In Character: James Cromwell

If you’ve turned a television on and flipped through the channels at any point during the past 30 some odd years, there’s a chance you came across a show or movie featuring James Cromwell. Seriously, this guy has been in everything. From mainstream television series to blockbuster action films to Oscar-winning indies. Thing is, he’s always good. In everything. Despite (or because of) the material he’s working with, James Cromwell always delivers a performance of sheer power. He’s one of the most recognizable characters actors we have. A sturdy presence of confidence.

Five Essential Roles

Babe (1995)

Farmer Hoggett

There are many sides to James Cromwell. The one I’m most drawn to, I suppose, is the man who is right on the cusp of becoming unhinged. Interesting, then, that I’m so taken with Farmer Hoggett, who is as caring and taciturn a character as Cromwell has ever played.

Hoggett is a man who goes about his business, keeping up his farm, tending to his flock, and so on. But when a precocious pig comes into his life, Hoggett is inadvertently taught lessons in humility and kindness. I hadn’t seen Babe in many years, but decided to rewatch it for this post. I’m glad I did – it’s a perfectly decent family film anchored by a beautifully nuanced performance.

The Green Mile (1999)

Warden Hal Moores

The Green Mile is long. (Far too long, some might say.) One reason being the amount of time writer/director Frank Darabont dedicates to a subplot involving Warden Hal Moores and his ailing wife, Melinda (Patricia Clarkson). And while I agree that much of The Green Mile feels extraneous, there isn’t a second of the Moores subplot that I would cut. As the warden, Cromwell presents a professional man of strict morals. But as a husband, he’s barely able to keep it together. His wife is bedridden with an incurable illness, and it’s eating away at them both. But watching Hal’s reaction to his wife being inexplicably healed makes for one of the most moving moments of Cromwell’s career. 

Six Feet Under (2003-2005)

George Sibley

What a fun character George Sibley is. When he marries the show’s matriarch, Ruth, he fails to include a few minor details about his past. Like the fact that this is his sixth marriage, that he suffers from severe depression, and that his kids hate him so bad, they will most likely be sending boxes of actual shit to his house. Things like that.

Kidding aside, an accurate and compelling portrayal of depression demands that the actor hit both the highs and lows. When George is up, he’s a regular guy; a do-gooder trying to please his wife. But when he’s down, he lets his apocalyptic visions of the world control his every thought. The later episodes of Season 4 brought about George’s best character arc, in which he discovered a bomb shelter on his property and once in, refused to leave. It was simply haunting to watch George’s psychosis unfold.

W. (2008)

George H. W. Bush

I’m not the biggest fan of Oliver Stone’s W. when it attempts to chronicle the present. Or, better put, recent events that were documented publicly. Those scenes lack the punch of W’s earlier life, as an alcoholic loser with daddy issues.

Cromwell depicts “Poppy” Bush as a stern enforcer; a man who demands respect, but is impossible to please. The highlight of the film is when a young George W. arrives home late, drunk and uninhibited. Poppy and Barbara come downstairs, and a fight quickly ensues between father and son. “You want an ass whipping?” Poppy baits. “Try it, old man,” George fires back. Damn, if only they had.

American Horror Story: Asylum (2012-2013)

Dr. Arthur Arden

Arthur Arden is one sick bastard. As the doctor at Briarcliff Institute, Arden conducts sadistic surgical experiments on the institution’s troubled residents. When a patient claiming to be Anne Frank reveals that Arden was actually a Nazi, the character takes an even darker tone, which, in the case of a show as twisted as American Horror Story, is definitely a good thing.

I respect the fact that Cromwell decided to play Arden at all. I love an older actor proving he still has a lot of bite left in him, and will play an obvious psycho with such fervor. I think it’d be amazing if Cromwell won the Emmy he’s currently nominated for. He’s never won a major award, and what a unique twist of fate it would be if Arthur Arden could deliver it.

The Best of the Best

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Captain Dudley Smith

Okay, first off, if you haven’t seen Curtis Hanson’s flawless crime thriller, L.A. Confidential, then stop reading now and watch it. That’s not to dissuade you from spoilers in this post, but really… that’s a film everyone needs to see, for many, many reasons.

In the film, Cromwell plays the sturdy Dudley Smith, a police Capitan who isn’t against bending the rules to seek justice. Smith’s right hand man is Bud White (Russell Crowe) and it is fascinating to watch an older lanky guy like Smith completely dictate everything a hulking brute like White says and does. White is just one man who has fallen victim to Smith’s charm. Whenever I watch this film, I smile at how subtly Cromwell shades Smith’s misdeeds. And by the end, I remain convinced that Captain Dudley Smith is by long and far the finest character Cromwell has ever brought to life.

Have you a valediction, boyo?

Other Notable Roles

In Angels in America

Easy Street (1986-1987)

The Babe (1992)

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

Eraser (1996)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Species II (1998)

Deep Impact (1998)

Babe: Pig in the City (1998)

The General’s Daughter (1999)

RKO 281 (1999)

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Space Cowboys (2000)

ER (2001)

RFK (2002)

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Angels in America (2003)

I, Robot (2004)

The Longest Yard (2005)

The Queen (2006)

24 (2007)

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Secretariat (2010)

The Artist (2011)

Boardwalk Empire (2012)

Still Mine (2012)