Frances McDormand in "Almost Famous"

James Whitmore in "The Shawshank Redemption"

Jodie Foster in "A Very Long Engagement".

Viola Davis in "Doubt"

Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road"

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Natalie Portman in "Cold Mountain"

Madeline Khan in "Paper Moon"

Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein
Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction
Lawrence Tierney in Reservoir Dogs
Jacob Tremblay in Doctor Sleep

She is in no way a minor character. She’s in a ton of scenes. Beginning to end.
PSH as Lester Bangs on the other hand would certainly qualify. Love his performance in that movie. He shot over like two days and was sick as a dog with the flu the whole time.

Bob Stephenson as the airport security guy in Fight Club (the dildo guy). The way he delivers his lines and acts, scratching his head with the pen and the way he glances around.... brilliant. The way he dismisses Nortons claims that its not his dildo at the end crack me up every time.

I would say True Romance is a movie made up of superb small roles. Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer (never even see his face), James Galdonfini (who is brilliant in it), Dennis Hopper. Christopher Walken and above all i would say Gary Oldman who is simply amazing as Drexl.

I know she's in it from beginning to end. But I'd argue that she's in a "ton of scenes". I just watched it again the other night. She's definitely a minor role and her character is not in it as much as the others. Even Cameron Crowe said: “I feel like Frances McDormand is doing me a favor, playing this little role in this movie.”

https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/patr...st-famous.html

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Punch Drunk Love & The Big Lebowski too. Although Brandt may not be considered a minor role.

1) Robert Eddison as the ancient Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) - "He chose...poorly." He has about five minutes of screen time and gives it everything. A wonderful performance.

2) Sebastian Shaw in Return of the Jedi (1983) - unlikely casting perhaps but his soft, care-worn face, yet very scarred-over is something visually right.

3) Another vote for O.P. Heggie in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - I cry like a baby at his performance each time I see it.

Lee Fiero - Jaws
Paul Giamatti - Private Parts
Wilford Brimley - Absence of Malice
Mickey Rourke - Body Heat

Exceptional is a high hurdle, but I always really enjoy Hugh Laurie in 1995's Sense and Sensibility.

This and Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction are my two contributions.

Chris Cooper in A Time to Kill
Billy Bob Thornton in U-turn (hardly any character accumulated so much of my hate in such a short time)

Santa Claus (Paul Frees) in Frosty The Snowman (1969).

Stephen Graham as Tony Pro in The Irishman, and as Babyface Nelson in Public Enemies (and probably others I haven't seen)

Judy Dench in Shakespeare in Love. She won an Oscar in like eight minutes.

I liked her performance but the Oscar win is more due to the weak year.

Probably already mentioned, but Mickey Rourke in both "Body Heat" and "The Pledge."

...and The Rainmaker as well.

Yes! Not so much "The Masked Singer" from what I've heard, though.

Max Pirkis as Blakeny in "Master & Commander." Just an awesome performance.

That’s a really good one, especially given his age. He’s only in the film for a couple minutes, but his performance does a lot of heavy lifting to make the bad guys truly horrific and raise the stakes for the rest of the story.

We could almost make this thread exclusive single-scene performances from Tarantino movies. I already mentioned Julia Butters from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (though she actually has two scenes), but how about:

Larry Bishop in Kill Bill Volume 2
Angela Jones in Pulp Fiction
Chris Tucker in Jackie Brown
Denis Menochet in Inglourious Basterds
John Hawkes and Michael Parks in From Dusk Till Dawn

All were in exactly one scene, and knocked it out of the park.

or Walken in True Romance.

This is a performance that always stood out to me. I always assumed we would start to see him in more stuff.

great in this role. Always thought he was robbed of Oscar for The Wrestler. Always. There are 3 instances in my immediate history that I was really disappointed when someone I thought should have gotten Oscar, but didn’t. Rourke, Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls, Bill Murray Lost in Translation, actually 4, Keaton in Birdman... Those will always stay with me in some weird way.

Rourke as Randy the Ram is one of the most iconic performances in my lifetime.