Tolliver, Creighton (The Man Who Wasn't There)- played by Jon Polito, a veteran of the Coens' films, who also portrayed Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing, Lou Breeze in Barton Fink, and had a smaller role in The Hudsucker Proxy.

Creighton Tolliver is a customer of barber Ed Crane, who provides Crane with a silent partnership in his new venture known as “dry cleaning.”  Tolliver asks Crane for $10,000 to help him start this business, which in turn causes Crane to blackmail his adulterous wife's new lover, Big Dave.  After receiving the money from Crane, Tolliver appears to leave town with the money. 

Tolliver is later found dead at the bottom of the lake, having been killed by Dave for accepting the blackmailed money from Crane.  Along with his body, police find his briefcase containing papers which name Crane as a partner in the dry cleaning venture.  The District Attorney's office believes that Tolliver died at the hands of Crane, having realized that Crane's investment was illegitimate “dirty” money, believed to have been stolen by Crane's wife.  Ed Crane is sentenced to the electric chair for the murder of Tolliver, ending his dreams of leaving his life as a barber for a new life in dry cleaning.—Patrick Tierney