Large Ham / Actors

No scenery is left intact with these guys!

Actors/Actresses:

Antonio Banderas

• How can you classify his work on Four Rooms?
  • "Did they misbehave?"
  • The elevator scene.
• Also his portrayal of Zorro is quite hammy. In particular, he gleefully chews the scenario whenever Alejandro gets drunk in The Legend of Zorro.
  Alejandro: [in the sequel] No one leaves my tequila worm dangling in the wind!
• In Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams: "These are my children. And I will find them MY WAY!!"
• Puss-in-Boots in Shrek!
  "PUSS! In boots...
  • From movie numero quatro: "Feed me... if you dare!"
• It's almost impossible to beat him as Miguel, the Ax-Crazy killer in Assassins. Just look at this! This is one of the biggest Chewing the Scenery scenes in cinema history.
  Miguel: YOU BLEW IT! I AM STILL ALIVE!!! HAHAHA!!!
• Galgo from The Expendables 3, who might be low-energy compared to other Banderas performances but it's still hammy for how much he speaks.

John Belushi

• "Wild Bill" Kelso in the underrated WWII comedy 1941 (1979).
• The Blues Brothers. Take the scene where Belushi finally comes face to face with Carrie Fisher (aka the Chick With the Flamethrower) and throws himself on his knees to apologize:

  Jake: Oh, please, don't kill us! Please, please don't kill us! You know I love you, baby. I wouldn't leave ya. It wasn't my fault!
  Mystery Woman: You miserable slug! You think you can talk your way out of this? You betrayed me.
  Jake: No, I didn't! Honest! I ran out of gas! I, I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE! A TERRIBLE FLOOD! LOCUSTS! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

• How could we mention the good Mr. Belushi without talking about his most ludicrously over-the-top role ever: Bluto Blutarsky!

  TOGA! TOGA!

BRIAN BLESSED

One folder is simply not enough to contain the amount of gnawed-on scenery provided by BRIAN BLESSED. His self-demonstrating page will undoubtedly satisfy you if you seek the wisdom of BRIAN BLESSED.

Kenneth Branagh

• Any of his own adaptations of William Shakespeare.
  • Much Ado About Nothing being a prime example.
  • Hamlet is also notable. He plays Hamlet, and so we get to hear him do the speech on how actors should act and be a Large Ham during it; we get to see him saw the air while urging the actors not to. This makes that speech more hilarious than was probably intended. It's made even better with Hamlet's father being played by BRIAN BLESSED. The scene with the two of them together is pure Ham-to-Ham Combat.
  • His speech in his own adaptation of Henry V is especially good as he is supposed to be a Large Ham. The audience can see that Branagh is loving it - as Henry does in the play. It is incredibly powerful.
  • His 1930s-set musical version of Love's Labour's Lost is full of hams, the biggest being Timothy Spall's Don Armado. His Cole Porter bit must be seen to be believed.
  • Though in the 1996 film adaptation of Othello, he's actually very subtle and restrained as Iago. Knowing how hammy he usually gets when he does Shakespeare, this makes his performance incredibly effective.
    • No so much Ham, but some TRIFLES!
• Branagh was even hammier as Dr. Loveless in Wild Wild West. "Don't yew just haaaate thay-ut song?" complete with 720 degrees of eye-rolling.
  • Loveless' Villainous Breakdown is so hammy, that even Will Smith backs up a bit:
  "Ah am not an animal! Ah am a visionary, and ah am a genius, and now AH AM 'AGREH! And after I kill you, ah swea' ah'm gonna boil you down for ax-ell grease!
• His performance in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, playing the titular character. His mother dies and he feels compelled to look up the ceiling shrieking "THIS MUST NOT HAPPENNNNNNN!"
• He even hams it up playing an American private eye in Dead Again.
• And chews the scenery as an uptight government official in The Boat That Rocked.
• Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter, who even before he appears physically is clearly a ham - just check him on the cover of his book!
• Averted in some of his more recent dramatic roles, such as Wallander, Valkyrie, and Shackleton.

Steve Buscemi

• I am through fucking around, drop that fucking ham!
• You're acting like a first-year ham, I'm acting like a professional!
• This is so much ham, it's freaky!
• He's got the whole ham, in his hands...
• Oh, this is damn good! Say, this is the best ham I've ever had!
• NICE WORKIN' WITH YA!
• Shut the fuck up, Donnie.

Nicolas Cage

• Nicolas Cage has become infamous for this. Even distributors make sure to promote his movies with "Nic Cage freakout clip".
  John Oliver: Wow. That's like a child on PCP opening birthday presents which he clearly hopes are full of more PCP.
• His entire performance in Ghost Rider (2007) was full of ham, but the hammiest scene of all has to be the transformation. You know, raiiiiiiseeeeeeee fooooooottttt...... STEP! Raiiiiiiiiseeeeeee..... STEP! * MANIACAL LAUGHTER!!!!!!!*
  • The sequel had him "SCRAPING AT THE DOOOOOOOR!"
• THIS! IS MY MECCA!!! HAHAHAHA!!!! AHHAHAHAHA!!!!!
• Playing both Castor Troy and Sean Archer in Face/Off. "HALLELUJAH!"
• "HOW'DITGETBURNED?HOW'DITGETBURNEDHOW'DITGETBUUUUUUUUURNED?!?"
  • "OH NO! NO, NOT THE BEES!!! NOT THE BEES!!! AAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!!! THEY'RE IN MY EYES!!!"
  • NO!! I don't need anybody's damn permission!! I'm gonna search every inch of this town in the next three hours and anybody who interferes will be brought up on murder charges, you got that!? And you have my permission to stay outta the FUCKING WAY!!!
• In Kick-Ass, he does an impersonation of fellow Large Ham god among men Adam West. It is every bit as amazing as it sounds.
• How about his performance in Astro Boy as Dr. Tenma?
  "It's gonna make it Perfect. PERFECT!"
  "Just get that ol' brain humming again... WHIIIRR!"
  "YEEEEES!"
• "Have you ever been dragged to the sidewalk and beaten until you... PISSED! BLOOD!?"
  • BullSHIT, man!
• This gem from Deadfall: SOMEONE'S GONNA KILL ME MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!. His entire performance in that film qualifies (and is noted as probably the only good thing about the movie), including one of the most glorious Atomic FBombs in film and some of the most hilarious Angrish ever, but that single moment crowns the entire thing.
• He's at his best in The Rock:
  "How in the name of Zeus' BUTTHOOOLE did you get out of your cell?!?"
  "What we say we cut the Chit Chat, A-HOLE?!?"
  "Look, I'm just a biochemist. Most of the time, I work in a little glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here is one of the most deadly substances the earth has ever known, so what say you cut me some (deep-voiced) FRIGGIN' SLACK?!"
• "A toast? Yeah. To high treason. That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and-Oh! Oh, my personal favorite-and had their entrails cut out and BURNED. So... Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right... what they knew was right..."
• These Japanese pachinko commercials starring him
• I LOST MY HAND! I LOST MY PRIDE!
• Nic Cage knows this page exists, BECAUSE HE CAN READ MINDS!
• Vampire's Kiss:
  • He can even ham up the alphabet.
  • "I couldn't think of a more horrible job if I wanted to, and you have to do it. You have to, or I'll fire you, do you understand?" Cage doesn't even have to raise his voice to be a ham! This was also the scene that spawned the "You Don't Say?" meme.
• Mom and Dad:
  • "Your motherfucking mother said to open this door! And motherfuckerrrs, YOU'RE GOING TO OPEN THIS MOTHERFUCKING DOOR!"
  • "Oh yeah! You put your right foot in, you take your right foot out, you do the hokey-pokey, and you FUCKING WORK IT ALL OUT!"
  • Even his wordless acts are chock-full of pork in this one. Witness the memetic "Slap of God", so named because Cage appears to visibly achieve enlightenment going by his face before slamming his unfortunate victim's face into the floor.
• "Sometimes I let matches burn down to my fingertips just so I can ''feel'' something! ''Anything!'' Urgh."
• Just remember, he's Nick FUCKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOO-WHOO! Cage!

Jim Carrey

• Liar Liar, source of the page image here (long story short: Jim Carrey's character suddenly Cannot Tell a Lie; he tests it by trying to say a blue pen is red. Hilarity Ensues!) has such gems as: "I HOLD MYSELF IN CONTEMPT! WHY SHOULD YOU BE ANY DIFFERENT?!" and this outtake:
  Swoosie Kurtz: Your Honor, I object!
  Carrey: You would!
  Kurtz: Overactor!
  Carrey: Jezeb—! (collapses in laughter as the entire "courtroom" bursts out)
  Kurtz: He [indicating the director] put me up to it! It wasn't my idea! He told me to do it!
  Carrey: (mugging for the camera even though it's clearly not getting into the movie) ...oh no! They're onto me!
• Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) is a Master of Disguise, but also a Large Ham — not just because Carrey plays him that way, but because within the story itself Olaf is supposed to be a Large Ham (although in the early books this film adapts, he's not yet a proper ham). There's also this outtake: "But enough of recent history, let's go back in a TIME machine! [high voice] TIIIME machine, TIIIME machine..."
  • Even better, try to watch him and Meryl Streep out-mug each other.
• The Grinch. And given Jim's wearing tons of make-up, yellow contact lenses, and dentures, it's simply a feat that his overacting surpasses the massive physical pain he was in.
• As Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber: "We've got no food! We've got no jobs! Our pets' HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!!!!"
• Ace Ventura. "ALLLLL RIGHTY THEN!"
• The Mask was a shy guy who got turned into a Large Ham by Applied Phlebotinum. "Sssssssmokin'!"
• Carrey's acting in Batman Forever was once described as "transcend[ing] considerations of good or bad acting into sheer weirdness". "Weird", in this case, means... well... ham.
  "If knowledge is power, then A GOD... AM... IIIIIIIIIIII! (Beat) Was that over the top? I can never tell!"
  • His character is the Riddler. It takes true talent to be accused of making the Riddler too hammy!
• The Cable Guy
  Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love?
• With Man on the Moon, Carrey gets moments of ham in what's otherwise a more naturalistic part — Andy Kaufman, after all, loved creating and inhabiting Large Ham personas such as Tony Clifton and the Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World, so the role(s) requires someone who understands the art of going over the top. This bled into real life, as he chose to remain in character(s) for the entirety of the shoot and was mentally spent afterwards, and the whole experience would warrant its own retrospective documentary years later (Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond).
  • The scene in which Tony Clifton is hauled literally kicking and screaming off of the Paramount lot by security guards deserves special mention: "You guys ever come to Vegas...you're not getting in!"
• Bruce Almighty: You know, the one where Jim Carrey becomes God (more "A God Am I" for ya!). "SMITE ME, OH MIGHTY SMITER!", etc.
  "I AM BRUCE ALMIGHTY!!!!! MY WILL BE DONE!!!!!"
  "It's a funny thing about pleasure. It can be quite...PLEASURABLE!"
  "EROOOOOOOODIIIIIIING...EROOOOOOODIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNG!!!"
• Earth Girls Are Easy had him in a natural role - a randy space alien with a talent for mimicry, at one point imitating James Dean out of nowhere, wailing "You're TEARING me aPAAAAHRT!!!
• He's Doctor Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), and he goes full-on Evil Is Hammy, complete with Milking the Giant Cow.
  "OOUUUUUGH! Give me a BIG! FAT! BREAAAAAAAK!!''

Tim Curry

• Watch Tim Curry having far too much fun playing evil wizard Trymon in The Colour of Magic.
• I'm just a sweet transvestite... From Transexual, Transylvaniaaaaa...
  • I see you shiver with antici...
  • SAY IT!
  • ...PATION!
• Enjoying himself, even under the tons of brilliant make-up and prosthetics, as the quite literal Evil incarnate in Legend (1985): "Oh, Mother Night! Fold your dark arms about me. Protect me in your black embrace. I sit alone, an impotent exile, whilst this form, this presence, returns to torment me!" And what's more, he also manages to remain genuinely imposing and scary all through the whole hamned thing, to boot! "Every wolf suffers fleas. 'Tis easy enough to scratch!"
• The Monster Clown Pennywise from It (1990), which is at times horrifying but often just enjoyable in how Curry is so over-the-top.
  "Excuse me, sir! Do you have Prince Albert in a can? You do? Well, you better let the poor guy out! WUHAH! WUHAH! WUHAH!"
  "Aww...come on, BUCKO! Don't ya want a ba-LOON?"
  "They all FLOOOOOAT down here!"
  "I am the eater of worlds...And of CHILDREN!"
  "KISS ME, FATBOY!"
  "Don'tcha want it? Don'tcha WANT IT? Don'tcha ya WANT IT? DON'TCHA WANT IT?"
  "Beep Beep Richie!"
  • His Evil Laugh in particular touches both bases.
• As Cardinal Richelieu (what's up with Cardinals being such awesome characters?) in The Three Musketeers (1993), is what Tim Curry's all about:
  Queen: I would rather die!
  Richelieu: THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!!
  Richelieu: All for one... and more for meeee!
  • Cardinals are awesome and usually evil characters for the same reason that viziers are (as Terry Pratchett points out in Pyramids!). Aside from some specific qualification tests during the initial interview, Narrativium radiation ensures that they are usually the power behind the throne, who wish to make sure that the throne is occupied by someone with all the ambition of a freshly-purchased gym sock.
• In a little-known but oddly enjoyable little film called Pass the Ammo, Curry shines glitters as a crooked evangelist. Let me repeat that: Tim. Curry. as...an evangelist.
  • An evangelist from the Deep South to boot.
• And he's the Lord Wizard in The Worst Witch. He even gets a very 1980s MTV-style music video. That lasts ten minutes.
• He fails the Opening Line test in the film version of Annie, where the first time he opens his mouth results not in an opening line, but a Rooster's crow.
• Oiiiilllll and griiiimmmmme! Poiiiiiissonn sluddddge! Dieeeessssel cloudss and noxxxiouss muck!
• Who's the best part of the otherwise forgettable The Pebble and the Penguin? And who gets the best song? Just guess. "Hope you can swim better than you can (mocking Hubie's stuttering) t-t-t-TALK!"
• He even hams it up in Muppet Treasure Island as Long John Silver. "Professional Pirate" is a particularly fun example.
  • And as Captain Hook in Peter Pan & the Pirates.
• "No one controls my mind, Shadow! There's a new world order coming, and I'm gonna be a king! A KING!"
• Speaking of which.... Ever see Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas? Forte has to be one of the only good things about that movie. Just listen to "Don't Fall In Love" and you'll see what the ham can do.
  • "Don't you see?! They CAN'T fall in love, if they're DEAD!!!"
• As well as a helping of finest Fake Russian ham in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. "I'm escaping to THE ONE PLACE THAT HASN'T BEEN CORRUPTED BY CAPITALISM... SPAAACE!"
• There's also the short-lived 1997 sitcom Over the Top. As the title clearly indicates, the show was about a character Tim played who just happened to be a Large Ham.
• Think about this: it's very likely that Curry was such a large ham, he was too hammy to be the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. According to Bruce Timm, it was more about Curry getting throat problems from doing the voice. In other words, he was so hammy it physically hurt him.
• Then there's Clue, where he played the butler:
  Wadsworth: That's what we're TRYING to figure out! We're trying to figure out who killed who, WHERE AND WITH WHAT!
  Professor Plum: There's no need to shout.
  Wadsworth: I'M NOT SHOUTING! (pause) All right I am! I'm SHOUTING, I'M SHOUTING, I'M SHOUT—
• Gabriel Knight is a very scary Ham.
• King Chicken! Buck, buck, buck!
• They called me mad, insane, WENDELL!
• "At last we meet, Mr. Ip--kissssss..."
• His hotel manager in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Even while not speaking, as only a mugging expert could replicate the Grinch's smile.
• Averted when he voiced Arl Rendon Howe who manages to be one of his most repulsive villains.
  • He was saving it for his very last line: "Maker SPIT on you! I... DESERVED... moooore..."

Dan YELL Day-Lewis

• There Will Be Blood:
  • "My straw reaches ACROOOOOOOOOOSS the room...and starts to drink your milkshake. I. Drink. Your. MILKSHAKE! *slurp* ''I DRINK IT UP!''"
  • DRAINAGE!
  • The critics agree, as seen here in Esquire magazine: "Acting is fine. But Daniel Day-Lewis, now in There Will Be Blood, proves that overacting can be a lot more fun."
  • Throwing a napkin over his face and bellowing his lungs out at rival businessmen in a fancy restaurant.
• Aaaand in Gangs of New York he is both a Large Ham and a butcher!!! Heheheheh... oh God, that was terrible...
  "I'll paint Paradise Square with his blood. TWO COATS! I'll festoon my bedchamber with his guts. And if you ever show yourself in the Five Points again, Mr. Tammany-fucking-hall, you will be dispatched by mine own hand. Help yourself to some decent meat on your way out."
• A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of LUCIFER, I see his FILTHY FACE! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth!
  • SHE'S! A! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!

Benicio Del Toro

• His very debut was as a henchman in Licence to Kill, not a main Bond villain like the ones in the folder here, but still requiring some ham ("Don't worry, we gave her a nice ''honeymooooon''!")
• One of these days, I'm gonna toss a fucking ham in that place...
  • The Acid Scene in the hotel. About three minutes of pure angrish.
  • The phone call he makes to Lucy. Although that's mainly because his character is actually the one hamming it up here.
• Jackie Boy in Sin City is fairly moderate...until his decapitated head starts talking to Clive Owen in the car.
• "Hand me the keys, you fucking cocksucker." "In English, please." "Hand me the keys, you fucking cocksucker, what the fuck???"
• He earns his One-Scene Wonder credentials in The Stinger of Thor: The Dark World. He returns with more screentime and ham in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and makes sure to milk everything out of his limited appearance in Avengers: Infinity War.

Brad Dourif

• Pretty much anything he's in except One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Wise Blood.
• Death Machine, in which he plays the very, very Laughably Evil villain. "Oprah? John, we are talking QUALITY HERE! WE ARE TALKING GERALDO!!! (and many more gems.)
• Chucky, of course.
• Alien: Resurrection: "You are ...a beautiful, beautiful butterfly." "Oh, look. A beauuutiful little baby (alien)." You should know, it has your jaw, Brad!
  • Few people know this, but his jaw actually has its own SAG card... it's a separate entity all its own.
• His cackle. Goes well with the above entry.
  • Tears are often found to be leaking out of his eyes onscreen.
  • There's also his "Malkoviching", the art of strenuously over-enunciating every word, as The Nostalgia Chick and Spoony pointed out in their Dune (1984) riff.
• The amount of "talky villain-ness" as the Gemini Killer in The Exorcist III. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Was I raving?" He even gave notorious ham George C. Scott a pause. Now that is something.

Will Ferrell

• GREAT ODIN'S BEARD! Did someone mention Ron Burgundy? I'm in a glass case of emotion!
• Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jewish God! Help me, Allah! Help me, Tom Cruise!
• Blades of Glory
• Kicking & Screaming
• Bewitched
• Zoolander
  Doesn't anyone notice this? I feel like I'm taking CRAZY PILLS!
• HEY MOM! CAN WE GET SOME HAM?!
• Guten tag hop hop! Guten tag clop clop!
• It's all in the PRESENTATION!:
  Megamind: Oh, you're a villain alright. Just not a super one.
  Titan: Oh yeah? What's the difference?
  Megamind: PRESENTATION! HAM!
  • While on Will Ferrell's animated villains, President Business from The LEGO Movie.
  It makes me just wanna pick up whoever's standing closest to me and just throw them through this window, and out into the infinite abyss of nothingness! I wanna do it so baaaad!
• His entire screen time of maybe 15 minutes at most, as fictional author and would-be director Eric Jonrosh, in the Epic Mini-Series parody, The Spoils of Babylon, is nothing but this.
• SANTA! OH MY GOD I KNOW HIM!
• "WE'RE GOING STREAKIIIIIING!"
• His character in The Other Guys is supposed to be a stoic idiot in contrast to Mark Wahlberg's Hot-Blooded, but Ferrell's ham still comes out at times ("And guess what, you've wandered into our school of tuna and we now have a taste of lion. We've talked to ourselves. We've communicated and said 'You know what, lion tastes good, let's go get some more lion'. We've developed a system to establish a beach-head and aggressively hunt you and your family and we will corner your pride, your children, your offspring. ")
  GATOR'S BITCHES BEST BE WEARIN' JIMMIES!

John Goodman

• Chomping a number of scenes as Walter in The Big Lebowski especially when it involves marking it zero.
  "This is what happens when you FUCK A STRANGER IN The ASS! Do you see what happens, Larry? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK A STRANGER IN. THE. ASS!"
• Taking up very, very large chunks of screen as Pope Sergius in Pope Joan.
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  "IT'S AAAAAAAALLL ABOUT THE MONEY BOYS!"
• He's mostly subdued in Fallen... until Azazel possesses him, complete with singing "Time Is on My Side"
• Barton Fink. Madman Mundt. "I'll show you the life of the mind."
• LaMonte T Montgomery in Bee Movie. He even puts on an over-the-top act when the main character's best friend stings him on the behind.
  "THE VENOM! THE VENOM IS COURSIN' THROUGH MAH VEINS!"
• Wait, no Fred Flintstone?
  "WIIIILMAAAAAAAH, I'M HOOOOOOOOOOMMMMME!!"
• A voice acting role in Transformers: Age of Extinction had Goodman voice Boisterous Bruiser Hound, taking no prisoners.
  I'm like a fat ballerina who takes scalps and slits throats!

Jonathan Harris

• The late, truly great Jonathan Harris, who built his reputation on hamming it up. Who is he you ask? You know him best as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space and that's really all you need to know. Although you should also know him pretty well as Manny, the praying mantis, in Pixar's A Bug's Life. I dare you, no really, I. DARE. YOU. to come up with a better actor who has taken the Large Ham and honed it, perfected it, nay! taken it to the pinnacle of the art form! Seriously, he was such a master of it because he could take any role and imbue it with such over-the-topness, without making it silly until it was unforgettable. You love him and you know it.

Charlton Heston

• Planet of the Apes (1968)! "IT'S A MAAAAAAADHOUSE!", "THEY BLEW IT ALL UP! GODDAMN YOU ALL!" etc...
• SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!
• He spent a good chunk of Ben-Hur (1959) in a no-holds-barred Ham-to-Ham Combat with Sheik Ilderim.
• The Ten Commandments (1956) is hardly kosher with all the ham Heston slings around.
  • "THE LORD OF PORKS WILL DO BATTLE FOR US! BEHOLD HIS MIGHTY HAM!"
• "YOU have deCEIVED ME!"
• From Alaska: I want that BEAR!

Jeremy Irons

• Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons (2000), possibly a result of being the only actor in the movie who realized how silly the whole thing was - and just going with it.
  "LEEEETTTTT THEEEIRRRR BLOOODDDD RAIIINNNN FRRROOMMM THE SKKKYYYY!"
  "I've turned myself into a human vibratoooorrrr!"
  "You don't like that, do you? GOOOOOOD! I could USE every OOOOUNCE of your RAAAGE! Hathathathathata!"
• He was also pretty hammy in Eragon, probably for the same reason, though he was still the best actor in the movie.
  "Mind the little bones. Hate to see you choke."
• Irons and DeVito both hammed it up on Sesame Street in cameos during the song Put Down The Duckie
• From Roger Ebert's review of The Time Machine (2002): "[Guy] Pearce, as the hero, makes the mistake of trying to give a good and realistic performance. Irons at least knows what kind of movie he's in, and hams it up accordingly."
• To complete Irons' hammy villains, Simon Peter Gruber (he had to honor being cast as Alan Rickman's brother...) and Scar ("That was today? Oh, I feel simply awful!").
• There's also his role as Tiberias in Kingdom of Heaven. Take this scene in which he promptly tells all of the knights in the room to shut up when King Baldwin demands to speak.
  Tiberias:SILEEEENCEEEEEEEEE!
• The Borgias. Among the hammier moments, he threatens, Punctuated! For! Emphasis!, to excommunicate an entire city. (Although there he's not the only ham, just the largest.

Samuel L. Jackson

• In one of Sam Jackson's earliest film roles: "YO! HOLD UP! TIME OUT! TIME OUT! Y’ALL TAKE A CHILL! YA NEED TO HAM THAT SHIT OUT!! And that’s the double truth, Ruth!"
• SamHAMuel L. Jackson in Snakes on a Plane. The film would only be half as enjoyable if he played his role "straight". But if he did, we wouldn't have the classic line, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES ON THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLANE!" Adding the word "motherfucking" to a sentence has just about become Jackson's catchphrase, to the point where he overuses the word multiple times in Django Unchained.
• "WHAT! Does Marsellus Wallace look like?!"
  • "And you WILL KNOW my name is THE LORD! When I LAY MY VENGEANCE UPON THEE!"
  • "You ready to blow? Well, I'm a mushroom-cloud-laying motherfucker, motherfucker! Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm Superfly TNT! I'm the Guns of the Navarone! IN FACT, what the FUCK am I doing in the back?! YOU the motherfucker should be on brain detail! We're fucking switching. I'm cleaning the windows, and YOU picking up this nigga's skull!"
  • "DO THEY SPEAK ENGLISH HAM IN WHAT!?"
• Frank Miller must have demanded that Jackson play The Octopus in The Spirit. He then flew right in swinging a toilet and proceeded to chew the whole plain damn weird movie to greasy, cheesy bits! "NOEGG HAM... ON MY FACE! Not a glob."
  • Frank Miller has a habit of Hamming up his characters, the most (in)famous example probably being "I'm the GODDAMN BATMAN". Other examples include "CHILDREN! Pull on your tights, AND GIVE THEM HELL!" In fact, The Dark Knight Strikes Again is probably the hammiest graphic novel ever written, easily venturing into So Bad, It's Good territory.
• WHERE! IS! MY! SUPERSUIT?!
• "Ham! When you absolutely must chew every piece of scenery in the room, accept no substitutes!"
• "YES THEY DESERVED TO DIE, AND I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL!"
• "Look, if you have to shoot me, then you go ahead and you shoot me! But I HAVE! To answer! THIS! PHONE!" all right?"
• Deep Blue Sea was a crappy movie, but Jackson was hilarious in it. That's mainly why his death scene is so hilarious.
• Averted in The Avengers until he has to deal with the most horrifying villain in the film: the politicians.
  Nick Fury: I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service, where he has a blast playing a Bond-like villain full of himself who says everything with a lisp.
• "It's time to show Kong that HAM is King!"

Michael Keaton

• He does an admirable job in the Much Ado About Nothing as Dogberry...in fact, he's also a ham of great distinction in much of his work.
• One word: Beetlejuice. Just don't say it three times.
• And Johnny Dangerously.
• Half ham, full ham, whatever it takes...
• Gung Ho
• Surprisingly, he averts this as Batman. Even his Bruce Wayne is subdued. Except when he wants to get nuts.
• The superhero hamminess came back with an interest in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Both the actor famous for playing a superhero and the superhero split personality. Not to mention shooting himself in the face!
• "Barbie! Not the Nehru!"
• "'I'm the Shocker! I shock people!' What is this, Pro Wrestling?"

Harvey Keitel

• Shit...You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.
• You're gonna be okaaaaaaaay......say the fuckin' words you're gonna be okaaaaaaay...
• I'm a mean, mhm mhm servant of God.
• So, pretty please, with sugar on, clean the fucking car.
• Lah!
• He appears only in one scene of Get Shorty, but still fits.
• (After learning no case was opened on the Declaration of Independence being stolen because "the information wasn't credible") How 'bout now?

Udo Kier

• Flesh for Frankenstein
  • "To know DEATH, Otto.... you have to fuck LIFE... in ze gallbladder."
  • "Oh no! No! Katherine! My... my WIFE! Ze mother of my CHEEL-DREN! You have KILLED HER, on account of him! My SISTER! My BEAUTIFUL SISTER! YOU KILLED HER!"
• Blood for Dracula
  • "Ze BLOOD of zese WHOOORES is KILLINK ME!"
• He gives an excellent Cold Ham performance as the Soviets' lead psychic Yuri in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, and especially its addon Yuri's Revenge where he has much more screentime due to having taken over as the game's Big Bad.
• "I am the smartest criminal parrot in the world!"

Christopher Lloyd

• Pick a film with Christopher Lloyd, any film with Christopher Lloyd. He even manages to produce terrifying ham in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. "Remember me, Eddie?! When I killed your brother, I talked just! LIKE! THIS!!!"
• "1.21 GIGAWATTS!"
  • EIGHTY-EIGHT! MIIIIIILES! PER HOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR!
  • "GREAT SCOTT!"
• I CAN EVEN OUTHAM SHATNER!!! (Kirk's response: I... have... had... enough of your HAMMING!)
• A-hem: I WAS FRO-ZEN TODAY!!
• The eternal question: "What does a yellow light mean?"
• Curiously toned down in Clue, which features the likes of such hams as Tim Curry and Eileen Brennan.
• "The piranha you've been fighting! They're only THE BABIES!" and "This particular type of HAM went extinct TWO MILLION YEARS AGO!"
  • And in the sequel: "The piranha! They're learning to WALK! ON LAND!"
• '''WHARE'Z THE LAAAAAAAAAMP?!'''
• "My name is Fester. It means 'to rot.'"
• In Food Fight, he is unleashing ham while moving like a puppet.
  • SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, LEONARD!
• Even in a dead even tone, like his guest appearance on Chuck, he can ham it up.
  • (after a big fight scene in a hospital secure wing) Well, looks like we got here just in time.
• An episode of Amazing Stories is about a pair of teenagers who decide to kill their English teacher, who is played by our dear Mr. Lloyd. If his over-the-top performance as Mr. Beanes (no relation) wasn't enough for you, the kids realize their mistake and try to resurrect him but accidentally tear the needed photo of him in half at the neck. So yes, he spends half the episode carrying his head as he chases them around, all the while threatening them with school work and flinging family-friendly head-related puns as fast as he can. Which, this being Christopher Lloyd, means he's chewing the scenery like it was made of Laffy Taffy. The episode ends with a fantastically narmy reveal where zom-Beanes responds to the question "are you okay" with "Well... actually... I have a bit of a... SORE THROAT! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" while he takes off his scarf to show the line of stitches around his throat.

John Malkovich

• "I ''suffer without my stone.'' DO NOT ''prolong my suffering...''"
• "No. No, I'm sorry, I don't know the number to, uh, my savings account because believe it or not I don't spend my entire day sitting around trying to memorize the fucking numbers to my fucking bank accounts! Moron!"
• "Frank, I never thought I'd say this again. I'm getting the pig!"
• "Come on people! Yes, a workmate died, but looking out the window is not going to bring him back!"
• Oh mighty Arkleseizure, thou gazed from high above.
• "Make a move and the bunny gets it!"

Malcolm Mc Dowell

• There's a strange man, munchy-wunching lomticks of ham...
• Ham and POWER!!!
• I am a British person!
• Have you had dental surgery in the past 24 hours?!?
• Time to play Follow-My-Leader.
• They say Ham is the fire in which we burn.
• Mr. Linderman in Heroes, who even delivering an inspiring speech can't help but get carried away.
• As Metallo in Superman: The Animated Series: "LAAAAST STOP, EVERYONE! LAAAAST STOP!"
• JOHN HAM... sorry, HENRY EDEN
• They started this World of Ham... THEY CAN BURN IN IT!
• "I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night! Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a Ham!"
• On Billy Sherwood's all-star tribute to Pink Floyd's The Wall, Malcolm sings ALL of "The Trial." And it is as awesome as it sounds.
• This is the ham... (ahem)These are the eyes of a psychopath.
• Milk Money: I'm going to the SO'-'OP!
• A large helping of Cold Ham as Death.
  "I'm going to eat your soul, shit it out, and use it to smother your fucking girlfriend to death."

Ian Mc Kellen

• YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!
• Magneto is very theatrical, specially that scene in X2: X-Men United where he's drugged.
  YA SHOULDA KILLED ME WHEN YA HAD THE CHANCE!!
  • Even his snarking is full of ham.
    The Professor trusted you were smart enough to figure this out on your own. He gives you more credit than I do.
  • Followed by some rare wordless hamming in X-Men: The Last Stand, where Magneto lives out the secret fantasy of anyone who's ever been caught in traffic.
• McKellen giving directions on changing a flat tire.
• Flushed Away had him as villain Toad, and it is a thing of beauty.
  He's a madman! Run away, run... [swallows a fly] Pardon me, my fly's undone.
• In a movie so stuffed full of pork it practically oinks, his performance in Cold Comfort Farm tasted of roasted suckling pig, slathered with lard, wrapped in bacon, and lightly salted with Hickory flavored Bacon Salt.
  FOR I TELL YE THIS! THERE'LL BE NO HAM IN HELL!!!!!!!!!

Jack Nicholson

• Aside from About Schmidt, if there's a role that requires bombast and hamminess, Jack Nicholson will be there.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, where he does a guy just pretending to be nuts, but pulling it off easily. Just witness him doing a baseball play-by-play. and more, probably not.
  • The Witches of Eastwick has Jack as basically the Devil incarnate, and it's a thing of beauty.
  • This town needs an enema!
  • I SAID OVEREASY! [pause] Now, why did I do that?
  • "HEEEEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!"
  • "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" That makes him a Trope Namer twice.
  • *slap* I SAID I WANTED THE TRUTH!
  • In The Departed, he is playing probably his most hammy role ever. Especially the now-famous "I smell a rat" scene. Within the course of the scene, he does all of the following: a Spit Take onto an elaborate drawing of a swarm of rats, setting part of said drawing on fire only to put it back out in a few seconds, making some truly bizarre facial expressions, tiptoeing around like a cartoon character, and finally, dramatically sniffing Leonardo DiCaprio's character. Oh, and later in the movie, he whips a giant purple dildo out of his pants and starts shaking it in Matt Damon's face.

Richard O'Brien

• "They didn't like me! THEY NEVER LIKED ME!!!"
• "Say goodbye to all THIS. And hello to... obLIVION!"
  • Goodbye, all this! Hello, oblivion! How's the wife and kids?
    • Your wife, my kids!
    • Your dog, my puppies!
• "I remeeeeeembeeer doing the TIIIIIME WAAAAARP!"
  • It was a senSAATION!
    • LIKE YOU'RE UNDER SEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATION!
    • LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!!!!!
• "Tooooooooooooooooooooooooooo the Crystal Dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome!"
• Dungeons & Dragons (2000):
  Xilus: I'LL NEVER TOLERATE IT WHEN MAGES TRESPASS in MYYYYYYYYYY GUILD!!!!

Gary Oldman

• Gary Oldman certainly showed potential in Sid and Nancy, but he wouldn't come into his own as a real ham until Bram Stoker's Dracula, where he served up an intense, hissing slice of Romanian pork product. (It is not laughing MATTAAAAA!) We got a second course in True Romance, with Drexl the dreadlocked pimp ("It ain't white boy day is it?"). But his peak was undeniably The Professional:
  Stansfield: Bring me everyone.
  Benny: What?
  Stansfield: EEEEEVERYYYYONEEE!
• Things calmed down for a couple of years until The Fifth Element, where weapons dealer Zorg somehow became a used car salesman channeling Ross Perot. He then hit another high point in Air Force One, where castmates appear to be genuinely afraid. Whether this was just good acting or fear that he was about to go into cardiac arrest is unknown. He even managed to ham it up in two episodes of Friends, though this appears to have been the end of the ham ... for now.
  • End of the Ham? I THINK NOT, COMRADE! FOR THE MOTHERLAAAAAAAAAAAAND!
• Even when he was singing, he hammed it up! "Years from now no one will bother/To recall your good king Arthur/BECAUSE ALL OF THIS... WILL BE MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!!!!" Cue heavily electronic orchestral rock anthem.
• Siriusly! (though the only scene where Oldman lets it loose in Harry Potter is his reveal. And his◊ "Wanted!" Poster)
  • HE DID HIS WAITING! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!
• ALL DAT WAS LEFT IN DA VAULT WAS MARKED BILLS!, THEY KNNNEW WE WERE COMING!
• SPIIIIIIIIIDERS!
• His performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour was as large and hammy as the real deal. No wonder he won an Oscar.
• Pretty much EVERYTHING Gary Oldman's been in. So far the biggest exceptions are the shockingly subtle acts as Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK and George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
• His performance as Lord Shen can be fairly subdued, but he does get his moments of hamminess. Here's Oldman hamming it up in the recording studio
  "Part of you here, part of you there, and part of you waaaaaaaaaaaay over there, STAINING THE WALL!"

Al Pacino

• Al Pacino has been delivering Large Ham performances for, oh, the past decade or two. Some particular gems:
  • Scent of a Woman ("If I were the man I was five years ago I'd take a FLAME-THROWER to this place!" "HOO-AH! I'm just getting warmed up!") - after being passed over for numerous Oscars, he finally got one for this movie due to the hammy speech at the end. He's stuck with the formula since.
  • Heat ("cause she's got a... GREAT ASS! And you got your head... ALL THE WAY UP IT!" ^note A Throw It In!, to boot. "I had COFFEE with McCauley... HALF AN HOUR AGO!")
  • The trailer for City Hall has all the ham you need. "I choose to FIGHT BACK!!!!!1111one... until this city is a palace again!"
  • Pacino as Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy is a ham large enough to choke Godzilla.
    "I'm looking for generals ... and what do I get? foot soldiers!"
  • As the Devil in The Devil's Advocate, Pacino would only take the part if he got to do a ten-minute rant in the film's climax. Upon hearing that, the producers must have looked at each other, shrugged, and said; "Do whatever the hell you want, Al!" Cue Satan Breaking The Fourth Wall as he dips a finger into holy water, boiling it.
    "HE'S A TIGHTASS! HE'S A SADIST! HE'S AN ABSENTEE LANDLORD!! WORSHIP THAT?! NEVER!"
  • In Scarface (1983), practically every line of spoken dialog by Tony Montana is Ham, and the movie wouldn't have been half as good without it (though that probably goes for all of Pacino's roles)
  "SAAAAAAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEEEEEEND"
  • ...And Justice for All - Al ends the movie with an epic bit of courtroom hamminess: "My client, the Honorable Henry T. Flemming should GO RIGHT TO FUCKING JAIL!!! THE SON OF A BITCH IS GUILTY!" (lots of ranting then follows)
    • Including the following, which is guaranteed to show up in any career montage for Pacino: "You're out of order! You're out of order! THE WHOLE TRIAL IS OUT OF ORDER!"
  • Any Given Sunday definitely lets him ham his way. Special moment at the end: "WE CLAAAAW WITH OUR FINGERNAAAIIILS FOR THAT INCH!"
  • In Ocean's Thirteen, Willy Bank is nothing but ham topped with bacon under a layer of fried pork chops. Every scene he's in has him yelling or browbeating someone, and when he's not, he's still incredibly full of himself.
    Reuben: (heartbroken after finding out Bank renamed their casino after himself): You changed the name.
    Bank: I LIKE IT BETTER. DON'T YOU? (walks away laughing while Reuben collapses from heart attack)
    • Or when The Plan is being executed under his nose without him being any the wiser.
  "EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM (the security center), EMPTY YOUR POCKETS NOW!"
  • He was pretty low-key as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Parts I and II, back in the early '70s, but years later in Part III, he went full ham, especially in the scene during the thunderstorm where Michael is having a diabetic attack.

John Rhys-Davies

• "...they're diggin in the wrong place!"
• "Nobody tosses a dwarf!"
• "You are not in Rhineland, you are IN MY SHOP!"
  • "TROPHIES! HA HA!"?
• Though more understated than his live-action role, his turn as The Narrator in the Updated Release version of Quest for Glory IV still is rather hammy
• "YOU DIM BULB! TAKE BACK YOUR WALLET OR I'LL RIP YOUR ARMS OFF!"
• "You can take my army, you soft-bellied slug, but you WILL NEVER HAVE MY ALLEGIANCE!"

George C. Scott

• He was a master at saving the ham for just the right moment, for maximum effect.
• In the desert battle in Patton, he spends most of it just watching, calmly observing the whole thing. Then when it's clear his troops are winning, comes the immortal, "Rommel, you Magnificent Bastard, I read your BOOOK!"
  • Interestingly enough, George Patton's daughters said that Scott nailed Patton's personality so perfectly, they felt like they were actually watching their father on the movie screen. Does that make George Patton a ham? (especially in light of the fact that the movie actually DOWNPLAYS some of the more crude and vulgar catchphrases that he was famous for).
  • Maybe the real-life Patton was a hammier ham than George C. Scott? After all, those pearl-handled revolvers were not exactly Army regulation.
    • They're ivory-handled. Only a New Orleans pimp would carry pearl-handles.
  • That jingoistic speech at the beginning of the movie? It's fairly closely paraphrased from an even more over-the-top speech that Patton actually gave.
• Also in The Hustler (1961), "You owe me MONEY!"
• Similarly, The Rescuers Down Under. "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for NOTHING!"
  • "Home, home on the range! Where critters are tied up in chains! I cut through their sides and rip off their hides, and the next day I do it again! EVERYBODDAY!!!!"
• He also, at Kubrick's urging, made quite the snack of Dr. Strangelove.
  • The overacted scenes were supposed to be practice takes. Mr. Scott was not happy to see himself hamming it up on the big screen.
• Hardcore. TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!
• The Exorcist III. The I BELIEVE speech was off the charts, even for Scott.
  Kinderman: Yes, I believe... I believe in death. I believe in disease. I believe in injustice and inhumanity and torture and anger and hate... I believe in murder. I BELIEVE IN PAIN. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. I believe in slime and stink and every crawling, putrid thing... every possible ugliness and corruption, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH! I BELIEVE... in you.
  "There is a carp in my bathtub, father. Swimming. Up. And down. Up. And down. And I hate it."
  "WE'RE FINE!"
  "WILL YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"
  "It is NOT in the file! It is NOT!"

Quentin Tarantino

• Lemme tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's all about this cooze who's a regular fuck machine, I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
  • That's a lot of dicks
• When you came pulling in here, did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said "Dead Nigger Storage"?
• "He's thinkin' about the ham, he's thinkin' about the ham, he's thinkin' about his dick. Dick ham dick ham dick ham dick ham dick ham dick ham dick ham."
• "How's your hand, Rich?" It hurts like a fucking son of a bitch, thanks for asking, Seth!
• WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
• You gave me some wood, now I'm gonna give you some FUCKING wood!
• In Sleep With Me: "'You can RIDE! MY! TAIL!! ANYTIME!! 'YOU CAN RIDE! MINE!!"

John Turturro

• I CAN'T DIE...OUT HERE IN THE WOODS...LIKE A PRESSED HAM!!!
• I'm a writer, you monsters! I create! I create for a living! I'm a creator! I am a creator! This is my uniform!
• Let me tell you something, pendejo. You pull any of your crazy shit with us, you flash a piece out on the lanes, I'll take it away from you, stick it up your ass, and pull the fookin' trigger 'til it goes "click."
• DO NOT SEEK THE HAM!
• Tune in and watch Herb Stempel get fed to the Columbia Lions! Tune in and watch Charles Van Doren eat his first kosher meal, this week on 'Twenty-One!'
• Take your ham and get the fuck back to Africa.
• You're excited? Feel these nipples!
• "ONE HAM! ALONE! BETRAYED BY THE COUNTRY HE LOVES!"
  • "You see this??? This is a 'Do-Whatever-I-Want-And-Get-Away-With-It' Badge"

Hugo Weaving

• Agent Smith in The Matrix is so hammy he doesn't need a ham-related pun! "Humans...are a virussss...a disease...and we are the cure!"
  • Even more in the sequels ("Missster Anderson! Surprised to see me?" and "Smith will suffice").
  • "This is MY WORLD! MY WORLD!
• As Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: "Evil was allowed to enDURE."
• They had their money's worth with him as Red Skull: YOU ARE FAILIIIINGGGG!!!
• Beneath this mask is more than flesh; beneath this mask there is a ham, Mister Creedy — and hams are bulletproof!
• Old Georgie. "No un'scapes the tru tru"
• Special mention to Megatron, where he manages to out-ham most of the cast while supposedly phoning it in: "You still fight for the WEAK! That is why YOU LOSE!"

Other Hams on the Menu

• French actor Louis de Funès. These videos are filled with his ham.
• Italian comedian Totò.
• R.J. Fletcher, the main villain in UHF, is a truly monumental ham. The performance was so over the top that, according to "Weird Al" Yankovic, veteran actor Kevin McCarthy had a very difficult time keeping a straight face.
  "This community means about as much to me as a festering bowl of dog snot!"
• The entire Barrymore family are the original Large Hams. Example: John Barrymore in Twentieth Century (1934): I CLOSE THE IRON DOOR ON YOU!
  • Their prominence is all the more impressive considering it was an age when being a Large Ham was practically a requirement to appear in movies.
  • Except Drew Barrymore, who has a tendency to underplay things. Averted in her directorial debut Whip It, in which she, cast in the minor role of Smashley Simpson, has a grand time chewing the scenery and shamelessly stealing every scene she's in - and the film is better for it.
• Billy Crystal loves to scream. A lot.
  • Now put that thing back where it came from or so help me... Oh, hey. We're rehearsing a - a scene for the upcoming company play called uh, Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. It's a musical.
  • Well, what I think you should do... is stop whining about this pathetic loser. You are a tragedy queen! "Oh, Steve doesn't like me!" "Steve doesn't respect me!" Oh, who gives a shit? GET A FUCKIN' LIFE!
• Robert De Niro as Max Cady in Cape Fear. His Captain Shakespeare of the movie adaptation of Stardust belongs here as well — that can-can REEKS of ham (and you can just tell he loves every second of it).
  • If Robert Bloody De Niro doing a can-can in a pink dress isn't the prime cut of all hams, watch it after Ronin (1998).
  • Fearless Leader in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. "GEEETTTT TTHHHEEEMMMMM!!!!!!!"
  • As Al Capone in The Untouchables, particularly during his Villainous Breakdown.
• Robert Preston. The Music Man, Victor/Victoria, The Last Starfighter...
• James Robertson Justice. A Ham so Large, he was BRIAN BLESSED and John Rhys-Davies combined, in virtually every single role he performed (including the cheese commercials!).
• ANY movie John Agar is in. And watching him is like getting hit in the face OVER AND OVER by a large ham.
• Rupert Everett is incredibly hammy. Highlights include Dr. Claw ("Claw, just one name... like Madonna"), Prince Charming from the Shrek sequels, and that Crowd Song-propelling scene in My Best Friend's Wedding.
• Marlon Brando in some of his films.
  • Marlon Brando started dishing out large servings of ham almost as soon as he started getting lead roles.
  • Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
  • And if he wasn't hammy, it's likely because he simply didn't give a damn (the Superman movies)
    • A role for which he didn't even bother memorizing his lines. He had cue cards taped all over the set so that every time he's on-screen, he is just reading lines.
• Let's not give Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. "The Rock" a free pass. From The Rundown to Doom, hammy till the cows come home. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's pretty hilarious in every single case (the best being Be Cool, especially his "acting showoff").
  Can you SMEEEEEELL what The Rock is COOOOKIIIIING?!
  • Yes, and it's a big thick ham steak, wrapped in bacon and stuffed into a suckling pig with a can of Spam in its mouth. Served on a plate of pork chops.
  • The Rock's mother didn't like him using the word "ass" (during his general promo about "turn[ing] that sumbitch sideways and sticking it straight up your candy ass!")... so one time, he changed it to "straight up... your RECTUM."
  • His work in the masterful Southland Tales. "I'm a pimp... and pimps... don't. Commit. Suicide."
  • In The Scorpion King he proves you can ham up gestures.
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle downright has "Smoldering Intensity" as one of his character's traits. And the sequel helps Johnson's ham by forcing most of his early screentime to be a Danny DeVito impression!
  • Really, any wrestler-turned-actor is going to run into this as a rather understandable result of originating from the World of Ham that is professional wrestling, Hulk Hogan being possibly the Ur-Example.
• Vincent Price is another classic example.
  • For a particularly thick slice, check out one of his own particular favorites: Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective.
  • Justified in Theatre of Blood, where his character is a murderous actor. A HAMMY murderous actor.
  • His monologue at the beginning of the song Black Widow by Alice Cooper is nothing short of hamtastic. Same goes for his rap in Michael Jackson's Thriller.
  • In The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Price chews the scenery without even opening his mouth.
  • Price was always the right side of ham though, as his passion for acting and captivating voice and mannerisms helped him stop becoming cheesy.
  • He also played Egghead in the '60s Batman (1966) series, delivering a fine meal of ham and eggs.
  • In His Kind of Woman, Price plays an Errol Flynn-style movie star who, when confronted with real mortal danger from mobsters, gets a huge rush from it, and leaps into the fray shouting out Shakespeare with extra ham - he even wears a thespian cape!
• Joan Cusack:
  • In School of Rock, although Jack Black outhams her in that film.
  • Also, Joan Cusack as the nanny in Addams Family Values. ''Don't I deserve love... and jewelry?
    "That's not what I wanted! That's not who I was! I was a ballerina! GRACEFUL! DELICATE!"
  • How was Jessie introduced in Toy Story 2?
    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!
• Jack Palance could go from quiet, breathy ham to loud, bombastic ham in the blink of an eye.
• Listen up, you primitive screwheads! Bruce Campbell is a LARGEHAM! He starts off as a Deadpan Snarker, top-of-the-line. You can find this in lines like "Groovy". That's right, then this sweet actor from Royal Oak, Michigan gets 110 bucks worth of ham. He's got a hyperactive jawline, walnut brown eyes, and a hair ham trigger. So when shopping for ham, Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart. GOT THAT?
  • Also, the only Sci-Fi original movies that are even close to bearable are the ones with Bruce Campbell in them, specifically for this reason.
  • His performance as an elderly Elvis in Bubba Ho Tep is a slightly subdued version.
  • Sort of lampshaded in Army Of Darkness, where one character asks if everyone in the future is as much of a loudmouthed braggart as he is.
  • Sam Raimi gave him cameos in each film of the Spider-Man Trilogy. The first two (a wrestling announcer and a theater usher) are short and constrained. But as a French maître d' in the third, he chews scenery and easily steals the scene.
  • Most of his covers in Burn Notice are usually of the annoying American variety or high-class suit and tie coupled with a heavy serving of ham.
• Christopher Lee.
  • A great EYYYE HAM. LLLLID LESS. Wrrreaaathed in FLLLAAAMMME.
  • Constable Crane!!! This is a song that we have heard from you more than once! A cameo appearance that is memorable.
• Peter Sellers knew a thing or two about being this in many of his films.
  • Prime cuts of ham include the title character in Dr. Strangelove and Dr. Fritz Fassbender in What's New Pussycat? (arguing with his wife: "Is she prettier than you? I'M prettier than you!"). And Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau was good for five films' worth of this, especially as he drove Herbert Lom's hapless Dreyfus to the (hammy) edge of sanity.
  • Stanley Kubrick, making Lolita, gave Sellers plenty of room to improvise, so his part as Claire Quilty grew much larger than planned, apparently bothering star James Mason in the process.
  • Speaking of Chief Inspector Clouseau, in Revenge of the Pink Panther, when he disguised as a "Salty Swedish Seadog" complete with a peg leg and inflatable parrot, his mangling of the sea shanty "Dead Man's Chest" climaxes in a really hammy manner deviating from the true lyrics even more than first three lines:
  Sixteen chests on a dead man's rum
  Yo-ho-ho in the bottle of the chest
  Drink to the devils and done for the rums
  HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
• Mako:
  • The Wizard played by Mako in Conan the Barbarian (1982) is a humming ball of ham in a seaweed outfit, while Thulsa Doom manages to be completely mesmerising, yet hammy as well. "Steel isn't strong, boy...flesssh is stronger."
    Contemplate this... on the tree of woe.
    Mako: "BETWEEEEEN THE TIME WHEN THE OCEANS DRAANK ATLAAANTIS... AAAND the rise of the sons of Aryas... there was an age undreamed-of. AND ONTO THIS, CONAN! Destined to bear the jeweled cwown of Kahlifonia Aquilonia UP...PON A TROUB...BLED...BROW. It is I, his KWONICLER who ALONE can tell thee of his saga. LET ME TELL YOU OF THE DAYS OF HIIIIIIIGH AD-VEN-TUUUUREE!!!!"[1]
  • DUN DUN DA-DUN, DA-DUN, DA-DUN, DA-DUN!
  • Speaking of Mako, AKU, THE SHAPESHIFTING MASTER OF DARKNESS!
  • Do you know why he is called the Dragon of the West? Here's a hint: It's not because he's Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Geoffrey Rush, singled out by Nathan Rabin as a "shameless ham", who won an Oscar for "a real-life person who was essentially a collection of hammy tics and actorly mannerisms" and an Emmy for "in a bit of egregious scenery-chewing, he played not only the famous acting chameleon Peter Sellers but also, in fantasy sequences, a number of people in Sellers' life". A large portion of the Pirates of the Caribbean folder here is highlighting how carried away Rush gets playing Captain Barbossa.
• John Lithgow in nearly everything he's done since the '90s, including his role in 3rd Rock from the Sun as Dick Solomon:
  "I'm GORGEOUS!"
  • Cliffhanger, where he is a criminal mastermind trying to find 100 million dollars, but finding plenty of ham.
  • John Lithgow? You mean Dr. Emilio Lizardo himself? "CURSE-A YOU BANZAI!"
  • 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie. "FOR FREE?!?!"
  • Bombshell (2019) has Lithgow as Roger Ailes, who not only was a really large ham but as full of himself as possible.
  • "I WILL HAVE ORDER! I WILL HAVE PERFECTION! I WILL HAVE--"
• Victoria Pedretti, due to her background in theater, her expressive facial features, and her high energy can devour scenery as well as a 20-year veteran. Either of her characters in the Haunting series are prime examples.
• Starting with his breakout role in High Fidelity, Jack Black always plays the Big Fun personified in any movie he gets, except for when he's the romantic lead (Shallow Hal and The Holiday). Even animated, as the Kung Fu Panda trilogy can attest (along with a secondary but still hammy role in Ice Age). Highlights include School of Rock, as Black brings in all the ham of rock n'roll, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, where he plays a teenage girl!
• Woody Harrelson in most of his roles, such as the mad conspiracy theorist in 2012, the overtly enthusiastic Tallahassee in Zombieland (great examples are his frustration whenever he can't find a Twinkie in the first, and him imitating Elvis in the sequel), and a serial killer turned supervillain in Venom: Let There Be Carnage (which even has an impromptu Johnny Cash parody).
• Adam Sandler, before Eight Crazy Nights.

  I LOOKED AT MY ASSHOLE IN THE MIRROR TODAY. IT BLEW MY F***IN' MIND!

• Matt Frewer hams it up in most of the roles he's done, from M-M-M-Max Headroom to Generation X (the not-quite-So Bad, It's Good 90's TV movie).

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