Who are the best sleasball actors?

Cafe Society
1

I don’t go to movies much any more. I’m not all that interested in watching thing blow up.

The two best actors to play fourflushing grifters that I saw were Sheldon Leonard and the late Jack Carson.

Any new nominees?

2

Joe Pesci.

3

Richard Widmark, bar none.

4

Can’t get much sleazier than Mickey Rourke.

5

I nominate Peter Lorre.

He was always so good playing creepy characters.

Global Citizen

6

What about all the really good movies where things don’t blow up? They far outnumber the movies where things do blow up.

7

Steve Buscemi, of course.

Almost as wierd-at-a-glance as Peter Lorre.

8

Robert Mitchum

9

I was thinking the other day how Joe Pantoliano is making a pretty good career for himself playing slightly to very sleazy characters: Risky Business, Midnight Run, Matrix, and more.

10

While not as well known as the others, Jere Burns seems to play nothing but sleazeballs.

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Burns,%20Jere

11

Pesci was tremendous in Goodfellas, but I didn’t think of him as a phoney fourflusher.

12

James Woods.

David Patrick Kelly.

13

Bruce Dern…the worst

14

I forgot to mention Eric Roberts

15

Saverio Guerra

He plays Bob on Becker and played the sleazy bartender at the demon bar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer(the show).

16

Oh yes, Bob on Becker is what I had in mind. He’s a little too likeable and not quite as oleaginous as some of the characters played by my choices, but he’s pretty close.

17

You didn’t mention that he had to still be alive – and I find it hard to believe that anyone could ever be sleazier than M. Emmet Walsh. (If you don’t believe me, go rent Blood Simple.)

18

Second Steve Buscemi. See him in Ghost World and Reservoir Dogs.

19

One of my choices was the late Jack Carson. Probably a lot of you never heard ofJack Carson so here is a site. And this one hasa picture.

20

I have a few old-time radio performances by Jack Carson-- (with almost 1000 hours of archived material, not much of a surprise.)

I think my favourite is an episode of Suspense called The One Millionth Joe, where he plays a murderer who has the mixed fortune of being selected as the millionth customer to walk through the doors of a big ol’ department store. So he gets a free “getaway” (and plenty of other goodies), but of course the store wants lots of publicity. Not so good.

He plays a good schemer, for sure.