Old Timey Character Actors You Love

Thelma Ritter.

Reta Shaw

John Hoyt

George Macready

I loved George Macready as Martin Peyton on Peyton Place and his various characters on Perry Mason.

R4, me too. Love him in everything, especially Gilda

Perfecto Telles

M. Emmet Walsh

Margaret Hamilton

And Eli Wallach

Gregory Ratoff. I love the way he talked.

Eli Wallach is just electrifying - I know he’s a character actor, but he has the charisma and talent of a leading man.

Aline Macmahon

Wallach was amazing in The Victors, one of the most uncompromising antiwar films ever.

What was so great about Reta Shaw was that she could play both the broad and the rich, conservative "well I never lady" depending on the show.

Simon Oakland..brilliant at both straight dramatic roles (ie Bullitt) to over the top comedic (Kolchak The Night Stalker).

But can Christina Hendricks, r13?

Who doesn't love S.Z. *Cuddles* Sakall?

Burt Mustin a great old man character

Charles Lane comedic curmudgeon most famous as Homer Bedlow on Petticoat Junction

Glenn Ford. Oh yes sir!

Alice Ghostley

Sidney Greenstreet. Such a great man of mystery! Imposing and intelligent.

Doris Packer

R20, love him!

r187 Glenn Ford was most definitely NOT a character actor.

Elvia Allman

Amzie Strickland

Hope Emerson

Harriet MacGibbon

Hope Summers

Marjorie Bennett

Jesslyn Fax

Norma Varden

Josephine Hull. I loved her in Harvey.

Edward Arnold in The Devil and Daniel Webster. Does anyone else like that movie?

Edna Mae Oliver.

Hope Emerson - bless that butch gal!

Madge Blake

Hope was just a saloon kind of gal.

Hope also did Broadway...

Leonid Kinsky

The beloved Verna Felton...

Eleanor Audley

All these threads and no Mary Wickes?

Iris Adrian

Thelma Todd

Lynn Bari

CZJ.

Gale Sondergaard.

Alice Pearce

Maria Ouspenskya.

Judith Evelyn

I 2nd Hope Emerson and Gladys Pearce. Also, Vivian Vance.

Frank Morgan. So many, many films!

The ultimate character actor imo is Burgess Meredith.

He seems to be able to everything.

Beulah Bondi

r47 Burgess also has the most embarrassing nude scene ever

Edward Everett Horton

Arthur Treacher, Marian Lorne, Elsa Lanchester

Franklin Pangborn

Peter Lorre

Florence Bates. Her scene begins at 3:20 in the clip below.

All in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film, The Gay Divorcee: Edward Everett Horton, Alice Brady, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes.

They really elevated that film.

Before she did the soap, Constance Ford was a great character actor.

R11 Total agreement. Are you the poster that corrected the spelling of her name the last time there was a thread on this?

Maybe..., r57?

Walter Brennan

Carmen Mathews

Kathleen Freeman. :)

George Kennedy. He was in a ton of '70s movies. He seemed to be in all of them. He always played a crusty character.

Then, in the '80s, out of nowhere, he showed up in an infomercial with a bunch of young people, telling the young ones how to keep their breath fresh with Breath Asure.

Jackie Gleason, particularly for his role as Sheriff Buford T. Justice.

Rod Serling. I was into Night Gallery as a youngster. I didn't watch "Twilight Zone" until it was in reruns.

Glenn Close

[quote] Sidney Greenstreet. Such a great man of mystery! Imposing and intelligent.

And he seemed like he’d be just delightful at all times.

Claude Rains

The melodramatic and absurdist genius Marie Dressler

Agnes Moorehead

Eli Wallach was wonderful, and really fucking cute in "The Holiday", which I believe DL collectively hates, but I love.

I just had this discussion with a theatre & film scholar friend. I told him it didn't seem that there were that many really great character actors around anymore. But he reminded me of the influence of the disintegration of the studio system. They're all on their own. This makes sense of course, but it just isn't the same.

Most directors had a list of favorite character actors, which they drew upon for different projects. Billy Wilder's films are great for this. And there's a few really good character actors in this weird 1969 Jack Lemmon/Catherine Deneuve/Myrna Loy/Peter Lawford romance called "The April Fools", which is a film I suspect most DLers know, but I only just saw last weekend. But "weird" films were a dime a dozen at that point. Especially with The French New Wave having made an impression.

Irene Ryan

Mary Treen

Maudie Prickett

Alice Backes

Nancy Kulp

Ann Tyrell

Zasu Pitts

Ann B. Davis

Selma Diamond

BROCK PETERS

Lurene Tuttle

Una Merkel

Cathleen Nesbitt Mildred Natwick Anne Revere Billie Burke

Definitely Millie Natwick.

Edward Everett Horton

"Murder By Death" edition:

- Estelle Winwood

- Elsa Lanchester (already mentioned)

- Nancy Walker

- Eileen Brennan

Mae Questel

Oh, shut up.

I liked Lawrence Tierney on Reservoir Dogs. He was the dad to Chris Penn's track-suited character.

I also like Frank Sutton, Sarge on Gomer Pyle.

Zazu Pitts

The one...

The only...

Charlotte Greenwood

Binnie Barnes

Eve Arden

Hermione Gingold

Jane Darwell

Edward Andrews

Gladys Cooper

Fay Bainter

Judith Anderson

Lionel Barrymore

Dame May Whitty

John Carradine

Charles Coburn

Charles Ruggles

Hermione Baddelly!

Too young for Old Timey, but I absolutely love the actor Beth Grant. She can do comedy or drama or both combined. And while she's more of a star nowadays, Margo Martindale is always sublime.

Anne Seymour

Dewey Robinson and his eyebrows.

Fyvush Finkel