The Commendables

1. Donald Pleasence

Balding, quietly spoken, of slight build and possessed of piercing blue eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses -- Donald Pleasence had the essential physical attributes which make a great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished playing the ...

One of the true greats! So many know the face but forget the name...while his lead role in the Halloween series brought him late period popularity, his earlier roles in the Great Escape, You Only Love Twice, THX 1138, Will Penny and the underwhelming but interesting Death Line (1972) are also noteworthy.

2. Burgess Meredith

Actor | Clash of the Titans

One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star ...

Like Pleasance, Meredith was an extremely busy support player on both the big and small screens. Always a pleasure to catch him in something I haven't seen before.

3. Rutger Hauer

Actor | Hobo with a Shotgun

Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.

He was the son of Teunke ...

This Dutch actor is well known to American and European audiences, and has starred in too many good roles to list here. Arguably his most famous role is that of Roy Batty in "Blade Runner" (1982.

4. William H. Macy

Actor | Fargo

William Hall Macy Jr. is an American actor. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in mainstream films. Macy has won two Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, while his performance in Fargo earned a nomination for the ...

This terrific actor was once #10 on my Greatest Character Actors List which has proved to be quite popular here on the Imdb. I have decided to move Mr. Macy to this list as I've deemed him to be too notable for the aforementioned one.....the man still deserves an Oscar at some point down the line.....hopefully he'll get that one role that trumps Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo".

5. Paul Giamatti

Actor | Sideways

Paul Giamatti is an American actor who has worked steadily and prominently for over thirty years, and is best known for leading roles in the films American Splendor (2003), Sideways (2004), and Barney's Version (2010) (for which he won a Golden Globe), and supporting roles in the films Cinderella ...

Like William H. Macy before him, Giamatti was once ranked high on my "Underrated Actors (Great Character Actors) List", but I've deemed him to be notable enough to warrant inclusion on this list. This man has been nominated for an Oscar once, and gave a sterling performance as John Adams in the miniseries of the same name.....I also can say that his best role thus far has been that of the late Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor".

6. Ben Johnson

Actor | The Last Picture Show

Born in Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California. He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper ...

A Peckinpah regular and the best supporting actor Oscar winner of 1971. Also look for him in a late career role in Red Dawn (1984)

7. John Turturro

Actor | Fading Gigolo

Highly talented, lightly built American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy has become a favourite of cult/arthouse film aficionados with his compelling performances in a broad range of cinematic vehicles.

Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian-American parents, Katherine (...

Terrific leading and supporting player who won a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his role in "Barton Fink."

8. Steve Buscemi

Actor | Fargo

Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to...

Probably everyone knows this face. A versatile actor comfortable with both comedy and drama.

9. Walter Brennan

Actor | The Westerner

In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and ...

Three wins for best supporting actor. Enough said.

10. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actor | The Master

Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...

Adept at both serious drama and comedy films (ala the Big Lebowski and Patch Adams) This man deservedly won a best actor Oscar for his role in "Capote."

11. Jeff Daniels

Actor | The Squid and the Whale

Actor Jeff Daniels was born in Athens, Georgia, but was raised in Chelsea, Michigan. He is the son of Marjorie J. (Ferguson) and Robert Lee Daniels, who owned The Chelsea Lumber Company and was also mayor of Chelsea. Jeff attended Central Michigan University, but became involved in acting and ...

What can't this man do? From chick flicks (Terms of Endearment), to horror (Aracnophobia), to war (Gettysburg), to drama (Speed) to everything in between (Pleasantville and Dumb and Dumber)...the man is amazing!

12. Brian Cox

Actor | Succession

Brian Cox is an Emmy Award-winning Scottish actor. He was born on June 1, 1946 in Dundee, Scotland, to Mary Ann Guillerline Cox, maiden surname McCann, a spinner, and Charles McArdle Campbell Cox, a shopkeeper and butcher. His father was of Irish ancestry and his mother was of Irish and Scottish ...

This busy actor has become a familiar face to American audiences by making appearances in the Minus Man (1999), Super Troopers (2001), The Bourne Identity (2002), X2 (2003), Zodiac (2007) and Red (2010). He also is listed on my "Favorite British Actors" List", here on Imdb.

13. Stacy Keach

Actor | Escape from L.A.

Stacy Keach has played to grand success a constellation of the classic and contemporary stage's greatest roles, and he is considered a pre-eminent American interpreter of Shakespeare. His SRO run as "King Lear" at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. received the best reviews any ...

Reliable lead and character actor who has starred in plenty of good roles during his career, including Tully in "Fat City", Col. Kane in "The Ninth Configuration" and as Cameron, the elder statesman of hate in "American History X."

14. Dennis Hopper

Actor | Easy Rider

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a ...

15. Claude Rains

Actor | Casablanca

William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth...

16. Robert Shaw

Actor | Jaws

Robert Archibald Shaw was born on August 9, 1927, in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, the eldest son of Doreen Nora (Avery), a nurse, and Thomas Archibald Shaw, a doctor. His paternal grandfather was Scottish, from Argyll. Shaw's mother, who was born in Piggs Peak, Swaziland, met his father while...

17. Lee Van Cleef

Actor | Escape from New York

One of the great movie villains, Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. was born in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia (Van Fleet) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Sr. His parents were of Dutch ancestry. Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and sub ...

18. Tom Skerritt

Actor | Alien

Lean, ruggedly handsome leading man and supporting actor whose "outdoor" looks have improved with age, Tom Skerritt attended Wayne State University and UCLA. He was first noticed in a UCLA production of "The Rainmaker" before making his movie debut in War Hunt (1962). However, he spent most of the ...

An actor in both lead and support roles whose career has extended nearly 5 decades. Audiences will remember him best for his roles in Alien as "Dallas", MASH as "Duke Forrest", and as the Reverend McLean in "A River Runs Through It."

19. Martin Balsam

Actor | All the President's Men

Martin Henry Balsam was born on November 4, 1919 in the Bronx, New York City, to Lillian (Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, a manufacturer of women's sportswear. He was the first-born child. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his mother was born in New York, to Russian Jewish parents. ...

20. Jonathan Pryce

Actor | The Two Popes

Jonathan Pryce was born on June 1, 1947 in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Two Popes (2019), The Wife (2017) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). He has been married to Kate Fahy since April 2015. They have three children.

21. Eli Wallach

Actor | Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

One of Hollywood's finest character / "Method" actors, Eli Wallach was in demand for over 60 years (first film/TV role was 1949) on stage and screen, and has worked alongside the world's biggest stars, including Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole,...

22. David Strathairn

Actor | Good Night, and Good Luck.

David Russell Strathairn was born on January 26, 1949 in San Francisco, California. He is the son of Mary Frances (Frazier), a nurse, and Thomas Scott Strathairn, Jr., a physician. He has two siblings, Tom and Anne. His ancestry includes English, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and one ...

The great actor has appeared in such films such as "the Bourne Ultimatum", "Dolores Claiborne", and "Matewan". He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in 2005 for his impressive portrayl of journalist Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night and Good Luck."

23. Tim Curry

Actor | Congo

Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, England. His mother, Maura Patricia (Langmead), was a school secretary, and his father, James Curry, was a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain. Curry studied Drama and English at Birmingham University, from which he graduated with ...

24. John Goodman

Actor | 10 Cloverfield Lane

John Stephen Goodman's an American film, TV & stage actor. He was born in Affton, Missouri to Virginia Roos (Loosmore), a waitress and saleswoman & Leslie Francis Goodman, a postal worker who died when he was a small child. He's of English, Welsh & German ancestry. He's best known for his role as ...

25. John C. Reilly

Actor | Chicago

Character actor, dramatic leading man, or hilarious comic foil? With an astonishing range of roles already under his belt, John C. Reilly has played an eclectic host of rich characters to great effect over the years, from seedy ne'er-do-wells, to lovable, good-natured schlepps.

The fifth of six ...

26. J.K. Simmons

Actor | Whiplash

J.K. Simmons is an American actor.

He was born Jonathan Kimble Simmons in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Patricia (Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a music teacher. He attended the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; University of Montana, Missoula, MT (BA in Music).

He had ...

27. Craig T. Nelson

Actor | Coach

Craig T. Nelson was born on April 4, 1944 in Spokane, Washington, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Coach (1989), The Incredibles (2004) and The Family Stone (2005). He has been married to Doria Cook-Nelson since 1987. He was previously married to Robin McCarthy.

Sort of the "American Everyman" actor, Nelson starred in the excellent horror film Poltergeist" in 1982 and later starred in the hit T.V. series "Coach". In 2004 he provided a voice for "The Incredibles."

28. Powers Boothe

Actor | Sudden Death

Incisive, gravelly-voiced screen tough guy Powers Boothe was born on June 1, 1948 in Snyder, Texas, a sharecropper's son. Used to hard physical work "chopping cotton" as a youngster, he went on to become the first member of his family to attend university. He then proceeded to study acting via a ...

Actor who in a 30+ year career has starred in a variety of lead and supporting roles, including "Southern Comfort", "Frailty" and "Sin City".

29. Brian Dennehy

Actor | First Blood

Imposing, barrel-chested and often silver-haired Brian Dennehy was a prolific US actor, well respected on both screen and stage over many decades. He was born in July 1938 in Bridgeport, CT, and attended Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship. Brian majored in history, ...

30. John Saxon

Actor | A Nightmare on Elm Street

John Saxon appeared in nearly 200 roles in the movies and on television in a more-than half-century-long career that has stretched over seven decades since he made his big screen debut in 1954 in uncredited small roles in It Should Happen to You (1954) and George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954). Born...

31. Hal Holbrook

Actor | Into the Wild

Hal Holbrook was an Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor who was one of the great craftsmen of stage and screen. He was best known for his performance as Mark Twain, for which he won a Tony and the first of his ten Emmy Award nominations. Aside from the stage, Holbrook made his reputation primarily on...

This man has been in many classic films over the past fifty years, including: "All the Presidents Men" (1976), "The Star Chamber" (1983), "Midway" (1983) and 1973's "Magnum Force".

32. Scott Glenn

Actor | The Hunt for Red October

Scott Glenn was born January 26, 1939, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Hope Elizabeth and Theodore Glenn, a salesman. As he grew up in Appalachia, his health was poor; he was bedridden for a year and doctors predicted he would limp for the rest of his life. During long periods of illness, Glenn was...

33. Edmund Gwenn

Actor | Miracle on 34th Street

There are very few character actors from the 1930s, '40s or '50s who rose to the rank of stardom. Only a rare man or woman reached the level of renown and admiration, and had enough audience appeal, to be the first name in a cast's billing, a name that got marquee posting. Charles Coburn comes to ...

From bearded ol' Saint Nick to an expert on giant ants to helping bury a body, Gwenn garnered the supporting actor Oscar in 1947.

34. Bill Paxton

Actor | Aliens

Bill Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the son of Mary Lou (Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman and actor (as John Paxton). Bill moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where he found work in the film industry as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World ...

Another great leading and supporting player who has starred in such films as "Aliens", "Twister" and "Apollo 13".

35. Stanley Tucci

Actor | Big Night

Actor Stanley Tucci was born on November 11, 1960, in Peekskill, New York. He is the son of Joan (Tropiano), a writer, and Stanley Tucci, an art teacher. His family is Italian-American, with origins in Calabria.

Tucci took an interest in acting while in high school, and went on to attend the State ...

36. Gary Sinise

Actor | Forrest Gump

Gary Alan Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, to Mylles S. (Alsip) and Robert L. Sinise, A.C.E., a film editor. He is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Swedish ancestry. His family moved to Highland Park, where he attended high school. ...

37. Carl Weathers

Actor | Predator

Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A famous and successful football star at San Diego State, he played with the Oakland Raiders and retired from the sport in 1974, in order to give full attention to his goal: to be a real actor.

Weathers first played small parts ...

Two words: Apollo Creed! I also enjoyed his performance in the underrated film "Death Hunt", opposite Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin and the great Ed Lauter.

38. Sam Waterston

Actor | The Killing Fields

Sam Waterston was born on November 15, 1940 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Killing Fields (1984), The Great Gatsby (1974) and Law & Order (1990). He has been married to Lynn Louisa Woodruff since January 26, 1976. They have three children. He was ...

Great in his role on Law and Order, and has had a stellar film career as well, including such films as "The Killing Fields" and "Rancho Deluxe."

39. Robert Loggia

Actor | Big

Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also ...

40. Ron Perlman

Actor | Hand of God

Ron Perlman is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television productions.

Ronald N. Perlman was born April 13, 1950 in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. His mother, Dorothy (Rosen), is retired from the City Clerk's Office. His father, ...

41. Stephen Lang

Actor | Avatar

Stephen Lang is a distinguished and award-winning actor who commands considerable respect, and is equally at home on the Broadway stage, on television, and in film.

Though he is arguably most well-known for his acclaimed performance in James Cameron's Avatar (2009), Lang began his career in theater....

42. Paul Sorvino

Actor | Repo! The Genetic Opera

Tall, dark and imposing American actor Paul Sorvino made a solid career of portraying authority figures.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His mother, Angela (Renzi), was a piano teacher, of Italian descent. His father, Ford Sorvino, was an Italian immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a ...

Heavyset actor who lent his talents to such films as GoodFellas ( as "Paulie"), That Championship Season, and as Det. Phil Carretta on "Law and Order", opposite Jerry Orbach.

43. Lance Henriksen

Actor | Aliens

An intense, versatile actor as adept at playing clean-cut FBI agents as he is psychotic motorcycle-gang leaders, who can go from portraying soulless, murderous vampires to burned-out, world-weary homicide detectives, Lance Henriksen has starred in a variety of films that have allowed him to stretch...

44. Bruce Dern

Actor | Nebraska

Two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Dern's tremendous career is made up of playing both modern day heroes and legendary villains. Through decades of lauded performances, Dern has acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented and prolific actors of his generation.

Dern currently appears opposite...

Support actor who has often been typecast as lecherous criminal or a psychotic. He has broken this trend on a few occasions, such as the films "Silent Running", "The Laughing Policeman" and "Smile".

45. Edward Asner

Actor | Up

Edward Asner was born of Russian Jewish parentage in Kansas City, to Morris David Asner (founder and owner of the Kansas City-based Asner Iron & Metal Company) and his wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Seliger). After attending college, Ed worked various jobs, including in a steel mill, as a door-to-door ...

46. Ving Rhames

Actor | Pulp Fiction

Strikingly featured and muscular American actor Ving Rhames was born Irving Rameses Rhames in Harlem, New York, to Reather, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. A good student, Ving entered the New York High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. He studied ...

47. Dennis Farina

Actor | Get Shorty

Dennis Farina was one of Hollywood's busiest actors and a familiar face to moviegoers and television viewers alike. Recently, he appeared in the feature films, "The Grand," a comedy about a Vegas poker tournament with Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano; "Bottle Shock," also starring Alan ...

48. Joe Mantegna

Actor | The Godfather Part III

Joe Mantegna is an American actor who has made over 200 film and TV appearances. He is also a producer, writer, and director, and is probably best known for his role as Joey Zasa in the Francis Ford Coppola epic The Godfather Part III (1990), in which he stars alongside Al Pacino and Andy Garcia.

...

Godfather III and Thinner (1996) are both saved by Mantegna's performances.

49. Armand Assante

Actor | Gotti

Known as an Actor's Actor, the Four time Golden Globe Nominee, Emmy Award Winning Actor ( Gotti 1996 ) Assante has received acclaim for his work for close to Five decades. Internationally he has been the recipient of Twelve Lifetime Achievement Awards in the past ten years.

Full Biography at ...

Another actor with a variety of lead and supporting roles to his credit, I first saw Assante in the sadly underrated film "Paradise Alley", and he has appeared in a wide variety of films since, including "Striptease" and "Judge Dredd."

50. Zero Mostel

Actor | The Producers

Zero Mostel was born Samuel Joel Mostel on February 28, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, one of eight children of an Orthodox Jewish family. Raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the young Zero, known as Sammy, developed his talent for painting and drawing at art classes provided by the ...