Michael Gross vs. Colm Feore
Battle of the Shiny-Pated Masters of Homespun Gravitas

Okay, first off: just who are Colm Feore and Michael Gross?

Well, Gross you know as Steven Keaton, the loving, lovable, and often wryly witty papa on the '80s mega-hit sitcom Family Ties. And unless you are a particular aficionado of movies-of-the-week or the Tremors series, you likely haven't seen nor thought about Michael Gross since.

Colm Feore is a likable Canadian character actor who is a really big star in Canada (such as that is), and who also makes a living in Hollywood with various roles as the usual assortment of authority figures and non-leading-men-type men, such as generals, D.A.'s, FBI agents, evil foreigners, etc. For example, if you're American or from abroad, then you'll likely recognize him as Admiral Husband E. Kimmel from Pearl Harbor, or that kindly Southern anti-tobacco lawyer from The Insider, or from his role in that Stephen King mini-series from a few years back titled Storm of the Century. Right now, you can see him as an evil arms dealer in The Sum of All Fears. If you're Canadian, then you'll know that he just finished playing Pierre Trudeau in a huge mini-series about Trudeau, arguably Canada's most beloved politician ever.

Both of these men have established themselves as personable screen presences, but they've had little in common with each other...until now. Because somewhere along the line, they morphed into the same person. I spent a good thirty seconds the other day staring at a man in a costume drama on PBS, trying to figure out if he was Colm Feore or Michael Gross. He was, in the end, Michael Gross, I think. Before I could confirm it for sure, I realized that I was watching a costume drama on PBS, and quickly switched the channel.

Come to think of it, Feore and Gross share something else besides a face: they're both sadly underutilized by Hollywood. Feore less so -- and he certainly keeps busy, shuttling between big Hollywood films and Canadian mini-series about prime ministers. Gross is not as visible these days, though he also seems to keep his daytimer reasonably stuffed with TV guest shots and appearances on The Outer Limits, the show that trots out so many recognizable faces from yesteryear that it's become the sci-fi version of The Love Boat.

Still, we could stand to see more Feore -- he's a fine actor with an interesting presence, and Canadian to boot! ­- and we always thought that, while l'il Michael J. Fox was getting all the glory, Gross was...well, grossly undervalued for his sardonic line readings on Family Ties, and his fine subsequent work in Tremors. It's not like this is a burning obsession. If we were the Kings of Hollywood for a day, it's not as though "jolt careers of Gross and Feore" would be #1 on the itinerary; more like 85th or 86th, right after "Cull Arquettes" and "Joel Schumacher: Sack, Rock, Drawstring, River."

But the sad thing about the fact that Gross and Feore have now inadvertently collided is that...well, there's no way we can possibly see more of both of them now. Then again, more of even one of them was probably too much to hope for.

Advantage: Feore.