# What older, award winning actor has NOT been tapped up for a super-hero film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2017, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932 "2017-09-22T02:46:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/61 "2017-09-23T16:04:07Z")
F. Murray Abraham has done cartoonish Roles, but no superhero movies I can see. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/62 "2017-09-23T16:10:46Z")
Late Winslet? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/63 "2017-09-23T22:33:22Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > F. Murray Abraham has done cartoonish Roles, but no superhero movies I can see. Does **The Last Action Hero** count? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/64 "2017-09-23T23:35:12Z")
Jodie Foster James Caan Malcolm McDowell Amy Irving Bruce Dern Jamie Lee Curtis Tom Skerritt Jessica Lange Ryan O’Neal Shirley MacLaine > [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > I honestly feel Tom Waits would be great as a downbeat superhero, playing some shithole gig that still allows smoking, but aware that in the crowd are two Russian thugs who are out for a couple rounds before they break into the Grand Museum later that night. Still trying to figure out what magical superpowers he can deploy against these brutish, nasty perps. Perhaps he could play a broken-down weapons technician who lives in an abandoned amusement park and sells non-lethal weaponry to a group of plucky adventurers. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/65 "2017-09-23T23:42:12Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Woody Harrelson? > Richard Dreyfuss I’ve never heard of it, but Harrelson played the title role in a Canadian film called [Defendor](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1303828/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_30). The closest that Dreyfuss has come, as far as I can tell, is in being one of the villains in RED. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/66 "2017-09-23T23:44:32Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > I honestly feel Tom Waits would be great as a downbeat superhero, playing some shithole gig that still allows smoking, but aware that in the crowd are two Russian thugs who are out for a couple rounds before they break into the Grand Museum later that night. Still trying to figure out what magical superpowers he can deploy against these brutish, nasty perps. Waits, too, was in Mystery Men; he played Doc Heller, a mad scientist who helps the team. \* Edit: I now see that that’s what Ethilrist was referring to a few posts ago. :D\* ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/67 "2017-09-24T14:23:41Z")
Older? Sure, he’s in his 70s. Award-winning? Emmy for his writing; Grammy for his music; and, now that he has an Oscar, could EGOT if his latest Broadway effort gets him a Tony win the way his last one got him Tony nominations. And I don’t care _what_ role stand-up’s elder statesman plays – Jackson Day? – as long as it ends with Hawkeye putting an arrow through the head of Steve Martin. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/68 "2017-09-24T16:36:10Z")
Harrison Ford? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/69 "2017-09-24T16:42:00Z")
Mark Rylance is an academy award winning actor and accomplished stage actor. So far no comic book role. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/70 "2017-09-25T00:55:01Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Older? Sure, he’s in his 70s. Award-winning? Emmy for his writing; Grammy for his music; and, now that he has an Oscar, could EGOT if his latest Broadway effort gets him a Tony win the way his last one got him Tony nominations. > > And I don’t care _what_ role stand-up’s elder statesman plays – Jackson Day? – as long as it ends with Hawkeye putting an arrow through the head of Steve Martin. I’m pretty loose with EGOT’s\* Tracy: “A daytime Emmy??” Whoopi: “It counts.” But i don’t know if Honorary Oscar should count. A guy who was never nominated for an Academy Award has an honorary one??..oh what the hell…I came here to say that Martin is so talented that he’s easily EGOT worthy so …OK!! Also: 1. I’m amused his Emmy is 48 years old as a writer on the Smothers Brothers. 2. I’m surprised his pre 2016 work has never been Tony Award nominated. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/71 "2017-09-25T13:22:41Z")
Looking at Jane Fonda’s [red carpet Emmy photo](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/p2BzhEfQ0TPwHNIBbaXYwK6GvhQ/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2017/09/17/016/n/1922564/fb4134ef59bf041961ce17.39323024_edit_img_cover_file_44034356_1505689977/i/Jane-Fonda-Dress-2017-Emmys.jpg), it struck me that she would make a great [Madame Web](http://www.comicbookreligion.com/img/c/a/Cassandra_Webb.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/72 "2017-09-25T13:36:49Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Looking at Jane Fonda’s [red carpet Emmy photo](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/p2BzhEfQ0TPwHNIBbaXYwK6GvhQ/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2017/09/17/016/n/1922564/fb4134ef59bf041961ce17.39323024_edit_img_cover_file_44034356_1505689977/i/Jane-Fonda-Dress-2017-Emmys.jpg), it struck me that she would make a great [Madame Web](http://www.comicbookreligion.com/img/c/a/Cassandra_Webb.jpg). well, heck, she’s already been a great **Barbarella** : [https://theredlist.com/media/database/settings/cinema/1960-1970/barbarella/005-barbarella-theredlist.jpg](https://theredlist.com/media/database/settings/cinema/1960-1970/barbarella/005-barbarella-theredlist.jpg) Based on the Jean-Claude Forest comic strip from France: > **[Barbarella (comics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarella_(comics))** > > Mike Carey > Kenan Yarar > Barbarella is a fictional heroine in a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest. > Jean-Claude Forest created the character of Barbarella for serialization in the French V Magazine in spring 1962, and in 1964 Éric Losfeld published these strips as a stand-alone book titled Barbarella. The book caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" (erotic) comic book, though American pornographic comic books known as "Tijuana bibles" had long predate... If that doesn’t qualify as a super-hero and a super-hero film, what does? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/73 "2017-09-25T19:39:36Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Jodie Foster > James Caan > Malcolm McDowell > Amy Irving > Bruce Dern > Jamie Lee Curtis > Tom Skerritt > Jessica Lange > Ryan O’Neal > Shirley MacLaine > Perhaps he could play a broken-down weapons technician who lives in an abandoned amusement park and sells non-lethal weaponry to a group of plucky adventurers. James Caan - Dick Tracy Malcom McDowell- Does Tank Girl or Fist of the North Star count? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/74 "2017-09-25T19:48:26Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > well, heck, she’s already been a great **Barbarella** : > > [https://theredlist.com/media/database/settings/cinema/1960-1970/barbarella/005-barbarella-theredlist.jpg](https://theredlist.com/media/database/settings/cinema/1960-1970/barbarella/005-barbarella-theredlist.jpg) > > Based on the Jean-Claude Forest comic strip from France: > > [Barbarella (comics) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarella_(comics)) > If that doesn’t qualify as a super-hero and a super-hero film, what does? But as with Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Fonda was not yet an older, award-winning ‘established’ actor when she made Barbarella. At that point, she was best known for being Henry Fonda’s daughter and was young enough to play a sexy ingenue. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/75 "2017-09-25T19:51:26Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Harrison Ford? He’s certainly been in a number of sci-fi films (Star Wars, Blade Runner, Ender’s Game, Cowboys & Aliens), plus the pulp Indiana Jones films, but never an actual superhero movie. He’s definitely given the sense that he felt somewhat pigeonholed by his work on the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, and I suspect that, particularly in the '90s, he specifically choose roles that were far away from that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/76 "2017-09-25T21:52:36Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Older? Sure, he’s in his 70s. Award-winning? Emmy for his writing; Grammy for his music; and, now that he has an Oscar, could EGOT if his latest Broadway effort gets him a Tony win the way his last one got him Tony nominations. > > And I don’t care _what_ role stand-up’s elder statesman plays – Jackson Day? – as long as it ends with Hawkeye putting an arrow through the head of Steve Martin. Yes, yes, +1s are frowned upon on this board, but ++++1 ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/77 "2017-09-30T17:46:24Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > :p:p:p:p\* > > I honestly feel Tom Waits would be great as a downbeat superhero, playing some shithole gig that still allows smoking, but aware that in the crowd are two Russian thugs who are out for a couple rounds before they break into the Grand Museum later that night. Still trying to figure out what magical superpowers he can deploy against these brutish, nasty perps. > > \*uh…me too. ::kicks pidgeon-toed at dirt:: Obviously Dracula started as a Bram Stoker novel, but would Waits’ performance as Renfield count? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/78 "2017-10-02T02:47:44Z")
Daniel Day Lewis Sean Penn F. Murray Abraham ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932/79 "2017-10-02T13:05:14Z")
I was thinking Sam Elliot but checking IMDb showed he was in _Ghost Rider_. _Ghost Rider_ doesn’t count, does it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-older-award-winning-actor-has-not-been-tapped-up-for-a-super-hero-film/796932.md?page=3)