Klaus Kinski, Rondo Hatton and Shemp Howard will always be giants in my personal pantheon of great character actors. And now, I swear, they are giants. Their distinct mugs seem to have inspired the facial characteristics of a couple of the really big guys in Jack The Giant Slayer.
Every time I see the poster for the movie (check out the featured photo above), I can't help but think of Kinski in Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God. The computer-generated character's name is General Fallon. He's voiced by Bill Nighy and appears to have a second head, which calls to mind Shemp Howard from the Three Stooges or, possibly, Lionel Stander from Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
When I gaze upon the craggy face of another giant, Fye, I get a blast of nostalgia from even farther back. That CGI character's features recall a thinner lipped Rondo Hatton, the 1930s and '40s character actor and B-Movie icon who turned his acromgegaly into a movie career that landed him parts in the Sherlock Holmes movie The Pearl of Death, Spider Woman Strikes Back and House of Horrors.
Do you see what I see? Let me know if you agree in the comments section and whether any of the other CG giants remind you of flesh-and-blood actors.
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