· Image Search

Every so often, we get to not only identify a Hey! It's That Guy!, but actually graduate one from HITG! status -- symbolically toss the tassle from one side of the mortarboard to the other. William Fichtner is poised for such a tassle-tossing. Like William H. Macy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman before him, Fichtner has toiled honourably in face-recognition, what's-his-name-again? limbo, patiently serving his celebrity apprenticeship. Now, he stands poised to step into the relatively blinding spotlight that is minor celebrity.

When will it happen? Maybe with Passion of Mind, but probably not; PoM is a dismal-looking Demi Moore vehicle that's been kicking around for years, waiting to be released. More likely, it will happen with The Perfect Storm, in which Fichtner will share an ill-fated sea voyage with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and another HITG! alumnus, John C. Reilly, and generally get ample opportunity to exhibit the jumpy energy and steely intensity that's served him so well in all those movies in which he's played uptight army men or on-the-edge cops.

Why will it happen? This is harder to say: Maybe entertainment reporters, starving for some fresh story, will dimly remember Fichtner's stand-out turns as a twisted drug-enforcement agent in Go, or as the tight-assed Colonel in Armageddon, or as blind Dr. Kent Clark in Contact, or as Law, the requisite hair-trigger psycho in the heist-gone-wrong flick Albino Alligator, and jump on him as an angle for covering The Perfect Storm, much in the way they jumped on Hoffman as an angle for covering Flawless. This is the one advantage of the media's constant inculcation of celebrity coverage: they actually stumble on someone worthy every once in awhile, on some slow day between Jewel albums and Puff Daddy arrests.

However, whyever, and whenever it happens, the imminent ascent of Mr. William Fichtner is good tidings for all who enjoy his particular brand of steely intensity, razor's-edge jumpiness, and skeletal good looks. While Fichtner will be missed as a HITG!, fret not -- there's always Peter Greene, that jumpy, intense guy who played Redfoot in The Usual Suspects, Gus in Permanent Midnight, and Jimmy in Laws of Gravity. Fame abhors a vacuum.