Your favorite character actors
Posted: December 2nd, 2012, 1:24 pm
Let me preface this by saying that I couldn't find any thread specifically for our favorites.
I LOVE pretty much ALL character actors, bit players, comic relief, what have you. I was just sitting around this morning thinking of my favorite character actors, after having seen one of them last night in Sullivan's Travels.
What makes a good one? I am not sure. I love the guys like Allen Jenkins and Warren Hymer and Nat Pendleton, who consistently played the same role over and over and over again in movie after movie and still make me laugh or smile to this day when I see them.
I also love the big guns, the Thomas Mitchells and the Frank Morgans and the Harry Davenports, the guys who practically had a monopoly on the best parts Hollywood had to offer outside of the leading man game. But my favorites? hmmm.
Why is it that I love some of these guys better than a few members of my own family?
So here are my top ten character actors, in order, and why:
1. Joseph Calleia - My favorite character actors are the ones who are deceptively versatile. They may fool you into thinking that they can only play one type, but when you look deeper into their canon, you realize that they were able to pull up some very different characters over the long run. Joe Calleia fits this to a T. Whether a gangster from Little Italy or a mysterious, shrewd detective of uncertain origin, he has a gift for making his roles come alive. He's tremendously exciting to me. You are never sure what he's going to do. He can be menacing, dangerous, funny (oh yes, a sense of humor is my most important trait in a character man), heartbreaking, guilty, weak, ineffectual, envious, greedy, aloof..... whatever the role calls for, but then he adds something unknowable. A flicker of an expression of angst in a gangster, or the dawning of self realization in a silly little cop. There is something infinitely mysterious to me about him, and that's what keeps me coming back to watch. He's a master of human nature, so observant of those tiny things we want or try to keep hidden. He also completely blends into his characters. I know literally nothing about the man (and I've done tons of research) except that he loved music and was Maltese. He's the stuff that dreams are made of, at least for me...an enigma, a riddle I want to solve. An actor's actor.
2.Porter Hall - He's relatively new to my list of favorites. It was watching him as quiet, careful, earnest Jacob Q. Boot that made me start to look deeper. I've seen him thousands of times, and yet, there are moments in movies when all I can recognize of him is his voice. For instance, would you ever in a million years think that poor Gaby's hardworking, legionnaire father in The Petrified Forest was the same irritable man with the twitchy eyebrow who administered psychiatric tests to Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street? He can totally sneak up on me in a movie. His looks may only change slightly from film to film, but I swear, he's a completely different man in each. He can be a bureaucrat in one film, and a shady double dealing con man in the next. Again, he's deceptively versatile. And honestly who would you rather hear say "Bolt the door, Mariah!"?
3. John Qualen - "Just an old graveyard ghost."
Honestly, John Qualen was the first character actor to make me cry... I mean, really break down and sob. His performance as Muley in The Grapes of Wrath is still powerful and moving. Of all the great actors in that movie, if you asked me who made me believe in the reality of the Depression the most, it would be him. I literally cannot even look at the man's face without choking up. He's out there, on the edge of madness, the edge of reality. His eyes are haunting. And the way he sinks down into the dirt and just stops, holding a handful of it, well, if that isn't academy award material, nothing is. And I'm only talking about one of his roles! He also played Earle Williams in His Girl Friday that same year, and Olaf Johnson in Out of the Fog a year or so after that. He was too often relegated to playing dumb swedes, but he lent a kind of grace to every one of them. As Miser Stevens in The Devil and Daniel Webster, the greed and starved avarice is marked out on his face, and is in his voice. A brilliant actor.
4. Harold Huber - You may not remember him, but he plays in many of the Charlie Chan pictures, and he's the drunken Nunheim in The Thin Man. He's so good that you can actually see him sweating when Nick Charles comes up to his apartment to interrogate him. Afraid that his woman is going to leave him, and partly just using that as a ploy to get rid of the cops, I suspect this guy Nunheim is also a junkie. He would do anything to get out of police clutches adn does.... Huber is so good in these tiny tiny roles, I remembered him for years just on the strength of this one performance. Then I found other little jewels, like his turns in Naughty Marietta and Beau Geste, he always does more than the role calls for. Apparently, he was one of the most well liked of Hollywood's screen actors. Oh yeah, and he has a real duelling scar.
5. Leo Carillo - I don't know why. I simply love him. Warm hearted to the end.
6. Oscar Homolka - He's a thinker, a calculator. Big and gruff, he can play cold or warm, most of my favorites have the same ability. In Sabotage, I feel sorry for him right up until he makes excuses for having killed his stepson. As Uncle Chris, I see his flaws, painted big, but I also see a sweet interior, even a gentle one.
7. Felix Bressart - awwwww. he just gets to me, he's so darling, and he can throw away a line so well. He just kills me in To Be or Not to Be.
8. Ben Johnson - warm or deadly cold, he's another actor who can play opposites. I've never seen a more evil, vile man than his Bob Amory in One Eyed Jacks. He's another actor who can be exciting, you just are not sure what he might do, especially when he plays a villainous snake.
9. Jerome Cowan - I like Cowan's ability to appraisea situation.... he will stand back from the action and take a look. He's very debonair and sophisticated, and yet he can play oily or unreliable too. All I know is, I smile if he shows up in a picture.
10. Charles Lane - because he was my first. Petticoat Junction.
Runner's up awards go to Akim Tamiroff and William Bendix, for playing extremely complex emotions in characters who can't figure out what those emotions are all about.
I LOVE pretty much ALL character actors, bit players, comic relief, what have you. I was just sitting around this morning thinking of my favorite character actors, after having seen one of them last night in Sullivan's Travels.
What makes a good one? I am not sure. I love the guys like Allen Jenkins and Warren Hymer and Nat Pendleton, who consistently played the same role over and over and over again in movie after movie and still make me laugh or smile to this day when I see them.
I also love the big guns, the Thomas Mitchells and the Frank Morgans and the Harry Davenports, the guys who practically had a monopoly on the best parts Hollywood had to offer outside of the leading man game. But my favorites? hmmm.
Why is it that I love some of these guys better than a few members of my own family?
So here are my top ten character actors, in order, and why:
1. Joseph Calleia - My favorite character actors are the ones who are deceptively versatile. They may fool you into thinking that they can only play one type, but when you look deeper into their canon, you realize that they were able to pull up some very different characters over the long run. Joe Calleia fits this to a T. Whether a gangster from Little Italy or a mysterious, shrewd detective of uncertain origin, he has a gift for making his roles come alive. He's tremendously exciting to me. You are never sure what he's going to do. He can be menacing, dangerous, funny (oh yes, a sense of humor is my most important trait in a character man), heartbreaking, guilty, weak, ineffectual, envious, greedy, aloof..... whatever the role calls for, but then he adds something unknowable. A flicker of an expression of angst in a gangster, or the dawning of self realization in a silly little cop. There is something infinitely mysterious to me about him, and that's what keeps me coming back to watch. He's a master of human nature, so observant of those tiny things we want or try to keep hidden. He also completely blends into his characters. I know literally nothing about the man (and I've done tons of research) except that he loved music and was Maltese. He's the stuff that dreams are made of, at least for me...an enigma, a riddle I want to solve. An actor's actor.
2.Porter Hall - He's relatively new to my list of favorites. It was watching him as quiet, careful, earnest Jacob Q. Boot that made me start to look deeper. I've seen him thousands of times, and yet, there are moments in movies when all I can recognize of him is his voice. For instance, would you ever in a million years think that poor Gaby's hardworking, legionnaire father in The Petrified Forest was the same irritable man with the twitchy eyebrow who administered psychiatric tests to Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street? He can totally sneak up on me in a movie. His looks may only change slightly from film to film, but I swear, he's a completely different man in each. He can be a bureaucrat in one film, and a shady double dealing con man in the next. Again, he's deceptively versatile. And honestly who would you rather hear say "Bolt the door, Mariah!"?
3. John Qualen - "Just an old graveyard ghost."
Honestly, John Qualen was the first character actor to make me cry... I mean, really break down and sob. His performance as Muley in The Grapes of Wrath is still powerful and moving. Of all the great actors in that movie, if you asked me who made me believe in the reality of the Depression the most, it would be him. I literally cannot even look at the man's face without choking up. He's out there, on the edge of madness, the edge of reality. His eyes are haunting. And the way he sinks down into the dirt and just stops, holding a handful of it, well, if that isn't academy award material, nothing is. And I'm only talking about one of his roles! He also played Earle Williams in His Girl Friday that same year, and Olaf Johnson in Out of the Fog a year or so after that. He was too often relegated to playing dumb swedes, but he lent a kind of grace to every one of them. As Miser Stevens in The Devil and Daniel Webster, the greed and starved avarice is marked out on his face, and is in his voice. A brilliant actor.
4. Harold Huber - You may not remember him, but he plays in many of the Charlie Chan pictures, and he's the drunken Nunheim in The Thin Man. He's so good that you can actually see him sweating when Nick Charles comes up to his apartment to interrogate him. Afraid that his woman is going to leave him, and partly just using that as a ploy to get rid of the cops, I suspect this guy Nunheim is also a junkie. He would do anything to get out of police clutches adn does.... Huber is so good in these tiny tiny roles, I remembered him for years just on the strength of this one performance. Then I found other little jewels, like his turns in Naughty Marietta and Beau Geste, he always does more than the role calls for. Apparently, he was one of the most well liked of Hollywood's screen actors. Oh yeah, and he has a real duelling scar.
5. Leo Carillo - I don't know why. I simply love him. Warm hearted to the end.
6. Oscar Homolka - He's a thinker, a calculator. Big and gruff, he can play cold or warm, most of my favorites have the same ability. In Sabotage, I feel sorry for him right up until he makes excuses for having killed his stepson. As Uncle Chris, I see his flaws, painted big, but I also see a sweet interior, even a gentle one.
7. Felix Bressart - awwwww. he just gets to me, he's so darling, and he can throw away a line so well. He just kills me in To Be or Not to Be.
8. Ben Johnson - warm or deadly cold, he's another actor who can play opposites. I've never seen a more evil, vile man than his Bob Amory in One Eyed Jacks. He's another actor who can be exciting, you just are not sure what he might do, especially when he plays a villainous snake.
9. Jerome Cowan - I like Cowan's ability to appraisea situation.... he will stand back from the action and take a look. He's very debonair and sophisticated, and yet he can play oily or unreliable too. All I know is, I smile if he shows up in a picture.
10. Charles Lane - because he was my first. Petticoat Junction.
Runner's up awards go to Akim Tamiroff and William Bendix, for playing extremely complex emotions in characters who can't figure out what those emotions are all about.