Don Cheadle

[lissener]

Hmm. If you read the whole article, it actually doesn’t support your opinion. It says that some actors become known for certain characters, but by mentioning that as an exception to the rule, it supports the widely understood definition that seems also to be the consensus of this thread.

For whatever it’s worth, I’ve probably heard that term >1,000 times, and I have NEVER heard anyone but you, RickJay, use it the way you do. Never.

From the Wikipedia article, further down from where you stopped reading:

Some character actors have eventually gained star status and have become widely known, or perhaps even become lead actors. Examples include Lon Chaney, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendan Gleeson, Alan Arkin, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán, John Malkovich, Ed Harris, Paul Giamatti, Christopher Walken, and Jeff Goldblum. Many characters actors such as Peter Lorre, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh and Michael Lerner, Burt Mustin, Strother Martin, and J. Pat O’Malley earned acclaim for their performances but rarely earned leading roles.

Admittedly, the first paragraph of the Wiki article needs to be rewritten because it’s unclear, but the article taken as a whole disagrees with you, RickJay. (The author of the confusing paragraphs seems to have conflated *character actor *with stock character.)

[mswas]

@RickJay

I guess we’re working off different definitions, since I have never heard such a thing. I was always taught “Character actor” meant “An actor who specializes in a particular character.” It seems a pointlessly vague term to just mean “an actor who isn’t a star.”

Sadly, there are few definitions handily available on the Web that clearly support either case, except Wikipedia, which supports mine.

No lissener is right. It’s a technical term.

[lissener]

From another site/cite:

The character actor usually possesses ordinary, though distinctive, looks and is marked by the ability to transform into such a variety of characters that the character in each film, not the actor (or the actor’s own personality), predominates.

[Cisco]

@Green_Bean

Cisco: I’m not sure you know what “character actor” means.

Oh I’m quite sure I do. I bow to the greater expertise of many dopers on a lot of subjects, but acting is something I’ve had an interest in most of my life and have studied formally for 5 years. RickJay is wrong in this instance.

[An_Gadai]

@mswas

Yea I saw Gary Oldman there in all of them. Recognized him immediately. Brendan Gleeson, now he disappears into a role. Not Gary Oldman.

Gleeson is unreal for this. Also he’s been in my shop a few times. Grumpy fecker but I love his acting.