Great Character Actors (from Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Action)

[Mark]

So who are the great character actors (and actresses) from Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Action movies and television? Does John Rhys-Davies pretty much have a lock on being called "the best" given his resume now?

 

[Mallus]

Seeing as Rhyis-Davies has played roles as varied as Sallah to Gimli, including a brief stop as Paladin in Wing Commander 3... that seems like a safe bet.

How about Jeffery Combs? He's been everything from Herbert West in Re-Animator to several characters in DS9 to the Andorian on Enterprise. He, as they say in the current vernacular, rocks.

Are you looking for actors who have been in a variety of works?

 

[Tenbones]

John Rhys-Davies is too obvious. How about someone always dangling on the edge of coolness like Michael Biehn.

 

[Mark]

Are you looking for actors who have been in a variety of works?

Any and all. This is more about just naming as many as we can and mentioning what they've done. Kind of a who's who in character actors from our favorite genres.

Combs is a very good one to mention.

John Rhys-Davies is too obvious. How about someone always dangling on the edge of coolness like Michael Biehn.

That's the one I thought of first, so I got it out of the way. Biehn's doing that adventure show these days but what else?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Michael Beihn is really only ever one character, though, when you boil it down. As a friend of mine once put it in reference to something unrelated, "he may be a one-trick pony, but I'm buying that trick!"

I'll toss out Christopher Lee as a clear example of a great character actor, though I suppose you could argue that he's too much of a lead actor to qualify for this thread... Vincent Price also falls into this category.

Maybe we should define character actor. Up until Star Trek:TNG, I would have put Patrick Stewart in this category based on his performances in Excalibur and Dune, but now he's more of a lead as well.

 

[Chun-tzu]

First guy that comes to mind for me is Tony Todd. He's probably not a name that a lot of people will recognize, even among posters here. He's made a few appearances in Star Trek, including Worf's brother Kern (Kurn?), a Hirogen hunter on Voyager (I think), and most memorably, a grown-up Jake Sisko. It was one of the most memorable episodes of DS9, at least in my book, and he totally steals that episode. I think he also played a gladiator in an early episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

 

[Mark]

I think we can keep to a broad definition of the term and include some who have been character actors even if they've had their spots in the lead. Stewart and Lee both qualify under those conditions.

Todd is perhaps the epitome of what we're tossing around, in television terms, of course. Good one, that.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

David Warner - He was in TNG, B5, and two Trek films as different characters. Not to mention Jack the Ripper in Time After Time.

Michael Ansara - In TOS's "Day of the Dove," in Buck Rogers as Kane, and in B5 as Elric the Technomage.

Bill Paxton - Wasn't he in Near Dark? Plus Aliens, the Abyss, Apollo 13 (yeah, not exactly SF, I know,) Weird Science, and some other stuff.

Brian Thompson - He was the killer in Cobra. Also the Brujah Leader in Kindred: The Embraced, and in Buffy twice, as Luke, the Master's lieutenant, and as that demon guy (the Judge) that Buffy took out with a rocket launcher.

Kyle MacLachlan - Dune, Blue Velvet, the Hidden, and Twin Peaks.

Rutger Hauer – In so many genre films you can’t even count them. Starting with Blade Runner and Ladyhawke.

Freddie Jones - Is he dead? He played Thufir Hawat in Dune and was in Firestarter and Krulll.

Richard Jordan - Also in Dune, and in Logan's Run. He's definitely dead.

Max Von Sydow - Ming the Merciless. 'nuff said. EDIT: Actually, he's played Jesus, the Devil and Ming the Merciless. Samuel L. Jackson wishes he were that cool.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

How about Jeffery Combs? He's been everything from Herbert West in Re-Animator to several characters in DS9 to the Andorian on Enterprise. He, as they say in the current vernacular, rocks.

He was also in B5.

Now that I think about it, Michael York (Logan's Run) was in B5, as that King Arthur nut. And that preposterous Apocalypse movie, whatever it was called.

Also, Keith David. Voice of the animated Spawn, and in Armageddon. Also in Carpenter's The Thing. Great voice.

Victor Wong - Dead, alas. He was Egg Shen in Big Trouble in Little China, professor Birac in Prince of Darkness, and was also in Blade Runner.

James Hong - Not dead. He was Lo Pan, of course, was also in Blade Runner, and briefly appeared in The Shadow (which, oddly enough, I watched last night - awful movie.

 

[Jamdin]

I would like to submit Michael Ironside as the genre's badass. He was not only on V: The Series but also in several Outer Limits and Tales From The Crypt episodes. Ironside provided the voice for Darkseid in Justice League and Superman cartoons. He was also Capt. Oliver Hudson onSeaquest 2032. Of course, we all know him from Total Recall and a recently he was on Andromeda.