10 Film Actors Who Could Use A Cable TV Comeback

Ed Harris

Many of the film actors that have progressed to headlining their own cable shows have one prominent thing in common: a past resistance to lead roles. One of Hollywood’s most prolific supporting performers, four-time Academy Award nominee Ed Harris, rarely gets the chance to take a lead role, but makes a crushing impression nonetheless. Harris often plays the man in power, although he usually does so in supporting roles, covering real-life characters like Gene Kranz in Apollo 13, John Glenn in The Right Stuff and John McCain in HBO’s Game Change. These blistering figures of control also extend to fictional characters, and he played domineering villains in The Rock and A History of Violence.

Portraying characters of immense power suits the stoic actor, and it’s confounding that no cable series has hooked him. With an imposing stance, gruff voice and impeccable acting chops, could Harris have taken on the role of Ray Donovan on Showtime, Chester Bernstein on HBO’s Luck or even one of the gangsters on Boardwalk Empire? I think that Harris would fit right into a crime series setting, whether historical or contemporary. Since the motion picture Academy likely won’t be crowning him in glory anytime soon (he was a frontrunner for Apollo 13 and Pollock but left empty-handed for both films), perhaps he’s at a time in his career where he should be looking to sway a different Academy.