Old Timey Character Actors You Love

I loved George Macready as Martin Peyton on Peyton Place and his various characters on Perry Mason.

R4, me too. Love him in everything, especially Gilda

Gregory Ratoff. I love the way he talked.

Eli Wallach is just electrifying - I know he’s a character actor, but he has the charisma and talent of a leading man.

Wallach was amazing in The Victors, one of the most uncompromising antiwar films ever.

What was so great about Reta Shaw was that she could play both the broad and the rich, conservative "well I never lady" depending on the show.

Simon Oakland..brilliant at both straight dramatic roles (ie Bullitt) to over the top comedic (Kolchak The Night Stalker).

But can Christina Hendricks, r13?

Who doesn't love S.Z. *Cuddles* Sakall?

Burt Mustin a great old man character

Charles Lane comedic curmudgeon most famous as Homer Bedlow on Petticoat Junction

Sidney Greenstreet. Such a great man of mystery! Imposing and intelligent.

r187 Glenn Ford was most definitely NOT a character actor.

Josephine Hull. I loved her in Harvey.

Edward Arnold in The Devil and Daniel Webster. Does anyone else like that movie?

Hope Emerson - bless that butch gal!

Hope was just a saloon kind of gal.

Hope also did Broadway...

The beloved Verna Felton...

All these threads and no Mary Wickes?

I 2nd Hope Emerson and Gladys Pearce. Also, Vivian Vance.

Frank Morgan. So many, many films!

The ultimate character actor imo is Burgess Meredith.

He seems to be able to everything.

r47 Burgess also has the most embarrassing nude scene ever

Arthur Treacher, Marian Lorne, Elsa Lanchester

Florence Bates. Her scene begins at 3:20 in the clip below.

All in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film, The Gay Divorcee: Edward Everett Horton, Alice Brady, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes.

They really elevated that film.

Before she did the soap, Constance Ford was a great character actor.

R11 Total agreement. Are you the poster that corrected the spelling of her name the last time there was a thread on this?

George Kennedy. He was in a ton of '70s movies. He seemed to be in all of them. He always played a crusty character.

Then, in the '80s, out of nowhere, he showed up in an infomercial with a bunch of young people, telling the young ones how to keep their breath fresh with Breath Asure.

Jackie Gleason, particularly for his role as Sheriff Buford T. Justice.

Rod Serling. I was into Night Gallery as a youngster. I didn't watch "Twilight Zone" until it was in reruns.

[quote] Sidney Greenstreet. Such a great man of mystery! Imposing and intelligent.

And he seemed like he’d be just delightful at all times.

The melodramatic and absurdist genius Marie Dressler

Eli Wallach was wonderful, and really fucking cute in "The Holiday", which I believe DL collectively hates, but I love.

I just had this discussion with a theatre & film scholar friend. I told him it didn't seem that there were that many really great character actors around anymore. But he reminded me of the influence of the disintegration of the studio system. They're all on their own. This makes sense of course, but it just isn't the same.

Most directors had a list of favorite character actors, which they drew upon for different projects. Billy Wilder's films are great for this. And there's a few really good character actors in this weird 1969 Jack Lemmon/Catherine Deneuve/Myrna Loy/Peter Lawford romance called "The April Fools", which is a film I suspect most DLers know, but I only just saw last weekend. But "weird" films were a dime a dozen at that point. Especially with The French New Wave having made an impression.

Cathleen Nesbitt Mildred Natwick Anne Revere Billie Burke

Definitely Millie Natwick.

"Murder By Death" edition:

- Estelle Winwood

- Elsa Lanchester (already mentioned)

- Nancy Walker

- Eileen Brennan

I liked Lawrence Tierney on Reservoir Dogs. He was the dad to Chris Penn's track-suited character.

I also like Frank Sutton, Sarge on Gomer Pyle.

Too young for Old Timey, but I absolutely love the actor Beth Grant. She can do comedy or drama or both combined. And while she's more of a star nowadays, Margo Martindale is always sublime.

Dewey Robinson and his eyebrows.

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