Gold Standard: You know the faces but probably not the names -- character actors get their own awards

As long as the leading man needs a best friend or an attorney, Kevin Pollak once said, the character actor will always have work.

And as of Sunday, that group of men and women will have a little more recognition with the inaugural Carney Awards, a ceremony -- named after the beloved, versatile supporting player Art Carney -- designed to shine a spotlight on unsung entertainers.

The initial five recipients -- Bob Balaban, Michael Ealy, Bruce McGill, David Paymer and CCH Pounder -- will pick up their honors Sunday at an untelevised show held at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.

SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter >>

There were two criteria for choosing the winners, says veteran Hollywood producer Jim Katz, who organized the event with his agent brother, David Katz, and Carney’s son, Brian Carney.

“They couldn’t have won an Oscar or an Emmy and they had to be the kind of actors where people knew their faces but not their names,” Katz says.

Balaban, reached by phone from Albuquerque, where he’s directing an episode of the upcoming Epix political comedy series “Graves,” confirms that his 50-year career as an actor meets those requirements.

“I look familiar to people, but they don’t necessarily know why,” says Balaban, a regular player in movies directed by Wes Anderson and Christopher Guest and an in-demand supporting actor on such TV comedies as “Broad City” and “Girls.”

Appropriately, given the honorees, the Carney Awards have been a slow build. The Katz brothers came up with the idea 15 years ago out of a love for the type of actors they grew up watching on TV shows such as “The Twilight Zone,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Bewitched.”

“Every awards show, it’s George Clooney,” Katz says. “What about the actors who hold the movies and TV shows together?”

Realizing they needed a name (“Who the hell would show up for a show called ‘The Character Actor Awards?’” Katz jokes), they settled on the Carneys. They eventually found Art Carney at his home in the shoreline Connecticut town of Westbrook, pitched the show and won approval from the actor renowned for playing Jackie Gleason’s sweet, dimwitted best friend on “The Honeymooners.”

“He had one question,” Katz remembers of Carney, who died in 2003. “‘Do I have to do anything?’”

Says Carney’s son, Brian, himself a character and voice actor: “My dad was a humble guy who never realized the effect he had on people. Every year on his birthday, he would sit in front of the TV and watch ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and go, ‘They’re not going to mention my name.’ And every year, they’d say, ‘It’s Art Carney’s birthday. Happy birthday, Art.’ He never got over that they would do that, that people still remembered him.”

Over the years, the Katz brothers tried to interest networks in the idea, putting together demo reels with help from actors such as Pollak, Brad Garrett and Richard Kind. Not long ago, they were close to a deal, but wouldn’t budge on either the show’s name or nature. So they decided to simply produce it themselves.

A voting board that included actors Jason Alexander and Tim Conway, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes and former Fox TV and UPN executive Lucy Salhany selected the winners, with the results being tallied by an independent accounting firm.

“We want this to be on the level of an Oscar or an Emmy, so we used that same process,” Katz says. “We don’t want this to be a one-and-done event.”

Balaban calls the honor “sweet” and reminiscent of the old days of Obie Awards, the event that honors off-Broadway plays.

“I don’t think the character actor awards will ever be televised, exploited and turned into a kind of circus,” Balaban says. “It’s just going to be about the work and the people and staying power. Non-glamorous things. And that’s what character actors are all about.”

Twitter: @glennwhipp

ALSO:

Oscar Watch: Can a box office ‘bomb’ like ‘Steve Jobs’ still contend for best picture?

Are the Golden Globes trying to one-up the Oscars with Ricky Gervais?

Gotham Awards: ‘Quirky’ group, but choices sometimes mirror the Oscars