# When was the last time Christopher Walken played a serious role? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806 "2009-05-09T00:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/21 "2009-05-09T22:22:20Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > :dubious: Leslie Neilsen, Christopher Walken, David Allen Grier, and Robert Deniro - off the tip-top of my head- all started as serious actors. Walken started off as a song-and-dance man, actually. DeNiro’s comedy is almost entirely based on self-parody of his image as a serious dramatic actor. The same, to a lesser extent, is true with Neilsen. And while I’m tempted to argue that Grier did not start as a serious actor, it’s rather a moot point, because he’s never been any good at comedy. His career largely exists because the Waynes brothers keep casting him in their movies to make themselves look funny by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/22 "2009-05-09T22:31:04Z")
Counter-examples, then? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/23 "2009-05-09T23:11:48Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Walken started off as a song-and-dance man, actually. DeNiro’s comedy is almost entirely based on self-parody of his image as a serious dramatic actor. The same, to a lesser extent, is true with Neilsen. And while I’m tempted to argue that Grier did not start as a serious actor, it’s rather a moot point, because he’s never been any good at comedy. His career largely exists because the Waynes brothers keep casting him in their movies to make themselves look funny by comparison. Leslie Nielsen was the type of “B” movie actor who always got cast in supporting roles in disaster movies- for example, he was the doomed captain in “The Poseidon Adventure.” Like Robert Stack, Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges, he’d spent years playing such roles SERIOUSLY. When the Zucker brothers wanted to spoof disaster movies in “Airplane!,” their genius was to fill the cast with EXACTLY the type of actors who’d really be hired to play similar roles in a legitimate Irwin Allen-style disaster flick. Leslie Nielsen was hilarious in “Airplane!” less because he’s a gifted comic, but because he was able to play a comical role as if it were a serious role. He had to say idiotic things as if they made perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/24 "2009-05-09T23:25:56Z")
Commedians who later turned dramatic? How about Tom Hanks? Let’s see, famous commedians, in the “legend” sense. -George Burns and Gracie Allen -Lucille Ball -Jack Benny -Jackie Gleason -Bob Hope -Danny Kaye -Buster Keaton -The Marx Brothers -Will Rogers -Laurel and Hardy -Abbot and Costello (I’m debating whether to add the Three Stooges – they’re legends, of course, but I LOATHE the Stooges) And of course, Charlie Chaplin (I don’t think anyone deny them the statis as “serious actors”) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/25 "2009-05-09T23:30:12Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Commedians who later turned dramatic? How about Tom Hanks? > > Let’s see, famous commedians, in the “legend” sense. > > -George Burns and Gracie Allen > -Lucille Ball > -Jack Benny > -Jackie Gleason > -Bob Hope > -Danny Kaye > -Buster Keaton > -The Marx Brothers > -Will Rogers > -Laurel and Hardy > -Abbot and Costello > > (I’m debating whether to add the Three Stooges – they’re legends, of course, but I LOATHE the Stooges) > > And of course, Charlie Chaplin > > (I don’t think anyone deny them the statis as “serious actors”) Wait-- what is this a list of? I think of every single person on that list, save _maybe_ Will Rogers, first and foremost as a comedian. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/26 "2009-05-09T23:37:14Z")
The OP seemed to me, mocking those who were mere “commedians.” If I misinterpreted, I appologize. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/27 "2009-05-10T00:09:23Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Leslie Nielsen was the type of “B” movie actor who always got cast in supporting roles in disaster movies- for example, he was the doomed captain in “The Poseidon Adventure.” Like Robert Stack, Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges, he’d spent years playing such roles SERIOUSLY. > … > Leslie Nielsen was hilarious in “Airplane!” less because he’s a gifted comic, but because he was able to play a comical role as if it were a serious role. Actually, that’s a bit sideways. I heard Nielsen say in an interview that he always found he ‘serious’ roles faintly ridiculous and that he played them like the straight man in a comedy. He swore he played Airplane just like every other movie up to the time. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806/28 "2009-05-10T00:11:02Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Leslie Nielsen was the type of “B” movie actor who always got cast in supporting roles in disaster movies- for example, he was the doomed captain in “The Poseidon Adventure.” Like Robert Stack, Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges, he’d spent years playing such roles SERIOUSLY. > > When the Zucker brothers wanted to spoof disaster movies in “Airplane!,” their genius was to fill the cast with EXACTLY the type of actors who’d really be hired to play similar roles in a legitimate Irwin Allen-style disaster flick. > > Leslie Nielsen was hilarious in “Airplane!” less because he’s a gifted comic, but because he was able to play a comical role as if it were a serious role. He had to say idiotic things as if they made perfect sense. Thank you, that’s exactly what I wanted to say about Neilsen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-christopher-walken-played-a-serious-role/495806.md?page=1)