JtWalsh Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As Cinematicess Martha Fischer and I were spitballing ideas on how to create a regular feature that would spread some love to all those wonderful character actors out there, my first impulse was to call it "The Walken Award." But Martha, being quite appreciably smarter than I, said "Scott, if you're trying to create a column about underrated or unacknowledged character actors ... Walken's not your flagship guy. Everyone already LOVES Christopher Walken!" And she was right. So I flipped through my Favorite Actors file and tried a few new names on for size. "The Dabney Coleman Award? Nah, too grouchy. The Harry Dean Stanton Award? The M. Emmet Walsh ... Maybe just a bit too obscure... Oh jeez, I got it: J.T. freakin' Walsh!" It was perfect, mainly because Walsh was such a fantastic character actor, but also because he's now sadly demised -- and therefore it felt kinda "right" to name an award after him.

Unfortunately, a bunch of smart movie geeks had beaten me to the punch ... by a few years, at least.

After publishing our piece "The J.T. Walsh Awards: An Introduction," I got an email from a reader informing me that a very popular website called Fametracker has long been running a feature column called "The J.T. Walsh Memorial: Hey! It's That Guy!" -- which means that A) they got there first so the name obviously belongs to Fametracker, and B) brilliant minds really do think alike. Rest assured that this was not an attempt to shanghai or piggy-back another website's concept -- apparently the 'net's just full of people who really dig character actors -- especially J.T. Walsh.

So we ask you, the Cinematical reader, to help us come up with a new name for this award. I'm still partial to "The Walken Award," but I'm even more partial to getting some help from our loyal readers. So think hard about those wonderfully familiar faces that seem to pop up in every single movie, and then leave your suggestions in the comments bin.

Ever since I was a kid, I was drawn to the "sidekick" characters; the henchmen, the assistants, the murder suspects and the school teachers. Movie stars are great and all that jazz, but the heart and soul of an ensemble often lies within the supporting cast: the horny best friend, the abusive boss, the comic relief, etc. ... Over the years I've made a habit out of putting all those faces to all those names, and I often find myself telling friends, "Oh, you know this actor. Not by his name, maybe, but trust me -- you've seen this guy." And there are hundreds of 'em to pick through: professional character constructors who toil just outside the spotlights afforded to your Jamie Foxxes and your Russell Crowes.

C'mon, who would you rather sit down and have dinner with: Tom Cruise or ... William H. Macy? I rest my case.

So since the recognition and appreciation of modern-day character actors is something the hardcore movie nuts enjoy, we thought it might be fun to throw some love at a few different performers each week. (And yes, the phrase "character actor" includes women too!) We'll call this column "The J.T. Walsh Award," simply because J.T. Walsh was one of the very coolest character players ever to hold a SAG card, and (despite never earning one measly Oscar nomination) we think J.T. Walsh deserves to have an award named after him.