Maury Chaykin

In Dances with Wolves (1990), Maury Chaykin's Major Fambrough is an unhinged cavalry officer in Kevin Costner's patient Western. We were unsettled by him because the instability belongs to a man with authority. It is a small part, but Chaykin gives it enough force to trouble the film's warmth. The film earns its length by attending to its characters; he makes that attention briefly uncomfortable.

Fambrough brought him international attention after years in Canadian films and television, and Hollywood supporting work became a substantial part of his career. The recurring assignments were eccentrics and outsiders. Whale Music (1994) gave him the lead as Desmond Howl, a reclusive former rock star, and the chance to sustain a character across a whole film. His strength in that leading role should make us wary of assuming the smaller parts were all he could do.

We would put The Sweet Hereafter (1997), in which he plays Wendell Walker, beside it. Atom Egoyan's drama gives its bereaved town time and silence, with Ian Holm and Sarah Polley carrying much of the weight. Its patience is worth the occasional frustration of fragmented storytelling that makes us notice the arrangement too much. Chaykin is part of the ensemble here, and we recommend it for the chance to watch him within that company. It was one of five projects with Egoyan, a collaboration that also included The Adjuster (1991) and Exotica (1994).

Television offered another way to see him in A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), with Chaykin playing the title character. A central, more heroic figure was unusual work for him, and a useful alternative to the succession of difficult men. We would start with Dances with Wolves, but not mistake the most immediately memorable kind of part for the limit of his abilities. Give Whale Music an evening as well.