Photo: Walker Evans.
Movie faces all come from a heavenly organization - run by the gods of fate - known as Central Casting. All of the following actors were - by some twist of fate - born with faces and talents that could reliably, year after year, be inserted into a film in support of stars who were usually better known and better looking. But not always.
These actors all have one thing in common: they all fulfilled a certain 'look,' a certain type.
You want a maid for such and such a picture, get so and so. You want a cop? Get so and so. You want a henchman? Get so and so. You want a gangster? You want a ditzy housewife? You want a crazed murderer? You want a goofy professor? Get so and so and so and so...and so on and so on.
Those were the days.
I've already written a post regaling the work of ten of the best character actors ever. You can read it here, at this link. (In case you were wondering where Charles Lane and Edward Everett Horton are, they're in this first post.)
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Ten more superb Golden Age character actors:
1) Lionel Atwill (1885 - 1946).
I love the English actor, Lionel Atwill in his Charlie Chan pictures. Whenever he shows up on screen, you immediately suspect something nefarious is up. Yet, on the rare occasions when he played a good guy - he was able to do that with heart. Most especially as the local police magistrate, Inspector Krogh - he of the missing arm - in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. It was an iconic performance.
Maybe about to announce the end of the world?
2) Roscoe Karns (1891- 1970).
If you were making a picture and wanted a wise-cracking henchman, cop, reporter, or just general weisenheimer, American actor Roscoe Karns was your man. He had the perfect craggy face, voice and delivery and the best know-it-all, world weary look.
Karns starred in his own TV show in the fifties, playing private detective Rocky King.
Roscoe Karns and Clark Gable, probably in It Happened One Night (1934).
3) Erik Rhodes (1906 - 1990)
Erik Rhodes majored in empty headed gigolos. He always gave off a very continental air, though he was born in Oklahoma. In THE GAY DIVORCEE he played the feckless Italian divorce correspondent, Rudolfo Tonetti, hired to compromise Ginger Rogers - to hasten her divorce from as unlikely a husband as a Ginger Rogers character ever had.
In TOP HAT, Rhodes played Alberto Beddini, a clueless fashion designer who wants to marry his model, Ginger Rogers. My favorite line in the film is sung by Beddini as he gazes into a mirror: "Oh Beddini, I'm so glad you're not skinny." Ha! Everything Rhodes did was funny. He just had that sort of persona.
In TOP HAT, Rhodes played Alberto Beddini, a clueless fashion designer who wants to marry his model, Ginger Rogers. My favorite line in the film is sung by Beddini as he gazes into a mirror: "Oh Beddini, I'm so glad you're not skinny." Ha! Everything Rhodes did was funny. He just had that sort of persona.
Three 'greats': Erik Rhodes, Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore.
4) Una O'Connor (1880 - 1959)
Once seen, never forgotten. The Irish actress, Una O'Connor, solidified her screen presence in The Invisible Man, as the finicky, dithery, screechy and very frightened pub owner's wife.
But she was also quite wonderful as Maid Marian's (Olivia de Havilland) lady-in-waiting in The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and wore some gorgeous costumes to boot.
But she was also quite wonderful as Maid Marian's (Olivia de Havilland) lady-in-waiting in The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and wore some gorgeous costumes to boot.
Olivia de Havilland and Una O'Connor in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
5) Ian Hunter (1900 - 1975)
Though born in South Africa, Ian Hunter, personified for me, the typical stalwart Englishman. He could play the lawyer, the doctor, the professor, the soldier, the best friend or the conniving blackmailer with just the slightest twitch of his photogenic face.
Though not as well-known as many other character actors working at this time, he will always and forever be in my heart as Richard the Lionheart alongside Errol Flynn in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. He appears in my favorite scene in the movie, as a king just back from the Crusades, stealthily meeting up with Robin and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest. From that moment on (for me) all kings in films were measured against Hunter's calm, confident, aristocratic and utterly gorgeous monarch.
Ian Hunter as King Richard in The Adventures of Robin Hood.
6) Jack Elam (1920 - 2003)
If you wanted sleazy, most especially if you wanted ugly, sinister, cruel and sleazy, then Jack Elam was your man. For many years, this actor's face meant uh-oh, whenever he showed up on screen, usually in westerns but occasionally in noir crime flicks.
He'd lost an eye in an accident when he was a boy, and this loss gave his face a kind of lop-sided unevenness which only added to his almost comically sinister appearance. No good could come of a situation once Jack Elam entered the scene. His grin alone made me shiver. We always whooped it up whenever he got his comeuppance in a movie.
That unforgettable sinister stare.
7) Walter Brennan (1894 - 1974)
Walter Brennan was another ubiquitous character actor who seemed to show up in every movie ever made, kind of like Charles Lane, but more well known. Brennan's roles were usually bigger than Lane's, both working around the same time. Brennan was a type - the old (even when he was young) geezer with or without his dentures - the grandfather, the sidekick, the homesteader, the prospector, the wrangler, the old sea salt or, in some cases, the grizzly bad guy. Without his teeth, he often looked vulnerable and much older than he actually was.
Walter Brennan was the recipient of three Academy Awards - all for Best Supporting Actor.
8) Mary Wickes (1910 - 1995)
Another memorable face. She played a great nurse and did it often. She was also a great housewife neighbor, a busy-body gossip, a long suffering secretary, a teacher or better yet, a principal...well, you name it, Mary Wickes could handle it. I remember her best from her first role as a nurse in The Man Who Came To Dinner.
Among the many films, Wickes worked on, I also remember her with Abbott and Costello in Who Done It? Later, on television, she worked with good friend Lucille Ball on several of her shows plus many others.
Such a look. Such bedside manner.
9) Jerome Cowan (1897 - 1972)
The poor man's aristocrat. He could play the conniving second lead as well as anyone. He could also play it straight and had a nice comedic touch. As Miles Archer in the film classic, The Maltese Falcon, he was Sam Spade's (Humphrey Bogart) sleazy, murdered partner.
He played snobby publishers and literary types very well. He had that look about him that said he knew about books and might occasionally, even read one. When I thought eastern literati, Jerome Cowan sprang to mind. There was an aura of weakness in his face that I think, kept him from making the leap to leading man. But boy could he deliver a funny, sparkling line.
Cowan always looked relaxed in black tie.
10) James Gleason (1882 - 1959)
Another actor seemingly born to play New York cops with short fuses. He was always the grumbly sort who apparently never appeared without a hat. Gleason co-wrote an Academy Award winning film, The Broadway Melody, before he evolved into a busy character actor. He co-starred in six Hildegarde Withers films beginning with The Penguin Pool Murders.
A disbelieving cop in Arsenic and Old Lace.
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