Late Kentucky-Born Actor Once Had a ‘Deadly’ Run-In With an Iconic Movie Villain

I've had to stop and think what I did while watching movies at home BEFORE we had iPhones and androids.

I say that because I am forever searching actors I see on the screen, and many of them are ones I've seen a million times and just don't know or remember their names. Before I could read their bios and filmographies in real time, I had to settle for just recognizing their faces. (And that's fitting considering my difficulty at remembering names but my EASE recalling faces.)

A Kentucky-Born Actor You've Seen a Million Times

The other night, I saw an actor who's got a filmography as long as both of my arms, end to end. And this time, I DID remember his name, but I was curious to see JUST how often he's come across my TV screen. His name was Charles Napier, and I guarantee you've seen him a million times, too. If NOTHING else, you might remember him from commercials:

Charles Napier's Role as a Hannibal Lecter Victim

And that extraordinary, resonant voice of his only got more powerful as he got older. A decade after plugging charcoal, he had a small but memorable role in one of the biggest blockbuster horror movies of all time.

(WARNING: Graphic content but not TOO graphic.)

When you're a Hannibal Lecter victim, they remember you. And honestly, the whole museum sequence in The Silence of the Lambs is among that classic's most intense.

But I digress.

Charles Napier -- the Early Years

Charles Napier was born in 1936 in a town called Mt. Union KY, an unincorporated community near Scottsville. I also learned that he attended Western Kentucky University after a stint in the Army. He returned to Bowling Green for graduate work in 1964, and that's when he was encouraged to pursue acting as a profession. After that, he was off to New York and then California, and then there was the impressive resumé I mentioned earlier. Here he is again as a judge in another Jonathan Demme movie (Demme won an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs); Napier was part of a troupe of actors that made regular appearances in Demme films.

What a pleasant surprise this was. After seeing him in so many roles, it was only within the last couple of weeks that I learned he was a native Kentuckian. And what a BUSY actor he was.

Charles Napier's last role was a voice part in a 2011 episode of the animated series Archer. He died that same year of undisclosed causes.