 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. The face is familiar, strikes back. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. You can check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife to Read Comics on iTunes, or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. So there are many roles on TV in the movies. There's the lead roles that get all the attention and the big bucks. But you can make a nice career out of being a character actor. Someone who might appear mostly in the background or in a scene or two. Character actors can sometimes steal a major moment from right under the lead. You may not know their names, but you probably recognize their faces. Oh, that guy. Richard X. Slattery was a character actor mostly doing tough guy roles after a stint in the Air Force and a 12-year career in the actual NYPD. He got involved in training films. He was all over TV in guest roles from the 60s to the 90s. And he had regular or recurring roles on The Gallant Men, Mr. Roberts, and Bewitched. He also appeared in films Butterfield 8, A Distant Trumpet, The Secret War of Harry Frig, Walking Tall, Herbie Rides Again, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, with a total of 99 IMDB credits. You may also remember him for a 14-year run as Murph, a gas station owner in ads for Unicale 76, Slattery passed in 1997. Phil Leeds had a very craggy milk toast face. He was a stand-up prior to his acting career. He had 114 IMDB credits and appeared on TV from the 50s to the 90s. Leeds was a regular or recurred on Maude, Barney Miller, Singer and Sons, Night Court, Double Rush, I don't recognize that. Everybody loves Raymond and Ally McBeal. He appeared in films including History of the World Part 1, Beaches, Soap Dish and Krippendorf's Tribe. He passed away in 1998. Herbie Faye started as a vaudeville straight man to fill silvers and would later appear in both his TV series as well as Silver's stage show Top Banana. He had 91 IMDB credits and had TV runs on Make Room for Daddy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Joey Bishop Show, Accidental Family, The USMC, Petticoat Junction, Here's Lucy, The New Dick Van Dyke Show and The Odd Couple. And films such as Snow White and the Three Stooges, Come Blow Your Horn, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Family Jewels, The Fortune Cookie, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Night They Rated Minsky's and Melvin and Howard, which is quite an eclectic selection. They passed away in 1980. Herbie's career however Alan Oppenheimer, both a character and a voice actor with 309 IMDB credits, he's still active at age 89. He recurred or was a regular on Hogan's Heroes, That Girl, The Partridge Family, Insight, The 6 Million Dollar Man playing the first Dr. Rudy Wells, Washington Behind Closed Doors, Blind Ambition, Eyeshied, Mama's Family, Murphy Brown, Home Free and The Big O. With regular voice work on Inch High, Private Eye, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Battle of the Planets, The Drag Pack, Trollkin's Black Star, Flash Gordon, The Wuzzles, The Transformers, The Original Ghostbusters, Centurion's Rambo, Chris Norris Karate Commandos, Bionic Six, Brave Star, The New Yogi Bear Show, The Ruby Spears, Superman, Chippendale Rescue Rangers, The Smurfs, DuckTales, Where's Waldo, James Bond Jr., The Legend of Prince Valiant, Phantom 2040 and Zorro and The Voice of Skeletor on He-Man. He also played guest stars on Star Trek TNG, DS9 and Voyager. Oppenheimer's film work includes Westworld, Freaky Friday, Private Benjamin, The Neverending Story. He's still busy doing voice work and video games. These guys worked hard. Yes. Norman Alden generated 250 IMDb credits after an army stint in World War II. He was a regular or recurring actor on Not for Hire, The Lawless Years, Hennessey, Rango, My Three Sons, Mod Squad, Gun Smoke, Super Friends, he was The Voice of Aquaman, The Streets of San Francisco, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and China Girl as Frank with a ton of guest TV roles. Film work includes the Jerry Lewis Nutty Professor, Torah Torah Torah, everything you wanted to know about sex, semi-tough, Victor Victoria, Back to the Future, Ed Wood and Patch Adams. Alden retired in 2006 and then passed in 2012. Todd Sussman is remembered for his hang dog expression. You saw his face all over TV since the 70s. The screen show was his first recurring role but hardly his last. Spencer's Pilots, MASH, he was the unseen PA announcer, Barney Miller, Star of the Family Fresno, St. Elsewhere, Webster, Have Faith, Newhart City, Scorch, Emptiness, Graced Under Fire, Coach, So Little Time, Oranges of the New Black and Alpha House. And then many films including Beverly Hills Cop 2, Coneheads, Cherry, the 2009 version with a total of 142 IMDB credits. Sussman was also on the stage in hairspray and did video game voice work. Michael Pataki was a long time character actor with 175 IMDB credits. He started in summer stock and moved to a long run of TV guest roles from the 50s to the 2000s. He had recurring roles on The Flying Nun, Get Christy Love, The 70s Live Action, Amazing Spider-Man, Phil and Mickey. He played a Klingon on the original Star Trek series A Bad Guy on Batman and JC in the MST'd Side Hackers. As well as films Easy Rider, Airport 77, Halloween 4, Love at First Bite, The Onion Field, Rocky 4 and of course moved into voice acting. Mighty Mouse, The New Adventures and the Red and Stimpy Show Pataki passed in 2010. Milton Selzer is also very recognizable face with 203 IMDB credits. After serving in World War II he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. His early stage work includes Tiger at the Gates, Arms in the Man and Julius Caesar before a career of guest TV roles with recurring or regular roles on You Are There, The Alcoa Hour, Studio One in Hollywood, The Untouchables, Get Smart, Gunsmoke, Mission Possible, The FBI, Police Story, The Original Hawaii 5-0, The Harvey Corman Show, The Famous Teddy Z, and the 1994 version of Valley of the Dolls. He also appeared in the original Twilight Zone in two episodes, The Masks and Hocus Pocus and Frisbee. Film work includes The Young Savages in Enemy Country and The Buddy System. He passed in 2006. Henry Jones was a long time character who started on the stage in the 30s. Mice's dry lean, the solid gold Cadillac, The Bad Seed, he played the same role in the film, Sunrise at Campobello with a Tony Win and Advising Consent. He would go on to films. The Girl Can't Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, Vertigo, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Support Your Local Gunfighter, 9-5 and Arachnophobia. Jones was prolific on TV and guest roles, 205 IMDB roles. Henry Curd or was a regular on Danger, The Web, Rob Montgomery Presents, Studio One in Hollywood, Craft Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Channing, Phyllis, Mrs. Colombo, Gunshy, Codename Foxfire, Falcon Crest, I Married Dora. Henry Jones passed in 1999. Ed Bigley Jr.'s father was an Oscar-winning film actor. Now, Jr. would go on to no less than 322 IMDB credits, going back to 1967. He's been a regular or recurred on Room 222, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Battlestar Galactica, the classic version, St. Elsewhere, with Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, Parenthood, the 1990 version, Winnetka Road, Mego, Providence, My Adventures in Television, Seventh Heaven, Kingdom Hospital, Jack and Bobby, Six Feet Under, Veronica Mars, Gary Unmarried, CSI Miami, Easy to Assemble, Family Tree on Bigley Street, Betas, Your Family or Mine, Blunt Talk, Lady Dynamite, Future Man, Portlandia, Arrested Development, and Better Call Saul. He was also a member of Christopher Guest's troupe, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and appeared in film Super Dad, The In-Laws, Young Doctors in Love, This Is Spinal Tap, Amazon Women on the Moon, The Accidental Tourist, She-Devil, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and The Ghostbusters 2016 Reboot. Bigley has been on the Board of Governors for the Motion Picture Academy. He's probably best known for his environmental activism today. Alan Melvin was all over TV in both Guest and Recurring roles, but never really became a star. He worked in the NBC Sound Effects section and had a nightclub act before Broadway role in Stalag 17 led to the Phil Silver Show. After that, he got steady work both in front of the camera and the microphone, Recurring on The Joy Bishop Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Grover Pyle USMC, Love American Style, The Brady Bunch as Sam the Butcher, All in the Family as Barney Hefner With voice work on Beatle Bailey, The McGillich Gorilla Show as The Lead, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Gulliver, The Banana Splits as Drooper, The Secret Lives of Waddo Kitty, The Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show, The Quickie Koala Show, Flash Gordon, Galtar and The Golden Lance, The Jetsons, Popeye and Son, Fouffer, The New Yogi Bear Show, and Yo Yogi. Melvin passed in 2008. Mark? Yes? I've noticed these were all character actors. Are we going to do another show talking about character actresses? I guess we need to do that. I think maybe we do. One thing that I find interesting about these guys is they could recur on the same show. I mean, not even recur, but have parts, bit parts on the same show as different roles. Oh, yeah. And, you know, they might be this person one week and this person another week, and you hardly ever see that anymore, I don't think. Well, because back then, you had an episode with air and then might air again in a rerun six months later. But you'd never see it again. Exactly. With Law and Order now. Yes. Which is a show that does do this. Right. You might, you can watch it now and you can see like Anita Van Buren was a criminal like six years ago or something like that. It's very different now when you can go back and actually see these character actors. Do you think that means there's less character actors now? I think they can't get away with what they used to now that we have binging. Yeah. That really changed how shows work. If I was going to be an actor or actress, I'd want to be a character actor and just have steady work instead of trying to get the lead roles. Frankly, yeah. I mean, because you could do so many, you could be on so many shows at once, do one day work and maybe get in two or three roles a week. Yeah. Sometimes, you know. Or you could just take off if you wanted to. Sort of like a substitute teacher. So while you're picking out people of the background of the TV shows you're watching, you can also check out our audio podcast how I got my wife to read comics and iTunes or on our website sfpodcastnetwork.com From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. Thanks for watching.