10 Best Harry Dean Stanton Appearances
The consummate supporting player in a career spanning over 60 years, Harry Dean Stanton – with his sharp eyes, craggy face and drawling delivery – never struggled to stand out even in the most impressive ensemble casts.
In Sophie Huber’s poetic documentary Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, made towards the end of his life, he at one point makes a playful comment that inadvertently sums up his most compelling screen performances:
“Do I have any lines? I don’t want any lines. How about doing nothing? How about silence?”
Stanton didn’t need to be showy to leave a mark. In fact, he turned stillness into a fine art and consistently managed to draw your eye to his corner of the frame no matter what else was vying for your attention.
Despite his veteran status, he is an actor who only got a handful of lead roles throughout his career. He was always a highlight of the films he appeared in though, and he had one hell of a hit rate in terms of the iconic movies he played a part in and the many auteur filmmakers he collaborated with. And so, for this Movie List, we at The Film Magazine have taken a look at all of his most iconic cameos and performances, and have whittled them down to these: the 10 Best Harry Dean Stanton Appearances.
10. The Avengers (2012)
Harry Dean Stanton is in the Marvel superhero team-up extravaganza for about a minute, but he still leaves an impression on one of the most expensive blockbusters ever made simply by being wryly amused by large-scale chaos.
As the bemused security guard of a derelict building that the Hulk has just crashed through, Stanton simply tosses the de-greened and very naked Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) some pants and advises him sagely, “Son, you got a condition”. More MCU movies could have done with a moment of knowing reflection like this.
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9. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1990)
“God damn these people are confusing”
Playing the supervisor of a trailer park and a possible witness in an ongoing FBI missing persons investigation, Harry Dean Stanton slots quite comfortably into the unique tones and rhythms of a David Lynch project.
Odd but ordinary people continually get dragged into dark and uncanny events in the ‘Twin Peaks’ universe – that’s one of the main appeals of the larger work – and here curmudgeon Carl is mostly just annoyed that he has been roused from sleep not once but twice by Federal Agents asking questions about who lives where in his trailer park and what they’d been seen doing in recent weeks. It’s not his concern what has happened to some missing teenagers, and Stanton plays his bemusement at these suits taking an interest in his insignificant corner of the world beautifully.
