Graham delivered a memorably outlandish performance in De Palma's "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974) as Beef, a knowing lampoon of several rock legends of the day, who gets fried on stage. In 1974 he moved to L.A. and began alternating assignments between theater, films and TV. His somewhat stylized features worked well in cultish genre assignments like playing an earnest young scientist who tries to protect Julie Christie from a lusty computer in "Demon Seed" (1977), a wild-eyed and arrogant health nut in De Palma's somewhat nostalgic "Home Movies" (1979), an enthusiastic seller of "pre-owned vehicles" in Robert Zemeckis' "Used Cars" (1980) and the maniacally mugging title character in the straight-to-video horror-comedy sequel "Chud II: Bud the Chud" (1989). He has also proven effective in more mainstream works such as "This Boy's Life" (1993), playing a prep school recruiter and "One True Thing" (1999) as a well-known writer and former mentor to William Hurt.
On the small screen, Graham has proved effective in zany characterizations like his strange neighbor in "Stockard Channing in Just Friends" (CBS, 1979) and the anal retentive school principal in "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" (Fox, 1990-91). Additionally, he has found a secondary careers as both a voice actor (e.g., "The Critic") and as a screenwriter for TV episodics (the 80s revival of "The Twilight Zone") and animated features (Disney's "The Prince and the Pauper" 1990). Graham returned to series work in the fall of 1999 co-starring in the sci-fi themed "Now and Again" (CBS), playing the co-worker of a man who has been given a new body--one 20 years younger--in a secret government experiment.