Sunday, May 15, 2011

Underrated actors: Frank Whaley



Frank Whaley is one of those actors who has been in a lot of movies, some of them not great movies, and you always recognize his face, but often don't know his name. He's become a bit of a character actor, and shows up as one of the alternate Oswalds in JFK, as Robby Krieger in The Doors, and as Brett with the Big Kahuna burger in Pulp Fiction. He was in Field of Dreams and Born on the 4th of July and a fab little movie called Swimming with Sharks.


More recently, he was in the not so great Vacancy and World Trade Center and a truly awful little horror movie, Crazy Eights, that I watched the other night. Even though the horror movie was nearly unwatchable, I was glad to see Frank Whaley. Why? Because he's a heck of an actor. He can take a tiny role, or a bigger role in a bad movie, and make something wonderful out of it. He's one of those actors who is so talented that he should have had a bigger, more celebrated career.


Checking out his IMDB profile, I see that he directed three films: New York City Serenade, The Jimmy Show and Joe the King. I'm adding those to my Netflix queue now, because I'm sure the man can direct!


Frank Whaley, I salute you!

2 comments:

  1. I love him! I've seen him in a lot of t.v. shows. He plays crazy and serial killer very well! Any time I'm flipping and I see him I stop and watch, he really is an amazing actor.

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  2. I thought he looked familiar! I have seen him in at least 4 films (although I'm sure more than that!). Hopefully he will land a lead role someday! ~Val

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