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"Squinty, frequently bald fellows"? What the hell kind of specialty is that? Yeah, we know. The reason we had to settle on such a vague and undescriptive "type" for Paul Calderon is that, based on what we've seen of his work, we can't say there is any particular part he plays more frequently or memorably than others. He's always different, and always good. Unlike most male character actors who are slightly darker-skinned than, say, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Calderon has managed to escape the trap of playing virtually nothing but cops and criminals (see also Don Cheadle), which is great for him, but makes pigeonholing him difficult for us. (Which, let's face it, is also great for him.)

We first noticed Calderon in Pulp Fiction, in which he plays a bartender in Marsellus Wallace's club. He managed to imbue so much meaning into a single line -- "My name's Paul. That's between y'all" -- that I not only still repeat it to this day, but also exclaimed, the next five times I saw him onscreen, "Hey! It's Paul! And that's between y'all!" (I didn't learn that his name actually is Paul until I had to look him up for the purposes of writing this article.)

Like many fine actors who have yet to headline Jerry Bruckheimer movies or net Oscar nominations, Calderon tends to play big parts in low-budget movies cast out of New York (or Law & Order, which is basically the same thing), and little parts in big-budget pap. You know -- bouncing from a scary crack dealer in Sweet Nothing to a few fleeting moments in The Firm; from the domineering, unsupportive father in Girlfight to "Officer" (uncredited) in Bait.

In this week's The Last Castle, Calderon plays an inmate in a military prison. (A criminal, sure -- we assume -- but at least one with a more interesting back story than actors of colour usually get to play, probably.) While this is a big-budget Robert Redford-starring affair of the sort that would normally afford Calderon only four or five minutes of screen time, the trailers give every indication that he'll get more to do than pull pints and toss off a fondly remembered catchphrase. We hope it's a harbinger of bigger things to come.