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Robert Davi
Specialty: Sneering Bad Guys, Usually Mixed Up In The Selling And Distribution Of Narcotics
We imagine that, for someone who specializes in nefarious characters, getting to play a Bond villain would be the high point of your career -- something after which you could easily die happy.
We also imagine that, if you made your living (and, in some sense, your reputation) starring in straight-to-video potboilers like Soulkeeper, Absolute Aggression, Codename: Silencer, and Maniac 3: Badge of Silence, these films would not represent the high point of your career; rather, they'd be films after which you could easily die of embarrassment.
Either way, the best person to ask is Robert Davi. He's been in enough bona fide hits to be recognizable to everyone, yet he's also sneered and scowled his way through so many tossed-off thrillers that he's like the Michael Caine of the video shelf. This week, he finds himself on a brief shore leave from the storm-tossed shelves of Blockbuster and back on actual movie screens in actual movie theaters, opposite Usher in the star vehicle In The Mix.
Let it be known that, if there was an award for the world's most famous great actor, it would probably go to...well, Denzel Washington or someone. But if there was an award for the world's most famous great actor who's also co-starred with ex-porn actress Amy Lynn: Robert Davi, we've got a statue with your name on it.
Davi, who looks a bit like the love child of James Woods and Rob Lowe, is best known to most of us as the arrogant FBI agent in Die Hard, the Vegas sleazeball Al Torres in Showgirls, the bad-ass cop in Predator 2, or, of course, the greasy drug lord in the actually pretty terrible 1989 Bond film License to Kill. (Let's just say Davi's character, Franz Sanchez, didn't exactly get enshrined along with Oddjob and Blofeld in Bond's All-Star Hall of Infamy.)
To the rest of us, he's best known for his work in straight-to-video throwaways with words like "Maximum" or "Justice" or "Behavior" or "Dangerous" in the title. (Maximum Justice! Dangerous Behavior! Absolute Maximum! -- try it, it's fun!)
Which is to say, the rest of us need to get out more often.
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