He was in reasonably good films - Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, Get Shorty - and then a series of films that have largely sunk. He seemed a better than reasonable actor, does he just have poor judgement in scripts?
How many roles are open to a guy who looks like him? He’s not exactly a matinee idol type.
He seems to be more of a producer now, with his company Jersey Films. I most recently noticed his name in front of Garden State and Be Cool (the sequel to Get Shorty, in which he also reprised his role).
He was in Big Fish, which did okay, and he’s currently in Be Cool (I don’t know how this film is doing).
He also had directed and produced films. He may have ended his directing career by doing Death to Smoochy, but he’s still producing stuff.
His recent productions include Along Came Polly, Be Cool and Garden State, plus TV series Karen Sisco and Reno: 911.
So he’s keeping busy.
Whatever happened to him? He’s been doing steady work on up to 4 movies a year since 1980, with two exceptions. (1982 and 1990) 5 in 2005!
Check out his IMDB listing. He’s showing no sign of slowing down.
What a co-winky-dink. I was just watching Terms of Endearment last night and he’s in it. Possible hijack: did he do this movie before he was in Taxi?
No. Taxi first aired in 1978; Terms of Endearment was released in 1983.
Yes but both he and Christopher Loyd (Jim from Taxi) were in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
That was the first thing I did, but I didn’t spot any significant roles in significant films past Get Shorty.
Well, he is frequently overlooked.
**L.A. Confidential?
Man on the Moon?
Heist?
Big Fish?
**
All of those were fairly large films by major directors. Sure, he’s also in a lot of crap, but those were mainly small (ha!) parts. The man has to work, after all. He’s a character actor - albeit a famous one - not a “movie star,” and that’s what character actors do.
So was Brad Dourif (Wormtongue in RotK), Vincent Schiavelli (tall very odd looking guy who you might remember as a teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or as the Subway guy in Ghost), Scatman Crothers and Michael Berryman (alien looking dude who is in the motorcycle gang in Weird Science
That movie was chockful of character actors; if Kevin Bacon had only been in it we would have 3 degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Batman Returned. Penquins ate him.
SlithyTove: You suck.