I'm doing you a favor by making you aware of Nicky Katt

Sure, you don't know who I'm talking about - you may not have been in the right place and the right time to have seen a Nicky Katt performance. But if you've seen the dude steal a scene once, you're likely to notice him again and again.

Start with Soderbergh's 1999's forgotten gem The Limey, headlined by legends Peter Fonda, Terence Stamp, and Luis Guzman. A be-ponytailed Katt's "Stacey" played off of Joe D'allesandro's "Uncle John" as one of two bumbling bagmen hired by Barry Newman, and in the flick's funniest scene, he cracks wise on a TV commercial shoot while observing quarry Stamp:

"Why don't they make shows about people's daily lives you'd be interested in watching? You know, like 'Sick Old Man' or 'Skinny Little Weakling.' 'Big Fat Guy.' Wouldn't you watch a show called 'Big Fat Guy?' I'd watch that fucking show."

In 2000's Boiler Room, Katt offered a strong, showy performance and, oddly enough, chemistry with (a pre-Riddick) Vance Gasoline...er, Vin Diesel. Most recently, Katt ran off with Sin City with only about three minutes to work his magic - he played the thug Stuka, tossing up some of the best shit in an ostentatious flick with an incredulous reaction to being impaled through the gut by a ninja's arrow:

"Hey! Will ya look at that? It's right through me. Guys, look. It's cut a hole right through me.... this is starting to really hurt. Just look at it. It's poked a hole right through me. Guys? Don't you think maybe somebody oughta call a doctor for me, or something? This isn't the kind of thing you just ignore, guys. Guys?"

The man is underused and invaluable - less Sizemore, less Travolta, less Ribisi, more Katt.