Xander Berkeley

As Todd Voight in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Xander Berkeley gives us an adult a child has good reason to distrust. Todd is an abusive foster father, and Berkeley's restrained approach suits the part's everyday unpleasantness. He does not need to make the man seem important for the threat to register. James Cameron's film is exhilarating, despite its overlong middle, and this domestic role gives its danger a recognisable human scale.

Gattaca (1997) puts him inside a different kind of authority, as Dr. Lamar in Andrew Niccol's precisely ordered science-fiction drama. We were unsettled by how plausible its genetic discrimination felt, with the production design making that discrimination seem part of ordinary life. Berkeley is well suited to a film that finds menace in institutions without requiring everyone in them to announce it. His restraint gives us room to consider the doctor without being told at once what to think. The film can be too solemn, but his modest scale of performance fits it.

Between those films came Candyman (1992) and Heat (1995), during the stretch that established him as a character actor. He uses physical changes and subtle make-up to distinguish the men he plays, while deliberately keeping his theatrical technique in check for the screen. The recurring interest is in people whose position gives them power over others. The limitation is partly in the casting: being dependable as a suspect authority figure has left fewer opportunities to play a lead or someone straightforwardly decent.

Television gave him more time to develop these men: George Mason in 24 (2001–03) brings vulnerability to bureaucratic weariness. As Gregory, the self-serving community leader in The Walking Dead (2016–18), he finds humour in cowardice. Neither requires him to become agreeable, which is a useful distinction for an actor so often cast to make us suspicious. Start with Gattaca, provided a little solemnity does not put you off an evening's science fiction.