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This particular underappreciated actor is a man who worked his way up to significant supporting roles in major pictures, from the bottom of the ladder.

He is often referred to as “George Clooney’s cousin” because of the superstardom Clooney achieved much after they both hit Hollywood. But the fact is that Miguel Ferrer established himself in advance of Clooney getting his foot in the door, and he did so on the basis of pure acting talent and intensity, rather than his cousin’s matinee good looks.

Though his credits date back to 1981, with a guest appearance on Magnum P.I., Ferrer first made a big impression as one of the key characters in a film that was filled to the brim with underappreciated actors: Robocop. Stronger performances by supporting stalwarts Ferrer, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Ray Wise and Paul McCrane buttressed the work of headliners Peter Weller and Nancy Allen, and it was these strong supporting roles that helped the film become an enormous hit and a cult classic.

The removal of such acting credibility from the middle ranks of the casts also helps explain the lack of success achieved by anything else ever having Robocop in the title, be it sequel or television series.

Ferrer also played a critical supporting role in the Oscar-winning 2000 film Traffic and was a regular cast member of the series Crossing Jordan.

Other notable film credits include The Manchurian Candidate, Mulan and Star Trek III. To these he has added guest appearances in a litany of major television series: Miami Vice, CHiPs, Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, Twin Peaks, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and CSI.

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This particular underappreciated actor is a woman who emerged onto the screen in the type of vehicle that tends so often to breed and spawn horrible acting and performances that range somewhere from wooden to false to robotic to empty…sometimes rounding all four of those bases.

Yes, such was the case with the low-budget 1980s horror scene…and one can say pretty confidently that things have not improved in that regard over the intervening decades, particularly with the advent of home editing studios, $500 HD cameras, and the still-prevalent syrup-and-food-coloring blood mixture.

With that said, every now and then a measurable degree of talent can emerge from these waters. One really wouldn’t have expected a credible and reliable character actor like Tomas Arana to emerge from Dario Argento’s Demons 3, nor Johnny Depp from A Nightmare on Elm Street, nor Kevin Bacon from Friday the 13th.

In like fashion, the formulaic Slumber Party Massacre (a quintessential tribute to scantily clad teen girls being stabbed and slashed) produced Debra DeLiso, a credible actor who would go on to some memorable theatrical performances and also to become one of California’s respected acting instructors.

She parlayed her experience and talents as a dancer to secure a position in Outrageous Fortune with Bette Midler and Shelley Long, and also guest starred on the cult 1980s sitcom Sledge Hammer! Though less active in front of the camera in recent years, DeLiso nonetheless stands out as one of the more authentic and genuine acting talents to emerge from the 1980s teen-hack-and-slash scene.

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Well, when I said Robert Davi was born to play movie villains, I forgot to leave a little room for him to be topped by Rick Aviles, a man you most definitely would not have been seeing as a Hollywood protagonist, even if he had not tragically passed away far too young in 1995 (at age 42).

But the man did evil and he did it well.

Aviles had the good fortune to both kill Patrick Swayze, and to attempt to murder (but be murdered by) Al Pacino.

Aviles achieved the former feat in the Oscar-winning film Ghost, and the latter in Carlito’s Way. As Willie Lopez in Ghost, Aviles was utterly disgusting as a low-rent murderous louch who would just as soon take a human life as not. You were all too happy when the shadowy helldemons came to take his warped spirit to the underworld with them.

As a murderous low-rent drug dealer in Carlito’s Way, you weren’t too sad to see Aviles take a bullet to the face either, as he fired away at Carlito Brigante (Pacino). Aviles had a knack for making you hate him and was surely on his way to becoming a Hollywood staple in a role he was pinning down with authority.

Indeed, Aviles has been referred to as “the poor man’s Luis Guzman,” another underappreciated actor who also appeared in Carlito’s Way (as Pachanga, Carlito’s bodyguard). In the years since Aviles’ passing, Guzman has gone on to greater heights and fame, possibly in part by absorbing the roles that may have gone to his primary competitor (and performing them quite well in his own right).

Aviles also appeared in several other notable projects, with roles of varying size. They include Street Smart, The Godfather III, The Cannonball Run and Waterworld.

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This particular underrated actor has given a string of good performances, but in some ways, hasn’t done himself any favors by giving them in a string of terrible movies.

Richard Gant may be best remembered as the Don-King-inspired ruthless promoter, George Washington Duke, from Rocky V. As the man who turned rookie actor Tommy Morrison against Sylvester Stallone, while Sylvester was trying to win back the affection of his son (rookie actor Sage Stallone), Gant put in a colorful and interesting turn with his performance…but much like the handful of underappreciated actors in the film, turned out to be bailing water on the Titanic as the film sank.

As it turns out, however, the much maligned fifth installment of the Rocky series was actually one of the better films in which you can see Gant play a notable role. He may perhaps have scraped the absolute bottom of the barrel for a working actor of significant ability by appearing in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, the 9th chapter of the Friday the 13th franchise, in which the spirit of Jason escapes his body and possesses various people, starting with Gant.

Along with William Forsythe and Lance Henriksen, who gave an incredibly strong performance for such a film, Gant was again left to scoop out water in the sinking ship that was the Brian Bosworth-fueled undercover cop film Stone Cold.

Gant was also entertaining as Baa Baa Ack, an African political figure in the Chris Rock comedy CB4 and has also actually appeared in some quality films such as City Hall and The Big Lebowski.

Richard Gant also sports a long resume of guest appearances on memorable television series, among them: Miami Vice, The Cosby Show, Beverly Hills 90210, How I Met Your Mother, Deadwood, Smallville, NYPD Blue, ER, Friends, Chicago Hope, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown and L.A. Law.

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One of the attributes that makes the great directors great (or the great movie stars), is that they know when they have something good and they take advantage of it. In Oliver Stone’s case, he always finds a way to use John C. McGinley in his films if the role fits. Sylvester Stallone knew he could rely on Frank McRae and Joe Spinell for supporting roles. Charles Bronson films aren’t complete without Ed Lauter, nor is an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie right without Sven Thorsen.

And for James Cameron, there was always Lance Henriksen. After the two worked together on the unknown 1981 film Piranha 2, Cameron knew he had something good in Henriksen and brought him back for major roles in both Aliens and The Terminator, two of the most successful and revered action films of all time.

Henriksen would follow up his work as Bishop in Aliens by reprising his role (or playing related ones) in Alien 3 and Alien vs. Predator.

He cut his teeth with a small role opposite Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, and other early film appearances included Network, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Damien: Omen II, The Right Stuff, Jagged Edge and Johnny Handsome. Over these films, he began to show his chameleon-like ability to take on any role.

He would guest star on several major television shows on his way up, from The A-Team and Cagney and Lacey to Beauty and the Beast, before ultimately landing his own series-lead in the cult favorite Millennium. Following the end of the show, he would reprise his Millennium role with a guest appearance on The X-Files.

The list of significant film roles is long and varied, from a Wild West villain in The Quick and the Dead to salt-of-the-earth cops in Jennifer 8 and Powder to the sadistic patriarch of a violent motorcycle gang in Stone Cold. He plays a different kind of patriarch, a reformed felon bringing peace to an abandoned penal colony in No Escape and, along with Sven Thorsen, takes his best shot at killing Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target.

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Pamela Reed may best be recognized in one of several roles. She was the partner and voice of calm to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hot-headed detective in Kindergarten Cop, providing the wisdom and female perspective that allowed him to adjust from smashing heads to teaching kids.

She has also had a strong television career, including a starring role as the matriarch of a family that included Skeet Ulrich and Gerald McRaney in the popular but ill-fated series Jericho.

She has also taken on darker and more ominous roles, including the nemesis to Patrick Swayze in the detective drama The Beast.

The roles in which she has succeeded are wide and varied. She took on the acting challenge of helping carry a movie with limited dialogue in the critically acclaimed Clan of the Cave Bear, a story that took place in the age of Cro Magnon Man.

Other notable big screen appearances include Young Doctors in Love, Cadillac Man, Proof of Life, The Long Riders, The Right Stuff, The Best of Times and another appearance with Schwarzenegger in Junior.

As well, she has made a strong career of guest starring on major television series, among them United States of Tara, The Simpsons and L.A. Law.

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This underappreciated actor first made a strong impression with moviegoers as the sleazy sex club manager where one of the more creative murders (masterminded by Kevin Spacey) occurred in the movie Se7en.

It was under Michael Massee’s sleazy watch that Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman were given another gruesome yet clever form of human dismemberment to decipher.

Massee stepped it up a notch when he became the first major villain in the television series 24, executing a plot to manipulate Kiefer Sutherland and kill his family.

Michael Massee was the first in a long line of superior actors who would play villains opposite Sutherland, among them Dennis Hopper, James Cromwell, Paul McCrane, Henri Lubatti, Jeff Wincott, Tobin Bell, Arnold Vosloo, Powers Boothe, Tony Todd, Peter Weller, Francesco Quinn, Kurtwood Smith, Harris Yulin and Jon Voight.

But it was Massee’s masterful portrayal of Ira Gaines that started the television phenomenon, and he even achieved the difficult task of adding human moments to an otherwise cold and heartless villain before it was all said and done.

Massee has appeared as a guest star on numerous other notable television shows, including Alias, Carnivale, The X-Files, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Practice and Millennium. His big screen credits includes films such as Amistad and The Game.

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When the roster for the Showtime series Sleeper Cell was cast, the producers had struck gold with a high-value, low-profile lineup that included Michael Ealy, Oded Fehr, Sonya Walger, Melissa Sagemiller, James LeGros and more.

They had perhaps landed the best bargain with Henri Lubatti, who would create quite possibly the richest and most interesting character in a show rife with character depth.

Having been in the acting game for quite some time, with a variety of small roles under his belt, Lubatti was ready to seize the reins and create a nuanced and human terrorist that largely bridged the gap between the good and the outright evil that walked through the world of extreme terrorists and those trying to stop them.

Over the course of two short seasons, Lubatti would carve out one of the most nuanced characters to hit the small screen.

This role followed years of paying his dues and making strong impressions with roles in television shows such as CSI, 24, ER, The Practice, Millennium and The X-Files. He has since appeared in the acclaimed TV drama Life and has also been in films that include Prefontaine.

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This underrated actor is one of the many talented individuals who made a strong but somewhat unheralded contribution to the Godfather saga.

In The Godfather: Part II, it was Michael V. Gazzo’s character who launched a silent battle of wills with Al Pacino, one that culminated with his appearance in front of the grand jury and the obligatory final “tying up loose ends” sequence without which no Godfather film would be complete.

Several years later, Gazzo would join a cast that included The Godfather standout Sterling Hayden, as well as Eric Roberts and Susan Sarandon in King of the Gypsies, playing one of the critical roles in the underrated 1978 film.

Gazzo participated in many landmark television series as a guest star, including Welcome Back Kotter, Cagney and Lacey, Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, Magnum P.I., L.A. Law and Taxi.

Given his proficiency with playing Italian mafia types, Gazzo was cast as the silent head of a mafia family in Last Action Hero. While it was up to Arnold Schwarzenegger to prevent a mass assassination at the mafia gathering, and Gazzo had no lines, his mere presence added an authenticity to the mafia ambience of the event.

In this film, Gazzo was one of a large collection of underappreciated actors who would appear on the screen, among them F. Murray Abraham, Charles Dance, Frank McRae, Robert Prosky and Tom Noonan.

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This underrated actor made a strong impression on the big screen, but an enormous contribution on the small screen.

In the late 1970s, in an era where Canadian programming was considered notoriously stale by some, Al Waxman brought an unprecedented charisma to national audiences as the star of King of Kensington. While the show never enjoyed great international success, it provided an opportunity for Waxman to display his considerable talent for acting while also presenting a launching pad for up-and-coming Canadian actors such as Harvey Atkin, Jeff Wincott and Michael Wincott.

To this day, a bronze statue of Waxman stands in Kensington, memorializing his contributions to the niche but loyal audience for the show.

Waxman would later reunite with Atkin as one of the leads in the Emmy-winning and enormously successful police drama Cagney and Lacey. Waxman was able to provide an authentic fusion of authority and vulnerability in a role that he was able to nuance over several seasons.

Waxman would also appear in numerous films, including Millennium, The Hitman and Gotti. He would also portray the warden of the prison that housed Denzel Washington in The Hurricane. Among the guards he oversaw in his prison was the “ultimate prison guard” and fellow underappreciated actor Clancy Brown.

An interesting and inspiring man, Waxman took an enormous gamble as a young man when he left law school in Toronto to pursue his dream of acting. Decades later, he has left behind a strong body of work and an undeniable testament to his talent. While Al Waxman passed away in 2001, he left behind many strong performances.

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