A character actor is an actor who predominantly performs supporting parts, often in similar roles throughout the course of a career. While some actors aspire to leading man or leading lady status, many notable actors have had enduring careers in less prominent, but important and memorable character parts. Character roles run the gamut from bit parts to secondary leads. A supporting actor performs roles in a play or movie other than that of protagonist. ... A bit part is a supporting acting role with at least one line of dialogue. ... A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead, plays the role of the protagonist in a film or play. ...

What defines a character actor?

Typically, character actors lack some of the stereotypical physical attributes associated with stars. A character actor may be very short or very tall, heavy or thin, balding, or simply unconventional-looking. Many older actors and actresses find their access to lead roles limited by age as well. Similarly, actors of colour were often barred from roles for which they were otherwise suited; some found work perfoming ethnic stereotypes. A character actor is usually a character who doesn't go through a major change in the course of the movie. They tend to help the leading character aspire the major change that always occurs to him/her. Foreign actors may be famous in their own countries but find themselves limited in the United States under the strict unofficial guidelines of Hollywood casting; Marcel Dalio, Cantinflas and Jet Li illustrate this. Some character actors have distinctive voices or accents which in the opinion of casting directors limit their suitability for most leading roles; actors such as James Earl Jones, Selma Diamond and Julie Kavner have been able to turn this to their advantage, often in voice-over work. Sometimes character actors have developed careers because they had specific talents that are required in genre films, such as dancing, horsemanship or swimming ability. Many up-and-coming actors simply find themselves typecast in character roles due to an early success with a particular part or in a certain genre. A movie star is a celebrity who is well known for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. ... Ageism is bias against a person or group on the grounds of age. ... Ethnic Stereotypes in popular culture involve an overly-simplified, stereotypical or false representation of the typical characteristics of a members of an ethnic group in music, literature, print media, film and the performing arts. ... ... Marcel Dalio (17 July 1900 in Paris, France – 20 November 1983 in Paris) was a French character actor. ... Mario Moreno Cantinflas Mario Moreno Reyes (August 12, 1911 - April 20, 1993), better known as Cantinflas, was a Mexican actor, circus performer and comedian. ... Jet Li Jet Li (Traditional: 李連傑; Simplified: 李连杰; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Li Lien-chieh; Cantonese: Ley5 Lin4 Git6; born April 26, 1963) is a Chinese martial artist and film actor. ... James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is a well-known African American-actor who was born in Arkabutla, Tate County, Mississippi, the son of Robert Earl Jones, and raised in Dublin, Michigan, by his maternal grandparents. ... Selma Diamond (August 5, 1920 - May 13, 1985) was a Canadian-born comedic actress and TV writer. ... Julia Deborah Kavner (born September 7, 1951) is an American actress, best known for her role as Brenda Morgenstern on Rhoda in the 1970s and for providing the voice of Marge Simpson on the animated television show The Simpsons. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ... Typecasting is the process by which an actor is strongly identified with a role or genre. ...

See stock character and commedia dell'arte for a discussion of theatrical traditions. A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. ... Karel Dujardins set his closely-observed scene of a travelling troupes makeshift stage against idealized ruins in the Roman Campagna: dated 1657 (Louvre Museum) Commedia dellarte (Italian, meaning comedy of professional artists) was a form of improvisational theater which began in the 16th century and was popular until...

Some character actors play essentially the same character over and over, as with Andy Devine's humorous but resourceful sidekick, while other actors, such as Lord Olivier, have the capacity of submerging themselves in any role they play. Andy Devine Andy Devine (born Jeremiah Schwartz) (October 7, 1905 - February 18, 1977) was a rotund, raspy-voiced American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick. ... Laurence Olivier, as photographed in 1939 by Carl Van Vechten Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, KBE (May 22, 1907 – July 11, 1989) was an Oscar winning English actor and director, esteemed by many as the greatest actor of the 20th century. ...

Crossover actors

Many character actors have, however, gained star status; some have become widely known lead actors. Examples include Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Gene Wilder, John Malkovich, Ed Harris, Jack Black, Tom Hanks and Lynne Thigpen. Other character actors have developed a cult following with a particular audience as well, such as the fans of Star Trek or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This notwithstanding, a hallmark of many great character actors is that their names are not widely known yet their faces or voices are instantly recognizable; Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, or Barry Fitzgerald might serve as examples. Claude Rains in Casablanca (1942) Claude Rains (November 10, 1889 - May 30, 1967) was an English actor. ... Peter Lorre, 1946, by Yousuf Karsh Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was an actor especially known for playing roles with sinister overtones in Hollywood crime films and mysteries. ... Willy Wonka, one of Wilders best known roles Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American actor, who has starred in more than thirty movies. ... John Malkovich at the Grimme Online Award 2005 at Schloss Bensberg. ... Ed Harris Edward Allen Ed Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor. ... For other persons named Jack Black, see Jack Black (disambiguation). ... Tom Hanks in February 2004 Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor famous for playing notable roles in many popular and critically acclaimed movies. ... Lynne Thigpen (December 22, 1948 – March 12, 2003) was an American actress. ... A cult following is a group of fans devoted to a specific item, usually a film, television or radio program, though some comic books, musicians, writers or others also gain dedicated followings. ... http://www. ... The Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS) (first released in the United Kingdom on 14 August 1975) is a comedy-horror musical film directed by Jim Sharman from a screenplay by Sharman and Richard OBrien, who also composed the songs. ... Henreid in Casablanca Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter von Wassel-Waldingau, (January 10, 1908 - March 29, 1992), known professionally as Paul Henreid, was an actor and film director probably best known for his roles in Casablanca and Now, Voyager. ... Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon Sydney Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was an actor, originally from Sandwich, England. ... Barry Fitzgerald (March 10, 1888 - January 14, 1961) was an Irish actor. ...

Examples of character roles

• ethnic stereotype
• femme fatale
• gunslinger
• sidekick
• town drunk
• villain
• hooker with a heart of gold
• scene stealer
• neurotic
• best friend
• confidant

For a list of notable character actors, see List of character actors