MovieChat Forums > Kingpin (1996) Discussion > Lyn Shaye (the landlady)......

Lyn Shaye (the landlady)......


Watched this again after many years and was reminded how great Lyn Shaye played the part of the decrepit, skanky old landlady....she really was fantastic in that part and succeeded in being totally creepy, disgusting, bitchy, annoying & hilarious all at the same time. Don't know of too many actresses who could have done what she did and can't think of anyone else in her role....the most important parts of an actor's talent is being totally believable in the part they play, making it memorable and owning it to where you can't really see anyone else playing the role.....I'd say she nailed all of that in spades here.


It's a shame she never got more notice or bigger parts. I see from her filmography she's worked very steadily but she is not very well known and can act just as well or better than the Hollywood big names.

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Well she had a pretty good role in Insidious but I know that's a specific genre. In fact just having watched Insidious I came here to confirm it was her so she certainly was memorable in this.

24/04/1916

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I had noticed an interesting coincidence not long ago while watching The Long Riders, which is a good but not overly well known western made in 1980, about Jesse James and the James/Younger gang. In this film, Randy Quaid played a role as one of the outlaws in the gang, and Lyn Shaye played a bit part as a saloon girl (fortunately not anything like the creepy Kingpin landlady, haha) which he hangs out with for a little while. They both were obviously much younger then. I just thought it was a neat coincidence that they ended up being in another move together 16 years later.

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George Lassos the Moon

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That's interesting.....don't remember it but did see the movie years ago....I'll have to rewatch it.

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I feel like a lot of actors would choose steady work over loss of anonymity. I probably wouldn't recognize this woman in a supermarket.

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She has been around for years. She was also Madge in There's Something About Mary (the woman who had skin like beef jerky).

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When you are a Shaye you don't need to be an A+ Star

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The landlady reminds me of a bitchy coworker I'm forced to work around!

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