Write Back Weekend "Don't I Know You From Somewhere?"
When I first thought of this week's TITMT I thought I'd give a shout out or two to our cinematic underdogs. But then I thought about it for a little bit longer. Character actors, though largely unnoticed in terms of recognition, just might be the luckiest actors working in the business. Think about it. They produce quality work on a steady basis and no one is filming them coming out of Starbucks at 8am in the morning.
Plus most of them also look like everyday people, thus why they make such great character actors to begin with. There are no embarrassing cellulite or makeup free pictures of them floating around the internet. With these guys (or gals) what you see is what you get. In order to make my list, I thought of actors and actresses that most people know, but don't know they know. The name might not ring any bells, but once you see them you realize whatever it is you are watching just went up two or three notches.
Of course the goal of most great character actors is not to revel in obscurity forever. Just look at people like Parker Posey, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeremy Piven or the current reigning champ of underrated character actors to make the cross over, Paul Giamatti who replaced David Paymer as the King of Whatshisfaces.
Without any further deliberation, here are my nominees:
1. Jane Lynch- Jane Lynch has carved out a niche for herself in the comedic category. Namely was at her most awesome in Best In Show a movie that is actually overflowing with great character actors and is currently cultivating a new following with Lifetime's quirky, Lovespring International. But if you look at her resume, she spent quite a few years playing more serious bit parts on shows like Dawson's Creek, Felicity and Party of Five. Most of the time she played mothers or doctors, or both. Regardless of what she is doing, it's usually fantastic.
2. Larry Miller- Larry Miller has made a great career out of fast talking, nervous Nelly type characters. He's perfect as the sleazy insurance man who deep down feels pathetic. He's also perfect as the smarmy guy you get stuck on an elevator with who just. won't. shut. up. My favorite role of his though is probably the time he played the overprotective dad in Ten Things I Hate About You. For once he lost the smarminess, but kept the kookiness. Regardless he's excellent in all that he does.
3. Lili Taylor- While Lili Taylor has been working steadily as an actress in the business for several years now, in large part she still goes rather unnoticed. This makes me mad. For when they write Taylor's obit one day, I feel like her career is going to be a string of near miss successes. She is the perfect example of a character actress who is *this* close to breaking out of the mold. The first time I saw her was in Mystic Pizza playing opposite the recent great character actor breakout, Vincent D'Onofrio. Shortly after that I watched Say Anything and laughed and cried as a result of her tortured performance as Corey who wrote a zillion songs about her ex just to prove how "over" him she really was. And in the trifecta that sealed the deal for me, she starred opposite the late, great River Phoenix in Dogfight, a movie where she was unafraid to shed any conventional definitions of beauty to tell a wonderful story. There were rumors swirling for years that she was going to play Janis Joplin in the biopic that has still yet to be made. Not making it with her I think is one of the biggest cinematic mistakes, ever.
4. Christopher McDonald- There was at least a good ten year stretch in the nineties where you were hard pressed to watch a movie that Christopher McDonald wasn't in.The first movie I ever saw him in, however, didn't exactly have "one to watch" written all over his performance. This movie was Grease 2 and McDonald played one of the T-Birds. He did other movies and tv shows in the eighties, but he didn't really hit his stride till some years later when he found himself playing one evil dude after another. He was the dad with bad intentions in Dutch, the mean executive in Happy Gilmore and the sadistic fraternity alum in The Skulls among many, many other things. His last name isn't McDonald for nothing. Just like the fast food restaurant, this guy is everywhere.
5. Liev Schreiber- If character actors were a complex algorithim, Liev Schreiber would be equal to Lili Taylor in the fields of talent, range and underestimation. Every single time I see Liev he has reinvented himself. In the early years of his career he did a lot of great indie work. Then he got his "big" break as the Cotton Weary in Scream. Since then he's gone on to do everything from Hamlet to horror and everything in between. Amazingly this character actor has been nominated for an Emmy and still revels in relative obscurity. It might just be a matter of time though, at least I hope so.
6. David Straithairn- Speaking of nominated actors who still are under the radar, David Straithairn is the best example of this. Not only is Straithairn one of my favorite character actors, he is one of my favorite actors, ever. The first time I remember seeing his work was as a blind man in Sneakers. Within a few years I watched him morph from a good intentioned dad in Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even, to a creepy villian in A Dangerous Woman and a wimpy victim in The River Wild. In recent years his string of high profile appearances has intensified, culminating in a lead actor nomination for his performance as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck. Some might argue he does not belong on a list after being noticed by the Academy, but I beg to differ. Despite the well deserved nomination, I still don't the world has seen Straithairn for the great actor that is he is.
7. Edie McClurg- I actually debated about adding this one to the list because it's been awhile since her heyday, but in the end I realized I had to give credit where credit was due. In the last few years, McClurg has made the transition to voicework, but prior to that, she made a living out of being the annoying next door neighbor and the annoyingly perky secretary . In other words, she made annoying endearing and she's probably laughing--all the way to the bank.
8. Ian Gomez- For awhile there, Ian Gomez was probably most famous for marrying someone who had sudden fame, Nia "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" Vardalos, but before this Gomez was an obscure star in his own right, probably most famous for his role as Javier on Felicity (yes, two, count 'em, two Felicity mentions in one post!). On Felicity, he provided just the right amount of comic relief. When I saw him appear on other things like the late, great Norm Show I was initially surprised to see he didn't have an accent. Incidentally, I think character actors who do accents really well should be a subcategory in itself.
9. David Rasche- David Rasche is a great comedic character actor, the type of guy you just have to look at in order to laugh. In the eighties he got his chance at stardom when he fronted the short-lived sitcom, Sledgehammer! In the vein of the Naked Gun movies, Rasche is great as the guy in charge who has no idea what he is doing. Recently I watched him in an older episode of Monk where he played a dim witted gym teacher. His out there one liner, "Expect me when you least expect me!" reminded of what was so great about the Rasche man all over again.
10. Clint Howard- How anyone can create a list of individuals who've made a living out of blending into the woodwork and not include Clint Howard is beyond me. In the early days of his career, Clint Howard was so bad, he was good. He was in everything, even if it was only for a second. Of course having a famous brother didn't hurt matters much. But as the years progressed something strange happened; Howard became a bonafide obscure star in his own right, more or less reaching a cult like status. He's what every B movie actor of an A lister sibling dreams to be. If you don't believe me, just ask Don Swayze or Jim Hanks.
Honorable mentions go to: Adrienne Shelly, Peter Weller, Vincent Schiavelli, Jim Haynie, Taylor Negron, Robin Tunney, Cole Hauser and Larry Hankin. In traditional great character actor fashion, they just missed getting into the top 10 here.
If you haven't had your fill of great character actors here, check out this site.
Plus most of them also look like everyday people, thus why they make such great character actors to begin with. There are no embarrassing cellulite or makeup free pictures of them floating around the internet. With these guys (or gals) what you see is what you get. In order to make my list, I thought of actors and actresses that most people know, but don't know they know. The name might not ring any bells, but once you see them you realize whatever it is you are watching just went up two or three notches.
Of course the goal of most great character actors is not to revel in obscurity forever. Just look at people like Parker Posey, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeremy Piven or the current reigning champ of underrated character actors to make the cross over, Paul Giamatti who replaced David Paymer as the King of Whatshisfaces.
Without any further deliberation, here are my nominees:
1. Jane Lynch- Jane Lynch has carved out a niche for herself in the comedic category. Namely was at her most awesome in Best In Show a movie that is actually overflowing with great character actors and is currently cultivating a new following with Lifetime's quirky, Lovespring International. But if you look at her resume, she spent quite a few years playing more serious bit parts on shows like Dawson's Creek, Felicity and Party of Five. Most of the time she played mothers or doctors, or both. Regardless of what she is doing, it's usually fantastic.
2. Larry Miller- Larry Miller has made a great career out of fast talking, nervous Nelly type characters. He's perfect as the sleazy insurance man who deep down feels pathetic. He's also perfect as the smarmy guy you get stuck on an elevator with who just. won't. shut. up. My favorite role of his though is probably the time he played the overprotective dad in Ten Things I Hate About You. For once he lost the smarminess, but kept the kookiness. Regardless he's excellent in all that he does.
3. Lili Taylor- While Lili Taylor has been working steadily as an actress in the business for several years now, in large part she still goes rather unnoticed. This makes me mad. For when they write Taylor's obit one day, I feel like her career is going to be a string of near miss successes. She is the perfect example of a character actress who is *this* close to breaking out of the mold. The first time I saw her was in Mystic Pizza playing opposite the recent great character actor breakout, Vincent D'Onofrio. Shortly after that I watched Say Anything and laughed and cried as a result of her tortured performance as Corey who wrote a zillion songs about her ex just to prove how "over" him she really was. And in the trifecta that sealed the deal for me, she starred opposite the late, great River Phoenix in Dogfight, a movie where she was unafraid to shed any conventional definitions of beauty to tell a wonderful story. There were rumors swirling for years that she was going to play Janis Joplin in the biopic that has still yet to be made. Not making it with her I think is one of the biggest cinematic mistakes, ever.
4. Christopher McDonald- There was at least a good ten year stretch in the nineties where you were hard pressed to watch a movie that Christopher McDonald wasn't in.The first movie I ever saw him in, however, didn't exactly have "one to watch" written all over his performance. This movie was Grease 2 and McDonald played one of the T-Birds. He did other movies and tv shows in the eighties, but he didn't really hit his stride till some years later when he found himself playing one evil dude after another. He was the dad with bad intentions in Dutch, the mean executive in Happy Gilmore and the sadistic fraternity alum in The Skulls among many, many other things. His last name isn't McDonald for nothing. Just like the fast food restaurant, this guy is everywhere.
5. Liev Schreiber- If character actors were a complex algorithim, Liev Schreiber would be equal to Lili Taylor in the fields of talent, range and underestimation. Every single time I see Liev he has reinvented himself. In the early years of his career he did a lot of great indie work. Then he got his "big" break as the Cotton Weary in Scream. Since then he's gone on to do everything from Hamlet to horror and everything in between. Amazingly this character actor has been nominated for an Emmy and still revels in relative obscurity. It might just be a matter of time though, at least I hope so.
6. David Straithairn- Speaking of nominated actors who still are under the radar, David Straithairn is the best example of this. Not only is Straithairn one of my favorite character actors, he is one of my favorite actors, ever. The first time I remember seeing his work was as a blind man in Sneakers. Within a few years I watched him morph from a good intentioned dad in Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even, to a creepy villian in A Dangerous Woman and a wimpy victim in The River Wild. In recent years his string of high profile appearances has intensified, culminating in a lead actor nomination for his performance as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck. Some might argue he does not belong on a list after being noticed by the Academy, but I beg to differ. Despite the well deserved nomination, I still don't the world has seen Straithairn for the great actor that is he is.
7. Edie McClurg- I actually debated about adding this one to the list because it's been awhile since her heyday, but in the end I realized I had to give credit where credit was due. In the last few years, McClurg has made the transition to voicework, but prior to that, she made a living out of being the annoying next door neighbor and the annoyingly perky secretary . In other words, she made annoying endearing and she's probably laughing--all the way to the bank.
8. Ian Gomez- For awhile there, Ian Gomez was probably most famous for marrying someone who had sudden fame, Nia "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" Vardalos, but before this Gomez was an obscure star in his own right, probably most famous for his role as Javier on Felicity (yes, two, count 'em, two Felicity mentions in one post!). On Felicity, he provided just the right amount of comic relief. When I saw him appear on other things like the late, great Norm Show I was initially surprised to see he didn't have an accent. Incidentally, I think character actors who do accents really well should be a subcategory in itself.
9. David Rasche- David Rasche is a great comedic character actor, the type of guy you just have to look at in order to laugh. In the eighties he got his chance at stardom when he fronted the short-lived sitcom, Sledgehammer! In the vein of the Naked Gun movies, Rasche is great as the guy in charge who has no idea what he is doing. Recently I watched him in an older episode of Monk where he played a dim witted gym teacher. His out there one liner, "Expect me when you least expect me!" reminded of what was so great about the Rasche man all over again.
10. Clint Howard- How anyone can create a list of individuals who've made a living out of blending into the woodwork and not include Clint Howard is beyond me. In the early days of his career, Clint Howard was so bad, he was good. He was in everything, even if it was only for a second. Of course having a famous brother didn't hurt matters much. But as the years progressed something strange happened; Howard became a bonafide obscure star in his own right, more or less reaching a cult like status. He's what every B movie actor of an A lister sibling dreams to be. If you don't believe me, just ask Don Swayze or Jim Hanks.
Honorable mentions go to: Adrienne Shelly, Peter Weller, Vincent Schiavelli, Jim Haynie, Taylor Negron, Robin Tunney, Cole Hauser and Larry Hankin. In traditional great character actor fashion, they just missed getting into the top 10 here.
If you haven't had your fill of great character actors here, check out this site.
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