Who's your favorite character actor?

Cafe Society
1

The other day I watched an old Star Trek episode and recognized a favorite character actor of mine was playing the guest captain. It was the episode where they find the planet of Yangs and the Coms, and in the end the Yangs bring out an American flag.

The actor who played the rogue captain is Morgan Woodward

I also remember him from a couple of Kung Fu episodes and several roles on Gunsmoke. In fact he holds the record for guest star roles on a TV series. He was on Gunsmoke 19 times. He also played the guard with the sunglasses and rifle in Cool Hand Luke. Over 250 roles in TV and films.

So dopers. Tell us your favorite character actors. People who were never “big stars” but still had busy acting careers. Link em if you got em.

2

Possibly the silver screen’s most likable dweeb, Charles Martin Smith will forever be remembered as Terry the Toad in American Graffiti. In his later roles (Starman; The Untouchables), Smith expanded his oeuvre in a new direction: the likable dweeb who gets tragically offed in the third reel.

3

My favorite character actors are Chris Cooper and Alan Rickman. Brilliant and sexy, the both of them.

4

The king of all character actors! Slim Pickens!

5

I’ll vote for Harry Dean Stanton

6

Thelma Ritter, probably best remembered as Birdie in “All About Eve.” Also love her as Moe in my favorite film noir “Pickup on South Street.”

7

Brian Cox - he’s in a lot of movies, and he’s excellent in every thing he does. He plays the villain so often (and so well) that when he plays a sympathetic character, I’m at first afraid that I won’t buy him in the role, but he always pulls it off.

8

He-actors:

The Late Great Leo McKern - bka Rumpole of the Bailey, but one of the few actors to work with The Beatles, Paul Scofield and Patrick McGoohan, and that’s just in the mid-60s.

Ned Beatty- pity that I’ve heard several times he’s a first rate A-hole in person.

BrianBlessed , a staple of BBC miniseries and movies and wonderful as the mad King Richard IV in BLACK ADDER. Also, incidentally, a published authority on mountain climbing who has scaled Everest more than once.

John Rhys Davies- very nearly crap proof actor who was great as Rodriguez in SHOGUN, Sallah in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK/LAST CRUSADE, Yosimete Sam in LOTR 1, 2 & 3, even as Arturo in SLIDERS and other vehicles. Love that voice. I’ll admit his bit appearance in a godawful opening episode of a genie sitcom [two steps above bareback porn on the legitimate entertainment scale] made me lose a modicum of respect, but I figure it took him an hour to film and he made enough for a new sofa or something so I’d have done it too.

John Hurt- whether “you wanna take a ride?” from CONTACT, “I remember every wand I’ve ever sold” from HARRY POTTER, or of course “Uncle Claudius… I wasn’t the Messiah after all? Can you believe it?” from I, CLAUDIUS, gives a wonderful touch of class and menace (odd for such a thin guy) to everything. Even made the most of his (I’m sure lucrative) role in KING RALPH.

Leon Askin- bka General Burkhalter from HOGAN’S HEROES. He died last year and I’m glad to say I got to exchange a few emails with him (through the intermediary of his much much younger wife). Just an incredible guy with a career that extended from 1920s German cabaret to Billy Wilder movies of the 50s (like Wilder his parents were murdered in the Holocaust) to everything from major stage work to The Monkees in the 60s, Happy Days in the 70s and Diff’rent Strokes in the 80s, often playing Russians. Gotta love this: in his 90s he returned to his native Austria and achieved his lifelong goal of playing King Lear in his 90s. (He was in a wheelchair and living in a home for elderly Jewish actors in Vienna that he founded- it was guarded by machine gun carrying security due to revenant Nazi gangs.) Another plus: he detested Bob Crane’s wife for evidently being something of a bitch and for breaking up Crane’s first marriage and consequently she had him specifically removed from “honorary pallbearer” status on the day of the funeral.

John Goodman- he’s had some lamentable (but I’m sure lucrative) starring roles, but he’s best as a character actor. When it’s a comedy (especially a Coen Bros. comedy) he’s hysterical- to me he stole every scene he was in from RAISING ARIZONA- but also great dramatically.
Femmes:

Bebe Sanson Harris- FRASIER’s evil agent (also named Beebee) but also a Rosalind Russellish touch of class to lots of guest shots.

Parker Posey- the worst thing about the new SUPERMAN movie was it wasted her fantastic comic timing and presence. “THAT’S NOT A BEE! IT’S A BEAR IN A *@#($*u ING BEE SUIT!”

Eileen Heckert- could go from blue collar harridan to rich bitch matriarch in nothing flat and always welcome either way; more than just another pretty face.

Agnes Moorehead- finally glamorous as Endora, which was wonderful after all those plain hag roles for most of her career, but she was great and totally believable in whatever she was in. (Sadly I’ve read she was not a nice person [super conservative in religion and politics in spite of being a more openly than secret bisexual [pointless gossip: Debbie Reynold’s son claims Agnes and her mother was once an item, though Debbie says they were just extremely close friends in spite of a generation age gap.)

Patrika Darbo- rotund redhaired actress bk for mayonaisse commercials, but she cracks me up in everything she’s in even if it’s a bit part (CORRINNA CORINNA, some movie about moving to Alaska, and most especially DADDY’S DYIN’: WHOSE GOT THE WILL [“I’ve been smokin’ marijuana cigarettes!”]). Also one of those “I’m sexy because I say I am” types {from Mae West to Latifah} who really are sexy because they say they are.

9

I only know him from The Black Adder, but he’s outstanding there.

:smiley:
Great pick with John Goodman, also- for some reason I never liked him until I saw The Big Lebowski, but these days I like him in practically everything he’s in. Except those Dunkin’ Donuts commercials.

10

Nonsense. The king of all character actors is Charles Lane.

11

Agree with Harry Dean Stanton. Other favorites of mine: Arnold Stang, Edward Everett Horton, John C Reilly, Steve Buscemi and William H Macy.

12

Good god, from his IMDB entry, it would appear he is still alive at 102!

I nominate perennial Irish lout, Victor McLaglen.

13

Don’t forget that he also played [del]Gimli[/del] MacBeth in Gargoyles :slight_smile:

14

Apparently, he is! Wikipedia calls him the oldest living American actor!

15

Going back a bit here for someone I imagine is largely forgotten but Warren Oates was a favourite of mine. After appearing in dozens of TV shows he began to appear in movies and was in so many I liked. I can remember him in so many movies, no matter how small his part. He has only a handful of lines in Terrence Malick’s Badlands but still manages to cut a tragic figure.

16

I’ve always loved Pete Posthewaite, and David Thewlis as character actors. They always make great complementary characters.
But I don’t like them anywhere near as much when they are doing lead and feature characters, A little bit goes a long way, and a lot goes over the top.

17

That would be Postlethwaite

18

Is Holly Hunter sufficiently obscure to count as a “character actor”? I mean, she’s not uber-famous, but she’s fairly well known. Anyway, I love her little lisp and she’s a pisces, like me. I feel an affinity for her.

If she’s too high-profile to count, my plan B is Joanna Gleason. She’s a Canuck like me and I loved her onstage in Into The Woods.

19

I’ve admired Hurt as an actor for a long time. Most especially since his role as Merrick in The Elephant Man. That got him a nomination for Best Actor, although sad to say he didn’t win. And he was playing opposite Anthony Hopkins!

An actor has their face, their voice, and the rest of the body to bring to a role. Getting an Academy Award nomination, when you can only use two out of three, is phenomenal.

He was also great in Scandal.

20

Eli Wallach. His latest turn in The Holiday was sublime. Ben Johnson and Warren Oates for their wonderful stoic characters over the years.

“I’m gettin’ to old for this shit.”