"outstanding" obscure actor/actress

After years of seeing movies, I find some talented actors/actresses always can become the roles they play in the movies. They are so good because they don’t stand out prominently. (It seems a weird statement but that’s my idea.) I often see them showing up in various movies but I am not aware of who they are. I can only find out who they are after I did some research online.
Here are some actors I cam remember. There must be other talents I can’t remember.

John C. Reilly in Boogie Nights

William H. Macy in Fargo

Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski

[quote=“kate.lin”]After years of seeing movies, I find some talented actors/actresses always can become the roles they play in the movies. They are so good because they don’t stand out prominently. (It seems a weird statement but that’s my idea.) I often see them showing up in various movies but I am not aware of who they are. I can only find out who they are after I did some research online.
Here are some actors I cam remember. There must be other talents I can’t remember.

John C. Reilly in Boogie Nights

William H. Macy in Fargo

Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski
[/quote]

Both Macy and Buscemi are well-resepected in the acting community, and do quite well. They’re A-list character actors.

John C. Riley

I really like Don Cheadle

Kate, every one of those actors you listed are A-listers – they’re hugely high-profile and hugely respected and talented. Very far indeed from being obscure.

If it’s obscurity you’re looking for, what about that guy… can’t remember his name. He was in … let’s see … nope, title escapes me. Anyway, here’s his pic … nope, sorry, can’t find one.

I agree. Heck, I can’t even recognize most non-obscure actors.

[quote=“sandman”]Kate, every one of those actors you listed are A-listers – they’re hugely high-profile and hugely respected and talented. Very far indeed from being obscure.

If it’s obscurity you’re looking for, what about that guy… can’t remember his name. He was in … let’s see … nope, title escapes me. Anyway, here’s his pic … nope, sorry, can’t find one.[/quote]Here he is:

I thought Joaquin Phoenix did an outstanding job as Commodus and outshined Russell Crowe.

TycOOn wrote: [quote]I thought Joaquin Phoenix did an outstanding job as Commodus and outshined Russell Crowe. [/quote]
He did a good job but i don’t think he outshone Crowe. This is probably another case of your anti-NZ bias and you’re obsession with all things Kiwi.

And he’s hardly obscure, either.

If we’re getting picky about spelling, its Tyc00n, rather than TycOOn.

But even this New Zealander is a better actor than Crowe:

Cook me some Fookin Eggs woman!

Jake the Muss. Don’t need no stinkin’ hotlinked picture to know that.

Oops! My film experience is not good enough to know they are memebers of A-list club. But they are really not household name in Taiwan.

Maybe they’re not pretty enough. I think Taiwanese like pretty. Steve Buscemi is no Brad Pitt. In fact he’s quite goofy looking.

You can say that again:

I think Catherine Keener is a very good actress. Is she still obscure? Cos I would have said that up until a few years ago John C Reilly was fairly obscure. But by that standard ditto Ian McKellen and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Is there a point at which their talent outstrips their obscurity, and they are no longer obscure?

Are these people obscure? I think they put in good performances…

Dave Sheridan
John Carrol Lynch
William Sadler
Amanda Peet
Clea DuVall
William Hootkins (Red six in Star Wars. Check his career out!)

There are too many good obscure actors out there, and, good or not, we don’t know enough about them to even talk about them. They’re obscure, after all.

Hey, maybe we should start on “Good Actors who are not really good looking”.

Danny de Vito?
Rowan Atkinson?
Magda Szubanski?

Christopher Penn was all that. Never a leading man. But always good.

Brad Dourif, Wormtongue in LOTR. :slight_smile:

But I think his representive film is John Huston’s Wise Blood.

Vincent Gallo is a great character actor - check him in Buffalo '66. Think he still counts as obscure …

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