OK ... How About The Walken Award?

Posted Apr 26th 2006 12:07PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Fandom, Scene Stealers

As Cinematicess Martha Fischer and I were spitballing ideas on how to create a regular feature that would spread some love to all those wonderful character actors out there, my first impulse was to call it "The Walken Award." But Martha, being quite appreciably smarter than I, said "Scott, if you're trying to create a column about underrated or unacknowledged character actors ... Walken's not your flagship guy. Everyone already LOVES Christopher Walken!" And she was right. So I flipped through my Favorite Actors file and tried a few new names on for size. "The Dabney Coleman Award? Nah, too grouchy. The Harry Dean Stanton Award? The M. Emmet Walsh ... Maybe just a bit too obscure... Oh jeez, I got it: J.T. freakin' Walsh!" It was perfect, mainly because Walsh was such a fantastic character actor, but also because he's now sadly demised -- and therefore it felt kinda "right" to name an award after him.

Unfortunately, a bunch of smart movie geeks had beaten me to the punch ... by a few years, at least.

After publishing our piece "The J.T. Walsh Awards: An Introduction," I got an email from a reader informing me that a very popular website called Fametracker has long been running a feature column called "The J.T. Walsh Memorial: Hey! It's That Guy!" -- which means that A) they got there first so the name obviously belongs to Fametracker, and B) brilliant minds really do think alike. Rest assured that this was not an attempt to shanghai or piggy-back another website's concept -- apparently the 'net's just full of people who really dig character actors -- especially J.T. Walsh.

So we ask you, the Cinematical reader, to help us come up with a new name for this award. I'm still partial to "The Walken Award," but I'm even more partial to getting some help from our loyal readers. So think hard about those wonderfully familiar faces that seem to pop up in every single movie, and then leave your suggestions in the comments bin.

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. how about Vic Tayback?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0851861/

Posted at 12:19PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Mike

2. "The Walken Award" has a great ring to it... but, if you're taking suggestions I'll throw one out.

The Hedaya Award.

As much as I'd love to see Walken be acknowledged with the name of an award (as he should), I'll say that Dan Hedaya is far less recognizable a name and that an award named in his honor may finally bring his name into households across America.

Posted at 12:27PM on Apr 26th 2006 by J Jayston J

3.
I've got plenty of ideas for great but "underrated" actors, though some of the names might not be the most "catchy" for an award or feature ;) What most of them have in common though is there slightly "flawed" appearance, anyway here goes:

Ian Holm (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000453/)
Brad Dourif (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000374/)
Steve Buscemi (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000114/)
Forest Whitaker
Christopher Lloyd

It can always be discussed how "unappreciated" this bunch is, but they rarely play "lead" except in "alternative" director's movies ...

Edit: You'll have to look up the last guys yourself as this "thingy" apparently won't allow more than 3 URLs! :(

Posted at 1:19PM on Apr 26th 2006 by FluXulF

4.
John C. McGinley
http://imdb.com/name/nm0001525/

Posted at 1:36PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Rick Sterling

5. The Buscemi.

Posted at 1:42PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Alex Keen

6. The John C. McGinley Award. He's everywhere, and always amazing.

Posted at 2:09PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Rose

7. The Kevin Pollack award, or the Pollack for short. Great character actor.

Posted at 2:10PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Brian Vogel

8. Who ARE these people?
Y'all could have given a hint. At least one role played by each. Of course I love Christopher Walken, and know who Dabney Coleman is, and I don't think Christopher Lloyd, the actor, will ever be forgotten as Doc Brown in the "Back to the Future" movies, or the character in "Taxi."
The name Dan Hedaya and some of the others look familiar, but I can't see the faces.

Posted at 4:23PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Kate

9. The Balaban.

Gotta go with Bob Balaban...he's everywhere

Posted at 4:41PM on Apr 26th 2006 by rev dave

10. There are so many and all of the above have something to recommend them. I realize he got to play the lead on a few occasions, but Darren McGavin was another terrific character actor.

It's a tough line to tread, however, since time and obscurity weigh against the best ones. These days Hollywood seems to have eliminated the entire category.

Posted at 4:51PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Cath

11. What about Dick Miller? He's in everything, I swear. Or perhaps Austin Pendleton? Charles Durning? Charles Napier? Clint Howard? So many choices ...

Posted at 7:23PM on Apr 26th 2006 by Jette

12. Most of the suggestions so far are far to recognizable. Durning?
Buscemi? Already famous.

My personal choice? Jeffery Jones!

For those who can't identify the names mentioned so far, try
IMBD. As for Jones, his role as the prinicpal in "Ferris Bueller" is
sufficient, I think. :)

Runner-up choice is William Atherton, another dorky red-headed white guy. (the annoying reporter in Die Hard).

Posted at 12:46PM on Apr 27th 2006 by Jarett

13. The Golden Guzmans (referring to Luiz Guzman)

Posted at 12:55PM on Apr 27th 2006 by Dodd

14. Danny Trejo..... another character actor instantly recognizable as "Oh yeah... that guy!"

http://imdb.com/name/nm0001803/

Posted at 1:53PM on Apr 27th 2006 by Galto

15. Gotta go with Warren Oates. Ultimate character actor.

And I'm relieved to see you've given Wing Chun and the Fametracker kids their due--both eyebrows were raised when I saw your earlier entry but not credit to H!ITG.

Posted at 1:54PM on Apr 27th 2006 by Karen

16. A little late, but here's a great choice; a new JT Walsh in the making (IMO):
Neal McDonough.

http://imdb.com/name/nm0568180/

Posted at 2:23AM on May 4th 2006 by Jarett

17. How about the "hardest working man in Hollywood"? (And now, also, Broadway? The Dennehy Award (Brian) sounds great to me. Just think of all of the roles that you've seen him in - everything from one of the first episodes of MASH, to Cocoon - the man does everything from comedy to drama to action SO WELL!!

Besides the fact that he's so versatile, he's also very intelligent, very funny, and SOOOO SEXY!!!!

Posted at 1:09AM on Jun 15th 2006 by Lynne White

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