Name your Institution here

[Maui]

Steve Bucsemi

[travis-dane]

Cole Hauser belongs here too....
I think he's a great actor and is well known,BUT he could be a bigger star.....
I loved him in PITCH BLACK,he was a great asshole in the movie,without him,the Riddick character would not be that good....

[Peven]

Steve Bucsemi

hells yeah. no one else is as effectively funny lookin', in a general sort of way, as Buscemi

[havocSchultz]

Interesting that no women have been named...

Honestly I'm having trouble thinking of any that qualify myself.

Jeanette Goldstein maybe?

Or Candace Bergen?

How 'bout Kathy Bates...?

I know she's an Oscar winner...
But she also just shows up in random brief roles...

Or Lin Shaye...

She's been used by the Farrelly Brothers quite a bit...

[SilentBobX]

Voice actors.

These are people who are GREATLY unappreciated.

Gregg Berger
Frank Welker
Michael Bell
Chris Latta(RIP)
Stephen Jay Blum
Susan Blu

I'm sure there are MANY more but this is a very short list I had just off the top of my head.

Mahalo

[Spandau Belly]

Danny MUTHERFUCKIN' Trejo



depicted here playing Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski Remake.

[DaleTremont]

Yeah I'd second your Kathy Bates, havoc.

Also, Catherine O'Hara could fit the bill.

And Shirley Henderson.

[yorrick brown]

Melora Walters.

[DaleTremont]

The other day I was thinking about Southern Comfort and that that got me to thinking about Brion James and then that got me thinking about this thread and the fact that Brion James isn't in it. Crazy!

Also, for the last month Jack Bauer has held me at gun point, tortured me, and I loved every minute of it (I got addicted to 24) and man that show has been chock-full of Institutions. Peter MacNicol, Arnold Vosloo, Peter Weller, Thomas Kretschmann, James Cromwell, Kurtwood Smith, and I would count Janeane Garofalo as an institution. The list probably goes on.

Hey also James Remar! I don't think he's been mentioned yet.

Sorry...my mind went into overdrive and I got carried away with my institutions. Did I mention I love this thread even more than I love getting tortured by Jack Bauer?

[Seppuku]

You've certainly been into a lot of institutions over the years, Dale!





I nominate Ruth Gordon. She's been an institution ever since the silent era. Never quite famous, but never off the radar entirely.

[DaleTremont]

You've certainly been into a lot of institutions over the years, Dale!





I nominate Ruth Gordon. She's been an institution ever since the silent era. Never quite famous, but never off the radar entirely.

Yes! How could we forget Mrs. Castavet?

I think Gena Rowlands would also qualify. Even if you call A Woman Under the Influence a star-making performance, I don't think she's ever exactly been a star.

[Maui]

Robert Davi

Do we have a thread for favourite pock-marked actors? We should.

[DaleTremont]

Robert Davi

Do we have a thread for favourite pock-marked actors? We should.

No, but we did discuss the AWBAS (actors with bad achne scars) phenomenon here and even kicked around the idea of starting a thread!

(Confession: I found that by searching for Edward James Olmos.)

[minstrel]

Larry Brandenburg! Watch Fargo ...

[magicmonkey]

Robert Davi

Do we have a thread for favourite pock-marked actors? We should.

haha, its gotta be either Dennis Stewart (RIP) from Grease 1 & 2 or James Woods... I know who wins.

[TheButcher]

Luis Guzman anyone? So many awesome projects over the years.

'Off the Cuff' Podcast: Luis Guzman Admits His "Dream Was Always to Become a Rock Star"
The actor and frequent collaborator of Steven Soderbergh and Paul Thomas Anderson tells #THRpodcasts about his latest film and why he chooses to live "where nobody can find me."

Luis Guzman, the Puerto Rican-born actor known for playing tough guys in everything from Miami Vice, his first acting role, to Boogie Nights and How to Make It In America, leads a much different life than many fans would imagine.

"I got like 600 acres of land. That way nobody can find me."

This is how Guzman describes his home in rural Vermont, where he moved early in his career against the advice of management who told him, "What are you doing? You're taking yourself out of the loop."

"I'm here talking about it today, right?" he asks us in this episode of Off the Cuff. "So I must have been doing pretty good, wouldn't you say?" Indeed he has. Though Guzman jokes that his "dream was always to become a rock star" (a dream he'll get to partially fulfill playing a roadie in the upcoming Cameron Crowe series Roadies), he actually earned his first paychecks as a social worker in New York City, helping youth "take charge of their lives" and get off welfare.

"I didn't have a masters degree but I had a degree from the streets," he explains with little irony. "That carried enough weight that it got me the job."

Though he had dabbled in street theater ("doing six, seven, eight roles in somebody's play") as a hobby, Guzman never considered acting as a profession until he ran into an old friend who was writing on a hot new TV show called Miami Vice and encouraged him to audition while they were casting in New York.

"A few weeks later I'm co-starring on the season premiere of Miami Vice," he recalls, still in disbelief. "I had no idea what I was doing."

Guzman tells us about his next roles in films like Carlito's Way and Sidney Lumet's Q&A (not a bad start for someone who didn't know what he was doing), and then eventually in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight. And of course we had to ask about his still-mourned HBO series How To Make it In America - not that he was prepared to indulge anyone's pity.

"I'm not even gonna dive into that subject because I will hurt feelings," he warns, before adding, "So many people were inspired by that. You know how many people have come up to me said, 'Lu, that show inspired me to move to New York?'"

He can now be seen in the comedic indie film Ana Maria in Novela Land, in which a young woman is so obsessed with her favorite Spanish telenovela that she is transported, Freak Friday-like, into the fictional life of one of its characters. Though Guzman had fun making the movie, he has never been a big fan of its subject matter, admitting he "grew fond of hating telenovelas" when his mother forced him to watch them growing up.

"I'm an artist," he says to help explain why he can move so easily between big-name projects and smaller films. "And every project that I do - no matter how big, how small, or in between - to me each thing is getting a fresh canvass, and just painting it, and putting my stroke on it."

"Just keeping it moving, you know?"

Listen to Guzman's full interview in this episode of Off the Cuff, and be sure to subscribe to #THRpodcasts on iTunes for all the latest episodes.

[TheButcher]

AICN June 2, 2000, 3:44 a.m.:
An Interview With The One True God of the Universe..... LUIS GUZMAN!!!

From time to time a deity will come to a screen near you and me. And in recent years, that deity has been... THE GUZMAN!!! When you are having a bad day... look only to the GUZMAN to get your shit together. This GOD walks the Earth looking like he has a complete record of every event in human history... cause he does man. It's like below... when Clarence Beaks asks him, "What technique do you use?" He responds with, "Technique? What technique?" That's brilliance man... The GUZMAN speaks... all you folks listen up... The man is on the mount... repeat his words in whispers only!

[minstrel]

I just read through this whole thread, and nobody mentioned Paul Giamatti! Check out Cinderella Man. There's a supporting actor performance for the ages!

Also, Tom Wilkinson. He seems to be in everything these days. Watch Michael Clayton, though, for masterful work.

For looks alone, I nominate Joe Viterelli. You saw him in Analyze This, The Firm, Eraser, Mickey Blue Eyes, and others. You can't forget that pizza-dough face, those droopy eyes.

[TheButcher]

I just read through this whole thread, and nobody mentioned Paul Giamatti! Check out Cinderella Man. There's a supporting actor performance for the ages!

Also, Tom Wilkinson. He seems to be in everything these days. Watch Michael Clayton, though, for masterful work.

For looks alone, I nominate Joe Viterelli. You saw him in Analyze This, The Firm, Eraser, Mickey Blue Eyes, and others. You can't forget that pizza-dough face, those droopy eyes.

John Adams vs. Ben Franklin