Chicago’s superheroes of acting

In the sci-fi blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Chris Pratt, Hollywood’s newly anointed hunk, plays Peter Quill, a Han Solo-like leader of a group of ragtag outcasts. Zoe Saldana, former wrestling champion Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper (voice of a cocky, genetically enhanced raccoon) and Vin Diesel (voice of an extraterrestrial plant monster) play characters who band together to fight off one of those evil, power-mad despots bent on universal domination.

Seeing these guardians in action made us want to play mad scientist and create some guardians of our own. Members of our group - culled from Chicago natives (or folks who spent plenty of time here developing their unique abilities) - have long populated the movie universe wielding their own particular special powers, delighting and amazing audiences with their tremendous but often unsung gifts. Want to save the day cinematically? Need to employ a secret acting weapon to quip, kvetch, reassure, add emotional weight, and otherwise support the efforts of your hero (or in rare cases, heroine)? Send an intergalactic SOS for one of these acting guardians of the movie galaxy and revel in their unique gifts. - Richard Knight Jr., Special to the Tribune

GRAND DAME (humanoid name: Cloris Leachman).

Special powers: the ability to out-act and outlast every other performer on the screen, big or small.

Still kicking up her heels at 88 (literally, a few seasons back on “Dancing With the Stars”), Leachman has been stealing scenes for more than 60 years in a series of memorable film and TV roles, most notably as Frau Blucher in “Young Frankenstein,” Nurse Diesel in “High Anxiety,” in her Oscar-winning performance in 1971’s “The Last Picture Show,” as the boorish Phyllis on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (and its subsequent spinoff), and most recently in “Bad Santa,” “Spanglish” and the sitcom “Raising Hope.” In June Leachman received an honorary degree from Northwestern University, which she attended in the 1940s.   (Valerie Macon / Getty Images)