Your favorite character actors

[JackFavell]

I agree, and a marvelous actor! Unmistakable face.

[CineMaven]

HERE HE IS. THE REAL MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES:


The other other "other" Georgie!

[JackFavell]

Ha! He was my second.

Second character actor that is....

[CineMaven]

HA! 00oooh, you naughty minx!

[RedRiver]

I hate to think of Wendy competing with Gladys Kravitz!

[JackFavell]

Me too....

I guess I meant that he was the second character actor I discovered. Charles Lane being my first and my true love, as far as character actors go...

[CineMaven]

Well I, for one, think Gladys wouldn't stand a chance if Wendy decided to steal Abner. And now that cute little Andrew is free....

[Western Guy]

George Tobias - The Man of a Thousand Dialects. One of those actors, like Alan Hale, who is always a pleasure to come across in an old movie.

Granted, as posted, there are some good contemporary character actors, but IMO, no one today matches The Masters.

[JackFavell]

Ha! You trying to steal my Andrew? Or are you implying he'd be stuck with Gladys?

I'm with ya Red. I just love me some classic film supporting actors. Which reminds me I've never posted my favorite female character actresses (from the classic film era).


1. Florence Bates - Ahhh, magnificent, gossipy Florence. She's at the top of my list because she never fails to entertain. She can be the most canny woman in the world, as in Saratoga Trunk; or stupid and self-indulgent, as in Rebecca. No matter what she's in, you watch HER, and you marvel. Anyone who can take your eye off of Ingrid Bergman is a pretty fine actress. She's just great to watch. Period.

2. Fay Bainter - Fay is such a gentle presence, unless of course she's burning down your house! I love her quiet, ladylike and feminine demeanor. One of a kind. We never notice when she's there, we only notice when she's NOT.

3. Hattie McDaniel - This woman singlehandedly changed our perceptions and showed us that prejudice was unfounded, and all without ever uttering a false or complaining word. She made you realize she was the best, the smartest person in the room. God bless her.

4. Hope Emerson - Hope simply defies stereotype. I think she's incredible, taking big risks with small roles and completely defying the studio system at almost every step.

5. Elsa Lanchester - Elsa is a hoot! Even when she has only two lines in a movie, she's hilarious! I love her wild hair, the way she looks at Tyrone Power as if she might eat him alive, and her free love, feminist background. When she shows up, even the most serious movie gets an injection of humor. There's too little of it in our world so I treasure her.

6. Ruth Gordon - Ruth is the last person you would think of as an actress. She's plain, she's open minded and she's goofy. I would love to be just like her when I grow up. You know, the crazy lady next door.

7. Edna May Oliver - God, what's not to love?

8. Dame May Whitty - This woman is such a great actress that it took me thirty years to realize that that nice Miss Froy was the hell on wheels Mrs. Bramson from Night Must Fall. Much the same as Florence Bates, she could play any character in any movie.

9. Una Merkel - Una is perfection, she can toss a line out with her back to the camera and it floats by you without you even realizing she's just shot a zinger at someone. Brilliant! The best at comedy, and throwaway lines, she's above and beyond anyone else.

10. Aline MacMahon - Aline is divine. So wise, so plain spoken. I wish she could be my best friend, I know I'd never get into any trouble with her telling me what to do. Or on second thought, I know I'd get into a lot of trouble with her telling me what to do.

11. Pert Kelton - God, NO ONE, with the exception of Una Merkel, could spin a line like Pert.

12. Veda Ann Borg - Her scene in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer has me in fits EVERY time I watch. That's all I need to place her among my favorites. She better watch her back though, because Joyce Compton is catching up....

13. Estelle Winwood - It must be clear by now that any character actress that I like has a large streak of perversity in her nature... well, this is where the perversity runs rampant! She's just plain weird. You gotta admire that in a person.

14. Thelma Ritter - I don't even have to say why.

15. Butterfly McQueen - OK, we've all been real PC and thrown her under the bus, but now I'm coming back around again. I adore her! She's just a great actress, doing that one role they let her have.

16. Shirley Booth - Under the frumpy maid's outfit, or the frumpy housewife, or the frumpy matchmaker, lies a consummate actress who continues to stun me with her incredible talent. She always has a moment, no matter what type of role she's playing, where she can break my heart.

17. Bea Benederet - Bea was my first character actress. Her voice is so distinctive you can instantly recognize it from cartoons to movies to TV. She's also got a warm presence I just love.

18. Anna May Wong - she really doesn't belong here. She belongs in the ranks of great leading ladies, but she didn't get the chance.

Runners Up ( I think they are self explanatory):

Glenda Farrell
Marie Dressler
Sara Allgood
Jane Darwell
Alice Brady
Mary Boland
Marie Windsor
Marion Lorne
Katie Johnson
Eve Arden

[mrsl]

.
Besides my very favorite Eve Arden, Thelma Ritter, and Edna May Oliver, two other ladies stand out in my memory as terrific supporting actors. I guess, however that you would have to be more of a Western fan like I am to think of them. Both of them have been mother, wife, aunt, grandma and sister to leading men in probably 80% of westerns made. Jeannette Nolan and Ellen Corby. They're both wonderful actresses and can run the range from high society lady to raucous hill people. Ellen Corby of course, was the extremely timid sister/aunt in I Remember Mama, but I don't recall Jeannette Nolan ever doing a role that commanded ardent attention, but I always knew she was around whenever she came on screen. She was the lady of the house on The Virginian for a couple of years. These two ladies definitely deserve recognition.
.

[JackFavell]

Great choices, Anne! I remember Jeannette Nolan on TV when I was a little girl. She played a bag lady on a show of her own briefly, I was sorry it wasn't on longer.

[movieman1957]

Jeanette Nolan was on today's "Lawman."

[mongoII]

Anne, Jeanette Nolan gave a good performance as a bad girl in "The Big Heat" with Glenn Ford.
And of course I loved her a Dirty Sally on TV.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I loved Jeanette Nolan as the "witchie" woman on the James Best/Anne Francis episode of The Twilight Zone.

And Jackie, Florence Bates is always fun to watch. Her turn in Saratoga Trunk is such a twinkle-eyed old reprobate.
That's where I think she's the cutest. The Elsa Maxwell of Saratoga and Newport.

Bates can't get any nastier than Rebecca or A Letter to Three Wives, though.

She ran an antique store with her family in San Antonio, was the first woman to graduate with a law degree in Texas, and didn't start acting until she was in her 50's. She just got bitten by the "acting bug" and went to California.

But Thelma is my #1.

[knitwit45]

Yep!----------------------------------------------->