The Greatest Character Actors Of All Time, Ranked – SlashFilm

What are the defining traits of a character actor? Why is a shapeshifting virtuoso like Daniel Day-Lewis considered a full-blown movie star, while a chameleon-like genius like Giancarlo Esposito is routinely relegated to supporting player status? As previously discussed here at /Film, there are multiple factors at play: box office, deeply ingrained cultural notions of physical attractiveness, distinctive utility, and the Borgnine Paradox.

It should come as no surprise that my solo endeavor to arrive at a solid-ish definition of “character actor” is not the first in the history of the written word. There have been many, many attempts by whole groups of esteemed journalists to get at some kind of reasonable understanding of this term/concept, and, having read more than a few of them, I can assure you that there is no hard-fast rule. You could call just about everyone outside of Britney Spears a character actor — and that’s because she only acted in one movie. John Wayne played a ton of swaggering, sober-minded cowboys and war heroes, but he won an Oscar for going out-of-character as an alcoholic hired gun. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s killed more people onscreen than maybe any actor ever, but he also literally carried a child to term. Kathy Ireland played an alien bird opposite Kevin Costner’s dad from “Field of Dreams,” but she displayed stunning versatility by convincing moviegoers the world over as a college football placekicker.

Actors contain multitudes. Some of these are multitudes of garbage, but range is range. For the purposes of this article, however, I’d like to single out some of the most intriguingly talented, difficult-to-nail-down performers to ever delight and befuddle us.

The rules? I’ll follow the loosely applied notions from my previous article: No stars, no former major stars (sorry, Robert Ryan), no folks who’ve suddenly achieved stardom (apologies, Colman Domingo), and perhaps most importantly, no O.J. Simpson.

Every actor has a trick or two. Sometimes that trick is a tic. And sometimes it’s so irresistibly awesome, you let them trot it out in just about any movie or television show, even if they’re absolutely unrelated. For Isiah Whitlock, Jr., it is the prolonged utterance of the word “s***.” Like all of us, the provocation for the utterance can be anything: it can be a fit of anger, an outburst of joy, an expression of disbelief. Anything. But Whitlock always, always puts that extra bit of stink on it. And it is profane poetry. Defining roles: “The Wire,” “25th Hour,” “Corporate Animals,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Da 5 Bloods.”

Longtime readers of /Film should be well aware of not just Mr. Tobolowski’s oeuvre, but damn near his entire life via the podcast “The Tobolowski Files.” As prompted by capable host Dave Chen, the ubiquitous character actor whose career spans nearly 50 years has largely made his mark as (typically bespectacled) social misfits who are often desperately in search of a friend or a romantic partner. And creeps! My man can definitely do creeps! Defining roles: “Groundhog Day,” “Sneakers,” “Memento,” “Single White Female,” and (curveball comin’) “Hero.”

A frog-voiced gift to the spoken word, Pallette ranks high on the list of celebrities people have heard but never heard of. Amazingly, he was initially envisioned as a matinee idol during the silent era. Unfortunately, he couldn’t maintain his athletic physique, which limited him to slapstick work in Mack Sennett comedies. Then, to his great fortune, movies transitioned to sound, which allowed audiences to hear his booming, bullfrog delivery. Suddenly, Pallette was a laugh riot every time he opened his mouth; that he did so in some of his era’s finest films made him a go-to character actor. Defining roles: “My Man Godfrey,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “The Lady Eve,” and “Heaven Can Wait.”

For 75 episodes over two seasons, Clu Gulager cut a dangerously handsome figure as Billy the Kid in the NBC Western television series “The Tall Man.” Over those two seasons, he was pursued by Barry Sullivan’s Pat Garrett. It wasn’t a hit with the critics, but Gulager’s work impressed “Dirty Harry” director Don Siegel enough to cast him in the brutally effective remake of “The Killers.” Gulugar never lacked for work, but he didn’t catch fire until later in his career with the horror trio of “The Hidden,” “The Return of the Living Dead,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.” Gulugar was a welcome presence in every movie, and a wonderful fella to catch a movie with at Los Angeles’ New Beverly Cinema. I miss you, Clu. Defining roles (aside from the aforementioned): “Tapeheads,” “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” and “Tangerine.”

“Home again, home again, jiggity jig.” When you think of Sanderson, you almost certainly shoot right to that scene of his kindly genetic designer, J.F. Sebastian, being warmly greeted by two of his adorably ornate creations in “Blade Runner.” If you can dig a little deeper, you probably go to Larry and his two brothers Darryl on “Newhart.” “Deadwood” fans will no doubt favor his portrayal of general store proprietor E.B. Farnum. Me? It’s the grindhouse classic that kicks off this list of defining roles: “Fight for Your Life,” “Blade Runner,” “Newhart,” “Deadwood,” “Lonesome Dove.”

Walter was director Jonathan Demme’s good luck charm. Given Demme’s filmography, I’d like to take Mr. Walter to the track with me one day. There’s nothing flashy about Walter’s performance style, but once you cast your gaze upon his leathery visage and gaunt, more like relaxed, physique, you’ll never forget him. I swear they invented movies to give a guy like Walter something to do. Defining roles: “Something Wild,” “Married to the Mob,” “Repo Man,” “At Close Range,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Midnight Run.”

As formidable a character actor as we’ve got, and while she’s definitely received her due from critics, I feel like we’re still waiting for that haymaker of a performance I know she’s loading up. She broke into the industry as Whitney Houston’s choreographer and wasted no time proving her dramatic and comedic chops. She’s sensational in the searing “Menace II Society” and gives as good as she gets in the murderer’s row comedic ensemble of “NewsRadio.” She’s been nothing but dazzling for over 30 years. Who’s gonna let her cook? Defining roles: “Menace II Society,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “NewsRadio,” “The Corner,” “Treme.”

Just about all of us would’ve let Tessio off the hook for old time’s sake, and that’s why we wouldn’t have lived to inhabit that sprawling Lake Tahoe estate in “The Godfather: Part II.” Vigoda is a controversial call here. He didn’t make a lot of movies on account of his long-running gig as Detective Jack Fish on “Barney Miller.” What makes Vigoda interesting, however, is that he rarely took a paycheck gig. He made interesting movies and some quality television. He turned out some trash later in his career, but it was worth it for stuff like this: “Barney Miller,” “The Godfather,” “The Don Is Dead,” “The Cheap Detective,” and “Joe Versus the Volcano.”

Like many cast members from David Simon and Ed Burns’ “The Corner,” Lance Reddick gave us a tantalizing taste of what he could do if given the opportunity to sink his teeth into some seriously meaty material. No one (not even Simon) could’ve imagined at the time the five-season smorgasbord they’d get to serve up in “The Wire.” There were so many careers launched or bolstered by the Baltimore saga, but it’s hard to think of an actor who benefited more than Lance Reddick, who, at the cusp of middle age, found the role of a lifetime in Cedric Daniels. When Reddick died at the age of 60 last year, it felt like he was just getting warmed up for the next phase of his remarkable career. We lost so much. Defining roles: “The Corner,” “Oz,” “The Wire,” “Bosch,” “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”

Much like John Carroll Lynch, it took me years to figure out what to make of Camp. Unlike Lynch, he was interesting in good, sometimes great movies. He showed up, did a professional job, and left you thinking, “This guy could do something with the right part, but what in the hell is the right part for a guy like this?” It was “Compliance,” a stomach-turning thriller about an unthinkable abuse of power. As with “Zodiac,” I knew it’d be a long time before “Compliance” got out of my head. But Camp clearly had other gears and emotional modes, and 12 years post-“Compliance,” I still feel like we’re just getting to know the guy. Defining roles: “Compliance,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” “The Night Of,” “Drive-Away Dolls.”

An important thing to know about Jack Warden is that he has a scene in two different movies (“Shampoo” and “So Fine”) where, upon spying two young people in the midst of coitus, he laments that he used to be able to have sex with equivalent vigor. I can’t think of another actor who can make such a claim because I can’t think of another movie with a scene quite like this. The most important thing to know about Warden is that he could deftly segue from something as silly as “Used Cars” to material as bruising as “The Verdict.” Drunk, sober, just getting by … no one was more authentic than Warden. Defining roles: “Shampoo,” “All the President’s Men,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Used Cars,” “The Verdict.”

Jonathan Demme had Tracey Walter, and Joe Dante had Dick Miller. Actually, Dante had a whole company of old-school character actors he loved to cast (e.g. William Schallert, Harry Carey Jr, Kenneth Tobey), Miller was obligatory and, once the director’s younger fans grew familiar with his presence, beloved. Why Miller? He possessed crackerjack comic timing, seemed down to do whatever Dante asked of him and, well, he just brightened up the screen every time he walked in front of that camera. Defining roles: You know the Dante stuff, but have you seen his Corman work? “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “Not of This Earth,” and his best performance, “A Bucket of Blood,” are all well worth your time.

For a number of years, it felt like John Carroll Lynch was going to carve out a nice little career as Frances McDormand’s husband from “Fargo.” He possessed a semi-interesting screen presence; he was good in some truly wretched movies. But was there something else there? He’d have do something semi-interesting in an actual above-average movie to determine this. Then, in 2007, Lynch did “Zodiac.” As the physically intimidating suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, Lynch burrowed deep into our nightmares. I hope he’s left yours because he’s still clomping around in mine. Defining roles: “Fargo,” “Zodiac,” “Gran Torino,” “The Invitation,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

As the clueless headmaster presiding over a logy high school student body in “Afterschool,” Stuhlbarg was effective but unremarkable; we’d seen this kind of pompous administrator before, and there was nothing Stuhlbarg could do within the meticulously crafted confines of Antonio Campos’ masterpiece beyond what was bluntly asked of him. It wasn’t until the Coen Brothers turned him into a model of emasculation in “A Serious Man” that we knew Stuhlbarg was the goods. Then came his bizarrely touching Shea Stadium scene in “Men in Black 3,” and why does this man still not have an Oscar nomination? Defining roles: “A Serious Man,” “Men in Black 3,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Shirley,” “Boardwalk Empire.”

For longtime theatergoers, there has been no greater thrill than watching film and television viewers discover Henderson’s singularly steady/amused presence that’s been the beaming ballast of many an August Wilson play. Henderson is very much like Slow Drag, the bassist character from Wilson “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom;” he’s the backbone of every play/film/show lucky enough to have him. Hollywood’s finally starting to figure out what it’s been missing, as his defining performances have all arrived since he popped in 2016: “Fences,” “Devs,” “Lady Bird,” “Beau Is Afraid,” and “Civil War.”

Never mess with a man’s stapler. Anyone who’s ever worked any kind of non-remote job has encountered a strange, mumbly, seemingly harmless weirdo like Root’s Wilson in “Office Space.” This should’ve been Root’s breakout role, and maybe it was? He first registered for me on Paul Simms’ sitcom “NewsRadio” as the station’s eccentric owner, but that was never a popular show. It was, however, more successful than “Office Space,” which bombed upon release. Root was the kiss of death for a second there. Now everyone in Hollywood (especially the Coen Brothers) are desperate to work with him. There isn’t a more consistently funny or interesting actor working today. Defining roles: “NewsRadio,” “Office Space,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Get Out,” “Justified.”

Before he put in seven years on the ABC sitcom “My Three Sons,” Demarest was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the sound era. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1929’s “The Jazz Singer.” But it was his vaudeville training, particularly in comedy, that kept him in demand. And while he worked steadily, director Preston Sturges knew better than anyone else how to deploy his bulky, likably gruff demeanor. Demarest was a lovable crank, and the films he made with Sturges are as good as it gets. Defining roles: if it was directed by Sturges and Demarest is in it, watch it.

All it took for Esposito to become one of the most excitingly unpredictable character actors of his generation was for John Savage to accidently scuff his Air Jordans on a Bedford-Stuyvesant sidewalk in the middle of the hottest day of the year in New York City. Esposito’s Buggin’ Out is the neighborhood’s (sometimes inconveniently) righteous conscience in “Do the Right Thing,” and while he’s played his share of firebrands, he’s segued from comedy to quiet menace to monstrousness with startling ease. Defining roles: “Do the Right Thing,” “Fresh,” “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul.”

For all of the nastiness that spewed out of Dan Duryea’s brutes, he was not an unattractive man. You understood the allure. He could talk his way into a tryst. Timothy Carey, on the other hand, was off-putting in ways that defied description. He was meant for meanness. Maybe this is why he got himself fired off Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory;” he couldn’t stand to play a man meant to evoke our sympathy. Carey might’ve been trouble on set, but the likes of John Cassavetes and Quentin Tarantino considered him worthy of the headache. Watch his best work, and you won’t disagree. Defining roles: “The Killing,” “Paths of Glory,” “One-Eyed Jacks,” “The World’s Greatest Sinner,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.”

Since he was basically the focus of the first part of this project, I’ve nothing more to add other than a recommendation that, having recently lost Bob Newhart, you should check Mr. Walsh out in Norman Lear’s uproarious 1971 satire “Cold Turkey.”

She might seem like a fairly recent discovery, but Martindale has been making noise in theater, film, and television for 37 years. Her breakthrough arrived in 1987 when she originated the role of Truvy Jones in the initial off-Broadway production of “Steel Magnolias.” The work was steady, and Martindale almost always popped (she can claim ownership of one of filmdom’s most despicable characters ever as Hilary Swank’s vilely self-involved mother in “Million Dollar Baby”). But starting with her Primetime Emmy-winning portrayal of lethal moonshine merchant Mags Bennett during the second season of “Justified,” television has been her domain. Other defining roles: “The Americans,” “The Good Wife,” and “Mrs. America.”

Duryea specialized in savagery, especially when the target was a woman. Shockingly, according to Duryea, this was very good for his career. “My fan mail goes up every time I tee off on a girl,” he once said. “Women seem to go for my kind of villain. I asked a psychologist friend why and he said he didn’t know why, they just did.” You’re not going to glean any insight into this troubling phenomenon by watching his movies, but you will get to watch one of cinema’s most dastardly villains in some stone cold classics. Defining roles: “Scarlet Street,” “Criss Cross,” “The Woman in the Window,” “Ball of Fire,” and “Winchester 73.”

We shall invoke the Borgnine Paradox here as we note that, yes, Harry Dean Stanton starred in “Paris, Texas” (and probably should’ve won a Best Actor Oscar, too). Still, he was every ounce a character actor. Stanton was renowned for his oddball performances in cult classics like “Repo Man” and “Wild at Heart,” but the man was capable of tremendous warmth and humanity. He’s one of the great movie dads in “Pretty in Pink,” and, in tandem with Richard Farnsworth, delivers a moment of uncommon grace at the end of “The Straight Story.” Defining roles: “Paris, Texas,” “Repo Man,” “The Straight Story,” “Straight Time,” “Alien.”

The great tragedy of Beulah Bondi’s career arrived in 1939 when John Ford gave the coveted role of Ma Joad to Jane Darwell over Bondi in “The Grapes of Wrath.” Eventually, it all worked out, and I’ll go so far as to say the matter broke in Bondi’s favor. Jean Renoir cast her as an ornery matriarch in his 1945 American classic “The Southerner,” which I find earthier and less preachy than Ford’s movie. That Bondi lost a mother role in the first place was a shocker; it was her speciality (especially for Frank Capra), and allowed her to play significantly older than her age in one of the finest movies ever made. Defining roles: “Make Way for Tomorrow,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Our Town,” “Street Scene.”