Your Favorite Character Actors

[Assassin32]

Will Patton
Sid Haig
David Keith
James Rebhorn
Craig T. Nelson
John C. Reily
Tim Curry
Robert Forster
Dylan Baker
Blake Clark
Christopher MacDonald
Michael Rooker
Jay O. Sanders
Danny Trejo
Mark Boone Junior
Bill Duke
Michael Bowen
Giancarlo Esposito
R. Lee Ermey
Michael Parks
Eric Roberts
Kevin Pollack
Henry Gibson
John C. McGinley
Gary Cole
William Fichner
Wes Studi
Edward Herrman
Joe Morton
Pete Postlethwaite
Richard Jenkins
Ken Foree
William Forsythe
David Strathairn
Powers Boothe
Saul Rubinek
Ethan Suplee
Charles Martin Smith
Bill Nunn

I love character actors. Name some other badasses.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Denzel Washington

 

[Octoberist]

Johnny Depp

Gary Oldman

Benico Del Toro

 

[thealiasman2000]

Characters often played by actors:

-Christopher Walken: the creepy, foreboding crazy guy

-Christopher Lee: the bad guy

-Jim Carrey: the overacting, hyperkinetic idiot (this is more evident went he tries to take himself seriously)

-Tilda Swinton: anything that's not human

-Patrick Stewart: the wise, British bald guy

-Adam Sandler: the immature, childish idiot

-Eddie Murphy: the funny, loud, rambicous black guy

-Arnold Schwarzenegger: the muscle-bound badass that blows the **** out of bad guys

-Sarah Michelle Gellar: anything that drives someone with more than one brain cell into a crazed frenzy

-Alan Rickman: the uptight, nanal-retentive British guy

-Danny Trejo: the stereotypical Mexican gang member/criminal

-Robert DeNiro: the mobster/mob boss

-Chazz Palminitieri: the evilier-than-the-rest-of-the-mobsters mob boss

-Alan Cumming: imitates Paul Reubens

 

[BT18]

Johnny Depp

Gary Oldman

Benico Del Toro

Johnny Depp hasn't played a clear character part since Before Night Falls, which filmed 7 or 8 years ago, and he doesn't have one lined up for the next couple years with 'Pirates 2 & 3, Shantaram, and The Rum Diary. Gary Oldman could relatively acurately be called a character actor. Benicio certainly looks to be transitioning out of that, but he's still most known for character parts. Johnny Depp CERTAINLY isn't one. He's an A-plus-list, leading man. The most versatile one perhaps, the coolest one perhaps, but certainly not a character actor. Denzel Washington might be even less a character actor than Depp.
---

the first few who come to mind for me are

Keith David

Noah Emmerich

and Nicky Katt

 

[XwolverineX]

Johnny Depp is my hero.

 

[GoldGoblin]

-Anna Faris
-Ryan Reynolds
-Tobey Maguire
-Topher Grace
-Tom Hanks
-Harrison Ford
-Christian Bale
-Morgan Freeman
-Bruce Willis
-Bryce Dallas Howard
-Tony Todd
-Val Kilmer
-David Spade
-Owen Wilson
-Ben Stiller
-Will Ferrell
-Kevin James
-Terry O'Quinn
-Vince Vaughn
-Bruce Campbell

 

[My vengeance]

Joe Pesci is easily my favorite.

 

[BT18]

-Anna Faris
-Ryan Reynolds
-Tobey Maguire
-Topher Grace
-Tom Hanks
-Harrison Ford
-Christian Bale
-Morgan Freeman
-Bruce Willis
-Bryce Dallas Howard
-Tony Todd
-Val Kilmer
-David Spade
-Owen Wilson
-Ben Stiller
-Will Ferrell
-Kevin James
-Terry O'Quinn
-Vince Vaughn
-Bruce Campbell

the only people on that list who are character actors are Morgan Freeman, Tony Todd, Terry O'Quinn, and Bruce Campbell.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Joe Pesci is easily my favorite.

Yes. He's awesome.

Christopher Walken is great aswell.

 

[green]

Brad Douriff

 

[Silver Sable]

Jim Carrey
Arnold Schwartzenegger
Sam L.Jackson
Brad Dourif
Hayden Christensen
James Franco
Willem Dafoe
Eric Stoltz
Johnny Depp
Orlando Bloom
Morgan Freeman
Robert Duvall
Antonio Banderas
Jake Gyllenhaal
Dennis Quaid
Hank Azaria
Al Pacino

 

[JackBauer]

where the hell is the love for Reginald VelJohnson?!

 

[Halcohol]

Brad Douriff

Good call. He's always got the creepy, sinister, serial-killer vibe about him. Even when he did his guest appearance on Voyager he was, in the end, the murderer.

Same with Eric Stoltz. You just can't trust the pale red-headed guy, ever

To keep with the Pulp Fiction vibe, a lot of the actors starring in it were perfect examples of great character actors:

1. Samuel L. Jackson
2. Uma Thurman
3. Ving Rhames
4. Harvey Keitel

I don't include John Travolta or Bruce Willis in this list because honestly, Travolta's had some god-awful characters and got his claim to fame by being able to sing & dance. Bruce Willis plays the same character all the time, the tired, reluctant, bitter hero. I WOULD have put Steve Buscemi on this list, but he's more of a comedic actor than a real deep character actor. Go figure, huh

 

[SuperFerret]

Walken is awesome, but I've always thought Wayne Knight was one of the better unsung character actors.

 

[Assassin32]

James Woods
Debi Mazar
Fairuza Balk
Michael Ironside
Rutger Hauer
Fred Williamson
The late, great Chris Penn

 

[Sandman138]

 

[Kmack]

Johnny Depp
Harrison Ford
Uma Thurman
Robert DeNiro
Samuel L. Jackson
Tom Hanks
Sarah Michelle Gellar

 

[Warhammer]

My Top 5:

Christopher Walken.
Denzel Washington.
Harrison Ford.
Samuel L. Jackson.
Michael Ironside.

 

[Danger Mouse]

George Clooney.

And Leo DiCaprio's not so bad, either.

 

[Mr. Socko]

Characters often played by actors:

-Christopher Walken: the creepy, foreboding crazy guy

-Christopher Lee: the bad guy

-Jim Carrey: the overacting, hyperkinetic idiot (this is more evident went he tries to take himself seriously)

-Tilda Swinton: anything that's not human

-Patrick Stewart: the wise, British bald guy

-Adam Sandler: the immature, childish idiot

-Eddie Murphy: the funny, loud, rambicous black guy

-Arnold Schwarzenegger: the muscle-bound badass that blows the **** out of bad guys

-Sarah Michelle Gellar: anything that drives someone with more than one brain cell into a crazed frenzy

-Alan Rickman: the uptight, nanal-retentive British guy

-Danny Trejo: the stereotypical Mexican gang member/criminal

-Robert DeNiro: the mobster/mob boss

-Chazz Palminitieri: the evilier-than-the-rest-of-the-mobsters mob boss

-Alan Cumming: imitates Paul Reubens

LMAO! Perfect list.

 

[cerealkiller182]

DANNY TREJO. If you need a mexican hes your man!!!!!!!!!!

Also, a lot of ppl seem dont seem to be on agreement of character actors. When someone says character actors he usually refers to someone who has starred in many different roles and many different films whose name is prolly not on the poster. Think actors who have been in thousands of supporting roles and you recognize them all the time except you never know their name cause their not the star or the celeb. This prolly isnt the classic definition but most people think this more than the fact that Adam Snadler, Bruce Willis, and VIn Diesel play the same type of character in everything.

So far, the only person who really succeeded in being the all-time greatest character actor with resonable fame for his acting is Christopher Walken who everyone knows and loves.

 

[WorthyStevens]

where the hell is the love for Reginald VelJohnson?!

Carl Winslow!

 

[Warhammer]

Wow, I also forgot Willem Dafoe.
I really like him as an actor for some reason.

 

[Strange]

I WOULD have put Steve Buscemi on this list, but he's more of a comedic actor than a real deep character actor. Go figure, huh

Did you watch any of his acting on the Soprano's?