List of obese actors

In the golden age of Hollywood, there were many character actors on the silver screen who made a good living playing a “fat man.” A “big” man seemed heroic, but a “fat” man added a note of tragedy. Movie reviews of the golden age of Hollywood referred to the characters and actors as “rotund” or “roly-poly” without any note of criticism or implication they should lose weight. Today, the more politically correct terms “overweight” or “obese” are used, and the overweight actors have trouble finding work, but there are still occasional casting calls for “fat” actors. Actresses are held to an even more severe standard of thinness, even as the overall population in the United States is reaching new levels of obesity. Today an overweight actor’s best bet is to play a clown, such as Drew Carey, while most fat characters are played by thin people in fat suits. , A “fat actor” was not just a leading man who had put on a few pounds. Instead he sought roles calling for a “fat man,” and it was as much a stereotype as “romantic lead” or “hard-boiled private eye.” He might play a funny guy like Lou Costello, “a gangster type,” like 400 pound Victor Buono, or pure menace, like 357 pound Sidney Greenstreet as the “Fat Man” in The Maltese Falcon.

Famous fat actors

• Jason Alexander
• Fatty Arbuckle
• Edward Arnold
• Wallace Beery
• Ned Beatty
• John Belushi
• William Bendix
• Fred Berry 1
• Jack Black
• Ernest Borgnine
• Marlon Brando
• Johnny Brown 2
• Victor Buono
• Raymond Burr
• Sebastian Cabot
• John Candy
• Drew Carey
• Charles Coburn
• James Coco
• William Conrad
• Lou Costello
• Dom DeLuise
• Andy Devine
• Brian Dennehy
• Charles Durning
• George Dzundza
• Chris Farley
• W.C. Fields
• Dennis Franz
• William Frawley
• James Gandolfini
• Jorge Garcia
• Jackie Gleason
• John Goodman
• Sydney Greenstreet
• Oliver Hardy
• Sammo Hung
• Burl Ives
• Wayne KnightKeogh, Jim "Many must die to repair lackluster `Lost World'"

Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass.: May 29, 1997. pg. C.2. "..Knight does lose points for playing fat and obnoxious characters.."

• Charles Laughton
• Robert Morley
• Michael Tucker
• Orson Welles
• George Wendt
• Don Wilson
• Monty Woolley

See also

• Character actor
• List of character actors

External links

• Council on Size & Weight Discrimination: Weight discrimination on television viewed 9/15/2006
• AFI 100: Saluting Our Fattest Actors parody list