Ooh! Now that I think about it, I’d like to throw some props towards Michael Keaton.
Most commonly thought of as a comic actor (Beetlejuice, Night Shift), he’s done several dramatic roles that have been very, very good (My Life, Batman - in my opinion, he was the only actor who understood that Bruce Wayne and Batman were, essentially, two different people - Much Ado About Nothing, Pacific Heights, Jackie Brown).
Granted, he’s done some stinkers (Jack Frost), but when he’s on, he’s on.
And, according to www.imdb.com, he was a stagehand on Mister Rogers!
I just love William H. Macy. His wife, Felicity Huffman, is wonderful, too. She is finally getting wide recognition, on “Desperate Housewives,” but Macy isn’t a household name yet (which I suspect is the way he wants it).
If, as is probably inevitable, they ever make a live-action version of “The Simpsons,” Macy would be my choice to play Ned Flanders.
I adore Rutger Hauer. I own Soldier of Orange and watch it once or twice a year.
Enjoyed Hauer in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind as well.
Agree about Christian Bale, and think he is somewhat following in Jeff Bridges’ footsteps. Bridges is well known, but he has been plugging away for years with some of his best work going unrecognized and unappreciated.
He was dynamite in this year’s The Door in the Floor.
It’s hard to believe that Jimmy the Cab Driver from the old 90s MTV spots, the oafish dad from Grounded for Life and Stephen Dorffs hench-vampire in Blade are all the same guy.
He’ll always be bka stoner-Mexican-funnyman, but I think Cheech Marin is an underrated actor. Especially in recent years he has really started branching out playing more “responsible” and complex characters (yeah, I know, everybody’s hearing “Apple pie p*ssy!”) and done a really good job (or, as his former partner calls it, “selling out”).
Couldn’t agree more with Simmons: he can play inhumanly evil (Schillinger) and give it just a twinge of pathos, or he can play the comedy relief and make it real (Garth).
I thought that Eugene Levy & Catherine O’Hara should have received Oscar nominations for A Mighty Wind. Their characters were two of the best comedy-drama constructions I’ve ever seen (especially considering how improvised they were).
Megan Mulally has made fame and fortune galore as Karen on Will & Grace but I fear it’s at the expense of the fact she’s a great actress.
The fact that Harvey Feirstein has received great reviews as Tevye makes me wonder if he’s been underrated.
Alicia Witt. What is the problem, Hollywood? Is she not sleeping with the right people?
Charles Martin Smith, the likable nerd/scientist/guy-next-door/wry sidekick. Usually gets killed off in the second reel. Made it all the way to the end of American Graffiti, then got offed in the epilogue roll.
The writers and producers of “The Simpsons” (1989) have joked semi-seriously that if there was ever a live action version of the show, then he would be the perfect choice to play Ned Flanders.
in an interview a few years ago on fresh air, he told teri gross that he was in a series about murderes, rapists and drug dealers, and he played “the bad guy”
Cheech Marin is evidently a very knowledgeable art collector and all-around cool guy, I’ve heard.
But I’d like to stick up for Antonio Banderas. While he’s got awful taste in women and scripts, he’s always the best thing in his crappy movies. It must be very difficult to be a handsome man with a Spanish accent in Hollywood and want to get interesting roles, and he was amazing in Desperado. I’d love to see him in a complicated, interesting role.
I don’t think John Goodman is really underrated, but I do have a great deal of love for him. Also, he’s a wonderful singer, and I think his TV work is really excellent. Sometimes he still makes me cry on Roseanne (remember when Becky ran away and got married and he wouldn’t speak to her?) and he has the best time in the world with character actor parts, like in O Brother Where Art Thou?.
I don’t know if it’s available in America Caprese, but try to find ‘Turkish Delight’. Yes, it’s directed by Paul Verhoeven, but it’s a decent movie anyway.
I’ll add Michael McKean. His obituary will probably lead with “Lenny of Lenny & Squiggy is dead”, but he has also created and been believable as a mini-talent British rocker, a gay dog groomer and a washed-up folksinger (and those just in Christopher Guest movies), as a morally bankrupt realtor in The Brady Bunch, an Australian media mogul and in dozens of sketches on Saturday Night Live (as their oldest cast member for trivia sake). He’s also been nominated for an Oscar as a songwriter and he’s still going strong, but he’s rarely mentioned on any list of accomplished actors.
Jason Alexander gets a fair amount of kudos, so I don’t know if I’d call him underrated. But due to his years on Seinfeld playing a duplicitous nebbish, I think people view him a bit more negatively than he deserves.
When I heard he was going to be in The Producers, I was struck by the notion that he could play either Byalistock or Bloom with equal effectiveness. That’s versatility, that is!
