Dark Whimsy Favorites: The Actors and Actresses

Rick Retro’s Realm, Project #3: 51 Dark Whimsy Favorites in 80 Days, Ranking the Actors and Actresses.

We’ve added in to our list of Dark Whimsy Favorites the seven A+ Dark Whimsy Christmas favorites that we've already reviewed (###). Now we’re looking at the list to see what the 58 films have in common.

We’ve looked at the decades they were released in, the nationalities of origin and the production studios.

What about the people involved? Who are our Dark Whimsy creators and stars?
We’ve looked at the producers, writers and directors. Let’s look at the actors and actresses:

Actors and Actresses

1 Steve Martin 5 (SM)
2 Charles Durning 4 (CD)
-- Bill Murray 4 (BM)
4 Big Bird (played by Caroll Spinney) 2 (BB)
-- Peter Sellers 3 (PS)
-- Kathleen Turner 3 (KT)
6 Peter Billingsley 2 (PB)
-- Steve Buscemi 2 (SB)
-- John Candy 2 (JCan)
-- Chevy Chase 2 (CC)
-- John Cleese 2 (JCle)
-- James Coburn 2 (JCob)
— Jeffrey Combs 2 (JCom)
-- Billy Crystal 2 (BC)
-- Peter Falk 2 (PF)
-- Dave Goelz 2 (DG)
-- John Goodman 2 (JG)
-- Christopher Guest 2 (CG)
-- Julie Hagerty 2 (JH)
-- Tom Hanks 2 (TH)
-- Holly Hunter 2 (HH)
-- Jude Law 2 (JL)
-- Rick Moranis 2 (RM)
-- Jerry Nelson 2 (JN)
-- Catherine O'Hara 2 (CO)
-- Frank Oz 2 (FO)
-- Robert Redford 2 (RR)
-- Chris Sarandon 2 (CS)
-- Wallace Shawn 2 (WS)
-- Tilda Swinton 2 (TS)

#2 (1959) The Mouse That Roared PS
#3 (1963) The Pink Panther /PS
#5 (1965) The Great Race /PF
#7 (1973) The Sting /CD RR
#8 (1975) Monty Python and the Holy Grail /JCle
#9 (1979) The Muppet Movie /BB JCob CD DG SM JN FO
#10 (1979) Being There /BB PS
#11 (1980) Airplane! /JH
#12 (1980) Oh! Heavenly Dog /CC
#15 (1982) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial /BB
#16 (1982) Tootsie /CD BM
#17 (1983) The Man With Two Brains /JCom SM KT
### (1983) A Christmas Story /PB
#18 (1984) Romancing the Stone /KT
#19 (1984) The Natural /RR
#21 (1985) Re-Animator /JCom
#23 (1986) Little Shop of Horrors /JCan CG SM RM BM
#24 (1987) Raising Arizona /HH
#25 (1987) Roxanne /SM
#26 (1987) The Princess Bride /BC PF CG CS WS
#27 (1987) Planes, Trains and Automobiles /JCan SM
#28 (1988) Big /TH
#29 (1988) Who Framed Roger Rabbit /KT
#32 (1989) Honey, I Shrunk the Kids /RM
### (1989) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation /CC
### (1992) The Muppet Christmas Carol /DG JN FO
#34 (1993) Groundhog Day /BM
### (1993) The Nightmare Before Christmas /CO CS
#35 (1995) Toy Story /TH WS
#36 (1996) Fargo /SB
#39 (2000) O Brother, Where Art Thou? /CD JG HH
#41 (2001) Monsters, Inc. /SB JCob BC JG
#42 (2001) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone /JCle
#45 (2004) A Series of Unfortunate Events /JL CO
#46 (2005) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe /TS
#49 (2014) The Grand Budapest Hotel /JL BM TS
#50 (2022) A Christmas Story Christmas /PB JH

Over the next three days, January 25-27, I’m going to finish posting the Reference Rundowns to wind up that structural project.

Then on January 28, I should be able to tell you more about what comes next.

Originally posted to text group 2025-01-24
Last updated 2025-04-14

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