# The largest prick character actor in Hollywood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070 "2010-06-05T16:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/1 "2010-06-05T16:10:23Z")
I’m working on a project, and in the background, **Die Hard** is on. The actor that plays reporter Richard Thornberg (William Atherton) plays the perfect prick. He’s not a likable character, he’s got a face that has a permanent smug smirk, and he’s easily not likeable. It got me thinking. I immediately remembered 3 other movies where he played the asshole to perfection. **Die Hard 2** , of course, **Real Genius** (Professor Hathaway), and **Ghost Busters** (Walter Peck). That’s 4 movies where I didn’t even have to think. I haven’t looked at his IMDb page yet, but I am wondering: 1. are there more movies out there where he plays the asshole character, and 2. is there any other actor/actress you can think of that falls into this category? The fact I can even remember his character names amazes me. I loved to hate this guy. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/2 "2010-06-05T16:17:20Z")
James Spader. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/3 "2010-06-05T16:21:39Z")
**[Dabney Coleman](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001056/)** has made a pretty effective career by playing the bureaucratic asshat, usually with more of a comedic angle though. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/4 "2010-06-05T16:21:49Z")
[William Zabka.](http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/106215/56014618pk1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/5 "2010-06-05T16:36:09Z")
Milton Berle. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/6 "2010-06-05T16:43:02Z")
The late [J.T. Walsh](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000687/) offered a variation on the theme: instead of a smug asshole getting his comeuppance, he portrayed a quietly menacing asshole you’d think twice about crossing. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/7 "2010-06-05T17:03:31Z")
[Gregory Itzin](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0411857/) ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/8 "2010-06-05T18:09:37Z")
[Larry Miller](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0588777/) ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/9 "2010-06-05T18:13:41Z")
[Christopher McDonald](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001520/) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/10 "2010-06-05T18:31:49Z")
Just to interupt the sausage fest, how about [Louise Fletcher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Fletcher)? Won an oscar for being a prick in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Asshole Grandma in Flowers in the Attic. Pretty unpleasant as Bajoran priest in DS9. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/11 "2010-06-05T18:49:14Z")
Without a doubt, [Stephen Tobolowsky](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864997/). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/12 "2010-06-05T18:53:00Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > 1. are there more movies out there where he plays the asshole character, and > . Well, there’s that film where he rapes and murders Diane Keaton. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/13 "2010-06-05T19:23:08Z")
[Ray Wise](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936403/), notably as Senator Morton in Rising Sun, Leon Nash in Robocop, and plenty of other slick characters elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/14 "2010-06-05T19:23:41Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > [Christopher McDonald](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001520/) Given that the only way I or anyone I know can remember this guy is as Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore, I have to vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/15 "2010-06-05T19:29:50Z")
John Holmes had the largest prick of them all. 😉 Wait! You mean character? That hillbilly actor that buggered Ned Beatty in Deliverance. What was his name? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/16 "2010-06-05T19:40:16Z")
Found it! 😉 Bill McKinney he played a lot of sickos. He was in Outlaw Josey Wales too. Lots of scary roles in many great movies. > **[Bill McKinney | Actor, Additional Crew, Soundtrack](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0571853/)** > > Known for: First Blood, Deliverance, Back to the Future Part III > [@](#): > > Deliverance co-star Burt Reynolds said of McKinney, “I thought he was a little bent. I used to get up at five in the morning and see him running nude through the golf course while the sprinklers watered the grass…” He went on to say that McKinney got so caught-up in the sodomy scene that he was ready to bugger Ned Beatty for real. “He always played sickos, but he played them well. With my dark sense of humor, I was kind of amused by him … McKinney turned out to be a pretty good guy who just took the method way too far”. > **[Bill McKinney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKinney)** > > William Denison McKinney (September 12, 1931 – December 1, 2011) was an American character actor. He played the sadistic mountain man in John Boorman's 1972 film Deliverance and appeared in seven Clint Eastwood films, most notably as Captain Terrill, the commander pursuing the last rebels to "hold out" against surrendering to the Union forces in The Outlaw Josey Wales. > William Denison McKinney was born September 12, 1931, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had an unsettled life as a child, moving ... ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/17 "2010-06-05T19:59:37Z")
Did Larry Linville ever play a _non_-prick? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/18 "2010-06-05T20:20:02Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > [Gregory Itzin](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0411857/) Every time he came on screen during last weekend’s _24_ marathon, I said out loud “He’s the devil!” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/19 "2010-06-05T20:46:17Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > [Ray Wise](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936403/), notably as Senator Morton in Rising Sun, Leon Nash in Robocop, and plenty of other slick characters elsewhere. Not to mention Satan in the TV series _Reaper_. [Jeffrey Jones](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000470/) (the principal in _Ferris Bueller_) sticks in my mind as playing the quintessential prick in a lot of films. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070/20 "2010-06-05T20:59:39Z")
[Ronny Cox](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001074/) has been an effective asshole, notably in _Robocop_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-prick-character-actor-in-hollywood/542070.md?page=2)