By DOUG STRASSLER

Today I write in praise of Frankie Faison. He’s an actor whose face, I’m sure, will ring familiar even if the name does not; his IMDB page lists upwards of 80 film and television appearances from the last three decades. Faison is the consummate character actor: talented, hard-working, and selfless. But it’s time someone shone a spotlight on him for once.

I first noticed Faison in 1990. He was Ronald Freeman on True Colors, an early Fox sitcom in which he played a widowed dentist who marries a white woman (Stephanie Faracy, a great actress best known as John Candy’s wife in The Great Outdoors); chuckles ensue as they try to blend their families together. Shortly after that, however, I noticed Faison in the small role of Barney in The Silence of the Lambs, which happens to be my favorite movie of all time. Faison has the distinction of being the only actor to appear in all 4 Hannibal Lecter movies: Manhunter, Silence, Hannibal and Red Dragon. (To those who point out that I have left Hannibal Rising off of the list – that is a terrible, terrible movie and doesn’t count for spit.)

Faison is as solid an actor as it gets, moving from small parts in movies to guest roles on television shows with aplomb. How many actors do you know that could make it work in both The Wire and White Chicks?!?! There is a dignity to his work that commands respect in even the most quiet of his performances; I call to mind a recent guest spot he did on the floundering Grey’s Anatomy as the disapproving father of Chandra Wilson’s Dr. Miranda Bailey. Even in an underwritten role, Faison manages to cultivate an entire history for his character.

His work as Baltimore City Police Commissioner Ervin Burrell on Wire definitely stands out among his most noteworthy work, but 2009 witnessed several quintessential Faison performances. In Adam, he played the supportive friend of the Asperger’s-afflicted title character, and in John Krasinski’s adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Faison nailed a monologue in which his character recounts a particularly harrowing experience of his father’s.

Faison also knows no boundaries when it comes to genre. This past fall he began a role on the daytime drama One Life to Live. And he starred on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winner Fences – a show whose revival opens on Monday with a cast including no less than Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, and Mykelti “Bubba Blue” Williamson as Gabriel, the role that earned Faison a Tony nomination.

I’m guessing that Faison, one of my favorite Everyman actors, has managed to make a comfortable living gracing projects with his presence. He’s played a wide variety of roles for various audiences, and gotten to work with an enormous amount of talented colleagues. I wish exactly that kind of success to my aspiring actor friends.

What about you guys? Do any of you have a favorite Faison role?