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Caroline
Aaron |
Susan Lynch Michael Mantell Lizzie Martinez Vanessa Martinez Mary McDonnell Stephen Mendillo Nancy Mette Chip Mitchell Joe Morton Josh Mostel Jean Passanante Bill Raymond Maggie Renzi John Sayles Marisa Smith Vincent Spano Mary Steenburgen Fisher Stevens David Strathairn Tay Strathairn Kevin Tighe Jaime Tirelli Tom Wright |
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Number of Sayles
films (as actor): 8
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Sayles' lifetime partner of more than 30 years, Maggie Renzi has also produced most of Sayles' films and acted in eight of them, more than any other actor. She played the beleaguered hostess Katie in Return of the Secaucus Seven; a social worker in Brother From Another Planet; and in probably her best performance, a resourceful italian immigrant in Matewan. She also played David Strathairn's wife in Eight Men Out. "It's pretty interesting to have a record of yourself aging on film." Renzi told IFC.com. "In Secaucus Seven I was 28 years old and I weighed 118 pounds. By the time I saw myself in Passion Fish I thought, 'I think I'm gonna wait until I'm a genuine old lady before I go in front of a camera again.' " A native of Williamstown, Mass., Renzi is a 1973 graduate of Williams College, where she met Sayles while working in college theater productions. Before becoming a film producer, she worked at various times as a bookstore clerk, a pediatric receptionist, a substitute teacher, a salad chef, and a casting agent. She has usually been the key player in raising funds for Sayles' shoestring film projects, and it was Renzi who insisted that Sayles film The Secret of Roan Inish (which was based Rosalie K. Fry's The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry, a book Renzi had long admired). Renzi has been nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards, and (with Sayles) she also won the Storyteller Award at the 2002 Taos Film Festival. |
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Number of Sayles films: 7 |
Probably the actor most commonly associated with Sayles, the understated David Strathairn has appeared in seven of the director's films, including the lead role of fisherman Joe Gastineau in Limbo. Strathairn made his film debut in Return of the Secaucus Seven as Ron, an old friend of the title group. In Brother From Another Planet, he and Sayles nearly steal the film as the clueless Men in Black. Strathairn followed that with two sympathetic roles: Sid Hatfield, the sheriff of Mingo County in Matewan, and the star pitcher Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out. In City of Hope, Strathairn played a delusional street person in a role apparently inspired by Roger Smith's character in Do the Right Thing. Lastly, in Passion Fish Strathairn played Mary McDonnell's old high school flame. Strathairn and Sayles met at Williams College, where both were involved in theater. (They acted together in a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with Sayles as The Chief.). After graduating from Williams Strathairn moved to Florida, where he attended and graduated from the Ringling Brothers Clown College. He then spent six months in the circus as one half of a pair of Siamese Twins. "Clown college was all about learning to be very broad, expansive, and expressive in gesture," Strathairn told interviewer Amie Young. "I've always found, through watching a lot of silent pictures, that those great clowns were also great actors. They had to indicate so much just with their physicality." Indeed, Strathairn's physicality as an actor is what impresses Sayles the most, and is what prompted the director to cast him as a handyman, a fisherman, a cop, and a baseball player. "David turned out to be a good pitcher and he'd never pitched before," Sayles told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Strathairn's most memorable non-Sayles film roles include Meryl Streep's husband in The River Wild, a baseball magnate in A League of Their Own, Tom Cruise's brother in The Firm, and the high-class pimp Pierce Patchett in L.A. Confidential. Strathairn has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards and one Screen Actors Guild Award, and was the recipient of the Maverick Tribute Award at the 2002 San Jose Film Festival. He lives in upstate New York. |
|
Number of Sayles
films (as actor): 7
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John Sayles' biography is under construction. |
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Number of Sayles films:
5 |
A familiar face from many of Sayles' best films, Michael Mantell's memorable roles include the owner of the video-game repair shop in Brother From Another Planet, Doolin (one of the Felts Baldwin thugs) in Matewan, and gambler Abe Attell ("The Little Champ") in Eight Men Out. Mantell's other film credits include Quiz Show, Little Man Tate, and A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). His TV guest starring roles include spots on ER, The X-Files, West Wing, Ally McBeal, Law and Order, Roseanne, and many others. He was also a regular cast member on ABC's short-lived show State of Grace, playing David Rayburn. |
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Number of Sayles films:
5 |
Harold Thomas Wright first entered the world of John Sayles in 1984 when he played one of the leading roles in The Brother From Another Planet, that of Sam, the earnest social worker who tries to help Joe Morton. He was later cast in four other Sayles films, most significantly as Flash Phillips, the former college football star forced to cash in on his celebrity in Sunshine State. He was also one of the miners in Matewan and a Muslim political activist in City of Hope. Wright's television roles include guest spots on Seinfeld and NYPD Blue, and he also does much stage work, having acted in the New York Shakespeare Festival.
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Number of Sayles films: 4 |
An acclaimed character actor on stage and screen, Gordon Clapp has been acting in John Sayles projects for more than 20 years. Clapp made his film breakthrough in Return of the Secaucus Seven as Chip, "the new guy." He later played a Felts-Baldwin thug in Matewan and the volatile catcher Ray Schalk in Eight Men Out. Most recently, he starred as Earl, the suicidal city councilman in Sunshine State. "The wonderful thing John does as a storyteller is he gives everybody a valid point of view," Clapp says. "He tries not to deal in black and white. His films have a very particular point of view and statement, but at the same time, there are no real villains and no real heroes." A native of North Conway, New Hampshire (where Secaucus Seven was filmed), Clapp attended Williams College, where he met John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, and David Strathairn. (Clapp "was directing Of Mice and Men and asked me to read for Slim, I think because I was so tall and thin," Sayles remembered.) After his role in Secaucus Clapp moved to Canada for several years, where he did theater work in Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the early 1980s, Clapp played the role of Pharaoh in Sayles' play New Hope For the Dead. In non-Sayles circles, Clapp is best known for his portrayal of Det. Medavoy on the acclaimed television show NYPD Blue, a role that won him the Emmy for best supporting actor in 1998. His other TV work includes guest appearances on Cheers and The Wonder Years. He is also an accomplished writer, having won a Los Angeles Press Club award for an essay published in Variety. |
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Number of Sayles films:
4
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Chris Cooper has only acted in three (soon to be four) Sayles films, but his indelible performances in those have made him one of the definitive John Sayles actors. "I don’t know if I’m any kind of alter ego of John in his films," Cooper once said, "but there’s something that he sees that he can use in me." Cooper was a relatively little-known stage actor when, in 1987, Sayles picked him to play the lead role in Matewan, that of labor organizer Joe Kenehan. "We saw hundreds of actors to play Joe Kenehan," Sayles later wrote. "We were after someone in his late twenties or early thirties, someone who seemed very American in a Midwestern, Henry Fonda-Gary Cooper kind of way, somebody who could be smart and down to earth at the same time, someone the audience and the characters would take seriously but who had some sense of humor. Not so easy to find." Cooper turned in a superb performance in Matewan and later played a minor part in City of Hope, but in 1996 he landed the role of a lifetime. He played Sheriff Buddy Deeds, the lead in what would turn out to be Sayles' greatest film: Lone Star. The performance earned him a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award, and also the Best Actor trophy at the aptly-named Lone Star Film & Television Awards. "He’s a guy who looks like he has a past," Sayles said of Cooper's appeal. "He looks like he’s haunted by what has gone before. He brings that kind of depth and feeling to the screen, so you don’t even have to give him a lot to say and people will look at him and think, 'There’s a lot going on here.' " Although he has frequently played policemen and military men -- roles often reduced to stereotype in Hollywood -- Cooper always brings an understated sense of dignity and intelligence to his roles. His first significant non-Sayles role came in the epic miniseries Lonesome Dove, in which he plays July Johnson, the naïve but honest Arkansas sheriff who sets off on a cross-country quest after a murderer. In 2000 Cooper won accolades for his small but pivotal role as a military man in American Beauty. In 2002 his performance as an orchid poacher in Spike Jonze's brilliant Adaptation earned him a shelf full of acting awards, including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His understated and genuine acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the Academy Awards show. In 2003's Seabiscuit, Cooper played a leading role as Tom Smith, the trainer of the prize-winning horse. And after a seven-year hiatus from Sayles films, Cooper has recently been cast in Sayles' newest film, Silver City, which was set to begin filming in September 2003. A native of Kansas City, Cooper worked on his family's cattle ranch as a young man and also served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. Cooper is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Drama. His wife, Marianne Leone, appeared onscreen with Cooper in City of Hope. |
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Number of Sayles films:
4 |
A longtime theather veteran in New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, John Griesemer's film acting resume includes small roles in four John Sayles films. He was the cop who tries to make friends with Joe Morton on the stoop in Brother From Another Planet, Thomas in City of Hope, one of the New Jersey baseball fans in the final scene of Eight Men Out, and the voice of the TV football announcer at Bunny's house in Lone Star. A graduate of Dickinson College, his other film credits include Days of Thunder, Malcolm X, and The Crucible. A respected actor in the theater, Griesemer also appeared in a production of Sayles' play Turnbuckle. |
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Number of Sayles films: 4 |
A familiar face to Sayles fans, Stephen Mendillo has played small but important roles in four Sayles films. The first was Lianna, in which he plays Bob, the football coach. In Eight Men Out he was Monk, the hood who makes a death threat against pitcher Lefty Williams' wife the night before the big game. Mendillo returned in City of Hope as Yoyo, and also made an appearance in Lone Star as Sgt. Cliff, the Army officer who becomes involved in a romance with a fellow officer. A graduate of Yale, Mendillo's breakthrough film was 1977's Slap Shot, in which he played Jim Ahern, a member of the Chiefs hockey team. Since then he's appeared in such films as Without a Trace, Broadcast News, and Cobb, as well as guest turns on numerous TV shows. Mendillo is also a noted stage actor, with roles including Constable Warren in the 2002 Booth Theater production of Our Town (also starring Paul Newman). He's also appeared on Broadway in Guys and Dolls and A View From a Bridge. |
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Number of Sayles films:
3
|
The son of Academy Award-nominated actress Jane Alexander, Jace Alexander acted in three Sayles films in the late 1980s before becoming a director himself. His first Sayles film was Matewan, in which he played Hillard, the young man whose death is the final straw leading to the Battle of Matewan. The film was Alexander's big-screen debut; however, he almost became a victim of the drawn-out casting process as Sayles struggled with the film's funding. "Jace Alexander was dragged in at least three times to read for Hillard, though his first audition years earlier was excellent," Sayles wrote. "We just needed to be sure he hadn't grown past the age we needed Hillard to seem." In Eight Men Out Alexander plays Dickie Kerr, the rookie pitcher who wins two World Series games despite being heckled by his teammates as a "busher." In City of Hope he is Bobby, Vincent Spano's best friend. In the early 1990s Alexander
attended the American Film Institute's two-year film production course,
and he soon started directing television shows. He has directed episodes
of Homicide: Life on the Street, Ally McBeal, The
Practice, Third Watch, and more than a dozen episodes of Law
& Order. He has also directed more than 25 plays for the Naked
Angels Theatre Company, an experimental theater group of which he is
a co-founder. He has not acted in a film since 1995's Clueless. |
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
Angela Bassett's biography is under construction. "It’s always a joy when he calls," Bassett said of Sayles after making Sunshine State. "I really enjoy working with John because it’s such a wonderful collaborative experience. He is very clear about the characters but he gives you a lot of flexibility. You get to work together. You have boundaries that he has set but you also feel a sense of freedom as an artist."
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
An artist and Southern character actor whose face is familiar from dozens of films and TV programs, Leo Burmester has played small roles in three Sayles films. In 1992 he made his Sayles debut in Passion Fish as Mary McDonnell's drunk uncle Reeves. In Lone Star he was the redneck bartender Cody ("Se habla American, goddammit!"), and in Limbo he played Harmon King, the homophobic fisherman. Burmester played one of the 12 apostles in Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ. His other film credits include A Perfect World, The Abyss, and Broadcast News. He has also appeared on many acclaimed television shows, most memorably as an arrogant Texas lawyer on Law and Order. He has acted frequently on Broadway, and originated the role of Thenardier in Les Miserables. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Burmester now lives in Carmel, California, where he spends his spare time keeping bees and working as a sculptor. In the art world, he's best known for assembling sculptures out of junk. He is a subscriber to the philosophy of Radical Honesty, a series of seminars that teaches people "how to transform your life by telling the truth." In 2001, the 27-minute short film Leo Burmester and the Literature of Junk was named Best Documentary Short at the Putnam County Film Festival. Directed by Rob Travalino, the film examines the themes behind Burmester's sculptures. (Perhaps not coincidentally, one of Burmester's co-stars in Lone Star, Stephen Lang, plays a character who makes sculptures out of junk.) |
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
Clifton James' biography is under construction. James
played the same character (Sheriff Pepper, a redneck lawman) in two
consecutive James Bond movies, Live and Let Die and The Man With the
Golden Gun. |
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
Noted singer, songwriter, and actor Kris Kristofferson first appeared in a John Sayles film in 1996, when he won widespread acclaim for his portrayal of Sheriff Charlie Wade in Lone Star. (It's probably the closest thing to a snarling villain that has ever appeared in a Sayles film.) In 1999 Kristofferson took on a more ambiguous role as the grizzled pilot Jack Johansson in Limbo. Sayles also cast Kristofferson in his upcoming film, Silver City, which was set to begin filming in Denver in September 2003. A multitalented man with enough experiences for several lifetimes, Kristofferson has been at various times a Golden Gloves boxer, a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, an Army helicopter pilot, and an alcoholic (he's been sober since 1976). Kristofferson first rose to prominence as a songwriter in the late 1960s, authoring the brilliant Janis Joplin tune "Me and Bobby McGee" and the Johnny Cash-sung "Sunday Morning Coming Down," among many others. After making his film debut in Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie (1971), Kristofferson went on to star in such films as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and A Star is Born (which won him the Golden Globe for best actor). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1984 for the film Songwriter. For the definitive online guide to Kris Kristofferson's career, check out Chapter33.com. |
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Number of
Sayles films: 3 |
Michael Laskin has played minor parts in three Sayles films, including the role of Charles Comiskey's manipulative attorney, Alfred Austrian, in Eight Men Out. Laskin also portrayed Redwood Vance in Passion Fish and the businessman Albright in Limbo. His other credits include The Grifters, Disclosure, and dozens more films and television shows. |
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Number of Sayles films: 4 |
Nancy Mette appeared in four early John Sayles films, most memorably as Bridey Mae, the young girl in Matewan who has a crush on Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), but whose gullibility later gets Kenehan into trouble. In Passion Fish she plays a small part as one of Mary McDonnell's fellow actresses, but has perhaps the funniest line in the film. ("I didn't ask for the anal probe!") |
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
Lizzie Martinez first worked with the Sayles company on Lone Star, where she served as director of local casting at the Texas shooting locations. Martinez also made her acting debut in Lone Star, a cameo appearance as the kitchen worker at Cafe Santa Barbara who asks Pilar: “¿Es tu madre?” Martinez later served as casting director for Men With Guns, and played the small but important role of Dra. Montoya in that film. In Limbo, in addition to her casting duties, Martinez can be seen walking through the background during the scene where Casey Siemaszko is in the bank asking for a loan. A fixture in the Austin independent film scene, Martinez has also worked in the casting department for two Richard Linklater films, including the sublime animated feature Waking Life (2001). She also played the lead role in Athina Rachel Tsangari's 2000 film The Slow Business of Going. |
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
One of the screen's most promising young actresses, Vanessa Martinez has appeared in only three theatrically-released films, all of them Sayles projects. A native of Texas, Sayles discovered her at a casting call for Lone Star and cast her in the role of the teenaged Elizabeth Peña. Her breakthrough role, however, came in Limbo, where she turned in a stunning, nuanced performance as Noelle, the troubled daughter of the film's main character. The performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2003, Martinez made her third film appearance as Asunción, the chambermaid, in Casa de los Babys. She has also appeared on the TV shows Streets of Laredo and Walker, Texas Ranger. She is an alumna of St. Mary's University in San Antonio, where she studied English literature. |
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Number of Sayles films:
3 |
A longtime New York stage actor, Charles "Chip" Mitchell has appeared in small roles in three John Sayles films. He served as Vincent Spano's stand-in on Baby, It's You, and also appears briefly in that film as a drunk college kid in a bar scene with Rosanna Arquette and Matthew Modine. In Brother From Another Planet Mitchell played Ed, one of two out-of-towners who get off at the wrong subway stop and accidentally stumble into Odell's Bar, where they have a humorous and memorable "conversation" with The Brother. In Silver City, Mitchell plays Henry, the local coroner who gives Danny Huston information about the dead body that is threatening Dickie Pilager's political career. Mitchell's numerous stage credits include Broadway productions (I'm Not Rappaport), off-broadway (A Life In The Theatre; Plain and Fancy) and the national touring and regional theatre circuit. His other film appearances include Malcolm X, and he's appeared on TV in "The Equalizer" and "One Life to Live". He is now an attorney in Denver, Colorado. |
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Number of
Sayles films:
3 |
Joe Morton's biography is under construction. |
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Number of Sayles
films: 3 |
The son of the legendary blacklisted actor Zero Mostel, Josh Mostel has acted in three John Sayles films. His Sayles debut came as the sidewalk casio vendor in The Brother From Another Planet, but his best role came three years later, when he turned in an outstanding performance as Cabell Testerman, the timid mayor of Matewan who courageously stands up in the end. One of the busiest character actors of the last two decades, Mostel has appeared in almost 50 films, including Sophie's Choice, The Money Pit, Wall Street, City Slickers, and Knockaround Guys. |
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Number of
Sayles films: 3 |
Bill Raymond has had minor roles in three Sayles films: Mr. Ripeppi in Baby, It's You; the ballplayers' attorney Ben Short in Eight Men Out; and Les the attacked jogger in City of Hope. A prominent character actor, he has also appeared in Twelve Monkeys, Summer of Sam, and The Hurricane, among many other films. |
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Number of Sayles films: 3 |
Marisa Smith played small roles in three early Sayles films. She was David Strathairn's wife in Secaucus Seven, "Dick's Student" in Lianna, and "White Hooker" in The Brother From Another Planet. I don't know for sure, but I believe this is the same Marisa Smith who has since edited almost 30 books on theater, including such titles as The Actor's Book of Movie Monologues and Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 1998. She has not appeared in a film since 1985. |
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Number of Sayles
films: 3 |
Noted character actor Kevin Tighe performed memorably as a smooth-talking, silver-haired villain in three consecutive Sayles films, beginning with Matewan. In that film, his first feature film, Tighe portrayed Hickey, one of the two arrogant Phelps Baldwin agents (the other was Gordon Clapp) who force their way into Mary McDonnell's home. In Eight Men Out the next year, he was the very embodiment of sleaziness as Sport Sullivan, the white-suited Boston gambler who serves as a go-between for Arnold Rothstein and the ballplayers. Finally, in City of Hope, he portrays a slimy local businessman. Tighe has also played supporting roles in such films as Geronimo: An American Legend and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. In 1993, he won a Genie Award (the Candian version of the Oscar) for Best Supporting Actor in I Love a Man in Uniform. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
Caroline Aaron's biography is under construction. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2
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Best known for writing the book Eight Men Out, author Eliot Asinof has made cameo appearances in two John Sayles films. In the film of Eight Men Out he plays John Heydler, President of the National League. In Sunshine State he's a member of the chorus of golfers, and has the last line in the film: "But what will we do for Indians?" Like Sayles, Asinof is a former student at Williams College. He signed a baseball contract the day after graduating from college (he had transferred to Swarthmore), but called it quits after two years in the minor leagues. In 1955 Asinof published his first novel, Man On Spikes, which today is regarded by many as the best baseball novel ever written. In the 1960s Asinof switched gears, publishing the groundbreaking nonfiction book Eight Men Out. It was the first (and still the only) definitive account of the Black Sox affair, the most infamous scandal in baseball history. A longtime favorite of Sayles, Eight Men Out was the first screenplay Sayles ever wrote, but the script languished untouched for more than a decade before funding was finally secured to film it in 1987. "Eliot brought to it a point of view that I found interesting, that I wanted in the movie," Sayles said. "Eliot had done the leg work, he'd talked to these guys, many of them just before they died. And they had not talked to each other since the scandal. So he was able to put together a story that most of the participants didn't even know." Read an article about Eliot Asinof from the Swarthmore Bulletin. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
Bill Cobbs' biography is under construction. |
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Number of Sayles
films:
2 |
A theater legend now in her sixth decade as a professional actress, Miriam Colón has graced the screen in two Sayles films (and hopefully many more to come). After making her Sayles debut in a minor role in City of Hope, she landed one of the best roles of her career in 1996, as the meddling matriarch Mercedes Cruz in Lone Star. A native of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Colón is one of the founders of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in New York City. She is an alumna of the University of Puerto Rico's drama department as well as the Actors Studio in New York (where she now sits on the Board of Directors). In 1993 she received an OBIE award for lifetime achievement in the theater. Colón made her film debut at age 17 in the 1953 baseball film Los Peloteros (which was hailed by at least one person as "the greatest film ever made in Puerto Rico"). Her other other film work includes roles as Al Pacino's mother in Scarface and as Penélope Cruz's aunt in All the Pretty Horses. In 2001 she turned in a widely praised performance in the leading role of Jan Egleson's film The Blue Diner. Since 1999 Colón has played Maria Santos on the daytime soap Guiding Light, for which she was twice nominated for the ALMA (American Latino Media Arts) Award for Best Actress. Her numerous other television credits include episodes of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Fugitive, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. If you read Spanish, you might want to check out her biography, titled Miriam Colón: Actriz Y Fundadora De Teatro. |
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Number of Sayles
films (as actor):
2
[Buy Mason Daring's soundtrack for The Secret of Roan Inish at Amazon.com] |
Although Mason Daring has played cameo roles in two John Sayles films (including a part as a guitarist in Matewan), he is much better known as Sayles' longtime music composer. He is one of four collaborators who has been with Sayles from the very beginning up to the present (the others being Maggie Renzi, David Strathairn, and Gordon Clapp). In 1979 Daring was working (unhappily) as a lawyer in Massachusetts when he found out that one of his clients, John Sayles, needed some music for a film he was making, The Return of the Secaucus Seven. Daring, who had "worked my way through college and law school playing guitar," offered his services as a composer, and the rest is history. Daring has now composed the original score for 13 of Sayles' 14 films (the lone exception being Baby, It's You, which was scored entirely with classic rock tunes). Sayles' famously diverse settings for his films have given Daring the opportunity to adopt various musical styles in his compositions, including dabbling in Celtic music in The Secret of Roan Inish, Louisiana Zydeco in Passion Fish, and Tejano music in Lone Star. Daring is the founder of Daring Records, located in Marblehead, Mass., which publishes his film scores as well as music by other artists. Interview
with Mason Daring from Film Score Monthly |
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Number of Sayles films: 2 |
DeVries had a key role as Dick, the main character's husband, in Lianna, and a smaller role in City of Hope. He continues to act in television and theater up to the present day. His television credits include Miami Vice, Spenser: For Hire, Law and Order, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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Number of Sayles
films: 2 |
After playing the whiny gambler and ex-boxer Billy Maharg in Eight Men Out, Richard Edson returned to Sayles World in 2002 with a flashy role as Edie Falco's ex-husband the pirate in Sunshine State. He also played a starring role in Shannon's Deal, the short-lived television series created by Sayles in 1990. The
original drummer for the rock band Sonic Youth, Edson broke into films
with a bang in 1984, winning raves for his starring turn in Jim
Jarmusch's groundbreaking Stranger Than Paradise. One of the most
distinctive actors of his generation, Edson's impressive list of film
credits includes Platoon, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, (where
he plays the garage attendant who takes liberties with Ferris' car), Platoon,
Good Morning Vietnam, Jungle Fever, and Do the Right
Thing (as Sal's younger son). He has also guest starred on Miami
Vice, L.A. Law, ER, and Homicide: Life on the
Street. |
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Number of
Sayles films: 2 |
Daryl Edwards' biography is under construction.
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
A graduate of Yale Drama School, Joe Grifasi plays Fausto, the leader of the Italian faction of miners in Matewan, and also tackled the smaller role of Pauly in City of Hope. Even if Grifasi's name is not familiar to most moviegoers, his face surely is. His long list of film credits includes The Deer Hunter, Splash, Moonstruck, Ironweed, Presumed Innocent, and The Hudsucker Proxy, among many others. Grifasi is also a stage director, having helmed a production of Preston Sturges' play A Cup of Coffee at the Yale Repertory Theater, and also a production of Nobody's Fool at the Chelsea Theater in New York. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
A prominent actress on the New York Stage, Kathryn Grody has played minor parts in two recent Sayles films. In Men With Guns, she was a well-meaning but clueless American tourist. (Her husband was played by Mandy Patinkin, her husband in real life.) In Limbo, Grody played Frankie, a lesbian restaurateur. In
1990, Grody wrote and performed in a one-woman show, A Mom's Life,
which is still being performed more than a decade later. The play was so
successful that it was turned into a book (which sold 57,000 copies) and
an abortive TV show. Grody has also won two Obie awards for her other
work on the stage. Her other films include Reds, My Bodyguard,
and Quick Change. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
A down-home rock, blues, and jazz vocalist from New Orleans, Leigh Harris first appeared in a Sayles film as a nightclub singer in Eight Men Out. "Sayles came into a club in New York City where I was singing one night," Harris remembered. "He approached me and said. ‘I just think you're so wonderful.' A year later he called me for the movie." She retuned to Sayles territory four years later, playing Kit in Passion Fish. In her musical career, Harris has shared billing with such artists as B.B. King and Elvis Costello. In 1977 she co-founded the well-known New Orleans group Little Queenie and the Percolators and in 1999 released her first solo album, House of Secrets. |
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Number of Sayles films: 2 |
Henderson's most significant work as an actress came in Lianna, where she plays Sandy, the friend who seems to abandon Lianna after she comes out as a lesbian. Henderson also played a small part in Matewan; her other roles consisted mostly of television movies. She died in an automobile accident in 1988. |
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Number of Sayles
films:
2 |
In Eight Men Out Perry Lang played Fred McMullin, the benchwarmer who forces his way in on the fix after accidentally discovering the scheme. He also starred in the Sayles-scripted Alligator in 1980. Like his co-star Jace Alexander, Lang later became a television director, helming episodes of Dawson's Creek and ER, among many others. He also directed Men of War, a straight-to-video Dolph Lundgren vehicle with a screenplay co-written by Sayles. ("For one of these movies it's actually not bad," Sayles says.) In 2002 Lang returned to the big screen to play Greg in Sunshine State, his first film acting role in nearly a decade. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
In 1994, John Sayles cast the young and unknown Irish actress Susan Lynch in The Secret of Roan Inish. It was just her second film, and she had a brief part as the mythical Selkie (a mermaid-like creature). A decade later, now a well-known actress in the United Kingdom, Lynch landed a starring role in Sayles' Casa de los Babys. In that film she plays Eileen, one of the six women who travels to South America to adopt a baby. A
native of northern Ireland, Lynch is the daughter of an Italian mother
and an Irish father, and has performed on the stage in both English and
Gaelic. Her big-screen credits include numerous movies filmed in Europe,
such as Waking Ned Devine and From Hell (as one of Jack
the Ripper's murder victims). Her brother, John Lynch, is a noted
character actor, and the two siblings appeared together in Interview
With the Vampire. |
|
Number of Sayles films:
2
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One of the most respected actresses of her generation, Mary McDonnell first worked with John Sayles in 1987, when she played the central role of Elma, the woman who runs the boarding house in Matewan. It was only her second film. Sayles first met her in 1983, when he was in the midst of an aborted first attempt at casting Matewan. "Really good actress, a bit young," he wrote in his notes. But by the time filming actually began three years later, Sayles wrote, "Mary didn't look much older but seemed older in terms of experience -- whatever she had lived was available and apparent in her acting." By the time she was cast in the lead role of May-Alice in 1992's Passion Fish, McDonnell's experience had reached the point where she needed little direction from Sayles. "Mary McDonnell wouldn't let me finish a sentence," he remembered. "I would get halfway through the sentence, she would say 'got it' and walk away." To prepare herself for the role of a self-centered, wheelchair-bound actress, McDonnell spent time with a former nurse and paraplegic to learn the details about disabled life that usually don't show up in films. The role won her both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. A noted actress on the New York Stage for many years, McDonnell was little known to mainstream audiences until 1990, when her breathtaking performance as Stands With a Fist in Dances With Wolves catapulted her to stardom. Since then, she has appeared in many supporting roles in feature films and also done extensive work in television. |
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Number of Sayles films: 2 |
A graduate of Dartmouth, Jean Passanante met John Sayles while working in summer stock at North Conway, New Hampshire, the location where Return of the Secaucus Seven was made. In that film, Sayles cast her as Irene Roseblue, the member of the group who works as a political consultant in Washington. She also played Rose in Lianna. In the early 1980s, when Passanante was working as a theater producer in New York, she encouraged Sayles to write his play New Hope For the Dead and helped him get it produced at the Manhattan Theater Club. In recent years, Passanante has worked as a literary agent and a writer of soap opera scripts (for which she has won one Daytime Emmy Award). Secaucus Seven and Lianna remain the only two films she has ever acted in. |
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Number of Sayles
films:
2 |
In 1983 Sayles picked Vincent Spano, a hulking young stage actor from Brooklyn, to play the Sheik, the male lead in Baby, It's You. "They weren't crazy about Vincent and Rosanna [Arquette]," Sayles said of Paramount's reaction to his casting decisions. "And we said, 'No, these are the guys we want to go with, and we're willing to walk away and put it into turnaround if you don't okay them, because we haven't found anybody else remotely right for these parts.' " Spano rewarded Sayles' faith with a magnificent performance, showing equal parts toughness and vulnerability as the likeable kid from the wrong side of the tracks. In City of Hope, Spano plays another major role as Nick Rinaldi, the construction mogul's son who, in Sayles' words, "doesn't know any way to make the world work for him." A workmanlike actor with matinee idol looks, Spano never quite reached superstardom despite winning much critical praise for his early roles. He has continued to pursue a wide variety of work in films, television, and on stage, with mixed success. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
A relative newcomer to the Sayles company, Mary Steenburgen has played significant roles in two recent Sayles films. She was memorable as the harried Chamber of Commerce executive in Sunshine State, and she also plays one of six women trying to adopt a newborn in Casa de los Babys. Steenburgen got her start in acting when she impressed Jack Nicholson while waiting on him in a New York restaurant. Although best known for playing ditzes, Steenburgen has turned in a lengthy and diverse body of film work, including appearances in Ragtime, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Nixon, and Philadelphia. She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, and in 1981 swept virtually every major acting award (including the Oscar) for her brilliant performance in Melvin and Howard. A native of Arkansas and a close friend of the Clinton family, Steenburgen returned to her old high school in Little Rock to teach drama workshops in 2002. |
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Number of Sayles
films:
2 |
Now a well-known actor, Fisher Stevens was "discovered" by John Sayles before becoming famous. Baby, It's You and The Brother From Another Planet were only his second and third films, respectively. His brief role in Brother was particularly outstanding: He plays the young card sharp on the subway who tries in vain to interest Joe Morton in some card tricks. A theater mainstay since his teenage years, the Chicago native has acted on Broadway in A Christmas Carol and Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, as well as in Shakespeare in the Park. In the 1990s he had a long real-life relationship with the actress Michelle Pfeiffer, although remarkably he has never appeared in a film with her. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
The son of longtime Sayles colleague David Strathairn, Tay Strathairn has appeared as a child actor in two Sayles films. In Eight Men Out, he played Bucky, the young boy who idolizes Buck Weaver. ("We call him Bucky on account of you're his favorite!"). Eight years later in Lone Star, Strathairn acted in two flashback scenes with Vanessa Martinez, playing Chris Cooper's character as a teenager. Tay Strathairn is now a jazz pianist, playing occasional gigs in New York City. |
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Number of Sayles films:
2 |
Another familiar face, Jaime Tirelli has a terrific bit role in The Brother From Another Planet as Hector, the Puerto Rican repairman who shows The Brother the ropes at his new job. Tirelli even has what is (in this author's opinion) the funniest line in any John Sayles film, an untranslated Spanish diatribe directed at the Men in Black: “¿Y cómo te de creen que yo voy hablar con dos pendejos, uno vestido como fuckin’ Roy Orbison, y el otro como Johnny Cash?" Tirelli has had a long and distinguished career as a character actor, also appearing in such films as Big and Carlito's Way. In 2000, he had probably the best role of his career as Hector, the boxing trainer in Karyn Kusama's acclaimed film Girlfight (which was executive produced by Sayles). |
In addition to the actors profiled above, the following 11 actors have appeared in minor roles in two John Sayles films:
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Amanda Carlin (Lianna and Passion Fish)
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Liane Curtis (Baby, It's You and The Brother From Another Planet)
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Stephen J. Lang (Lone Star and Limbo)
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Gary McCleery (Baby, It's You and Matewan)
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Sam McMurray (Baby, It's You and Sunshine State)
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Randle Mell (Eight Men Out and City of Hope)
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Olga Merediz (The Brother From Another Planet and City of Hope)
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Michael B. Preston (Matewan and Eight Men Out)
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Betsy Julia Robinson (Return of the Secaucus Seven and Lianna)
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Deborah Taylor (Lianna and The Brother From Another Planet)
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Ginny Yang (The Brother From Another Planet and City of Hope)
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