Michael Keaton
He has portrayed a U.S. president, an investigator in two Elmore Leonard adaptations, an obnoxious ghost and the Caped Crusader. Even with a variety of comedic and dramatic work behind him, Michael Keaton is still yearning for that career comeback. With the exception of memorable voice acting (like Ken in Toy Story 3), it’s been a quiet decade for the ex-Batman star. But few actors have the range to mix up comedy and drama so smoothly – see his straight-faced but zany turn as the police captain in The Other Guys – and it’s a shame that Keaton is still mostly thought of as a relic from the late 1980s.
He has an approachable, father-like appeal and can be also a fast-talking working man. While Keaton is on a bit of a career resurgence, with upcoming roles in the Robocop remake and Birdman – a clever piece of casting, where he portrays a washed up actor best known for playing a superhero – he also has the chops to make his mark on a cable show. I would instantly follow a series where he revisits his terrific turn as ATF agent Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown (which was adapted from Rum Punch, by the late Elmore Leonard). If Timothy Olyphant is looking for a charming, cunning villain to square off against on FX’s Justified, which itself is based on a Leonard short story, or another network decides to adapt that late great pulp writer’s work, Keaton would be a masterful fit as any of the shady, sarcastic antiheroes that populated those sinister story worlds.
