Character actor Marshall Bell is living proof that you shouldn’t listen to the haters. The Oklahoma native first became interested in acting after starring in a production of the play Harvey in high school. But bad reviews discouraged the ingenue. As a result, he stopped performing for twenty years. In the meantime, Marshall served in the army and started his own consulting firm. At the suggestion of a mutual friend, director Alan Parker offered Marshall a small role in the movie Birdy (1984) starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. Since then, Mr. Bell appeared in more than 100 motion pictures (Hamlet 2, Starship Troopers, Twins) and television shows (Hill Street Blues, Wiseguy, Tales from the Crypt, The X-Files, Millennium, Deadwood, House). Check him out in the coming-of-age film Stand by Me (1986) with River Phoenix; the political thriller No Way Out (1987) with Kevin Costner; the sci-fi classic Total Recall (1990) with Arnold Schwarzenegger; the cinematic adaptation of the comic book Dick Tracy (1990) with Warren Beatty; the crime flick Natural Born Killers (1994) with Woody Harrelson; the action comedy The Chase (1994) with Charlie Sheen; the biopic Capote (2005) with Philip Seymour Hoffman; and the Terry Zwigoff dramedy Art School Confidential (2006). Needless to say, Marshall’s got range! He’s also got bare back and bloody butt in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985). That’s right, the skintastic actor played Coach Schneider who flashed his flesh in the boys’ locker room. Does that ring a Bell?
