All About Pocket Knives

After recently watching Wilford Brimley in the classic film Absence of Malice I started thinking about all the great movie character actors. You know, the ones that never get top billing, but you continually see them giving great acting performances. The movies would not be possible without them. Some of them are typecast into playing similar characters over and over, while others play different roles from film to film.

Some of my favorites in addition to Wilford Brimley include Elisha Cook, Harry Carey, Chill Wills, Charles Durning, Dan Duryea, Bruce Dern, Lewis Stone, Billie Burke, Hattie McDaniel, Edward Arnold, Eve Arden, Donald Pleasence, and Beulah Bondi. There are others but those come to mind (I can “see” others in my mind but can’t recall their names- unfortunately the fate of many character actors).

As you can see I’m a fan of old movies. Who are some of your favorite character actors?

Ken

Great idea for a thread, Ken. I watch TCM quite often and have my phone at hand to look up info on character actors. I read up on them, then promptly forget their names! I know the majority on your list and definitely agree with you. I will have more to add, but off the top of my head, how about......
Henry Travers, Sydney Greenstreet, Hume Cronyn, Guy Kibbee, the Irish guy ....Barry Fitzgerald (I think), and Dame May Whitty although she may be more mainstrean.

That’s what I’m talking about, Ike! Can’t believe I forgot the great Sydney Greenstreet. And Barry Fitzgerald. Those are two of my favorites. Also Frank Morgan, Jack Elam, Alan Hale, Ward Bond, Margaret Hamilton, and Peter Lorre.

Occasionally one of the great character actors hits it big in a role, like Ben Johnson in The Last Picture Show or Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (which also had Esther Rolle).

Can’t wait to see what others here come up with.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sat Dec 30, 2023 11:35 pm That’s what I’m talking about, Ike! Can’t believe I forgot the great Sydney Greenstreet. And Barry Fitzgerald. Those are two of my favorites. Also Frank Morgan, Jack Elam, Alan Hale, Ward Bond, Margaret Hamilton, and Peter Lorre.

Occasionally one of the great character actors hits it big in a role, like Ben Johnson in The Last Picture Show or Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (which also had Esther Rolle).

Can’t wait to see what others here come up with.

Ken

I would tune in to any movie with Frank Morgan, Alan Hale, or Peter Lorre.
How about Charles Bickford? What a memorable face to go along with some memorable performances.

I just rewatched The Wild Bunch last night. How about Dub Taylor, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones and I guess you could consider Warren Oates a character actor.

How about Lee Van Cleef one off the best Western badman of all time.

bighomer wrote: ↑Sun Dec 31, 2023 5:17 pm How about Lee Van Cleef one off the best Western badman of all time.

I always liked Jack Elam as a bad guy in westerns with his wild eye

Lee Van Cleef was a great one. Finally got some recognition thanks to those Clint Eastwood “Man With No Name” spaghetti westerns, like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. He was a great bad guy, hired gunslinger.

A few more of my favorites are Edward Everett Horton, C. Aubrey Smith and Cedrick Hardwicke, and Walter Brennan.
Brennan was probably one of the best known character actors, because of roles he played with John Wayne and Gary Cooper, plus having his own starring role in a television series, The Real McCoys.

Ken

I have been watching a lot of old western movies lately, though they have been mentioned Jack Elam, Strother Martin and Walter Brennan are definitely great character actors! Also one guy whose name I can't remember, he played Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction. He's a great character actor and used to be a dentist. He actually made my grandfather's dentures before he went to Hollywood. I just remembered his name, Edgar Buchanan. Saw him recently in an old John Wayne movie.

Harry Dean Stanton

Barry Corbin, from Lamesa, TX. He was in Lonesome Dove, Northern Exposure, Urban Cowboy, No Country for Old Men, Monte Walsh, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and is now in Yellowstone......just to name a few.

Hank Worden - played "Mose" in a bunch of John Ford / John Wayne movies.

Those are all great ones. Many like Harry Dean Stanton and Barry Corbin for example, had careers lasting decades. I’ll add Rip Torn, another Texan, as is Burton Gilliam. Michael J. Pollard, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Denver Pyle are some other good ones. I guess not being a star has its benefits - steady work instead of at the mercy of public whim.

Ken

Those are some good ones, Briscoe Darlin is certainly a memorable character.

I was watching TCM recently on one of their "film noir" nights, The movie was titled "Roadblock", pretty entertaining tale. I hadn't paid close attention to the cast and was about halfway through before I realized that one of the familiar looking characters was Milburn Stone. One could make quite a list with characters, regulars and guest stars, who appeared on "Gunsmoke".
Incidentally, the lady who played Larry Mondello's mother on "Leave it to Beaver", was a 1st cousin to Milburn Stone.

Slim Pickens, and William Demerest. I’m guessing most recognize Slim Pickens. Demerest appeared in over 100 movies but is probably best known for playing Uncle Charlie in the television sitcom My Three Sons

Ken

You guys are hitting all my favorites. Beulah Bondi is a favorite.
If you are going to mention William Demerest, you might want William Frawley who made a name on I Love Lucy, but you find him in a lot of movies too. The Lemon Drop Kid for one.

I never appreciated Buster Keaton until I started watching TCM. They spotlight the silent era from time to time.

Put me down for Eli Wallach and John C. Reilly.

Jesse Ralph played rich old ladies and Mary Wickes, the tall, eagle-nosed nurse or domestic. Both were great characters. J.O'.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:33 pm Jesse Ralph played rich old ladies and Mary Wickes, the tall, eagle-nosed nurse or domestic. Both were great characters. J.O'.

.....they are instantly recognizable.........and Margaret Dumont, who played the rich lady in a bunch of the Marx Brothers comedies.

I'm laughing now just thinking about those old birds. J.O'.

Mary Wicks was a real gem. Like a lot of character actors though she was mostly tyoecast. A victim of her looks I guess.

He goes back a ways but Gene Lockhart was another good one. Often played someone’s bumbling father. In “real life” he was the father of actress June Lockhart (Lassie, Lost in Space, etc).

Ken

You fellows are bringing up great names. Many of the older ones where contract workers under the old studio system. They didn't get the big money of the stars but they received a nice steady paycheck whether they were currently working or not.

Walter Brennan used to hold the record for receiving the most Oscars; I think it was 4. I always smile when I see Strother Martin. Years ago I met Everett E Horton on a San Francisco hotel elevator. Frank Morgan of course played the Wizard of Oz. J. Carrol Nash (sp?) played Indians, mobsters, and anything in between. We had so many talented actors.

Quick Steel wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2024 7:21 pm Years ago I met Everett E Horton on a San Francisco hotel elevator.

That would have been a good one to meet. I once met Telly Savalas on an elevator in the Sheraton Universal (LA) where he kept a suite to be near to Universal studios. Surprisingly, he wasn't a big man, as his Kojak character would lead one to believe.

Sterling Holloway, red-haired with that outrageous voice and Dickey Moore, who, I believe was a "Little Rascal". He played a deaf-mute town boy in a Robert Mitchum crime movie, "Out Of The Past" (?) with Kirk Douglas and the beautiful, Jane Greer. Alan Hale Sr. was also a big second banana to all the stars like Errol Flynn, Clark Gable. His son was the Captain on Gilligan's Island, J.O'.

Sterling Holloway is always a favorite of mine ever since the old Life of Riley television series (with William Bendix as Riley). Holloway was a regular on that series, which I loved watching when I was a youn’un. Holloway, with his trademark raspy voice was the voice of “Winnie the Pooh” and other characters in the Walt Disney cartoons. I saw him in some TCM movie recently, he played the hired hand on a farm, who was like a member of the family.

Ken

He was a classic character for sure! .......and Jane Greer was a classic beauty!