a role that she absolutely nailed, and it was against type. It really surprised me.
“Reign Over Me” is also good from Sandler. I don’t think I’ll ever again pay to watch a Sandler comedy (some of them are a bit of weakness when flipping through cable/streaming choices), but very well might to see him in dramatic films.
How about Val Kilmer? He was in Top Secret! and Real Genius and then was in Thunderheart.
There’s Eddie Izzard who started in stand up comedy but seems a fairly versatile actor.
Doesn’t quite fit the OP since he pretty much only did comedy roles (although often playing the ‘straight man’) on radio, TV and occasionally film but British comedian Ronnie Barker was reputedly well respected as an acting talent. Just never really demonstrated it much outside of comedy.
TCMF-2L
Kilmer seems like a better fit for the Serious actors, or non-actors, doing comedy later on… thread.
Pat Morita went from stand-up comedy to memorable sitcom work, and then all of a sudden he’s up on the big screen as the iconic wise mentor who’ll alternately solve problems as the calm voice of reason or by reluctantly but expertly resorting to the use of force — and, granted, he probably earned the Oscar nomination just on the strength of that one scene where he talks about doing some Medal-of-Honor soldiering overseas while his wife and child were dying in an internment camp; but, well, he simply nailed it, is all.