In fact, his namesake – born Richard Walter Jenkins – altered his moniker to become Richard Burton and look where it took him.

But Jenkins, now a bonafide star in his own right at the age of 61, revels in his ability to tackle those scene-stealing roles that have seen him propping up the cast lists of some major Hollywood productions.

He's perhaps best-known over here for his recurring role as the dead dad in Six Feet Under. But in a 40-year career in film, TV and on stage he has accumulated a gallery of character performances. A perfect example is his harassed small town newspaper reporter in The Witches of Eastwick who snaps and kills his banshee wife before sitting down to finish his book in peace and quiet. He was sixth in the credits after Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer and Veronica Cartwright, but is arguably the best thing in the movie.

In The Visitor, out this week, Jenkins is a grey, forgotten, put-upon academic still in mourning for his dead wife. The role needed someone like him to play it – an almost anonymous individual – a man who wouldn't stand out in a crowd. Jenkins, always the support, never the leading man, couldn't believe his luck. It was, he says, "like a gift".

"It was the last thing I expected and then there it is before you and you go, 'Oh God, they really want me to do this'," he smiles.

"I think we are all character actors. And every job is your last, that's the other thing. When you finish a job it's like, 'Now what do I do? I have to start all over again?' I like the fact that something like this drops in your lap. But it may not happen for 40 years! But I like never knowing what's around the corner."

For a man who has served under everyone from Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen to the Farrelly and Coen brothers, Jenkins is remarkably modest about his talents. The truth is he doesn't analyse whatever gift he has in case it suddenly disappears.

I ask whether he ever re-uses aspects of past performances and point to his exasperated suburban journalist in The Witches of Eastwick as an example. The comparisons with his jaded, grieving university lecturer in The Visitor are obvious.

"Not consciously, I don't," he muses. "It's still me. We draw on ourselves. Things are going to look familiar. It's not always new. But it's not a conscious thing. I look back at my movies and I see a lot of things I do the same because it's probably me. I mean, Meryl Streep reinvents herself totally all the time. It's tough for those of us with limited scope."

An actor who began life in the theatre, Jenkins can draw on a discipline that many of his contemporaries crave but have no experience of. He eschews talk of the method and talks with dry wit about stage acting versus film work.

"That's where it all happened for me – in the theatre. It's not how I learned how to act – it's a never-ending process, but it's where I developed how I feel about acting and what it means to me. And it changes every time out. In film, the camera's there and you have to trust it. There's no difference between a theatre stage and the sound stage, you just talk louder on a stage!"

The Visitor (15) is on staggered release.