Albert Hall

On the boat in Apocalypse Now (1979), Albert Hall's Chief Phillips has a crew to lead. That gives him a practical responsibility to play as Francis Ford Coppola makes the warfare around him increasingly strange. Hall makes the chief worth attending to without needing the film to stop and announce his importance. We were frightened by the film, and Hall's believable place among the crew made us care about the people facing its dangers.

Early screen parts included Leadbelly (1976), before Apocalypse Now brought him wider attention; steady supporting work in film and television followed through the 1980s and 1990s. His breakthrough remains the clearest reason for our regard, and it depends partly on the company he keeps. Dean Tavoularis's production design supplies the disorder that keeps the soldiers from looking planted against a backdrop. Hall, Frederic Forrest, Laurence Fishburne and Sam Bottoms give Coppola people whose suffering matters, even when the film's later stretches become too insistent about explaining what the warfare has already shown.

In Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992), Hall plays Baines, one of the supporting parts in historical dramas and biographical films for which he became known. Our recommendation there is more qualified: Lee's film is thoughtful but sometimes overcareful, and its solemnity makes an already long evening feel longer. Denzel Washington's searching performance carries it, while the strength of the acting more broadly gives us reason to stay through the slower passages.

The authority parts continued on television with Judge Seymore Walsh in The Practice and Ally McBeal (1997), recurring roles created by David E. Kelley. Hall also played Elijah Muhammad in Michael Mann's Ali (2001). Those credits help explain his association with men whose words carry weight, though a stern authority figure can give an actor a narrow task. Start with Apocalypse Now, and pay attention to the men aboard the boat.