Being the face everyone recognizes and nobody can name turns out to be the best job in Hollywood.
At a glance
- Known for
- Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, Sammy Jankis in Memento, over 200 film credits
- Before fame
- Enrolled at SMU to study geology, switched to theater after being cast in The Crucible
- Off-screen
- Broke his neck in five places on an Icelandic volcano and auditioned for Glee in a neck brace
Rise to Fame
A geology student at Southern Methodist University got cast in The Crucible and never looked back at rocks. He co-wrote True Stories with David Byrne and Beth Henley in 1986, but his own career was still bit parts in Spaceballs and Mississippi Burning. The break came in 1993: Ned Ryerson, the aggressively cheerful insurance salesman in Groundhog Day, three minutes that branded him as the face everyone knows and nobody can name.
Sammy Jankis in Memento expanded what Hollywood would let him do. Nolan's puzzle-box thriller proved he could work beyond comic relief, and casting directors reportedly started calling with parts they never would've offered before. People still yell "Bing!" at him every other day.
In the Spotlight
He doesn't get top billing. He gets every billing beneath it. Over 200 film credits and USA Today's ninth most frequently seen actor in movies. His recurring roles stretch from Deadwood to Silicon Valley to The Goldbergs, covering every genre and every decade since the '80s.
The Tobolowsky Files, his autobiographical podcast, got picked up by Public Radio International and spawned three books and a one-man show that played film festivals. He reprised Mr. Bates in Freakier Friday because Hollywood sequels need character actors who still look the part two decades later. The "that guy" career has no retirement age.
Side Notes
The Radiohead connection is one of the strangest footnotes in rock history. He told David Byrne about psychic experiences he'd had in college, hearing tones that told him things about people. Byrne turned that into a Talking Heads song called "Radio Head" for the True Stories soundtrack. Thom Yorke's band took the name from that track. The guy who played Ned Ryerson accidentally named one of the biggest bands of the '90s.
A wind gust on an active volcano in Iceland in 2008 lifted him and his horse off the ground and dropped them on the mountainside, breaking his neck in five places. The doctor in L.A. told him the injury was fatal. He auditioned for Glee with his neck brace hidden and put it back on after getting the part.