Erick Avari

In The Mummy (1999), Erick Avari plays Terence Bey, the museum curator, and gives the adventure a useful measure of authority. He makes sense as the man with an official position in a film so cheerfully given to disorder. Stephen Sommers relies on a good cast to carry a script that too often treats a shrug as a joke, and Avari belongs comfortably in that company. We like the seriousness he brings to a small part without asking a noisy entertainment to become solemn.

Stargate (1994), his breakthrough as Kasuf, had already established a place for him in science fiction. Roland Emmerich directed that film and Independence Day (1996), in which Avari played Seti. The recurring demand for scholars, leaders and other authority figures makes the shape of this work easy to recognise, and risks making the actor too easy to take for granted. His return as Kasuf in Stargate SG-1, alongside Alexis Cruz from the film, extended that association into television.

In Lasse Hallström's Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009), he plays Jasjeet, away from the science-fiction and adventure films most associated with him. We were moved by Richard Gere's bond with the dog because Hallström lets their affection need little explanation. The surrounding humans are thinly written, however, and an insistent piano keeps pressing a point the central pair have already made. It is worth an evening, but there is too little in the supporting roles to satisfy much curiosity about Avari.

His Shakespeare and classical stage work provide some context for that readiness to play people of standing. There is comedy in the filmography too, including Mr. Deeds (2002), which is worth remembering before mistaking familiar casting for all an actor can do. We would welcome a part that gave him more room for uncertainty or foolishness, instead of another appointment to an important post. Start with The Mummy, and forgive it a few weak jokes.