Best Character Entrances... EVER.
-Judex with bird-mask in Judex.
-Christopher Lee in Director’s cut of The Wicker Man
-Jean Seberg in Breathless
-Peter Lorre in M
Orson Welles in The Third Man
Brooke Shields in Just You and me Kid
Bo Derek in 10
LOLITA
Malcolm McDowell in If…. is the first one that comes to mind. I’d also say McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, but does that first close-up of him count as an entrance?
Bette Davis in “The Letter.” She literally comes out shooting. it’s grand.
Cary Grant in Notorious
Darth Vader in Star Wars
Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs
Kevin Spacey in Seven
Lukas Haas in Brick
Stay Puff Marshmellowman in Ghostbusters
Dominique Sanda’s in The Conformist. Fabulous.
John Wayne in STAGECOACH.
Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface.
Also, just because I’m a sucker for the entrance of sultry female characters, I’ll have to include Cybil Shepherd in Taxi Driver.
Since this is listed under the Seven Beauties label, how about Giancarlo Giannini in Seven Beauties?
When he does the toe lift in his squeaky shoes as his fourth-rate Casanova, he never fails to make me laugh.
Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider. In my mind now, his appearance saved the film from becoming slight and cliched. Also, it was nice to see someone who could truly act make a screen appearance and liven things up. Dialogue and the storyline brightened up considerably when he appeared – and go kind of downhill fast when he ‘leaves’. After the jailhouse scenes, who could forget him sitting around the campfire with his stories?
For female characters – the luscious, very young Lauren Bacall as Slim in Hawks’ To Have and To Have Not.
“Just put your lips together – and blow”
John Turturro as Bernie in Miller’s Crossing. We’d already heard so much about him, and the here he is, confirming at least half the opinions of him.
Omar Sharif in “Lawrence of Arabia”
I second Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia and Orson Welles in The Third Man.
EVER? kramer. there are so many to choose from.
Ulicain, I agree. Turturro, when he arrives, embodies every preconception we have about Bernie and more. He humanizes an abstraction.
As per The Third Man, Welles says he agreed to play ‘Harry Lime’ because of that entrance. He felt it was the greatest gift to any actor to have that kind of introduction.
He often told a story about a play he had seen where the main character was a “Mr. Wu,” but you never saw him until after the intermission. The dialogue was rife with lines about him, though — “We must wait for Mr. Wu,” “I wonder what Mr. Wu will have to say about this?,” etc. Just before the curtain fell on the first act, the audience would see a mysterious, lone figure far in the distance crossing a bridge. And then all during the intermission they would be commenting on how great the actor playing Mr. Wu was because of all the great build-up.
you stole my thread! ;)
Favorite Film Entrances – Can Anyone Beat Arnie’s Debut in The Terminator?
“To Have and Have Not” is playing at the Astor Theatre during the next few weeks! Six Bogie films in three weeks!
Great character entrance: Tuco (Eli Wallach) in “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”!
I loved the entrance of Joaquin Phoenix’s character in ‘We Own The Night’…maybe it’s because I love Blondie’s Heart of Glass
How about Margaret Hamilton’s re-appearance under new guise as the Wicked Witch of the West, in The Wizard of Oz?
Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards characters entrances in Once Upon a Time in the West. Clint Eastwoods entrance in For a Few Dollars More is great too, when the rain starts pouring, I love it. De Niro in the ring in the opening of Raging Bull is pretty great too.
“Big Trouble In Little China”…
The Three Storms and David Lopan.
“Big Trouble In Little China”
Awesome!
Rewatched Inglourious Basterds today & The Bear’s entrance is phenomenal.
Inigo Montoya’s “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” It’s great in the book, “The Princess Bride” too… and played to perfection.
Strider “The Fellowship of the Ring”. Period. Better in the book, but the film was good… just needed the background music to be a TAD bit more ominous.
Liz and Dick in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Kimberly Kenobi
Just watched ‘The Boat That Rocked’ & particularly enjoyed the entrance of Gavin Cavanagh played by Rhys Ifans.
It got me thinking of other great character entrances, the best I’ve ever seen has to be Giancarlo Giannini as Pasqualino Frafuso aka Pasqualino Settebelleze from Lina Wertmuller’s classic ‘Seven Beauties’.
What are some of your favourites?