After literal decades in the Hey It’s That Guy salt mines, it must be nice to have had one nice, juicy, memorable role. One that’s instantly recognizable and not just “he was on three episodes of Lou Grant.” Sure, not a lot of people played the same minor character more than once on Barney Miller, and they brought him back for the same character with the same name several seasons apart, but he was on six episodes total playing five characters total, because you could get away with that sort of thing in the ‘70s. Even saying “he played a guy who claimed to be a werewolf who five seasons later claimed to be possessed by Satan” is not as memorable as all that if you know how bizarre that show could get.

Now, it’s quite clear that Kenneth Tigar had other options in case the acting hadn’t worked out. Wikipedia says he’s also worked as a translator. He has a PhD in German literature from Harvard, and they don’t exactly hand those out to anyone who wanders in off the street. Even in his undergraduate years, however, he was already acting and directing, apparently primarily on the stage. It tells you a lot that his Wikipedia page says that he spent a year at the University of Göttingen but doesn’t tell you in what context. Though IMDb says he was a Fulbright Scholar, speaking of things they don’t exactly hand out.

Starting in the ‘70s, what he mostly has had has been the Standard TV Actor’s Career. Some movies, yes, but so many of the familiar names in TV since the mid-’70s. It’s genuinely surprising to me when I discover common shows he doesn’t seem to have appeared on. No Love Boat? Shocking! But, yes, most of the big ones and no few of the smaller ones. Sometimes, his characters were memorable, and mostly, they were not, and he has for decades been someone you’d definitely recognize if you saw him even if you couldn’t quite place from where.

And maybe the moment where he faces down Loki is ridiculous and overblown. Probably it is. It works for me, but I am notoriously susceptible to that sort of thing and therefore probably shouldn’t give my opinion about it. Still, it’s nice that the role went to someone who has done so much work over so long—the fact that he speaks fluent German and is himself of Jewish origin is not a bad thing, of course, but there we are. He gives the role as much gravitas as you’re going to get in a moment where a guy refuses to kneel to a Norse god in a ridiculous helmet, and anyone who’s seen that movie now knows who he is.

I’m all for giving the solid character actors small roles like that when possible. We can’t give everyone their very own Richard Jenkins-style Best Actor-nominated performance, I’ll admit, but something to elevate them from the ranks of the Hey It’s That Guy. Who? Oh, you know, he was [probably nameless character] in [iconic scene]. Also, he was on three episodes of Lou Grant.

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