The Coens' quirkiest characters

M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser, "Blood Simple"

A sweaty Texan private investigator who chuckles at his own obtuse jokes and has a heck of a homicidal streak. A standout in the Coen Brothers’ debut, Visser serves as both a disruption to the small-town normality surrounding him and as an aberrant inspiration for the filmmakers’ later work.