Talk:Character actor/Archives/2014

In Practice
In practice, the phrase "character actor" seems to actually mean "not young and good-looking". The article has numerous problems, but that may be just because no one agrees what the phrase means. 38.111.35.2 (talk) 16:36, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
 * A good reason to delete the whole page since it seems to be entirely subjective.Halbared (talk) 14:59, 18 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree with removing the list of actors, but the idea if a character actor is notable, and the whole page should not be deleted. JDDJS (talk) 15:24, 18 April 2014 (UTC)
 * What one is seems to be contested somewhat? Halbared (talk) 16:39, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * A lot of them. Frank Langella, John Glover, Alfred Molina, Christopher Lee, Malcolm McDowell, J.K. Simmons and Crispin Glover just to name a few. None of them are sourced, so it's easiest to remove them all for now, and to start to add them back if and when sources are found. JDDJS (talk) 17:07, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I meant the definition. Some of those mentioned can also be classed as Leading Men.Halbared (talk) 23:10, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

I agree that it has come to mean "not young and good-looking". I personally hate the term and think it's demeaning. ALL actors play characters...even Tom Cruise sometimes. I have heard Phillip Seymour Hoffman described as a character actor. He is not! He was a damn fine actor, and he has played many lead roles. Many of the definitions I've read refer to not playing lead roles. The whole thing makes no sense and it is a term I would like to see disappear.(talk) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.202.246.237 (talk) 06:35, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

There are two different meanings
The word "character actor" has two very different, basically opposite, meanings: 1) an actor who has the ability to play characters who are very different from himself/herself, and 2) an actor who who specialises in playing minor, odd roles or are typecast as such. Unfortunately, the current article only mentions the second meaning, which is the reason for this heated debate. However, there are numerous newspaper articles where various big star actors are called "character actor" because of their ability to transform themselves. It may be of interest to read this debate about the two definitions. Thomas Blomberg (talk) 12:58, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Please go ahead and add the other meaning to the article. JDDJS (talk) 17:06, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes I came across that source and it rings right with me so I added the line.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 20:58, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Character actor is used in two different contexts
I have seen character actor used in two different ways: 1) PERSONALITY ACTOR VS. CHARACTER ACTOR: In this context a character actor is an actor who transforms themselves such as actors Gary Oldman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep while a personality actor is an actor who plays themselves and sometimes with small variations in there persona such as Clint Eastwood. Sometimes an actor will rotate between these two playing themselves in some roles and transforming themselves in others. 2) LEAD ACTOR VS. SUPPORTING ACTOR VS. CHARACTER ACTOR: In this context a character actor plays a minor role. They are usually average or unattractive looking. They are sometimes called "that guy" because it's common to see them on the screen (since they appear in a lot of movies/TV shows due to playing small roles) but you most likely don't know there real name and you think to yourself "hey, it's that guy." In the film Goodfella's Frank Vincent(plays Billy Bats) and Paul Sorvino(plays Paulie) are character actors. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.182.194.49 (talk) 18:59, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

(Note: moved down; Wikipedia convention is to put new posts at the bottom of the talk page....)


 * Interesting. Generally agree about this; do we have sources saying this?--Tomwsulcer (talk) 20:00, 18 August 2014 (UTC)