When it comes to actors in MST3K movies, the kneejerk assumption is that they’re the bottom feeders of Tinseltown. But this isn’t always the case, as many of them have scored big and maybe even raked in an Oscar or two. Sometimes the MST3K appearance is because that performer was just starting out, as was the case for Clint Eastwood in Revenge of the Creature. Sometimes the rent is due, and you take what roles are available, as was probably the case for James Earl Jones in City Limits. Finally, there are those whose careers were in a sad decline, as happened with Bela Lugosi in The Corpse Vanishes and Bride of the Monster.

This feature is not about those people. Instead, we’re looking at the mid-tier jobbing actors who show up everywhere, from obscure indie flicks to TV show guest spots to bit parts in big budget releases. These people are among the Professionals who do their part in getting things done on set and accomplish it without a hint of Arteestic temperament. And here are six such individuals whom you may not immediately recognize, but you do know them.

Jeff Gillen

The MST3K role: He appeared in Wild Rebels portraying Fats, the heavyset biker who had suffered some head trauma in the past, rendering him inarticulate.

The role you know him for: “You’ll shoot yer eye out, kid.”

Sixteen years later, he would be crushing little Ralphie’s dreams of receiving an Official Red Ryder Carbine Action Two Hundred Shot Range Model Air Rifle before kicking him down a slide. Now I don’t blame Joel and the Bots for not connecting the two roles to the same actor, as there’s no reasonable way for them to have done so. Even so, there were a couple of instances where using the above line as a riff would have been fitting. And if there’s any department store Santa who could conceivably be a biker when he’s not wearing the red suit and fake beard (even though the movie takes place during the Depression while biker culture as we know it is a post-WWII phenomenon), it’s that one.

Bill McKinney

The MST3K role: McKinney is only person on this list to appear in more than one MST3K movie. He portrayed the crooked sheriff Kyle in Master Ninja I and the crooked State Department official Wilson in Final Justice. During an interview featured on the Master Ninja I disk in the MST3K Volume XX DVD Collection, he talked about the benefits of being a mid-tier actor. On one hand, you get cast regularly enough that you can make a living wage without having to resort to waiting or busing tables to make ends meets. At the same time, you’re not so famous that you get harassed by obnoxious fans and paparazzi.

The role you know him for: “I bet you can squeal like a pig!”

Or maybe these violators of personal space feared that he’d give them the same treatment Ned Beatty got.

As an aside, there’s this story of how McKinney was almost cast as Sergeant Hartmann in Full Metal Jacket. Apparently, he was the first choice of Stanley Kubrick for the role in part because of his performance in Deliverance. But then Kubrick got it in his head that the only way McKinney could be so intense in that role was because he had the soul of a deranged hillbilly sodomite not so deep down. You know, instead of being a reasonably competent actor. Despite John Boorman’s assurances that McKinney was a really sweet guy, Kubrick chickened out when it came time to have a face-to-face meeting with him.

Thanks to cultural osmosis, that’s the only thing a lot of people know about Deliverance. And I’ll admit I haven’t seen it myself. With my low tolerance for ugly hillbilly stereotypes, I’m not really inclined to. But it is his 15 minutes of fame, for what it’s worth.

Jennifer Runyon

The MST3K role: She appeared in Master Ninja II portraying Alicia, the flighty daughter of Senator Clayton, who fulfills her obligations as the requisite damsel by getting kidnapped by a gang of terrorists led by The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s own David McCallum.

The role you know her for: “No. I swear, they’re just coming to me.”

In the same year, she made another brief appearance as an intellectually deficient blonde in Ghostbusters in a scene meant to establish Peter Venkman as (like so many Bill Murray characters) a sleazeball. Sure, it’s a bit of typecasting (for both of them, really). But to paraphrase Martin Sheen’s vastly more talented, yet less appreciated brother Joe Estevez from an interview featured on the Soultaker disk in the MST3K Volume XIV DVD Collection, “Typecast is still cast.”

Stanley Adams

The MST3K role: He appeared in High School Big Shot portraying Harry March, a safecracker who partners with the decidedly not a high school big shot Marv Grant to steal a million dollars that is slated to be used in a drug deal.

The role you know him for: “Once this lovely little lady starts to show this precious little darling around, you won’t be able to keep up with them.”

That’s right. He’s none other than Cyrano Jones from the fan favorite Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.” Like The Twilight Zone and the 1960s Batman, Star Trek was a regular source of employment for the sort of actors who appeared in movies screened on MST3K. In this specific episode alone, there is also William Schallert (Hangar 18, Gunslinger, Invasion USA) as self-important bureaucrat Nilz Baris, Whit Bissell (Lost Continent, I Was Teenage Werewolf) as station manager Lurry, Michael Pataki (Superdome, The Side Hackers, It Lives by Night) as loudmouth Klingon XO Korax. And that’s just among the named characters.

Alan Oppenheimer

The MST3K role: He appeared in Riding with Death portraying Dr. Arthur Hale, a scientist who claims to have developed a miracle fuel additive that turns out to be dangerous while he siphons the grant funds into a Swiss bank account. I was never certain whether the scheme was always a fraud, or the character just got frustrated with his lack of progress and decided to cash out while the getting was good.

The role you know him for: “I’ll get you for this, He-Man!”

Now Oppenheimer has done a ton of voice acting for TV cartoons. This wasn’t even his only role on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (among others, he voiced Cringer/Battlecat and Man-at-Arms). But I chose to highlight Skeletor because every hero of a 1980s TV cartoon shilling for a line of action figures needs a hammy villain to oppose him. Also, a while back I was on YouTube checking out one of those 1980s nostalgia channels. It was a piece on the ill-fated Cannon-produced movie and featured a few clips from the cartoon. After decades of not being exposed to that series, it struck me that Skeletor sounds a lot like Hans Conried as Snidely Whiplash.

Karl Michael Vogler

The MST3K role: Yet another MST3K movie featuring a doltish protagonist who blunders through the plot making the worst decisions possible and leaving needless deaths in his wake. But since this originates from The The-at-er, we’re expected to take it seriously. I of course speak of Hamlet, in which Vogler portrays Horatio.

The role you know him for: “I will attack and annihilate him… before he does the same to me.”

About a decade after learning that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy, Vogler was that magnificent bastard whose book George C. Scott had read. And considering how frequently that quote cropped up during the show’s run (and the fact that he wasn’t as heavily disguised as Jeff Gillen was), it’s a shame Mike and the Bots didn’t realize who Vogler was. The enthusiastic greeting Hamlet gives Horatio when they first meet would have been an especially appropriate moment to insert the quote as a riff.