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Hey! It's That Guy!

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Billy Drago
Specialty: Weaselly Pinch-Faced Bastards

Actually, it's likely that you haven't seen Billy Drago and consequently cried out "Hey! It's That Guy!" in quite some time; not unless you prone to renting straight-to-video movies like Death Ring, Sci-Fighters, Blood Money, or Convict 762. There was a time (we'll call it "the early '80s"), however, when Billy Drago, né Billy Eugene Burrows, had staked out a nice little niche for himself as a squinty-eyed bad-ass, employing said squinty eyes and bad ass playing various renegade commandos, crooked lawmen, and, most famously, as the weaselly pinch-faced bastard and gangland assassin, Frank Nitti, in 1987's The Untouchables, in which he meets his end by getting chucked from a rooftop and crashing through the roof of a Model-T Ford.

Since then, Mr. Drago has disappeared into the netherworld of straight-to-video releases; his most high-profile film is 1992's Guncrazy, which only stands out now as part of the Drew Barrymore career-reclamation effort. We're not sure why Drago's career took this turn. Perhaps it was some confusion between himself and Drago, the Soviet pugilist in Rocky IV. Perhaps in the sensitive early '90s -- that was, after all, the time of Regarding Henry -- the demand for weaselly pinch-faced bastards in mainstream films dwindled away. Or perhaps Mr. Drago simply chose to take refuge in the comforting world of the video-store's bottom shelf, where he can make a tidy living playing characters named "Mannix" and "Reverend James" and "Billy 'Spider' Masters." We like to think it's the latter.

In any case, we feel it's only right to reserve the last word not for us, but for Billy Drago's Brazilian fan Jacqueline Rodrigues Longchamps, host of Jackie's Billy Drago Page: "Incredible, his power of enthralling us. Billy has an aura that shines even when the scene requires he remains immovable....For those who have not seen him yet, I recommend them to consult his filmography and find out the acting show that awaits for them!"

We're with you, Jacqueline Rodrigues Longchamps. We're with you.

- MFF