The white hair, the craggy face and, of course, the mustache. He’s always been an elder statesman, regardless of age.
This timeless quality also makes him unbelievably cool, a characteristic he always projects on screen, regardless of the role or piece he’s performing in. Who else could the Coen brothers have chosen to play an omniscient narrator in their goofball classic “The Big Lebowski?�
He’s even watchable in a fairly run-of-the mill revenge drama, like the TNT film “Avenger,� which premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday.
In the movie, Elliott plays Calvin Dexter, a mysterious Vietnam vet and attorney who is a secretly a revenge-for-hire man. We learn in flashbacks that he came to this odd line of work after his daughter’s death at the hands of her drug dealer boyfriend.
Frustrated that the legal authorities let the man get away, Dexter tracked him down and killed him. And, I guess he figured that he could turn this into a nice sideline business.
He’s hired to find the son of a wealthy businessman and, when the son turns up dead, to serve justice to the war criminal who caused the boy’s death.
It’s typical macho hokum, punctuated by a few nicely staged chase scenes and action set pieces. But, through it all, Elliott manages to imbue his surly character with heart and vulnerability. He has the look of a man turned sour by pain, and it’s not hard to imagine the loving father he once was.
He also gets to beat up a bunch of people and, admittedly, he is magnificent even at this.
Elliott isn’t our greatest actor. He’s not even in the top 50. Yet he’s easy to watch and has mastered the difficult skill of adding humanity to an unsympathetic character.
All those qualities are on display in “Avenger.� The movie isn’t a must see, by any means. But Elliott always warrants a look.