Paul Koslo

Paul Koslo is a character actor who saw the most action--literally and figuratively--in the 1970s, but mainly has had a rather workmanlike and relatively anonymous career. Two of his earliest films were arguably his best: his appearance as a highway patrolman in the '71 car-chase journey, "Vanishing Point," with Barry Newman, and as Dutch in "Omega Man," the sci-fi thriller from the same year, with Charlton Heston in the lead role. From there, Koslo appeared with a Who's Who of actors throughout the '70s, albeit in titles that have failed to transcend their time. He worked with everyone from Clint Eastwood in the Western "Joe Kidd," to Alan Arkin and James Caan in the crime comedy "Freebie and the Bean," to Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the mystery "The Drowning Pool." On television, Koslo had numerous guest appearances from the early '70s to 2000, including repeating parts on the detective series "The Rockford Files" and the cop drama "Hawaii Five-O" in the late '70s; he also made a few modest TV films in the '90s. In 1980, Koslo wound up with something of a mixed blessing when he appeared as Mayor Chalie Lezak in the Western "Heaven's Gate," Michael Cimino's two-and-a-half-hour epic and the most notorious financial bomb of its time. Koslo, meanwhile, had the opportunity to work with Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, and John Hurt, among others, further extending his impressive list of collaborations. In 2004, Koslo appeared as himself in the comedy "Breaking the Fifth."