Ooh, ooh, ooh- I change my vote to him. I can’t believe I forgot him. He was the most evil bastard on television as the neo-Nazi Schillinger in OZ and when he was making me laugh in Spiderman and double over in The Ladykillers (“easiest thing in the world…”) or playing a loving father in Cider House Rules and other films it was just incredible. Suddenly he’s a fnord actor who’s just popping up in everything and always making you forget he’s really an evil neo-Nazi bastard capable of murdering children (or at least capable of playing an evil neo-Nazi bastard etc etc).
Love Morgan Woodward - he was also “The Boss” in “Cool Hand Luke”
My favorite is the delightfully ubiquitous Dick (“Walter Paisley”) Miller:
VCNJ~
Of course he was in “Cool Hand Luke” - just like the OP said! 
VCNJ~
Some more (mostly from 60s and 70s television):
-Claude Akins
-Barry Atwater
-Nehemiah Persoff
-David Opatashu
-Jacqueline Scott
-Pat Hingle
-Warren Stevens
-Richard Anderson
-Earl Holliman
(A Stan Lee “No prize” to anyone who recognizes what the last three above have in common)
-H. M. Wynant
-Joseph Ruskin (only actor to have appeared in all FIVE incarnations of Star Trek–I put "incarnations, and not series, because for TNG he appeared in one of the movies and not on the actual series)
-Theo Marcuse
-Jan Shutan
-Antoinette Bower
-J. D. Cannon
-Jon Lormer
And that extrememly short little fellow in a bunch of shows (“Twilight Zone” off the top of my head) named Walter Something-the-other-what’s-his-name
Sir Rhosis
What I came in here to say. Also Beulah Bondi and Edna May Oliver.
Oh, and the entire supporting cast of Green Acres: Barbara Pepper, Pat Buttram, Frank Cady, Alvy Moore, Hank Patterson, Mary Grace Canfield, Eleanor Audley . . . applause for the casting director!
"Sorry miss, I was giving myself an oil-job. "
Crispin Glover. That guy is amazing in everything he’s in, but I especially love his portrayal of Lane in River’s Edge.
Most people might not think of him as a character actor, but Nick Nolte deserves some mention. Breakfast Of Champions, the adaptation of Vonnegut’s novel starring Bruce Willis, was panned by critics, but Nolte’s hilarious portrayal of Harry LeSabre was definitely a highlight of the film. Few other actors are so good at portraying a guy at his wits’ end. In general I think he is underrated as an actor.
Joe Pantoliano had one of the most memorable characters on the Sopranos, Ralph.
I have John C. Reilly’s imdb page bookmarked, because I always find myself watching a movie and saying, “Who the hell is he?” I think he’s fantastic, but I can never remember his name.
Oh, yes, and Jim Broadbent! Possibly the most versatile and talented actor working today.
Alan Rickman hasn’t qualified as a character actor for decades. He’s a fantastic actor, especially when he plays either a villian or a put-upon foil, but hardly a backgrounder.
My vote goes to Robert Forester (Jackie Brown, Diamond Men, a huge pile of t.v. appearances and sub-B genre movies); his one memorable leading role was Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool, and for some reason he’s never been able to parley that and his manifest talent into starring roles in decent films, or even a consistant t.v. career. I agree with the Thelma Ritter adorists, but she was in so few films. Rear Window would have been a much poorer movie without her caustic commentary, though.
Once that few people probably know is Michel Lonsdale: he played the droll villian, Hugo Drax, in the forgettable Moore-era Bond film Moonraker, but he shines as a secondary character in films like Ronin and Munich, where his subtle cues and ticks do a lot more than Al Pacino’s scenery chewing in any given film.
DeNiro isn’t a character actor per se, but he has often taken “character actor” parts in films like Angel Heart, Brazil, and The Good Shepherd, and acquits himself nicely without dominating the film the way other actors of his stature would.
The ultimate character actor, though, I think should be Alec Guinness. Even when this guy headlined a film, he had a knack for fading into character and completely becoming whatever he needed to be to play the role. He’s the central character in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, completely indispensible, and yet he almost seems to be just wandering through the story incidentally.
Stranger
I saw him in something last night and thought of this thread. I think he was already mentioned but I saw Victor French on Gunsmoke this morning and looked up his credits. Pretty dam impressive. I think he came in a close second to Morgan Woodward for appearences on Gunsmoke.
Actually, it is the other way around. Victor French appeared in 23 episodes, but Morgan Woodward appeared in only 19.
Wilford Brimley never the star but steals the scene.
I’m bumping the thread because I just saw Alfred Molina on TV and remembered him. Like most actors with some success he’s had some lead roles but he’s best as a supporting player. He was so good as the Iranian father in Not Without My Daughter (a role that would have been easy to turn into a cartoon character villain but he didn’t), the bikini briefs and kimono wearing coked up Eddie Nash character with the firecracker popping houseguest in Boogie Nights and the missionary in Dead Man that I didn’t recognize them as the same actor. He even made Doc Ock work (though I still can’t imagine him as Tevye on Broadway).
55 posts and no love for Wallace Shawn? :eek:
Only the character actor’s character actor! I am shocked and disappointed!
I’ve got Kind Hearts and Coronets waiting for me at home, and I look forward to seeing him do that with eight different characters.
My favorite Wallace Shawn moment, even moreso than his “inconceivable!” Princess Bride appearance, was when he played Stuart Best on Murphy Brown. It was a role he played in three or four episodes, but the funniest is the one where his total schmuck of a character gets elected to Congress only to find out that his campaign backers were- well, not the Aryan Nations, but “a militant offshoot of the Aryan Nations!” and he has to work in pro-slavery, pro-polygyny, anti-Japanese propaganda into an interview.
That’s right–he represented the newest congressional district in Arizona.
“These people are scary!”