Even after a lifetime of spotting these characters, a routine dip into archival television can yield one or two faces, still unnamed, recognizable on the fringes but barely acknowledged- up to now.
I was watching Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie for maybe the tenth time, and realized I'd seen that TV director before-
Maybe some flash of recognition, from him being cranky? Have I seen
this guy getting mad? Maybe even playing a TV or movie director? Being
really irate at somebody?
Well, yes-
Herb Ellis, as the irate movie director in Blake Edwards The Party. A look at Mr Ellis's resume
made me surprised I hadn't caught his name before, in the last 60-some
years; he started in 1950 and was regularly on the programs I watched
from infancy.
I think it's because he belongs to a special class of Old TV Guys, who possess a mastery of obscurity. A few weeks ago, I discussed Tony Regan, the silent bystander in scores, hundreds of productions. Mr Regan is an exemplar of the craft, but the industry is full of actors who could modulate their sparkle down to a dull glow, and pass basically unrecognized for their entire careers.
It's not quite the same group of actors who, while also playing secondary (or lower) characters, stand out and sometimes rise into full-fledged celebrity- the Burt Mustins and Katie Freemans, instantly recognizable, adeptly playing the same character each time.
This group is almost as anonymous as the ones who never speak. It's their faces that stand out, and a director who casts for faces will usually find interesting ones for these jobs- interesting to us because of where else we might have seen them,
Another Blake Edwards' film of that era, A Shot in the Dark, has a few of these guys, who turn up, farther in the background, in James Bond films. (Of all places.)
Cato (Burt Kwouk)
is the Chinese Guy in Goldfinger
The Butler
is also in Goldfinger, Mr Solo of Chicago-
And the desk clerk at the nudist colony
is some sort of government expert in Thunderball.
Also, the second butler is in an Avengers
episode, but now that's really getting obscure. My point is, I've seen
all these films many times. It might seem like there's no surprises.
But these are all recognitions I've caught only in the last few years.
There's always, it seems, more to be made. Keep watching the Shows.
