WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The New York Times has published a wonderful piece written by American actor Stephen Tobolowsky about the nature and the function of a character actor.

A character actor is supposed to be the actor everybody knows the face but ignores the name. Stephen Tobolowsky quotes actor and writer Larry Miller: "The definition of a character actor is anyone in the movie not kissing Renée Zellweger."

« I am a character actor: the perfect combination of ubiquity and anonymity, » writes Stephen. And evoking the names of Kevin McCarthy, Carl Gordon, Maury Chaykin, James Gammon and Harold Gould, he adds: « There is one thing that Kevin, Carl, Maury, James, Harold, Larry and I have in common: we have all played parts that didn’t have names. »

Read that great piece written with all the intelligence, the humour and the sensibility of one of the most brilliant and interesting contemporary American actors. You can also hear Stephen Tobolowsky in The Tobolowsky Files, a podcast series of stories about "life, love, and the entertainment industry".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/opinion/17tobolowsky.html
http://www.slashfilm.com/category/features/slashfilmcast/the-tobolowsky-files/

KEVIN MCCARTHY (1914-2010)

American actor Kevin McCarthy has passed away at the age of 96.

McCarthy will be forever remembered as Dr. Miles Bennell from sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), or for his role in the Long live Walter Jameson episode of Twilight Zone (1960). But with a career that has spanned seven decades, he was one of the most enduring character actors of the US television industry and a familiar face of film director Joe Dante's work.

Kevin McCarthy appeared in many major primetime television series from the 50s to the 90s: The Man from UNCLE, The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, Columbo, Dynasty, The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, etc. He often played (exquisitely) the villain.

His movie credits include Death of a Salesman (1951), for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and won a Golden Globe Award. But also The Misfits (1961), The Howling (1981) or Innerspace (1987).

French TV buffs particularly remember him for the character of Claude Weldon in Flamingo Road (1980-1982).