- J E Freeman, Miller’s Crossing, 1990. When Peter Stormare couldn’t play The Swede because he was on Broadway, the Coen brothers called up Polito. He preferred to be Johnny Caspar – and became an immediate Coen touchtone figure i- for Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There.
- Sid Haig, The Devil’s Rejects, 2004. What we have here, as Chicago critic Roger Ebert summarised, is “a gaudy vomitorium of a movie, about a depraved family of mass murderers who name themselves after Groucho Marx characters…” Otis B. Driftwood, Rufus T. Firefly, Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, Emanuel Ravelli and Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff. And the veteran Sid elbowed Polito and Red West out of the picture to become (drum roll!) Captain Spaulding. For insight into their pathology, the local sheriff is helped by (drum roll!) a film critic!.
Birth year: 1950Death year: 2016Other name: Casting Calls: 2