[We continue our series of guest writes with a post from Tevor Seigler. We depend on your input to help us evaluate new writers, so let us know what you think in the comments!]

Some actors are icons because of a singular performance which ensures that, no matter what else they do, they will be known as “that guy.” For me, Wilford Brimley gave that performance every time he sat down to film yet another Quaker’s Oats commercial during the Eighties.

As a child of that decade, I was overwhelmed by the more overtly materialistic aspects of other breakfast food icons: Count Chocula liked little boys, Tony the Tiger was on cocaine half the time, and the hellish trio known as “Snap, Crackle, and Pop” was rocked so badly by the death of original “Pop” John Belushi in 1982 that they never really recovered. Against such hedonism, Mr. Brimley’s turn as the kindly grandfather who force-fed warmed-over corn mush to his brood seemed old-fashioned and homely. Darn near American, really.