Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
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types with individuality and humanity, making them into<br />
differentiated characters.<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD<br />
Although character actors as a group are associated with<br />
the studio period, they are also valued in the New<br />
Hollywood. In the more naturalistic context <strong>of</strong> film acting<br />
since the 1960s, the ordinariness <strong>of</strong> character actors is<br />
their stock in trade, belying though it does their idiosyncrasy<br />
and frequently their range. In one evening at the<br />
movies in September 1979 Charles Durning (b. 1923)<br />
was seen in Starting Over, a film then being sneakpreviewed;<br />
in North Dallas Forty, the theater’s regular feature;<br />
and in the coming-attractions trailer for yet a third<br />
movie, When a Stranger Calls. Continuing this cyclical,<br />
generational theme, in 2002 John C. Reilly (b. 1965),<br />
the kind <strong>of</strong> supporting actor, who, like Mitchell and<br />
Durning, is called ‘‘dependable’’ by reviewers, had featured<br />
roles in three <strong>of</strong> the five Academy AwardÒ nominees<br />
for Best Picture: Chicago, The Hours, andGangs <strong>of</strong><br />
New York. The year before, Jim Broadbent (b. 1951), a<br />
‘‘reliable’’ British character actor, had played key roles<br />
alongside three <strong>of</strong> the Best Actress nominees, Judi Dench<br />
(b. 1934) in Iris, Nicole Kidman (b. 1967) in Moulin<br />
Rouge, and Renee Zellweger (b. 1969) in Bridget Jones’s<br />
Diary. After all this fine support, the least the Academy<br />
could do was name Broadbent the year’s Best Supporting<br />
Actor, which it did, for Iris. After films made them<br />
known, Durning, Reilly, and Broadbent all found on<br />
the stage, where each <strong>of</strong> them started, a fount <strong>of</strong> lead<br />
roles. Furthermore, Durning, a veteran <strong>of</strong> D-Day who<br />
continued to maintain a full work schedule in his<br />
eighties, also found television to be a steadier source <strong>of</strong><br />
meaty roles than the movies, just as Thomas Mitchell had<br />
five decades before.<br />
Very occasionally, actors have broken through to<br />
lead roles and stardom after years <strong>of</strong> character parts:<br />
examples are Walter Matthau (1920–2000), Lee Marvin<br />
(1924–1987), Tommy Lee Jones (b. 1946), Morgan<br />
Freeman (b. 1937), and Paul Giamatti (b. 1967).<br />
Others, such as Claude Rains (1899–1967), Kathy<br />
Bates (b. 1948), Mary Steenburgen (b. 1953), John<br />
Heard (b. 1946), Alfre Woodard (b. 1952), Ed Harris<br />
(b. 1950), and Jon Voight (b. 1938), receded into character<br />
roles after taking a run at stardom. Women, in the<br />
gender caste system <strong>of</strong> Hollywood, are more likely than<br />
men to fall from lead roles to character parts after age<br />
forty, and are much more likely to find work on television<br />
than in films.<br />
Character actors, unlike some stars, are usually<br />
equally adept at drama and comedy. The same qualities<br />
that make these actors effective as menacing heavies or<br />
pathetic victims can render them comic as well. For<br />
Character Actors<br />
Ed Harris in Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992).<br />
EVERETT COLLECTION. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.<br />
example, Durning, a skilled farceur, started in films<br />
playing tough cops and other gruff pr<strong>of</strong>essionals in<br />
The Sting (1973), The Front Page (1974), The<br />
Hindenburg (1975), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and<br />
others. A former ho<strong>of</strong>er, Durning was nominated for<br />
Best Supporting Actor, the only nomination accorded<br />
the musical comedy Best Little Whorehouse in Texas<br />
(1982), in which he appeared in a single scene as a<br />
prevaricating singing governor in a show-stopping number,<br />
‘‘Sidestep.’’ The same year he conveyed ardor, hurt<br />
feelings, and embarrassment, all with delicate comic<br />
timing, as a would-be suitor to Dustin H<strong>of</strong>fman-in-drag<br />
in Tootsie. Years later he played broad comedy in two<br />
Joel and Ethan Coen pastiches, The Hudsucker Proxy<br />
(1994) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) (as<br />
another dancing governor), which pay homage to the<br />
breakneck comedies <strong>of</strong> Capra and Preston Sturges<br />
(1898–1959) with their large retinues <strong>of</strong> character<br />
actors (<strong>of</strong>ten the same ones shared between them).<br />
Short, overweight, with a bulbous nose, Durning was<br />
probably born to play W. C. Fields in some never-tobe-made<br />
biopic, but will have to settle instead for the<br />
anti-Fields, Santa Claus, whom Durning has portrayed<br />
five times to date in TV films or movies made for the<br />
children’s video market, such as Elmo Saves Christmas<br />
(1996).<br />
SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM 249