"No small roles, only small actors" - Great Bit Players

Remember the guy who gets caught with expired papers at the beginning of Casablanca?



That's Wolfgang Zilzer aka Paul Andor, a Cincinnati-born veteran of German and American movies.

He made scores of films, but I know him best from what may have been his last role: as "Old Henry", the longtime NBC employee David Letterman was always firing on Late Night.



As a high schooler I found these bits hilarious at the time, though now I realize how sadistic they seem

When I first saw these I assumed "Henry" was just some guy they'd found in the maintenance dept or working in the commissary and decided to put on TV, not somebody who'd acted with Garbo and Bogart!

 

John Hoyt: Made appearances in many movies and on The Twilight Zone in the following episodes:
- Will The Real Martian Stand Up
- The Lateness Of The Hour
Michael Pataki: In addition to a large number of TV and movie appearances, he appearances on the following Star Trek series:
- The Trouble With Tribbles (The Original Series)
- Too Short A Season (The Next Generation)
Olan Soule: In addition to a large number of television and movie appearances, he was voice of the animated Batman for many years (such as on Super Friends).

 

I think of Olan Soule as the inspiration for Police Squad's Lab Guy, who was always running crazy experiments:

Watch carefully as I test-fire this gun into these videotapes of Barbara Walters' interviews. As you can see, it completely destroys the Burt Reynolds interview, and everything from Bo Derek to Paul Newman. But only up to the point where Barbara asks "Is it difficult to love?" Now, let me show you what happens when the gun is fired from 3', which is the distance Sally claims the shots were fired from. Notice? Complete destruction, right up to the point where she asks Katherine Hepburn what kind of tree she'd like to be.​

 

How about these guys, both in TONS of Westerns in the '50s and '60s. That's Claude Akins and Robert Wilke. Their IMDB listings are a mile long.

 

Neither was a bit player, nor was the previously mentioned John Hoyt.

Akins invariably got guest star billing in his TV spots, and the other two often did

 

Richard Stahl
Richard Stahl - Wikipedia

 

Immortal for his classic Odd Couple guest shots: "We are gathered here, again, today to take another crack at marrying Blanche and Roger..."

 

A real "bit" part -- this is Linda Carpenter, shown in her only appearance in movies or TV, in this scene as a Navy WAVE receptionist who answers a phone call from Batman (the movie 1966) interrupting a game of cards with her superior officer, and then hands the phone over to him. That's it, Linda Carpenter's only claim to Hollywood fame (as far as my searches have turned up). But man, did I ever notice her!

What a cutie!!! She should have been a star!

 

Dwight Frye... bits parts (usually uncredited)..to 'walk-ons'... to featured character parts....most famously in Dracula

 

Played Wilmer the gunsel in the original Maltese Falcon (1931), which makes a bit clearer the implied relationship between Wilmer and Gutman:



And of course...

 

Bess Flowers, 'extra' queen supreme....appeared in hundreds of movies, from Alfred Hitchcock thrillers to Three Stooges shorts.
Flowers appeared in more Oscar "Best Picture' nominated films than any other actor.



Here she even gets to speak a few lines:

 

Ray Kellogg (1919–1981)



1972 Cannon - A Long Way Down (1972) ... Guard at Hospital Door

1971 Chandler ... Captain of Security Guard

1971 Columbo (TV Series) - Suitable for Framing (1971) ... Security Guard (uncredited)

1969-1971 The F.B.I. (TV Series)
- The Watch Dog (1971) ... Guard
- The Prodigal (1968) ... Guard

1969 Topaz
Security Guard (uncredited)

Gomer Pyle: USMC (TV Series)
- Dynamite Diner (1969) ... Bank Guard

1964-1969 The Beverly Hillbillies (TV Series)
- The Gloria Swanson Story (1966) ... Gate Guard
- Jethro Gets Engaged (1966) ... Gate Guard

1965-1969 Petticoat Junction (TV Series)
- Joe Saves the Post Office (1969) ... White House Guard

1967 The Invaders (TV Series)
- The Prophet (1967) ... Guard
- The Leeches (1967) ... Guard

1965-1966 The Patty Duke Show (TV Series)
- Too Young and Foolish to Go Steady (1966) ... Guard

1962-1966 Mister Ed (TV Series)
- Love and the Single Horse (1965) ... Guard

1962 I'm Dickens, He's Fenster (TV Series)
- Nurse Dickens (1962) ... Hospital Guard

 

Burt Mustin-
Looked 90 years old his entire career.

 

Virginia Gregg (1916-1986)



I first noticed her in “Twilight Zone” and “Perry Mason” episodes. She caught my attention because she looked so much like Jill Eikenberry of “L.A. Law” and I thought for sure they were mother and daughter (they aren’t). Since then I’ve noticed her in a number of other TV shows and she’s appeared on just about everything from “Big Valley” to “Emergency” to “Dynasty.” She was also the voice of Norman Bates’ mother in Psycho.

 

Does Peter Stormare count in this thread?

 

This is a great example of the use of language to sneak something into a script. In the movie the word gunsel seems to imply a punk criminal carrying a gun, but it has nothing to do with firepower. It's a Yiddish word equivalent to 'catamite'--a young man kept for homosexual purposes. Dashiell Hammett wrote the novel in the twenties. It was serialized in a pulp magazine called Black Mask, whose editor did not allow vulgarity in the stories. Hammett figured (correctly) that the editor would think it has something to do with guns. It survived into the magazine and then into the movie script.

Elisha Cook, Jr. played Wilmer in the 1941 Bogart-Greenstreet version.

 

I'm pretty sure Arthur Hunnicutt appeared in every TV western (and many films in the genre) that ever aired.

 

Incidentally the term "punk" as it applied to music in the 70s referred to a homosexual who turned tricks for heroin. Dee Dee Ramone's "53rd and 3rd" makes this fairly explicit.

 

HAHAHA that's funny but, he did!...he never aged...MORE.

 

love him! what hasn't he been in? usually playing a Russian via Sweden; )

 

wasn't a fan of Letterman but I could see him doing this...a snarly sort of fellow...not my cuppa tea. I'm more a Carson man of which Johnny didn't seem to have a mean streak...good soul there...IMO.

 

Nick Chinlund - equally adept playing cops and criminals. Always gives an interesting performance.

 

He wasn't a bit player. He actually got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Big Sky.

 

I was gonna mention Jack Gilford, but he too earned a Best Supporting Actor nod (for Save the Tiger). So I won't mention him.

 

Yeah, that was on TV yesterday. But I think most of his later roles would fit into the bit-player category.