Rogues Gallery: The Rounders

Swinger Husband

Six Feet Under ("The Secret")

A married couple looking for a threesome attends a "Lifestyle Party" in Orange County, where they meet Brenda and her friend Melissa, who have shown up seeking a little extracurricular activity. The husband reports to the two women that his marriage has found a new lease on life through these parties.

He smiles a lot, obviously excited and eager at the prospect of sharing an intimate experience with someone new. Yet this man clearly has a great deal of love and affection for his wife, his body angled towards her as he speaks, his hand unconsciously rubbing her back, and maintaining physical contact between them.

But he talks a little too much, and the tapping of his arm on the back of the couch, and the swinging of his leg betray a hint of nervousness. Unable, or unwilling, to come right out and ask Brenda to join them, he waits for his wife to disappear into a nearby bedroom to look for a missing object, then asks her if she'd like to go with him to "help."

Walter Phelps

LA Law ("Beauty and the Breast")

Walter Phelps is a convict serving time for growing marijuana. With only two months to go before he's scheduled for parole, he's being framed for the stabbing death of another inmate, and is on trial for Murder One.

Phelps is a leftover hippie, with graying shoulder-length hair and a moustache, looking slightly uncomfortable and out of place in a suit and tie. On the stand he nervously describes himself as a farmer, while admitting sheepishly that his only crop was an illegal one. He's a simple, uncomplicated man of modest intelligence trying to appear smarter and more sophisticated than he really is. His wide-eyed eagerness and almost childlike candor give him away, as he laughs inappropriately, and leans forward nearer the microphone as if to give emphasis to his words. Instead he just appears awkward, as he tries to convince the jury of his innocence by comparing his menacing behavior toward the victim to that of a spiny blowfish warning off predators. But he's quick to assure them that like the blowfish, he is not equipped to kill.