Here's my top 25 performances, Not sure how I should rank these so these are in no order:
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pgw20 — 13 years ago(June 01, 2012 11:11 AM)
No particular order and probably not my complete list
Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood / Gangs of New York / The Crucible
Robert Deniro - Raging Bull / Taxi Driver / Goodfellas / Godfather 2 / Heat
Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs
Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate
Kevin Spacey - Usual Suspects / American Beauty / LA Confidential
Sam Jackson - Pulp Fiction
Ben Kingsley - Gandhi
Malcolm McDowell - A Clockwork Orange
Val Kilmer - Tombstone / Heat
Nicholas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas / Adaptation
Joe Pesci - Goodfellas / Raging Bull
Heath Ledger - Dark Knight
Morgan Freeman - Shawshank Redemption / Unforgiven
Sasha Baron Cohen - Borat
Russel Crowe - A Beautiful Mind / Gladiator
Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump
Jake Gyllenhaal - Donnie Darko
Jack Nicholson - The Shining
Christian Bale - American Psycho / The Machinist
Ed Norton - Fight Club / American History X
Mel Gibson - Braveheart
Paul Newman - The Hustler
Sylvester Stallone - Rocky 1
Emile Hirsch - Into the Wild
R. Lee Emery - Full Metal Jacket
Viggio Mortenson - Eastern Promises
Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront
Mark Wahlberg - Boogie Nights
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven / Good Bad and the Ugly
Gene Hackman - Unforgiven / The French Connection
Peter O'Toole - Lawrence of Arabia
Johnny Depp - Blow / Donnie Brasco
Brad Pitt - Inglorius Basterds / Snatch / Fight Club
Steve Buscemi - Resevoir Dogs / Fargo
Casey Afleck - The Assasination of Jessie James
Denzel Washington - American Gangster
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Gary Oldman - The Professional
James Dean - Rebel Without a Cause
Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line
Tommy Lee Jones - The Fugitive
Colin Firth - The Kings Speech
Tom Cruise - Magnolia
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda
Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow
Matt Damon - Talented Mr. Ripley
Al Pacino - Godfather 1 & 2 / Scarface / Heat
Leo DiCaprio - The Aviator / The Departed
Phillip Seymour Hoffmann - Capote
Jimmy Stewart - Rear Window / It's a Wonderful Life
William H. Macey - Fargo -
Veltaine — 12 years ago(May 13, 2013 04:49 PM)
De Niro - Taxi Driver
Sellers - Dr Strangelove
Scott - Dr Strangelove
Hoffman - Rain Man
Nicholson - Chinatown
Stewart - Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Lemmon - Some Like It Hot
Grant - Notorious
Fonda - 12 Angry Men
"My car is outside."
"Naturally." -
Rex9 — 12 years ago(October 19, 2013 04:25 AM)
1). Jose Ferrer - Cyrano De Bergerac
2). Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca
3). James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy and One, Two, Three
4). Kevin Costner - JFK
5). Peter O'Toole - Lawrence of Arabia
6). George C. Scott - Patton
7). Val Kilmer - Tombstone
8). Jose Ferrer - Moulin Rouge
9). Denzel Washington - Malcolm X, Crimson Tide and A Soldier's Story
10). Burt Lancaster - The Train
Honorable Mention:
Jimmy Stewart - Flight of the Phoenix
Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons
Paul Newman - The Hustler
Steve McQueen - Bullitt
Robert Mitchum - Farewell My Lovely
Errol Flynn - All of his Swashbucklers (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, the Sea Hawk) and Gentleman Jim -
Midnight_at_the_Movies — 12 years ago(November 07, 2013 08:58 PM)
Just a note: I realize my list, which I just though up on the spot, is fairly modern. I've seen a handful of classics, but I should watch more films from back in the day, for instance I recently watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and his performance could definitely go on a top ten list for mebut for this list's modernity I'll subtitle it "top ten actor performances of recent years."
Rod Steiger - In the Heat of the Night
Johnny Depp - Ed Wood
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
Leonardo Dicaprio - The Departed
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski*
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men
I think many performances from Coen Bros films could contend for top tensThey're ingenious filmmakers for sure, but one of things I think they do every picture is know how to bring out first-rate, incomparable acting in their stars. -
brefane — 12 years ago(March 19, 2014 06:07 PM)
So many good choices. Here's some that may have been overlooked:
Richard Pryor Richard Pryor Live
Gloria Swanson Sunset Boulevard
Mia Farrow Rosemary's Baby
Liv Ullman Face to Face & Scenes from a Marriage
Deborah Kerr The Innocents
Anne Bancroft The Graduate & The Miracle Worker
Morgan Freeman Street Smart
Glenda Jackson Marat/Sade
Kim Stanley The Goddess
Peter O'Toole Beckett -
majohnson22000 — 11 years ago(January 01, 2015 07:22 PM)
Paul Newman (The Hustler)
Denzel Washington (Training Day)
Tom Hanks (Cast Away)
Nicolas Cage (Bringing Out the Dead)
Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense)
Jack Nicholson (The Shining)
Jack Nicholson (The Crossing Guard)
Meg Ryan (When a Man Loves a Woman)
Al Pacino (Insomnia)
Robin Williams (One Hour Photo)
I couldn't say which performance is better. I love them all equally.
X -
Serpico1988 — 11 years ago(January 21, 2015 04:40 AM)
in no particular order (screw that, it's too hard guys)
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
Al Pacino - The Godfather Part II
Paul Newman - The Verdict
Marlon Brando - A Streetcar named Desire
Robert de niro - Taxi Driver
Henry Fonda - On Golden pond
Russell Crowe - The Insider
Peter Finch - Network
Sean Penn - Mystic River
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Edward Norton - American History X
Hate is baggage. Life is too short to be pissed off all the time -
lizcarlo87 — 10 years ago(July 20, 2015 04:24 AM)
- Jimmy Stewart(Harvey)
- Paul Newman (Hud)
- Montgomery Clift (A Place In The Sun)
- Marlon Brnado (Streetcar Named Desire)
- Henry Fonda(The Grapes Of Wrath)
- George C Scott (The Hustler ect)
- Lee J. Cobb (12 Angry Men)
- Al Pacino (Godfather)
- Christian Bale(The Machinist)
- Brad Pitt (The Assassination By Jessie James By The Coward Robert Ford )
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brefane-41162 — 9 years ago(May 07, 2016 01:33 PM)
Daniel Day Lewis In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot
Robert Mitchum Cape Fear and The Night of the Hunter
George C. Scott The Hospital
Al Pacino Donnie Brasco and Dog Day Afternoon
Marlon Brando A Streetcar Named Desire and Reflections in a Golden Eye
Dustin Hoffman Straight Time
Paul Newman Hud
Michael Keaton Birdman
Albert Finney Alpha-Beta -
brefane-41162 — 9 years ago(May 17, 2016 06:54 PM)
A great performance is a great performance no matter whether it's considered lead or supporting and the term
actor
applies to females as well, I assume. So my list should include Liv Ullman in Face to Face as well as Kim Stanley in The Goddess. -
KevsHardLemonade — 9 years ago(September 08, 2016 08:09 PM)
- Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver)
- Klaus Kinski (Aguire: Wrath of God)
- Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
- Paul Newman (The Hustler)
- Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
- Edward Norton (American History X)
- Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
- Al Pacino (The Godfather part II)
- Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
- Isabelle Adjani (Possession 1981)
- Gary Oldman (Leon The Professional)
- Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy)
- Harvey Keitel (Bad Lieutenant)
- Michael Fassbender (Shame)
- Eric Bana (Chopper)
- Marlon Brando (Apacolypse Now)
- Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves)
- Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer)
- Ellen Burstyn (Requiem of a Dream)
- James Stewart (Vertigo)
Honorable Mention:
Christian Bale (American Psycho)
Those are just off the top of my head. I know I'm missing a lot of good ones. Its hard to choose just 10 (or just 100 for that matter).