No scenery is left intact with these guys!
Note: Merely quoting a line in ALL CAPS and/or in bold does not constitute proof of hamminess. Descriptions of the performance, character, and scene are, as are links to clips of the performance.
Let's see if we can't refresh that rusty old memory of yours. Is she on SATAN'S RIDGE? Or NIGHTMARE CANYON? What do you think Joanna? Yeah that's it. Right smack dab in the MIDDLE, at CROC FALLS!
The Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first in that canon and a particularly wonderfully nightmarish example. (This may have a lot to do with her being voiced by Lucille LaVerne, a stage and silent film actress. She's also visually based on Kate Hepburn.)
Actually, although she has a few drips of ham, the Queen is one of the more subtle villains out there. When she turns herself into the hag on the other hand, all bets are off, and she chews the scenery wonderfully.
"IDIOTS!!! THERE WILL BE A KING!! IIIIIII WILL BE KING! STICK WITH ME, AND YOU'LL NEVER GO HUNGRYAGAIN!!!!" So, how many hams does it take to feed a pride of lions, Scar?
Whenever Beast gets angry, he hams up accordingly ("Then go ahead and STAAAAAAAAAAAAARVE!").
Except maybe Pat Carroll's Ursula the Sea-Witch from The Little Mermaid, who actually turns herself into a very large...octopus...for the finale. She may be the first and only Disney villain to actually shake her moneymakers for the camera.
"And don't underestimate the importance of...BODY LANGUAGE!"
Well, the only one until Alameda Slim, who not only dances, but can "YODEL ADLE ELDE IDLE OOOOOO!" No ham is complete without a Las Vegas performer-esque shiny outfit.
In poker terms, Marina Del Rey from Ariel's Beginning will see you that outfit, and raise you a time-space wormhole from Bob Mackie's warehouse that leads directly into her underwater armoire.
All we gotta do is build an act. Make ya a star. A headliner! Dumbo the Great!
Timothy Mouse from Dumbo is a non-villainous example of a Large Ham. Who knew a circus mouse impersonating Nosferatu in one scene would take hamminess to extremes!
For pure, unadulterated, lean Grade A ham, nothing beats a thick, juicy slab of Jafar.
"GENIE! My second wish! I wish to be the most POWERFUL sorcerer...IN THE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD! AH HA HA HA HA HAAAA!"
Even better, in the second film he gets a whole musical number, every line of which seems to made entirely of pun-filled ham.
The only thing that could make Jafar more hammy is if he was voiced by Tim Curry. Case in point; his Reprise of the Prince Ali song.
Jafar may have been killed off by the start of the TV series, but the Hamjitsu was conserved by the late Jonathan Brandis as the smarmy sorcerer Mozenrath. Who knew you could fit all that ham into a pair of leather pants?
Let's not forget Mechanicles, "THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT GREEK GENIUSES!"
Besides Zurg, Toy Story has Jessie ("YEE-HAW") and an obvious one in Hamm the piggy bank ("PIG PILE!"). Buzz dabbles in it sometimes, specially in the third film when he's reset and starts speaking in Spanish.
Does Chernabog from Fantasia count? He manages to be a Large Ham without ever even SPEAKING A WORD.
Bolt has both Bolt the dog and Rhino the hamster as somewhat hammy characters, but the director of the Show Within a Show as easily the hammiest character in the movie.
The Director: Let me ask you, Mindy from the network, what do you see here? Mindy Parker: Uhh... the dog? The Director: "The dog" she says. Oh, Mindy. Poor, poor Mindy. Mindy Parker: ... am I missing something? The Director: You're missing everything, Mindy. You see a dog. I see an animal that believes, with every fiber of his being; EVERY FIBER; that the girl he loves is in mortal danger! I see a depth of emotion on the face of that canine, the likes of which has never been captured on screen before. NEVER, Mindy from the network. We jump through hoops to make sure Bolt believes everything is real. It's why we don't miss marks. It's why we don't reshoot. It's CERTAINLY why we do NOT allow the dog to see BOOM MIKES... because, Mindy from the network... if "the dog" believes it... then "the audience" believes it.
Jim Carrey
Liar Liar 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 the movie version of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was a Master of Disguise, but also a Large Ham - not just because Carrey played him that way, but because within the story itself Olaf is supposed to be a Large 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..."
Actually if you read the books, Count Olaf doesn't actually become a proper ham until the books that came out after the film. Beforehand, his evil was more withheld.
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.
Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, another character actually required by the story to be a Large Ham. His performance is summed up beautifully by Mike Nelson in the RiffTrax commentary as Kenneth first appears; "Yes, treat your family and friends to the flavor of traditional Northern Irish HAM."
Rumor has it Branagh, Alan Rickman (Snape), and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) had a friendly competition on the set to see who could ham it up the most. ... Ooooooh my.
Strangely, Voldemort, particularly in Goblet of Fire. It's easy to see the fun Ralph Fiennes is having. Fiennes has said that he tried not to go over the top with Voldemort, but then he realized there's no other way to play him. For example, the bit with: DON'T YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON ME HARRY POTTER!!!! I WANT YOU TO LOOK AT ME WHEN I KILL YOU!!! I WANT TO SEE THE LIGHT LEAVE YOUR EYES!!!! Or, what about the infamous, "CRRRRUUUCCCCCCCC-io!" Even after calming down in each following film, his infamous "NYEEEEAAAAHHH HEH HEH" from Deathly Hallows has become quite popular.
For context: This is the scene after Harry is apparently dead in Hagrid's arms. Voldemort and the Death Eaters take the body back to Hogwarts to gloat at the defenders. After announcing Harry's apparent demise, the Death Eaters burst into laughter, cuing one of the most awkward laughs from Voldemort one will hear. He even seems to dance in place for a second. Coupled with one of the weirdest hugs ever done a few minutes later, this troper put it as "And now, Ralph Fiennes decides to gobble up as much scenery as possible before his inevitable death." The fact that the entire audience burst into laughter when Voldemort laughed affirmed this assertion.
AAAAAAAAVADA KEDAVRA!
So incredibly over-hammed it sounded more like "UUUUUUUhvudu Kuduvru!"
Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. He doesn't chew the scenery; he devours it whole, spits it out, and then devours it again. At least in Goblet of Fire.
"SIIIIIIILEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNCEEEEEEE!"
"DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE!" (Did joo putyer name in'a gobletaFIYA!)
which is said while he has Harry by his shirt collar and pressed against a wall.
That bit was the result of Did Not Do the Research, as Mr. Gambon hadn't read the book. Still pretty darn hammy, though.
At least he made up for it in subsequent films.
Shirley Henderson as the hammiest Ghost in Hogwarts, Moaning Myrtle.
Moaning Myrtle: I'm Moaning Myrtle! I wouldn't expect you to know me! Who would ever want to talk about ugly, miserable, moping, Moaning Myrtle? AHHHHHHHHHH!
Hermione: She's a little sensitive.
It's a small role, but Miriam Margolyes is nearly intolerable as Professor Sprout.
Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody, between character voice, exaggerated motions, and mentoring role, fits the bill perfectly.
He has only a small role in Goblet of Fire but David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr fills every moment with ham, with wild eyes and that weird flicking tongue thing - sheer craziness.
Not to mention Gary Oldman's somewhat hamtastic turn as Sirius Black. "I would have DIED, Peter! I would have DIED rather than BETRAY MY FRIENDS!!!!!" He calmed down considerably in the fifth movie.
Oh, and the scene where Lupin transforms into a werewolf. How could we forget "You know the man you TRULY ARE, Remus!" and "THIS FLESH IS ONLY FLESH!"
Professor Trelawney: In THIS room, YOU shall discover if YOU possess THE SIGHT!*
This is a central trait of her character. Naturally, as she's a faux psychic (most of the time, anyway).
Both Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint get to be this during two particularly funny scenes of Half-blood Prince — first when Ron accidentally drinks a love potion and then when Harry deliberately drinks a luck potion.
Emma Watson's first scene as Hermione in Sorcerer's Stone gets pretty hammy. In fact most of the scenes in the first movie for the kid actors are very overly done simply because of inexperience.
Helena Bon HAM Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. She made the character way more rabid and insane than described in the books. Her first scene in Order of the Phoenix she's licking the dark mark on her arm. She takes it further with each subsequent film until in Deathly Hallows, each line she says is a thick slice of ham.
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.
"Mr. West, ah am not an animal! Ah am a visionary, ah am a genius, and now AH AM 'AGREH! And I promise that when I kill you, ah will have your body boiled down for ax-ell grease!
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!
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.
Averted in some of his more recent dramatic roles, such as Wallander, Valkyrie and Shackleton.
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.
Gene Hackman's Luthor in Superman II also serves, even if the next example is the biggest ham in the movie.
Superman nemesis Zod. One has to almost kneel before him in respect of his vast arsenal of over-the-top bluster, which of course he can back up on Earth with tremendous power only the Man of Steel can challenge. Whole websites have been devoted to the glorious OTTness of Terrence Stamp's portrayal of Zod as a vain, short-tempered and sometimes rather bored aristocratic psycho. So indelible was Stamp's rendition (which bore little resemblance to the comic character on whom it was based) that most subsequent comic versions of Zod have been negatively received due to their lack of similarity to Stamp's characterization. Recently they just gave up and reintroduced the "real" Zod in the direct likeness of Stamp's persona.
What's to ponder? TLJ can chew the scenery with the best of them. Heck, even his performance in The Fugitive feels hammy even though he never raises his voice.
"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at fifteen miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble - Go get him."
In all fairness, that infamous voice emerged in The Dark Knight, while not nearly as grating in Batman Begins. Apparently, that one had an okay balance. But still, to quote him in the second, "WHURRRR ARRRRRR THEYYYY?!"
About Schmidt might be the only occasion where Nicholson was low-key.
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 sniffingLeonardo 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.
Don't forget Get Shorty, where he was a ham playing a ham... playing a ham.
James Bond villains
Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies. Whatever scenery his mooks don't riddle with bullets or blast into a million pieces, he cheerfully chows down on like there's no... well, tomorrow. And the movie is, arguably, the better for it.
And who can forget "NO, Mister Bond, I expect you to DIE!"?
Better still - Gert Fröbe was a unilingual German speaker. He spoke all of his lines phonetically, and they were dubbed over afterwards.
One wonders at what the movie would've been like if Goldfinger had been played by BRIAN BLESSED, though that may have caused the universe to implode from the super-dense ham.
The laser wouldn't have been necessary, that's for sure. BRIAN BLESSED simply could've shouted until Sean Connery's face melted.
While Yaphet Kotto played a relatively mellow Dr. Kananga in Live and Let Die, Kananga's alter ego, Mr. Big, is a pretty Big ham (hur hur hur), with lines like "DID YOU TOUCH HER??!!" belted with feeling.
"Names is for tombstones, baby! You take this honky out and waste him!
Fortunately, the hamjitsu was conserved by the impressively loud Boris (played by the INVINCIBLE! Alan Cumming).
Don't forget Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, who was low-key most of the time, except when he corrects Bond's statement that he won't be safe if he tortures Bond to death.
Megamind: Oh, you're a villain alright. Just not a super one.
Titan: Oh yeah? What's the difference?
Megamind: PRESENTATION! HAM!
Star Wars
Emperor Palpatine was like this in Return of the Jedi, but substantially more subdued in the first two prequels. Then he was in Revenge of the Sith, where any given line he says after the second act is pure, unadulterated ham. And he's still a fairly effective bad guy. I guess he stopped caring about self-restraint once he conquered the entire galaxy.
ONCE MOAAAARRR the Sith will RUUUUUULE the GALAXYYYYY... and... we shall have... peace.
He did have flashes beforehand though: "Have...youuuuu...ever.......heaaaaaaaaard....the stooooooooooooooryyyyyyyyyyyy of...Daaaaaaaaarth Plagueisssssssssss..........the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiise?"
In Return of the Jedi, even when Palpatine isn't yelling about the dark side, he's still unbelievably hammy. "Now, young Skywalker........... you will die."
And, while shaking his head like a douchebag, "Oh, I'm afraid the shield generator will be quite op-er-a-tion-al, when your friends... arrive..."
On the set this looked like a MASSIVE ham since the line David Prowse gave in order to keep the big secret was, "Obi-Wan killed your father."
Actually, Vader was quite hammy, not only during his Big "NO!" scene, but also in Episode IV as well. In Episodes V and VI, he was a bit more subdued and chilling. Bless you, Dave Prowse (who gesturesplentifully) and James Earl Jones (who delivers his lines with intense passion).
Darth Vader: Where are those transmissions you intercepted? WWWHHHHAAAT have you DONE with those PLANS????
Darth Vader: Commander, TEAR THIS SHIP APART UNTIL YOU FIND THOSE PLANS! And BRING me the passengers, I WANT THEM ALIVE!
Darth Vader: You are PART of the REBEL AllIANce and a traitor! TAKE HER AWAY!
Vader still had a few traces of ham left in his system, most notably in his We Can Rule Together speech to Luke in Empire:
Darth Vader: Luuuuke, you do not yet realize your impPORtance. You have only begun to discover your POWAH. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our COMBINED STRENGTH, we can END this destrOOCTive conflict and bring ORDAH to the GALAXYYY.
Luke: I'll NEVER join you!
Darth Vader: IF YOU ONLY KNEW THE POWAH OF THE DAHK SIDE.
Christopher Plummer as General Chang in Star Trek VI. His Crowning Moment of Ham-osity has to be the bit near the end where his ship is pummeling the crap out of Enterprise, and he's having total blast, bellowing Shakespeare, while twirling around in his motorized Captain's chair. Hamtacular.
"Cry HAVOC!!! And let slip the dogs of war!!"
The ham is noted in-universe by Dr. McCoy, who states "I'd pay real money if he'd shut up."
Noted in Shatner's book Star Trek Movie Memories, where a photo of him and Plummer laughing at a flub in the courtroom scene has a caption describing the two as "Hamosauruses".
And how can we forget Ricardo Montalban as KHAAAAAN!!! Interestingly enough, his first take on the character was even hammier, and the director asked him to dial it down to make the times he didrant and rave feel more powerful.
Behold! The quintessential HAM in Star Trek IV: John Schuck, playing the Klingon Hambassador. Remember this well — There will be no unchewed scenery, as long as Kirk lives!!
Sarek: Do you deny these facts? John Schuck: We denyyyyyy nothing. We have the RIGHT to preSERVE our HAM!! RACE!!
Shuck got in on TV Trek as well, playing the delightfully hamtastic Legate Parn on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Klingon captains are never not hammy. Remember Commander Kruge?
GET OUUUUT!! GET OUT OF THERE!! GLORIOUS, isn't it?!
Apparently, Christopher Lloyd was a barely containable ham in one scene. Kruge was supposed to call to be beamed up over his handheld communicator, but they could never get him to talk into the prop — he'd always spread his arms wide, throw his head back, and bellow "BEAM ME UP!" to the heavens. Epic ham.
IT HAPPENED! I SAW IT HAPPEN! DON'T TELL ME IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!!
FIRE EVERYTHIANNG!!!!
SPAAAAWWWWK!!!
That first gets extra points because during one take Bana literally passed out after yelling it all.
Of course, who could forget Picard's rant in First Contact. Normally, Patrick Stewart keeps it mellow and classy, but when his crew suggests they run from the Borg, he has a Heroic BSOD complete with a couple of Big Nos and a thick side of ham. (Apparently he took a few lessons from Shatner in between takes of their previous movie.)
Picard: The line must be drawn Heeyah! This far, no further. And IIIIIII... will make them pay, for what they've done!
"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."
He got two really really good ones in The Crucible
"BECAUSE IT IS MY NAAAAAAAAME!! BECAUSE I CANNOT HAVE ANOTHER IN MY LIIIIIIIIIFE! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; LEAVE ME MY NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!!!!!!!!
"I say— I say— GOD IS DEEEEEEEAAD!!!"
Tim Curry
For a perfect example, watch him having far too much fun playing evil wizard Trymon in The Colour of Magic.
Totally enjoying himself, even under the tons of brilliant make-up and prosthetics, as the quite literal Evil incarnate in Legend: "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!"
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: One for all ... 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 shinesglitters 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 1980's 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.
Who's the best part of the otherwise forgettable film 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!"
Heck, he even hams it up in Muppet Treasure Island as Long John Silver. "Professional Pirate" is a particularly fun example.
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.
As well as a helping of finest imitation Russian ham in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. "I am going to the one place uncorrupted 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.
"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! Everytime 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!"
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.
Deep Blue Sea was a crappy movie, but Jackson was hilarious in it. That's mainly why his death scene is so hilarious.
Somewhat subverted 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.
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 p 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.
That jingoistic speech at the beginning of the movie? It's actually fairly closely paraphrased from an even more over the top speech that Patton actually gave.
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. 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."
"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!"
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!" "I had COFFEE with McCauley... HALF AN HOUR AGO!")
I saw the trailer for a movie called City Hall and chose not to watch it because the trailer showed me all I needed. "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.
GOD!!IS AN ABSENTEE LANDLORD!!
How can we discuss Pacino's legendary Hammy acting without bringing up Scarface? 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 haminess: "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)
His entire performance in Ghost Rider was full of ham, but the hammiest scene of all has to be the transformation. You know, raiiiiiiseeeeeeee fooooooottttt...... STEP! Raiiiiiiiiseeeeeee..... STEP! * MANIACAL LAUGHTER!!!!!!!*
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!"
"How in the name of Zeus' BUTTHOOOLE did you get out of yourelf ?!?"
"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 ?"
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.
Johnathan Harris
The late, truly great Johnathan 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.
From movie numero quatro: "Feed me... if you dare!"(yes, he actually says that.)
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!!!
He's undeniably the most fun thing about the movie.
Captain Hector Barbossa from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Even the character seems to be deliberately cultivating his exceptional, rum-laced ham, right down to the slightly unhinged Evil Laugh he repeatedly indulges in. And the bit where he goes "Aaar!"
"Dearrly beloved, we be gathered here today, to nail your gizzards to the mast, you poxy cur!"
Also, this:
Elizabeth: Captain Barbossa! We need you at the helm!
Barbossa: ...Aye, that be true!
And then there's the scene where the Pearl is sailing around the malestrom and Barbossa is at the helm, laughing his head off and generally having the time of his life.
Of course, as mentioned above, Captain Jack Sparrow. It gets even worse when he is Talking to Himself in the third movie.
In the second and third movies, Keira Knightley is clearly enjoying herself as Elizabeth ("I just wanted the pleasure of doing that myself!").
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman certainly showed potential in Sid and Nancy, but he wouldn't come into his own as a real ham until Dracula, where he served up an intense, hissing slice of Romanian pork product. 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:
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.
Clu's Middle Management Mook Jarvis is quite a Large Ham himself, especially when he's tasked with announcing Clu's entrance into the lightcycle arena:
"Greetings, programs! Oh, what an occasion we have here before us. Because your rumors are true! We do indeed have in our midst... A USER! A user! So, what to do? What does this user deserve? Might I suggest, perhaps... the challenge of the grid?! (crowd cheers) And who best to battle this singular opponent? Perhaps one who has some experience in these matters... oh yes indeed, programs!Your liberator!Your luminary! Your leader and beacon! The one who vanquished the tyranny of the user those many cycles before! CLU!!!!"
Robert De Niro as Max Cady in Cape Fear. His Captain Shakespeare of the movie adaptation of Stardust belongs here as well — that cancan 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.
Similarly, the entire cast of Brazil chewed scenery at some point or another.
Hopkins does it again as Odin in Thor - though his son/protagonist Chris Hemsworth gives him a run for his money. (and his other son, Tom Hiddleston, leaves most of the ham for when he strikes Earth in The Avengers)
Dracula, in many of his appearances - most of them aping the original Hampire, the man, the myth, Bela Lugosi.
Dracula: I have charrrrtered a ship to take us to Eengland. Ve vill be leeeaving....tomorrow....eeeee-ven-inng.
Dracula: Excellent, Mis-ter...Ren-field...
Dracula: I neeever drink.......wine.
Dracula:(swings a sword at Keanu) Eet iz no laughing ma-TTAH!
And taken to parodistic extremes by Richard Roxburgh's turn as the Count in Van Helsing.
Dracula: Nooo!!! I HAVE NO HEART! I feeeel no pain! No love! No...sorrow...I...am...HOLLOW...and I vill liive....forever!
It's a bad sign when the Big Bad opens his mouth, and all you can think of is how many Linkin Park albums he owns.
Then there's Moulin Rouge!, where Roxburgh's villainous Duke is the largest ham in a movie stuffed with them (although Jim Broadbent gives him a fair run for the money).
The fact the two of them got to sing "Like A Virgin" together absolutely cements their oversized porcine status.
Ray Winstone in Beowulf, although that's pretty clearly part of the character. A little more creepily, Crispin Glover as Grendel.
And who could forget the most succulent ham of them all, Robert Newton in Treasure Island?
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!).
Do not let the golden ham that is Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments eclipse the cured Eastern ham that is Yul Brynner in that film.
"The city he built ... shall BEAR MY NAME. The woman he loves ... shall BEAR MY CHILD."
"Farewell! ... my ONE TIME brother."
"Does FEAR rule Egypt ... or do IIIIIIII?" * sweep your cape around*
Unfortunately, constant repetition and Memetic Mutation has also invested Brynner's postmortem exhortation for people not to smoke with a degree of ham.
ANY movie John Agar is in. And watching him is like getting hit in the face OVER AND OVER by a large ham.
Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers. BEFORE TIME BEGAN, THERE WAS A LARGE HAM!
Though the proper term for what Peter "Optimus" Cullen has isn't ham, its gravitas. See the first episode of The Colbert Report for details on the subject.
One simply cannot forget Jetfire in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, especially his line about his father (the first wheel, apparently) transforming into, "NOTHING! But he did so with honour! Dignity!" or his introduction: "Behold... the eternal glory of... Jetfire!
- a character points out "Nokia's from Finland." and another reminds "Yes, but he's, you know, a little strange."
), particularly in Revenge of the Fallen where he is free from The Men in Black constraints.
John Malkovich and Ken Leong in the third movie as well.
James Rethrick in Paycheck exclaims "Still think you can change your fate, Mike!? I AM A FUTURE MIKE!!".
Rupert Everett is incredibly hammy, and is the perfect example of camp 'luvvie' actors who are classically trained but pretty pretentious and deluded as to their talent.
"LEEEETTTTT THEEEIRRRR BLOOODDDD RAIIINNNN FRRROOMMM THE SKKKYYYY!"
"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."
And while we're on Eragon, special mention for John Malkovich, the ham's ham. "I suffer without my stone. DO NOT prolong my suffering..." Malkovich really is a ham all over, though (see Burn After Reading)
From Roger Ebert's review of the 2002 version of The Time Machine: "[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."
Those of us with young children can take some relief in the fact that ManHAMdy Patinkin saw fit to have fun with his role as the villain in Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland.
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 literally just reading lines.
Willem Dafoe. The Green Goblin. "THINK ABOUT IT, HERO!" and "Sleeeeeep!" come to mind. The performance can charitably be described as "operatic".
"FINISH IT!"
"WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDAH-MAAAAAAAAAAN!" And don't forget Doc Ock in the second film. "You have a train to catch."
Don't forget J. Jonah JamHAMeson, played with gusto by J.K. Simmons. I guess that batch of "Christmas meat" was ham...
And further proving villains are a fun role, Eddie Brock/Venom. "I like being bad. It makes me happy."
Virtually anybody in Speed Racer, but in particular Pops ("Terrible what passes for a ninja these days"), Royalton ("Do you want to become a real race car driver?! Then SIGN that contract!"), and impressively, eight-year-old Spritle.
A newage is dawning. An age of HAM, and ALL THE WORLD WILL KNOW that SPARTAN KING LEONIDAS chewed EVERY LAST INCH OF SCENERY TO DEFEND IT!
Ephialtes and Xerxes were pretty hammy, too. (A particular scene of the latter's earned a "Ham alert! Ham alert" in 300's RiffTrax)
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, specially 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 porkchops.
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."
Let's not forget his work in the masterful Southland Tales. "I'm a pimp... and pimps... don't. Commit. Suicide."
This troper's personal favourite cut of Ham from the Rock was in The Scorpion King where he proves you can ham up gestures.
Oliver Reed in Gladiator. I can't think of any ham-related puns based on his name.
YOU SOLD ME...QUEER GIRAFFES.
Speaking of Gladiator, Russell Crowe took the ham and cranked it to 11 as Sid 6.7 in Virtuosity.
"He sitssss up there, in those melancholy hills. Some say he SLUMBERS DEEP, like the KRAKEN! The troopers will never catch him! So... I... wait, Mr. Murphy. I wait."
Or his even more delightful line, which is censored not because it's a spoiler, but because of how offensive it is,. "What is an Irishman... but a nigger turned inside out?"
Faye Dunaway, burying herself in the character and a very Large Ham, as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. "NO. MORE. WIRE. HANGERS!!!"
Creeeeeeeeeedence Léonore Guilgud from Troll 2, incapable of not extending a word to epic proportions, and playing up the creepy witchDepraved Bisexual angle for everything it's worth. As Rifftrax so memorably put it: "This is community college draaaaaaaaama class!".
Dorothy Lamour commenting on making the Road to ...... pictures with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope: "I felt like a wonderful sandwich, a slice of white bread between two slices of ham."
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 Theater 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.
Another amazing example is The Abominable Dr. Phibes, where 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.
Bear in mind he also played Egghead in the 60's Batman 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!
Just about everybody with a name from Super Mario Bros. gets to ham it up now and again (Toad's guitar playing for one), but Dennis Hopper as King Koopa stands out above all the rest. "Bobomb..."
Given that the two leads have said they only got through the film due to large amounts of alcohol, it stands to reason.
In anything. He hammed 'til the cows, er, pigs came home in every role. Especially in Beverly Hills Ninja.
An exceptionally fabulous ham can be found in The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, another Seuss story; Hams Hans Conried plays the doctor with the relish of a thousand Burger Fools and the camp of a hundred Mardi Gras. The man made pointing downwards epic. And there's this line:
Dr. Terwilliker: We shall play the most beautiful piece ever written. I wrote it.
Dr. Terwilliker: I want him disintegrated. ATOM... by ATOM!!!!!"
Jack Palance could go from quiet, breathy ham to loud, bombastic ham in the blink of an eye.
Half the cast of Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, with special mention going to Elliot Gould as Reuben Tishkoff and Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr.
Meet the Fockers has a tag team of Large Hams in the form of Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman, both shamelessly mugging for the cameras and having a blast doing it. Amazingly, they manage to pull off the feat of being Large Kosher Hams.
Apparently directorial advice to Forest Whitaker for playing Cpt. Jack Wander in Street Kings was something like "speak very VERY loudly half the time, act like you're hitting onKeanu Reeves for the other half" - with a wikked Baw-stahn accent all the while. Yum yum, good ham.
Michael "Basil Exposition" York as the Antichrist in The Omega Code 2: Megiddo probably tops every single example on this page, to the point that the movie should have been called The Omega Ham. His performance single-handedly elevates this movie to So Bad, It's Good status. See for yourself.
Nathan Lane, in nearly everything, but especially The Birdcage.
The whole movie was a hamming competition between Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
In The Birdcage, Williams and Lane were hamming it up so much they had to promise to do at least one 'straight' (term used loosely) take for every scene.
Austin Powers has quite a few including the main character and Dr. Evil (both played by Mike Myers). "OH BEHAVE!"
Don't forget Fat Bastard and Goldmember (Myers again x2)!
Fat Bastard: First theings first! Where's yer shitter?! I got a CRAP on deck that could choke a donkey!!
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 all three Spider-Man films. 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.
Cliffhanger featured John Lithgow as the Big Bad, 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!"
Bloody damn everyone in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was hamming it up so bad that toss in some cheese and a couple loaves of bread and you could feed Grovers Mills for a month. Just try to tell me that every single person in front of that camera wasn't having the time of their lives by trying to out-ham everyone else.
John Lithgow in pretty much anything he's in. But this troper will single him out for 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie. "FOR FREE?!?!"
Lao Che and his cronies in Temple of Doom. "To the poison you just drank, Doctor Jones!" "Too much to drink, Doctor Jones?"
Back into Blanchett, her performance as Galadriel is subdued... except for this scene (warning: scary).
"In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Ham! Not dark but beautiful and hammy as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!"
The Kurgan (played by Clancy Brown) in the same movie sometimes becomes hammy as well (turning him even more creepy).
Not to mention his performance as Sir August de Wynter in The Avengers (1998). Includes his bombastic address to the Council of Ministers, his "Rain or shine, all is MINE!", and his over-the-top insults to Steed.
The actor was actually dubbed by someone else, as the camera they used couldn't record sound. Although, Torgo's constant mugging and twitching suggests that he was perfectly capable of hamming it up in mime. Even his walk is over the top.
"MANOS! As thou hast decreed, so have I done. The Hands of Fate have doomed this man! Thy... will...is...done."
Ann-Margret in Ken Russell's Tommy. Fine ham abounds. And your ham has to be pretty damned fine to stand out in that freakfest (see Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie just for starters). She even got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Ann-Margret is no stranger to ham. A decade before Tommy she stole the show as juvenile delinquent Jody in the silly potboiler Kitten With a Whip.
Hugo Weaving as 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 of course, ""Smith" Will Suffice").
Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent in Fright Night and its sequel. Also Chris Sarandon's character Jerry Dandridge counts too. Oh yeah, and Evil Ed. "You're so cool Brewster!".
Mystery Men has quite a few most notably Casanova Frankenstein and Tony P.
Both Tonies, actually: "Hey, shovel man! Dig this!"
The Wizard/Mako in Conan the Barbarian 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]
John Candy sometimes played roles like this. In the 1986 film version of Little Shop of Horrors he had a cameo as an over-the-top radio DJ named Weird Wink Wilkinson. Weirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd stuff!
Speaking of which, Grocer in Grosse Pointe Blank just oozes ham. And it is awesome.
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.
Half the cast members of Enchanted are practically required by the situation (cartoon fairy tale characters thrown into the real world) to do this. James Marsden and Susan Sarandon are especially generous with the ham.
George Pickett is played this way in Gettysburg. In his first appearance, he comes riding into Longstreet's camp shouting "HELLO MY BOYS, VIRGINIA HAS ARRIVED!".
The Baron Harkonnen of David Lynch's film of Dune is an enormous bucket of ham. His nephews Rabban and Feyd are definitely on their way to full ham-hood, Piter de Vries even proves you can give sign language a pork content, and Gurney Halleck is hammy as ever.
Gurney (Patrick Stewart)MOOD?! Mood is for cattle and loveplay!
Seems he and Freddie Jones had a scene-chewing competition going on.
Thufir Hawat: (Wait, what?) THOSE SOUNDS ...(smack your lips, wiggle your jowls) COULD. BE. IM-IT-TAYT-TED.
Ian McNeice chews up immense amounts of scenery as the Baron in the Sci-Fi miniseries. Possibly lampshaded when Paul suggests renaming House Harkonnen to "House Hog". Though it's probably just the Atreides having a laugh at the Harkonnens' expense.
To be fair, half the dialogue they had to work with had distinct pork content to begin with.
Speaking of Michael Biehn, he actually plays the soft-spoken badass in Aliens, letting Bill Paxton take charge as the memorably large Ham of that movie ("Game over, man! GAME OVER!").
Not to mention the entirety of 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: BlutoBlutarsky!
Mr. Humberfloob: [speaking to Joan] If your house is as messy as last time, YOU'RE FIIIIIIRRRRRRREEEEEEDDDDDD-UH!
No specific lines come to this editor's mind at the moment but Dolph Lundgren reeeally hammed it up as a villain in Universal Soldier.
Zero Mostel. Estragon in Waiting For Godot. Max Bialystock in The Producers. Abe in The Hot Rock. Pseudolus in 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. John in Rhinocerous''. He wasn't always a ham, but when he was, he was the biggest, best, hammiest ham ever.
In the second clip even his index finger overacts.
Subverted in The Front, in which he plays an actor who plays Large Ham, but is generally low key save one drunk scene. His suicide is quiet, dignified, and depressing.
Peter Ustinov steals the spotlight in every movie he appears in. Special mention goes to his performance of Nero in Quo Vadis, where he makes being the emperor of Rome look so fun that it's just about impossible to hate him even as he makes living torches out of Christians. invoked
"Oh! Is this the untimely end of Nero?" Declare it in your most florid voice; it's fun!
KILL! KIIIILLLLLLLL THE NEWBORN!!
A good chaser to Tim Curry's Pass the Ammo performance is the barely-released Marty Feldman comedy In God We Tru$t (1980), which brought the world Andy Kaufman as a Deep South televangelist. The character's name, Armageddon T. Thunderbird, is just the tip of the ham hock here.
Supporting performer Scott Paulin, in the beat-'em-up Knights. The leads are either capable only of Dull Surprise (Kathy Long), or clearly thinking mainly of their pay-cheques (Kris Kristofferson, Lance Henrikson); Paulin appears to have been the only one on the set who realized he was playing a vampire ninja cyborg named after an apostle and decided to just go with it! The resulting exuberant, gleeful bombast that embues 'Simon's' seven screen-minutes almost hauls the movie up into the 'cheesy-fun' bracket.
Ciaran Hinds in the 1997 version of Jane Eyre. Just look at this.
Mamma Mia! consists of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski switching between hamming it up for all they're worth and giving a heartbreakingly genuine performance. Sometimes they do both at once.
Oh, I hate being disappointed, Smee. And I hate living in this flawed body. And I hate living in Neverland. And I hate... I hate... I hate Peter Pan!
Peter. I swear to you wherever you go, wherever you are, I vow there will always be daggers buried in notes signed James Hook. They will be flung into doors of your children's children's children, do you hear me?
"You will only be risking your lives, while I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor."
Kurt Russell has such a habit of hamming it up that you could practically make a drinking game out of it. Probably the most jarring example would be the river shoot out in Tombstone, shouting a Big "NO!" as he unloads two barrels of buckshot into Curly Bill while making a face that could only be described as the face that a walrus makes when sucker-punched in the kidneys.
Hell, everybody in Tombstone takes big pieces out of the scenery - Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo, Sam Elliot as Virgil Earp ...
What? No Galaxy Quest? Never give up! Never surrender!
As well as Star Trek, this movie is essentially a tribute to the glory of hammy actors. Which might possibly be one and the same thing given, you know, Star Trek...
Michael Caine in The Swarm plays his Heroic Scientist character as condescending towards everyone and with a tendency to start shouting at the top of his lungs with almost no provocation.
If I don’t get out of here, I’ll die! If I don’t get out of here, I hope I die!
Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate in The Great Race. His character is a parody of Mad Scientist villains, thus he overacts as much as it's possible.
PUSH THE BUTTON, MAX!
Robocop. Peter Weller in the first two, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferrer (among others) in the first one, Tom Noonan (among others) in the second, Rip Torn (among others) in the third...
For single film Ham content, it's very difficult to get past Gabriel Byrne as Uther and Nicol Williamson as Merlin in John Boorman's Excalibur. Williamson in particular makes a massive meal out of the scenery:
Merlin: BeHOOOOOLLLLlllddd! The sword of POWahhhh! ExxxxCALibahhh!
Merlin: CHHHAAAAaaaange! TRANS! FORM! NOWWW!
Merlin: Oh, I have sleeept. For nine moOOns. What I did for eeeewe wasn't easy.
Merlin: Do nothing. Sleep! Rest in the arms of the dragonnnn. DREEEEAAAAMMM.
Merlin: A dream ham. To some. A NIGHTMARE!!! TO OTHERS!!!
Gabriel Byrne chews up a pig's worth of Ham even though he's only in the movie's first act:
Heck, Hank Azaria VA'ing a cute little bat in Anastasia.
Does Raul Julia's performance as M. Bison in Street Fighter deserve a mention here? OF COURSE!! GAAAAAAAAAME....OOOOOOOOOVERRRRRRRRRR!!!
"Something wrong, Colonel? You come here prepared to fight a MADMAN, and instead you found... A GOD?"
Raul Julia was also pretty hammy in The Addams Family movies. "MAAAAMUSSSSSHKAAAAA!" "CARA MIA!"
And in The Gumball Rally. "[shouting] Now you are marked... for life!"
Both Doctor Logan: "I want you to sit there in the dark and think about what you've done. Think about it. Think." and Captain Rhodes: "I'M RUNNING THIS MONKEY FARM NOW, FRANKENSTEIN, AND I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE DOING WITH MY TIME!!!" in Day of the Dead.
And as Jake Mazursky in Alpha Dog: "No matter where you go, No matter what you do, I'm gonna hunt you down. I'm gonna hunt you down and then I'm gonna slit your throat and then I'm gonna cut you open and then I'M GONNA EAT YOUR MOTHER FUCKING HEART! YOU BETTER YOU PRAY, JOHNNY YOU BETTER FUCKING PRAY THAT THE COPS FIND YOU, BEFORE I DO! GET ON YOUR COCKSUCKING KNEES AND PRAY!"
French actor Gérard Depardieu in about every single role he had.
Jon Lovitz as the Radio in The Brave Little Toaster. Practically everything he says from the first lines spoken in the movie identifies him as a "Large Ham Radio".
Ed Harris resuscitating his dead wife in The Abyss "NOOOOOOOO!! She has a STRONG HEART, She wants to LIVE!!"
Bill Nighy people. Especially when he's Viktor in the Underworld films and Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean films. And as Rattlesnake Jenkins in Rango.
He's a villainous sorcerer who got no less than three songs, one of which was a Villain Love Song. He had an Unlimited Wardrobe replete with swirling capes and infamous tights. On top of that, he was frightening, he reordered time, he turned the world upside down, and he did it all for you! Jareth (David Bowie) is exhausted from living up to your expectations of hamminess. Isn't that generous?
The Court Jester. Half the budget was apparently spent repairing the scenery Danny Kaye ate. Get it?
Got it.
Good.
The Duke of Buckingham in Paul WS Anderson's re-imagining of The Three Musketeers (2011) is a scenery-chewing, tantrum-chucking hunk of smoke-cured goodness. And he's played by Orlando Bloom, believe it or not. And it's glorious.
It's not all that often you see Tim Roth embracing the ham. Fortunately, he does so to great effect in Hoodlum.
And don't forget Planet of the Apes, where the hammy performance transcends the heavy make-up (and makes General Thade even more chilling).
Jared Leto along with a head of cornrows in Panic Room.
Watching Bruce Payne it is difficult to tell if he takes his roles too seriously or doesn't take them seriously enough but it amounts to the same. Just watch how he says the phrase "headless chickens" in Highlander: Endgame. And of course there is his famous delivery of the line, "I...am...PAIN!" from Hellraiser: Bloodline.
"FUCK, THOSE ANIMALS STINK!" "Then we should COUNT on that, Mr. McGruder! Forrest Taft is the patron saint of the impossible. And if you had only done your job like you're supposed to, it wouldn't have COME TO THIS!" " You're a bunch of GUTLESS PRICKS! ALL OF YOU!"
Lucas Lee: "Now you listen close, and you listen hard, bucko. The next click you hear is me hanging up. The one after that... IS ME PULLING THE TRIGGER!!"
Roxy Richter: "Give it a rest, Ramona! This is a LEAGUE game... meaning your precious Scott must DEFEAT ME WITH HIS OWN FISTS!!!"
Matthew Patel: "MISTER PILGRIM!!!!"
Todd Ingram: "Because you'll be pulverized in two seconds, and the cleaning lady? She cleans up... dust. SHE DUSTS."
Gideon Graves: "You made me swallow my gum... it's gonna be in my digestive tract for SEVEN YEARS!!!"
Edward James Olmos as Selena's father in Selena, don't start him on how Hispanic-Americans get treated he won't stop. And also there's the scene where Selena starts dancing in a skimpy clothing and Olmos' character nearly has a meltdown, and of course yelling "YOU'RE FIRED" at Selena's boyfriend/band member either when he trashes a hotel room or he makes it clear he has a thing for his daughter. There are times where he's calm and subtle and there's other scenes where Olmos completely loses it and goes completely over the top. Though Stand and Deliver was pretty hammy in the performance department too, though a little more subtle than Selena.
Morgan Freeman as a pimp named Fast Black in Street Smart, not only is it against type casting even for its time, Freeman gives a pretty frightening over the top performance. The most frightening the bathroom beatdown on Christopher Reeve, that probably made him piss his pants.
Joe Spinell in Maniac and to a greater degree The Last Horror Film complete with whining, crying and general disturbing behavior which is natural considering one was a serial killer and another was a crazed stalker fan.
Most of the characters, hell even the atmosphere in John Woo's HK movies (Sometimes in his American movies but to a lesser extent), to a glorious level. Chow Yun Fat is the winner of hamminess in Woo's movies though,with the most hammy being the rice scene in A Better Tomorrow 2 where Fat nearly force feeds an American Gangster rice at gun point. Hard Boiled is built of ham, which just makes it more awesome. The villains in nearly all of Woo's films, even his American films with the exception of Windtalkers, are great giant hams (best example being Face/Off where Nicolas CagebecomesJohn Travolta and vice versa, and the results are copious amounts of Ham-to-Ham Combat).
Syndrome from The Incredibles flip-flops between dangerously understated and hammier than a Honeybaked warehouse, especially when he's enjoying himself. In fact, he gets so hammy that he actually loses Mr. Incredible.
Syndrome:[with Mr. Incredible in his tractor beam] I am Syndrome![wild hand gestures] I am your nemesis! I— [Syndrome's hand gestures accidentally turn off the tractor beam and Mr. Incredible goes flying.] Oh, brilliant.
Igor has quite a few, including the mad scientists.
Lampshaded in Shrek the Third. When Arty starts guilt tripping Merlin to help Shrek, Donkey, and Puss back to Far Far Away, little Arty starts hamming it up to a fairly respectable degree. After his little guilt-trip is over, Shrek, obviously impressed, asks "Would you like some eggs with that ham?" Granted, little Arty has nothing on Shatner, but still...
