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- A character actor is an actor who predominantly plays eccentric or unusual roles rather than leading ones.
- Character actor roles can range from bit parts to secondary leads. However, character actors often play supporting roles: characters who do not undergo a major change in the course of the plot, and whose role is less prominent than the leading actors'.
- While some actors aspire to leading man or leading woman status, many notable actors have had enduring careers in less prominent, but important and memorable character parts. A frequent trait of character actors is that their names are not widely known yet their faces or voices are instantly recognizable to movie fans.
- Some character actors play essentially the same character over and over.
- There are many reasons people might become character actors. Actors may also simply seem better suited to character roles than to leading roles. Another fact worth noting is that while any film has a handful of leading roles, it may also require dozens of smaller supporting roles.
- Actors may find character work because they are seen as typecast (strongly identified with, or only suitable for certain types of roles), often due to an early success with a particular role or genre.
- Character actors may lack some of the physical attributes associated with movie stars: they may be regarded as too tall, too short, unattractive, overweight, too old, too young or somehow lacking an ephemeral "star quality".
- Some character actors have distinctive voices or accents which limit their roles.
- Sometimes character actors have developed careers because they had specific talents that are required in genre films, such as dancing, horsemanship or swimming ability.
