I have to post this every decade or so.....

For the most part, there ARE exceptions as there always are, the actors that get the lead roles are the best 'looking'... and NOT, at least IMHO, the best at acting.

VERY early on in my life I began noticing those small roles... lots of 'character actors' but others as well. I would see an actor deliver a handful of lines, sometime NO lines, and blow the lead actor(s) out of the water.

In the old days the 'bad guys' nearly always fit that description... today, of course, the bad guys are the lead roles on equal footing with the good guys or even more-so.

You'll have to forgive me for not remembering the name of the actor I'm about to paraphrase... I read this long ago. He was always the 'bad guy'. In an article where he was interviewed he said (paraphrased) - "I've been killed over 300 times in movies and on TV".