DELMAR O'DONNELL — O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000)

Portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson

Delmar O'Donnell is one of three escaped convicts traveling through Depression-era Mississippi alongside Ulysses Everett McGill and Pete Hogwallop.

Of the three, Delmar is the most openly sincere, naïve, emotionally transparent, and easily impressed. He isn't malicious or calculating. He tends to take things at face value, believes what people tell him, and approaches the strange situations around him with an almost childlike mixture of wonder and certainty.

He is simple-minded, but he isn't empty-headed.

Delmar understands loyalty, friendship, kindness, guilt, faith, and affection very deeply. His reasoning may be questionable, but his heart is usually in the right place.

Tim Blake Nelson's performance makes Delmar funny without making him cruel or mean-spirited. His comedy comes largely from how completely and sincerely he believes whatever is happening around him. Nelson has described Delmar as a kind-hearted, naïve character, and the role became his breakthrough performance.