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

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

How about Mark Hamill? Yes he's best know for playing Luke Skywalker, but he was become a hell of a voice actor. Let's see the Joker, The Hobgoblin on SpiderMan, and tons of other stuff. Not to mention on the Flash TV show he played the Trickster.

...I read through this thread amazed he wasn't mentioned. He does a lot of voice acting now, but I remember a while back, he did a part in one of the Wing Commander games...

 

[Ranger REG]

IIRC, Mark Hamill guest-starred as a villain on the CBS' short-lived superhero TV series, The Flash.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

IIRC, Mark Hamill guest-starred as a villain on the CBS' short-lived superhero TV series, The Flash.

I did mention that in my reason for including him. He played a villian called the Trickster. Kind of a Riddler like character. He showed up in 2-3 episode.

 

[zug_zug]

I have to mention one of my favorite character actors in general, Anthony Zerbe, who most recently played the council member in Matrix Reloaded. He was a Starfleet Admiral in the dog Star Trek Insurrection, and the cult leader in the classic Omega Man.

A staple of 70's TV and movies I was glad to see him in such a high profile movie as Reloaded

 

[Darth Shoju]

character actors

Another chronic henchman/criminal who has been on every cop
show or lawyer drama in the last 20 years:

Danny Trejo

Not that much genre stuff under his belt, though.

Yeah, that guy is pretty cool. Wasn't he in From Dusk Till Dawn and most other Robert Rodriguez movies?

....and unrelated to Viking's post...Bill Paxton was in The Terminator as well.

 

[Ranger REG]

Wasn't Clancey Brown on ER for several episodes? He was dating one of the surgeons or something.

Yep. He played a love interest for Dr. Kerry Weaver, before she came out of the closet.

And Brian Thompson was on The X-Files as the alien bounty hunter/assassin.

The first time I've seen Brian Thompson is on a short-lived TV series, Key West playing a local law enforcement.

Ahhh... Brian Blessed:
"Second wave -- DIIIIVE!"

Who could ever forget "Flash Gordon! Quarterback! New York Jets!"

LOL!

Another actor of note is the first US appearance of Timothy Dalton (James Bond, before Pierce Brosnan and after Roger Moore).

 

[Viking Bastard]

Re: character actors

Yeah, that guy is pretty cool. Wasn't he in From Dusk Till Dawn and most other Robert Rodriguez movies?

Ah, yes. And there we fill the genre requirement.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

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.

And also Candyman, lol.

 

[Mark]

I'm not seeing a lot of women in this thread. I would have to guess that Diana Muldaur fits the mold. Couple of roles on early Star Trek and The Incredible Hulk, mid-seventies Roddenbury's Planet Earth and later as Dr. Pulaski on ST: TNG and Batmen: TAS.

 

[Darth Shoju]

4 more

Hey, I just thought of four more:

Joe Pantoliano ; The Matrix, Daredevil, GTA III, Roswell, the Outer limits

Ted Raimi ; Sam Raimi's brother, has been on Xena: TWP and, the Evid Dead movies, Candyman, Darkman, Spiderman

Clint Howard ; Ron Howard's brother, has been on various Star Trek episodes and over 100 movies!

Liam Neeson ; Star Wars I, Darkman, Krull, Excalibur, Arthur the King