Easy Come Easy Gaughin

George Kennedy

Sixty years of the greatest comb-over in Hollywood history. He typifies the big galoot, and he’s still out there pushing it around the best he can. He’s an authentic link to “old Hollywood.”

Ten best roles

10) Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 9) Mean Dog Blues 8) The Dirty Dozen 7) Zigzag 6) The Ballad of Josie 5) The Double McGuffin 4) The Boston Strangler 3) The Naked Gun 2 and 1/2, The Smell of Fear 2) The Naked Gun 1) Cool Hand Luke

Percentile rating

87.25

Peak Period

1967-1970

Neighborhood

Halle Berry, Hippolyte Girardot, Brendan Gleeson, Lukas Haas, Celeste Holm, Amy Irving

Yaphet Kotto

Heroic or villainous, Kotto’s strength seems to be a very quiet and intense focused anger, even when he’s ostensibly playing comedy, like in Midnight Run. His career highlight may actually be his run in the excellent American TV series Homicide.

Ten best roles

10) Live and Let Die 9) Report to the Commissioner 8) Eye of the Tiger 7) Extreme Justice 6) Crunch 5) Across 110th Street 4) Brubaker 3) Blue Collar 2) Midnight Run 1) Alien

Percentile rating

85.55

Peak period

1974 – 1980

Neighborhood

James Caviezel, Angie Dickenson, Carrie Fisher, Peter Gallagher, Christopher Guest, Marcia Gay Harden

Sally Kellerman

With all due respect to Loretta Swit, THIS is Hot Lips Houlihan. She embodies a breezy good humor that allowed her to play the comic foil throughout most of her career. Her high profile role in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School is not included here because it’s just not a good movie, although she’s the best thing in it, walking a tightrope between remaining loyal to the college while keeping her options open in Rodney’s camp.

Ten best roles

10) Slither 9) Foxes 8) The Serial 7) That’s Life 6) Boynton Beach Club 5) Head On 4) The Lay of the Land 3) Open House 2) A Little Romance 1) M*A*S*H*

Percentile rating

84.09

Peak period

1979-1986

In her “neighborhood”, accomplishment-wise

Yvan Attal, Beatrice Dalle, Michel Duchaussoy, Ciarin Hinds, Terrence Howard, Udo Kier

Udo Kier

Kier’s generally regarded as a king of exploitation horror films, but he’s done a lot of more mainstream stuff as well.

Ten best roles

10) Zentropa 9) The Kingsom 8) Paradise Framed 7) Schamlos 6) Pankow ‘95 5) Blood For Dracula 4) Doomsdayer 3) Mother of Tears 2) Doctor Jekyll et les Femmes 1) Besat

Percentile rating

84.03

Matthieu Kassovitz

I have only seen him in Amelie (he was good) and Munich (maybe he was good, but I can’t remember him.) Other than that, all I know is that he’s French, and that he is something of an auteur, writing, directing and acting.

Ten best roles

10) Au Bout du Bout au Banc 9) Elle Voulait Faire Quelque Chose 8) Cafe au Lait 7) Regarde les Hommes Tomber 6) Avant Mais Apres 5) Amen 4) Munich 3) Un Hero Tres Discret 2) Assassin 1) Amelie

Percentile rating

83.74

Swoosie Kurtz

I first saw her in The World According to Garp. It was one of my favorite books at the time, and I was fairly impressed by the film, although it hasn’t really held up very well. Still, Swoosie Kurtz appeared in a small part as a prostitute (as I recall, Garp’s father purchased her services for the inappropriately young son.) She really took over her scene, as did Amanda Plummer later in the movie. There was something memorable about both of them.

And then through the years it seemed like Swoosie Kurtz was everywhere. She was in films, TV shows, I saw her on the Tony’s, so she was a stage actress as well. She rarely had the dominant part when I saw her, but she was everywhere, and she was always good. Her film roles have been limited, probably owing to her ubiquity in other media.

Ten best roles

10) My Own Country 9) Stanley and Iris 8) Vice Versa 7) Liar Liar 6) Bubble Boy 5) A Shock to the System 4) Storybook 3) True Stories 2) Dangerous Liaisons 1) Citizen Ruth

Percentile rating

78.75

Elias Koteas

I have seen Exotica 6 or 7 times, and I have been trying to put Crash (the Cronenberg one) out of my mind since I saw it, so in my mind, Koteas is this quiet creepy guy, although his filmography indicates he’s done an awful lot of more mainstreamy sort of roles as well. Exotica doesn’t show up on his list here, because he had a relatively small part in an ensemble cast, but you should see it if you haven’t.

A Google search seems to indicate that he gets confused a lot with Chris Meloni, something that must drive both of them crazy. He’s a key player in the loosely-defined Atom Egoyan repatory group.

Ten best roles

10) Living Out Loud 9) Harrison’s Flowers 8) Almost an Angel 7) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie 6) Exotica 5) Two Lovers 4) The Prophecy 3) Crash 2) Malarek 1) The Adjuster

Percentile rating

82.27

Lisa Kudrow

She’s had the best film career of all of the Friends (wait; I think. She nudges out Courteney Cox, but probably doesn’t catch Aniston.)  Whatever. Two of her best films roles have been as Phoebe’s evil twin; dour, unlikable, generally awful, and she’s great at that, so she’s got enormous range, but it may be too late for her to be considered as a leading lady, so the path of quirky independents seems to be her best bet from here.

Ten best roles

10) Wonderland 9) Lucky Numbers 8) Marci X 7) PS I Love You 6) Analyze This 5) Mother 4) Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion 3) Clockwatchers 2) The Opposite of Sex 1) Kabluey

Percentile rating

79.03