Who's your favorite supporting actor?

[OnePimpTiger]

Something last night made me think of mine and how little credit he gets for his great performances, so I thought I would start a thread to show a little respect and gratitude to our favorite supporting actors who don't get all the limelight that the big names do. This isn't for people like Tom Cruise who had a supporting part in Tropic Thunder...that's a big name guy in one supporting role. I'm talking about the people who never (or very rarely) get the leads, the people who are always in a supporting role, get very little credit, but are great at what they do.

Mine is Stephen Root. You probably don't know the name, but let me tell you a few things he's done. He had a ton of one-time bit parts and tiny roles from 1988-1999, starting with a small role in Crocodile Dundee II, until he became a cult icon, then he started getting great roles:

Office Space (1999) .... Milton Waddams
"NewsRadio" .... Jimmy James (97 episodes, 1995-1999)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) .... Radio Station Man
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) .... Gordon
"King of the Hill" .... Bill Dauterive / ... (164 episodes, 1997-2009)
"Tripping the Rift" .... Chode (39 episodes, 2004-2007)
"American Dad!" .... Dick / ... (7 episodes, 2005-2007)
No Country for Old Men (2007) .... Man who hires Wells

And those are just some of the highlights. He's acted in 132 different projects since 1988. For somebody who's done as many projects and as many good projects as he has, the guy gets little to no credit. Well I love him, his roles are some of my favorites in each of his projects.

An honorable mention for me: Tom Sizemore

84 projects since 1989, but not one good lead role (a few bad ones though)...but repeatedly in great movies as a great supporting actor:
Born on the Fourth of July (1989) .... Vet - Villa Dulce
Point Break (1991) .... DEA Agent Deets
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) .... Chance Wilder
True Romance (1993) .... Cody Nicholson
Wyatt Earp (1994) .... Bat Masterson
Natural Born Killers (1994) .... Det. Jack Scagnetti
Heat (1995) .... Michael Cheritto
Saving Private Ryan (1998) .... Sgt. Mike Horvath
Enemy of the State (1998) (uncredited) .... Boss Paulie Pintero
Black Hawk Down (2001) .... McKnight


So there are my two favs, who are yours?

[jaybird_1981]

I like John Turturro a lot.

[OnePimpTiger]

I like John Turturro a lot.

Very good call:

The Color of Money (1986) .... Julian
Miller's Crossing (1990) .... Bernie Bernbaum
The Big Lebowski (1998) .... Jesus Quintana!!!!...a cult icon in itself
Rounders (1998) .... Joey Knish
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) .... Pete
Anger Management (2003) .... Chuck
Transformers (2007) .... Agent Simmons

[Rockman]

Whenever I have this conversation about character actors the first four are always the same.

Stephen Root
Tom Sizemore
John Turturro
Michael Madsen

Sadly Madsen and Sizemore are mainly making B movies now with the occasional supporting role in an A movie.

Sizemore would be an A lister if it wasnt for his drug addictions and other legal troubles.

Stephen Root is my favorite though. Jimmy James may be my favorite T.V Character of all time.

[jaybird_1981]

Whenever I have this conversation about character actors the first four are always the same.

Stephen Root
Tom Sizemore
John Turturro
Michael Madsen

Sadly Madsen and Sizemore are mainly making B movies now with the occasional supporting role in an A movie.

Sizemore would be an A lister if it wasnt for his drug addictions and other legal troubles.

Stephen Root is my favorite though. Jimmy James may be my favorite T.V Character of all time.

Yeah News Radio was a great show. If Hartman hadn't died I think it would have lasted a lot longer.

[Rockman]

Yeah News Radio was a great show. If Hartman hadn't died I think it would have lasted a lot longer.

The show was dieing regardless, it never got good ratings and although critics loved it, it didn't win many awards.

Another character actor I forgot about....

Danny Trejo. Never more than bit parts but I love him. (No homo)

[OnePimpTiger]

Whenever I have this conversation about character actors the first four are always the same.

Stephen Root
Tom Sizemore
John Turturro
Michael Madsen

Sadly Madsen and Sizemore are mainly making B movies now with the occasional supporting role in an A movie.

Sizemore would be an A lister if it wasnt for his drug addictions and other legal troubles.

Stephen Root is my favorite though. Jimmy James may be my favorite T.V Character of all time.

God bless Jimmy James...he made a really good show great.

I can see Madsen, but I've just never liked the guy. He has been in some great movies though...I didn't realize how many until I looked at his IMDB:

WarGames (1983) .... Steve Phelps
The Natural (1984) .... Bartholomew 'Bump' Bailey
Thelma & Louise (1991) .... Jimmy
Reservoir Dogs (1992) .... Mr. Blonde - Vic Vega
Wyatt Earp (1994) .... Virgil Earp
Donnie Brasco (1997) .... Sonny Black
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) .... Budd
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) .... Budd - 'Sidewinder'
Sin City (2005) .... Bob

But he's been in a lot of bad ones too. And talk about prolific: 169 acting projects since 1982, 15 in 2008, and currently has 23 in production for release between now and 2010. You'd think this guy needs a paycheck bad. There's something about him that I just can't stand...no doubt he belongs in this conversation though.

Good call on Danny Trejo too...been in some great ones. Liked you said, mostly really small parts. I love him in Bubble Boy.

[Rockman]

Im a little upset when listing some credits for Madsen you didn't put Free Willy up on the list.

Honestly Im not a fan of Madsen or Sizemore, those are just names that always come up. I enjoy them in certain movies (IE Saving pvt Ryan.) but I could care less if they are in a movie I want to see. I read an interview once about why Madsen was in so many crappy movies. I forget the quote but it came down to "I have 5 kids, and I need to provide." And I remember thinking....if you actually had some direction with your career, you could be making 1-5 mill a picture, you were once a respected actor.

He will do anything, no matter how bad as long as you pay him. (Same with Danny Trejo but he just oozes cool.)

[OnePimpTiger]

Im a little upset when listing some credits for Madsen you didn't put Free Willy up on the list.

Honestly Im not a fan of Madsen or Sizemore, those are just names that always come up. I enjoy them in certain movies (IE Saving pvt Ryan.) but I could care less if they are in a movie I want to see. I read an interview once about why Madsen was in so many crappy movies. I forget the quote but it came down to "I have 5 kids, and I need to provide." And I remember thinking....if you actually had some direction with your career, you could be making 1-5 mill a picture, you were once a respected actor.

He will do anything, no matter how bad as long as you pay him. (Same with Danny Trejo but he just oozes cool.)

I was going to put Free Willy sarcastically, but then I thought someone might actually think it was a good movie...

I actually like Sizemore, or used to anyway. I wouldn't go see a movie just because he was in it, but if I saw he was in it, that brought the expectations up a little. During the 90's, he was probably the best supporting guy you could get, brought the whole quality of the cast up a notch.

[Rockman]

I was going to put Free Willy sarcastically, but then I thought someone might actually think it was a good movie...

You bite your tongue. Free Willy is a great movie, and the VHS came with a Michael Jackson music video. I remember thinking the first time I saw it on VHS and saw the music video "Something is wrong with that guy". I was probably four or five at the time, I watched the movie a few years ago and it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered.