This past weekend, longtime character actor and embodiment of “grizzled tough guy” Eric Roberts was on the Animal Planet show My Cat From Hell. This is a reality series in which a very nice cat behaviorist named Jackson Galaxy (cat version of the Dog Whisperer, basically) solves people’s feline pet problems while sporting borderline-indefensible facial hair. But what Roberts’ appearance mainly provides is an excuse to look at his IMDB credits and go, “Holy shit,” because the man has 462 acting credits to his name.
In the episode, which admirably treats Roberts and his wife as just another couple with cat troubles, the actor contacts Galaxy because his old, blind cat Brooklyn has disappeared. Roberts’ theory is that his old cat is feeling threatened by and jealous of the newer, sighted cats, and also did you know Roberts is listed as having 54 acting credits in 2017 alone? Fifty-four credits: Let that sink in for a minute. That’s more than one a week for the entire year. True, some of them are small appearances, little more than cameos where someone probably said, “Hey, Eric, come in for two hours on Thursday afternoon, we’ll make it worth your while,” but even so, that is hustle on a truly impressive level.
Without getting into spoilers, Roberts’ theory turns out to be at least partially true—Brooklyn is hiding in the basement, and it has to do with the other cats—and by episode’s end, things are looking up for poor old blind Brooklyn. Galaxy even convinces them to build a fence to provide some security for the animal, and one pet ends up wearing a bell. But honestly, there’s an additional 45-plus credits from just 2016. That’s more than one hundred acting gigs in two years, which should qualify Roberts for some kind of damn honorary Oscar. Not even porn stars maintain such a steady work schedule.