Controversial Actors

[Auricauricle]

Worfster's latest post encouraged me to conjur up a list of actors who, like the movies in his thread, have taken up roles and performaces that were beyond the usual Hollywood fare....I'll start things off with a list o' my own and see how far things go....

In reverse order:

James Woods: From his early days with Videodrome and The Onionfield, to his recent television series, Shark, Woods has given viewers a taste of the truly brilliant but flawed characters, risk takers and lowlifes.

Malcom McDowell: From his performance in Caligula, a movie that emblazoned his image among the seamy elite, MM has taken up roles of the sorts of individuals we are at once drawn to only to our peril. Like human antifreeze, McDowell's characters can be charming (Catpeople) but deadly psychopathic (Blue Thunder), are deftly played and leave me wondering if the actor may truly be "a little touched".

Jeremy Irons: JI's roles have spanned from movies appealing to the mainstream (Lion King) to the avant garde (Dead Ringers). Playing roles of great archetypal impact of the gentleman killer (Die Hard) and other roles of the suave and deadly, JI's engaging smooth talk and gait seduce every one of us, who hang on to every word and gesture.

Tracy Lords: Starting her career at a way too early age, when TL enticed viewers of pornographic film with a deceptively mature body and appetite to recent movies with the established and the elite, TL has not shied away from taking on the difficult roles of the debauched and the damned. While many would see her x-rated past a career destroying handicap, TL has shown great resilience and the possibility that emergence from the shadows doesn't mean that all traces of the darkness have to be left behind.

Micky Rourke: Well known for playing slimey roles, MR has not shied away from playing men who take the seamy routes through the underbelly of society and into the bedrooms of some of Hollywood's most beautiful women. His persona never stops revolting and intriguing me. Like watching an awful trainwreck, I cannot turn or force myself away....

Harvey Keitel: HK's range in movies spans throughout nearly every conceivable genre. He has shown equal facility with playing the horrifically violent in Mean Streets and Bad Lieutenant to the impotent washed up in January Man. Keitel is not afraid of exposing himself physically or emotionally as the rare actor whose has allowed his penis to be put on display not as an device, but in performances whose vulnerability (as in The Piano)betrays Keitel's lion-hearted exterior.

[Worf101]

MIne in no particular order.

Brando - His support of the Black Panthers, Native Americans and his eschewing of Hollywood stardom, And his complete hedonism... wow.

Jeremy Irons - Seriously disturbed roles... never turned em down.

Montomgery Clift - Tortured soul beyond belief.

Toby Hooper - This man is nuts.

Robert Downey Jr. - Poster child for controversial but talented f-up.

Bogart - Fought McCarthy with all his heart and soul.

Edward G. Robinson - Fought McCarthy as well.

Paul Robeson - McCarthy got him.

Fonda - Well you know Jane.

Just off the top of my head, late at night and tired from a rare late night gig.

Dave

[Smokey]

Orson Welles- He thrives on controversial materials, not only in movies but on the radio also. And he could act too. Recently watched him in Touch of Evil (which he also directed) and was floord by his performance.

Gary Oldman- Playing bad guys is his signature. He likes to play in-your-face type charactors which you love to hate. Watch The Professional and you know what I mean.

Dennis Hopper- He is the little engine that could. Playing little off center seem to be his style of acting.

Christopher Walken- Only one word would describe him: Sphycotic.

[3-LockBox]

Bob Crane - freakazoid and perv. If only he had lived to see the internet.

George Reeves - former Supe thought to have commited suicide but those close to him suggest murder

James Dean - the last thing he did was make a PSA about driving safety - he obviously didn't buy into that character. Lived fast and died hard.

Marilyn Monroe - overhyped, marginally talented, hounded by tabloids, worshipped by Elton John, and Kennedy fvcker extrordinaire. The original Princess Die.

John Holmes - notoriously touted as 15", he was in reallity only 12", but was still porn's most well known star and is still paid daily homage two decades later, as in "What up Holmes" (you didn't think they were referring to Sherlock did you?). A devout heroine addict, he contracted AIDS and sent shudders through an industry that rarely flinched at anything.

OJ Simpson - need I say it?

[Troy]

3LB's list wins.

Add also Divine, Edie and the rest of John Water's usual ensemble.