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After talking about Gene Hackman last week, I got to thinking about some of the other great actors of all time.
How do we want to do this? By generation? Currently acting? By gender? By race and ethnicity, where there are probably a ton of amazing actors that couldn’t (or still can’t) get traction because they aren’t white.
Fuck it, talk about great actors in any way you want. Emphasis on talk about. Please please please don’t just make a list. This isn’t an assignment to turn in; Medium Cool is at its best when it’s a conversation, and I haven’t seen a list yet that makes a great conversation starter.
Oh, and there’s this.
I searched for “top actors images” and got all males.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that in 2025 actor still means male.
So I searched for “top actresses images”.
Notice the headings for the first search results for “actor”.
- Greatest
- Favorite
- Best
- Handsome
- Best Leading Man
- Greatest
- Popular
- Most Populate
- Handsome
Notice the headings for the first search results for “actresses”.
- Beautiful
- Beautiful
- Favorite
- Famous
- Most Famous
- Top
- Beautiful
- Best
- Best Black
Here’s what came up when I clicked on the first option for “actor”:
I haven’t seen all of these films, but the male images appear to be characters in particular films, almost as though their acting matters.
Here’s what came up when I clicked on the first option for “actress”:
BEAUTIFUL. GORGEOUS. Pretty sure these images have nothing to do with acting.
Discuss!
For those new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.
Starfish (she/her)
I think actor and actress are still meaningfully separate categories in 2025. The way that you get a couple of actors and actresses that are not white was an intentional decision on the part of the search engine that you used, or you would be overwhelmed by the whiteness. Search engines have tried to unbias themselves so when you search for “doctor,” you do not get overwhelmed by white men. When I search for “doctor,” I see men, women, and people who are not white.
Someone suggested startpage.com/sp/search as a search engine to me, and I started using that. With the same searches that you used, both categories get overwhelmed by Indian actors and actresses by the third line.
What is interesting is that we get no East Asian actors or actresses out of this at all.
I loved Andrew Koji in Warrior, but this may be my bias towards costumes, and that man looked good in a suit and also in all the scenes where he was not wearing a shirt at all.
John S.
Well there’s always Brad Pitt! I’m pretty sure his career has nothing to do with acting.
Justin W
Meryl Streep is basically always good, 100% of the time, no matter what she does (SNL 50th anniversary is a good example lol). She just always pours herself into every role.
Daniel Day Lewis is my male version of Meryl. He’s just essentially perfect in every role. I don’t even know how to describe it, but I guess the best way I can think of is, he’s the opposite of Tom Hanks and Michael Douglas and folks who I see as “playing themselves in every role, but with different lines.” Folks like Day Lewis are the character they are playing.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman was probably my all time favorite non-traditional lead actor type. I’m still mad at him for killing himself with drugs. Though I personally understand the struggle.
Thanks for the topic!
Baud
I’m partial to Bogey.
Spanky
Richard Burbage.
Chris
Oh boy.
Harrison Ford will probably always be my favorite. For a certain type of Gen Xer and early Millennial, he’s the American hero.
AM in NC
Paul Newman because he’s so fucking beautiful he didn’t have to be good.
But he was very good.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Contemporary: Hillary Swank and Jennifer Lawrence. Swank deservedly won two Oscars but it’s roles like ‘The Homesman’ where you see her at her subtle best. Same for JL in roles like ‘Winters Bone’, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘Passengers’. I’ve always been a massive fan of Sam Rockwell.
Classic era, that’s tough to pin down. Easy pick is always Cary Grant because he could do so much with so much aplomb, even in serious roles. But we could go on all day about classic actors and actresses and what they brought to the screen/role.
I’ve always been a fan of supporting actors like Claude Rains and Strother Martin.
John S.
I think Christoper Lee was just about as good as it gets. There isn’t a role that he wasn’t superb in (Sherlock Holmes, Bond villain, Saruman, etc.). Same with Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart, who as an added bonus are besties who do all sorts of neat things together. And they also have amazing senses of humor. I seriously miss James Earl Jones, who I fell in love with as a kid watching Conan the Barbarian.
Frances McDormand is incredible, and the fact that she’s married to a Coen brother who frequently casts her is awesome. I was just telling my wife yesterday how much I love Viola Davis. I think she is seriously underrated. Alfre Woodard, too. I also loved Glynis Johns. She was fantastic in The Ref, though she will always be remembered for Mary Poppins.
Quaker in a Basement
I choose this way: Whose name in the cast will make me say, “I’m in!”
Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, Lady Bird)
Dev Patel (Best Marigold Hotel movies, Monkey Man),
Morgan Freeman (too many to list or choose),
Judy Dench (also Best Marigold and too many to list or choose),
Bae Doona (Sense8, The Silent Sea, Cloud Atlas)
Denzel Washington (I’m a sucker for the Equalizer movies)
John Turturro (All those Coens movies)
Brendan Gleeson (long list including Banshees of Inisherin)
Jackie Chan (for the great fight choreography)
sab
My husband, yanking my chain, just said Jack Nicholson and Robin Wright.
I despise Jack Nicholson because in a few early movies he played a type of man I utterly despise. I really he was just acting, but he was so good I can’t separate him from the role. And I hear he is actually an extremely nice guy.
Robin Wright I have despised since she was cast early in her career as some illegitimat but actually well connected child who got a job as a receptionist at a country club in some soap opera. Santa Barbara maybe?
Can’t remember the soap. What I do remember was the role, and how she treated it. She was beyond bored and very comptemptuous. The real character in that job might have been angry, but would have been fucking grateful for the job. As would any other actress with the same job.
John S.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Cary Grant was just too damn good. Loved him in Arsenic and Old Lace and His Girl Friday. Which reminds me… Rosalind Russell! Absolutely loved her in Auntie Mame.
Suzanne
I’m not a big moviegoer, but I always enjoy Robert DeNiro, Gary Oldman, Mahershala Ali, Woody Harrelson. Among women, probably Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Viola Davis.
Craig
I’ll second Paul Newman. Butch Cassidy is insanely good. Him playing Henry Gondorf who is playing in the con as ‘Shaw’ is beautifully layered. Second for me is Faye Dunnaway, from The Countess DeWinter to the drunk beauty in Barfly she could do anything.
Chris
We’re doing a Firefly rewarch (again), and no offense to any of the other actors, but Alan Tudyk is a national treasure. He’s been fantastic in everything I’ve ever seen him in.
(Quite possibly the best role I’ve seen him in was as the racist troll in 42, if only because it’s so different from every other role he’s ever played. Turns out he can make himself really, really unlikable if he wants).
oldgold
I have always found Marlin Brando to be riveting.
Role after role, playing very different men, he owned each part. To the point that imagining another actor in the role was damn near impossible. The best example of this being the Godfather.
West of the Rockies
Those top ten pic/lists skew super young and contemporary. Neither Hepburn, no old school men (Bogart, Stewart, Olivier, O’Toole)…
Here are a few of my favorite actresses: Kate and Audrey, Sophia, Ingrid Bergman, Julia Roberts, Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Salma Hayek…
Bogart, Grant, Chaplin, O’Toole, Rickman, Hackman, Poitier, Jeff Bridges, Morgan Freeman.
Heidi Mom
After seeing Episode 3 of The Last of Us (“Long, Long Time”), I’ll say that Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett are two of the finest actors working today. The reaction to Offerman was “I didn’t know Ron Swanson (his character in Parks and Recreation) had a performance like that in him”; for Bartlett it was “Can that be the same actor who played Armond in Season 1 of ‘The White Lotus’?” Both of their characters were so incredibly real.
Melancholy Jaques
All I can really say are favorites because other than my amateur audience perspective, I am not educated or trained to judge acting skills. Also, there are lot of great ones tied for Sixth Place.
Male – Bogart, Newman, Nicholson, DeNiro, Washington
Women – Bergman, Bacall, Streep, Mirren, Blanchett
John S.
@Chris:
Agreed. My wife and I went to see Spamalot on Broadway many years ago (starring Tim Curry who is also terrific), and Alan Tudyk was filling in for Hank Azaria as Lancealot. He was hilarious, and possibly even better than Hank.
Kirk
My top varies almost weekly. But I will note that across decades my touchpoint for a great actor or actress is they must be able to do comedy well and more than once to prove it wasn’t just the script.
Raoul Paste
@John S.: i’d beg to differ. You add Fight Club plus 12Monkeys plus Burn After Reading , and you get a lot of impressive versatility from Brad Pitt
Also— is there anything Gary Oldman can’t do?? Remarkable.
Wil
Women have always been most valued for their looks, the beautiful ones, anyway. And they make sure to maximize that beauty and use it to maximum effect.
That’s been true since ancient times and it’s not going to change.
John S.
@Suzanne:
How could I forget Gary Oldman?!
He’s played everything from a Jamaican drug dealer (True Romance) to a megalomaniacal corporate scumbag (Fifth Element) with lots of points in between. He’s a legend.
Annie
Laurence Olivier!
mrmoshpotato
The best? Someone yet to be born! 😁
Seriously, Robin Williams was a great actor. Mostly known for his comedies, he was a great dramatic actor too.
He was great in Good Will Hunting, but what really stands for me is One Hour Photo.
A friend and I started watching it late at night thinking we could pass out during it, but no. Not sure what we were expecting, but what we got wasn’t it. So we stayed up for it all – absolutely riveted.
John S.
@Raoul Paste:
Hey, it’s all subjective!
I think Brad Pitt has worked in certain roles, but I don’t think he is versatile. And there are some roles where he just completely ruins the movie for me like Inglourious Basterds and Troy.
Professor Bigfoot
Are we talking “stars” or “actors/actresses” here?
I would put Gary Oldman or JK Simmons up as fantastic *actors,* but not “leading men.”
frosty
Greatest of all time … no the one I’m suggesting won’t be that, but he’s got more range than anyone else I can think of. Who else could play against Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber; play Joshua Chamberlain in Gettysburg; and play a bomb expert in Speed?
Suzanne
@John S.: Gary Oldman is a scummy human, from what I understand…. but what an actor. God.
It’s also always interesting to me, when looking at these lists, to observe if there is a big gap. Like, is there someone who’s popular or well-regarded that you just cannot stand to watch, for whatever reason? For me, that is Gwyneth Paltrow. I think she’s terrible.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
Tatiana Maslany is worth a mention. She’s probably best known for She Hulk now but her work in Orphan Black is phenomenal.
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: Robin Williams was a fantastic actor. That movie with him and Pacino and Hilary Swank, Insomnia…. low-key fantastic.
kjazz
@oldgold:
Yeah, Brando. I watched some of his early stuff years ago and was blown away. He was head-and-shoulders above everybody else in them. Geoffrey Rush is another actor I respect as well, enjoy a lot of his stuff. There’s a certain naturalness to a lot of the good actors, they make it look so easy. Brad Pitt, for example. I enjoy a lot of his movies, and sure he plays similar characters in a lot of them, butI think he’s got a certain “relaxed”/innate talent that every now and then he’s in a scene with someone else and it looks like the other actor is trying too hard.
kjazz
@mrmoshpotato: Oh yeah, love him in his serious roles. He expresses internal emotion so well.
BellaPea
I’d have to say:
Actor: Freeman, Washington, DeNiro, Pacino, William Hurt, and Paul Newman
Actress: Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Sally Field, and Grace Kelly
I probably should have put more old school people in there, but what the heck.
I’m off to watch the Screen Actors Guild awards.
John S.
@Suzanne:
It’s possible Gary Oldman is a garbage human. He did agree to star in Tiptoes where he plays a little person (it’s as cringey as it sounds).
I concur about Gwyneth Paltrow. She is absolutely unremarkable as an actress, and a garbage human with her bullshit woo woo health business.
Downpuppy
@Justin W: Streep was crap in Mary Poppins Returns.
Everyone in and everything about that nightmare was horrible. Just saying she was part of it.
As far as bad casting & acting goes, I have to note that we started the 1948 Olivier Hamlet today. Ran aground early when we realized that Gertrude was 11 years younger than Hamlet. Also that it was staged and acted like it was put together by Star Trek literal minded robots.
Frances
Alec Guinness
Eric S.
@Chris: I resemble that remark. I love Harrison Ford. He was in a lot of the movies I loved growing up.
I don’t watch a lot of movies but I can’t think of anything I saw Nicole Kidman in I didn’t like. Michelle Pfeiffer and Denzel are you there for me as well. I enjoy their characters and what they do.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Quaker in a Basement:
Oh, thanks for listing her. Fantastic actress in both those roles. One of the best younger ones around at the moment.
frosty
@frosty: Duh. How did I forget to mention his name? Jeff Daniels.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Craig:
So good in soooooo many roles, right up there with Cary Grant in the ‘too damn good’ department.
He should have won Best Actor for ‘The Verdict’, so powerful.
khead
Jeff Bridges. Kind of a sneaky one. Did you know he’s been nominated for 7 Oscars? That’s up there in Fonda (7), Lemmon (8) and Hoffman (7) territory.
Mentioned those last three because TCM is running All The President’s Men, The China Syndrome, and Network tonight. Starting now.
TONYG
@John S.: I don’t know much about movies (or anything else) but I think that the rule of thumb for movies (and television) is: 1) Men are sometimes “allowed” to not be physically attractive — but if a man is good-looking it helps his career. (See Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt for details.) 2) Women are seldom “allowed” to not be young and physically attractive. That’s a “rule” that probably dates back to the earliest silent films of 130 years ago. It’s a “rule” that’s kept in place by what the audiences pay to watch. If audiences chose differently then the studios would change the “rule”.
kjazz
@kjazz: (yes, replying to myself)
Denzel Washington too is another actor for me that often stands out in a scene next to his fellow actors in a movie. Just makes it look so easy and natural.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Raoul Paste:
Really good point about Pitt in ’12 Monkeys’ and ‘Burn After Reading’. It’s worth watching ’12 Monkeys’ repeatedly just to focus on him and how much you catch upon repeated viewings.
John S.
@khead:
Jeff Bridges will always be The Dude. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I still think of John Goodman as Walter.
NotMax
Didn’t we cover this same ground last December?
Medium Cool – Actors You Would Watch In Anything
John S.
@TONYG:
You’re probably right about the unspoken rules in Hollywood. But I was just making a joke about Brad Pitt.
Suzanne
@John S.: Another one who I find unwatchable is Johnny Depp.
kalakal
I always liked James Mason
He and Cary Grant together in North by Northwest were the top.
He was excellent in British movies such as Spring and Portwine, much less glamerous.
John Hurt was superb in anything he was in, I first saw him as Caligula in I Claudius.
Judy Dench is another favourite of mine, huge range from light comedy to classical theatre. I particularly liked her in an old TV series As time goes by with the splendid Geoffrey Palmer
I’m really not sure how to classify Peter Sellars – all I can say is he was truly astonishing
The scariest actors I’ve ever seen were Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man and Richard Attenborough in Brighton Rock.
Craig
@Raoul Paste: yeah. Brad Pitt is an excellent actor. He has a lot of range and he’s smart enough to work in his limitations. This brings up actors vs. movie stars. Some are both some are just working actors. I’ve worked with guys like John Glover and James Cromwell and they were just cool guys who are really good actors. I worked with Ashley Judd for few days a decade or so ago helping her prep a presentation. She was suffering from a migraine at first, and just a cute woman in sweats with no makeup. For rehearsal she was decked out in Chinese silk dress, full hair/makeup. She breezed by my office with a little gaggle of people took a pause, turned a 20 thousand watt smile on me, a little wink and wave and walked down the hall. My buddy looked at me slack jawed and said’ what the fuck was that?’ ‘ That my friend was A Movie Star’. The star thing is real. She’s also a good actor. She’s great in Double Jeopardy with Bruce Greenwood as her loathsome husband.
Chris
@John S.:
He’ll always be the Dude, but he was also spectacular in True Grit, one of my favorite Westerns largely thanks to him.
John Goodman also has never been bad in anything.
TS
@Suzanne:
x2
@TONYG:
Check out the British Dames in movies – they are allowed to age naturally and seem to always be given great character rolls.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@kalakal:
“Typical!”:
youtube.com/watch?v=HUHYlYgXOS8&t=117s
He was also fantastic in “The Elephant Man”.
Sellers, if nothing else, should always be remembered not necessarily for ‘Dr Strangelove’ but for “Being There”, an example of the movie being far better than the book. That was such an incredible performance.
And kudos for the Dench/Palmer TV reference, wonderful series.
narya
@Justin W: I saw “Room with a View” and “My Beautiful Launderette” back to back (rented years ago) and DDL blew me away.
Chris
@kalakal:
Don’t forget Mason as Captain Nemo.
I hear he also played Rommel in a couple movies but never watched them. I’d heard they were an early spreader of the Clean Wehrmacht myth, which kind of holds me at arms’ length from them every time I come across them and am tempted to watch.
TONYG
@John S.: Is “The Big Lebowski” the finest motion picture ever made? Perhaps. (Although my wife was not a fan.)
zhena gogolia
@Craig: I agree that Brad Pitt is a fine actor.
Burn After Reading is brilliant!
schrodingers_cat
@narya: For me it was Room with a View, The Age of Innocence and The Last of the Mohicans.
Leto
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Avalune and my first two date movies were Seven and 12 Monkeys. A guilty pleasure movie of mine is Curious Case of Benjamin Button. His banter with Clooney in the Ocean movies I always enjoy as well. Maybe not the most versatile actor, but I can’t think of what those movies would be if someone else were in the role.
hitchhiker
I’m watching Paradise now, so the first person I think of is Sterling K Brown. I might never get tired of watching his face — feel the same about Streep. It’s funny because I happen to have one of those faces that’s not especially mobile.
It knocks me out to watch what’s possible.
I also love seeing intelligence on the screen. Allison Janney as CJ is one example. You know she didn’t come up with a single word of that dialogue, but she couldn’t deliver it the way she does if she weren’t smart as fuck. It’s just great to watch her chew it up.
TONYG
@Chris: The myth of the “Good Germans” was “necessary” during the Cold War. Plus — the V2 rocket scientists got us to the moon!
zhena gogolia
@kalakal: James Mason is one of my very favorites. He is always interesting. Two of his lesser-known but brilliant performances are The Man Between and The Reckless Moment.
A Ghost to Most
Best is always a definition of terms. My favorite actor is Bill Murray, like my favorite guitarist is Mark Knopfler. I leave best up to others.
zhena gogolia
This category is just too capacious for me!
TONYG
@TS: That’s true. Maybe they get special dispensation because they’re British?
John S.
@Suzanne:
I have mixed feelings about Johnny Depp. Some of his early work was excellent. But he sort of got into a rut when he hooked up with Tim Burton. They had some decent movies together, but then it just started to get ridiculous and horribly formulaic.
I think his best role was in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I’m kind of a sucker for Terry Gilliam movies). But then that sort of overacting was all that he started doing, and Pirates of the Caribbean just made it worse.
It’s been a long time since I have enjoyed seeing him on screen.
zhena gogolia
@frosty: I knew it!
Chris
@TONYG:
I adore the movie, but… I’m not sure it’s a movie, so much as a hundred YouTube clips strung together (a decade before YouTube). I don’t remember the plot with that movie, but I damn well remember a ton of iconic scenes.
“Mark it zero!”
“I’m staying. I’m finishing my coffee.”
“Well, obviously you’re not a golfer.”
“Do you have to use so many cuss words?”
“Without a hostage, there is no ransom! Those are the fucking rules!”
“You’re killing your father, Larry!”
zhena gogolia
@Chris: I made it about 5 minutes into it.
ETA: And I love some other Coen movies, like Hail, Caesar!
John S.
@TONYG:
I wouldn’t say it’s the finest ever made, but it is highly quotable (as Coen brothers dialog often is) with some excellent characters, and that makes it really enjoyable to watch.
@Chris:
As I said, highly quotable. 🙂
TONYG
@John S.: Brad Pitt is a good actor! But he probably wouldn’t get the roles that he gets if he looked (for example) like me.
Chris
@TONYG:
“I aim at the stars! But sometimes, I hit London.”
Just look at that parking lot
I enjoy watching now for the character actors and not the “stars”. It’s way more interesting.
Murray Hamilton was one of the best. Watch him as Mr. Robinson in The Graduate, playing an upper class, middle age alcoholic. He nails it. Believe me, because I’ve seen a few.
Shelly Duvall just for that voice alone. It wasn’t just her drawl, there something else to it, but I’ve never have come up with an answer what that is.
Matt Clark ( look him up, you’ll recognize him) . Nobody could play the sweaty, squirrely character like him. Watch him in that awful Robert Redford movie, Brubaker. He’s the best thing in it. Well, him and Yaphet Kotto.
TONYG
@John S.: Yup. Probably my favorite comedy. I think of it as an example of how humor is culturally specific. My wife (who’s lived in the U.S. for forty years but who grew up in Japan) just thought that it was boring to see dumb middle-aged guys doing dumb things. To each their own.
NotMax
@John S.
Just curious if you’ve seen The Zero Theorem?
John S.
@TONYG:
Lol, I don’t know what you look like but I’ll take your word for it.
I don’t think Brad Pitt is necessarily the worst actor out there, but for me he just isn’t in the same league as some of the other names mentioned here.
TONYG
@Chris: “We” won the race to the moon because “our” V2 rocket scientists were better than the Soviet V2 rocket scientists. Then once we got to the moon we played golf there and we haven’t been back again in more than a half-century. (I really want to send Elon Musk to Mars though.)
TONYG
@John S.: In terms of appearance I’m closer to Joe Pesci than to Brad Pitt. I’d be the guy who gets whacked mid-way through the movie.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@zhena gogolia:
He was also Humbert Humbert in Lolita. Our Chaucer prof told us about the role and we couldn’t wrap our heads around it until we saw it.
Justin W
@Downpuppy: hahaha I (maybe subconsciously) forgot this movie. I love Emily Blunt (though, to be fair, that could be primarily because I find her extremely attractive, but also hilarious), but that whole movie was just a bad idea and it showed.
John S.
@NotMax:
I have not! It’s one of the few from him that I haven’t seen, and it has Christoph Waltz who is excellent.
I’m not sure how I haven’t gotten around to seeing it. I even watched The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (that was a very strange one, but I am not a huge fan of Adam Driver).
Downpuppy
Sterling Holloway is underrated.
zhena gogolia
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: He’s so, so good in that.
zhena gogolia
@John S.: Yeah, what is the deal with Adam Driver? He does not grab me.
TONYG
@Chris: Yes. Lebowski reminds me of the great old Marx Brothers movies. Really a series of comedy sketches loosely arranged around a “plot”.
schrodingers_cat
@TONYG: There were Nazi scientists in Soviet Union as well. They had their version of the Paperclip.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
Infinitely better than Jeremy Irons was in the same role of the remake.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: And only focuses on Hollywood.
zhena gogolia
@Downpuppy:
I don’t know if you’re joking, but I adore Sterling Holloway.
sab
@Leto: Wow. You guys are so young!
BlueGuitarist
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain:
Yes! Tatiana Maslany was amazing in Orphan Black!
zhena gogolia
@John S.: Oh, my God, yes.
Leto
@zhena gogolia: Agreed. The only good things I’ve seen him in were his guest appearances on SNL.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t really know what all the fuss is about.
Chris
@John S.:
Eh, I liked him as Jack Sparrow, and John Dillinger too.
Liked him in Murder On The Orient Express, but part of the fun there is the role reversal. In any other movie, he’d be the mysterious and charismatic outlaw that everyone’s mesmerized by and Ken Branagh would be the stuffy authority figure who’s there for him to play off of. Instead he just comes off as seedy and creepy, Poirot has absolutely no time for his bullshit, and everybody else on the train finds him repellent, for what turn out to be very good reasons.
Sure Lurkalot
Cloris Leachman. Jessica Lange. Gregory Peck.
Suzanne
@John S.: I really like Adam Driver. I find him incredibly good-looking, as well. Which is a bit strange, because he’s somewhat awkward-looking? Unusual? I thought he was great in BlacKKKlansman.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Desk Set, Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn.
OK, I admit, the subject matter attracts me, but the chemistry between them is great. And shows up in other movies too of course.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@BlueGuitarist:
“I get refund”:
youtube.com/watch?v=88X_GB0B5gE&ab_channel=iWiki
Justin W
@narya: When my wife and I first started dating 24 years ago, we would go visit my Grandma Mary (who was a progressive libtard dramatically ahead of her time and who passed in 2012; the MAGA folks would really hate her lol…I digress).
My wife (then, girlfriend) always liked to take her some flowers and sometimes a gift. My wife never got to have a real relationship with any grandparents.
I told her, one of the first times we went up there, that DDL was probably my grandma’s favorite actor. And my wife bought her a DVD of My Beautiful Laundrette, which none of us had ever seen.
Now that you’ve seen it, you can probably imagine my wife’s reaction as we watched the movie in my grandma’s living room, just the three of us. She was mortified. Haha. But I just kept glancing over at my grandma who was clearly enthralled.
When it was over, my grandma turns to us with a big grin and said, “I loved it! Great pic!” I still tease my wife to this day about the time she bought my grandma “soft gay porn.” DDL is just an amazing actor. Always reminds me of Grandma Mary. ❤️
BlueGuitarist
@Chris:
@John S.:
loved Alan Tudyk in firefly. Starkly different character in Dollhouse!
Leto
@sab: Relatively, yeah? I turn 49 next month, Ava 50 in May, and next year will be our 30th anniversary. After my accident, back in 2018, the hospital nurses kept saying how young I was at 42. I’m like… that’s middle aged! They kept poo-poo’ing me when I said that.
John S.
@schrodingers_cat:
Nobody is stopping you from listing actors that you like. If they happen to be from outside Hollywood, then great!
I’m a movie buff, so I watch movies from all over the world.
stinger
Any list of great actors that doesn’t include Alan Rickman, Derek Jacobi, Colin Firth, Richard Farnsworth, and Michael Kitchen is incomplete. Same for great actresses that doesn’t include Barbara Stanwyck, Colleen Dewhurst, Joan Plowright, and Miranda Richardson. These are actors that make me forget I’m watching something that was written, directed, the lines memorized, the lighting fussed over, the audio corrected. I lean forward and feel what they are feeling. I’m sorry when the movie is over.
Great points, WaterGirl (and others), about women having to be young and pretty to be considered at all. But for men, it’s “their acting matters”!
John S.
@Suzanne:
He was good in BlacKKKlansman, but I think John David Washington kind of stole the show in that one.
My wife also finds Adam Driver good looking in an unconventional way, so you’re not alone there.
Leto
@Suzanne: you and a specific writer from John Oliver’s program def have a type. There was an ongoing gag for almost two years on his show, that he eventually got Driver in on.
Mr. Bemused Senior
For comedy, David Niven, as Sir Charles Lytton in the Pink Panther, Dickie Charleston in Murder by Death.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Rickman in “Truly, Madly, Deeply” is mesmerizing.
The homage back to ‘I Claudius” with Jacobi in ‘Dead Again’ is another brilliant turn.
Craig
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: she’s remarkable in the HBO reboot of Perry Mason
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Wil: Charlize Theron’s “Monster” begs to differ. The actress, in reality, does too
elle.com/uk/beauty/a63756424/charlize-theron-beauty-interview-2025/
She is an exceptionally good actress, whose beauty often stood in her way.
kalakal
I’ve not seen her in much else
but Louise Fletcher gave a performance for the ages as Nurse Ratched in One flew over the cuckoo’s nest *
Kathy Bates is excellent in anything I’ve seen her in
Julie Christie was wonderful in everything she was in, she was fantastic playing off Tom Courtney in Billy Liar
As an impressionable young lad I had a serious crush on Jenny Aguttar so she will always be a favourite
A tremendously powerful actor was Rod Steiger, he even pulled off a credible Napoleon
*that film has a zillion terrific performances
Suzanne
@Leto: I remember saying to a friend of mine, “‘I’m confused, because he’s kind of ugly! But really hot! How is that possible?!”
John S.
I’d also like to give an honorable mention to Frank Kelly who played Father Jack on the show Father Ted. It was a one dimensional character, but he played it well.
Craig
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The Verdict is masterful filmmaking. Everything about it. Tour de Force from Sidney Lumet
kalakal
@John S.: Father Ted is one of my favourite shows ever
Chris
@John S.:
If we’re going outside Hollywood, always loved Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Despite looking nothing like any of the images, he’s always been my image for Arsène Lupin (the original). His personality has just the right combination of charming and roguish.
Not outside of Hollywood but still French, Jean Reno and Michael Lonsdale, both great in Ronin.
John S.
@kalakal:
Feck! Arse! Girls!
Mr. Bemused Senior
I first encountered Nicola Walker in River. Then Unforgotten. I’ve only started Last Tango in Halifax, but [ woo hoo ] Derek Jacobi too in a very different role.
Spanish Moss
My favorite actresses are Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Francis McDormand, and Cate Blanchett. Not only for the way that they disappear into their roles, but for their choices of roles as well. I just know that a move with one of them in it is going to be good. The same is true for my favorite actors: Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Denzel Washington, and Anthony Hopkins.
Craig
@John S.: He seems stuck playing a scarf festooned sub sub Keith Richards guitar player.
BlueGuitarist
@West of the Rockies:
Most memorable director comment I’ve heard is
Ingrid Bergman saying she told Hitchcock that she couldn’t give him that emotion in the scene and that Hitchcock replied,
“Ingrid: fake it.”
kalakal
@John S.: That would be an ecumenical matter
NeenerNeener
Another example of a movie being better than the book: The Bridges of Madison County. Streep and Eastwood were excellent. The book was a love letter the author wrote to himself.
For the reverse: The Prince of Tides was a wonderful book but Streisand wrecked the movie by making it about the romance between her psychiatrist and Nolte as her patient. That was a minor plot point in the book that was the excuse to tell the story of his family and his childhood.
John S.
@Chris:
Jean Reno is excellent, and of course Leon: The Professional is a classic.
I think one of my favorite French actors is Tchéky Karyo. He always plays such a fantastic villain.
EddieInCA
@John S.:
I would counter that Mr. Pitts performances in “12 Monkeys”, “Se7en”, “Inglorious Basterds”, “Fury”, and “Burn After Reading”, say otherwise.
Just look at that parking lot
I’ll add Jason Robards just for his grumpiness. Was he ever young ?
kalakal
The best comment I ever heard about being a film star
Interviewer “What’s it like being Cary Grant?”
Cary Grant “Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. I want to be Cary Grant!”
Craig
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention Ralph Fiennes. That guy can do almost anything.
John S.
@EddieInCA:
You may! It’s entirely subjective who we enjoy watching on the big screen, so we all won’t agree.
ETA: I find the scene where he speaks Patois to a Jamaican woman in Meet Joe Black to be super cringey.
Phein64
John Turturro, from Do the Right Thing through Miller’s Crossing, the Big Lebowski, and on to The Night Of, he’s just excellent in everything, even if the rest of the production doesn’t match up. Just seeing that he’s in something will pique my interest. His characters are always believable and relatable, even if not likeable.
BretH
Ok, hard at this point to contribute something original but surprised no one has mentioned Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Willem Dafoe, Diana Rigg.
Want to add that I think Anthony Hopkins is a great actor but he’s somewhat ruined for me because he takes too many roles where he just phones it in.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@NeenerNeener:
Dunno if Water Girl will see this but that could be another Medium Cool topic. Since books are typically better than the movie, what are examples the other way? Or movies and books that are equally good albeit in different ways.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Craig:
“FUCKING BRUGES!!!!”
Yeah, he’s brilliant.
Craig
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Fight Club! Better than the book. Trainspotting. Script is a fantastic adaptation. Book is great.
CItizen Dave
@zhena gogolia: Burn After Reading really grew on me years after I first saw it when it was in the theater. I regularly watch (youtube) the Brad Pitt/Frances McDormand phone call to Osbourne Cox scene.
I could list a hundred or more actors and actresses for this. One that recently blew me away was Juno Temple in the lead of the latest Fargo series
How about Koji Yakusho in Perfect Days; Bruno Ganz as Hitler and in Wings of Desire.
Has anyone heard of this cool acting award that gets passed from actor to actor: From 1996 until his death in 2019, Ganz held the 200 year old Iffland-Ring, which passes from actor to actor—each bequeathing the ring to the next holder, judging that actor to be the “most significant and most worthy actor of the German-speaking theatre”.
Chris
Speaking of going outside of Hollywood, here’s some weird choices involving great actors;
In 1989, the French made a miniseries on the French Revolution in honor of the 200th anniversary that I watched recently for the first time since school. Great cast, but they made the bizarre decision to give a bunch of the roles to non-French actors, only to dub them in French. The actors do a great job with what they’re given, but I mean, why bother? It’s not like there’s any shortage of French actors you could have picked.
Anyways, the dubbed cast has Sam Neill playing Lafayette; Peter Ustinov as Mirabeau; Jane Seymour as Marie-Antoinette; and Klaus Maria Brandauer who shines as Danton, the nearest thing the miniseries has to a main character. I think my favorite one, though, might have been Christopher Lee in a bit part as the executioner. Never says a word, just faithfully executes one leader after another over the course of the series. There’s a nice touch at the end when it’s finally Robespierre’s turn, and he breaks the usual routine to gesture “come on, get him up here!” Poker face never changes, but you can tell he’s been waiting a long time for this client’s turn.
Chris
@kalakal:
Nearly went to the original anti Trump rally with a sign reading “down with this sort of thing!” but I thought no one would get the reference.
NeenerNeener
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I thought about suggesting it, but I wasn’t sure if it had already been done. I did try to go through all the old Medium Cool posts to check, but there were so many of them I didn’t make it all the way through.
Chris
@Craig:
I still need to watch that movie from a couple months ago where he plays Odysseus.
WaterGirl
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain:
I have always thought that was the role (roles?) of a lifetime and everything after that might feel boring.
She was amazing. Like totally different people.
sab
@Spanish Moss: I am 71 and American. I saw Judi Dench in 1967? in Twelfth Night and she was amazimg. Half a century later I vividly remember her role in a very silly play.
kalakal
@BretH:
My feelings too!
John S.
A lot of people forget about voice acting, and there are some amazingly talented folks out there who do that.
Mark Hamill for instance is probably better as a voice actor. But there are so many others like Tara Strong and Tom Kenny who are actors in their own right.
Ajabu
Well, I’m gonna have to step in here and put in a word for my recently Departed close friend of 60 years, Louis Gossett Jr. He was an extraordinary actor,. As well as a really great human being. For range, I’d suggest: An Officer and a Gentleman, The Laughing Policeman, Enemy Mine, and my favorite- Skin Game.
As for an actress, I’ll have to go with Ruth Gordon. Frightening in Rosemary‘s Baby, absolutely hilarious in Where’s Poppa? and Harold & Maude.
Chris
@Ajabu:
I remember being disappointed when Louis Gossett Jr. joined Stargate.
I knew him from Iron Eagle and An Officer And A Gentleman, so since Richard Dean Anderson was leaving the show, I just assumed he was going to play the next head of Stargate Command. Played a Jaffa leader instead and only for half the season. He did it perfectly well too, but I still feel robbed that I didn’t get my two seasons of LGJ playing the boss.
Leto
@kalakal: Louis Fletcher as Kai Wynn in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine… personification of evil.
Spanish Moss
@sab: That must have been amazing to see her live. She has such a presence. I first saw her on screen in “Mrs. Brown” and I have been a fan ever since.
zhena gogolia
@Ajabu: I loved him.
JoyceH
@BretH: There are some actors you don’t even realize can act because they find a niche where the audience loves them and they keep getting those parts – Errol Flynn always buckles swash and gets the girl who’s usually Olivia DeHaviland. Hugh Grant is the sweet stammering guy who gets the girl anyway. Mary Pickford played spunky little girls well into her 30s. The audience knew she was really an adult – she was married to Douglas Fairbanks! But her adult roles bombed, they wanted the spunky little girl. Genial TV dads surprise you – Fred MacMurray in the Caíne Mutiny and Andy Griffith in A Face In The Crowd.
I agree with so many of the listings here. An actor who’s impressed me lately is JK Simmons. In Counterpart he played two different Howard Silks in two alternate universes – one a meek little clerk swept up in events beyond his control and the other a stone cold rogue operative who’s taking control of events.
And I’m always ready for a Gene Kelly or a Fred Astaire movie – can they act? Honestly, I have no idea!
Elizabelle
Haven’t read the thread, but has anyone tagged James Stewart?
Also David Straithairn and John Malkovich.
Steve Crickmore
@Chris: I once met Jean- Paul Belmondo dining at the Brasserie Lipp in Saint-Germain des Prés, one of my favorite French restaurants, circa 1977, when I was living in Paris. I remember, he was very polite, well-tanned, exceedingly handsome and charismatic like most leading male actors on both sides of the pond.
Gin & Tonic
It’s been 40 years since I saw Under the Volcano and I still vividly remember Albert Finney’s performance.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Agreed. After seeing the character he played in the Closer I was surprised and impressed.
Matt McIrvin
@John S.:
That may be so, but I do think he’s actually a good actor.
sab
@Spanish Moss: She was little and trim yet stocky and wildly full of energy, and dressed in a moss green velvet pantsuit. Extemely vivid but not overplayed. You just couldn’t not notice her.
I might not have remembered her even so, but then she was on an imported BBC thing on PBS ” Talking to a Stranger” about a dysfunctional family dealing with a bunch of issues badly, ending with mom’s suicide. She was the disappointing daughter.
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: JK Simmons will always be Cave Johnson from Portal 2 to me. The Combustible Lemon Rant alone…
John S.
@Matt McIrvin:
Yes, we’ve all been having a spirited discussion about it. This blog has lots of Brad Pitt fans!
Mr. Bemused Senior
Ah yes. “Can’t act, can’t sing, can dance a little.” 😁
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Michael Lonsdale played the villain in the most extravagantly ridiculous James Bond movie, Moonraker, and somehow brought gravitas to the part.
Chris
@JoyceH:
What’s always fun is when those actors switch niches after having been in the same one forever and completely reinvent themselves.
Leslie Nielsen is the ur-example. Only know him from his comedy work. The one time I saw him in a “serious” role, I had to turn it off after ten minutes. Just couldn’t stop myself spouting Frank Drebin, Doctor Rumack, and Sergeant Frobisher quotes at the screen.
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
I suppose there is some overlap, but that is not the same as top actors.
Mr. Bemused Senior
To me he will always be Gregoriev in Smiley’s People.
Just look at that parking lot
@Ajabu: I first saw Skin Game about 10 years ago. For some reason it’s hardly on anyone’s radar. I always include it when someone asks for movies to watch besides the same shit they’ve seen a hundred times. Lou Gossett and James Garner were both a great actors and personable and caring persons.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: For a long time, the serious roles Robin Williams took were usually in these sentimental tearjerker movies, but at some point he switched to thrillers and suddenly his real range became apparent. One Hour Photo was another phenomenal one.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Seriously? Surely someone with the initials R.A. would be a clear winner for you, no?
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Actors could be on stage, or on screen in TV and movies, anywhere. How is that just Hollywood?
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Best thing about that movie.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Roscoe Arbuckle is problematic.
:) //
billcinsd
Together Spencer Tracy and Audrey Hepburn
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Am I right in remembering that Alan Rickman is one of your favorites? I just watched Love, Actually and I could not believe the role he played!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@WaterGirl: the stage: I saw Fiona Shaw (on Broadway) as Medea, and wow. Sure, the role is a strong one, but just wow.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: What is Father Ted about? Looks like it’s on Prime, which I have.
You talked about possibly starting 19-2, did you?
John S.
@WaterGirl:
I assumed the critique was that people were only including American actors. So people started including some non-Americans (of which there are many excellent actors).
This turned out to be a very fun thread.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: Yes. I don’t remember the details but I thought Insomnia was very good as well.
TONYG
@HopefullyNotcassandra: “She is an exceptionally good actress, whose beauty often stood in her way.” I think that that often happens with very attractive women in fields other than acting. The straight men are sometimes too busy checking her out to pay attention to her work. (Yes, men are basically dogs.)
Craig
@Mr. Bemused Senior: he’s great in a small role in the underrated Frankenhiemer movie Ronin.
John S.
@WaterGirl:
It’s an Irish comedy that takes place in a parrish on a tiny island.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Apparently Leslie Nielsen was always an incorrigible practical joker on set, even when he was the stalwart leading man. I think he’d always known he was destined for comedy.
I’ve had it pointed out that even his straight lead role in Forbidden Planet has a comic quality to it–he ties himself in knots trying to keep his horny crewmen away from the Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter (Anne Francis!), only to inevitably fall for her himself.
Of course all that is a hundred kinds of problematic–once I got cast in a never-realized attempt to do a radio-drama adaptation of Forbidden Planet that foundered, in part, on the adaptor’s desire to make the romance plot less cringey and sexist and not being able to crack it.
Craig
@WaterGirl: He and Bill Nighy light it up in the small comedy Blow Dry.
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: Yes. One Hour Photo was chilling. Robin Williams was immensely talented.
TONYG
@schrodingers_cat: Absolutely. Everybody wanted those Nazi scientists. (The Japanese war criminals also “helped” with the American side of the Cold War.)
Elizabelle
Love that Alan Rickman was mentioned. Good in everything.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I’ve been restraining myself.
I don’t think he’s the greatest actor in the world. But he’s very good!
Craig
@Mr. Bemused Senior: she rules in Andor. If I see she’s in the cast it is 99% guaranteed to be good.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I like him in Sense and Sensibility. Haven’t seen him in much else (and he’s hatable in Love Actually!).
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
It’s ok if you want to gush over Alan Rickman. My wife will happily join you.
zhena gogolia
@John S.: It’s Richard Armitage I’d be gushing over.
Elizabelle
@Chris: Love James Mason. And was thinking of the Clean Wehrmacht in another earlier context today.
WaterGirl
@NeenerNeener: @comrade scotts agenda of rage:
What you suggested gave me an idea for next week’s Medium Cool. thank you!
WaterGirl
@Ajabu: Nice to see you! Sad for you again about the loss of your good friend.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
Thorin Oakenshield himself!
zhena gogolia
@John S.: Yep. “Dragon!”
But my favorite role of his is North and South.
And he was a very good Dr. Astrov in Uncle Vanya.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: hahaha
WaterGirl
@John S.: Wow. Not what I would have guessed, but maybe I’ll try it anyway. thanks
WaterGirl
@John S.: You sound so surprised! :-)
NotMax
@WaterGirl
A gentle whodunnit.
kalakal
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
And to me he will always be Lebel
in Day of the Jackal hunting a cold as ice Edward Fox
kalakal
Timothy Dalton is very good in everything I’ve seen him in.
Whether it be comedy Hot Fuzz, action adventure The Rocketeer, super spy James Bond, or classic roles such as Rochester in Jane Eyre he was really good.
For sheer manic, over the top, give me Tim Curry in his heyday, Rocky Horror. Clue.
Has anyone mentioned Donald Sutherland? Definitely a class act, though I’ll probably remember him best as Oddball in Kelley’s Heroes
kalakal
@WaterGirl:
It’s a somewhat surreal comedy set on a tiny Irish island . very, very funny
Not started 19-2 yet, working through Will Trent which I’m really enjoying
John S.
@WaterGirl:
I would say more relieved. I thought people would bring the rest of this blog’s bullshit into this thread given the events of the day, but I am very glad this did not happen!
Wil
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Charlize Theron saying her beauty stood in her way is like a very rich person complaining about all the bags of money he keeps tripping over.
She may be an ‘exceptional actress’ but my post wasn’t about anybody’s acting ability.
Chris
@kalakal:
Dalton is the most underrated of the Bond actors.
Craig
@kalakal: Timothy Dalton in Flash Gordon, so good. He’s great in Penny Dreadful too. It’s full of good actors. Josh Hartnett confuses, he’s good sometimes. Helen McCrory is awesome as a vampire. She was a great actor.
kalakal
@Craig: Never seen Penny Dreadful – would you recommend it?
karen gail
I don’t think I have an all-time favorite actor be they male or female; for me it is about how much they can become the character that they are playing. There are some that have the ability to become that character to the point you no longer see the actor; then there are those who no matter what role they play they are simply being themselves doing that role.
What I find myself missing is the actors who could sing, dance, as well as becoming that character; we have so few that can do that now. I always enjoy those who can perform on Broadway because unlike the movies there are no retakes; so many of the actors I like have done both movies and live theater.
RevRick
My opinions about who are the best actors and actresses of all time are basically worth shit. The same could be said about me judging Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club or selecting a prize winning rose.
Mortimer Adler in Six Great Ideas asserted that Beauty is one of the three ways we judge the world, the others being Truth and Goodness, with Truth being the highest order. And for each of these categories of judgement, there are aesthetic and admirable sides.
One of my parishioners worked in autobody repair. And I listened to him describe his deep satisfaction in restoring the lines of the damaged parts to their original clean lines. What he was telling me was that there’s both an artistry to his work, but also an inner moral imperative of not doing shoddy work.
What I am trying to say is that when it comes to judging actors and actresses, I will defer to those who understand the craft best. My judgment is probably clouded by the eye candy.
NotMax
@kalakal
Seasons 1 & 2, yes.
Anything beyond that, eschew.
Matt McIrvin
@kalakal: I’ve always thought it was interesting that Dalton chose to play Bond so straight and grim, given that he has such a flair for comedy. It’s kind of like Jon Pertwee on Doctor Who–he was mostly a comic actor outside of that role, but his Doctor was possibly the least tongue-in-cheek portrayal ever.
Matt McIrvin
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Charlize Theron’s sheer force of character utterly dominates Mad Max: Fury Road. Tom Hardy’s Max is all right, but he gets demoted to secondary character in a movie named after him, and everyone was fine with that.
kalakal
@Matt McIrvin:
Good point. I thought he was actually really good, but the franchise was sagging at that point and his films were low budget compared to those before and after. I think it may have been a reaction to the Roger Moore ones which were increasingly played for laughs. Dalton came across as grim, serious, and very deadly.
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: The Reckless Moment is good, and Mason in it, though I think of the movie as one of those post-WWII middle-class-housewife-alone pictures. Mason is also great in Odd Man Out.
prostratedragon
@Just look at that parking lot: Character actors are the secret of b&w television. So many very good ones.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
The best take on it I’ve heard is that Max and Furiosa are folk heroes from the same general folklore, who happened to share an adventure one time. Like Robin Hood and Ivanhoe, or Davy Crockett and Mike Fink.
NotMax
@kalakal
Mentioned recently that one of the people the producers approached to play Bond after Connery was Dick van Dyke.
File under Does Not Compute.
kalakal
@NotMax: It must have been his Scottish accent…
prostratedragon
@CItizen Dave:
Was going to say Bruno Ganz in anything, even before I saw the end of the comment. Another one to check out is The American Friend, in which Ennis Hopper plays Ripley. Other (usually) non-English-speaking actors I’ve noticed include Gong Li, Tatsuya Nakadai, Isabelle Huppert, and Tony Leung. But there are many.
Tehanu
Actors: James Mason, Ian Holm, Ralph Richardson, Jean Gabin, Gerard Philipe, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Claude Rains, Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster
Actresses: Amy Adams, Ida Lupino, Frances McDormand, Mary Astor, Irene Dunne, Meryl Streep, Annette Bening, Barbara Stanwyk, Kristin Scott Thomas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Bloom, Judy Davis, Madeline Kahn, Cheryl Campbell, Eileen Atkins
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I can’t believe I didn’t mention Peter Ustinov. Good lord he’s brilliant. The gladiator school guy in ‘Spartacus’ and the old cat guy in the Capitol Rotunda in ‘Logan’s Run’.
Brilliant actor.
kalakal
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
He was an excellent Poirot too. Physically totally wrong but he had the character nailed.
If ever get the chance watch
“An evening with Peter Ustinov”, a masterclass in how to be a raconteur
prostratedragon
@billcinsd: Or either separately.
prostratedragon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Nero in Quo Vadis. The fellow dragooned into the heist in Topkapi.
Gloria DryGarden
Im so so late to this thread. But I do have actors I like so well I seek out anything they’re in.
Meryl Streep, do I have to list movies I lived her in? I haven’t seen them all. Bridges of Madison city, Iron Lady, many more
Frances Mcdormand- first saw her in Fargo, and was blown away
Laurence Fishburne- Othello
Viola Davis The help. but lots of other movies
Matthias Schoenarts Far From the Madding Crowd. A Little Chaos, some films in French, and Dutch. He does so much with just a few shifts in his eyes.
Marion Cotillard too many movies to pick one
Kate winslet
Kristen Scott Thomas- English patient, Horse Whisperer
Scarlett Johansson- I first saw her in the horse whisperer, she was amazing
someone mentioned Judy Davis. I haven’t seen her in much. Wasn’t she in My Brilliant Career, decades ago? I loved that movie, but haven’t looked for her in awhile.
Andrew Scott. He had such a range of expressiveness. I think over time, he’ll be seen as one of the greats. All of us Strangers. The sea wall
Viggo Mortenson. It’s interesting to watch him act in French, spanish, Arabic. He’s just interesting.
Heath ledger (did he have to die so young?) I first saw him in “Casanova “
Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver starred together in Snow Pancakes. Both of them could convey so much emotion and character in just one line, or a flicker of a facial expression.
montanareddog
I would tag Jimmy Stewart because, if you look at his filmography, I don’t think any other actor has been in as many canonical movies, worked with so many different great directors, or been able to succeed in such a wide variety of genres – comedy, thrillers, westerns, straight drama, war.
After his apprenticeship, he really broke through in 1939-1940 with Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Little Shop around the Corner, The Philadelphia Story. After his war service – too many classics to list but directors – another Capra, several Hitchcocks, Wilder, the Anthony Mann westerns, Ford, Preminger, Aldrich.
A truly amazing career.
prostratedragon
Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z, The Conformist, Red)
Gian Maria Volonte (Todo Modo, spaghetti Westerns)
Marcello Mastroianni, too many to name, but also a standout in Todo Modo.
Odd note: three principle actors in Z died in 2022 — Trintignant, Irene Pappas, and Jacques Perrin.
RA
For so many reasons I gave up any interest in movies, actors, actresses, and all the garbage that surrounds them, promotes them and produces them.
TONYG
@RA: My wife and I try to see one or two “good” movies each year (usually not American movies) but for the last few decades they’re churning out formulaic garbage. Maybe the whole industry will soon be replace by “AI”, because “AI” is good at mimicking mediocrity.
tsquared2001
Far too many of the men pictured are not actually actors. Johnny Depp could have been one but he fell in love with stupid accents and makeup instead of acting. I’ll never forgive him for his Tonto portrayal but when working with actresses like Juliette Binoche in Chocolat, Depp has to up his game.
Add Bruce Willis (his best work will always be Moonlight before he took himself so seriously). Sly Stone stole EVERYTHING from Marlon Brando about his “craft”. Tom Cruise is an amuse bouche, along with James Gandolfini, Samuel Jackson, and Jason Statham.
The only true actors pictured are Jack Nicholson (he has made his share of crap but it was still acting crap), Robert Deniro (Flawless wasn’t actually his movie but Philip Seymour Hoffman couldn’t have done it without Bobby D supporting him), and Morgan Freeman (Street Smart showed Hollywood what they had been missing).
Kosh III
David Tennant, Michael Hogan, Kathryn Hepburn and although she was often over the top: Marjorie Main.
Juju
I am late to this and it was fun and interesting to read everyone’s opinions, but I’m surprised, and I may be wrong, but no one mentioned Robert Duval. He is a favorite actor of mine, and handsome in his younger days. He was excellent in “The Great Santinni” and just about everything else he has bee in.
When I started reading there were a little over 100 comments. Someone may have added him between in the mean time.