Smart Actors Who Cornered The Nerd Market

The name of the game is to keep working as an actor. Sure helps with the SAG pension. They may have hated playing the same role over and over again, but hey, they never stopped working until old age caught up with them. My contenders are John Austin - his nerdy Gomez made the Addams Family a hit especially in contract to Carolyn Jones's cool Morticia. He also nailed the nerd gym coordinator in West Side Story. Arnold Stang in anything, but especially Man With A Golden Arm. John Fiedler, best remembered from 12 Angry Men and a zillion TV shows. Oh there are lots more, can't think of them off the top of my head. Women too. Special mention to Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight for Ratso and Buck. Two nerds operating in a world way above their heads.

Well, Arnold Stang hung up his glasses and became a real estate broker, so he must have grown tired of the repetitive parts. Hope it didn't dent hs SAG pension. But not to make light of him, he was great in anything he did. Would have loved to have seen his Stanley Kowolski and MacBeth.

I think Michelle Meyrink had a pretty good run of playing female nerds in the 80's, but I think she's left the industry since that time.

Among current actors, I nominate Curtis Armstrong.

Martin Starr has been playing a variety of geek and nerd prototypes ever since Freaks and Geeks.

He was a Satan worshipping, anarchic, coder geek (from Canada) on Silicon Valley.

Uh hi OP….it’s John Astin. 🙄

Bruce Davison, stealth nerd.

R1 So far as I can gather, Stang continued his acting career throughout his life.

Anyway, Tony Randall also belongs on the Lifelong Nerds List. Matthew Broderick, too.

Eddie Deezen played a few memorable nerds in movies like "Grease" and "WarGames."

R4 He’s also hot as hell. He did have a part in a Blythe Danner thing where he was allowed to just be a handsome young guy. He was a friend of hers, worked for her or something.