david emmanuel paymer (born august 30, 1954) is an american character actor, comedian, and television director. he has been in films such as "mr. saturday night", "quiz show", "searching for bobby fischer", "city slickers", "crazy people", "state and main", "payback", "get shorty", "carpool", "the american president", "ocean's thirteen", and "drag me to hell". paymer was nominated for an academy award for best supporting actor in 1992 for "mr. saturday night." he played the lead role as the boss in "bartleby", an adaptation of herman melville's "bartleby, the scrivener." he played a mob boss in the television series "line of fire".