Lorenzo1950 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Some that come to mind are: Moroni Olsen, Billy House and Rafaela Ottiano. Moroni Olsen, if nothing else but that great name and a couple of roles where he was heard but never seen. When he was seen he was a very imposing figure. Billy House was very strange in The Stranger. I could barely understand a word he said. He had this way of mumbling his lines. Rafaela Ottiano I just discovered recently in The Devil-Doll. Any others you can add to the list? They should be relatively unknown but very interesting. I thought of Ernest Thesiger and Una O'Connor but they are fairly well known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogie56 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Two other impressive supporting performers from Orson Welles' The Stranger are Konstantin Shayne who plays Konrad Meinike and Martha Wentworth who plays Sara, the maid. I just watched it again last night. Shayne was also good in Cry of the City (1948) as the doctor who is practising without a license. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 They don't get much stranger than this human cuckoo clock Glenn Anders as George Grisby in Lady from Shanghai 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogie56 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 And I guess Timothy Carey might fall into this category too. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 And I guess Timothy Carey might fall into this category too. Good pick, Bogie. Not much guessing on my part about his rightful inclusion in this club of the bizarre. Any time I see someone looking like this on the mean streets of Toronto (and I've seen a few) I usually try to cross to the other side. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer5 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 He might be a little more well known than the OP would prefer, but Dennis Weaver in Touch of Evil was pretty strange: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Moroni Olsen, if nothing else but that great name and a couple of roles where he was heard but never seen. When he was seen he was a very imposing figure. Thanks for the interesting thread idea, Lorenzo. I have to wonder about your inclusion of Moroni Olsen, however. He might have a strange name, as you say, but, as a character actor, he usually played fairly respectable types in the movies, though sometimes he could be a villain. He's a pretty normal seeming type to me (unless my idea of "normal" is strange to someone else, that is). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 He might be a little more well known than the OP would prefer, but Dennis Weaver in Touch of Evil was pretty strange: Dennis Weaver is a real hoot in that film, speedracer. I love his performance. Errol Flynn he's not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogie56 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Aylene Gibbons as Mrs. Joyboy, Rod Steiger's mother in The Loved One (1965) is very strange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 You see this performance, you don't forget it. Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 He might be a little more well known than the OP would prefer, but Dennis Weaver in Touch of Evil was pretty strange: Hey, I just had to include your whole post, including the pic, just so we can look at that hilarious face a third time ! Interesting that you mentioned Touch of Evil, because I was thinking of someone from that movie, too. I don't think anyone's yet listed a female actor. I nominate Mercedes McCambridge. No explanation necessary. "I wanna watch." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Imagine living next door to this guy in Beverly Hills..! Rondo Hatton is by far the strangest, most interesting actor I have ever seen on screen. I believe he had some sort of medical condition that gave him such a startling appearance. But whoever put him into those Universal horror films certainly knew what they were doing. How could he not be a star in this genre with that face baby that face that sweet scary face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer5 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Mike Mazurki in Some Like it Hot was pretty strange and he had one of my favorite lines in the movie: "Buttermilk!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Mike Mazurki in Some Like it Hot was pretty strange and he had one of my favorite lines in the movie: "Buttermilk!" Mazurki was very strange in the Shanghai Gesture with that final line of "you likee Chinese New Year?" . But hey everyone in the entire cast was strange in that movie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo1950 Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Well, I have sort of become a Moroni Olsen fan. He usually shows up in noir movies or as an authority figure. Today he was in the Glass Key. From what I read about him he was a fairly large man with a menacing appearance. I can see it to a point, plus he had the very deep resounding voice. As the magic mirror in Snow White and St Joseph in It's a Wonderful Life I have heard him all my life. I love his name, it has a noir sound to it. I think Moroni was a family name, he was born in Utah in 1889 and died at age 65. Timothy Carey I hadn't though of but he was way ahead of his time for weirdness. Everyone mentioned so far fits the description. I am also a Rondo Hatton fan. I am wondering if Mike Mazurki ever portrayed a normal character. I heard he was a very intelligent man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingrat Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Rondo Hatton had a condition called acromegaly which affected his looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SansFin Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Lucy Beaumont We saw her recently in: A Free Soul (1931). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogie56 Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Margaret Hamilton was an unlikely movie star. It is doubtful one would have picked her out of a class to be the one to make it in Hollywood. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
film lover 293 Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Elspeth Dudgeon in "The Old Dark House" (1932) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickAndNora34 Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Leroy- The Bad Seed (1956) played by Henry Jones. He's constantly talking to young Rhoda about how the police have special powder that can reveal blood on objects, and how "They've got a little blue chair for little boys, and a little pink one for little girls" (electric chair), which is unsettling. Gale Sondergaard as the caretaker of the house, Miss Lu, in The Cat and the Canary (1939). She's constantly keeping watch on the deceased's relatives (they have been invited to stay in the house for a little while after hearing the will read). Gale Sondergaard is perhaps not as obscure as several other actresses of the same time period, but this character weirded me out. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo1950 Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Mary Wickes is another plain looking actress, but she had a knack for wisecracks. I always liked her a lot. I haven't named any black actors, Leigh Whipper was a great actor. Very unusual but extremely interesting. He seemed to be much older than he appeared. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo1950 Posted November 19, 2015 Author Share Posted November 19, 2015 Henry Jones was a somewhat creepy actor but a very good actor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Ron Perlman, but... ...Gary Busey takes the grand prize. (yeh I know STRANGE is a gross understatement) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogie56 Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Dwight Frye 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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