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Note: I have added to this in posts 63 through 67.
I see HBK has worked his way to Lee Van Cleef for movie marathons. Good stuff HBK. Just thought I would throw out a few names people might want to consider if they are doing movie marathons of this sort in the future. Maybe a few actors people wouldn't think of nowadays. Maybe I'll throw in a couple recommendations for movies for some of the actors as well. If nothing else, some stuff to watch for the Sherbros and Shersisters...
Julie Christie - Al Pacino called her the most sensuous of all actresses.
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Dr, Zhivago, Heaven Can Wait, Don't Look Now, Demon Seed, etc.
Jane Fonda - I wouldn't rule out a start to finish for her whole career, from Barbarella right through to Our Souls At Night, with all of the Oscar worthy stuff falling between those bookends. She could perhaps be the best actress of all time.
Richard Dreyfuss - Stakeout, Mr. Holland's Opus, Close Encounters, The Goodbye Girl, Jaws, American Graffiti, Moon Over Parador, Let it Ride, The American President, Stand By Me, etc. I guess like most actors of his time things slow down or drop off around the year 2000 or so.
John Travolta - right up until the end of the 90s. You'll get some great stuff (Carrie, Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever) and some good stuff (Look Who's Talking, Urban Cowboy, Grease, Blow Out) and some awful stuff that is so bad it's interesting (Moment by Moment, Two of a Kind). Some odd but somewhat interesting failures (Shout and Perfect). And Staying Alive of course. I'd pull the rip cord after 2000 but I'd watch the Taking of Pelham 123 remake with Denzel...that was probably Travolta's last very good performance as of this writing. And the old Welcome Back Kotter sitcom where he got his start is worth a watch as well.
Patrick Swayze - in addition to the well known ones like Dirty Dancing and Road House and Ghost and Point Break, there will be hidden gems like Youngblood, forgotten gems like Red Dawn, odd quirks like Steel Dawn and the odd misstep or two but they're generally at least notable or unusual (Wong Foo, Skatetown USA). It's all downhill after Ghost and Point Break and you really can stop at 1991 or so save for Donnie Darko, but only Tom Cruise has a prime that lasts forever it seems.
Mel Gibson - you can probably get something out of almost every movie from the start of his career until now. The early stuff from the late 70s and early 80s like Tim and The Year of Living Dangerously and The Bounty all have value. The Man Without a Face was a pretty good movie he directed fairly early on that has slipped below the waves. The Beaver is seen as a low point but I thought it was pretty decent. His better known work needs no introduction.
There are actors where you don't need to watch every piece of junk they ever did but if you look at their filmography anything that made it to theatres will probably be worth a look and a good way to see some great character work.
Joe Spinell - I made a thread about him.
Here's the thread...
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/great-underrated-actor-joe-spinell.4247814
Here are the recommended movies...
Sorcerer / Paradise Alley / Big Wednesday / Cruising / Married to the Mob / The Godfather / The Godfather 2 / Rocky / Rocky 2 / Nighthawks / Taxi Driver / Maniac / Next Stop Greenwich Village / Brubaker
Brion James - I made a thread about him as well.
Here's the thread...
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/great-underrated-actor-brion-james.4248107
Here are the recommended movies...
Tango & Cash / Southern Comfort / Enemy Mine / 48 Hours / Another 48 Hours / Blade Runner / Red Scorpion / Armed and Dangerous / Steel Dawn / The Fifth Element / Roots / DOA / Cherry 2000 / Red Heat / Striking Distance / The Player / The Postman Always Rings Twice
But there are some more actors like that...
Kurtwood Smith - Dead Poets Society, Fortress, Robocop, Star Trek 6, The Crush, To Die For, Prefontaine, Girl Interrupted, etc.
Burt Young - Rocky, Back to School, The Last Don, Mickey Blue Eyes, Excessive Force, Chinatown, Across 110th Street, The Killer Elite, Uncle Joe Shannon, etc. and his episode of Miami Vice and Law & Order. Some people might like Convoy, Amityville 2 and The Seven Ups.
Lance Henriksen - I wouldn't watch much after the mid 90s and there will be a lot of junk but there are a lot of good movies where he is the 2nd to 5th lead character.
- Jennifer 8, No Escape, Stone Cold, Quick and the Dead, Aliens, The Terminator, Near Dark, Color of Night, Powder, etc.
Robert Loggia - Scarface, Over the Top, Jagged Edge, Gladiator, Independence Day, Opportunity Knocks, etc.
Gary Busey - Drop Zone, Silver Bullet, Point Break, The Buddy Holly Story, Lost Highway, Soldier, Lethal Weapon, Under Siege, The Firm, Predator 2, Big Wednesday, A Star is Born, Surviving the Game (one of the best monologues ever that nobody has seen) etc.
Ronny Cox - Deliverance, Total Recall, Robocop, Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2, Taps, Bound for Glory, The Onion Field, Vision Quest, his episode of Star Trek TNG and Dexter
Maury Chaykin - Whale Music, Dances with Wolves, Blindness, Hero, WarGames, Mr. Destiny, Mystery Alaska, The Mask of Zorro
Michael Biehn - Terminator, Abyss, Aliens and Tombstone are the big four, but Lords of Discipline is a forgotten good film (also on the GD Spradlin list), plus The Seventh Sign, Strapped, Navy Seals, Planet Terror, The Rock, K2, Jade, Mojave Moon, The Art of War, Deep Red (decent for straight to video), Deadfall (not good but entertaining), Coach (a 70s movie to start things out that was okay). He also did a couple of TV movies to start things out...The Fan with Lauren Bacall and another one where he plays George C. Scott's missing son (China Rose).
Sam Elliott - Mask, Tombstone, Road House, Lifeguard, The Big Lebowski, A Star is Born, Fatal Beauty, Shakedown, Rush, We Were Soldiers, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, The Company You Keep.
Ed Lauter - Youngblood, Cujo, Breakheart Pass, The Longest Yard, French Connection 2, The White Buffalo, Magic, Real Genius, School Ties, Extreme Justice.
Jurgen Prochnow - Das Boot, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Dune, Judge Dredd, The Seventh Sign, A Dry White Season, The English Patient, In the Mouth of Madness, Body of Evidence, Air Force One, The Replacement Killers.
Vincent Schiavelli - Ghost, Tomorrow Never Dies, Buckaroo Banzai, Better Off Dead, Amadeus, The People vs. Larry Flynt, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, American Pop, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously, Batman Returns, Next Stop Greenwich Village (some of these are very small roles).
Harris Yulin - Scarface, Doc, Clear and Present Danger, Night Moves, Fatal Beauty, Narrow Margin, Murder at 1600, The Hurricane, one scene but notable roles in Ghostbusters 2 and Training Day.
Brian Dennehy - First Blood, FX, FX 2, Cocoon, Cocoon 2, FIST, 10, The River Rat, Legal Eagles, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (small role), Presumed Innocent, Gladiator (the Robert Loggia one @Law Talkin’ Guy).
Tom Skerritt - Alien, Top Gun, MASH, The Turning Point, Contact, Steel Magnolias, Thieves Like Us, The Dead Zone, Wisdom, The Rookie, A River Runs Through it, Poison Ivy, Tears of the Sun, his recurring appearances on Cheers.
Murray Hamilton - Seconds, Jaws, Jaws 2, The Drowning Pool, The Graduate, The Amityville Horror, The Way We Were, The Cardinal.
Rutger Hauer - Nighthawks, Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, The Hitcher, Split Second, The Wilby Conspiracy, Wanted Dead or Alive, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Surviving the Game, Nostradamus, Sin City.
Robert Davi - Blind Justice, Die Hard, The Goonies, Licence to Kill, Action Jackson, City Heat, Raw Deal, Predator 2, Showgirls.
I have said before on here that if you randomly select any movie from the 70s with the following actors you'll have about an 80% hit rate for a good movie. So I wouldn't rule out something like a 70s (or 70s and 80s) marathon from these actors...
Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Donald Sutherland, Harvey Keitel, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, James Caan, Maximilian Schell, Ellen Burstyn, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider (don't bother with the 80s), Richard Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Sally Field, Jeff Bridges, Paul Newman, Julie Christie, Jane Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss. I guess Pacino and De Niro are obvious. Charles Bronson will be more hit and miss but still worth a look.
A few dark horse candidates... Jenny Agutter, Kathleen Quinlan and Barbara Hershey (Barbara Seagull for a while).
A few dark horse candidates for male actors... Michael York, David Hemmings, Oliver Reed, William Devane, Rod Steiger, George C. Scott.
I'll make a few recommendations for some of those actors here if people want something to watch and don't want to do a marathon. I'll stick to movies that aren't the obvious choices or that well known today...
Jack Nicholson - Terms of Endearment, Hoffa, The Pledge.
Bruce Dern - Silent Running, Diggstown, Coming Home.
Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth, Judgment at Nuremberg.
Harvey Keitel - Fingers, Bad Lieutenant, Point of No Return.
Donald Sutherland - Lock Up, Benefit of the Doubt, Ordinary People, Backdraft.
Richard Harris - Man in the Wilderness, A Man Called Horse.
James Caan - Alien Nation, The Program, The Gambler, Thief, The Killer Elite.
Robert Duvall - The Great Santini, Tender Mercies, The Killer Elite, Falling Down.
Sean Connery - Outland, The Man Who Would Be King, Highlander, Just Cause.
Michael Caine - The Man Who Would Be King, Half Moon Street, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Cider House Rules.
Jon Voight - Runaway Train, The Champ, The Odessa File, Coming Home.
Almost finally, here are a few other actors worth checking out with one or two of their movies I would recommend as a starting point. Anyway, they are worth noticing and these movies are all decent.
Joe Seneca (Crossroads, The Blob, Malcom X)
Tcheky Karyo (Nostradamus, Nikita, Bad Boys)
Michael V. Gazzo (The Godfather 2, King of the Gypsies, Fingers)
Ken Takakura (Black Rain, Mr. Baseball, The Yakuza and a giant resume in Japanese film)
Thomas Kretschmann (Valkyrie, The Pianist, U-571, Downfall)
Abe Vigoda (The Godfather, Look Who's Talking)
Matt Craven (K2, The Life of David Gale, Crimson Tide)
Chelcie Ross (Major League, Rudy, The Last Boy Scout, Hoosiers, Basic Instinct) - he also earned a Bronze Star in combat in real life
David Rasche (Cobra, An Innocent Man, Remembrance, his appearance on the legendary Bushido / Castillo episodes of Miami Vice)
Everett McGill (Silver Bullet, The People Under the Stairs)
Lewis Smith (The Heavenly Kid, Buckaroo Banzai, Southern Comfort)
Geoffrey Lewis (Double Impact, The Devil's Rejects, My Name is Nobody, and many more good westerns).
Marshall Bell (Total Recall, Twins, Starship Troopers, Stand By Me, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2)
Paul Winfield (The Terminator, Sounder, Star Trek 2, Presumed Innocent, his episode Darmok on Star Trek the Next Generation is considered a standout).
Charles Hallahan (Going in Style, The Thing, Vision Quest)
Martin Kove (Rambo 2, Karate Kid 1-3, Wyatt Earp)
Charles Durning (When a Stranger Calls, Tough Guys, Dog Day Afternoon)
Peter Vaughan (Remains of the Day, Straw Dogs, Brazil, Time Bandits)
Joss Ackland (Citizen X, Lethal Weapon 2, The Hunt for Red October, Watership Down)
Terry O'Quinn (Young Guns, Silver Bullet, The Stepfather)
Vincent Gardenia (Death Wish 1&2, Moonstruck, Bang the Drum Slowly)
And three actors who died far too young at the height of the AIDS crisis.
Paul Shenar (Scarface, The Secret of NIMH, Raw Deal, Best Seller)
Rick Aviles (Ghost, Carlito's Way, Waterworld, The Godfather 3)
Michael Carmine (Longtime Companion, Leviathan, Batteries Not Included)
As an extra incentive or project or anything of that sort...there was a thread to name your favorite black actors some time back, with the suggestion that the current crop puts the old guard to shame. I started listing a bunch of older black actors who were at the top of my list before I would start naming the new actors. Anyway, here is most of the list. It would be worthwhile to check out at least one movie with each of these actors and at least take note of them. A few I named like Snipes and Poitier and Fishburne are big stars but I took them off this list and kept the actors where most people don't know them by name for the most part.
Yaphet Kotto - Alien, Blue Collar, The Running Man
Carl Weathers - Rocky, Predator
Joe Seneca - Crossroads, The Blob
Tony Burton - Rocky, The Shining
Frank McRae - Lock Up, Last Action Hero, FIST
Clarence Williams III - Purple Rain
Chino Fats Williams - The Terminator, Rocky 3, Weird Science
John Amos - Die Hard 2, Coming to America, Lock Up
Art Evans - Trespass, Die Hard 2
Paul Winfield - Sounder, The Terminator, Presumed Innocent
Bill Duke - American Gigolo, Commando, Predator
Richard Gant - Rocky 5, Stone Cold
Carl Lumbly - Doctor Sleep, Cagney & Lacey TV show (worth watching)
Joe Morton - Terminator 2, And Justice for All, Speed
Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters, The Substitute
Antonio Fargas - Shaft, Pretty Baby, Across 110th Street
Meshach Taylor - Mannequin, The Omen 2, The Howling
Stan Shaw - Rocky, The Monster Squad, Rising Sun
Tony Todd - Candyman, The Rock, Colors, Lean on Me
Lou Gossett Jr. - An Officer and a Gentleman, Diggstown, Iron Eagle
Robert DoQui - Coffy, Robocop, Cloak and Dagger
And here, finally for real, is once again my list of decent movies with terrible RottenTomatoes scores that you might want to check out...
Staying Alive (1983) - 0%
Karate Kid III - 16%
Death Wish II - 29%
Cocktail - 5%
Over the Top (1987) - 43%
Lock Up (1989) - 17%
Young Guns - 42%
Young Guns II - 35%
Stone Cold (1991) - 25%
Mr. Destiny (1990) - 38%
Red Dawn (1984) - 46%
Flatliners (1990) - 48%
Last Action Hero - 37%
Cobra (1986) - 17%
Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985) - 30%
Rambo III (1988) - 40%
Rambo 4 - 37%
Rocky 4 - 38%
Bloodsport - 33%
Youngblood (1986) - 38%
Opportunity Knocks - 13%
Teen Wolf - 40%
The Heavenly Kid - 30%
The Golden Child - 22%
Spies Like Us - 32%
European Vacation - 34%
Can't Buy Me Love - 50%
Johnny Dangerously - 44%
The Man with One Red Shoe - 47%
Loaded Weapon 1 - 18%
Who's Harry Crumb - 27%
Wildcats - 26%
The Toy - 3%
Mannequin - 20%
Three Amigos - 45%
Last Action Hero - 39%
The Great Outdoors - 44%
Moon Over Parador - 42%
Harry and the Hendersons - 45%
Ghostbusters 2 - 54%
I see HBK has worked his way to Lee Van Cleef for movie marathons. Good stuff HBK. Just thought I would throw out a few names people might want to consider if they are doing movie marathons of this sort in the future. Maybe a few actors people wouldn't think of nowadays. Maybe I'll throw in a couple recommendations for movies for some of the actors as well. If nothing else, some stuff to watch for the Sherbros and Shersisters...
Julie Christie - Al Pacino called her the most sensuous of all actresses.
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Dr, Zhivago, Heaven Can Wait, Don't Look Now, Demon Seed, etc.
Jane Fonda - I wouldn't rule out a start to finish for her whole career, from Barbarella right through to Our Souls At Night, with all of the Oscar worthy stuff falling between those bookends. She could perhaps be the best actress of all time.
Richard Dreyfuss - Stakeout, Mr. Holland's Opus, Close Encounters, The Goodbye Girl, Jaws, American Graffiti, Moon Over Parador, Let it Ride, The American President, Stand By Me, etc. I guess like most actors of his time things slow down or drop off around the year 2000 or so.
John Travolta - right up until the end of the 90s. You'll get some great stuff (Carrie, Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever) and some good stuff (Look Who's Talking, Urban Cowboy, Grease, Blow Out) and some awful stuff that is so bad it's interesting (Moment by Moment, Two of a Kind). Some odd but somewhat interesting failures (Shout and Perfect). And Staying Alive of course. I'd pull the rip cord after 2000 but I'd watch the Taking of Pelham 123 remake with Denzel...that was probably Travolta's last very good performance as of this writing. And the old Welcome Back Kotter sitcom where he got his start is worth a watch as well.
Patrick Swayze - in addition to the well known ones like Dirty Dancing and Road House and Ghost and Point Break, there will be hidden gems like Youngblood, forgotten gems like Red Dawn, odd quirks like Steel Dawn and the odd misstep or two but they're generally at least notable or unusual (Wong Foo, Skatetown USA). It's all downhill after Ghost and Point Break and you really can stop at 1991 or so save for Donnie Darko, but only Tom Cruise has a prime that lasts forever it seems.
Mel Gibson - you can probably get something out of almost every movie from the start of his career until now. The early stuff from the late 70s and early 80s like Tim and The Year of Living Dangerously and The Bounty all have value. The Man Without a Face was a pretty good movie he directed fairly early on that has slipped below the waves. The Beaver is seen as a low point but I thought it was pretty decent. His better known work needs no introduction.
There are actors where you don't need to watch every piece of junk they ever did but if you look at their filmography anything that made it to theatres will probably be worth a look and a good way to see some great character work.
Joe Spinell - I made a thread about him.
Here's the thread...
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/great-underrated-actor-joe-spinell.4247814
Here are the recommended movies...
Sorcerer / Paradise Alley / Big Wednesday / Cruising / Married to the Mob / The Godfather / The Godfather 2 / Rocky / Rocky 2 / Nighthawks / Taxi Driver / Maniac / Next Stop Greenwich Village / Brubaker
Brion James - I made a thread about him as well.
Here's the thread...
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/great-underrated-actor-brion-james.4248107
Here are the recommended movies...
Tango & Cash / Southern Comfort / Enemy Mine / 48 Hours / Another 48 Hours / Blade Runner / Red Scorpion / Armed and Dangerous / Steel Dawn / The Fifth Element / Roots / DOA / Cherry 2000 / Red Heat / Striking Distance / The Player / The Postman Always Rings Twice
But there are some more actors like that...
Kurtwood Smith - Dead Poets Society, Fortress, Robocop, Star Trek 6, The Crush, To Die For, Prefontaine, Girl Interrupted, etc.
Burt Young - Rocky, Back to School, The Last Don, Mickey Blue Eyes, Excessive Force, Chinatown, Across 110th Street, The Killer Elite, Uncle Joe Shannon, etc. and his episode of Miami Vice and Law & Order. Some people might like Convoy, Amityville 2 and The Seven Ups.
Lance Henriksen - I wouldn't watch much after the mid 90s and there will be a lot of junk but there are a lot of good movies where he is the 2nd to 5th lead character.
- Jennifer 8, No Escape, Stone Cold, Quick and the Dead, Aliens, The Terminator, Near Dark, Color of Night, Powder, etc.
Robert Loggia - Scarface, Over the Top, Jagged Edge, Gladiator, Independence Day, Opportunity Knocks, etc.
Gary Busey - Drop Zone, Silver Bullet, Point Break, The Buddy Holly Story, Lost Highway, Soldier, Lethal Weapon, Under Siege, The Firm, Predator 2, Big Wednesday, A Star is Born, Surviving the Game (one of the best monologues ever that nobody has seen) etc.
Ronny Cox - Deliverance, Total Recall, Robocop, Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2, Taps, Bound for Glory, The Onion Field, Vision Quest, his episode of Star Trek TNG and Dexter
Maury Chaykin - Whale Music, Dances with Wolves, Blindness, Hero, WarGames, Mr. Destiny, Mystery Alaska, The Mask of Zorro
Michael Biehn - Terminator, Abyss, Aliens and Tombstone are the big four, but Lords of Discipline is a forgotten good film (also on the GD Spradlin list), plus The Seventh Sign, Strapped, Navy Seals, Planet Terror, The Rock, K2, Jade, Mojave Moon, The Art of War, Deep Red (decent for straight to video), Deadfall (not good but entertaining), Coach (a 70s movie to start things out that was okay). He also did a couple of TV movies to start things out...The Fan with Lauren Bacall and another one where he plays George C. Scott's missing son (China Rose).
Sam Elliott - Mask, Tombstone, Road House, Lifeguard, The Big Lebowski, A Star is Born, Fatal Beauty, Shakedown, Rush, We Were Soldiers, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, The Company You Keep.
Ed Lauter - Youngblood, Cujo, Breakheart Pass, The Longest Yard, French Connection 2, The White Buffalo, Magic, Real Genius, School Ties, Extreme Justice.
Jurgen Prochnow - Das Boot, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Dune, Judge Dredd, The Seventh Sign, A Dry White Season, The English Patient, In the Mouth of Madness, Body of Evidence, Air Force One, The Replacement Killers.
Vincent Schiavelli - Ghost, Tomorrow Never Dies, Buckaroo Banzai, Better Off Dead, Amadeus, The People vs. Larry Flynt, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, American Pop, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously, Batman Returns, Next Stop Greenwich Village (some of these are very small roles).
Harris Yulin - Scarface, Doc, Clear and Present Danger, Night Moves, Fatal Beauty, Narrow Margin, Murder at 1600, The Hurricane, one scene but notable roles in Ghostbusters 2 and Training Day.
Brian Dennehy - First Blood, FX, FX 2, Cocoon, Cocoon 2, FIST, 10, The River Rat, Legal Eagles, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (small role), Presumed Innocent, Gladiator (the Robert Loggia one @Law Talkin’ Guy).
Tom Skerritt - Alien, Top Gun, MASH, The Turning Point, Contact, Steel Magnolias, Thieves Like Us, The Dead Zone, Wisdom, The Rookie, A River Runs Through it, Poison Ivy, Tears of the Sun, his recurring appearances on Cheers.
Murray Hamilton - Seconds, Jaws, Jaws 2, The Drowning Pool, The Graduate, The Amityville Horror, The Way We Were, The Cardinal.
Rutger Hauer - Nighthawks, Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, The Hitcher, Split Second, The Wilby Conspiracy, Wanted Dead or Alive, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Surviving the Game, Nostradamus, Sin City.
Robert Davi - Blind Justice, Die Hard, The Goonies, Licence to Kill, Action Jackson, City Heat, Raw Deal, Predator 2, Showgirls.
I have said before on here that if you randomly select any movie from the 70s with the following actors you'll have about an 80% hit rate for a good movie. So I wouldn't rule out something like a 70s (or 70s and 80s) marathon from these actors...
Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Donald Sutherland, Harvey Keitel, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, James Caan, Maximilian Schell, Ellen Burstyn, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider (don't bother with the 80s), Richard Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Sally Field, Jeff Bridges, Paul Newman, Julie Christie, Jane Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss. I guess Pacino and De Niro are obvious. Charles Bronson will be more hit and miss but still worth a look.
A few dark horse candidates... Jenny Agutter, Kathleen Quinlan and Barbara Hershey (Barbara Seagull for a while).
A few dark horse candidates for male actors... Michael York, David Hemmings, Oliver Reed, William Devane, Rod Steiger, George C. Scott.
I'll make a few recommendations for some of those actors here if people want something to watch and don't want to do a marathon. I'll stick to movies that aren't the obvious choices or that well known today...
Jack Nicholson - Terms of Endearment, Hoffa, The Pledge.
Bruce Dern - Silent Running, Diggstown, Coming Home.
Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth, Judgment at Nuremberg.
Harvey Keitel - Fingers, Bad Lieutenant, Point of No Return.
Donald Sutherland - Lock Up, Benefit of the Doubt, Ordinary People, Backdraft.
Richard Harris - Man in the Wilderness, A Man Called Horse.
James Caan - Alien Nation, The Program, The Gambler, Thief, The Killer Elite.
Robert Duvall - The Great Santini, Tender Mercies, The Killer Elite, Falling Down.
Sean Connery - Outland, The Man Who Would Be King, Highlander, Just Cause.
Michael Caine - The Man Who Would Be King, Half Moon Street, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Cider House Rules.
Jon Voight - Runaway Train, The Champ, The Odessa File, Coming Home.
Almost finally, here are a few other actors worth checking out with one or two of their movies I would recommend as a starting point. Anyway, they are worth noticing and these movies are all decent.
Joe Seneca (Crossroads, The Blob, Malcom X)
Tcheky Karyo (Nostradamus, Nikita, Bad Boys)
Michael V. Gazzo (The Godfather 2, King of the Gypsies, Fingers)
Ken Takakura (Black Rain, Mr. Baseball, The Yakuza and a giant resume in Japanese film)
Thomas Kretschmann (Valkyrie, The Pianist, U-571, Downfall)
Abe Vigoda (The Godfather, Look Who's Talking)
Matt Craven (K2, The Life of David Gale, Crimson Tide)
Chelcie Ross (Major League, Rudy, The Last Boy Scout, Hoosiers, Basic Instinct) - he also earned a Bronze Star in combat in real life
David Rasche (Cobra, An Innocent Man, Remembrance, his appearance on the legendary Bushido / Castillo episodes of Miami Vice)
Everett McGill (Silver Bullet, The People Under the Stairs)
Lewis Smith (The Heavenly Kid, Buckaroo Banzai, Southern Comfort)
Geoffrey Lewis (Double Impact, The Devil's Rejects, My Name is Nobody, and many more good westerns).
Marshall Bell (Total Recall, Twins, Starship Troopers, Stand By Me, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2)
Paul Winfield (The Terminator, Sounder, Star Trek 2, Presumed Innocent, his episode Darmok on Star Trek the Next Generation is considered a standout).
Charles Hallahan (Going in Style, The Thing, Vision Quest)
Martin Kove (Rambo 2, Karate Kid 1-3, Wyatt Earp)
Charles Durning (When a Stranger Calls, Tough Guys, Dog Day Afternoon)
Peter Vaughan (Remains of the Day, Straw Dogs, Brazil, Time Bandits)
Joss Ackland (Citizen X, Lethal Weapon 2, The Hunt for Red October, Watership Down)
Terry O'Quinn (Young Guns, Silver Bullet, The Stepfather)
Vincent Gardenia (Death Wish 1&2, Moonstruck, Bang the Drum Slowly)
And three actors who died far too young at the height of the AIDS crisis.
Paul Shenar (Scarface, The Secret of NIMH, Raw Deal, Best Seller)
Rick Aviles (Ghost, Carlito's Way, Waterworld, The Godfather 3)
Michael Carmine (Longtime Companion, Leviathan, Batteries Not Included)
As an extra incentive or project or anything of that sort...there was a thread to name your favorite black actors some time back, with the suggestion that the current crop puts the old guard to shame. I started listing a bunch of older black actors who were at the top of my list before I would start naming the new actors. Anyway, here is most of the list. It would be worthwhile to check out at least one movie with each of these actors and at least take note of them. A few I named like Snipes and Poitier and Fishburne are big stars but I took them off this list and kept the actors where most people don't know them by name for the most part.
Yaphet Kotto - Alien, Blue Collar, The Running Man
Carl Weathers - Rocky, Predator
Joe Seneca - Crossroads, The Blob
Tony Burton - Rocky, The Shining
Frank McRae - Lock Up, Last Action Hero, FIST
Clarence Williams III - Purple Rain
Chino Fats Williams - The Terminator, Rocky 3, Weird Science
John Amos - Die Hard 2, Coming to America, Lock Up
Art Evans - Trespass, Die Hard 2
Paul Winfield - Sounder, The Terminator, Presumed Innocent
Bill Duke - American Gigolo, Commando, Predator
Richard Gant - Rocky 5, Stone Cold
Carl Lumbly - Doctor Sleep, Cagney & Lacey TV show (worth watching)
Joe Morton - Terminator 2, And Justice for All, Speed
Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters, The Substitute
Antonio Fargas - Shaft, Pretty Baby, Across 110th Street
Meshach Taylor - Mannequin, The Omen 2, The Howling
Stan Shaw - Rocky, The Monster Squad, Rising Sun
Tony Todd - Candyman, The Rock, Colors, Lean on Me
Lou Gossett Jr. - An Officer and a Gentleman, Diggstown, Iron Eagle
Robert DoQui - Coffy, Robocop, Cloak and Dagger
And here, finally for real, is once again my list of decent movies with terrible RottenTomatoes scores that you might want to check out...
Staying Alive (1983) - 0%
Karate Kid III - 16%
Death Wish II - 29%
Cocktail - 5%
Over the Top (1987) - 43%
Lock Up (1989) - 17%
Young Guns - 42%
Young Guns II - 35%
Stone Cold (1991) - 25%
Mr. Destiny (1990) - 38%
Red Dawn (1984) - 46%
Flatliners (1990) - 48%
Last Action Hero - 37%
Cobra (1986) - 17%
Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985) - 30%
Rambo III (1988) - 40%
Rambo 4 - 37%
Rocky 4 - 38%
Bloodsport - 33%
Youngblood (1986) - 38%
Opportunity Knocks - 13%
Teen Wolf - 40%
The Heavenly Kid - 30%
The Golden Child - 22%
Spies Like Us - 32%
European Vacation - 34%
Can't Buy Me Love - 50%
Johnny Dangerously - 44%
The Man with One Red Shoe - 47%
Loaded Weapon 1 - 18%
Who's Harry Crumb - 27%
Wildcats - 26%
The Toy - 3%
Mannequin - 20%
Three Amigos - 45%
Last Action Hero - 39%
The Great Outdoors - 44%
Moon Over Parador - 42%
Harry and the Hendersons - 45%
Ghostbusters 2 - 54%
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