Great Character Actor Performances

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Where the actor is not in the entire movie, but rules maybe a scene or two. One of my favorites: Leonard Rossiter as Captain Quin in Barry Lyndon. Defining moment: when he grumbles "I'm an Englishman, I am! And a man of property!"

Another Kubrick favorite: Philip Stone as Delbert Grady in The Shining. The way he goes from unassuming, kindly 'Jeeves' in the ballroom to dead-serious look and menacing intonation in the bathroom: "Did you know, Mr. Torrence, that your son is attempting to brrring an outside party into this situation...did you know that?"

Others?

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

bronson pinchot, b.h. cop 1

― Leee (Leee), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i meant to include like twenty exclamation points with that post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Leee (Leee), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

How 'bout Steve "Mike Yanagita" Park from Fargo. The look on his face of pure ecstacy when he gives Margie a hug...

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 08:40 (twenty-two years ago)

John Hillerman in What's Up Doc?.

― Sommermute (Wintermute), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure that qualifies as a character turn.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

He's only in the film for twenty minutes, you'd hardly call it a lead role.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Sure--it's just hard to think of it as a character performance as he's more-or-less the co-star of the movie.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

peter lorre owns this thread.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

How about When Character Actors Go Bad (ie start thinking of themselves as leading men/women)?

Example 1: Kevin Spacey.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Well Walken was amazing in Catch Me If You Can, showing he can really bust out with the hardcore chops at the drop of a hat.

I'm tempted to list Alec Baldwin in Pearl Harbor making me wish the story was told from his characters point of view. "That' bullshit son... but it's very good bullshit".

How about Alan Cumming in EYes Wide Shut...

Kevin Spacey has turned into a self-important embarassment. Remember that bizarre picture from the 80's -- Consenting Adults.

― PVC (peeveecee), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Walken's performance in that movie is a great example.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross
Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley
Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove

― Anthony (Anthony F), Thursday, 5 June 2003 00:52 (twenty-two years ago)

How about Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Ripley? He stole the movie for me.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Thursday, 5 June 2003 01:06 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe I just PSH, but he was one among many things that I disliked about Ripley. I was too aware of PSH doing a typical-PSH turn (i.e. very technically good).

― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 5 June 2003 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Not quite the same, but Chic Murray steals Gregory's Girl with his performance as the headmaster.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 5 June 2003 21:26 (twenty-two years ago)

PSH in Sydney. Shack-a-lacka-doo! Shack-a-lacka-dooby-dooby-doo!!

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 5 June 2003 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops, or should that be Sidney?

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 5 June 2003 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I forget their names but the two English guys in The Lady Vanishes who just want to get to their cricket match on time are hilarious.

Peter Sellers in almost everything up till '65.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 6 June 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

weren't they characters from some other medium at one point? transplanted into lady vanishes or maybe spun off from it? radio? I wish I could be less vague about this.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 6 June 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Caldicott and Charters (the names of the characters) first appeared in Lady Vanishes, but they were so popular that there were at least three other movies made with the same pair of characters (Crook's Tour, Night Train to Munich and Millions Like Us).

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 9 June 2003 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

There ya go. Thanks, Tuomas.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 9 June 2003 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

peter lorre and elisha cook, jr. co-own this thread.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 9 June 2003 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

specifically, elisha cook as the seedy jazz drummer in phantom - good lord, is he spectacular.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 9 June 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Millard Mitchell was pretty darn impressive in A Foreign Affair. I never got around to see his other films though.

― Sommermute (Wintermute), Monday, 9 June 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Steve Buscemi was pretty great in Ghost World, but as has already been mentioned, Lorre Lorre Lorre (and to a slightly lesser extent Greenstreet). I cannot reccomend The Mask of Dimitrios highly enough, although not *necessarily* because of its quality.

― James Cobo (James Cobo), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe bob balaban should own this thread.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

Those two Britishes dudes are Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, no? Also have a good turn as a pair of golfing buddies, one alive and married and one a ghost haunting the other in the famous horror omnibus Dead of Night, no? Basil Radford also great as party giver wearing funny hat in a great sequence in an early Hitchcock, Young and Innocent, no?

― My Little Ruud Book (Ken L), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 02:09 (nineteen years ago)

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