For some characters, silence is golden. While there are characters from film and television that we could listen to talk all day long, there are also those special characters who earn out love with very few words. Their actions speak volumes even if their vocabulary is limited.
Some of these characters are the strong silent type who choose to speak only when it is completely necessary. Others are maybe unable or unwilling to speak for one reason or another. Regardless, we are still drawn to these characters even with their minimal dialogue. Here are the most loved movie and TV characters who barely speak.
Donny (The Big Lebowski)
Steve Buscemi is known for playing characters with the gift of gab, especially his character in the Coen Brothers’ Fargo. So it’s brilliant for the Coen’s to cast Buscemi in their next film as a character who is barely heard at all.
It’s not that Donny is unable to speak but rather he is not given the opportunity to speak. Whenever he tries to enter the conversation, Walter (John Goodman) quickly shuts him down with “Shut the f**k up, Donny!”. Sometimes Walter doesn’t even wait to hear what he said. For Donny’s part, he takes it in stride.
Evelyn Abbott (A Quiet Place)
Every character in A Quiet Place qualifies for this list, but Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) is the real stand out. In a world that is infested by creatures who hunt based on sound, Evelyn is the strong and loving mother of a family doing their best to survive.
Not only does she have to contend with keeping her children safe, but she also is dealing with a pregnancy which represents a whole new set of issues for the family. Evelyn is determined, resilient and badass. She is an easy character to root for without saying much.
The Chief (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is the story of R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a convicted criminal who cons his way into a facility for the mentally ill instead of going to jail. While McMurphy is the focus of the film, the hearty of the story is Chief (Will Sampson).
The Native American giant is a patient at the facility who remains silent the entire time. As McMurphy attempts to bring some joy into the lives of the patients, he and Chief become closer and Chief chooses to speak to McMurphy for the first time in years. The two men share a strong and heartbreaking bond in an unlikely place.
Driver (Drive)
Ryan Gosling is an actor who can accomplish a lot with very few words. Those skills certainly came in handy for his role as the nameless getaway driver in Drive. Though a badass behind the wheel, this driver lives a closed-off and lonely life until he begins a relationship with his equally lonely neighbor (Carey Mulligan).
Gosling’s intense stares communicate a lot while his awkward silence reinforces the socially withdrawn man. His lack of dialogue, even as the main character, makes his sudden bursts of violence even more effective and shocking.
Mr. Bean (Mr. Bean)
Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is the bumbling, oblivious yet resourceful oddball who made his debut on British television and eventually became a worldwide icon. The joy of watching Bean in his day-to-day exploits is how he seems so out of his element but finds unorthodox ways of making it work his own way.
Atkinson is a brilliant physical comedian in the role which harkens back to the days of the silent film stars. The fact that he rarely talks is what made him so popular as his antics can be enjoyed by people who speak any language.
Max (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Though Max Rockatansky is the star of a four-fil franchise at this point, he is one of the least verbal characters in his movies. While the character was the strong silent type in the Mel Gibson movies, Tom Hardy’s take on the character in Mad Max: Fury Road was even less interested in talking.
Max has an animalistic quality to him which might explain why he seems to have a hard time communicating with other people. In the few instances where he does choose to talk, he basically just grunts and growls at the people around him.
Laura (Logan)
Kids can be quite shy at times, although that doesn’t really seem to be the issue with Laura (Dafne Keen) in Logan. Though she isn’t interested in talking, she is far from meek as you can tell by her fighting style.
Laura is a young girl who gets her mutant powers from Logan (Hugh Jackman). And when cornered, she shows the same ferociousness in battle as he does. We later find out that the reason she remains silent so often is that she primarily speaks Spanish, but her actions certainly speak volumes.
Silent Bob (Clerks)
Though side characters in Clerks, when most people think of the classic comedy, they think of Jay and Silent Bob. True to his name, Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) is the mostly-quiet sidekick to the very verbose Jay (Jason Mewes).
Silent Bob has appeared in every one of Smith’s View Askew films and he does little more than react to Jay’s outrageous moments and smoke cigarettes. However, he always chooses one moment in each film to finally speak and it is always memorable.
Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian)
Few characters have become such instant pop culture icons as Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian. Introduced in the Star Wars series’ first episode, the young child is the target of former members of the Empire who is taken in by the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal).
The love of Baby Yoda (yes, he’s not really Yoda) is largely due to the fact that he is so unbelievably adorable. Every look and gesture just melt your heart. He’s even cute when force choking someone to death.
Maggie Simpson (The Simpsons)
For over 30 years, Maggie Simpson has been the infant member of the Simpsons family. And for all that time, she has barely said anything. While the rest of the family gets laughs through their own one-liners, Maggie has to rely on her more physical comedy to get noticed.
Though she has spoken at times, even in the episodes that look into the Simpsons’ future, she remains quiet. She seems perfectly content to sit back and suck on her pacifier yet has somehow become one of the most famous television characters of all time.
