IIRC, Anthony Hopkins is only on-screen for maybe 15 minutes in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, but he won Best Actor instead of Best Supporting Actor for a reason.
He should have got an Oscar for that role.
Mae West made her screen debut in a bit part in the film Night After Night. In one of only three scenes she’s in, she delivers this famous bit of dialogue:
Coat-check girl: Goodness that’s a beautiful mink coat!
Mae: Goodness had nothin’ to do widdit.
Nowadays, “Night After Night” is remembered as Mae West’s debut film, and hardly anyone remembers who the ‘stars’ of the film were, or even most of the plot outside Mae’s scenes. (Not even me, and I’ve seen the flick three times.)
This is exactly what I came in to say.
That part and that movie were written for Walz, so he wasn’t technically stealing.
Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda.
I believe that the role was originally supposed to go to Leonardo DiCaprio (of all people!), until Tarantino decided that it should be a native-German-speaking actor instead.
Not saying that the script wasn’t revised after Walz was cast, but neither character nor movie was concieved around the idea that he would be in them.
That is exactly what popped into my mind the instant I read the question. I can still hear his reading of just three words that would have done it for him if nothing else did: “I don’t care.”
I can’t write it the way he said it. But for an actor to put a twist on three words to make them stand out so was absolute genius.
I love Harrison Ford, but he didn’t give this one away. TLJ just took it.
I think that Robert Redford somewhat stole the show in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Newman and Redford were such a great teacm and certainly Newman held his own. But you have to consider that Redford really wasn’t all that well known in 1969.
I remember going to see the film because of Newman and leaving the theater with a huge crush on Redford that has lasted over forty years now. Maybe he didn’t steal the show, but he held his own against Newman. Redford will be 73 in August.
Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider.
He was not in it for very long, but that performance made Jack the star he is still is today, and turned a movie that would otherwise have been a formless, incoherent mess into a classic.
If that’s true, Newman stole it back in The Sting. The beginning is good, but it becomes great when Newman’s Henry Gondorff shows up. When I think back on that movie, almost all the great lines and memorable scenes are his.
Will Ferrell in Wedding Crashers
Yeah, he managed to convey all the cynicism of a weary lawman who has heard every excuse from a criminal, and that “even if you are innocent, that is not my job. My job is to catch your ass.”
From what I understand, Jones basically re-writes whatever part he gets (with the obvious exception of No Country For Old Men - you don’t re-write the Coen Brothers).
One of my all time favorite of his lines is from Men In Black:
Jay: You know what they say. It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Kay: Try it.
Seriously? I thought he brought the film to a crashing halt and I usually skip over his scene when I watch it.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in Twister. Though it still sucked. Pullman was horrendous, as always.
Jack Black, in High Fidelity.
Heath Ledger, in Batman, The Dark Knight. Though it wasn’t a bit part, he did steal that movie.
You might even say it was… in the suck zone.
Bronson Pinchot in Beverly Hills Cop.
Harvey Firestein in Independence Day.
Lauren Holly in Any Given Sunday.
These are personal scene stealers. When I think of these movies, these are the people who pop out in my memory.
Matthew Lillards good for this no matter the size of the role.
Excellent choice, although I would argue that Jack’s brilliant performance was the only redeeming feature in what was nonetheless “a formless, incoherent mess.” I thought ER was ridiculously overhyped and overrated when it was released, and age hasn’t improved it.
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A couple more:
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Joan Plowright in “I Love You To Death”
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Marty Feldman in “Young Frankenstein”
Discuss.
Here’s a dark horse… Absence of Malice
The movie was convoluted and talky, and about 100 minutes in the 116 minute long film, was nowhere near being resolved. Then Wilford Brimley of all people comes in as Judge, Jury, and Executioner, wraps everything up (in what was easily the most electric scene in the movie), departs, and after a goodbye scene between Paul Newman and Sally Field, ROLL CREDITS.
It was Deus Ex Brimley, especially since he’s tenth-billed on the film. That one scene was the only time you saw his character.
Another one who stole the movie is Angela Lansbury, fourth-billed in the original Manchurian Candidate, especially in her scenes with Lawrence Harvey.
Romany Malco in The 40 Year Old Virgin. You know, this guy.