SCENE STEALERS AT CENTER STAGE : For Actors With That Certain Extra Quality, One Crucial Role Can Be Start of Something Big--Even for a Beginner

What--or rather who--is a scene stealer?

Mike the Dog in “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” is a prime example, but give any animal a featured role in a movie and he’ll turn into a ham. There are some classic scene stealers: Jack Palance as the cold-blooded hired gun in “Shane.” Hattie McDaniel as Scarlett’s sassy maid in “Gone With the Wind.” Jack Nicholson as the good-natured, alcoholic lawyer in “Easy Rider.”

More recently, we’ve seen Mickey Rourke steal scenes as a cooled-out arsonist in “Body Heat.” Bronson Pinchot adopted a ripe Austro-Hungarian gay lisp for his bit part as an art gallery attendant in “Beverly Hills Cop” and took those scenes away from Eddie Murphy. Michael Winslow invented a variety of pyrotechnic sound effects with his mouth and became a scene stealer in “Police Academy.”

In short, a scene stealer is an actor who makes an impression on the viewer out of all proportion to the size of the role he or she plays. The eye is drawn to him or her by a power nobody seems to be able to describe. Electricity, sparkle, charisma, brilliance: All these and more have tumbled into print as adjectives, but they fall short of the mark.

It’s like someone’s famous description of obscenity: you may not be able to define it, but you know it when you see it.

And when a scene stealer is born, it often presages a notable career on the screen. Hugh Griffith, Peter Ustinov, Nicholson (in the latter-day, supporting-role stage of his career), Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet and many others made film history by stealing scenes at a rate that was far better appreciated by audiences than by their colleagues.

But our purpose here is to highlight the newcomers--those film tyros whose debuts have signaled a singular quality, a little bit of that thrill associated with scene-stealing. The film veterans listed above learned how a particular bit of business or a certain attitude projected more clearly than others.

For the new kids in town, it’s a matter--not so simple--of having “that certain something.” And their attention-getting entrances create lovely predicaments for their agents or managers, the people responsible for parlaying the good notices into careers.

“The buyers (producers, casting agents) think about Arye more than before, in terms of fitting a particular role,” says John Carraro, agent for “Soul Man’s” Arye Gross. “He’s more than just a castable actor. He’s acquired an identity.”

Dan Nani, who represents two of the three “chorus girls” in the current musical version of “Little Shop of Horrors,” added: “We can afford to be a little pickier now. Some more Broadway, some more television. It becomes a little more of a seller’s market than before--but not by much.”

But for the agent of someone like Kevin O’Connor, the bad beat poet in “Peggy Sue Got Married,” caution is the watchword.

“We want to make sure Kevin has the opportunity to make a few mistakes and feel his own way in this business,” said Myrna Jacoby, O’Connor’s agent. “Typecasting is an easy trap right through here. The impulse is to take the ride for all it’s worth, but that’s not how careers are made.”

“We’ve always been pretty choosy; now we’re a little more more choosy,” said Bruce Lazarus, who represents Ray Liotta (“Something Wild”). “We ask ourselves: ‘Is this a wonderful project or character? Will Ray shine in this?’ And we’re going to avoid the type-casting bit. What’s kind of weird about that is, believe it or not, we’re getting a lot of comedy offers! There are a lot of professional ‘heavies’ out there who’d rather be doing comedy.”

As veterans of many hopeful clients who never made it, the agents all agreed that something called, variously, commitment, desire or will power makes the difference between the normal low-wattage debut and the birth of a true scene stealer.

“Both sparkle and commitment are crucial,” said Nani. “These people are those who completely engage themselves in their chosen thing, whatever it happens to be. And even then. . . . “

“That kind of breakthrough is the dream that an actor and an agent have,” said Vicki Light, who handled Arye Gross until the shooting of “Soul Man.” “But we have to remember that the writing has a lot to do with scene stealing. If the part gives you the opportunity to steal scenes, it’s a little easier.”

“You make it as a scene stealer when opportunity meets preparation,” said Lazarus. “Ray wanted ‘Something Wild’ so badly he could taste it, and that really came across.”

Scene stealers may be born, not made. On the other hand, the people who give them a license to steal are the writers who invent their characters, the directors who encourage them and the co-stars who (reluctantly, you might assume) look the other way while they do it.

Ultimately, the only way to examine scene stealing is to talk to a few who have done it. The five scene stealers in this series (in one case, a trio) are all dissimilar in type and in role, but alike in the certain something that made them stand apart.

For now, let’s just call it inspired thievery and see what else turns up.