When a character actor dies, someone will post a thread about them. Inevitably there will be a “Oh yeah, that guy” response. I’d like this to be a thread about “that guy!” before he or she dies. I’m going to post the name with a link to a picture of the actor, plus the ‘character’ he or she usually plays. So here’s my shout out to those actors plugging away, making a living being ordinary Joes or plain Janes.
Peter Cambor. The nice guy who gives up the girl so she can snag the romantic lead.
Sometimes, they make it “big” and have their own thing:
Daniel Dae Kim was a that guy for me and my wife. We saw him as Gavin in Angel and he appeared in tons of small roles, sometimes having one line or zero. Then, he landed LOST and after that, he got Hawaii 5-0.
Titus Welliver is also a that guy…and he was also on LOST, but not as a lead. Anyway, he is on that show Bosch now.
I recently saw Mandingo (1976) for the first time. When Doc Redfield first speaks, I thought to myself, “That’s Stephen Hopkins!” Well, the actor who played Rhode Island representative Stephen Hopkins in 1776 (1972). Hopkins was the one who, at the signing, said he wanted to stay standing where he was so that he could see each person as they signed.
The actor, Roy Poole, was apparently 62 when he died in 1986. I thought he was older than that in ‘1776’.
My most recent oh-that-guy moment was seeing Jon Polito in the original Highlander film. Sadly, he doesn’t really fit the thread because he died in 2016. I don’t remember hearing about his death at the time.
The other recent one for me was Val Bisoglio, whom I recently saw in Saturday Night Fever as John Travolta’s father. He’s still alive at the age of 92.
Two faces that I know before I can remember their names are Dan Hedaya and Danny Trejo https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001803/?ref_=nv_sr_1https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001803/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Both of them are “in everything” but I’m not sure even I can bring their faces to mind when hearing their names, even though I’ve looked them up and know who they are now. Dan played “carla’s” husband in Cheers, and Mr Monk’s dad in Monk. Danny is currently on Old El Paso commercials down here, which is why I thought of him.
An interesting question for your respondees. When you first saw his picture what role that he played came to mind?
With me, it was his role in Big Trouble in Little China. closely followed by That’s Genghis Khan. Then I looked at his IMDB page and I’ve seen practically every movie this guy made.
Just wondering what his most “famous” role is that is, with what role is he most associated with.
The guy I’d like to add is Oliver Platt. He’s had a few lead roles, but he’s usually a supporting actor, and seems to specialize in slightly nebbishy or eccentric roles. For a while there, in the 90s and early 2000s, it seemed like he was in every other movie.
My first thought was “he was in Die Hard”, followed moments later by “Genghis Khan”" I never realized he was in Big Trouble in Little China, but now that you mention it, I’m not sure how I missed him
Tony Shalhoub has had a number of successful leading roles, so he may not be a good fit for this thread. However, he is also a truly great character actor, who, like the late Vincent Schiavelli, has never given a bad performance.
Spend an evening watching old 60s/70s era television shows on WE TV and you’re likely to run across Nita Talbot. I don’t think she was a regular on series ever (though she made a bunch of appearances on “Hogan’s Heroes”) but she made prominent guest star roles on almost every series that appeared for a good 20-year stretch. She usually always played the sexy but salty, acidic, fast-talking and worldly dame who skewers the pompous blowhards with some pointed barbs.
