Richard Jenkins makes mild manners interesting, using small gestures to show the strain beneath his characters’ composure. We value his comic timing as much as his restraint; he gives an ensemble someone worth watching without demanding its attention.
Fi1m perspective
Richard Jenkins often plays the man who seems least likely to make a fuss. His fathers and officials keep themselves under control, with small gestures suggesting how much effort that takes. As Nathaniel Fisher in Six Feet Under (2001), he is part of the sharp ensemble acting that makes an exhausting family worth staying with. We were moved by the Fishers because the comedy never made their grief seem less serious. The programme can brood for too long, but Jenkins’s restrained way of revealing feeling is well suited to it.
The Visitor (2007) brought that approach to a first major lead after years of supporting work in film and television. His Walter Vale is a lonely professor whose life changes after befriending immigrants, a part well suited to an actor who makes vulnerability seem reluctant. Leading parts did not mean abandoning supporting work. He later played Henry Kitteridge in Olive Kitteridge (2014) and took the supporting role of Giles in The Shape of Water (2017).
That control is useful to comedy, too. Jenkins can play a tightly contained character and let him unravel, and Step Brothers (2008) belongs alongside the quieter dramatic work when considering what he does well. The Coen brothers, the Farrelly brothers and Guillermo del Toro have all worked with him repeatedly. His comic timing deserves as much attention as his ability to suggest feeling without making a speech about it.
In Steven Conrad’s DTF St. Louis (2026), Jenkins plays Donoghue Homer in a suburban murder mystery worth watching with reservations. The awkward friendships are the attraction, and the comedy has enough bite to keep us interested when the pace slackens. The investigation is less compelling. We would go to it for those exchanges, with patience for a case that does not grip as it should.
Biography
Richard Jenkins is an American actor born on 4 May 1947 in DeKalb, Illinois. He began his career in theatre with the Trinity Repertory Company and made his screen debut in 1974. He has appeared in more than 100 film and television productions, primarily in supporting roles.
Jenkins gained wider recognition for his portrayal of Nathaniel Fisher in the HBO series Six Feet Under (2001–2005). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for The Visitor (2007) and a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Shape of Water (2017). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for Olive Kitteridge (2014).
In 2026 he played Detective Donoghue Homer in the HBO limited series DTF St. Louis, for which he received an Emmy nomination.
