Not necessarily the BEST actor, but an actor that you don’t miss a thing they do. Not a character actor, such as the late, great JT Walsh.
But an actor that no one knows. That you enjoy. I’ll start.
Kelly Rutherford. I can’t explain it. She’s not the greatest actress. But she’s steady. She’s aesthetically pleasing (to me, anyway). She’s from my neck of the woods (Elizabethtown, KY is a little over an hour from where I live). I guess that makes me a “homer” where she’s concerned.
Most people would recognize her face, but not her name. Her biggest role was as Dixie Cousins in the now-defunct “Adventures of Brisco County.”
I wouldn’t say nobody’s heard of him, but I’m a fan of Brad Dourif, and it’s hard to explain who he is to people who don’t know him. After all, his most famous role is the voice of Chucky from the Child’s Play movies. People have heard of Chucky, but that doesn’t help them recognize Brad Dourif’s face from memory.
not according to IMDB. Similar name, different guy. I haven’t seen the Blade movies though, so I’m just trusting IMDB on this one.
Here, this could help: Dourif also had a part in The Two Towers (he was the guy with the really bad teeth), The Color Of Night (the obsessive/compulsive patient), an episode of Babylon 5 called “Passing Through Gethsemene” (the troubled monk), and my personal favorite - the gas station attendant in Urban Legend (whoever cast that movie was a genius; they also had a role for Robert Englund, and maybe some other horror movie baddies I didn’t recognize. But to just casually drop in Chucky and Freddy Krueger was very classy)
I can’t believe all this talk about Brad Dourif, and no mention of surely his finest role : as Billy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Seriously, check it out if you’ve never seen it. He gives an outstanding performance, even in the shadow of Jack Nicholson.
One of my favourite actors that few people seem to have heard of is Noah Taylor. The part that made me take notice of him was as the adolescent/young man David Helfgott in Shine.
Also, one of my favourite humorous actors that nobody takes notice of is David Herman (Michael Bolton in Office Space). I found him hysterically funny in Mad TV, and have seen him pull off a few “serious acting moments” quite well.
Other faves in the same category include Brendan Gleeson, James Hong, and Tony Todd. Sorry if those vioate the OP’s prohibition on character actors, but that seems to be the way the thread is drifting!..Timmy
I guarantee you’ve seen him. “Jester” in Top Gun. The “Other Captain” on SeaQuest. One of the guys in Starship Troopers. Richter in Total Recall. The guy in Scanners.
One of the all time great "That Guy!"s. (A “That Guy!” is when you’re watching a movie, see a guy, and yell “Hey! It’s that guy!” then spend five minutes trying to figure out where you’ve seen him before and who he is).
I’m a Dan Hedaya fan, myself. He’s been in a whole bunch of movies and TV shows, but his most noteworthy role was probably Carla’s husband on “Cheers.” He also played the club owner in “Blood Simple” and, in my favorite of his roles, Mr. Waturi, Joe’s boss in Joe Versus the Volcano.
Oh, and I loved him as Saint Gabriel in “A Life Less Ordinary.”
How do Brad Dourif, Dan Hedaya and Michael Ironside get mentioned in a thread about actors that no one’s ever heard of? Surely the only moviegoers who don’t know these great actors are teenagers who love stuff like Daredevil or Freddy Vs Jason. Brad Dourif especially has got a huge following.
(don’t you think 
){kind=link}