# Oh, \*that's\* who that is! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316 "2007-12-26T20:56:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/1 "2007-12-26T20:56:02Z")
I was watching _Dreamgirls_ last night, and was bothered for the whole two hours by the fact that the guy who played Effie’s brother CC looked so damned familiar. Every scene he was in – and he was in quite a few – I’d get pulled out of the movie for a second to think “Who the hell is that?” Checking the box and, by process of elimination, figuring out the actor’s name was Keith Robinson didn’t do a bit of good. Looked him up on [IMDb](http://imdb.com/name/nm0732803/) this morning, and it turns out he played That Nice Black Boy on the TV show _American Dreams_, a two-season guilty pleasure of mine. When’s the last time you had to look up an actor’s listing on IMDb to figure out why you recognized him or her? ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/2 "2007-12-26T21:23:38Z")
I think the most recent imdb lookup was to figure out why the squad sergeant who got laser slice-and-diced in the first \*Resident Evil \* movie was so damn familiar to me. It was Colin Salmon, a black British actor known for playing M’s assistant in the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies. He was doing an American accent in the Resident Evil movie and that’s what threw me. 🙂 Although after I post this, I am going to imdb to look up the cast list of the BBC _Hogfather_, which I managed to catch on the ION channel over the holiday. About 3/4’s of the way through, I piped up, “Hey, I think Ridcully was the Russian ambassador in _The Hunt for Red October_.” ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/3 "2007-12-26T21:30:03Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] I think the most recent imdb lookup was to figure out why the squad sergeant who got laser slice-and-diced in the first \*Resident Evil \* movie was so damn familiar to me. It was Colin Salmon, a black British actor known for playing M’s assistant in the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies. He was doing an American accent in the Resident Evil movie and that’s what threw me. 🙂 Although after I post this, I am going to imdb to look up the cast list of the BBC _Hogfather_, which I managed to catch on the ION channel over the holiday. About 3/4’s of the way through, I piped up, “Hey, I think Ridcully was the Russian ambassador in _The Hunt for Red October_.” [/QUOTE] I looked for you. He was. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/4 "2007-12-26T21:31:21Z")
I do it all the freaking time. There’s just too many Hey It’s That Guys. A lot of times I find it so distracting that I pause the movie and haul out the laptop. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/5 "2007-12-26T21:35:07Z")
David Krumholtz. I never connected the guy from **Numb3rs** and **Serenity** with **Addams Family Values**. Boy, did I slap _my_ forehead! ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/6 "2007-12-26T21:42:57Z")
I had to go to IMDb to find out that one of the cute Milwaukee girls in “Love Actually” is January Jones, aka Betty Draper in “Mad Men”, one of my favorite shows from this season. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/7 "2007-12-26T21:58:21Z")
You have just experienced the phenomenon known as [Hey! It’s that Guy!](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeyItsThatGuy) The late, lamented [Fametracker.com](http://Fametracker.com) (the farmer’s almanac of celebrity worth) regularly profiled such actors in their eponymous regular feature. _sniff_ Once upon a time, for instance Tony Shaloub (now of _Monk_ fame) was a _Hey! Its that Ethnic Guy!_ ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-is/431316/8 "2007-12-26T22:04:04Z")
[QUOTE=Hello Again] You have just experienced the phenomenon known as [Hey! It’s that Guy!](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeyItsThatGuy) The late, lamented [Fametracker.com](http://Fametracker.com) (the farmer’s almanac of celebrity worth) regularly profiled such actors in their eponymous regular feature. _sniff_ [/QUOTE] Nah – I think of “Hey It’s that Guy” as involving someone you see over and over again – like Ronnie Cox in your link. This is a one-off of some secondary character in a movie almost-but-not-quite reminding you of some fairly obscure character in another show that no one but you ever watched.