Favorite Character Actor

[Gatorubet 30,638]

 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

It's missing a few

[billfromlaketravis 11,791]

 

/thread. 
 

That said, I wish Jon had been in more mob movies. There’s not many Italian American as talented as he is. 

[Rimbo 26,863]

the late, great Andreas Katsulas

[Kennythetiger 9,586]

[Elvis 3,430]

[ztejas 44,114]

Maybe Cory Chase. 

 

Wait what is the thread about?

[Ted Lange 16,366]

36 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Maybe Cory Chase. 

 

Wait what is the thread about?

[ztejas 44,114]

2 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

Honestly she deserves a mention. I mean she's better than Maggie Gyllenhaal or Kristen Stewart. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by ztejas

[thrillhammer 686]

philip seymour hoffman

tilda swinton

[Butch Had Not 3,054]

Dumb question, what does character actor mean?

[thrillhammer 686]

36 minutes ago, Butch Had Not said:

Dumb question, what does character actor mean?

if you have to ask, you cant afford it.

[Hermanator 7,574]

If you know their name they aren't a character actor

[NAVY 6,910]

1 hour ago, Elvis said:

Este. 
 

Also the best character on TV in the last 10 years. Everyone else can fuck on out of there 

Edited August 5, 2023 by NAVY

[mchookem 16,739]

people use different definitions. i feel like we have this discussion every 2-3 years 🤔😄

someone who plays quirky secondary characters...

PSH was my personal champion and i continue to be sad at being deprived of more of his life's work 😒

Goggins and Tilda are both excellent picks. Stephen Root. Allison Janney. Jennifer Coolidge always manages to steal the scene. 

and with that definition... somehow Brad Pitt became an outstanding character actor when he's not the lead... Burn After Reading. Snatch. 12 Monkeys. Inglourious Basterds and OUATIH. fight me. lol 😋

Edited August 5, 2023 by mchookem

[NeverMarryAStripper 22,247]

This guy was the best

[Texzilla58 4,778]

Slim Pickens
John Cazale
Robert Duvall
Michael McKean
Catherine OHara
Jean Smart
Christ stone Barandki

[henrygandorf 29,223]

[BonzoMontreaux 1,137]

Alfred Molina.

[C-Man 27,701]

3 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

 

/thread. 
 

That said, I wish Jon had been in more mob movies. There’s not many Italian American as talented as he is. 

He's in one of my favorite mob movies of all time

[C-Man 27,701]

2 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

philip seymour hoffman

tilda swinton

Hoffman won a Best Actor award -- pretty sure that takes him out of "character actor" territory

[TonyTexas 10,685]

56 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

Slim Pickens
John Cazale
Robert Duvall
Michael McKean
Catherine OHara
Jean Smart
Christ stone Barandki

That’s a pretty good list. Cazale might be the GOAT character actor 

[TonyTexas 10,685]

Actors with the most Best Supporting Actor nominations (in parentheses) include: 

Walter Brennan (4) - with three wins (Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938), The Westerner (1940)); also nominated in 1941 

Jack Nicholson (4) - with one win (Terms of Endearment (1983)); also nominated for  Easy Rider (1969), Reds (1981), A Few Good Men (1992)

Arthur Kennedy (4) - no wins; nominated for Champion (1949), Trial (1955), Peyton Place (1957), Some Came Running (1958)

Claude Rains (4) - no wins; nominated for  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939),  Casablanca (1943), Mr. Skeffington (1944),  Notorious (1946)

Robert Duvall (4) - no wins; nominated for  The Godfather (1972),  Apocalypse Now (1979), A Civil Action (1998), and The Judge (2014)

Jeff Bridges (4) - no wins; nominated for The Last Picture Show (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974),  The Contender (2000), and Hell or High Water (2016) 

Al Pacino (4) - no wins; nominated for  The Godfather (1972), Dick Tracy (1990),  Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Irishman (2019)
 

Peter Ustinov (3) - with two wins for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964); also nominated for Quo Vadis (1951)

Jason Robards (3) - with two wins for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977); also nominated for Melvin and Howard (1980)
 

Charles Coburn (3) - with one win for The More the Merrier (1943); also nominated for The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and The Green Years (1946)

Gig Young (3) - with one win for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969); also nominated for Come Fill the Cup (1951) and Teacher's Pet (1958)

Jack Palance (3) - with one win for City Slickers (1991); also nominated for Sudden Fear (1952) and  Shane (1953)

Gene Hackman (3) - with one win for Unforgiven (1992); also nominated for  Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and I Never Sang For My Father (1970)

Martin Landau (3) - with one win for Ed Wood (1994); also nominated for Tucker: the Man and His Dream (1988)and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Christopher Plummer (3) - with one win for Beginners (2010); also nominated for The Last Station (2009) and All the Money in the World (2017) 
 

Willem Dafoe (3) - no wins; nominated for Platoon (1986), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), and The Florida Project (2017)

Charles Bickford (3) - no wins; nominated for The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Farmer's Daughter (1947), and Johnny Belinda (1948)

Ed Harris (3) - no wins; nominated for Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998), and The Hours (2002)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (3) - no wins; nominated for Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Doubt (2008), and The Master (2012)

 

[TonyTexas 10,685]

Actresses with the most Best Supporting Actress nominations (in parentheses) include: 

Thelma Ritter (6) - no wins; nominated for  All About Eve (1950), The Mating Season (1951), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Pickup on South Street (1953), Pillow Talk (1959) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962); nominations were in a 12-year span from 1950-1962 (four nominations were consecutive in a streak from 1950-1953)
 

Amy Adams (5) - no wins; nominated for Junebug (2005), Doubt (2008), The Fighter (2010), The Master (2012) and Vice (2018) 
 

Ethel Barrymore (4) - with one win (None But the Lonely Heart (1944)); also nominated for The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Paradine Case (1947), Pinky (1949)

Lee Grant (4) - with one win (Shampoo (1975)); also nominated for Detective Story (1951), The Landlord (1970), Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Maggie Smith (4) - with one win (California Suite (1978)); also nominated for Othello (1965), A Room With a View (1985), Gosford Park (2001) 

Maureen Stapleton (4) - with one win (Reds (1981)); also nominated for Lonelyhearts (1958), Airport (1970), Interiors (1978)

Meryl Streep (4) - with one win (Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)); also nominated for The Deer Hunter (1978), Adaptation (2002), and Into the Woods (2014)
 

Agnes Moorehead (4) - no wins; nominated for  The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Johnny Belinda (1948), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Geraldine Page (4) - no wins; nominated for Hondo (1953), You're a Big Boy Now (1966), Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)

Glenn Close (4) - no wins; nominated for The World According to Garp (1982), The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984); these three nominations were in consecutive years (1982-1984), and then Hillbilly Elegy (2020) 
 

Shelley Winters (3) - with two wins (The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), A Patch of Blue (1965)); also nominated for The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Dianne Wiest (3) - with two wins (Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Bullets Over Broadway (1994)); also nominated for Parenthood (1989)
 

Anne Revere (3) - with one win (National Velvet (1945)); also nominated for The Song of Bernadette (1943), Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Celeste Holm (3) - with one win (Gentleman's Agreement (1947)); also nominated for Come to the Stable (1949), All About Eve (1950)

Claire Trevor (3) - with one win (Key Largo (1948)); also nominated for Dead End (1937), The High and the Mighty (1954)

Marisa Tomei (3) - with one win (My Cousin Vinny (1992)); also nominated for In the Bedroom (2001), The Wrestler (2008)

Judi Dench (3) - with one win (Shakespeare in Love (1998)); also nominated for Chocolat (2000) and Belfast (2021)

Cate Blanchett (3) - with one win (The Aviator (2004)); also nominated for Notes on a Scandal (2006), I'm Not There (2007)

Octavia Spencer (3) - with one win (The Help (2011)); also nominated for Hidden Figures (2016) and The Shape of Water (2017)
 

Gladys Cooper (3) - no wins; nominated for Now, Voyager (1942), The Song of Bernadette (1943), My Fair Lady (1964)

Angela Lansbury (3) - no wins; nominated for Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Diane Ladd (3) - no wins; nominated for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), Rambling Rose (1991)

Frances McDormand (3) - no wins; nominated for Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), North Country (2005)

Kathy Bates (3) - no wins; nominated for Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002), Richard Jewell (2019)
 

Teresa Wright (2) - with one win (Mrs. Miniver (1942)); also nominated for The Little Foxes (1941) - these two were consecutive nominations

[Deej 77,677]

M. Emmett Walsh

 

[DixonHur 11,943]

No offense @TonyTexas, but based on your lists, I'm not sure you understand the concept of character actor.  Meryl Streep?  Jack Nicholson?  Al Pacino?

Think more Christoph Waltz.

[Underdog 29,110]

Phillip Baker Hall(RIP)

Dabney Coleman? 
Robert Forster(RIP)

Jane Lynch

Hank Azario

Burt Young has always been solid

 

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Underdog

[DixonHur 11,943]

3 hours ago, mchookem said:

somehow Brad Pitt became an outstanding character actor when he's not the lead... 

He started out as a great character actor in True Romance

[Guest]

[TonyTexas 10,685]

28 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

No offense @TonyTexas, but based on your lists, I'm not sure you understand the concept of character actor.  Meryl Streep?  Jack Nicholson?  Al Pacino?

Think more Christoph Waltz.

If OP was looking for a careers that consist of solely tertiary roles then you’re correct. But he didn’t. Just because someone is now a leading man/woman now doesn’t mean they weren’t a great character actor at some point in time. Anyway, I didn’t post those lists as a statement, more for reference points. 

[Underdog 29,110]

^ Ian McShane considered a character actor? 

[TwiceHorn 32,002]

Supporting != character.

Character is usually lower profile than supporting.

Michael Kelly is doing solid work and building quite a resume these days.  Some of his stuff is more supporting than character of late.  Also Stephen Root and our own Bruce McGill.

Edited August 6, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[Gatorubet 30,638]

19 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

If OP was looking for a careers that consist of solely tertiary roles then you’re correct. But he didn’t.

OP received the video in a text this afternoon from one of the actors in the YouTube video, so I stuck it in here.   I wasn’t really thinking of someone like Robert Duvall.  When you were the lead or co-lead of a movie that kind of kicks you out of character actor status  

OTOH, he was Boo Radley, so at a point in time he sure was a character actor. 

 

[HornOnTheBayou 9,057]

Mark Boone, Jr needs some love here

[Parliament 14,572]

18 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Supporting != character.

Character is usually lower profile than supporting.

Michael Kelly is doing solid work and building quite a resume these days.  Some of his stuff is more supporting than character of late.  Also Stephen Root and our own Bruce McGill.

By that definition:

 

[dcbc 14,643]

Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

[dcbc 14,643]

3 hours ago, C-Man said:

Hoffman won a Best Actor award -- pretty sure that takes him out of "character actor" territory

For that movie, for sure.

[Pig Bellmont 8,877]

6 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

That’s a pretty good list. Cazale might be the GOAT character actor 

Except he won it playing Capote which was a character incredibly far removed from anything Tom Hanks has won for. I don’t know that winning an Oscar is disqualifying. 

[Eskimohorn 5,677]

Ned Reyerson is a classic character actor. Grew up in South Dallas with the Vaughan brothers and had little Stevie play guitar in a recording session with his garage band. Additionally, he said he was there in Austin when Stevie and Jimmie reconciled and planned Family Style.

[ajax 2,672]

 

[Bama Llama 1,505]

This thread should be ashamed for not mentioning Steve Buscemi yet.

Blood has been shed, Jerry.

So, you got Jose Feliciano here. Not exactly chopped liver, huh?

Fargo / Ghost World / Con Air / just scratch the surface. 

 

[RPM 26,573]

Let's go OG starting with the pride of Decatur, Texas

Alan Hale was among the best. Played Little John in 3 different films.

Jack Elam was either evil or hilarious.

Marjorie Main was always loveable, but beaten down. In real life she was a huge germaphobe.

Walter Brennan had a long, mostly toothless and unshaven career.

John Carradine never had a bad performance. The list of classics he was in is beyond impressive. His kids weren't bad either.

[Dbeasy 15,532]

This thread has basically turned into the “name a famous actor thread”.

[McCroskey 1,510]

How has J.T. Walsh (RIP) not been mentioned yet?

[Texzilla58 4,778]

His turn as Jim Jones was masterful and chilling.

[Bateshorn 9,989]

Michael Biehn had a hell of a run in 80s/90s

 

Maggie Smith has to be in the running. She’s never the lead and steals every scene from every single movie/show she’s ever been in.

[Texzilla58 4,778]

OP received the video in a text this afternoon from one of the actors in the YouTube video, so I stuck it in here.   I wasn’t really thinking of someone like Robert Duvall.  When you were the lead or co-lead of a movie that kind of kicks you out of character actor status  
OTOH, he was Boo Radley, so at a point in time he sure was a character actor. 
 

Robert Duvall defines character actor. He never plays himself like Tom Cruise. Even when he has the lead it’s a character type role. He is the greatest American actor in my opinion.

[WhatTheBuck 28,904]

14 hours ago, C-Man said:

Hoffman won a Best Actor award -- pretty sure that takes him out of "character actor" territory

Only if your definition of character actor is too narrow.

The list starts and ends with Hoffman.

[Sawbonz 28,093]

Bill Pullman / Bill Paxton

Gary Sinise / Kevin Pollak

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Bama Llama said:

This thread should be ashamed for not mentioning Steve Buscemi yet.

Blood has been shed, Jerry.

So, you got Jose Feliciano here. Not exactly chopped liver, huh?

Fargo / Ghost World / Con Air / just scratch the surface. 

 

He was the lead in Boardwalk Empire, in which I am currently in a rewatch.  I most definitely considered him, but but by various definitions, he gone.