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Hey! It's That Guy!
Who is that guy?
You know the one: the actor who always shows up in movies as the rumpled police detective, or the stern but ineffectual high school principal, or the wiseguy mobster. What is that guy’s name? And where have you seen that woman before?
You’ll find them all in this exhaustive and entertaining guide to character actors whose faces you recognize but whose names you can never quite recall. Find their head shots in the photo section, or seek out their most common habitat -- the hospital, the precinct, the suburbs, the courtroom, and more -- to determine their identities. With Hey! It’s That Guy! you can impress your friends and confound your enemies by identifying everyone from Jeffrey Jones (the dean of students from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) to Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom in American Pie) to Patrick Cranshaw (the really old guy from Old School) to Jane Adams (Niles’s plastic surgeon wife on Frasier).
With Hey! It’s That Guy! in your hands, you’ll never again wonder where you’ve seen that cop (or nurse, or executive) before!
You know the one: the actor who always shows up in movies as the rumpled police detective, or the stern but ineffectual high school principal, or the wiseguy mobster. What is that guy’s name? And where have you seen that woman before?
You’ll find them all in this exhaustive and entertaining guide to character actors whose faces you recognize but whose names you can never quite recall. Find their head shots in the photo section, or seek out their most common habitat -- the hospital, the precinct, the suburbs, the courtroom, and more -- to determine their identities. With Hey! It’s That Guy! you can impress your friends and confound your enemies by identifying everyone from Jeffrey Jones (the dean of students from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) to Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom in American Pie) to Patrick Cranshaw (the really old guy from Old School) to Jane Adams (Niles’s plastic surgeon wife on Frasier).
With Hey! It’s That Guy! in your hands, you’ll never again wonder where you’ve seen that cop (or nurse, or executive) before!
256 pages, Paperback
Published October 6, 2005
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86 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 13, 2012
This nifty little book has quickly become an indispensable reference guide in our house. We keep it in a basket with the TV remotes because it handily answers that nagging question of "What else have I seen that guy in?"
The book is basically nothing more than photos and bios of over 200 very familiar looking character actors. You'll instantly recognize tons of familiar faces. The actors are divided into the categories that most reflect them in their natural habitats:
The Courtroom - Ron Leibman, Oliver Platt
The Big City - Arye Gross, Adam Goldberg
The Backwoods - Brad Dourif, Tim Blake Nelson
The Gentleman's Club - anyone who has ever appeared on The Sopranos.
There are also clever monikers assigned to each actor:
Hey! It's that loud, angry, belittling, hard assed DRILL SERGEANT! - R. Lee Ermey
Hey! It's that annoying, busybody SECRETARY - Edie McClurg
Hey! It's that tragically DOOMED PARTNER who's just two weeks from retiring! - George Dzundza
Many of the actors in this book, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Paul Giamatti - to name just a few, have graduated to starring roles. I would welcome a revised edition, or even a second volume.
Anyone else out there a Joey Slotnick fan?
The book is basically nothing more than photos and bios of over 200 very familiar looking character actors. You'll instantly recognize tons of familiar faces. The actors are divided into the categories that most reflect them in their natural habitats:
The Courtroom - Ron Leibman, Oliver Platt
The Big City - Arye Gross, Adam Goldberg
The Backwoods - Brad Dourif, Tim Blake Nelson
The Gentleman's Club - anyone who has ever appeared on The Sopranos.
There are also clever monikers assigned to each actor:
Hey! It's that loud, angry, belittling, hard assed DRILL SERGEANT! - R. Lee Ermey
Hey! It's that annoying, busybody SECRETARY - Edie McClurg
Hey! It's that tragically DOOMED PARTNER who's just two weeks from retiring! - George Dzundza
Many of the actors in this book, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Paul Giamatti - to name just a few, have graduated to starring roles. I would welcome a revised edition, or even a second volume.
Anyone else out there a Joey Slotnick fan?
January 3, 2026
I wanted something light to read during the end-of-year holiday hurricane and this was it.
It's an interesting read and the prose describing everyone is even lively and funny. However, it has the unfortunate fate of becoming increasingly irrelevant, a shame for anything committed to the print format. There are increasing examples of actors in this book that have gone on to "graduate" to bigger fame, and some who are no longer with us.
A repository like this would seem better suited for the infinitely updatable format of the internet... and then you realize that this book was the product of a website that did exactly that, THEN is shown to be defunct in indefinitely "on hiatus".
Maybe in a few years time, this book could be seen as a time capsule, but for now, it lingers on the tightrope of relevancy.
It's an interesting read and the prose describing everyone is even lively and funny. However, it has the unfortunate fate of becoming increasingly irrelevant, a shame for anything committed to the print format. There are increasing examples of actors in this book that have gone on to "graduate" to bigger fame, and some who are no longer with us.
A repository like this would seem better suited for the infinitely updatable format of the internet... and then you realize that this book was the product of a website that did exactly that, THEN is shown to be defunct in indefinitely "on hiatus".
Maybe in a few years time, this book could be seen as a time capsule, but for now, it lingers on the tightrope of relevancy.
October 30, 2017
A great book for any movie buffs out there. A (fametracker,com) guide to character actors, this one from 2005 (has it been updated?); when at the time they list Viola Davis and Jeffrey Tambor, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as character actors. Now they've moved out of that category!
Close to 200 recognizable actors/actresses, you know, Hey, it's that sweaty seer-sucker wearing lawyer, that brittle high society vixen, that towering tough, that perky, perfect parent, that homicidal rogue colonel, that lovably inept schmuck, that bored coffee-shop waitress, that oddly menacing man-boy, that annoying busybody secretary, . . . Yes, and one of these is Ron Howard's brother.
Now I know all their names; yes, I knew some of them already.
Close to 200 recognizable actors/actresses, you know, Hey, it's that sweaty seer-sucker wearing lawyer, that brittle high society vixen, that towering tough, that perky, perfect parent, that homicidal rogue colonel, that lovably inept schmuck, that bored coffee-shop waitress, that oddly menacing man-boy, that annoying busybody secretary, . . . Yes, and one of these is Ron Howard's brother.
Now I know all their names; yes, I knew some of them already.
July 14, 2025
Pretty dated at this point, a lot of the actors portrayed are quite well known now. Pictures could have been better, some people are hard to recognize in the photos that were selected. Would have preferred more factual content on the actors and less of their commentary.
August 19, 2012
This is such a fun read. It's a great reference for anyone who watches TV shows and suspects they've seen an actor someplace before. Tara Ariano has compiled a list of character actors who we've all seen in a million things and sorted them by categories like the Military, Hillbillies, Bureaucrats and much more, giving them their moment in the sun. Some names will be familiar, and some won't, but you've probably seen most of them at some point.
Here's a quote from Ariano's Fametracker blog: "...In any case, the talented Mr. (Zeljko) Ivanek is always up for the task. And don't get us wrong -- he does occasionally play bureaucrats, lawyers, and other assorted government suits who aren't seedy and evil. For example, he played Ed Danvers, the reasonably unslimy D.A., on Homicide: Life on the Streets. But in the roles he's best known for, he's known for seediness and evilness. And not a chaotic, out-of-control, I-am-a-destroyer- of-worlds evilness, but a thin-lipped, efficient, let's-get-this-done- and-move-on-to- the-next-item-on- the-evil-agenda evilness."
This book came in handy when we saw The Bourne Legacy recently. The evil lab tech who went on a killing spree? Zeljko Ivanek! That guy is everywhere.
Here's a quote from Ariano's Fametracker blog: "...In any case, the talented Mr. (Zeljko) Ivanek is always up for the task. And don't get us wrong -- he does occasionally play bureaucrats, lawyers, and other assorted government suits who aren't seedy and evil. For example, he played Ed Danvers, the reasonably unslimy D.A., on Homicide: Life on the Streets. But in the roles he's best known for, he's known for seediness and evilness. And not a chaotic, out-of-control, I-am-a-destroyer- of-worlds evilness, but a thin-lipped, efficient, let's-get-this-done- and-move-on-to- the-next-item-on- the-evil-agenda evilness."
This book came in handy when we saw The Bourne Legacy recently. The evil lab tech who went on a killing spree? Zeljko Ivanek! That guy is everywhere.
February 16, 2008
A tribute to character actors everywhere, from J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman movies) and Danny Trejo (Grindhouse's Machete) to virtually every thespian that's guest-starred on any of the Law and Order franchises. I brought this book to Christmas dinner and everyone in the family got a kick out of it.
May 21, 2010
One of the many books of the early 00s that's essentially a fluffy website ported directly into paperback form. In this case it's Fametracker's "Hey! It's That Guy!" series of short profiles of character actors. As such it's fun, snarky, and eminently disposable and content free-the perfect bathroom read.
July 22, 2007
If you've ever watched a movie and thought "I recognize that guy..", you probably have. This book takes a number of 'that guys (and gals)', provides a picture and a brief description. I had a number of Aha! moments reading this book, and the snark factor made it even better!
October 31, 2007
In honor of my Halloween costume ("some guy"), I'd like to shout out all those "Hey! It's That Guy!"s out there. Tara Ariano and Adam Sternbergh are geniuses! This is a field guide to those actors you recognize and can't quite place. I'd love a sequel to this one!
June 11, 2008
Too short to earn five stars, and it's more of a reference book than a cover-to-cover reader. Still, it's nice to see there are former "Hey! It's That Guy" 's who have gone to mainstream fame -- William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly.
July 1, 2007
Humorous and invaluable guide to naming ubiquitous but anonymous character actors. Somewhat dated, though, as listings like Phillip Seymour Hoffman have long ago graduated from "that guy!" status.
July 3, 2007
if i could memorize this i'd be so much more interesting out at bars.
April 12, 2010
This was a fun and quick read about a number of supporting character actors. I recognized a few of the names and many of the faces.
June 1, 2010
Fun bit of fluff, and a good addition to any pop-culture-phile's bookshelf. Scarily, I was reading this the night that Vincent Schiavelli died.
January 29, 2024
I love movies and movie trivia...therefore, I loved this book. Much fun!
April 4, 2015
A fun, interesting reference, but very dated. I know it won't happen, but I'd love to see an updated 10th anniversary edition.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews