Well I suppose it is no consolation to those who wondered what a “post actor” is, but count me in that group.
He was always scary looking dude.
Maybe I should have said, “Post pictures of actors…”.
Also excellent as the hissing, simpering Southern-accented lawyer in the recent miniseries Damages. I would describe his performance as understated overacting.
I luuuuurve Michael Emerson as the creepy creepy bad guy on Lost and I can’t wait to see him be an awesome creepy creepy bad guy in films later in his career!
Here ya go: Jason Isaacs. (Heh, great minds, Ludovic… ;))
I know a guy who worked as one of the historical consultants on “The Patriot,” and he said Jason Isaacs was incredibly friendly and down-to-earth, and he could turn that menace on and off in an instant. My acquaintance told me a story of Jason Isaacs joking around with him, pretending to be angry at something he had said and giving him a death glare, then laughing and slapping his arm…and even though the guy knew Isaacs was joking, he still felt a stab of fear in his gut. Such is the power of those cold, cold eyes.
Me too. I thought “wooden”, but that didn’t make sense.
Most of my faves have been mentioned, except for Lee Van Cleef.
I’ll add another vote for Alan Rickman. Except I don’t really consider him a villain in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, he was the best thing in that movie.
I came in to talk about that one, but I’d also nominate him in Sneakers on the lighter side of things and Death and the Maiden on the darker.
That’s what I was going to say. That guy was just absolutely terrifying in that movie.
John Malkovich deserves a mention as well.
Torin Thatcher – great Shakespearean actor who appeared as a bald, menacing villain or adversary, chiefly in the late 1950s/early 1960s. He played the prosecuting attorney in Witness for the Prosecution, the tough Reverend Dr. Thorn in Hawaii, and (my favorite) brought great style and verve to the role of Sakurah the Magician in the Harryhausen flick the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. When J. Harris wanted to cash in by imitating that film, he got Thatcher to play the magician Pendragon in Jack the Giant Killer. Thatcher later played one of the apparent Bad Guys who released the Enterprise crew in the Star Trek episode “Return of the Archons”, and ended up playing a lot of TV roles that really weren’t worthy of him.
An early, morally ambiguous role has him playing one of the Observers in The Man Who Could Work Miracles. It took me a while to realize it was him. Not only was he a good deal younger, but he had hair!!
Teddy KGB. Great character.
Well, duh! Jack Nicholson of course. One of the most recognizable post actors.
Anne Ramsey, famously ugly and scary woman archetype. Since she’s dead, she would be a posthumous actor instead of a post one.
My favorite is Udo Kier. He looks like a friggen vampire, even when not playing one. He oozes evil no matter what part he’s playing.
Just a tough looking dude.
I’'ve often joked that you couldn;t have *Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, ** and Tom Noonan get on the same plane together, because if it crashed there wouldn’t be anyone left to play psychos (**Anthony Perkins ** was on the list before he died. And maybe we should add Christopher Walken, too.)
*Tom Noonan doesn’t get enough respect. He played the heavy in Manhunter and RoboCop II and, memorably, in The Last Action Hero (where he also played himself). He was also the Frankenstein Monster in The Monster Squad.
Henry Fonda, of course.