And The Name Is Bill Cobbs!

His first film appearance was in "The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three"...
...but you may remember him as the narrator "Mose" in one of my favorite Coen Brother films "The Hudsucker Proxy"...
... and certainly the young people will remember him as one of the old, sinister janitors in "Night At The Museum". Here, he and Dick Van Dyke contemplate leaving as Mickey Rooney launches into another one of his stories(rants) about the way things used to be...

Bill Cobbs is one of those guys who's been around for-frickin'-ever and his resume shows it. And yet his first credits happened when he was almost forty! Just goes to show what a little hard work can do.

Here's what those falsehood purveyors at Wikipedia say...

William Francisco "Bill" Cobbs (born June 16, 1935) is an American film actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.

Cobbs was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a domestic worker mother and a father who worked in construction.[1] He was a part of the Negro Ensemble Company. Cobbs has appeared and been a regular on many television programs including: The Michael Richards Show, The Outer Limits, I'll Fly Away, Yes, Dear, The Sopranos, The Others, JAG, The Drew Carey Show, Lost, October Road, and many more.

In 2006, Cobbs played a supporting role in Night at the Museum as Reginald, a security guard on the verge of retirement. He also played basketball coach and retired basketball player Arthur Chaney in Disney's Air Bud. He had a pivotal role in the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy and played a jazz pianist in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do.

He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of Ice-T's autobiography.

Like a lot of character actors I like, it's hard to find a lot about them on the intertubes. So, I'll go with what I know...

I always enjoy seeing Cobbs in a film. His warm, gravely voice makes for perfect narrator in The Coens' "The Hudsucker Proxy" and he is just the guy to bring home the moral of Tom Hanks' "That Thing You Do", when he appears late in the film. I read some wag on IMDB's comment section remark that Cobbs is "the poor man's Morgan Freeman".

And by "wag", I mean "jackass".

Cobbs is one of those guys who provides a certain dramatic stability in whatever they appear in. You know you're in good hands when Cobbs arrives in a scene.

And The Name Is G.W. Bailey!

You probably know him from TNT's "The Closer"...
...And those of us who lived through bad 80's cinema will recall his desperately trying to save the "Police Academy" films...
...I know I first noticed him as "Rizzo" in the television version of "M.A.S.H."- as did people in... Denmark? Is that what ".de" stands for?

But my favorite character was his psychiatrist "Dr. Hugh Beale" in "St. Elsewhere". I don't know why they cut him loose, or maybe he found a bigger, better gig, but he was perfect as a guy who might be a little crazy himself. Or as one exchange went...

Patient: You're crazy-
Beale: -As a loon!

Bailey knocked that line out of the park. The thing I love about him is, once again, he is obviously someone who is theatre-trained and uses it to great effect in film by doing a lot with his eyes, even when he doesn't have lines. But when he has lines, he's got this great Texas gravelly, gargled with barbed wire, kind of voice that growls out the lines, like the above exchange.

Besides acting, Bailey has gone from working with the "Sunshine Kids" charity to becoming executive director of it's foundation.

Here's more about Bailey from their website...

G.W. Bailey
Executive Director, The Sunshine Kids Foundation


After serving as a SSK volunteer for 15 years, G.W. became the Executive Director in Jan. 2001. Since creating the California Fun-Time Fantasy in 1988, he has overseen the expansion of National Events that now include ten destinations and involve volunteers nation wide working with the Foundation to provide trips and activities for hundreds of young cancer patients annually.

A long time student of Texas Tech University and a graduate of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos , Texas , G.W. became internationally known as a professional actor for his portrayal as Capt. Harris in the POLICE ACADEMY film series. He is also widely recognized as Sgt. Rizzo from the MASH television series and for his other feature and TV movies. He is currently a regular on the TNT television hit series, THE CLOSER.

G.W. was introduced to the Sunshine Kids by his goddaughter Brandy Aldridge who had been diagnosed with leukemia. Her experiences with other Kids who were also fighting cancer had a profound effect on Brandy, her family and friends. She inspired G.W. to begin working with the Foundation and with Rhoda in an effort to create more activities that would reach as many Kids as possible. His work with the Sunshine Kids has always been dedicated to the memory of this remarkable young woman.


Please check out both his ongoing career and this worthy charity that he is a part of.

And The Name Is Lupe Ontiveros!

You probably remember her as the duplicitous murderer of J-Lo in "Selena"...
...or as America Ferrera's controlling mother in "Real Women Have Curves"...
...or even Carlos' suspicious mother in "Desperate Housewives".



But probably my favorite performance of hers is Beverly Franco, the theatre manager in "Chuck and Buck" who is talked into directing the bizarre play written by Buck (Mike White). The way Ontiveros underplays her scenes with White is a great choice, given how strange and infantile Buck is. And yet you get the idea that Beverly has been waiting for a chance to direct and is ready to go when Buck comes along. It is a character and performance that make an almost unwatchable movie, watchable.

And yet, as interesting as this is, what do the mega-liars at Wikipedia have to say?

Early life
Ontiveros was born Guadalupe Moreno in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Luz "Lucita" Castanon and Juan Moreno, middle-class Mexican immigrants who overcame a lack of formal education to become owners of a tortilla factory and two restaurants in Ontiveros' native El Paso.[2][3] She graduated from El Paso High School and went on to study at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas, where she received a bachelor's degree in social work. After her marriage, she and her husband moved to California to realize his dream of starting an automotive business. During a period of professional dissatisfaction with her social service career, Ontiveros was trying to decide whether to go back to school for a nursing degree when she saw an article about a need for local film "extras." With her husband's encouragement, she began with that simple job and parlayed it into a long stage and screen career.

Prior to acting, Ontiveros worked for 18 years as a social worker, and she continues as an activist with many of the same causes with which she worked in that profession, such as domestic violence prevention and AIDS awareness and prevention, among other health issues.

Film career
Ontiveros has said that although she wants to see a more diverse set of roles made available to Latina actors, she is proud of the work she has done each time she has played a maid or other working-class character: "I'm proud to represent those hands that labor in this country. I've given every maid I've ever portrayed soul and heart."[4]In part because of her history in this role, she was chosen as the narrator for the documentary Maid in America. [5]

One of Ontiveros' most prominent early movie roles was in the 1983 Gregory Nava film El Norte, in which she played a seamstress and maid who acts as mentor to a newly arrived immigrant girl from Guatemala. In a 2004 interview with the Dominican newspaper Listín, she called El Norte "the film that always will remain in me... [it] tells the immigrants' story" when asked as to her favorite film from her long career.[6] She played the housekeeper Rosalita, a Hispanic maid hired to assist in the packing and moving of the Walsh family in the hit adventure film The Goonies (1985).

The actress worked with Nava in subsequent films, including My Family/Mi Familia (1995) and Selena (1997). In the latter film, she portrayed the murderer of Tejano singer Selena, Yolanda Saldívar, the singer's fan-club president. Her performance was so believable and memorable that years later, the actress sometimes is mistaken for Saldívar and verbally accosted.[7]

In 2000, she was featured in the film Chuck & Buck, in which she played Beverly, a tough theater director who puts on a play written by one of the main characters. She has said in multiple interviews that she accepted the role even before seeing the script, solely on the basis of being approached to play a character who was not defined by Hispanic ethnicity. For that role, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture in the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards.

She co-starred with America Ferrera in the 2002 film Real Women Have Curves as the overbearing and hypercritical mother of Ferrera's character. Her performance received excellent reviews and earned her and her co-star a Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

Television
Ontiveros had a recurring role in the 2004-05 season of American prime time soap opera series Desperate Housewives as Juanita Solis, Gabrielle's suspicious mother-in-law. She received an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actress for this role. In 2004 she also began a role as Abuela Elena, the grandmother of the title characters in the animated PBS children's series Maya and Miguel. The multicultural and bilingual series later introduced a deaf character, Marco, after a sign language-themed episode was suggested by the actress, who has two hearing impaired adult sons.[8]

The actress was one of the stars of the WB's Greetings from Tucson, playing the grandmother in an upwardly mobile family of mixed Irish and Mexican heritage. She previously had recurring guest roles on the series Veronica's Closet, for which she won an ALMA Award in 1998, and on the short-lived soap opera Pasadena. She also has been a guest star on Hill Street Blues, Red Shoe Diaries, Resurrection Blvd., Cory in the House, and King of the Hill, among many other series.

Theater
After deciding she wanted an acting career, Ontiveros began in earnest, following up full-day sessions at her first career with evening work at Nosotros, a community theater in Los Angeles.

In 1978, she was cast as Dolores in Luis Valdez’s historic play Ban Louis Jagger in her first major theatrical role. She went on to reprise the role on Broadway — the first Mexican American theatrical production ever to play there — and in the 1982 film version. She was a founding member of the Latino Theater Company[10]

Personal life
In August, 2006, the Kaiser Permanente insurance company announced that Ontiveros would be the featured presenter in a new health-education DVD to be available in English and Spanish.[11] She also has promoted higher education for Latinos through advertisements for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund in 2002 and participation in a 2003 campaign to increase access to the 2004 Hispanic Scholarships Directory across southern California.

She and her husband are the parents of three grown sons and reside in Pico Rivera, California.

Hey, thanks fibbers!

One of the things I like about Ontiveros is that she has great eyes that bring truth to the cliche that eyes are the "window to the soul". One always has a hard time not focusing on anything in scenes she's in but her eyes and what she's thinking. Just watch her in "Selena" as she talks to, well, Selena oddly enough, about how the business of her fan club is going. Ontiveros is very prim and matter-of-fact as she goes into the mundane details. But watch her eyes and you can tell she is a very calculating person.

Ontiveros would do well in silent film.

And The Name Is Cherry Jones (no relation)!

You probably remember her from Steven Soderbergh films like "Erin Brockovich", "Ocean's 12" or Tim Robbins' "Cradle Will Rock"...
...but did you know she's one of the great American stage actresses...
... appearing in the lead roles of a revival of "The Heiress", "Faith Healer", and John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt"?

Well, she is. And she has.

But enough of my yakkin'. Howsabout we hear what those big-time pathological liars at Wikipedia have to say...

Career
Jones is known primarily for her stage work, including her Tony-winning lead performances in Lincoln Center's 1995 production of The Heiress and John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt, which opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre in March 2005. Other Broadway credits include Nora Ephron's play Imaginary Friends (with Swoosie Kurtz); Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, the 2000 revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, for which she earned her first Tony nomination.[1] She is considered to be one of the foremost theater actresses in the United States.

In recent years, Jones has ventured into the film industry, in which she has played mostly supporting roles. Her screen credits include Cradle Will Rock, The Perfect Storm, Ocean's Twelve, Signs, The Village.[2]

Jones will play President Allison Taylor on the seventh season of the Fox series 24.[3]

Personal life
Jones was born in Paris, Tennessee, to a high school teacher mother and a flower shop owner father.[4] Jones, who is a lesbian, has long been frank about her sexuality and romantic engagements.[citation needed] In 1995, when Jones accepted her first Tony Award, she thanked her then partner, architect Mary O'Connor. When she accepted her Best Actress Tony in 2005 for her work in Doubt, she thanked "Laura Wingfield", a character in the then-current Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie, played by actress Sarah Paulson, Jones' current partner.[5]

The thing about Jones is, one gets this sense of... substance for lack of a better word. And yes, usually I am more about the flash of the rolled "r" and the maniacal spark in an actor who loves acting's eye.* But being theatrically trained doesn't just mean being able to declaim to the back row of another theater (in another town), as much as that is fun. It is being able to communicate silently to the back row of another theatre (in another town).

Cherry Jones could emote the phone book.

Which is not to say she's not fun... she is very much part of the crime caper template in "Ocean's 12" and you're just going to have watch the film to know what I'm talking about.

But my favorite performance of hers is in "Cradle Will Rock". She plays Hallie Flanagan, the real life national director of the Federal Theatre Project. The beatific charm she brings to the part is something that the whole "history as Preston Sturges' screwball comedy" needs to balance the hellzapoppin atmosphere.

The Cherry Jones touch is one that helps ground and balance some of the best theater and film we have. Remember her face and name.

*Yeah, I know there's probably a better way of saying this. I really shouldn't blog after the 5th scotch.

And The Name Is J.K. Simmons!

How could you not remember his "I'm really doing a screwball comedy, not a superhero movie" performance as J. Jonah Jameson-newspaper editor/publisher of The Daily Bugle in the "Spiderman" movies...
... and here's what he looks like without the wig and 'stache...
...but this year critics are lovin' his performance in the new indie comedy "Juno", which they are also lovin'.*



Like a lot of the character actors I love, there's not a lot on the intranets about Simmons. So let's see what the world's favorite fabricator Wikipedia has to say...



Biography

Early life
Simmons was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Patricia (née Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a college professor.[1][2] He has a brother, David (a singer and songwriter), and a sister, Elizabeth. He attended the University of Montana[3] and was a member of the Seattle Repertory Theatre.[3]


Career
Prior to his film & television career, Simmons was a Broadway actor and singer. He was in the revival of Guys and Dolls as Benny Southstreet. He also played the role of Jigger in a revival of Carousel at the Houston Grand Opera.


Simmons is known for his TV roles as Dr. Emil Skoda, a police psychiatrist who has appeared on three of the four incarnations of Law & Order, and as the sadistic Vernon Schillinger on the prison drama Oz. He also played the obsessively egotistical newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson in all three Spider-Man movies. Simmons provided his voice for two newspaper editors in two episodes of the eighteenth season of The Simpsons. The characters are never named, but are obviously meant to emulate the character of Jameson (one even demands "pictures of Spider-Man.") He also stars as Ralph Earnhardt, the father of famous race-car driver Dale Earnhardt, in 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story. Currently he plays as the Assistant Chief of the LAPD, Will Pope in The Closer.


Less well known is that Simmons provided the voice of the yellow M&M in the product's commercials as well as voiceover work for Norelco razors. He also provided the voice of General Wade Eiling in Justice League Unlimited. He also did an audio book for Tom Clancy's Net Force Point of Impact. Like many of his Law & Order co-stars, he also appeared in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, though he portrayed a criminal suspect rather than his Dr. Skoda character.





The thing I've enjoyed about this guy is that he has obviously come from the theater. You don't see a lot of actors who are not theater-trained using their voices so well in film and TV. Simmons really knows how to put over a line in comedy, as seen in the "Spiderman" trilogy and the much-maligned Coen Bros. remake of "The Ladykillers". But then he softens his rich baritone for his appearances on Law & Order and becomes the nicest psychiatric expert for the prosecution you'd ever want to meet.

And the guy is lovin'** his work. You can tell by how he attacks his lines in, yes, the "Spiderman" trilogy. He is on another playing level with his take on this exchange stole- I mean borrowed from IMDB...

Miss Brant: Sir, your wife's on the line, she said she lost her checkbook.
J. Jonah Jameson: Thanks for the good news!

And, of course, you can see him on TNT's "The Closer", where he plays Kyra Sedgewick's former lover.

Because bald guys in their fifties have lives, too, man. Don't judge.

*that will be the last time you see the word "lovin' "in this piece. Except right there. Now... I finally got it out of my system. Phew, I'm glad that's over with.
**I lied. Okay? Back off.