In my opinion, Van Cleef is one of those people who are chameleon-like in their ability to take on leading roles convincingly, but who seem to be cast more often in the “character actor” role.
Others in that same group of chameleons:
Charles Bronson
James Coburn
Telly Savalas
James Fox (Day of the Jackal)
Charles Dance
If you want to go to the extreme in that category, consider Marlon Brando! In spite of the fact that he was paid obscene fees for his work, later in his career he was only offered “character actor” roles.
I surely didn’t intend to kill this thread. The comment about Brando being a “character actor” is open for discussion, by all means. That idea just popped into my head as I was trying to cope with where Lee Van Cleef fits in the overall spectrum of Star-Support Player-Character Actor-Bit Part-Cameo-Extra and whatever other subdivisions may exist.
In the early days of his career (up through maybe even The Godfather), Brando was surely in the Star/Leading Man group. But even his being hired for Don Corleone caused a near mutiny at Paramount since by then his legendary difficulty to work with was a sore point with producers and moguls.
Yes, he did star in other things after The Godfather but his status (outside the bodacious salaries) was rarely enough to carry the project and the only reason his name came up early in the credits was historical and financial.
I bet there are many others whose later careers fell into the “character actor” zone, and still others who “rose” to star status after being the “character actor” for a large part of their lives.
FWIW, I think the link provided by David Simmons would be the source to try to answer the OP’s question with any authority. Merely appearing in a movie doesn’t confer “character actor” status on anyone. It takes some acting with some oomph, I submit.
Well, or solid performances that can be counted on without (necessarily) upstaging the leads. James Rebhorn is a good example; he plays the solid citizen who nevertheless has an interesting face and voice, enough to remember him as “that guy” but not the guy who stole the show.
The character actors types that have been appearing lately seem to include the computer geek (sometimes with a British accent) who can work miracles for the more bland but bankable leading man.
Joe Don Baker is in the everyman "oh, that guy’ category, not the eccentric funny voice or funny looks category.
In the funny voice/funny looks category I’d vote for Allyce Beasley. And I would have said Joey Lauren Adams but she has gotten a couple of leading roles.
When I nominated Tony Shalhoub yesterday, I didn’t have time to specify the roles I liked.
His performances in two Coen Brothers movies are killer: attorney Freddie Riedenschneider (sp?) in The Man Who Wasn’t There, and that producer guy in Barton Fink. Whenever he was on screen, he was riveting and was in danger of stealing the movie from the protagonist. I especially loved the attorney’s speech about the perception of reality and how to twist it from The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Oh, yeah, and I loved his pawn shop character in Men in Black, too.
I remember a few years back, when the first AFI list came out (Top 100 films of all time); the follow-up discussion on this board included the factoid that the actor to appear most often in the list was none other than Ward Bond. I think the only film that was on the AFI list but not on the above list of Oscar nominees was The Searchers.
And a real nice guy to boot. Late in 1950 or early 1951 my wife and a couple of friends went up to the Olancha, CA sand dunes where some scenes for a movie were being made. Brennan was one of the actors there and he made a point of coming over between takes, asked about them, where they were from, etc., and explaining what was going on. The film came out as Along The Great Divide.
I’m reviving this thread after a week’s interment to plug one of the great character actors of our time: Richard Jenkins, who specializes in, typically, annoyed or mystified antagonistic authority figures, be they detectives, lawyers, doctors, judges, government officials, or military officers. You’ve seen this guy a zillion times, even if you don’t know him by name. To cite a couple of his more offbeat roles: in Flirting With Disaster, he played the older gay B.A.T.F. agent who felt like a third wheel and got dosed with LSD; in HBO’s Six Feet Under, he was the deceased but spectral paterfamilias. He’s fifty-three now; no telling how many more films he’ll enliven in years to come.
A puzzle clue recently referred to Harvey Keitel as a “character actor” and I guess he is, in spite of several leading man parts.
I suppose the sub-category of “villain” could fit at least the broader definition of “character” so we could rip off some names from those Boris Karloff and related threads.
Other sub-groups I can think of:
The judge
The “other lawyer” in court cases
The benevolent doctor
The lawman (unless he’s the leading role)
The school teacher (either gender)
The shopkeeper
The skilled technician (including hackers and safecrackers)
The hitman
The embezzler
The Wall Street tycoon
The “Big Business” man (or woman)
