John De Lancie in Breaking Bad. Not that he was bad as Q, of course, but he didn’t usually have very meaty material to work with.
Armin Shimmerman was just as good as Principal Snyder as he was as Quark.
I met him at a convention once and got him sign a letter as Principal Snyder, suspending my friend (who’s a huge Buffy fan) from Sunnydale High and threatening to expel her. He read it and thought it was hilarious.
That’s an awesome story and I agree he was great in that role.
There’s a an admiral in Star Trek Beyond that looked familiar, I had to look it up and it’s Shohreh Aghdashloo. A forgettable role, only noteworthy because I recognized the actor.
She plays Avasarala in The Expanse. Total powerhouse performance.
Whoopi Goldberg for The Color Purple.
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Michelle Yeoh in everything
*almost everything (you forgot about section 31?)
You are right, that was bad…
It was bad, but I don’t think it was her fault.
Oh hell yes for Louise Fletcher…!
curiously, the podcast “the incomparable” made an episode exactly about this topic (more specifically, performances before their trek appearances ) https://www.theincomparable.com/theincomparable/823/
Oh fun I will have to check it out
Brent Spiner was brilliant in Master of Disguise, a phenomenal movie
Damn, nearly did not recognize Keating, his performance in that gif gives heavy David Tennant to me.
He should have won best actor for his performance as “Ian” in Jungle 2 Jungle.
Andreas Katsulas had a recurring role as Commander Tomalak on TNG, but he absolutely shone as G’Kar on Babylon 5, especially in later seasons.
TIL Tomalak was G’Kar. I don’t know how I didn’t know.
He gave me goosebumps in several scenes, especially this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmuHNDcXLQ
It would be easy to just gesture vaguely at all of Sir Patrick Stewart’s career. But your question was about better performances than in Trek, and I actually think he did an excellent Picard during the original TNG run. Not quite a hot take, I know.
However, for a double off-Trek billing, I suggest Green room (2015) where he plays against Anton Yelchin among others. It’s a pretty taut little thriller about a punk band on the road that realise to their horror that their gig for the night is at a neonazi club out in the sticks. It goes downhill from there.
Oh fuck yeah. That movie was wild and Sir Patrick Stewart delivered a truly evil performance.
It’s jarring if you only know him for his cool-headed leader or mentor roles like Picard or professor Xavier… He really lets rip as this extremist POS.
Mulgrew. Flemeth. (Kidding).
Levar Burton will always be reading rainbow guy, no matter what he does.
Zachary Quinto. Silar. One of the better villains, until the writers went on strike and the show fell off the rails. Granted, this likely just marks the man’s range as an actor.
John Cho. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.
Koenig. Bester.
You could argue that everything Stewart does is equally well done. Scrooge. X. Gurney.
Karl Urban was an okay Dr. McCoy, but the 157 different roles he played on Xena Warrior Princess was where he really shined the brightest.
I honestly enjoyed him more in Dredd (where he had to do more with less) than in Star Trek.
TIL!
Really only a handful, but that hilarious he had a few characters
He really did have range with them. I watched Xena when I was a kid, and I had no idea they were the same actor
Jeffrey Combs must have been busy.
I think Patrick Stewart was pretty great in that episode of Extras.
Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act II
For me Colm Meaney wins this hands down. Good in Star Trek but great in other things.
Layer Cake, It’s always sunny in Philadelphia and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa are the 3 that come to mind first.
Colm Meaney’s performance in Layer Cake is simply astounding!
He’s great in intermission. And it’s a good movie.
And the snapper!
Gangs of London
Con Air, as the baddie.
The Man Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain, as a goodie.
The Commitments.
great villain in stargate atlantis
pretty good in the “Hell on Wheels” series. It also features Anson Mount.
Jeff Combs was excellent in “The Frighteners”
Jeff Combs in Transformers Prime, voice of Ratchet. He did some excellent voice delivery as that character.
And Re-animator, and Castle freak. He has a very good track record in a certain subset of horror movies!
Ayy, +1 for Castle Freak. Isn’t that the one where the freak rips off his own ding-dong?
I honestly don’t recall. You’d think that sort of thing would be etched onto your memory 😬
Oh, I was just referencing a bad movie podcast that has frequently mentioned that movie. One of the hosts repeatedly recommended Castle Freak, and claimed that the freak ripped off his own ding-dong. This was subsequently disputed by listeners, and one of the other hosts.
At one point, one of the show’s listeners tweeted at Stuart Gordon, asking if the freak ripped off his own ding-dong. Stuart Gordon responded, simply, “No.” However, Jonathan Fuller, who played the titular freak, provided the show an autographed picture on which he wrote, “I ripped it off myself!” So the matter still pends.
Ha, sometimes even the production crew suffer from the Mandela effect 😆
Jeff Combs was excellent in everything, though.
Jeff Combs was
excellentin everything, though.
How many roles did he play?
