Towering blonde American character actor Charles Napier has the distinction of being one of the few actors to transcend a career start in "nudies" and sustain a successful mainstream career. Napier, clothed and otherwise, was first seen in such Russ Meyer gropey-feeley epics as Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1969) and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Graduating from this exuberant tawdriness, Napier became a dependable film and TV villain. Even when he wasn't totally nasty, he was at least dishonest,… Show more as witness his comically bigamous truck driver in Handle With Care (1977) Not only were Napier's characters mean, they were often foolhardy; look what happeded to him when he double-crossed Sylvester Stallone in Rambo (1984). Some of Napier's more recent credits include The Blues Brothers (1980), Married to the Mob (1990), Ernest Goes to Jail (1991) and the-Oscar winning Silence of the Lambs (1991) (as Lt. Boyle). TV also served Napier well, allowing him recurring roles on such series as "The Oregon Trail" and "Outlaws," and at least one bonafide heroic title role in the TV movie Big Bob Johnson's Fantastic Speed Circus (1978), in which he played a barnstorming aerialist. He was also a most imposing Adam in the 1969 "Star Trek" episode "The Way to Eden." In 1994, a most atypical Charles Napier could be seen as the incorruptible judge in "Philadelphia," compassionately trying a homosexual-discrimination case with nary a sneer or scowl on his weatherbeaten countenance.

by Hal Erickson, AMG

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