Who are supporting actors that make a good film great?
To me Walter Brennan is one.
Another would be the crazy character playing along side John Wayne in " The Searchers " (Wish I knew his name )
These two made what ever movie they were in much more enjoyable.

Some of my favorite movie-stealing supporting actors in any movie they are in:
Greg Kinnear
Gary Oldman
Joaquin Phoenix

One-time award goes to:
Johnny Depp in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"
Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys"

Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, Kathy Bates, and Samuel L Jackson are just a few of my fav supporting actors.

Oh and Bruce Campbell always makes a movie more interesting for me. Spiderman 3 would have sucked (or sucked more if you think it did suck) if it weren't for his short part in the movie.

2x on Kathy Bates.

Willem Dafoe
Don Cheadle
Luis Guzmán

M. Night Shyamalan
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just kidding...

I like that list, BlogginITGuy. How could I forget about Sam Jackson, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe? They make every movie they are in.

Benecio Del Toro, even though he's been kinda low-key lately.

Tom Wilkinson
Patricia Clarkson

Oh, I forgot Bill Paxton and Steve Buschemi, two other guys that can always be counted on for good character performances.

I always liked that Bill Paxton was the only actor to be killed by a terminator, an alien and a predator, although he might have been joined in that club by Lance Henriksen, although it could be argued whether he was killed by an alien or not between the 2nd and 3rd movies...and I can't remember if an alien or predator killed him in AVP.

Yeah, winning an Oscar seems to do that to people.

I think that for cameos, Stan Lee has much better stage presence.

Went to a party at Steve Buscemi's NYC place some years ago…his vintage record collection is really somethin' else…rumor had it that he's very protective of it.

Bill Paxton's pretty great, too…right now my wife and I are really into his TV thing Big Love. For those who haven't seen it, he's a practicing polygamist in Mormon country. Hope I haven't sullied the "Movie Forum" by mentioning it.