Hey, it's...Rusty Schwimmer!

This should be a great summer, what with the returns of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Breaking Bad and my favorite comedy on TV, Louie.  Last night's premiere episode of Louie's second season lived up to expectations picking up with the same awesomely strange tone that walks the line between surrealism and sobering doses of reality while remaining hilarious and sweet.  The episode centered around a visit from Louis CK's very pregnant sister played by the wonderful Rusty Schwimmer, your go-to character actress if the role calls for a salt-of-the-earth, working class woman (see Twister, The Perfect Storm, North Country, etc.).  She makes quite the impression despite spending most her performance screaming in pain (though she does get to deliver the best line, commenting on Louie's ex-wife: "That pasty, big-titted, black-eyed guinea bitch can suck my dick!").

Schwimmer (no relation to David) has been on my radar ever since I saw her in one of the most disturbing scenes in Candyman, which surprisingly does not involve the titular bogeyman.  The protagonist, played by the unheralded Virginia Madsen (whom I have discovered is Rusty Schwimmer's best friend in real life) has been framed for murder and is forced to peel off her blood-covered clothes in order to submit to a strip search by Schwimmer's no-nonsense police officer.  Schwimmer's emotionless face and complete lack of sympathy for the weeping Madsen is far scarier than anything Tony Todd does in the film.

The actress was also featured in one of the best episodes of Six Feet Under entitled "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."  Here, she plays the widow of a motorcycle-riding department store Santa Claus who shares her thoughts on life with Nate (Peter Krause), who has recently received a frightening diagnosis.  It is scenes like this that make me love actors who are easy to overlook but can add such substance to a film or TV show with just a few perfectly-delivered lines.