ATLANTA — Steven Coulter is an Atlanta character actor with more than 125 TV shows and films under his belt, a man who has shared scenes with Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Ray Liotta and Jennifer Coolidge.

But his most prominent role to date is Father Gordon, the Catholic priest who helps the Warrens get rid of demonic ghosts in “The Conjuring” films and their spinoffs.

The 65-year-old longtime Atlanta resident appears again in the newest and likely last incarnation with the current cast dubbed “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” out this weekend. His role is meaty and integral to the plotline as the Warrens come out of retirement to expunge evil spirits in a home in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.

His role as Father Gordon was modest in the first movie in 2013, which stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Lorraine and Ed Warren, a married couple based on real-life paranormal investigators.

“It was just one scene,” Coulter said in a Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I did my job. These people are in trouble. I show them a little movie and they were on their way. I stayed in my church, perfectly safe.”

But “Conjuring” director James Wan was so impressed with Coulter, he gave him a juicy role in the second installment of his “Insidious” horror franchise, as an emotionally stunted psychic Carl.

He also expanded Gordon’s character in subsequent “Conjuring” movies. By the third movie, Coulter’s character was doing an exorcism and getting slashed in the face by a CGI plate. Things don’t necessarily get better for Gordon in ”Last Rites.”

“James is very loyal,” Coulter said. “Once he likes you, he’ll use you again. He uses the same crew, the same makeup people. You go on his set and it’s like a family reunion.”

Coulter said over the years, he’s had a goofy relationship with Wilson, who has also played Aquaman in multiple DC films.

“We have a history of mocking each other,” he said. “We were starting ‘The Conjuring 2.’ I was using a backpack I got as a wrap party gift after shooting ‘Wizard of Lies’ with Robert De Niro. He said, ‘Nice backpack.’ ‘This backpack? I got it while working with Bob! Have you ever worked with him? Or were you too busy shooting that little fish movie?’”

Coulter was thrilled to see Wilson at a fan screening of the film last month at Springs Cinema & Taphouse. Wilson, who is in town to shoot the Apple TV+ series “Cape Fear,” made a surprise appearance and spoke briefly to the audience.

“Who’d have thunk when we started this franchise 13 years ago, we’d be sitting here in Sandy Springs,” Wilson told the audience. “It’s a story about love. It becomes this romantic, terrifying tale... We give everything we can with these performances. It’s what the genre demands.”

Despite Coulter’s connection to the genre, horror is not what he watches in his idle time.

“Scary movies scare me!” Coulter said. “Seeing these movies in a theater can be fun. People talk to the screen. It’s a communal roller-coaster ride. But if I have to see a horror movie at home by myself, I open all the curtains and turn all the lights on.”

But he’s grateful for the horror audience and their loyalty to the genre. “They are helping keep movie theaters open,” he said. And they have lifted his profile as well.

Acting, he said, has been in his blood since he was a child in Ohio.

“As a kid, I’d get restless and play pretend,” Coulter said. “When we went on long drives, I’d pretend I was my parents’ bodyguard. I imagined I was an orphan and I was trained in martial arts to guard this couple. It made the day go by faster.”

But pursuing acting, he said, was a grind. To pay the bills, he bartended, washed dishes, dug ditches, drove trucks and became a bouncer at a folk club.

Coulter, who moved to Atlanta in 1987, subsisted for years on small roles on TV shows and films. “I played a lot of sheriffs,” he said. “I was paramedic number 3.”

Eventually, he garnered enough work to act full time. But in the early 2000s, he wasn’t getting fulfilling roles so he scrounged up enough money to write, direct and star in quirky short film “The Etiquette Man” that won awards at festivals. “I did something I was proud of,” he said.

After Coulter landed a small role in a Tyler Perry film, Perry saw “The Etiquette Man” and was impressed enough to hire him on his writing staff in 2005 for “House of Payne,” then “Meet the Browns.” Coulter spent three years working 60 to 80 hour weeks pumping out script after script, eventually becoming a lead writer.

“Tyler really taught me how to write quickly,” he said.

But the job was exhausting, so he left and has since focused on acting. He has landed an array of interesting roles over the years and has no desire to retire.

“I really love it,” he said. “I like the memorizing. I like the research. With each role, I get to study something I knew nothing about. For Father Gordon, I investigated the Catholic Church infrastructure. It gives you weight when you get on set.”

The one genre Coulter has yet to do is a pure Western.

“I told my agent and manager I’ll do a Western for free,” he said.

The closest he got was a recurring role on Paramount’s hit series “Yellowstone.” But he played a university professor.

“I didn’t get to ride a horse!” he said.

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