Alfredo "Alfred" Molina (born 24 May 1953 in Paddington, London) is an English-American character actor.
He began his career mostly typecast into "foreigner" roles due to his Spanish and Italian heritage. Nevertheless, Molina has carved out a career spanning more than four decades on stage and in film. His turn as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 was arguably his biggest mainstream breakout, so much so that he reprised the role seventeen years later in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but before that he had racked up a steady array of memorable performances: in Frida as legendary Mexican painter Diego Rivera, Boogie Nights as Rahad Jackson, Prick Up Your Ears as Kenneth Halliwell, Boris the Butcher in The Man Who Knew Too Little, Dudley Do-Right as Snidely Whiplash and even his debut film performance in Raiders of the Lost Ark as Satipo, Indy's treacherous assistant at the beginning.
He also has a distinguished theatre career, having played Tevye in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof and originating the role of the great abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko in the play Red, among other things.
He also holds the record for most LEGO minifigures made out of a single actor, at seven (there are five different Lego figures for Dr. Octopusnote , plus one for Satipo and one for Sheik Amar.)
Filmography
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as Satipo
- Ladyhawke (1985) as Cezar
- Prick Up Your Ears (1987) as Kenneth Halliwell
- Maverick (1994) as Angel
- Species (1995) as Dr. Stephen Arden
- The Perez Family (1995) as Juan Raúl Pérez
- Boogie Nights (1997) as Rahad Jackson
- The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) as Boris 'The Butcher' Blavasky
- Rescuers: Stories of Courage (1998) as Emile Taquet
- Magnolia (1999) as Solomon Solomon
- Dudley Do-Right (1999) as Snidely Whiplash
- Frida (2002) as Diego Rivera
- Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) as Himself
- Identity (2003) as Dr. Malick
- Luther (2003) as Johann Tetzel
- Spider-Man 2 (2004) as Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
- Steamboy (2004) as Edward Steam note
- The Da Vinci Code (2006) as Bishop Manuel Aringarosa
- Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! (2007) as Professor Jeffries
- Wonder Woman (2009) as Ares
- The Tempest (2010) as Stephano
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) as Maxim Horvath
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) as Sheik Amar
- Rango (2011) as Roadkill
- Abduction (2011) as Burton
- Monsters University (2013) as Professor Knight
- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) as Ali Massoud Sadiq
- Justice League Dark (2017) as Destiny
- Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) as Double Dan
- Vice (2018) as Walter
- Frozen II (2019) as King Agnarr
- Promising Young Woman (2020) as Jordan Green
- DC League of Super-Pets (2022) as Jor-El
- Murder on the Orient Express (2001) as Hercule Poirot
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2005) as Gabriel Duvall
- Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005)
- Monk (2007) as Peter Magneri
- Law & Order: LA (2010-11) as Det. Ricardo Morales
- Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (2012) as Ke-pa
- Gravity Falls (2012, 2015-16) as Multi-Bear
- Robot Chicken (2012-20) as Lex Luthor, various
- Drunk History (2013) as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (episode: "Detroit")
- Rick and Morty (2014) as Lucius Needful
- The Normal Heart (2014) as Ben Weeks
- Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero (2014-17) as Rippen
- Heavenly Sword (2014) as King Bohan/the Raven Lord
- Dragons: Riders of Berk (2016-17) as Viggo Grimborn
- Angie Tribeca (2016-17) as Dr. Edelweiss
- Feud: Bette and Joan (2017) as Robert Aldrich
- Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie (2017) as La Sombra
- Vampirina (2019) as Sir Ghoulgood
- Big City Greens (2020) as Cogburn
- Solar Opposites (2020-21) as The Duke
- Harley Quinn (2020) as Mr. Freeze, Stew
- Crossing Swords (2020) as Robin Hood
- Monsters at Work (2021) as Professor Knight
- Maya and the Three (2021) as Lord Mictlan
- Three Pines (2022) as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache
- James Bond (BBC Radio 4 dramas) as Ernst Stavro Blofeld
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (2014)
- Thunderball (2016)
- Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye
- Red as Mark Rothko
- The Elder Scrolls Online (2014) as Abnur Tharn
- Funny Or Die: "Children's Theater Critic" as Arthur H. Cartwright
The Power of these Tropes in the palm of his hand:
- As Himself: In Coffee and Cigarettes, Molina plays an exaggeratedly
Woobie version of himself, in contrast to his scene partner, Steve Coogan, playing a heightened Jerkass version of himself. This was nearly unanimously regarded as one of the standout vignettes in the film due to an epic reversal at the end of their scene. - Cunning Linguist: Due to growing up in a home where both were spoken regularly, he's fluent in Italian and Spanish.
- Evil Brit: He's often typecast as one, to his delight."I love being added to that list of English actors playing villains. I guess somewhere in the history of American film and television someone decided that the English accent sounded somehow villainous."
- I Call It "Vera": Molina had pet names for his four mechanical tentacles as Doc Ock. Harry and Larry were the bottom two, Moe was the top right one and Flo was the top left one.
- Phrase Catcher: Fans regularly toss his most famous lines back at him during meetings, most famously "throw me the Idol, I'll throw you the whip!"
- Plays Great Ethnics: He's played Russians, Arabs, Mexicans, and a Peruvian. (And a Belgian.)
- Role Reprise:
- Played Doctor Octopus once in 2004 for the Spider-Man Trilogy, before revisiting the role 17 years later in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- He also returned to voice Professor Knight in Monsters at Work, eight years after playing him in Monsters University.
