Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

We still have time to mess this up!

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

In my day, never was longer.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

You are here: Home / Guest Posts / Medium Cool with BGinCHI – A Character Who Has Stuck With You

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – A Character Who Has Stuck With You

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Tonight we kick off Episode 10 of the weekly Guest Post series: Medium Cool with BGinCHI.

In case you missed the introduction to the series:  Culture as a Hedge Against this Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In

You can find the whole series here:  Medium Cool with BGinCHI

Tonight’s Topic:  A Character Who Has Stuck With You

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – A Character Who Has Stuck With You (the real one)

Take it away, BG!

For this week’s Medium Cool, I’m thinking of the phenomenon of the character actor, but more broadly. The smaller roles in films can sometimes steal the show, but this is also true in novels, TV series (hello, Omar Little from “The Wire”), plays, etc.

So, give us a character from a novel or film (or any other relevant work) who isn’t the main character, but who has stuck with you for a long time. Give us the context and tell us WHY. Was it the performance, or the writing, or something harder to describe?

But before we begin…

*****

A Note from WaterGirl:

I hit publish in error yesterday as I was creating this post for a future Medium Cool.  By the time I realized what I had done, people had already posted a few comments.  So I removed the original topic information, copied it elsewhere so I could make a new post for a future Sunday, and turned that one into an Open Thread.  But there were some really great comments on the topic, and people were still discussing the subject, 3 hours later!  Now what do we do?

I began to feel as though I were trapped in a favorite book from childhood.

So, to make a long story short, the first 67 comments on this post were from yesterday, the next two were from overnight (!) and we are publishing this one again now, as if it were a new post, so we won’t lose all the great on-topic comments from yesterday.

So here’s  your Medium Cool post, with a badass character and image, and a Dr. Seuss chaser.  Only at Balloon Juice!

What can I say besides “Oh, well.”   ~WaterGirl

 

Reader Interactions

257Comments

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    This is a good one. I have to go out now so will think about it more, but Madeleine LeBeau in Casablanca makes a big impact. First she’s a lovelorn drunk (who wouldn’t be lovelorn over Bogey in his white dinner jacket?), then she’s a collaborator, then she’s a patriot, all in a very small amount of screen time.

  8. 8.

    Kristine

    Michael Nyqvist–who has since passed on–as the bad guy in JOHN WICK. It’s his performance. The way he conveys the balance of charm and ruthlessness that enabled him to acquire what he did as well as keep it.

  9. 9.

    pamelabrown53

    @zhena gogolia:

    Good choice, zhena! Speaking of Casablanca, I’ll proffer Peter Lorre: he set the stage for the plot and subplots.

    While I’m here, I’d like to nominate the performance of Mary-Louise Parker in Boys on the Side. She is probably considered a main character but in my defense the movie was an ensemble cast. I loved how I got to know her from a waspish woman to one who brought a diverse character cast of women and men who loved her deeply.

    Plus the soundtrack delights me to this day!

  10. 10.

    Miki

    Judas,  in Jesus Christ Superstar. He was just a guy doing his job, which happened to involve betraying a guy he loved so that guy could be nailed to a cross and hung until he was dead.

    I’ve always felt Judas was the most developed, most interesting character in that show. (I’m an old, so I know it from the 1970 recording/shows.)

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    Rut roh!  I did not mean to publish this one!  We’re just creating this one for any week when things get away from us so we’ll have a Medium Cool with BGinCHI “In the can”.

    I just changed the title and turned this into an open thread

    On the plus side, BG will be happy to know that this subject looks like a winner!

  12. 12.

    R-Jud

    Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul. You absolutely understand why the eponymous conman loves her. But why does she love him? She’s smarter, she’s more anchored morally, she’s got brighter career prospects– what’s she doing with this guy? Her attraction to him has become much clearer as the show has progressed, and what it shows about her is very, very complicated.

    Also I wish I could pull off that kind of ponytail.

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Peter Guillam in the LeCarre universe.  He recently got his own novel, but he is still a supporting player in the Circus world.  I find the character entering middle age but still maintaining his illusions about the legendary generation that came before him interesting.

  14. 14.

    Hungry Joe

    So many of the characters in Mike Leigh films. Leigh writes the main story, but works with the actors to come up with the dialog in each scene. Actors aren’t told what the whole movie is about — just their part in it. So every character, even those in very small parts, is essentially the star in a different film, some short, some full length. What I love about this is that it rejects the very notion of character actor or sidekick. There are no such people in real life; everyone is at the center of his or her own universe, and everyone is the star of the show.

  16. 16.

    hueyplong

    Obscure, old, and much smaller roles than Tilda’s great performance in Michael Clayton:

    Dickie Moore (the kid) in Out of the Past

    Charles Buchinsky in Crime Wave (frighteningly creepy the way he looks over Phyllis Kirk in every scene)

    Ruth Attaway (the housekeeper) in Being There (“It sure is a white man’s world…”)

    Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard (from directing Swanson in Queen Kelly to taking this role, wow)

  18. 18.

    Rob

    I have no idea what is going on/went on. My wife and I were in a Zoom meeting with 7 other folks where they could see us and vice versa but we couldn’t hear a word they said. This was for like 30 minutes.

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    ‘Sup BJ peeps.

    Home from work in time to watch Indy pass the tests of faith to get to Holy Grail.

    #LastCrusade #BESTCrusade.

    Also while that’s on in the background, I’m catching up on some of the past week’s news, like this:

    Tom Hanks’ Blood Will be Used To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine bit.ly/2XU1GAP

    Say what now!!!

  25. 25.

    James E Powell

    One of the all time best five minutes by a character actor is Wilford Brimley as James J. Wells, Assistant Attorney-General for the Organized Crime Division of the United States Department of Justice near the end of Absence of Malice. The entire scene is just one great line after another, delivered perfectly.

  30. 30.

    Jinchi

    @lamh36: Tom Hanks’ Blood Will be Used To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

    Sounds like a good tagline for a horror movie poster.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    Reality: it’s not a thing she does:

    Briahna Joy Gray

    @briebriejoy

    It’s a good time to note that Bernie’s on the ballot.

    It’s also a good time to note he’s already dropped out and endorsed a different candidate.

  32. 32.

    rk

    Our hospital offered it’s employees the Corona virus antibody test. I signed up since I had the symptoms (102 fever, chills, weight loss headache etc ), was negative for the flu and missed 6 days of work in March just as it was all hitting the fan. Filling the form is no guarantee that I’ll be able to get the test as my eligibility will be determined by hospital clinicians. I hope they find me eligible.  It’ll be a relief to get tested.

  33. 33.

    hueyplong

    @James E Powell: That’s the single best example, and maybe my favorite single scene in movie history.

    My wife insists that I add Anthony James (known in our house as “Hoot Scoot”), the diner employee/killer in In the Heat of the Night.  One of the very few whose first and last movies won Best Picture (In the Heat of the Night; Unforgiven).

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    If you post the next seven Sunday posts today maybe the lock down will end sooner.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    If you guys want to bail on this thread and move to Tom’s, I’ll turn this back into the post for Medium Cool tomorrow night.  If you stay here, this will stay an open thread and we’ll start over with a new post for Medium Cool with BG on Sunday.

  38. 38.

    James E Powell

    @different-church-lady: 

    I wondered why #DropOutBiden was trending on my twitter, along with #KimJongUn and various NFL draftees.

    Riddle me this. Why can’t we get #ResignTrump trending every day?

  41. 41.

    different-church-lady

    @James E Powell:

    Riddle me this. Why can’t we get #ResignTrump trending every day?

    My theory would be we’re not friendly with enough people who run Russian bot farms.

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    NEW: @JECDems are releasing a report today that explains why Black, Latino and low-income Americans are more likely to bear the health and/or financial burdens of #COVID19.

    Read the report here: https://t.co/N6GOboPSKh

    — Joint Economic Committee Democrats (@JECDems) April 24, 2020

    My Congressman, Rep. Don Beyer, is vice-chair of the committee.

    (The report is a 17 page .pdf)

    CONCLUSION

    The coronavirus has had a devastating impact, taking the lives of more than 50,000 Americans of every race, region and means. However, the poor and the working poor, especially those who are Black Americans, are hit hardest. Early data suggest that Blacks are far more likely to contract the illness, more likely to be hospitalized and more likely to die from it. The poor and working poor in the service sector are more likely to be exposed to it, less likely to have paid sick leave and health insurance and completely unlikely to have the privilege of working at home during the pandemic.

    Moreover, the coronavirus-caused recession very likely will cause severe economic distress for less-privileged Americans. The working poor, which are overrepresented by Blacks and Latinos, have persistently higher rates of unemployment, lower incomes and far less wealth than their wealthier counterparts. They are far more vulnerable to what may be a deep and protracted recession.

    The coronavirus has helped expose the effects of deep economic inequality in the United States. When the pandemic subsides to a degree that Americans can return to some version of their former lives, it likely will leave in its wake even greater inequality. Policymakers will have to take into account the racial disparities in the coronavirus’s impact; race-neutral policies may not be enough to undo the damage. If these conditions are not addressed aggressively, the next pandemic could cause even more human suffering.

    Keep this in mind as we think about and evaluate the pundits and the responses by the parties.

    People’s lives are at stake, now and for years to come.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    lamh36

    @WaterGirl: Maybe her antibogy titer wasn’t that high?  Could be that she just had it worse cause of some underlying condition or just that Hanks had a higher titer of AB?

  44. 44.

    pamelabrown53

    @WaterGirl:  No worries, you’re still a BJ treasure! Hopefully, you’ll be able to find a way to include the relevant comments?

  45. 45.

    BGinCHI

    Damn, you guys are off to an amazing start on this one. I think we’ll reprise tomorrow, so come back at 5:00  EST and give us what you’ve got.

    I love the Mike Leigh, and Kim Wexler, and Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton.” The latter cruelly underrated.

    See also Clooney’s character in “The American.” A film I love that many people do not like.

  47. 47.

    hueyplong

    @BGinCHI: Swinton did win an Academy Award for her role in Michael Clayton, so it’s a fairly bold statement to call it cruelly underrated.

  48. 48.

    James E Powell

    @Another Scott:

    a report today that explains why Black, Latino and low-income Americans are more likely to bear the health and/or financial burdens of #COVID19.

    Republican voters consider that a legitimate policy goal and a mark of success: hurting the right people.

  49. 49.

    Capri

    The name for such a character is the Fifth Business.  They aren’t the main male and female heros and villains(i.e. characters 1 through 4), but are crucial for moving the plot along.  I learned that from the novel of the same name, Fifth Business by Roberson Davies.  One of my all time favorite books.

  51. 51.

    pamelabrown53

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Alas, I’m an insomniac and would love to sleep til Sunday.

    Keep trying to find a remnant of self-discipline to order my days, nights,weeks, etc.

  52. 52.

    BGinCHI

    @hueyplong: The film, I meant.

    I mean, it’s not unknown, but I think it’s too easily dismissed as a solid Clooney vehicle & thriller.

    It’s more than that. The script is brilliant, and I use it in my screenwriting class.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    Merope Gaunt from Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince. She’s the most tragic character in the story. Ill-raised by a bitter old man who refuses to let her go to school, instead forcing her to share his self-imposed isolation, she grows up utterly marginalised from wizarding society with no experience or understanding of love. Her misguided attempt to seek love with a handsome Muggle ends in disaster.

    JK Rowling later reworked Merope into The Casual Vacancy‘s Krystal Weedon, a troubled (and similarly marginalised) teenager whose fate turns out to hang on the outcome of a local council election. Let’s just say that Krystal doesn’t catch a break there, either.

    Merope and Krystal are girls cut off from life because of a bad parent. Marvolo Gaunt is bitter that he is the impoverished descendant of a rich and powerful family, and turns his back on the world. Krystal’s mother Terri is a junkie and occasional prostitute, and so feckless that Krystal has had to become the parent in the household. They are the characters I really feel for.

  55. 55.

    hueyplong

    @BGinCHI: One of my favorites too.  It’s still on my dvr from recording it in 2015.  Watch it every 6 months or so.  Tilda is great.  Everyone else is, too.

    Tiny point:  Its depiction of the atmosphere in a firm where everyone becomes scared about the future is dead on

    And the “I’ve got your heart racing, don’t I?” scene ranks up there with the already referenced late scene in Absence of Malice.

  57. 57.

    joel hanes

    @lamh36:

    Next time I see someone out not wearing a mask, I’m gonna say…  You “chose poorly”

    You’re apparently a better person than I —

    I went to the post-office, which was crowded so I didn’t go in.   Guy in his 70’s, maybe, came out: trim, expensively dressed, good haircut.   I said to him, through my mask

    “Where’s your mask, asshole?”

  58. 58.

    hueyplong

    @joel hanes: I went into a Lowes to pick up an order for paint and stains this week and was the only person there wearing a mask other than checkout personnel.

    You’ll be shocked to know it’s a small town in a state that voted for Trump in 2016.

  61. 61.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I have a weird ass theory regarding COVID and the notion that the hyperdrive immune response is what does the killing. This disease is harder on a higher percentage of the elderly, black, Latino and  impoverished populations because their immune responses are greater due to more exposure to infectious organisms over time. The cytokine  storm is what does the damage, and that if you simply turn off the immune response with high dose steroids early enough and address symptoms only, you never get to the point of needing a ventilator.

    It would be worth it to see if the younger people who died have had significant exposure to and had beaten a lot of illnesses.

    On a fun note, I had never seen F&F Tokyo Drift before today – it goes into my pantheon of movies that have so many glaring plot holes that they’re good (call it “Roadhouse for people who love street racing”).  Among the most beloved features are:

    – The world’s oldest high school students outside John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, as the leads appear to have been held back anywhere from 7 to 10 years;

    – High impact wrecks don’t kill anybody;

    – Hot girls are always ready to leave their boyfriends for the guy who can race better; and

    – Tokyo appears to have no police helicopters.

    I give it either 5 stars or zero, depending on your taste.

  62. 62.

    ChrisH

    I’m trying to find that tweet where someone says they are waiting for people to discover Joe Biden can’t be email’d and no one will understand why, but google is totally failing me.  Anyone have a link to it?

  63. 63.

    James E Powell

    @different-church-lady:

    My theory would be we’re not friendly with enough people who run Russian bot farms.

    Why don’t we have bot farms? Can any of our former candidate billionaires give us the money to close the bot gap?

  68. 68.

    Citizen Alan

    @Amir Khalid:

    Her misguided attempt to seek love with a handsome Muggle ends in disaster.

    That’s kind of a disturbing take on what is actually the story of a woman who drugged a man and systematically raped him for several months before he got away. Yeah, the circumstances of Merope Gaunts life were tragic, but personally, I was very bothered by the extent JKR handwaved away the severity of her actions and even tried to paint her victim, Tom Riddle Jr., as the bad guy for abandoning her once the love potion wore off.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    @Citizen Alan:

    Obviously, your take is not my take. As a reader, I don’t wave away the wrongness of what Merope did; nor do I agree that Rowling did as writer. Half-blood Prince actually spends a lot of time at Hogwarts showing that real love can only be earned, not created by magic: a lesson (among many others) that Merope never got to learn. You don’t need to wave anything away to get that Merope was profoundly damaged by her father, or to feel pity for her on that account.

  71. 71.

    BGinCHI

    I remember the first time we watched “The Wire,” when, in Season 5, Omar Little gets killed.

    It was like losing a good friend. We sat there in disbelief that Omar was gone. I’ve never felt another TV series death like that. The only one that comes close is Henry Blake’s death in MASH, but that’s mostly due to the way it was delivered.

    Omar’s character was so real, so alive, so completely realized. I think about him all the time.

  72. 72.

    schrodingers_cat

    Garak in DS9, Also Dukat and Damar. All the main Cardassian characters in DS9, actually were well written and acted with interesting arcs.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    In the noir era, Tom D’Andrea seems to often play this role. Like as the cab driver in Dark Passage.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    While I ponder, I’ll toss in a fun one: Randall Tex Cobb in “Raising Arizona.”

  75. 75.

    narya

    @Omnes Omnibus:  As it happens, I’m in the middle of rereading that trilogy. Guillam serves the purpose of providing a picture of Smiley from someone else who’s in the room, sort of.

  76. 76.

    zhena gogolia

    Theresa Harris in every movie she made. Gorgeous, talented African-American actress who always played maids. At least she got to be Barbara’s pal in Baby Face.

  80. 80.

    MattF

    @MattF: I did the experiment of watching Michael Clayton again today (YouTube ‘rental’ for $2.99) to see if Swinton’s performance was still mesmerizing. It was.

  81. 81.

    eddie blake

    londo molari, ‘babylon 5’.
    commander data, ‘star trek: TNG’.
    captain rex, ‘star wars: the clone wars’ / ‘rebels’.
    vincenzo coccotti, true romance.
    egg shen, ‘big trouble in little china’.
    juan sanchez villalobos ramirez, ‘highlander’.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    1. I didn’t realize there was a sequel to The Cat in the Hat.
    2. Cole should expect a demand letter from the the copyright lawyers representing Dr. Suess’s estate.
  85. 85.

    divF

    Blade Runner: M. Emmet Walsh as Captain Bryant, and Edward James Olmos as Gaff.  Hell,  all the secondary characters in Blade Runner were great.

  88. 88.

    debbie

    @pamelabrown53:

    Sorry I missed your question yesterday. I saw it at the New York Film Festival and was blown away. Everyone’s talking about Michael Clayton, but I think Orlando is her real tour de force. Plus the music, sets, etc.!

  89. 89.

    JoyceH

    The character I’m going to nominate is The Fool from the Farseer Trilogy. Farseer was the first trilogy of Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series. The series of trilogies switches between two different locations and two different sets of people. For the first trilogy, the hero-narrator is Fitzchivalry Farseer, the bastard grandson of the king, and eventually and secretly the royal assassin. But the readers were quite intrigued by the King’s Fool, who doesn’t have a lot of ‘screen time’, but is an enigmatic character from who-knows-where, who always seems to know when something is about to happen.

    I list the Fool as a secondary character only for the first trilogy, because the readers and the author fell in love with him, and he soon became of equal importance to Fitz, though Fitz remained as narrator. The book titles show the shift – the Farseer trilogy was Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin’s quest. The third (and second Fitz-narrated) trilogy was the Tawny Man, and the books were – Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool’s Fate. And the fifth (and third Fitz-narrated) trilogy was simply titled Fitz and the Fool. Fool’s Assassin, Fool’s Quest, and Assassin’s Fate.

    The second and fourth series are also excellent, especially if you like dragons.

    She SAYS she’s done with the series, but I hope not…

  91. 91.

    BGinCHI

    @divF: I wish someone had made a gritty crime series with M. Emmet Walsh and Jon Polito as detective partners.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @satby:  @Baud:

    It’s not even close to being the whole book.

    edit: It’s all over the internet – those are screen captures from a full video of someone reading the story. Still, I took down all but the first one.  Better safe than sorry.

  99. 99.

    debbie

    Jason Robards in Julia. His Dashiell Hamlett urging Jane Fonda’s Lilian Hellman to get off her ass and commit to something made me wish I had had a mentor. Plus, Vanessa Redgrave was luminescent.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    I don’t know enough about copyright to advise about the risk.  As zhena notes, the fact that there are images may trigger copyright bots and trolls more than just text would.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @narya: Yes, I get that, and he shows us the pull that Hayden personality and legend had.  I always thought he deserved his own novel and find it interesting that Le Carre agreed but gave us Guillam the older than Smiley, retired spy not a younger, active version.

  106. 106.

    zhena gogolia

    If we stray into literature, War and Peace has a s–t ton of great minor characters.

  107. 107.

    JoyceH

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: “I enjoyed all those series until the last couple of books. I didn’t have the patience to wade through the VERY lengthy last one.”

    Give it a try sometime – very adventurous and ties up both parallel series, including the liveships and the dragons. As for the ending, alls I can say is ‘that had BETTER not be the end!’

  108. 108.

    dexwood

    So many characters to choose from. . .  An actor who I’ve been impressed with in the few roles I’ve seen him in is Gary Farmer. As the sidekick in Pow Wow Highway, he simply became Philbert and stole the movie from it’s lead, A. Martinez. He was so believable as the a big-hearted, positive visionary who made the journey possible.  As Arnold Joseph, a man consumed by guilt and pain in Smoke Signals, he shined as well.

  109. 109.

    pamelabrown53

    @debbie:

    Yes!!! True definition of a mentor and mentor-with-benefits! Honest and crotchety.

    BTW, Vanessa Redgrave, in Julia, was my first serious girl crush.

  113. 113.

    There go two miscreants

    The Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) in Time Bandits. Not all that much screen time, but has some great lines (“After all, I am the Supreme Being. I’m not entirely dim.”)

  115. 115.

    Steeplejack

    @pamelabrown53:

    I think he means Orlando, but it’s not very clear. That film is 94 minutes long, according to IMDB.

    A lot of times people respond enthusiastically to one part of another comment and don’t realize that not everyone will automatically get which part they are responding to.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Craig: NO, I’m not glad to be alive. I’m glad I’m not dead! There’s a difference

    ETA: And the imdb tells me Paul Dooley has a couple of recent parts in up coming movies at 92

  119. 119.

    JMG

    Ok, this one is very dated, but I’ve been a psycho fan of the show since childhood. Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg in “Perry Mason.” He was just so snide every time he arrested Raymond Burr’s client just before the second commercial break. Also his hats, which were amazing even in the ’50s.

  122. 122.

    BGinCHI

    One of the reasons I really like the “Bosch” series is that it lets its minor characters loose, getting you to care about them in a way that’s rare.

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    Martin Sheen as Charles Starkweather in Badlands.

    ETA: Oh, was supposed to be a minor character. My apologies.

  124. 124.

    debbie

    @pamelabrown53:

    Me too. It’s probably too late, but if Todd Haynes could do a Bowie biopic like he did for Dylan in “I’m Not There,” Tilda would make the perfect Ziggie.

  127. 127.

    cckids

    I’ve always admired Alfre Woodard’s character in Captain America: Civil War.  She’s got maybe  5 minutes of screen time, and her performance is so searingly effective and powerful that she shifts Tony Stark’s “I’m smarter than everyone” worldview and leads to the split in the Avengers.

    True, a lightweight movie, but you just don’t forget her; she elevated it.

  128. 128.

    Emma from FL

    Each and every character in the Vorkossigan novels. Even the walk-ons are real humans. Even the worst of the worst are interesting. Even the heroes are as screwed up as everybody else.

    The defrocked monk and all-around brilliant louse Parlabane in Robertson Davies’ The Rebel Angels. He gives us one of the world’s greatest opening scenes:

    “Parlabane is back.”

    “What?”

    “Haven’t you heard? Parlabane is back.”

    “Oh my God.”

    Also from Davies, his recurring character Dunstan Ramsay. Gentle and clear-eyed, he notices things most people pass by.

    (added) Jack Harkness. ‘Cause girls (and boys) just wanna have fun.

  129. 129.

    NotMax

    Preliminary off the top of the head short list.

    Fagin in Oliver Twist.
    Hober Mallow in the Foundation trilogy.
    Edith Bunker’s deceased cousin Liz’s “roommate” in All in the Family.
    Hope Emerson as sadistic prison matron Evelyn Harper in Caged.
    Strother Martin’s roles in both Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
    Daryl Hickman’s role in Leave Her to Heaven.
    Tom Nardini as Jackson Two-Bears in Cat Ballou.
    Dimitra Arliss as Loretta Salino in The Sting.

    Actors who, in supporting roles, capture all the focus whenever they appear and remain memorable long after:

    Edna May Oliver
    Pete Postlethwaite
    Charles Durning

  131. 131.

    Ivan X

    Oh jeez. Gabriel Byrne’s Tom Reagan in Miller’s Crossing. Al Pacino’s Detective Vincent Hanna in Heat. Practically everyone in Margin Call. I think I have an envy of emotionally inexpressive men, I feel so tired of mine always being on my sleeve.

    @R-Jud: seconded. Great call.

  133. 133.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodingers_cat: Well, they can’t travel anywhere now anyway, so it’s kind of moot. I think they’re expecting to spend some time living apart after the summer.

  134. 134.

    debbie

    @Ivan X:

    Boy, I knew the Coen Brothers were the real deal when I saw Miller’s Crossing. It’s still one of my favorites of theirs.

  136. 136.

    Sloane Ranger

    @JMG: Yes. I like him too. He’s got some great lines and he delivers them perfectly, his intonation, body language and facial expressions excellent.

  139. 139.

    dexwood

    @Ivan X: Oh, hell yes. Plus all the great slang – “Dangle, Twist”.

    This Sunday series has made me realize something about my viewing habits. I stated 3 or 4 weeks ago how I’m not one to re-read or re-watch, but when I watch a movie repeatedly, it’s a Coen Brothers or Mel Brooks film.

  140. 140.

    piratedan

    well, cinematically speaking, there are a number of supporting roles that just make a movie a movie and make them feel like they’re just real people and the film is a glimpse of real life…

     

    roles like Stifler (Sean William Scott) from the American Pie series, Wooderson (Mathew McConaghey) from Dazed and Confused come to mind from comedies.  I think that certain performers just find a way of inhabiting their roles and bestowing upon them sense of “I know someone just like that”, say someone like Anna Kendrick has that everygirl quality where you know its a performance but you remember the character  (see Up In The Air, The Accountant and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) as inhabiting that world and being part of the story.

    You can even tell when you see someone on the screen for the first time when you just know someone is going to have a helluva career like Chiwetel Ejiofor (Love Actually and Serenity) or from such modest means like John Cusack (Sixteen Candles and Class).

    I’ll muse about about the written world and the TV medium and maybe have a bit more to offer (should anyone care)

  141. 141.

    dexwood

    @RSA: I haven’t seen Dead Man, but, yeah, Ghost Dog. If Dead man is the Jarmusch flick, my wife has probably seen it. Will check that one out.

  142. 142.

    Delk

    Ethel Griffies—Mrs. Bundy the ornithologist from The Birds. Beret wearing, cigarette smoking know-it-all that finds out she doesn’t know it all.

  143. 143.

    Sloane Ranger

    Going to go lowbrow here and say Oscar Goldman from The Six Million Dollar Man and Jenkins from The Librarians.

    Richard Anderson’s portrayal of Steve Austin’s long suffering boss was great and, on the rare occasions he got some action scenes, he showed how tough and capable he was. I always felt he had an interesting backstory.

    Also, the brilliant John Larroquette dominates anything he chooses to grace with his presence.

  144. 144.

    Steeplejack

    @Sloane Ranger:

    And Ray Collins was Boss Jim Gettys in Citizen Kane! He was a longtime member of Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre troupe.

    Someone did him a favor on Perry Mason, keeping him on staff during his final illness (emphysema). Long string of episodes where he “appeared” only in the credits.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho – Terry Crews in Idiocracy.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  146. 146.

    piratedan

    @HumboldtBlue: bingo on Postlewaite and to Emma, that’s another bingo on Bujold (imho Ivan is simply awesome)

     

    for the written word, I think its tougher because everyone is coming at it with their own conceptions baked in, whereas with a movie, you have a director giving you their POV of representing the story and its as much their collaboration with a casting director and the actor themselves and having their interpretation of the script and if the director agrees with it that we see.

    I almost wonder if we need to have next week’s series be crappiest casting decision in movie and TV history… that would be a hoot to participate in…

     

    Speaking to TV, I think the ensemble casts are relatively easy pickings, say some shows like Barney Miller and Cheers which were a greater entity from the sum of its part because of the ensembles adding more to the show than the leads themselves

  148. 148.

    Steeplejack

    @dexwood:

    I liked Dead Man a lot. I’m glad I saw it in the theater, because I think at home it would be easy to get distracted. Great soundtrack, which seems to consist of Neil Young dropping electric guitars in an echo chamber. Trailer here.

  151. 151.

    Josie

    @BGinCHI:

    I felt the same way about Omar.  He was a real person with a code that was important to him.  I admired him more than anyone else in the story.  It was sort of a revelation to me.

  159. 159.

    dexwood

    @raven: True Grit? Saw It in the theater in 68, was it?  Only John Wayne movie I like, but wasn’t it “fill you hands with lead”? I do like the remake, though.

    eta: never mind, see your addition.

  161. 161.

    The Lodger

    @JoyceH: Reminds me of the following trilogies:

    Tales of the Far King

    Legends of the Far King

    Annals of the Far King

    Another Far King Trilogy

  164. 164.

    zhena gogolia

    @JMG:

    My husband and I have been watching every episode in order, and Ray Collins is always brilliant. He had quite a distinguished film career and was part of Orson Welles’s company.

  165. 165.

    James E Powell

    @catclub:

    Michael K Williams and Andre Royo were both great. Only quibble is that I wouldn’t consider either one a small part. Felicia Pearson as Snoop, Isaiah Whitlock as Clay Davis, Robert Chew as Proposition Joe are three smaller parts that really hit home with me.

    If you love that series, you owe it to yourself to get All the Pieces Matter by Jonathan Abrams.

  167. 167.

    Miss Bianca

    @BGinCHI: OMAR!!

    I felt that death hard, too. I loved Omar so much, I even forgave him for killing Stringer Bell and thus removing Idris Elba from the “Wire” line-up!

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    So many characters…

    But one who almost immediately came to mind is Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, in the TV series “Foyle’s War,” as played by Michael Kitchen. To some of his superiors and upper class twits, he comes across as someone who can be easily dismissed and overlooked. And, because he has not become a military officer, some assume that he must somehow be not up to snuff. But he is cooly intelligent, an excellent police officer and most of all, a compassionate human being. Just a stunning portrayal and one of the best tv detectives ever.

    Also, he is in a weird way, depicted as a minor character even though he is the lead.  A bit like a variation of Peter Falk’s Columbo. Columbo always shows up after the crime has been committed. You are never sure where he has come from, or where he goes afterwards. The villains are always allowed to thoroughly twirl their mustaches. Similarly, Foyle almost seems part of the scenery initially.

    I also immediately took to Gary Oldman’s low key performance as Jim Gordon in the Batman film’s, especially “The Dark Knight.” He let’s himself be overshadowed by the flashier, more cocksure Harvey Dent, and comes across as a decent, hard working everyman. By rooting his characterization in everyday life, he becomes a stand-in for the viewer, and a contrast with the more flamboyant heroes and villains of Nolan’s movie universe.

    Val Kilmer’s outrageous Doc Holliday. Just the greatest anti-hero ever. And a hoot to watch.

     

    @NotMax

    Actors who, in supporting roles, capture all the focus whenever they appear and remain memorable long after:

    Edna May Oliver
    Pete Postlethwaite
    Charles Durning

    I will give you those, and add Brian Dennehy. I think the first time I noticed him was in a small role as the bartender in the movie “10,” and remember that I just liked the actor and his performance. And I think I tried to make sure that I noted his name in the credits.

    There was an actress who played a minor character in one of the episodes of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. I caught myself thinking “Who is this?” I totally believed that she needed Holme’s help. And there was something about her that immediately claimed your attention.

    It was Natasha Richardson, an actress that we lost too soon.

    Another memorable performance was Pam Grier in one of the early Steven Segal action flicks, “Above the Law.” Obviously, she has done a lot of good work, but here I remember thinking, “I will hate this movie if her character gets killed.”

    She gets wounded, but does not die.

    Who else?

    Hector Elizondo gives the definition of supporting actor in “Pretty Woman.” He sees the heart of gold in the Julia Roberts character long before anyone else does.  He is early on her knight in shining armor. The audience comes to see her through his eyes, and if he did not take to her, the movie would sink.

  169. 169.

    Kirk Spencer

    Mattias Tunstall, throughout the Provost’s Dog trilogy by Tamora Pierce. No, not fair. He really became unforgettable to me in Mastiff. Before that he was “just” a solid, rounded, human of a character.

  170. 170.

    dexwood

    @raven:  Your link took me to a mention of Robert Duvall. Holy hell! Has he been mentioned here? A truly great actor in so many movies. Boo Radley.

  171. 171.

    zhena gogolia

    @Brachiator:

    Elizondo always delivers the goods.

    We are watching Foyle again — Kitchen is so great, but so are all the supporting actors. Ovenden, Weeks, Howell. They’ve never done better work that I’ve seen.

  172. 172.

    NotMax

    Throwing a trio more into the mix.

    Peter Dinklage in Death at a Funeral
    Beulah Bondi’s three appearances in The Waltons
    The spooky kid (Victor) in the French series The Returned
    .

  180. 180.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @JMG: I’m watching the reruns of Perry Mason on a local channel. Lt. Tragg does take delight in arresting Perry’s clients.

  181. 181.

    Miss Bianca

    @debbie: And speaking of Bowie, his Andy Warhol in the movie Basquiat. Total scene-stealer. And I’ve always loved that the character drops his world-weary sophisticate pose for a few seconds to give Basquiat some real advice about not listening to what critics say after he’s devastated by bad reactions to one of his shows.

  185. 185.

    James E Powell

    For TV series.

    Sean Gunn every time Kirk showed up in an episode of Gilmore Girls.

    Merritt Wever as Denise in The Walking Dead

    Tom Poston as George on Newhart

  186. 186.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @JMG: I’m watching the reruns of Perry Mason on a local channel. Lt. Tragg does take delight in arresting Perry’s clients.

  189. 189.

    eddie blake

    @Brachiator:

    gary oldman is amazing in SO many things, but yeah, val kilmer’s doc holiday just walked away with every scene he was in.

  190. 190.

    Steeplejack

    @SFBayAreaGal:

    There’s a certain schizophrenia at work with both Lt. Tragg and D.A. Hamilton Burger. Most of the time they delight in hounding Perry Mason’s clients and even accusing him of malfeasance and unethical behavior, but then quite often they interact amiably with him, as if none of the other stuff ever happened. Tragg occasionally drops by to tip off Mason about some shitstorm bearing down, and in one episode Burger even gets Mason to defend the caretaker at his hunting club.

  192. 192.

    patrick II

    @NotMax:

    Strother Martin’s roles in both Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

    And I’ll add Storther’s role in “True Grit” being flummoxed and out bargained by “just a girl”. And his role in “Hard Times” as the down on his luck, de-licensed fight doctor to Charles Bronson’s street fighter. Come to think of it,  James Coburn’s joyful portrayal of the small-time hustler Speed in the same movie was great too.  Bronson’s best Movie.

  193. 193.

    artem1s

    Quick search and found no one has mentioned Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley from Alien.  It was the first time in my life I saw a female character who acted autonomously, held her own and didn’t wilt into a ball of insecurity whenever the male lead was on camera. And she did it without being a robot, a bitch, or sexually neutered.  Even though I thought Tom Skerritt was yummy, it fascinated me that Scott didn’t choose him as the hero and only survivor of the Nostromo.  It passed the Bechdel test before there was a Bechdel test.  And to my absolute delight my beloved genre of SciFi broke this ground.  Alien is still considered one of the best films of its era and genre. I thought it was far superior to Lucas’ world.  The franchise has had its issues but the first two were real gems and gave us one of the best lines in film history and my go to when describing both Bush admins and of course the present alien in the WH.  I like to think Ripley is the soul mother of Zoe Washburn, Buffy, Xena, Veronica Mars, and Arya Stark.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q

  194. 194.

    Brachiator

    Before “The Wire,” the show “Homicide: Life on the Street” was one of the best shows on television.

    The series leads were uniformly terrific. One of the most charismatic, vivid, consistently interesting characters was drug kingpin Luther Mahoney, played by Erik Dellums.

    I would call my sister in Texas and we would discuss the series and the outrageous things that Mahoney and his gang were up to.

  196. 196.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Harvey Bullock from Gotham. One quote he said still stays with me.

    ” You tell yourself I’ll just do this one bad thing. All the good things I’ll do later will make up for it. But they don’t.”

  198. 198.

    artem1s

    @artem1s: Oops, just saw the ‘minor’ caveat.  But I’ll defend my choice by saying, Ripley looked an awful lot like a minor character thru the first half of the film.  If you had to choose at the beginning which of them was going to get out and how, I don’t think any one would have chosen Ripley as the last one standing or John Hurt as the first casualty.

  199. 199.

    prostratedragon

    Also Bubbles in The Wire, as well as Omar Little. I actually have found myself a couple of times wondering how Bubbles would be doing.

    Bobby Briggs in Twin Peaks, one of the best teen characters I can think of. So many hints of varying types of potential in that character, though his future as a law enforcement officer is pretty heavily foreshadowed; one wonders whether a circle was closed there.

    Ensemble pieces like those two have many great, economically presented characters by definition, but All About Eve deserves special mention. Consider Claudia Caswell (Marilyn Monroe in her debut), going off to do herself some good: “Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?”

  200. 200.

    Steeplejack

    Two recurring characters on TV shows:

    Olivia d’Abo as Detective Robert Goren’s white whale, the serial killer Nicole Wallace, on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Five solid episodes spread over six years, and each one is a standout. You don’t get—or need—a lot of exposition, because d’Abo makes it clear from the start that this woman is very crazy and very dangerous. Just the way she says, “Bobby . . .”

    And Paige Turco as political fixer Zoe Morgan on Person of Interest. Nine episodes over three or four years. Again, not much back-story given or needed, because as soon as she shows up on screen you get the whole picture: a whip-smart operator who swims with the sharks but doesn’t get eaten or turn into a shark herself. And she has great chemistry with Jim Caviezel’s character, John Reese. There’s one episode that crackles as the two of them go undercover as a married couple in suburbia on a surveillance case.

    Now that I think of it, Person of Interest had quite a few great supporting characters: Taraji P. Henson, of course—she was almost a leading character—Kevin Chapman as Fusco and Enrico Colantoni as the crime boss Carl Elias, just to name a few.

  201. 201.

    artem1s

    @R-Jud:

    why does she love him?

    I adore Kim.  As we saw in that flashback this season, Kim’s mom is an alcoholic.  Classic co-dependent behavior. That bad boy thing has her by the gonads.  And Jimmy, while he has been fucked up by his family in a big way, is really a pretty decent, extremely smart, funny guy.  In a just world, a smart law firm would have made him their fixer.

  202. 202.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    Oh, I haven’t seen Paige Turco in years. She’s always good.

    Father Brown isn’t a great show, but John Light’s appearances as Flambeau are always fun.

  203. 203.

    NotMax

    @prostratedragon

    Nitpick, but Monroe’s initial on screen appearance was a few years earlier, in Dangerous Years.

    The weak Marx Bros. vehicle Love Happy also preceded All About Eve and has “Introducing Marilyn Monroe” in the opening credits.

  204. 204.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    Flambeau is great! Sadly, Father Brown has been gradually going downhill the last season or two. WETA-UK here in D.C. just started showing the “new” season, and it’s a little weak so far.

    Flambeau reminds me of a similar character: Pierre Despereaux on Psych, played by Cary Elwes. Same sort of gentleman thief character, done with similar aplomb.

    Psych was a guilty pleasure: completely lunkheaded, but the very good ensemble cast kept the plates spinning in air.

  205. 205.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:
    Ned Beatty
    Bill Cobbs
    Ellen Corby
    James Gleason
    Thelma Ritter

    It’s far from a lost art, but older movies and early tv seemed to do especially well at the show-stealing bit part.

  206. 206.

    Kristine

    @artem1s: I recall reading years ago that Ripley was originally written as a man, and they didn’t change the character when they cast Weaver. Idk if that’s true or apocryphal, but it would explain why Ripley struck such a chord.

  207. 207.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    I saw Paige Turco in something the other night, I can’t remember what, but that’s probably why she was at the edge of my memory. I always like her.

    Oh, yeah: she was on NCIS: New Orleans as Scott Bakula’s character’s ex-wife. I hardly ever watch that show. Think I must have just left the TV on that channel.

  208. 208.

    Miss Bianca

    I am going to have to go back and binge-watch some Perry Mason.

    But speaking of Raymond Burr…

    His character in Rear Window. He’s this first schlubby, then increasingly sinister, presence, and he doesn’t say barely a thing. Then that final scene where Jimmy Stewart’s character confronts him and he has, what, less than a dozen words? “What do you want from me – money? I don’t have any money.”

    That’s it – and he packs that one line with so much dignity, pathos, defiance, and panic that you almost forget that the guy killed his wife in a particularly gruesome way and – even worse, from a pet-loving jackal’s point of view – killed the neighbor’s adorable little dog when it starts getting too nosy, and you start to feel almost sorry for him. Big mistake, because just like an old bear or boar that’s finally been wounded and brought to bay, he’s still incredibly dangerous and you dassn’t take your eyes off him for a second.

    Amazing presence.

  209. 209.

    Gvg

    @Citizen Alan: Because she was raised so isolated from anyone other than her father and brother, she really had no chance of knowing right from wrong about really everything. She did do exactly what you said, but she wasn’t to blame in the way almost anyone in the world would be. The story did make clear why the wizards needed to remain unknown. Power corrupts absolutely. It also illustrates why home schoolers concern me. It was as if she was raised on the moon by nasty aliens. Lesson is pay attention to families that self isolate too much.

  210. 210.

    NotMax

    @Miss Bianca

    Perry Mason also a departure from his having been cast in a string of films during the 40s and early 50s as heavies (in both senses of the word), often pointedly odious ones.

  211. 211.

    dnfree

    Laurie Metcalf as the mother in the movie Lady Bird.  The movie is ostensibly about a teenager learning to spread her wings, but after seeing it my thoughts kept coming back to the mother who was holding the family together financially, and her disappointment at how her life had turned out.

  213. 213.

    Michael Cain

    Rufo, in Heinlein’s Glory Road.  The hero and heroine weren’t anything special, but Rufo.  The epitome of a hero’s companion: when the hero holds a hand out w/o looking and says “Rope!” the companion has (a) remembered that a bit of rope might be useful and (b) dragged the damned rope through all the same hardships the hero has been through.  I believe Rufo is the companion who observes the food is still hot in the kitchen but probably isn’t when it gets to the grand dining hall, and scullery maids are easier than princesses.  At some point in the book it comes out that Rufo has a doctorate and took the companion gig as a favor to his aunt the Empress of the Universe.

    After I read it as a teenager I added to my career goals.  If I couldn’t be a mad scientist, I wanted to be a hero’s companion.  Somewhere here I have the opening for a short story with the hero and companion hanging on a cliff and the hero holds out a hand w/o looking and says “Rope!”

  214. 214.

    J R in WV

    @Steeplejack:

    Someone did him a favor on Perry Mason, keeping him on staff during his final illness (emphysema). Long string of episodes where he “appeared” only in the credits.

     

    Now, that’s a humane kind thing to do for a dying friend !!! Thanks for passing that detail on.

  215. 215.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Garak in DS9, Also Dukat and Damar. All the main Cardassian characters in DS9, actually were well written and acted with interesting arcs.

    Totally agree. I loved that DS9 created new alien characters, instead of falling back on the Klingons and the Romulans. I loved almost all the Trek series (just could not make it through Enterprise), but ultimately think that DS9 may have been the most satisfying.

  217. 217.

    Brachiator

    @artem1s:

    Oops, just saw the ‘minor’ caveat. But I’ll defend my choice by saying, Ripley looked an awful lot like a minor character thru the first half of the film.

    I did not originally choose Ripley because she was ultimately the protagonist, but you are right that she does not initially appear to be the lead.

    If you had to choose at the beginning which of them was going to get out and how, I don’t think any one would have chosen Ripley as the last one standing or John Hurt as the first casualty.

    This may have been by design, since not really knowing who might be next adds to the sense of dread.  And that Ripley is a woman adds to this, since many fans of sf horror probably assumed that she would not survive.

  219. 219.

    p.a.

    Any of the ensemble cast of Hill St. Blues could carry the load when the script put them to the fore.

    Someone already mentioned Garak from Star Trek Space Mall (I kid… it’s my fave trek.). Once the show got its legs abt year 1.5 it was outstanding.

  220. 220.

    Brachiator

    @eddie blake:

    uh, the cardassians first appeared on the ST:TNG episode, “the wounded” in 1991.

    I did not mean to imply that the Cardassians were originally created for DS9. And obviously the Klingons and other alien races appeared in prior Trek series.

    But the Cardassians were more fully developed in the series.

    And DS9 largely bypassed the Trek flaw as depicting aliens as humans, but with only one main trait. So, Klingons are humans, but warriors. Ferengi are humans, but selfishly mercantile. Vulcans are humans, but lacking emotions.

  221. 221.

    tokyokie

    More than 200 posts in and no mention of the greatest assemblage of character actors ever crammed into one movie, namely Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Harry Dean Stanton. Chill Wills. Richard Jaeckel. R.G. Armstrong. Matt Clark. Luke Askew. Richard Bright. Jack Elam. Paul Fix. L.Q. Jones. Gene Evans. Jack Dodson. Charles Martin Smith. John Davis Chandler. Dub Taylor. Elisha Cook Jr. All that’s missing are Warren Oates and Strother Martin, and I’ve long thought the Stanton and Cook characters were written with them in mind, but they’d become busy enough they couldn’t join the shoot in Durango.

     

    But the best performance in the movie is by the great Slim Pickens. He plays a cynical sheriff who joins James Coburn’s Pat Garrett to roust out Jones and a couple of other outlaws. In the ensuing gun battle, the Pickens character is gut shot, and rather than bravely continuing, he drops his gun and staggers toward a nearby pond, with his matronly wife (Katy Jurado) following him. He looks at her, then turns his head slightly and gets a far-away look in his eyes, knowing he’ll never see her, or anything else, again. Decades of marriage summed up in an exchange of gazes, all against a dramatic sunset with the intro to Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” on the soundtrack. For my money, one of the greatest scenes in movie history, but it’s Pickens’ understated pathos that sells it.

     

    Oh, and speaking of L.Q. Jones, his turn in Casino as Pat Webb, Clark County political powerbroker, is another study in economical understatement. In a film filled with wise guys and their bravado, Jones never raises his voice, never makes a threat, and certainly never punches or shoots anybody. But his character is the probably the movie’s scariest as he has, and knows how to use, political power.

  223. 223.

    zhena gogolia

    @tokyokie:

    Slim Pickens and L. Q. Jones are always great.

    And how about that Bruce Dern, huh? Doesn’t he blaze up the screen in any number of films?

  224. 224.

    PJ

    @BGinCHI: Angel, played by Stuart Margolin, in The Rockford Files is one of those recurring characters who elevates every episode he’s in.

  227. 227.

    Yutsano

    DS9 is indeed a wonderful series. I really do have to credit Avery Brooks as Sisko. He starts as a bitter single father taking a job he thinks is a backwater only to find he was somehow “destined” to be there. The way he initially fights being the Emissary and then grows into embracing what the Prophets have already seen happens to him is a fantastic character study. At least in my opinion.

    And since I love Patrick Stewart in, well, everything, he took even the shaky writing of TNG and embraced Jean-Luc Picard into a character that is memorable. It is a crime no actor from those shows ever won an Emmy.

  228. 228.

    PJ

    Seeing as I am keeping this thread going, here is one more: Roy Scheider in just about anything.  This past year, I’ve seen Klute (where he plays a pimp) and Marathon Man (where he plays a not so good guy CIA agent), and no matter how long he is on screen, he makes the characters sympathetic.  (This is not to slight his roles as a leading man.)

  229. 229.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack:

    Every so often, I ask one of the local librarians for a few movies she’d like to see added to the collection, and then do the buy/donate thing for them. Last year (I think), Dead Man was on the list. Regrettably, I have not yet seen it. I guess now I’ll have to sign it out of the library. Whenever they re-open, of course.

  230. 230.

    billcinsd

    Dorothy Malone as the ACME Book Store Proprietoress in The Big Sleep. She was so smart and observant

  233. 233.

    jonas

    @lamh36:Tom Hanks’ Blood Will be Used To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

    Great comment on a twitter thread this morning: “Nurses should whisper ‘Earn this!’ into the patient’s ear each time they inject them with Hanks’ vaccine.” Lol.

  234. 234.

    Steeplejack

    @PJ:

    Scheider was also great in Law and Order: Criminal Intent as a serial killer on Death Row who dribbles out details of his unknown and/or unsolved crimes to delay his execution. Understated but creepy as hell.

  235. 235.

    jonas

    @trollhattan: Randall Tex Cobb in “Raising Arizona.”

    How about Cobb in “Fletch”?

    “I don’t even know your name…”

    “Bend over!”

    “Ben? Ben, nice to meet you. Victor Hugo.”

  238. 238.

    Inspectrix

    The Cat in the Hat Comes Back is one I always try to avoid reading to the kids. I find the relentless spread of the pink stains incredibly stressful. I’ve always hated that lying, deceitful, manipulative Cat from the original book. Yes,  yes, I am the goldfish.
    The sequel is even less fun than the original, and instead of zaniness, the Cat’s mess-making is entirely joyless. Harumph.

    As with others, I do love Foyle. He’s principled. Unlike the Cat.

  239. 239.

    eddie blake

    auda abu tayi, ‘lawrence of arabia’.

    “i carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. seventy-five men have i killed with my own hands in battle. i scatter, i burn my enemies’ tents. i take away their flocks and herds. the turks pay ME a golden treasure, yet i am POOR, because i am a RIVER to my PEOPLE!”

  240. 240.

    Steeplejack

    @Inspectrix:

    I’ve never been able to find a suitable clip, but when Craig Ferguson had The Late Late Show he would occasionally do a short but incredibly distilled impression of Michael Kitchen as Foyle. “You’ve done some very bad things, and I’m afraid you’re going to hang for them.” Hilarious.

  242. 242.

    tokyokie

    @PJ: I thought it was a shame that nobody made a movie from one of Raymond Chandler’s novels and cast Scheider as Marlowe.

  244. 244.

    Ivan X

    Oh man, someone mentioned Homicide, so that made me think of L&O, and while there are many excellent characters there
    Including obviously Jerry Orbach’s Detective Lenny Briscoe, Michael Moriarty as ADA Ben Stone in the first four seasons is just sublime. I’ve loved him in many roles, particularly Larry Cohen’s bizarro social satire cheapsploitation movies like Q: The Winged Serpent and The Stuff. I am not expecting anyone to have seen these, mind you, but I have a particular taste for smart garbage. (Or, in New York Magazine parlance, lowbrow brilliant.)

  245. 245.

    Ivan X

    @PJ: funny, I never really respond to him, but that’s what makes horseraces. Have you seen the (little seen) Sorcerer? He’s good in it, and it’s a quite (IMO, others dispute) a good movie. And it’s not, at all, about sorcery.

  246. 246.

    Brachiator

    @Ivan X:

    Have you seen the (little seen) Sorcerer? He’s good in it, and it’s a quite (IMO, others dispute) a good movie. And it’s not, at all, about sorcery.

    From the title, Sorcerer, people were expecting a follow-up to The Exorcist. The film was unnecessarily savaged for “tricking” the audience. British film critic Mark Kermode thinks this film is a masterpiece. I think it’s good, but far prefer the French original, The Wages of Fear, from 1953.

  249. 249.

    NotMax

    @Ivan X

    Ever seen The Wages of Fear? Sorcerer is a remake of that. Not at all a bad remake but doesn’t hold a candle to the original.

  252. 252.

    debbie

    @Ivan X:

    Vincent D’Onofrio stands out there, both from Criminal Intent and his guest appearance on Homicide playing a man pushed into the path of a subway. The entire hour was basically a dialog between him and Frank as he was waiting to die, and I still feel a bit of the horror I felt all those years ago at the realization of the futility of their attempts to save him. Powerful performances from both.

  253. 253.

    Nancy

    You did say novels so here goes:

    I read and re-read Neal Stephenson novels. I enjoy his mix of tech, math, plot, and character development in unbelievably cool adventure stories.

    I struggle to summarize the plot of REAMDE. A multi-player online game is hacked by characters who introduce a virus into the gamer’s real life computers. All the victim’s files are encrypted and the only way to pay the ransom is to pay within the game. The title comes from that curse of the keyboard, the transposed letters, a file title that should have read ReadMe.

    A victim with some criminal history, power, and ruthlessness has high blood pressure. The stress of losing his files causes him to probably have a stroke, seem to recover, take hostages, commit various crimes, and greatly inconvenience the main characters. Adventures ensue. Too much description would ruin the story which I suggest you read.

    However, the supporting character of the day is Solokov, a Russian security consultant who is competent and ethical. He slowly realizes that the stroke victim, his nominal boss, has become unhinged and that Solokov has been fooled into following along by the illusion of normalcy, working for the guy who holds his contract, taking orders, figuring out ways to manage increasingly insane orders. He then has a sense of obligation to the main characters and develops interesting ways to try to rectify the crazy and it’s unexpected outcomes.

    I love these books and the characters are as real to me as screen characters.

    On the small screen, my favorite supporting character is Mycroft, Sherlock Holmes’s brother on the TV show, Elementary. He is able to convey a lot with non-verbals and he appears to be emotionally and sexually attractive to Watson, a main character, much to the chagrin of Sherlock. That part is fun and he conveys intelligent hotness. This is an underrated quality.

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