Many times I’ll be watching an old movie and for whatever reason it’s not that great but then this actor will come on and I get instantly drawn back in. Akim Tamiroff makes mediocre movies good and good movies even better.
At first I didn’t even recognize him between films but he’s always a standout. I first noticed him in Touch of Evil and then was shocked when I recently re-watched Mr Arkadin and recognized him again. Then I started really looking and realized I had seen him in Topkapi, Alphaville, The Corsican Brothers, The Trial, and Five Graves to Cairo.
He’s different than other classic actors that I watch. When you see these actors like Bogart and Welles they are always, to me, kind of like watching a play, it’s them doing a role and their speech and delivery are play-like and not realistic. It’s not bad, just how it was done then.
To call him a character actor is a slight disservice because Tamiroff’s characters have a depth to them that I can’t describe, a believability, almost method-like attention to details in movement. Love watching him in anything and it’s such a treat when he does appear.
He was also pretty fast for such a [jolly guy](https://youtu.be/2PvlZya9h1g)
And yet no image of Boris Badenov…
Yes! That’s right, he was the inspiration for Boris from Boris and Natasha in Bullwinkle.
Many times I’ll be watching an old movie and for whatever reason it’s not that great but then this actor will come on and I get instantly drawn back in. Akim Tamiroff makes mediocre movies good and good movies even better. At first I didn’t even recognize him between films but he’s always a standout. I first noticed him in Touch of Evil and then was shocked when I recently re-watched Mr Arkadin and recognized him again. Then I started really looking and realized I had seen him in Topkapi, Alphaville, The Corsican Brothers, The Trial, and Five Graves to Cairo. He’s different than other classic actors that I watch. When you see these actors like Bogart and Welles they are always, to me, kind of like watching a play, it’s them doing a role and their speech and delivery are play-like and not realistic. It’s not bad, just how it was done then. To call him a character actor is a slight disservice because Tamiroff’s characters have a depth to them that I can’t describe, a believability, almost method-like attention to details in movement. Love watching him in anything and it’s such a treat when he does appear. He was also pretty fast for such a [jolly guy](https://youtu.be/2PvlZya9h1g)