MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > 🎬 Character actors 🎬

🎬 Character actors 🎬

posted 2 years ago by GlenEllyn (21241)
29 replies | jump to latest

Do you have a favorite character actor? Someone whose role in a movie or TV series somehow stuck with you and you looked for them in other roles?

Mine is Thelma Ritter (1902-1969). Her performances in Rear Window, Move Over Darling, How the West Was Won, All About Eve, and The Misfits have always stayed with me.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47pbij1UdX4/V5xN_apivEI/AAAAAAAAAvY/ivOIYYPy9KwdHtj9jvodrBNEXHzyX1-3gCLcB/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/thelma%2Britter%2Bpillow%2Btalk.PNG

[–] tcrum (30536) 2 years ago

Gary Cole

Brady Bunch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQpZeQO2rJI
Office Space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLUidiYm0w&t=41s

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Robert Vaughn
Lee Van Cleef
Charles Bickford
Walter Brennan
Ian Wolfe
Lloyd Nolan
Ian Hendry
Jack Warden
Charles Durning
Andy Devine
Elisha Cook
James Whitmore

[–] GlenEllyn (21241) 2 years ago

I'm going to add Lois Smith.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8dp0Y4L4wt8/XESa7I5rRNI/AAAAAAAAaOw/eOxYuexNYC0K9O-QgrL76tagSzB95wE1wCLcBGAs/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/Lois%2BSmith.jpg

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

I was blown away when I discovered that the weasely ginger news reporter from Manhunter was the same actor as hard-ass Colonel Quaritch in Avatar… Stephen Lang. Those are some chameleonic skills right there.

[–] nyctc7 (41995) 2 years ago

Here's a character actor--Wilford Brimley as The Postmaster General!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8M9LF7Gz4E

[–] GlenEllyn (21241) 2 years ago

Right! He's the guy who did the Quaker Oats commercials, too. I remember him in The Electric Horseman, Cocoon, Tender Mercies, as well as Our House - a two-season TV series back in the mid-1980s - and many other roles.

[–] elprimitivo (338) 2 years ago

Thelma Ritter is great. I'll add:
Harry Dean Stanton
Warren Oates
Eugene Pallette

[–] GlenEllyn (21241) 2 years ago

Harry was in a lot of movies! But then, many character actors are.

[–] PaladinNJ (20672) 2 years ago

Lane Smith

[–] nyctc7 (41995) 2 years ago

Interesting choice...someone I had the privilege to see live on NY stage (wish I had seen him in Glengarry Glen Ross or Cuckoo's Nest). A fine actor.

[–] bellington83 (3270) 2 years ago

JK Simmons and Richard Jenkins would be my picks

[–] GlenEllyn (21241) 2 years ago

Oh, I really like Richard Jenkins. A notable performance of his that I really like is The Visitor (2007).