Academy Award for Sniveling?
Lots of fun but Jay Robinson's Caligula was WAY overboard - the most spectacular display of 'sniveling' in the history of cinema. Sometimes Jay 'sniveled' so hard he is bent over double!
shareHe made a career out of sniveling. :D You'd see him all the time on TV paying the same character. Star Trek. Even westerns.
There used to be LOTS of one-note actors. It was an honourable trade if you had a unique gimmick. There's worse fates than to go pro sniveling. He seemed to do it for at least 25 years and I can respect that.
And to your point, yeah... as the movie goes on, Dr. Evil does come to mind.
Consider Joaquin Phoenix playing the same Emperor Caligula in the movie Gladiator. No sniveling at all just a psychotic self-absorption and self pity gone mad. It was a lot scarier and certainly more interesting.
shareIt's his twitching upper lip vs. Jay's crappy posture.
Close yer eyes and Jay's voice is identical to Linda Hunt. :D
. . . Except Phoenix played the Emperor Commodus who ruled some 150+ years after Caligula. Entirely different tyrants with different, ah, "problems".
I liked both Robinson's Caligula and Phoenix's Commodus.