Starr Report

One of the more interesting Emmy nominations that, in my opinion, flew (rolled?) under the radar last week was the nod for Mark Margolis, the veteran actor who played mute, bell-ringing, wheelchair-bound drug baddie Tio Salamanca on “Breaking Bad.” It was under Tio’s wheelchair — with his consent — that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) hid the homemade bomb that blew Tio, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and his henchman to Kingdom Come in last season’s finale.

The most impressive element to Margolis’ nomination (for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series) is that his role wasn’t “showy” in the overblown acting sense, since, over the course of his three seasons on the show, Tio — who apparently suffered a debilitating stroke — didn’t utter a word (save for two flashback scenes). Everything had to be communicated through his facial expressions — no easy task for any actor, though Margolis says it was no big deal.

“People, even Bryan [Cranston] said to me, ‘Is it more difficult because you couldn’t speak?’ and it really wasn’t,” Margolis told me. “We respond to things in our lives [with our faces] and we only use words when we need them. Sometimes you’ll respond to someone with a look if they say something stupid. I just let it happen inside and my face went with it.

“And because I couldn’t speak for the first time in my long career, it forced me to listen to what the other actors were saying,” Margolis said, laughing. “Most actors tend not to listen to what anyone else is saying because they’re so focused on their own performance.

“The sad/nice thing [about Tio] was that my mother-in-law was in a nursing home in Florida for years,” he said. “She had a stroke and was paralyzed and couldn’t speak . . . the only thing she could ever do were these weird moves with the left side of her mouth, and I kind of stole that from her [for Tio]. That was my homage to Shirley.”

Since this is “Breaking Bad,” there was some black humor involving Tio, including one scene from last season in which he told off the DEA, very graphically, by using his combination bell and alphabet board.

“I loved that scene, and the scene when Tio [defecated] in his pants by way of telling the DEA to go get bent,” he said.

“The only time I thought about how I was going to play a scene was in that last scene with Gus, when I was trying to be contrite and was determined to look very sad just as a way to suck the ba–ard [Gus] in and then turn into the devil,” he said. “And that’s what I did.”

Margolis, 72, has worked steadily in TV and movies for years (he played Antonio Nappa in HBO’s “Oz” and Alberto opposite Al Pacino in “Scarface,” among dozens of other roles). He said it’s nice to be recognized for his talent.

“Just the [Emmy] nomination itself is wonderful,” he said. “I won a Boy Scout of the Year Award in 1952 in Philadelphia and that’s a 60-year spread!e

“[‘Breaking Bad’] director of photography Michael Slovis, who’s a very smart, witty man, sent me a congratulatory note that said, ‘Imagine that — and coming so early in your nascent career.’ ”

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One of New York’s Finest will be competing on NBC’s upcoming reality show, “Stars Earn Stripes.”

J.W. Cortes, an actor, former US Marine and MTA police officer, will be one of the “Operatives” on “Stars Earn Stripes” who’ll be teamed with celebrity contestants including Dean Cain, Nick Lachey, Laila Ali and Terry Crews as they work together on dangerous “missions.”

Viewers of the show, which premieres Aug. 13, “will be really surprised to see how these different celebrities hold up — or don’t hold up — under quite extreme conditions,” says Cortes.

Included in the “missions” undertaken by the celebs are a helicopter drop into a treacherous location and long-range weapons fire — nothing new to Cortes, who spent 13 years in the Marines, rising to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant (and fighting in the Iraq War). Cortes will be featured on the show’s initial five episodes; his acting resume boasts appearances in NBC’s “Mercy,” the 2009 indie film “A Kiss of Chaos” (which starred Adam Rodriguez) and in the upcoming movie “Blue Caprice,” starring Isaiah Washington and Joey Lauren Adams.

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I guess the apple does fall far from the sibling tree — at least in the world of reality TV.

Will Hantz certainly showed none of the steeliness or guile of his brother — “Survivor” pit-bull Russell Hantz — in getting himself evicted from the “Big Brother” house Sunday night in the show’s second week after physically charging at, and slightly head-butting, fellow house guest Joe Arvin. The fact that Will seemed to want to get himself thrown off the show — before giving his fellow house guests the chance to vote him off — showed, at least in the “Big Brother” universe, that he just didn’t have the right stuff to win the game (and all that after bragging, early on, about how tough he was).

He turned out to be a big baby.

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Last, but not least:

* Emily VanCamp, Josh Bowman, Laura Prepon and Shawn Pyfrom were among the stars at Saturday night’s Carrera 6000 launch party at LA’s Chateau Marmont sipping Appleton Estate cocktails . . . Out on DVD-Blu-ray: The first season of ABC’s “Grimm” (Aug. 7); the sixth season of Showtime’s “Dexter” (Aug. 14).

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