Once Merely Recognizable, Now Known by Name

Dec. 18, 2007— -- He has played a soldier in Vietnam, a doomed Massachusetts fisherman, and a jilted Chicago husband.

As a steadily working character actor for nearly 20 years, John C. Reilly is just recognizable enough that people approach him on the street and say, "I think I know you from somewhere."

"You could call me a character actor, you could call me a comedian, you could call me a dramatic actor, you could call me a musician, but at the end of the day what you really are is a show person," Reilly said.

Reilly, 42, was raised in an Irish neighborhood of Chicago, where he was a bit of a misfit among both the jocks at the gym and the dropouts who hung out on the corner, until he found theater, in particular, musical theater.

"You know, that became my peer group, the kids that went over to the park to the field house to do 'drama,'" Riley said. "'John, are you going to drama class?' That's what we used to call it."

He went to DePaul University in Chicago, where he became an accomplished stage actor, and jack of all dramatic trades.

He's always been part of the background. But now, for the first time, his face is selling tickets. Reilly is, in his words, "the man on the movie poster."

In "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," he's the lead character, a fictitious musician who invented every genre of popular music from the sound of Buddy Holly to Bob Dylan.

The movie is a send-up of the musical biopic, poking fun at films like "Ray" and "Walk the Line."

His apprenticeship for writer-producer Judd Apatow's oddball humor movies began with "Talladega Nights."

"Whenever people notice me on the street or they come up to me, it's a great thing," Reilly said. "I can't tell you how many times people say to me, 'Hey, I love you.' I haven't even said hello to them yet, and they're telling me that they love me."

With that "everyman" Irish face, he has played a series of working stiffs, soldiers, losers and a porn actor in the 1997 movie "Boogie Nights."