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You wouldn't think Bruce Greenwood is a bad guy just to look at him. No pencil-thin moustache. No stovepipe hat. Not often spotted rubbing his hands with glee.

Plus, if you've seen him in any of Atom Egoyan's films, you know he's an actor of remarkable range. Take his Fu Manchu-wearing trucker in The Sweet Hereafter, or his tragic dad in Exotica. No one-dimensional cackler, this guy.

So why oh why is he continually cast as evil jackasses in Hollywood? Hey, it helps to have a niche. No argument there. And he has had his occasional stateside foray into more far-ranging roles. He starred on the short-lived sci-fi series, Nowhere Man. He even played JFK in Thirteen Days, though few people saw that film, likely because it contained lethal doses of Kevin Costner, a proven audience repellent.

Way back in December 2000, we noted Greenwood's apparent challenge to Dennis Quaid as Hollywood's beguiling bounder of choice. As the estimable Wing Chun observed, his role in Thirteen Days should have the pleasant benefit of "suggesting to Hollywood's casting agents that maybe he's good for more than screwing over Ashley Judd or Samuel L. Jackson." Hollywood's casting agents, however, weren't listening. What are you so busy doing, Hollywood's casting agents? Hello?

Because three years later, if you know Bruce Greenwood, chances are you still know him as a jerk, of varying grades of evilness. He was an evil, wife-framing jerk in Double Jeopardy. He was an evil-ish, ball-busting army apparatchik jerk in Rules of Engagement. He's currently playing an evil, cuckolded Internal Affairs jerk in Hollywood Homicide. Sure, he got to play a good guy in The Core, but no one saw The Core, apparently believing it contained Kevin Costner.

Movie critics have even picked up on the uniformity of Greenwood's roles. Some have pointed out that his sole reason for obsessively hounding Harrison Ford in Hollywood Homicide seems to be that...well, he's Bruce Greenwood. He's a jerk. That's what he does.

And he does it well, no doubt. But we also liked him with a Fu Manchu. We wouldn't mind seeing him get a chance to wear that kind of moustache, or any other kind of moustache, again.