10 Best Unsung Actors From Each Movie Genre

It appeared J.T. Walsh was just about to break through into something bigger than just another character actor when he was struck down by a heart attack in 1998.

At 54, he had amassed 78 credits in film and television - not as many as some actors of his stature, but the roles themselves were starting to stand out. After playing the heavy in the better-than-average Kurt Russell thriller Breakdown, he returned to his stock and trade parts of obstinate bureaucrats, usually hindering the progress of the heroes of Pleasantville, The Negotiator and Executive Decision.

But if Walsh had a run that made him stand apart from other bureaucrats, it's his work in the crime genre. Never has the role of the frustrated office drone taken on such an air of menace. He would appear in David Mamet's directorial debut House of Games, another sleazy con man in The Grifters and perhaps his best role as a murderous husband in Red Rock West.

He even lent his brand of sleaze to a real-life criminal, playing John Ehrlichman in Nixon. What Walsh could do sleazy, he could also sell with integrity. Those bureaucrat roles weren't all just stubborn idiots; his one-scene part in Outbreak is the definition of a showy character role, the only voice of sanity in a room full of maniacs.