# Your favorite character actor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151 "2011-08-02T04:39:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/1 "2011-08-02T04:39:20Z")
Let’s praise character actors, the people who never get the headlines but without whom your favorite show/movie wouldn’t be nearly as good. One of my faves was [Betty Garrett](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0308081/), best known as Irene on “All In The Family” and Edna Babish the landlady on “Laverne and Shirley”. The fact she could be on two so widely different shows says a lot. On both she had biting sarcasm and great comic timing. Plus she was the defintion of “aging gracefully”. Who are some of your favorites? ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/2 "2011-08-02T04:53:49Z")
I don’t know if he counts any more, but John C. Reilly. He was (and is to an extend) relatively unheard of until he started making buddy movies with Will Farrell. He’s been the lead in a few movies, but I don’t think any of them did that well. I’d still consider him a character actor. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/3 "2011-08-02T05:20:50Z")
Dick Miller is a great, classic character actor. I’m trying to think of someone modern, but I’ll have to work on that and get back. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/4 "2011-08-02T05:23:46Z")
> [@YaraMateo](#): > > I don’t know if he counts any more, but John C. Reilly. He was (and is to an extend) relatively unheard of until he started making buddy movies with Will Farrell. He’s been the lead in a few movies, but I don’t think any of them did that well. I’d still consider him a character actor. Similarly, Ron Perlman. For years, he was that big, ugly, strangely charismatic guy who would show up everywhere, and then came \*Hellboy \*- but now that I think of it, he wore so much makeup in those movies that I’m pretty sure the general public has no ideaq what he actually looks like. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/5 "2011-08-02T05:23:56Z")
Harry Dean Stanton ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/6 "2011-08-02T05:27:52Z")
I love Reilly, but I have to throw in Hank Azaria. He has been in so many things, including voice work, that it’s just amazing. Always the ‘character’, and he always does it to perfection. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/7 "2011-08-02T05:34:54Z")
William Fichtner. Sometimes he gets big parts (_The Longest Yard_ remake), but most of the time he’s a side-plot character. He plays them all well, even when the movies are dogs (_Armageddon_), and really shines in some (_Strange Days_, _Heat_, _Contact_, and _Black Hawk Down_). I rarely turn off a movie with him in it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/8 "2011-08-02T05:53:58Z")
So many great character actors out there! I’ll throw out just a few of my many favorites: Pat Hingle. He usually played corrupt judges and bartenders. He was great as the bartender in “The Quick and the Dead.” He also did a guest spot on \*Cheers \*as the previous owner of the bar. Also: M. Emmet Walsh. Craggy-faced sleazeball. He was the corrupt sheriff in “Blood Simple,” as well as appearing in many other Coen Brothers movies, and hundreds of others. Oh yeah, he was also the police captain who hired Deckard in “Blade Runner.” And another personal favorite: James Hong. Whenever an oriental actor was needed, he seemed to be the go-to guy for decades. He was the evil Lo-Pan in “Big Trouble In Little China,” the eyeball-making cyberneticist Chew in “Blade Runner,” (“I only do eyes! Just eyes!”), and the Korean restaurant matre 'd on a “Seinfeld” episode. Oh yeah, he also voiced Po’s father in “Kung Fu Panda.” ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/9 "2011-08-02T06:00:04Z")
Elias Koteas. Garret Dillahunt. Will Patton. David Rees Snell. Alan Arkin. Tom Noonan. Walton Goggins. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/10 "2011-08-02T07:05:57Z")
The late, great [JT Walsh](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000687/). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/11 "2011-08-02T07:42:32Z")
Darn you, **Tim** - M. Emmet Walsh is my favorite of all time. Two of his clips: [The Jerk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcwz8-EfFYE&playnext=1&list=PL6A6FA801DCEAD477) [Fletch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-zf2UBp7fY) He’s also got a great scene as the bailiff in _What’s Up Doc?_ and he’s credited as the Machine Shop Ear-bender in _Rasing Arizona_, in which he prattles on about a close encounter. ---
**Author:** ![rucciface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@rucciface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rucciface)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/12 "2011-08-02T17:09:13Z")
Charles Lane William Schallert ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/13 "2011-08-02T17:20:28Z")
I think Hugo Weaving would be a character actor if Hollywood would stop putting him in big villain roles. Every movie I’ve seen him in, I generally don’t realise it’s him until halfway through. He disappears into roles remarkably well. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/14 "2011-08-02T17:23:20Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > I love Reilly, but I have to throw in Hank Azaria. He has been in so many things, including voice work, that it’s just amazing. Always the ‘character’, and he always does it to perfection. Plus, he was Agador Spartacus! One of my favorite characters ever. I will add Chris Cooper, he’s always great. Here is part of his scene in The Town: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRxCU1MW8B4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRxCU1MW8B4) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/15 "2011-08-02T17:28:46Z")
> [@](#): > > William Schallert Did you know, a) he’s still alive, and, b) his father was famed film critic Edwin Schallert? My role model is the great **Margaret Dumont**. The way she could glare through a lorgnette and drape pearls over her stately monobosom was never equaled. And contrary to what that old SOB Groucho Marx once said, she was a very canny actress and knew just how to pause through a laugh so as not to step on her partner’s joke. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/16 "2011-08-02T17:36:57Z")
Some really great entries here. Double love for both Walshes. Bob Balaban and James Rebhorn get mad props too. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/17 "2011-08-02T17:37:49Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I will add Chris Cooper, he’s always great. No doubt one of the best working today. He’s equally competent in leading roles, but his “character” work has supported some outstanding movies in an unselfish way. In older days, I would add for consideration: Strother Martin LQ Jones Ben Johnson Jack Elam Royal Dano Richard Jaeckel dozens more, but their days have passed. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/18 "2011-08-02T17:58:43Z")
Oliver Platt ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/19 "2011-08-02T18:48:38Z")
I’m a big fan of Jason Isaacs – he has consistently been on top of his game in every thing I’ve ever seen him in (which is a lot). He’s most often cast as a villain, often as a rather 2-dimensional (at best) villain, and he is able to make each one of those characters unique. He doesn’t just whip out his standard Villain Mannerisms out of his actor’s bag, but is able to craft very distinct personalities out of what would could easily be cartoon characters in a lesser actor’s hands. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151/20 "2011-08-02T19:20:43Z")
Put me down for Wil Wheaton - I think he will end up having an excellent career as a character actor. I have enjoyed his guest spots on different series. Michael Shanks is also another great guest star. I enjoy watching him play other characters besides Daniel Jackson. I loved his role on _Burn Notice_. Very not Daniel Jackson. And speaking of Burn Notice, Bruce Campbell is beyond awesome, though his range is playing Bruce Campbell being beyond awesome. William Macy is another favorite. I cannot think of a role of his I did not enjoy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-character-actor/591151.md?page=2)