Tough as he looks, Daniel Craig scores another for the British who dominate this category.  The current and most iron willed and cold hearted Bond, he plays a mean partisan in the movie Defiance.  I’d like to see him play Putin.  Craig can seem to do anything and everything except crack a smile.  He is not cuddly, but all action.  Carry on Dan.

Typecast as a “nice guy”, Noah Beery, Jr. made his film and TV career one big smile.  You have to admire and envy making a living “being nice” on screen.  By all accounts Noah was a charm, on and off screen.  His family was all Hollywood.  Noah, who got his start in the 30’s, rubbed shoulders with John Wayne, Robert Mitchum (Gung Ho), and James Garner (in the Rockford Files), and had a long and distinguished career.  Catch him young, catch him old, easy to enjoy either way…and still with us in film.

Keith David is cool.  He has “command presence” up the ying-yang.  His voice work is phenomenal—on par with James Earl Jones.  Keith David has acted in some cool stuff–and in some a bit “out of character”.

Keith David was a guest regular on none other than Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.  He humped it hard in Platoon (saving Sheen’s life as a bonus). He played heavy heavies in Armageddon and Behind Enemy Lines II (where he shared the screen with wicked cool Peter Coyote).  One my favorites was when he went Islam in Pitch Black.  He has done more–but I’m happy with his “guts and gravel” stage persona.

I can’t say I follow her like a stalker, but I do watch her again, again, and again in Flame Over India that period piece about a train with refugees out to get out to safety during a Muslim insurrection in 1905 India.  Becall’s character being the only American in the shooting match plays it cool and cuddly.  She shows that a silent and strong intellect can be as effective as swashbuckling bravado.  She knows how to shoot a gun and nurse a baby.  That makes for a nice combo.  I am sure if I ever get back to the classics I’ll find her equally as pleasing to the heart and soul.

Oh she is good, real good.  From Holocaust, and Sophie’s Choice to A Cry in the Dark, Streep has great screen presence. Just now, she portrays Julia Child in the Julia Child chic flick Julie & Julia. Her accent control works for me (a belief not always shared by others). Of course she has also done great work on Silkwood, Out of Africa, and The Deer Hunter.

Another alum of The Great Escape, Robert Graf played Werner the Ferret.  He played opposite of Jim Garner, a great in his own right. What made Graf stand out was that he knew he had terminal cancer at the time of the filming and soldiered on.  Graf acted in some other movies and TV. Cancer took him a few years after The Great Escape.  Truly sad given his talents. He did father a child who has carried on his work, in spirit.

I won’t go through the litany of movies Mr. Plummer has graced. He has been prolific and classy, covering diverse roles with panache and style. In Ararat he plays a humble custom official. Yet his performance just shines. He has played a Roman Emperor, an Austrian nobleman, an Inca king, and Rudyard Kipling (and that’s just for starters. Kudos for Mr. Plummer and his opi of excellence.

Isreali directors–like actors–don’t usually get much press.  This is a travesty, at least with Mr. Nesher.  Nesher is big in Israel, real big.  He has made such magic films with The Troupe and Turn Left at the End of the World.

Nesher has tackled comedies, musicals, and dramas with aplomb and a real sense of humanity. Nesher appreciates and uses music and plays it, like his characters, with unbeatable timing.  Avi has hit the American screen with movies such as  Taxman and Timebomb.

She first caught my eye and heart when I was nine years old.  The movie was Dr. Zhivago. Her deep set mournful eyes and her velvety “Yes Comrade General” and “No Comrade General” captivated me utterly. It took years to put a name to her mousy face (no internet back then). Her face, her poise, and her cool name set me afire. I usually don’t go gaga over names. Burton, Mifune, Eastwood, whatever. But TUSHingham. Ok there are Birminghams, Nottinghams, and TUSHinghams, Yes, obsession on TUSH, childish, puerile, but you are unique Rita. Bless your works and all your family.

Rita has done some interesting movies with some fine people. Besides the well known Dr. Zhivago, she has made a name for playing the gritty working girl, primarily for Tony Richardson. These working class movies (A Taste of Honey) bridged the cold drab of post war Britain to the go-go 60’s.  And Rita was in the heart of it.

In 1962 she made Leather Boys a sex romp/motorcycle movie–years and miles ahead of Easy Rider. 1963 had her paired against Bernard Lee (M in the early Bond movies) and Peter Finch

1965 had her in The Knack and How to Get It had her dressed hip like Barbara Striesand did years later in What’s Up Doc. 1966 she went native as a mute Indian Princess in 1840’s Canada (The Trap). Pure body language here and she even took a whack at doctoring with an axe as she performed an amputation on her trapper husband.

Her movies go from comedies to capers to Biblical pieces. Michael York, Mickey Rooney, George Harrison, George Kennedy (in a leading role, gasp), and Marty Feldman to name some sharing the screen with her.

I suggest you see her movies. She may not have a marquee reputation, she has a screen presence both unforgettable and unmistakable.

Here’s another “minor” actor with major appeal.  Maybe its his cool demeanor, or perhaps its his associations, but he holds the scene with great dignity and poise.  As a bonus John Leyton was a rising young singing sensation in Britain before slipping into films.  The Rolling Stones were an opening band for him.  But on with the films.  He is best known and found himself playing imprisoned British soldiers.  He scored at the first stop with The Great Escape where he played Willy the Tunnel King opposite Charles Bronson.  His next movie Guns at Batasi where his character Private Wilkes made love to Mia Farrow and deftly worked under Dicky Attenborough all while “imprisoned” in the Sargent’s Mess in an African nation gone apart.  The movie is as much a vast geopolitcal statement as it is a rank and order study of changing times.  The final movie John graced worth mentioning is von Ryan’s Express where his character Orde dutifully carried out orders as the prisoners ride the rails to freedom or death.  Here John played abreast Trevor Howard and Frank Sinatra.  Not bad for a kid from the islands.