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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2020 0:30:12 GMT
I've always said that character actors make the movies go round. There have been some great ones over the years.
Often times they have more acting ability than the lead but don't have looks, persona or screen presence that Hollywood was looking for. Two of my favorites.
Agnes Moorehead. A lot of people will think of her as Endora or the lady from that Twilight Zone episode. That was also my first introduction to her. As I found classic films I discovered what an amazing actress she was.
The Magnificent Ambersons
Jane Eyre
The Seventh Cross
It's extremely difficult for me to think of Claude Raines as a character actor but I think that's what he was for the most part. I may have seen some of his films that haven't been stellar but he never disappoints.
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Now, Voyager
Mr. Skeffington -he actually had a co-starring role in this but it's one of my favorites
Who are your favorites?
**Bonus question ** What's your favorite film starring character actors?
For me without a doubt it's The Killing. My favorite Kubrick film.
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Post by mikef6 on Feb 27, 2020 5:34:55 GMT
I like the character actors of the recognize-them-but-can’t-quite-name-them school. Here is a mere handful: Whit Bissell John Litel Byron Foulger Paul Stewart Jack Lambert
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Post by Prime etc. on Feb 27, 2020 16:38:17 GMT
Lon Chaney Jr, John Carradine, Roddy McDowall, Herbert Lom, Patrick Troughton, Michael Gough, James Robertson Justice, Freddie Jones, Oscar Homolka, Nigel Green, Niall MacGinnis, Harry Andrews, Donald Pleasence, Keye Luke, Freda Jackson, Scatman Crothers, Claude Akins, Brian Blessed, Christopher Lloyd, Richard Lynch, John Rhys-Davies, David Warner, Frank Finlay, Robert Morley, Nigel Davenport
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Post by vegalyra on Feb 27, 2020 17:20:19 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Feb 27, 2020 18:54:43 GMT
Eve Arden, who's characters usually could see clearer than the heroines. She played the titular Our Miss Brooks on television in a lead role.
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Post by teleadm on Feb 27, 2020 19:14:02 GMT
Walter Matthau during the ten years or so before he became a star, playing both good and bad guys. Pic is from Bigger Than Life 1956.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 27, 2020 20:52:18 GMT
Esther Dale- she played dozens of supportive housekeepers in Old Acquaintance, The Women etc
Her stand - out parts, though were as Un supportive rats. She was the Nazi supporting housekeeper of the Roth household in The Mortal Storm, loving and kind until the Nuremberg Laws , then unwilling to work for Jews
She was the the Awful Mother In Law To Be in the Awful Truth . She nailed her part with one snarky smile at Irene DUNNE that said it all.
But my favorite is her slattern resident of Dead End , wandering up to Bernard Punsley’s baby brother in his carriage. She can’t even do baby talk well, cooing “ winky tinkly winky ” at the baby while she steals his arrowroot biscuit and wanders off with it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2020 0:21:38 GMT
Some more of my favorites. Jay C. Flippen-That haggard looked played well across all genres. Couldn't help but like his characters Donald Crisp - The wise father figure Elsa Lanchester- some lovable characters on her resume Takashi Shimura-simply one of the best. A staple of Japanese cinema Barry Fitzgerald-the guy makes me smile just by looking at him
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2020 0:26:21 GMT
spiderwort I'm so glad you mentioned Mary Wickes. From Now Voyager to Sister Act. A staple of film and TV.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2020 0:29:28 GMT
Warren Hymer - typically played an unsophisticated tough guy or knucklehead. Love watching him. He did a lot in such a short life.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 28, 2020 3:28:53 GMT
The great Marjorie Main.
Her appearance as Bogart’s mother in Dead End shows she certainly could have been a dramatic actress. She thinned her robust voice to a wisp, so that her exhaustion with life and her inability to battle the hand she was dealt was present throughout her one scene. She was a portrait of despair, flattened by the return of her son.
But she found her way into comedy where her voice cast her as a tough cookie, whether kindly or conniving. From The Women” those big Red headed men just have to get to the point!” Comedy housekeeper became her trademark culminating in The Egg and I where she first appeared as Ma Kettle. I still think that film is pretty funny and it’s by far the funniest of the Kettle films.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 28, 2020 3:38:27 GMT
The mad Russians! Mischa Auer - born in Russia, orphaned as a child he was eventually reunited with his grandfather , renowned violinist Leopold Auer,and studied music . His break out role in films was as Carlo, the protège of Alice Brady in My Man Godfrey . He added to the screwball character of the film with his mad impression of a chimpanzee and his habit of going to the decorative grill work and hanging by one hand disconsolately when someone was unappreciative of him. He was the submissive husband of Lilly Belle in Destry Rides Again. She changed his name , kept his pants but he became Destry’s assistant and recovered his dignity. His parts had backstory and fullness, much more than just an accent
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 28, 2020 4:24:09 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 28, 2020 4:32:44 GMT
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Post by sostie on Feb 28, 2020 11:02:56 GMT
What a cad!
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Post by bess1971s on Feb 28, 2020 12:25:30 GMT
Edna Mae Oliver, Eve Arden, Hattie McDaniel, Harry Davenport, Marjorie Main, Thelma Ritter, Connie Gilchrist, Henry Travers, just to name a few. The list is endless. For me, the character actors are often more enjoyable than the stars.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 28, 2020 17:49:33 GMT
Character actors made, not born.
Mary Astor was an ingenue , a great leading lady in comedy and drama. By the early 1940’s her leads were drying up, and in1944 she played her first mom in Meet me in St Louis. She gave the part a robust warmth, a solid backbone for the adventures of the three young leads. She gave the same boost in Little Women, and it was a better part with more back story, some real drama and a lovely speech about her hopes for her daughters. She was lucky enough to get some twisted mothers as in A Kiss Before Dying , where she plays a mom with a bit of a past, and too much attachment to her bullying narcissist of a son. She does it all subtly, proving she was still a hell of an actress. He last role in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte as a black mailer dying of cancer is characteristically underplayed and all the better for it. I would have liked more of her but the whole cast was so strong . Astor characteristically made her mark economically, but forcefully.
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Post by petrolino on Feb 28, 2020 19:44:35 GMT
Minerva Urecal (pictured with Elizabeth Russell & Bela Lugosi)
Mildred Dunnock (pictured with Richard Widmark)
Shirley Stoler (pictured with Tony Lo Bianco)
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Post by teleadm on Feb 28, 2020 21:04:42 GMT
For every comic role there was an Eric Blore, there was a horror role for Dwight Frye Here looking nearly normal
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 28, 2020 23:22:16 GMT
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