Write your tribute to your favorite character actor.

[GLaDOS]

Character actors. They are indeed human beings to be admired. They are the men who play second bananas, background characters or the guy who dies in the next to the last scene in the movie. They humble themselves to play these great parts and we remember them. For the opening of this topic I would like to salute a versatile character actor named Al Leong. Al Leong was born September 30th, 1952. His big break came in the film "Big trouble in little china" in which he played a Wing Kong Hatchet man. Ironically, that same year he was in a film with Peter Falk, Alan Arkin and Beverly D'angelo called "Big trouble"(which as far as I know has nothing to do with the Tim Allen movie made nearly two decades later of the same name). We will always remember him however best I think for his roles in Action Jackson, Lethal Weapon and Die hard, all in which he is a bad guy. He tortured Mel Gibson, he was shot to death by Bruce Willis. You'll never forget his face though. We need more guys like Al Leong because actors like him make bad guys look and feel genuinely bad ass as all get out.

[mrbasehart]

Edward Everett Horton usually played the comedic foil to Fred Astaire in his collaborations with Ginger Rogers and also had some great banter with another fine character actor, the wonderfully insipid Eric Blore.

[BBQ Platypus]

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you about the incomparable William Fichtner, a character actor of the modern era (or a poor man's Kevin Bacon, depending on how you look at it).  There's just something about his chiseled face, massive forehead, and small, pointy nose that screams "GRADE-A THESPIAN!"



I don't think I could possibly summarize his niche better than cracked.com did:

His roles include:  pricks in uniform, cowards in uniform, assholes in uniform, shitheads in uniform, douchebags in uniform, fishermen who drown in uniform.

And now, a haiku dedicated to William Fichtner:

Bill Fichtner? Come on!
Don't tell me you've never heard
Of William Fichtner!

Played the father of
Napoleon Dynamite
In Blades of Glory

Was that asshole cop
In the overrated Crash
(His best role? Perhaps!)

His nose is pointy
Thin and sharp like a razor
He could kill someone

Big, sexy forehead
Maybe could be a Conehead
If his head was shaved


Seriously, though.  He's a good actor.  I tease because I love.  And also because I am positively flabbergasted that a nose that small and a forehead that large can coexist on the same face.

[mrbasehart]

He was also very good in the few episodes of that show Invasion a year or so ago. 

[bratpop]

John Cusack, he acts
And though he's not quite typecast
Always acts the same

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

you should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves, 5 posts and not one of them

for shame................ FOR SHAME!!!!!!!!!!

[mrbasehart]

John Cusack, he acts
And though he's not quite typecast
Always acts the same

He's not a character actor.  He's a leading man, so he's allowed to act the same.

[bratpop]

A leading man... *uproarious laughter*

[GLaDOS]

you should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves, 5 posts and not one of them
for shame................ FOR SHAME!!!!!!!!!!

I would have gotten to Danny Trejo before too long! But there's also Dan Hedaya too.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Garth in Ultraviolet, right?

[BBQ Platypus]

Garth in Ultraviolet, right?

Um...(checks IMDB)...yes.  He was.  What the hell was he doing in that piece of crap?

Come to think of it, what the hell was ANYBODY doing in that piece of crap?  I do not exaggerate when I say that, given the choice between doing a gay porno and taking a bit part in Ultraviolet, I would take the gay porno.

[Cibernético II]

You mean Danny Trejo is already taken? Damn!

Ok, I'd like to dedicate this post to one my favorite B-movie mainstays AND character actors, Irwin Keyes. If you are a watcher of the Sci-Fi channel. You may be familiar with his work.


Smoldering Intensity



A star in any role!


Who can forget Mr. Keyes in the classic movie The Warriors in which he played the iconic role of Policeman Who Clubs Ajax.


Perhaps best known to television fans as Hugo Mojelewski on "The Jeffersons". [no picture available] He was a semi-regular who even had a catch phrase: "Hi! Remember Me?" Well, apparatly somebody remember him because he had many, many roles throughout his illustrious carreer.



Let's take a look of some of the names of actual roles fulfilled by this master of screen.

Shove
Big Frank
Pimp in Hallway
Cop
Bouncer
Guard
Gangster
Jock
Officer
Guy
Hunchback Attendent
Convict
Bartender

Yes. If you ever needed a palooka, big lug, goomba, thug or New York tough during the 80s and 90s, you called Irwin Keyes. And he did his work with a grimace that was unsurpassed in the entire business.

And what does Irwin do best? He simply "MAKES EACH MOMENT SPECIAL." The solid six-foot, 250-pound actor didn't originally plan a career in acting. "IT JUST HAPPENED!" After years of hard work in the New York theater, Hollywood "called him"!...

Along the way his career has included numerous National and International commercials. Included are top Super bowl spots, many majo corporate ads, and of course Clio/Monte Carlo award winners!

Mr. Keyes' more recent films include the Coen Brothers Comedy smash hit, "INTOLERABLE CRUELTY." In it he does a gutwrenching comic death scene as the asthmatic hit man Wheezy Joe that critics worldwide have singled out as "the funniest scene in film in the year 2003." In this year he also is remembered for his action sequences in the BEST HORROR FILM Of The Year "HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES."

-from official website

There you have it, an actor who's characters remain in our memories, though most of the characters seem to be about the same. In his own words: "BE TRUE TO EVERY ROLE AND THE AUDIENCE WILL ALWAYS BE ON YOUR SIDE."

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Garth in Ultraviolet, right?

Um...(checks IMDB)...yes.  He was.  What the hell was he doing in that piece of crap?

Come to think of it, what the hell was ANYBODY doing in that piece of crap?  I do not exaggerate when I say that, given the choice between doing a gay porno and taking a bit part in Ultraviolet, I would take the gay porno.

Ummm....you have to look up that he was in it....so you haven't seen it.  But you still know it was so bad that acting in a gay porno would have been better?

1) Fichtner and everyone else took the movie after having seen the script as written.  Not the chopped up and gutted version the studio released against Wimmer's wishes.

2) Fichtner's role isn't huge but it's very sympathetic.  He handles it very well.  Rent the Extended DVD.  It's worth a look.

[ebeth]

I would like to nominate Mr. Harry Dean Stanton.

If a movie calls for a gristled  older man who imparts empathy through his eyes than Harry is your man.

And on a personal note:  Harry was is one of my favorite Anti-Xmas films of all time called "One Magic Christmas".  A delightful tale of a highly pissed off mom who hates Christmas because  she holds onto a grudge like my Catholic mother. There are scenes of starving kids, kids being killed during a car jacking, and of course, a trip to Santa's.

Harry plays an angel named Gideon who comes to remind the hormonally imbalanced mother why Christmas is special...although he does resemble an angel that has seen the bottom of a bottle a little to much.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

I liked Ultraviolet, but then, I'm kind of an idiot.


and for the record the awesome Danny Trejo is not already taken, so post away on his awesomeness