Although character actors as a group are associated with
the studio period, they are also valued in the New
Hollywood. In the more naturalistic context of film acting since the 1960s, the ordinariness of character actors is
their stock in trade, belying though it does their idiosyncrasy and frequently their range. In one evening at the
movies in September 1979 Charles Durning (b. 1923)
was seen in Starting Over, a film then being sneakpreviewed; in North Dallas Forty, the theater’s regular feature; and in the coming-attractions trailer for yet a third
movie, When a Stranger Calls. Continuing this cyclical,
generational theme, in 2002 John C. Reilly (b. 1965),
the kind of supporting actor, who, like Mitchell and
Durning, is called ‘‘dependable’’ by reviewers, had featured roles in three of the five Academy Award nominees for Best Picture: Chicago, The Hours, and Gangs of
New York. The year before, Jim Broadbent (b. 1951), a
‘‘reliable’’ British character actor, had played key roles
alongside three of the Best Actress nominees, Judi Dench
(b. 1934) in Iris, Nicole Kidman (b. 1967) in Moulin
Rouge, and Renee Zellweger (b. 1969) in Bridget Jones’s
Diary. After all this fine support, the least the Academy
could do was name Broadbent the year’s Best Supporting
Actor, which it did, for Iris. After films made them
known, Durning, Reilly, and Broadbent all found on
the stage, where each of them started, a fount of lead
roles. Furthermore, Durning, a veteran of D-Day who
continued to maintain a full work schedule in his
eighties, also found television to be a steadier source of
meaty roles than the movies, just as Thomas Mitchell had
five decades before.
Very occasionally, actors have broken through to
lead roles and stardom after years of character parts:
examples are Walter Matthau (1920–2000), Lee Marvin
(1924–1987), Tommy Lee Jones (b. 1946), Morgan
Freeman (b. 1937), and Paul Giamatti (b. 1967).
Others, such as Claude Rains (1899–1967), Kathy
Bates (b. 1948), Mary Steenburgen (b. 1953), John
Heard (b. 1946), Alfre Woodard (b. 1952), Ed Harris
(b. 1950), and Jon Voight (b. 1938), receded into character roles after taking a run at stardom. Women, in the
gender caste system of Hollywood, are more likely than
men to fall from lead roles to character parts after age
forty, and are much more likely to find work on television than in films.
Character actors, unlike some stars, are usually
equally adept at drama and comedy. The same qualities
that make these actors effective as menacing heavies or
pathetic victims can render them comic as well. For
example, Durning, a skilled farceur, started in films
playing tough cops and other gruff professionals in
The Sting (1973), The Front Page (1974), The
Hindenburg (1975), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and
others. A former hoofer, Durning was nominated for
Best Supporting Actor, the only nomination accorded
the musical comedy Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
(1982), in which he appeared in a single scene as a
prevaricating singing governor in a show-stopping number, ‘‘Sidestep.’’ The same year he conveyed ardor, hurt
feelings, and embarrassment, all with delicate comic
timing, as a would-be suitor to Dustin Hoffman-in-drag
in Tootsie. Years later he played broad comedy in two
Joel and Ethan Coen pastiches, The Hudsucker Proxy
(1994) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) (as
another dancing governor), which pay homage to the
breakneck comedies of Capra and Preston Sturges
(1898–1959) with their large retinues of character
actors (often the same ones shared between them).
Short, overweight, with a bulbous nose, Durning was
probably born to play W. C. Fields in some never-tobe-made biopic, but will have to settle instead for the
anti-Fields, Santa Claus, whom Durning has portrayed
five times to date in TV films or movies made for the
children’s video market, such as Elmo Saves Christmas
(1996).