Robert Picardo -- Best Male Trek Actor Next to Stewart

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I just don't think he's a stellar actor.

I think he is. He's an incredibly versatile actor that can shine in many different types of parts.

I love his Esperanto movie. Incubus!

And my opinion of his acting went way up with Boston Legal.

However these "best" threads just seem silly to me, this isn't sports.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW7AuyIwN2A[/yt]

 

[Infern0]

You have to say Stewart was the best actor in Star Trek

On a tier below that you have Nimoy, Auborjonis, Picardo and one or two others

Then Shatner, but Shatner could be tier 2, sometimes he sleepwalked a little bit.

Hmm what about De Lancie?

lot of quality actors tbh

 

[Gaith]

In his review of Atonement, Ebert wrote:

Cecilia, as played by Knightley with stunning style, speaks rapidly in that upper-class accent that sounds like performance art. When I hear it, I despair that we Americans will ever approach such style with our words, which march out like baked potatoes.
​

He also had a quote about how Ian McKellen sounds as though he's got a natural echo chamber in his throat that magnifies and enriches his speech, but I can't find it at the moment.

It does seem to me that, as Ebert said, Britain has a much richer culture of speech, whereas we Yanks just say stuff. But since it occupies the semi-rarified realm of utopian sci-fi, Trek has a notable tradition of highlighting not only Stewart but also American actors whose voices just have a kind of je ne sais quoi, a melody to them. Billingsey and de Lancie have it. Brooks has it, and Dorn a bit also.

But, apart from maybe Martin Sheen, I can't, offhand, think of an American actor with a finer voice than Picardo's. It's got tremelo and music. It's really a wonder.

And he ain't a bad visual actor, neither.

 

[Ryva Brall]

Our words "march out like baked potatoes". How flattering.

But it's true. The way some people speak here in America makes me cringe. I find it especially hilarious when there are native English speakers on television whose speech is so terrible that they require subtitles. When did they stop teaching grammar in schools? I must have missed something.

But yes, there are some American actors with great voices, who do proper justice to the English language. Picardo is one. And I love listening to Martin Sheen. (I've recently become addicted to The West Wing, and Bartlet's nerdy history tangents always make me smile.) And David Ogden Stiers has an AWESOME voice. I could listen to him all day.

 

[R. Star]

I've never watched the West Wing, but Martin Sheen always puts in a great performance. My favorite role for him was when he played Lee in the movie Gettysburg. Hard to believe him and Charlie are related.

 

[Melakon]

My favorite Martin Sheen performance is when he was about 23, as Private Dix in The Outer Limits: "Nightmare" during 1963.

 

[JiNX-01]

Just my two cents. The Doctor was the best-acted male character in all of Star Trek next to only Jean-Luc Picard.

Picardo single-handedly took a "blank slate," backdrop kind of character and ran with it. Amazing accomplishment on his part, and it's awesome to watch the Doctor develop as the series goes on. He's better than Data and I believe they gave The Doctor a personality/emotions and not Data because Picardo had the acting chops to portray it.

Bar none, "Joe" grows more than any other Star Trek character over the life of a ST series.

Once Seven came along the two of them (Doc and 7) for all intents and purposes carried Voyager on their backs. Not that it would have failed without them but they kept it a "big league," "dinner table" sci-fi show because of their big-time acting talent.

I knew there was a reason The Doctor was my favorite character.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Robert Picardo is the man.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

True... but sheer number of acting jobs doesn't necessarily guarantee quality, either. Adam Sandler is a terrible actor, and he seems to get plenty of work.

I'm not bashing Shatner. I love him as Kirk. I just don't think he's a stellar actor.

Adam Sandler is perfectly capable of acting, he just chooses not to. Ever seen Punch Drunk Love? The one film Sandler ever did with a good script.

If you take Shatner, Nimoy, Stewart and Spiner out of the equation Picardo wins by a landslide. Shatner, I dunno. He's one of those actors who's amazing at playing the characters he plays but who doesn't have a lot of range. Nimoy just might also be in that category.

But it's hard not to put Spiner above Picardo.

 

[Melakon]

I think Spiner does best with comedic roles. I see Picardo as adept in comedy, drama, and horror/fantasy. Any guy who can do both Eddie Quist and JohnnyCab certainly has a good range.

 

[Kai Winn]

Actually, I'd say Picardo is a far better actor than Shatner or Nimoy. Just because they played iconic characters doesn't make them better actors.

*dodges flying vegetables*

You can debate quality.

But in the case of Shatner, being the star of four different TV series over the course of a fifty year period should count for something.

Shatner is the only winner of Razzie awards of all ST actors, if memory serves right. Tripple winner with The Final Frontier, worst picture, actor, director.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Adam Sandler

My least favorite actor ever. He is so repulsive I can hardly stand to look at him.

 

[lurok]

Not a Sandler fan, but he did make laugh in Chuck and Larry and Zohan.

I love Picardo's work with Joe Dante, which I guess led to this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxjYJayuWoA[/yt]

Now if that ain't a fine piece of latex acting, I'll eat my John Merrick hat.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, but Sandler is repulsive because of his script choice. If you held a gun to his head and forced him to act in a movie that actually had a good script, he'd do a reasonably good job.

Maybe I don't have a very good grasp of Picardo's range because the only other things I've ever seen him in are Stargate and Home Improvement. So I believe Picardo beats Shatner or Nimoy for range, but if you judge solely on their ability to play those specific characters, Picardo loses.

 

[Paulcpick]

I have a hard time taking Picardo seriously. Mainly because every time I see him in something, I cant help but remember him as a "Body Educator".....

 

[Melakon]

It took a little while for me to get used to Picardo as the doctor, as the local station was stripping The Wonder Years at the time and I loved him as Coach Cutlip.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Such irritable charm, the EMH. Delightful.

 

[Ryva Brall]

It took a little while for me to get used to Picardo as the doctor, as the local station was stripping The Wonder Years at the time and I loved him as Coach Cutlip.

Coach Cutlip! I still remember that terrible drawing he did of the female body during Sex Ed class. It was basically an amorphous blob with a head and legs.

 

[Michael]

Do you guys realize that Robert Picardo himself just posted a link to this thread on his twitter account?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Oh My!

Oops, wrong icon.