50 Greatest Character Actors: 15 – 11

First off, my Mad Hot Ballroom review is up here. Layer Cake, also entering limited release this weekend, is here.

And now, on with the countdown…

(And keep those Walken entries coming!)

15. Brian Cox

Since 2000, Brian Cox has averaged 4.6 movies a year. He’ll be in 5 in ’05 and has two lined up already for ‘06, including the much-anticipated Running with Scissors (big shock, he’ll be playing an authority figure). This decade, Cox has been so ubiquitous, and so consistently welcome, that my reaction at this point upon seeing him in a film is to yell out “Norm!”

Two decades ago, however, he gave a performance that still holds its own against one of the great performances of legend. His Hannibal Lecter may not overshadow Anthony Hopkins’, but more to the point, Hopkins’ Lecter doesn’t overshadow Cox’s (especially if you limit yourself to Manhunter and Red Dragon, the truest points of comparison).

Check out: X2, Adaptation, 25th Hour, Rushmore, The Ring, The Bourne Supremacy, Manhunter, L.I.E., The Boxer, Rob Roy

14. William H. Macy

When I saw William H. Macy in Seabiscuit, which came out in the Summer ‘03, I said, “There goes the first Best Supporting Actor performance of the year.” I was wrong, but, you know, it shoulda been. You know what got me? He’s sitting at the track sipping a martini or whiskey or some drink at some ungodly early hour in the day and he looks up and sees Jeff Bridges or whoever there, nods, and says, perfectly deadpan, “Hair of the dog.”

Lost my shit.

And you know what else? The Philo Farnsworth speech he gives to the execs on Sports Night. Or the shorter, more clipped speech he gives the employees one episode earlier. “You shouldn’t think that just because I’m looking at you while you’re talking to me, that I’m necessarily listening to or caring about what you’re saying. It’s just something I do to be polite.” Great writing? Sure. But the delivery is vital.

Or the verbal switchbladery of State and Main: “Who designed these costumes? It looks like Edith Head puked, and that puke designed these costumes.”

He does so much with so little. But it’s not just quippy dexterity that puts him here. It’s also Fargo. Magnolia. The out and out losers who wouldn’t last two seconds with the other guys he’s played. Few other actors can portray the wolf and the sheep with equal conviction.

Check out: Fargo, Magnolia, ER, Door to Door, Boogie Nights, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, State and Main, Panic, Sports Night, Happy, Texas, A Civil Action, Mystery Men

13. John Turturro

John Turturro has made a career out of playing the working class, dark corner of the street, urban (and sometimes country) regular Joes just trying to get they’s. But he does comedy, too. Is “Nobody fucks wit’ da Jesus” any less memorable than Pino in Do the Right Thing? He also does nebbish remarkably well. Pino would eat Barton Fink alive.

I guess what I’m saying is, when the Coen Brothers put you in 4 of their movies and Spike Lee puts you in 7, you’ve probably got something on the ball.

Check out: The Big Lebowski, Miller’s Crossing, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Do the Right Thing, Barton Fink, Quiz Show, Rounders, Fearless, Clockers, Cradle Will Rock, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Jungle Fever, Gung Ho

(For Spike completists, he was also in Mo’ Better Blues, Girl 6, and She Hate Me)

12. Joan Allen

The sad fact is that most female roles in Hollywood are supportive. There’s nothing wrong with being supportive, but when 90% of the roles are there to define someone else, it gets frustrating. Joan Allen has played the wife, the love interest, the supporter many, many times. But what she’s done is to create characters that exist outside their counterparts.

She’s become the better half, just as interesting without the man she’s supposed to support. A fascinating persona on her own terms. Probably the most successful of these turns is her Pat Nixon. She’s interesting enough to have her own movie, making each of her scenes a treat. And to steal presence from Anthony Hopkins is no mean feat. And Nic Cage, John Travolta, William H. Macy, Gary Oldman, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Kline. She doesn’t hold her own with them. They hold their own with her.

Check out: Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Ice Storm, Pleasantville, The Bourne Supremacy, Manhunter, Face/Off, The Contender, Nixon, Tucker: The Man and His Dream

11. Benicio Del Toro

If Miles Davis were a character actor, he’d be Benicio Del Toro. The epitome of cool in Traffic, The Way of the Gun, and The Hunted, he’s also not afraid to experiment with bloated (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), tortured (21 Grams), or Alicia Silvestone (Excess Baggage). Being an anti-hero never looked so attractive.

Although not definitive (that would be Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez in Traffic – Coolest. Name. Ever.), his turn in The Usual Suspects may be his most memorable. He takes what could have been a throwaway role and makes it his own. Fenster’s accent and mannerisms are completely the invention of Del Toro, inspired in part by Dustin Hoffman in Dick Tracy.

Check out: The Usual Suspects, Sin City, 21 Grams, Snatch, Traffic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Swimming with Sharks, Fearless, The Way of the Gun