Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

CHARACTER ACTORS
In the casting hierarchy of most films leading men and
leading ladies are at the top, followed by actors who
populate the cast by colorfully but realistically embodying
a range of characters. In films and television virtually
all actors below the rank of star and above bit players are
supporting actors, although not necessarily all are character
actors. The term is ambiguous: to many it is an
honor to be called a character actor, as it suggests fully
developed skills that enable the actor to play almost any
part within limits. It also suggests experience and seasoning,
often on stage, film, and television, as in the phrase,
‘‘veteran character actor.’’ But to others, it seems a slight,
a designation of subordinate rank.
Moreover, the terms ‘‘character actor’’ and ‘‘supporting
actor’’ are often confused with each other, although
there are clear distinctions between them. A supporting
actor plays a role subsidiary to the leads in terms of
narrative centrality and screen time. Throughout film
history many actors being groomed for stardom, or those
who just miss out on the star rank, have played supporting
parts, including Macdonald Carey (1913–1994) in
Shadow of a Doubt (1943); Teresa Wright (1918–2005)
in Mrs. Miniver (1942) and Best Years of Our Lives
(1946); Gig Young (1913–1978) in Teacher’s Pet
(1958); Tony Randall (1920–2004) in Pillow Talk
(1959); Colin Farrell (b. 1976) in Minority Report
(2002); Alec Baldwin (b. 1958) in Pearl Harbor (2001)
and The Aviator (2004). These are lead types in supporting
roles. Yet within some films there is no question that
the actors are character actors—Thelma Ritter (1905–
1969) in Pillow Talk, and Patricia Collinge (1892–
1974), Henry Travers (1874–1965), Hume Cronyn
(1911–2003), and Wallace Ford (1898–1966) in
Shadow of a Doubt. The actors are marked by the eccentricity
of their appearances and voices and by the fact that
compared to those in the first list they have played a wide
range of characters in a great many films. The character
actor usually possesses ordinary, though distinctive, looks
and is marked by the ability to transform into such a
variety of characters that the character in each film, not
the actor (or the actor’s own personality), predominates.
This is why audiences often recognize character actors
without being able to name them, a ‘‘problem’’ that
Tony Randall probably never had. However, the film
industry does need star character actors for lead roles in
some films, such as Lon Chaney (1883–1930) or Charles
Laughton (1899–1962) as Quasimodo in The Hunchback
of Notre Dame (1923, 1939), David Strathairn (b. 1949)
as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck
(2005), or Philip Seymour Hoffman (b. 1967) as
Truman Capote in Capote (2005). The 2005 Academy
Awards Ò played out a full role reversal, with George
Clooney (b. 1961), a classic leading man type, winning
Supporting Actor (for Syriana, 2005), and Philip
Seymour Hoffman, a prototypical character actor, generally
in supporting roles, winning Best Actor, for Capote.
THE CLASSICAL STUDIO ERA
The star system that developed in the early decades of the
film industry prized certain highly photogenic men and
women of great physical beauty and charisma. Yet early
on, the public also took to its heart actors who were not
so much personalities as chameleons capable of creating a
range of characters. In the 1920s, Lon Chaney, ‘‘The
Man with the Thousand Faces,’’ intrigued audiences just
as much as Greta Garbo or Rudolph Valentino. The
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