You just named two that were on my mind but 3 is 3! JT and M. Emmett are long-time faves...except/even though, they sort of creeped me all the way out at the end of their careers.

Amanda Plummer was fantastic in everything she did. Now, I'ma havta go off and research because character actors really are my favorite actors and there is an entire stable of them that I fantasize about casting in my movie.

Oh, and Fela says Sidney Greenstreet...

eta: and busted on the lead thing, but Kathy has played so many great characters...as have lots of characters who have periodically hit it big. I guess my idea of a terrific character actor is someone who has longevity.

Like Gene Hackman. Is he a lead? He's opened a few flicks, no doubt, but he and, say, Michael Caine are characters to the bone. Just characters with clout.

Is he a lead?

Yes, he is. I mean...Dustin Hoffman obviously can play a lot of different types of characters but he's really more of a lead.

Old school: Laird Cregar. Short career...but very creepy and distinctive.

Adrienne Shelly Lili Taylor Used to be Jeremy Piven, but he's not that guy anymore, is he?

Adrienne Shelly

::sniff::

Though really also a lead. And didn't do a ton of character work.

Lili Taylor

Definitely a character actor. Not getting a lot of work lately. She must've hit the 35 wall in Hollywood.

Damn you, Hollywood!

I wonder if Tim would hire her for Drive?

Ian McKellen
Ileanna Douglas
Michael Vartan

Before American Psycho I would have picked Christian Bale, but he's moved firmly into leading man territory in recent years.

Before American Psycho I would have picked Christian Bale, but he's moved firmly into leading man territory in recent years.

Hell, he's the lead in Empire of the Sun.

Ileanna Douglas

She's so great in Action.

OK... I just thought if a person is not a Name, but has maybe been on L&O and H:LOTS and Oz that counted...does it not? But Lili was everybody's movie buddy for a while, I know she counts. Mercedes Ruehl, then(Whom I also think is awesome and doesn't work enough)

Mercedes Ruehl, then

Good call, and well beloved by the crew. In her breakthrough role on Married to the Mob the crew made up "Ruehl Rules" t-shirts. Incidentally, she's the lady cop who handcuffs James Remar to the bench in The Warriors.

I once wrote about Alien as being a character actor all-star team: Yaphet Kotto (there's your H:LotS bona fides), Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright (in the history of cinema, nobody freaks out like Veronica Cartwright).

David Straithran. Lili Taylor. Morgan Freeman.

Though MF as CA is debatable, in which case, replace him with F. Murray Abraham.