Mr. Movie: Peter Dinklage

He tops out at 4 feet, 4 inches. And yet, he has become a giant in the acting field. Peter Dinklage may be small, but his talent is way big!

His best known role is as Tyrion Lannister in the award winning Game Of Thrones (2011-2019). He was nominated for an Emmy an incredible nine times, and he won four of them. He is known in the business for his kindness and humility. Some of his colleagues on the show said they found it hard to play parts where they were mean to his character. He has been married to Erica since 2005 and they have two children. Now only 54, he’s just getting started.

The Dinklage resume includes quite a number of excellent movies. He was already well known for his stage work when he made his movie break-out in Living In Oblivion (1995), playing an actor frustrated by the limitations placed on his career because of his size.

In Elf (2003), he almost steals the thing as bad-tempered, thin-skinned children’s book author Miles Finch. Will Farrell plays the title character, who lands at the North Pole and is named Buddy by his colleagues because that’s the trade name on his diaper. Buddy’s total cluelessness is hilarious. So is Finch’s meanness.

In the strangely-named Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Dinklage appears as James, who happens by to put out the burning police station. The plot revolves around Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) renting three billboards to advertise the fact that law enforcement has not caught the man who raped and killed her daughter. Police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrellson) and deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) unsuccessfully try to get Mildred to take the billboards down. Both McDormand and Rockwell won Oscars for this film.

In Rostand’s novel, Cyrano is too shy to court Roxanne because of his outsize nose. In Cyrano (2021), Peter Dinklage plays the character as too shy to court Roxanne because of his diminutive size. This is the musical version. Dinklage isn’t a strong singer, but his swaggering but vulnerable Cyrano reveling in words but aching with love is spot on. It works!

I saved the best for last. One of my all time favorite movies is The Station Agent (2003). Dinklage plays Finbar McBride. Fin quietly works in a model train hobby shop. When the owner dies, he leaves an abandoned train car to Fin, who moves in and makes it his home, hoping for solitude. But neighbor Joe Aramas (Bobby Cannavale) and lonely, grieving Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) befriend him anyway. Clarkson’s performance is spectacular. As is the bar scene when Finbar vents his rage at being demeaned because of his size.

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for adults.