Michael Rapaport’s movies and TV shows have ranged from hilarious comedies to intense dramas while also showcasing his unique screen presence. Starting his career in the early 1990s, Rapaport has become one of the most recognizable and hard-working character actors in the business, with over 100 credits to his name. He has shown a lot of versatility in his career, whether it is in some of his starring roles or in his standout supporting roles.
Rapaport’s talents have also led to him impressing critics and audiences in a wide variety of roles. He can play the comic relief character inTrue Romance,go on to play the villain inHigher Learning, and then play the sitcom dad inThe War at Home. Rapaport is always a fun addition to any project he is in, with him still appearing in some of the biggest shows on television, likeOnly Murders in the BuildingandFallout.However, when it comes to the best of Rapaport’s movies and TV shows, certain titles rise to the top.
10The War At Home (2005-2007)
As David “Dave” Gold
After bursting onto the screen as one of the most interesting young actors in the 1990s, it was a lot of fun to see Michael Rapaport’s career eventually bring him to starring in asitcom in a typical dad role. However,The War at Homealso embraces Rapaport’s distinct screen persona as an energetic, blunt, and verbose performer. The sitcom follows the antics of a middle-class family living in Long Island and dealing with the typical struggles of parents and children sharing the same roof.
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Rapaport played the father of the family, Dave, who seemed to be a sitcom dad modeled after the likes of Archie Bunker. Dave could be an insensitive and even bigoted man, but the show often found the biggest laughs and most interesting storylines when playing into his insecurities and paranoia. It was a show about a man who was out of touch, attempting to raise children in a generation he didn’t understand.
Beautiful Girls
Cast
Beautiful Girls (1996) explores the lives of several men who return to their hometown for a high school reunion. Directed by Ted Demme, the film features an ensemble cast including Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, and Uma Thurman. The narrative delves into themes of friendship, life choices, and middle-aged introspection as the characters navigate relationships and reflect on their futures.
Michael Rapaport has the ability to stand out in an ensemble piece regardless of how star-studded the cast might be.Beautiful Girlsis a charming comedy-drama that features the likes of Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, and Natalie Portman in the story of a group of friends who return to their hometown for their high school reunion, rekindling their friendships and sharing their continued struggles with finding love and relationships in adulthood.
Rapaport is the standout comedic presence in the movie as Paul. He is a hopeless romantic in many ways, whose desperation to find a beautiful woman to spend the rest of his life with often veers him off in the wrong direction.Rapaport gets some of the movie’s most amusing dialogue with his entertaining yet flawed outlook on women and love. The ensemble piece makes for a small yet effective movie with some fun characters to hang out with.
8Boston Public (2001-2004)
As Danny Hanson
Perhaps the most prominent television role of Michael Rapaport’s career so far has been in the cast of the acclaimed dramaBoston Public. The series was set in a high school in Boston and followed the colorful cast of teachers and staff as they dealt with the daily struggles of educators of young teens. Unlike sitcomslikeAbbott Elementary, Boston Publicwas a more serious take on working in a school.
Rapaport joined the series in its second season as new teacher Danny Hanson. He was another character who seemed tailored off of Rapaport’s personality with a blunt approach to speaking to students and some controversial views he did not mind sharing. However, he was also a complex man with a troubled past that makes for some of the most harrowing storylines in the show.
Deep Blue Sea
A sci-fi action horror film released in 1999, Deep Blue Sea follows a group of scientists trapped in the ocean deep within a research facility as several massive genetically altered sharks begin to wreak havoc. Despite the researcher’s best intentions, the scientific experiments conducted in this facility have grown hyper-intelligent and incredibly strong, making them apex predators the likes that have never been seen.
There have been very fewshark movies sinceJawsthat have done anything notable with the genre, butDeep Blue Seastands as one of the best. Part of its effectiveness is to not take itself seriously as it delivers a ridiculous yet hugely entertaining popcorn movie. It follows a group of researchers at an ocean facility that is using sharks with enhanced intelligence to battle degenerative diseases. However, things turn deadly when the sharks use their newfound intelligence to break out.
Michael Rapaport joins the fun ensemble that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Stellan Skarsgård, and LL Cool J. He plays Scoggins, one of the researchers fighting for his life as the sharks begin hunting them.Rapaport brings the same element as Bill Paxton inAliens, offering some comedic relief as the jittery and anxious member of the humans. It is a wild, silly, and terrific movie for anyone looking for some good shark attack fun.
6Higher Learning (1995)
As Remy
While Michael Rapaport has been funny and likable in many of his roles,Higher Learningwas an early example of how effective he can be in a villainous role. From director John Singleton,Higher Learningtakes place on a college campus and examines the different experiences of the students based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. While some attempt to fight against injustice, it also breeds hate which boils over into dangerous territory.
Rapaport has one of the central storylines as Remy, an awkward freshman at university whose struggles to fit in led him to join a white supremacist group. Rapaport does not shy away from the detestable and brutal aspects of the character. However, he also brings layers to Remy, showing him as a lost and insecure young man who does not so much believe in the hateful things he says, but is swept up in the racist rhetoric because he is desperate to fit in.
Only Murders in the Building
Only Murders in the Building is a mystery-comedy series following three strangers, portrayed by Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, who bond over their shared obsession with true crime. Set in a Manhattan apartment building, the trio becomes embroiled in a real murder mystery within their residence.
Michael Rapaport joined one of the most acclaimed comedy casts on television with his role in the second season ofOnly Murders in the Building. The series stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as a trio of people living in the same apartment building in New York City. Their love of true-crime podcasts brings them together, but when there is a murder in their own building, they turn into amateur sleuths themselves.
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Rapaport was added to the second season of the show asDetective Kreps, the police officer who is investigating the latest murder, only to gradually become one of the suspects. This is another one of Rapaport’s more unlikeable roles, as he plays the seedy and condescending cop who even has a boxing match with Gomez. However, Rapaport also brings a nice mix of comedy to the role which fits with the wonderful tone of the show.
4Friends (1999)
As Gary
From Alec Baldwin to Sean Penn to Paul Rudd, there have been a lot of notable actors who have played Phoebe’s love interests onFriends. However, Michael Rapaport was one of the longest-lasting characters of this kind and one of the most memorable. Rapaport is introduced inseason 5 ofFriendswhen Phoebe finds a police badge and starts pretending to be a cop, only for Rapaport to catch her as Gary, the real police officer whose badge she found.
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Gary initially seems like one of the most unexpected love interests for Phoebe, as he is the tough lawman and she is a quirky anti-establishment person. However, they make for a surprisingly charming couple. Rapaport is a great fit for the overall ensemble of Friends, sharing a memorable episode with Chandler and Joey as Gary takes them on a ride-along. Of course, it turns out that Gary is a little too gun-happy for Phoebe, and the two swiftly break up in season 5.
Justified
Justified: Justified is a character drama series based on Elmore Leonard’s 2001 short story “Fire in the Hole.” Premiering in 2010, it follows U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in Kentucky, as he navigates his high-stakes job and tumultuous relationships with his ex-wife and father.
Justifiedis one of thebest cop shows of all time, bringing to life the writing of famed crime novelist Elmore Leonard. Timothy Olyphant stars in the series as Raylan Givens, a US Marshal who is reassigned to his home state of Kentucky where he contends with the local criminal element, including his former friend, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). The series also includes a different main villain for each season with Michael Rapaport joining the fifth season of the show as Daryl Crowe Jr.
Daryl is the head of a family of Floridian criminals who come down to Texas in order to carve out a new revenue stream for themselves.Rapaport fits into the distinct tone of the series well, bringing some wit and comedy to the role while also coming off as a formidable villainwho finds himself going up against both Raylan and Boyd.Justified’s neo-Western story makes for a unique cop show, anchored by Olyphant’s performance as the lawman who seems to have stepped right out of the Old West.
Michael Rapaport makes for an impressive supporting role in a cast of some heavy-hitter actors in James Mangold’s intense and underrated crime dramaCop Land. The movie takes a look at a community in New Jersey which is home to several New York City police officers who run by their own rules. They are looked after by the town’s reserved sheriff (Sylvester Stallone) until it becomes clear their corruption has risen to deadly heights.
Rapaport has a vital role in the ensemble as Murray Babitch,a young cop whose fatal shooting at the beginning of the movie sets the whole story in motion. He does well in a role that requires a mixture of arrogant bravado and youthful fear. The movie is also notable for featuring one of Stallone’s best performances, and he is joined by Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, and Robert De Niro.
True Romance
True Romance is a romantic crime drama by Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino that follows two lovers, a kindly nerdy man and a prostitute, who decide to elope after a series of events. When a murder and an accidental theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars of cocaine from a mafia occur leading up to their engagement, the couple goes on the run, realizing no amount of talking will fix their mistake.
True Romancestands out as the best movie written by Quentin Tarantino that Tarantino did not direct himself. The movie is a wild mixture of romance and extreme violence in the story of Clarence (Christian Slater), a lonely comic book store employee, who falls in love with sex worker Alabama (Patricia Arquette), as the two embark on a journey to their new life together with a briefcase filled with drugs and a lot of dangerous people on their trail.
Michael Rapaport joins another huge ensemble that includes Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walker, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, and more.Rapaport plays one of the few likable characters in the movie as Dickie, Clarence’s aspiring actor friend who gets caught up in the climactic drug deal. Rapaport is funny and innocent in a movie filled with brutality, making him stand out.
