I love the movie My Man Godfrey. I love William Powell’s urbane butler, Carole Lombard’s quirky blond screwball energy, but it’s the cool sophisticated older sister — the icy bitch that Godfrey thaws that completes the picture. This is that woman:
Gail Patrick was never the biggest star in Hollywood, but when they needed a sophisticated woman to compete for the star’s man she was it in the late 1930s in films like My Man Godfrey, My Favorite Wife, and opposite Anna May Wong in Wives Under Suspicion. What could they suspect?
This list honors the top 5 character actresses — could be TV or movies or both. Mine are noted for their ability to steal scenes or inject that little something that finishes the picture and are also those who we may not know if we were to run into them at the mall. They can be living or dead, but they are definitely not stars — in the sense of “generally famous”. And, as usual, mine are in no particular order…
2. Madeline Kahn… high-larious and beautiful. Lili Von Shtupp, Empress Nympho… Elizabeth “the Bride of Frankenstein
3. Mary Lynn Rajskub… I don’t know if she’s any good off 24, but she’s the anchor to 24.. heart and comic relief and uber competent.
4. Margaret Dumont (natch)
5. Cloris Leachman (another Mel Brooks one)… yeah there’s a lot of miss in her career, but Frau Blucher, Nurse Diesel alone would make her a legend. And she was also quite good as Phyllis on the Mary Tyler Moore show in the early 1970s as well.
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The person I was shocked at how good an actress she really was is Ginger Rodgers. I saw Kitty Foyle the other day and she did more with a few words and expressions than Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep have done in their whole careers. She is now my favorite actress…her and Rosalind Russell.
I agree on Ginger Rogers… I saw that a couple of years ago and she was a revelation. Ditto Rosalind Russell.
Madeline Kahn!…Floyd,don’t forget Miss Trixie Delight in “Paper Moon”
Amy Madigan
Hope Davis
Brenda Fricker
Christine Baranski
Allison Janney
Almost put Brenda Fricker in! — Awesome in So I Married An Axe Murderer.
I would nominate Alice Brady and Helen Broderick (second bananas to Ginger in those flicks she did with Fred), Joan Blondell for their caustic commentaries enlivening so many of those 30s musicals. Add Edna May Oliver & Mary Boland, then throw in Margaret Hamilton and you’ve a six-pack of ladies who know.
Cloris Leachman was also perfect as the horrible grandmother on “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Useless trivia: Cloris played Timmy’s mother one season on Lassie, before being replaced by June Lockhart.
1. Aisha Tyler. She’s a comedian (and currently does very funny voiceover work on Archer), but has also done some convincing dramatic work on both TV (24, CSI) and film (Death Sentence).
2. Viola Davis. Most people have never heard of her, even though she got a Oscar noination for Doubt a couple of years ago. But she’s one of the most intense and powerful actresses out there, as she’s shown time and again (Antoine Fisher, Solaris, a great cameo in World Trade Center).
3. Nicki Aycox. She excels at playing tough but vulnerable women on shows like Over There and the current Dark Blue, but she has yet to break into movies. Hopefully that will change soon.
4. Agnes Bruckner. At the age of 18, she was fantastic in the indie movie Blue Car. Since then she’s appeared on 24 and given a string of good performances in mostly forgettable movies like Blood and Chocolate, but she’s got more talent than most actresses twice her age. She’s going to be a big star one of these days, mark my words.
5. I second Floyd on Mary Lynn Rajskub. And yes, she’s quite good off of 24 (she stole her scenes as Harrison Ford’s secretary in Firewall).
Elizabeth Perkins