I've commented over the years on how natural a performer Joel Crothers is. Partly his naturalness may be dictated by his regular-guy character, Joe Haskell. But with some acting experience myself, I know it isn't as easy as it looks to appear natural, at ease, comfortable -- it can be easier to be stagey and overly dramatic (Betsy Durban's over-emoting, anyone?
)
He and KLS are such comparable performers -- there is such an ease to their individual performances and the way they work with one another -- you don't even notice most of the time that they ARE acting (now compare that with Humbert Allen Astredo, who never appears natural or believable, IMO, at least not as Nicholas Blair ... though I do admit the dictates of the roles are quite different).
When Joe was panting and out of breath, lying on the sofa in the drawing room at Collinwood, he was BELIEVABLE. Again, a useful comparison -- or contrast, I should say -- would be the Jeb Hawkes actor (sorry, I'm spacing out on the name) -- imagine
him doing the same scene! Yikes!!
The only times I didn't quite like Crothers was when we seemed to have been directed to be overly hysterical, as with some of his latter scenes in 1795.
I think his performances are sometimes overlooked in favor of the more theatrical (though superb) work of actors like Frid and Thayer David.