8. Garret Dillahunt
Looking back at his filmography, you would think that Garret Dillahunt would be one of the most recognizable actors out there, or at the very least more well known than he is now. Primarily a television actor (most well known for his dual roles as Francis Wolcott and Jack McCall in separate seasons of Deadwood), Dillahunt made one of the most impressive transitions into a feature film career to date, although you wouldn't know it from his name alone, which still goes mostly unrecognized, even by hardcore cinephiles. Dillahunt is often typecast in similar supporting roles as a grizzled country type, and is often either a lawman or a lawbreaker. But the sheer pedigree of projects alone deserves respect - Dillahunt has played supporting characters in No Country for Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Winter's Bone, The Road, and most recently, Looper and Killing Them Softly (almost all of which feature additional actors that make appearances later in this list). He is a regular cast member of the fairly pedestrian Fox sitcom Raising Hope but also still finds time to deliver stellar performances on the big screen. Hopefully, his upcoming lead performance as part of a 1970's gay couple (played by Dillahunt and Alan Cumming) in the based-on-a-true-story drama Any Day Now, as well as a supporting role in the upcoming Steve McQueen film Twelve Years a Slave, will further increase his profile and hopefully lead to more widespread recognition. For now, at least, he will always have his showdown scene with John Hawkes in Winter's Bone, one of the most tense and memorable film sequences of that year.
KEY ROLES: Deadwood (TV series, 2004-2005), No Country for Old Men (2007), Winter's Bone (2010).
NEXT SEEN IN: Any Day Now (UK release date pending).