An uncommonly versatile actor, Clancy Brown is one of relatively few who has managed to be both a successful (and prolific) voice actor as well as a familiar face to people who generally avoid animation/video games. With key roles in movies like The Shawshank Redemption, he's not the kind of guy most people will recognize by name but are more than familiar with: par for the course for a character actor. He's got good comedic timing, dramatic whatchamacallit, and the ability to be as over-the-top or reserved as the material he's given calls for without being a distraction. You don't always have to be the lead actor to stand out, and Brown is proof of that.
5. Superman: The Animated Series
Even though I'll always have a soft spot for Hackman's Lex Luthor, Brown's vocal performance in this same role is every bit as good in several ways. With his signature gruff delivery, Brown handles the role with more menace and less humor -- not a bad choice for the supervillain.
4. The Shawshank Redemption
In a movie filled with criminals and the corrupt, Brown's Captain of the prison guard might be the most truly despicable of them all. He's an over-the-top sort of character but he feels real thanks to this performance. Not very subtle, but how many Stephen King characters really are?
3. Carnivale
I never got around to finishing this show (massive air quotes around the "finish" part), but from what I've seen Brown is the best aspect. A man of God possessed by some kind of evil (again, I didn't finish it), there are some wonderful moments for him here, and he's pretty damn magnetic.
2. SpongeBob SquarePants
The role most people probably know him for, whether they realize it or not. He's always kinda sounded like a pirate, so this character is just perfect for him. He's funny, has great delivery, and is just an all-round fun character. Episodes centered around him are generally good, and it's largely due to the voice acting.
1. Pet Sematary Two
One of my absolute favorite Stephen King movie performances, Clancy Brown essentially plays two characters here: an asshole dad/sheriff, and his reanimated corpse. If you think he's crazy and exaggerated in the first half of this movie, just wait til the second half, where he goes absolutely ballistic in the most hilarious ways possible. I wasn't feeling this movie except for Brown, and by the second half I was having a blast watching him. Over-the-top? Absolutely. But he's so much fun it's almost ridiculous.
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