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Maury Chaykin is a man of vast talent; in fact, he's a man of vast everything. It says something about him that, at least twice in his career, he's played famously housebound men: Nero Wolfe on the A&E series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, and Desmond Howl, a Brian Wilson-esque rock genius in the 1994 Canadian film Whale Music.

Yet despite his trademark girth, Chaykin has proved a surprisingly flexible character actor. Let's face it: he could probably have carved out a nice career playing only Southern lawyers, fanning himself with a straw hat and daubing a hankie to his moistened brow, all the while explaining that, while he may not know from book-learnin', he certainly knows right from wrong.

But Chaykin's a soulful man in a bountiful body, and he's proved as adept at playing meek pushovers as he is playing vicious crooks. He's played genius sleuths and outlaw bikers. He's played English knights and computer nerds. He's appeared in beloved films (The Sweet Hereafter, Dances With Wolves, My Cousin Vinny) and he's appeared in schlock (The Mask of Zorro, Cutthroat Island, Iron Eagle II). He's played pirates at least twice, including a character named, simply, "The Pirate." He played a character named "Bum Johnston."

If you find yourself hankering for a fix of Chaykin's shambling soulfulness, you can enjoy him currently in Being Julia, in which he appears along with another Canadian H!ITG! legend, Mr. Bruce Greenwood.

Chaykin has proved himself an inspiration to shambling men everywhere, a worthy patron saint who casts a jumbo-sized silhouette. And, quite frankly, if we had to be housebound with anyone, we think a life spent indoors with Maury Chaykin might turn out to be a treat. As long as he doesn't show us his bedsores. There's nothing grosser than bedsores.