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Jeff Corey (1914-2002), Versatile Character Actor in Both Films and Television


DonRocks

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Jeff Corey (1914-2002) is another fine character actor who merits his own thread (if I see about five different performances, I'm going to give any of these talented actors and actresses their own thread - they deserve it). For those of you who've heard the term, but have never really heard it defined, a "character actor" is someone whose face you've seen a million times, but can't come up with the person's name - there are a lot more of them, both in Hollywood and on television, than you think, and Jeff Corey was certainly one of them.

This is but a small portion of what he has done - just what *I've* personally seen in the past couple of years, which should tell you he's done a *lot* more than this.

Actively involved in television in the 1960s (Corey was blacklisted from Hollywood for refusing to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1950s), he played a major role as Byron Lomax in the somewhat Orwellian, 1963 episode of "The Outer Limits," - "O.B.I.T"Screenshot 2017-02-15 at 2.50.10 PM.png

It's fitting that Corey played in Hollywood during the seminal year of 1967, as Mr. Hickock (Dick Hickock's father), in Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood"MrHickock.jpg

In 1969, Corey played High Advisor Plasus in an episode of "Star Trek" clearly influenced by Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" - "The Cloud Minders"Screenshot 2017-02-15 at 2.57.39 PM.png

Back in Hollywood, he plays a vital role in the 1969 film, "True Grit," as Tom Chaney, committing the murder near the very beginning which is the raison d'être of the entire film: Screenshot 2017-02-15 at 2.27.24 PM.png

From that same, fertile year for Corey, 1969, he played Sheriff Bledsoe in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"Jeff-and-Butch.jpg

The following year, 1970, he would play a well-received role as the logical Dr. Miles Talmadge on "Night Gallery's" "The Dead Man"Screenshot 2017-02-15 at 3.09.09 PM.png

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Corey had a major role as George L. Brady, Jr., aka "Repent," in "Lady in a Cage" (1964) Screenshot 2018-09-17 at 21.57.35.pngScreenshot 2018-09-17 at 22.17.21.png

Incidentally, this shot is James Caan's first-ever scene in which he had a substantial role in a film (to Caan's right is an ageless Rafael Campos, who was in "Blackboard Jungle" (1955). Screenshot 2018-09-17 at 22.51.32.png

This occurs immediately after an uncredited scene by Scatman Crothers (Corey is immediately to Crothers' left). Screenshot 2018-09-17 at 22.54.50.png

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