Missi Pyle

Missi Pyle has one of the most recognisable faces in American comedy and almost nobody can name her, which is roughly the working definition of a great character actor. Galaxy Quest in 1999 is where the shape of the career first appears: as the alien Laliari she is doing physical comedy through prosthetics and an invented language, committing considerably harder than a supporting part in a science fiction spoof requires.

That commitment is the whole method. Fran in DodgeBall, with the unpronounceable surname and the crossbow, works because Pyle never winks at it. Mrs Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a suburban stage mother played at the pitch of a threat. She is very good at women whose confidence has curdled slightly, and casting directors have hired her for that note for twenty-five years.

Two later films show she can aim it somewhere colder. The Artist is silent, so the performance is entirely face, and she holds her scenes against actors doing exactly the same thing. Gone Girl gives her Ellen Abbott, a cable news host running a nightly conviction for ratings, and it is the most quietly vicious thing in a film with a great deal of competition. Between the films she has worked constantly in television, from Mom and Another Period to Bordertown and Dirty John, and she sings in a country rock duo with the actress Shawnee Smith.