Working Actor: Where You ve Seen Josh Hamilton Before

As the otherworldly thriller, Dark Skies, opens in theaters this weekend, respected film/theater/television actor Josh Hamilton is poised for greater exposure.

Josh Hamilton is a face youve seen before. Hes that handsome face that shows up in a movie or on a TV show and youre sure youve seen him wearing a blazer with a patch on it somewhere. Or all bearded up in an attempt to hide those boyish good looks. Saying something really smart and very possibly smarmy. The question is where. The films below may hold the key...

Youve Most Likely Seen Him In ...

... intellectual 90s indie comedies with Parker Posey. In 1995, Hamilton starred in Noah Baumbachs breakthrough comedy of collegiate manners, Kicking and Screaming. The film made a big splash in the indie world, extending the Whit Stillman aesthetic of erudite aimlessness to brand new places like the West Coast. Along with co-stars Eric Stoltz, Parker Posey, and Chris Eigeman, Hamilton was part of an emergent subset of young performers. Two years later, he would re-team with Parker Posey for The House of Yes, a dark and biting family comedy that earned Posey heaps of acclaim.

Unless Youve Really Been Paying Attention, in Which Case You Remember Him From ...

... the ensemble Long Island dramady Diggers. The 2006 film cast Hamilton alongside Paul Rudd, Ron Eldard, Ken Marino, Lauren Ambrose, Sarah Paulson, and Maura Tierney as 1970s clam-diggers navigating their personal relationships and the passage of time. Sounds like a riot, I know, but the cast injects a ton of personality and the film as a whole should have gotten more attention.

"Wait, So Hes That Guy From ..."

... Alive. You remember Alive, right? The movies about the plane crash in the Andes where the survivors famously had to eat their dead brethren? That part got all the attention at the time, but rising stars Hamilton and Ethan Hawke gave breakthrough performances as the leads.

You Can Also Go Back and Spot Him In ...

... All sorts of ensemble comedies over the years. In 1994, he joined the motley crew of Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, Patrick Dempsey, and Moira Kelly for With Honors. Youll either remember the film as the one with Joe Pesci as a homeless man dispensing wisdom and perspective in the halls of Harvard, or else as the one with Madonnas "Ill Remember" as the soundtrack single. More recently, Hamilton played the ur-hippie husband of Maggie Gyllenhaal in Away We Go, hiding behind a behemoth of a beard and getting all condescending about practicing "family bed." Also, if you were into TV miniseries in the late-90s, Hamilton was one of the stars of NBCs historical pastiche The 60s.

Perhaps Your Cultural Tastes Extend Beyond the Movies, In Which Case...

... Hamiltons work on the Broadway stage has been a huge highlight of his career through the 2000s. He starred alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh in Proof, in the hugely acclaimed Tom Stoppard play The Coast of Utopia, and most recently with Katie Holmes, Judy Greer, and Norbert Leo Butz in Dead Accounts.

You Can Find Him Now In ...

... the supernatural thriller Dark Skies, starring alongside Keri Russell as a husband and wife terrorized by ... aliens? It looks like aliens. The trailer suggests aliens. Whatever they are, it looks creepy as hell, and may well hold the same appeal that his Alive co-star Ethan Hawkes film Sinister did last fall.

More from Tribeca:

Bottled Up: Tribeca Film Guide

Working Actor: Morris Chestnut

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