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Weekend Discussion Thread: Favorite Actor/Actress in a MSTed Movie Who Also Did Good WorkDuring this week’s episode guide discussion there were a lot of folks who expressed admiration and sadness for Lon Cheney Jr., lamenting how far he had fallen from his Wolfman days.
So let’s open this topic up. Which actor or actress in a MSTed movie do you genuinely admire for the good work they did, even though they also did a MSTed movie? My pick is easy: George Reeves, who created one of the most iconic TV characters of all time. Your pick? 149 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Favorite Actor/Actress in a MSTed Movie Who Also Did Good Work”Commenting at Satellite News
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There are simply too many actors that have perform wonderfully in other films to pick one. Many performers had even won oscars or go on to win an oscar. The films featured on the show while poorly [and brillantly riffed] done did not conclude that the actors were talentless. It is unfortunate that many had to take less than ideal roles to pay the bills.
@47, YES! Austin Stoker! I love John Carpenter, and consider ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 to be one of his greats, and you mention Stoker in BEING FROM ANOTHER PLANET, but his co-star Darwin Joston from ASSAULT is also in BFAP, making it a reunion of sorts. Joston was also in Carpenter’s THE FOG as well as David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD, not to mention RATTLERS and a whole bunch of TV shows..
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@48, Michel Piccoli was also in Hitchcock’s TOPAZ, Jean-Luc Godard’s CONTEMPT and was a regular in the works of Luis Bunuel, starring in DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, BELLE DE JOUR, THE MILKY WAY, THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISE, THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY, and an uncredited voice over in THE OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE.
Probably half the leads in the the movie’s they watch had a good career with a lot of movies that I would watch i.e. Loyd Bridges: Hot Shots, Alan Hale: Gilliagan Island, James Earl Jones: Star Wars, Kim Catrall: Big Trouble in Little China, I know most of these are cult classics but I would not say bad and I am sure we could all list a heck load more MSTed actors/ess that went on to a good career with better roles. But if I had to give one answer it would be ROSS HAGEN r.i.p. , not for his acting!!! Just a tip of the hat from one magnificent son of bitch to another, chilly peppers burn my gut too!!!
*grunts ah love is good :star:
Wow, there are so many great actors that were in MST movies. I didn’t read all the comments above mine, but from what I did read they bring up a lot of terrific examples so I won’t bother repeating them all. I don’t know if anyone has mentioned Ann-Margret from “Kitten With a Whip”, but she was in some pretty good movies, and I would actually count “Kitten With a Whip” as one of them too. That’s one of a small number of movies that MST did which I genuinely like, and would watch on it’s own in all seriousness (as opposed to the many MST movies I would watch on their own because they are so hilariously bad as to be fun to watch).
Yep, there sure are a lot good chocies. It almost easier to list pick the bad actors.
Anyway, I’ll say Michael Pataki. He was one of the original Klingons on Star Trek, so that’s got to count for something.
I don’t actually watch too many non MST movies so can’t think of much. Donald Pleasance was quite good in Columbo though (one of my other favorite shows). Since Revenge of the Creature was Clint Eastwood’s first and last film I don’t think I should mention him, but seem to have anyway.
#21
About Maximilian Schell. Don’t forget Larry london
in The Freshman:
“Mein Herz schwebt in Blut! That means ‘My Heart Swims In Blood”
And if he visited the SoL might say:
“Pearl said one bot, here are two.”
Raul Julia! And of course David Warner! Then there’s Donald Pleasance, Christopher Lee, Clint Eastwood and Henry Fonda. Wow, the list really does go on. I was surprised to find a movie where I liked John Agar, outside of MST – in 1989, he played a grandfather in Miracle Mile. Before I let a flood of other names go, let me finish with Ann Margaret, as the kitten.
My first thought was Cameron Mitchell from Space Mutiny. I saw one other vote for him already. Loved him in How to marry a millionaire, Love me or leave me and Carousel. And his daughter Camille, although only as a voice actor in Space Mutiny was good on Smallville.
And I don’t care what anybody says, Ross Hagan gave a good performance in the Sidehackers. I think thats probably my fave MST movie performance. Well, that and Susan Gordan from Tormented.
#52 Watch
I see that Stoker was also in the pilot episode of Gemini Man (from which was crudely hewn Riding with Death) starring Ben Murphy! It’s a small b-movie world.
“Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” is just littered with great people in addition to Raul Julia. Maury Chaykin, Gary Farmer, playwright Linda Griffin, and a veritable who’s who of character actors.
Oh and another guy I forgot to mention Steven Alamio (Rod from Wild Rebels) he was freinds with Dick Clark and would sometimes host American Bandstand. I guess he couldn’t be all that big a square Linda and Banjo make him out to be if he hosted that show. Now drive baby, drive!!! :pissedoff:
Let’s not forget that Martin Balsam (of “Mitchell” fame) played Detective Arbogast in “Psycho”, pretty much owning every scene he was in (especially when he was totally unnerving Norman Bates). Let us ALSO not forget that Tom Servo provides him with possibly the funniest line in MST3K history (“Damn! I’m still in this Mitchell movie!”)
Roddy McDowall
I met him as a child. He and Vincent Price were performing in a play in our city and my mother wrote them, mentioning my father’s recent death and how much it would mean if her kids met them. Roddy called up our house and invited us back to the green room after the show. He was a true gentleman and meeting both him and Price was a thrill.
I also met Forrest J. Ackerman. He published some stuff of mine (I was just a kid), encouraged me as a writer, took my mother and I out to lunch when we visited him, and got us in free to see the Shining at Graham’s. (FYI Ackerman had a cameo in Future War.)
P.S. the next Rifftrax looks awesome!
http://www.rifftrax.com/vod/ghosthouse
Of course, from the best MST3K episode ever, “Space Mutiny”, we have Reb Brown who was in the movie “Fast Break”, and he did some tv shows, too, though I can’t remember exactly which ones. And I can’t forget the fetching and alluring Cisse Cameron, who, besides being Mrs. Reb Brown (he’s so lucky, dude!), was in “Porky’s II: The Next Day”.
I warmly remember Brian Blessed (the barrel-chested, stentorian villain of
“Cosmic Princess”) for his remarkable performance as Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar in “I, Claudius”.
What a voice.
Agh! How could I have forgotten Susan Gordon? And if
I recall their extra interview she was a late
replacement there, and her first acting gig. Remarkable.
Pat Pearcy, Geri in “Squirm.” In her, ahem, additional scenes, she makes the full version of Squirm worth chasing down. But her very next movie role after “Squirm” was Rhonda in “Goodbye Girl,” the delightful little confection Richard Dreyfuss takes to his room to run lines with. Awesome, when you think about it–from the disgustin’ decayin’ Ol’ South directly to Oscar territory. She soon said the heck with it and settled in teaching acting, but she left her dainty footprints all over my aorta.
Joe Don Baker was shockingly good in Adam at 6 AM, which is also worth chasing down. Never thought he could play a sympathetic character–of course, that WAS forty years ago, before space worms ate his brain.
Became a fan of Guy Doleman, after seeing him in the 3 Harry Palmer(Michael Caine)movies:Ipcress File, Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, so it was a treat to see him getting honored in that special MST way in Deadly Bees. Also appeared in Thunderball and The Prisoner tv series.
I actually felt sorry for Lon Chaney Junior when I heard he played The Mummy in three Universal films. Going from his acclaimed ‘Of Mice And Men’ performance to a glorified stuntman part that required little more than shambling…
But I’ll have to toss in another vote for Bela Lugosi. His acting style was perhaps old-fashioned and his thick accent and reportedly shaky English, combined with his lousy business sense (He rarely had enough money to be choosy about roles), pretty much destroyed his career, but I admire the fact he never just phoned it in. Even with the Ed Wood things, he was really trying to bring depth and mood to his character.
Alot of great answers on here I couldn’t agree more with – Christopher Lee, John Carradine, Donald Pleasance, and Bela Lugosi have given me so many treasured memories as a kid. But someone I’ve always been a fan of and that nobody’s mentioned yet is Frank Finlay (The Deadly Bees). He played Van Helsing in one of my favorite adaptations of “Dracula,” and he was Jacob Marley opposite George C. Scott in “A Christmas Carol.”
There are too many to list for me, but here goes.
I love Basil Rathbone so much, I refuse to watch Magic Sword.
Guy Williams – Zorro. One of the COOLEST shows ever!
Adam West – I actually think he was kinda cool in Zombie Nightmare playing a complete jerk for a change of pace.
Ernest Borgnine – I will NEVER watch Merlin’s S.O.M.W. but the fact that Borgnine is in it makes it cooler by 20%.
George Zucco – The best Moriarty in film history. In a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film no less.
Bela Lugosi – Forget Dracula, He RULED in 13 Chairs as the investigating officer.
John Philip Law – Best Sinbad EVER!
Christopher Lee – It’s obvious why.
And millions more!!!
Am I the only one deeply touched by Lugosi’s speech in Bride of te Monster?
John Carradine.
I don’t know if John Agar can be counted as a fallen of grace actor, since he went straight to B-Land in a short time.
Raoul Julia of course! He even made another movie riffable movie, Steet Fighter the Movie. Perfect for Rifftrax.
What about Jackie Coogan?
Burt Reynolds, if you count Superdome.
Mami Van Doren did a good job for the kind of material she had.
Lee Van Cleef, from stoping a giant ice crem cone from conquering the world, being Angel Eyes or an expert Master Ninja, he is always great.
Trivia Time! Lon Chaney Jr, real first name was Creighton and he became an actor against his fathers wishes.
My pick has to be Adam West. Love that guy.
Wow, there are way too many to mention; but I, too, will vote for Christopher Lee. He was often given real crap to work with, but always took his work seriously. Even if the film is falling apart all around him, you can still be entertained by HIS performance.
But there are SO MANY others that fit that same description.
I’d like to mention Arch Hall Jr. I mean I’d really LIKE to, it just doesn’t seem appropriate to this topic. But I kid Mr. Hall Jr. He’s actually effectively creepy (if a little over the top) in the Sadist.
There’s only one mention of David Warner so far? Shame on you folks. The Omen, Straw Dogs, Titanic, Star Trek, Hornblower, voice work… I can’t watch Quest of the Delta Knights without wincing. Needed the money, indeed.
I also appreciate how J&tB didn’t go after Little Richard in Catalina Caper. His is hands down the most enjoyable non-MST3K song in any movie. And John Williams scoring Daddy-O.
Frank Dietz – Frank in “Zombie Nightmare” – Disney animator.
Lisa Foster – Mila in “Cave Dwellers” – Special effects/technical artist. Nom’d for Oscar in ’93.
Daniel Bernhardt – lead role in “Future War” – Agent Johnson in “Matrix Reloaded”. He battled Morpheus atop the semi. In the theater, I exclaimed “Future War!” when I realized who it was. One person found me after the movie and simply said “Fred Burroughs”. It was a magical moment!
Michael Blodgett from CATALINA CAPER (Popeye after slimfast) was great in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, plus he was on an episode of ELECTRA-WOMAN AND DYNA-GIRL, and wrote TURNER AND HOOCH!
Lloyd Bridges
David Warner
John Saxon
Fred Williamson
Adam West
Road Rash from HOBGOBLINS has been in some great movies and wrote FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2
Timothy Van Patten has directed some great TV shows
Ian McShane
…actually, the list goes on and on.
Re, above: I second Frank Dietz, he’s a supercool and supernice guy!
I think the one I was most surprised to see was Raul Julia. To this day I am baffled as to why he took that role…
Warren Mitchell, who played the scientist in “The Crawling Eye” and the villainous J.J. Hubbard in “Moon Zero Two”, was in a huge number of British films and TV shows. Most notably he played the character of Alf Garnett in the TV comedies “Till Death Do Us Part” and “In Sickness and in Health”. The irony of his career is that in real life he is pretty much the polar opposite of the bigoted Garnett.
And speaking of British TV (and the name Mitchell), Joe Don Baker was very good in the excellent 6-episode BBC series “Edge of Darkness”.
Any mentions for Michael Landon from “I was a Teenage Werewolf”? He was in a few classic TV shows like “Bonanza” (used for many riffs in MST3K history), “Little House on the Prairie” and “Highway to Heaven”.
Speaking of werewolves, in “Werewolf” one of the stars was Richard Lynch. A good guy in this one. In many of his films he played creepy bad guys. Anyone remember his role in “Bad Dreams”?
I know Richard Lynch mostly for his role as Rostov! in the movie Invasion U.S.A.
Bela Lugosi always seemed particularly tragic to me. He really was a great actor, but after Dracula and Ygor in the Frankenstein series, he was rarely given any meaty roles to work with.
Can you whistle Witt Bissel? That guy was in every B Science fiction movie of the 50’s and last night I saw him as a proto fascist senator in Seven Days in May.Somebody thought he was a fine actor-
Lon Chaney is a favorite of mine, I love those Universal Horror classics. Lee Van Cleef is in a couple of my favorite movies of all time thanks to Sergio Leone. And I’ve always enjoyed Christopher Lee even though many of the movies he was in are not up to his talent level.
I believe you mean “Lon Chaney, Jr.”, not “Cheney” like a certain real villain who was not in movies. Note the spelling which is incorrect in the article at top.
After 12 readings, I’d say Clint Eastwood, even if he only had one role.
I’ve got another one. Ernest Borgnine as Marty. Great Actor. How the mighty have fallen.
There really are some excellent name actors in some bad MSTed movies aren’t there? The ones I mentioned earlier were some that might get overlooked, but it goes without saying that actors others have mentioned like Ernest Borgnine, Clint Eastwood, James Franciscus, Gene Hackman and others are terrific and have turned in many truly fine performances in movies not shown on MST3K. People who don’t think Ernest Borgnine is a fine actor need to watch The Wild Bunch, or The Dirty Dozen or From Here To Eternity. Borgnine is fantastic.
Special mention for Bela Lugosi too. Like Lon Chaney I really enjoy his contributions to the Universal Horror catalog and I think it’s very sad how his career slipped in the years after Dracula. He was terrific fun to watch and sadly under appreciated until people like me started watching his films again on TV as kids starting in the 1950s when TV really took off and began showing a lot of old movies. I probably saw my first Lugosi and Chaney films in the late 1960s and was instantly a fan. Interestingly, the great Boris Karloff, though he did a few lower grade pictures too, managed to avoid being MSTed.
Also, let’s not forget John Carradine, a really fine actor who has the distinction of apparently loving his work so much he never said no to anything. Though he was in some very good movies and was quite talented, he’s also in endless numbers of truly terrible and incredibly low budget pictures. Fortunately, some of those did end up on MST3K.
Mentioned by many, but Gene Hackman (after all, he’s good in anything), Gregory Peck, David Warner, Ernest Borgnine, Raul Julia — all vey good actors, each in his own way.
ADOLFO CELI – playing a rare good guy in GRAND PRIX he was a thinly disguised cinematic portrait of the head of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari.
Also, honorable mention to BERNARD LEE & LOIS MAXWELL back at Universal Exports
OK. I have now read them all and note the absence of Linda Evans, one of our Washington State residents (or once was). Although I haven’t seen much of her work, I hear she was pretty popular in the TV series Dynasty. And she has recently written a cookbook, which she touted on one of our local radio stations.
And, another unmentioned actress is Barbara Hale, best known as Della Street in the Perry Mason TV series and made for TV movies.
Has anyone mentioned RON HOWARD? He starred not only in The Andy Griffith Show,but also Happy Days,American Grafitti,Grand Theft Auto and then directed Apollo 13,Night Shift;just to name a few..Has anyone mentioned Richard Kiel?
Gotta go with Gregory Peck on this. Everyone makes mistakes right? Apparently Gene Hackman made the identical mistake, oops.
“Damien? Damien?!”
George Reeves easily I loved him as Superman of course i’m a lil biased because I’m a superman fan second Joe Don Baker though he hated the show and the jokes they made about him I liked him in alot of movies
I can’t believe I forgot to mention young Hiroyuki Kawase in my earlier post. Kawase played Roku-san/Roxanne in GODZILLA VS. MEGALON. He had a part in Akira Kurosawa’s 1970 film DODES’KA-DEN. He wasn’t dubbed in that movie, though.
Adding to my first list:
Martin Landau (Cosmic Princess) in Ed Wood
Hugh Beaumont (The Mole People) in Leave It To Beaver
Mike Connors (Swamp Diamonds) in Mannix
Two words: Jack Palance!
First thought was Raul Julia. Loved the Addams Family movies when I was younger (still do, to be honest). Really enjoyed Kiss of the Spider Woman and Frankenstein Unbound as an adult. On top of it all, he just OWNS Street Fighter with what might be my favorite colossally-over-the-top performance of all time. Honorable mention to Lon Cheney, Jr. An absolute wizard who just got buried thanks to typecasting.
Ernest Borgnine- Mermaid Man makes me laugh every single time he appears(“Get away kid, I want to eat my meatloaf and…by the power in me, I NAME YOU MAN AND WIFE! YOU MAY KISS THE BRIDE!”), Marty made me cry and he legitametly scared me in From Here To Eternity when he was torturing Frank Sinatra.
Roddy McDowell- As well as giving us Dr. Cornelius, he was great in the 70’s Disney pictures.
Lee Van Cleef- Angel Eyes himself. Just his faces alone are enough to creep you out.
Donald Pleasance- How’d he go from playing Blofield and Dr. Loomis to the villain in Puma Man in less than a decade?