Best actors, list your top 10

First topic message reminder :

Again, just do what the title says. You probably won't have to state why as some are so obvious, but here goes anyway;

1. Robert De Niro

2. Liam Neeson

3. Denzel Washington

4. Sir Anthony Hopkins

5. Heath Ledger

6. Clint Eastwood

7. Sean Connery

8. Bruce Willis

9. Christian Bale

10. Johnny Depp

As you may be able to tell I like the actors who come across serious, voice is important, helps with De Niro being the number one. I also appreciate the ones that can really throw themself into the character and vary their acting for different persona's in different films; with that said I think Bruce Willis can cry too much!

I was thinking about his departed selection. I only watched it the other day. Damon is like damon times 10 in that film. Possibly his best performance- But he is certainly not a versitile actor..

His ESOTSM and American phsco picks are quality roles though.

My fav Gosling is in DRIVE.

My fav Leonardio is probally basketball diaries or the one were he is a con man staring with Tom hanks(cant think)- but he was very good in the departed as well.

Catch me if u can

Thats the one

Smirnoffpriest wrote:Surely if you're going to pick Spacey then his performance in The Usual Suspects is his tour-de-force performance?

I'd argue that Spacey's finest hour (or two) is in Swimming With Sharks. Terrific movie. His character is scathing yet very funny and has some of the best put-down lines in film history.

He's also excellent in LA Confidential (a film with many brilliant performances).

Among current actors, in no particular order (and apologies if they've already been mentioned):

Kevin Bacon
Kenneth Brannagh
Guy Pearce
Dustin Hoffman
Eric Bana
David Strathairn
Kevin Spacey
Paddy Considine
Gary Oldman
Tim Roth

In any particular order.

Will Smith (Ali)
Denzel Washington (Training Day)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond/Catch Me If You Can)
Tom Hardy (The Take/Warrior)
Brad Pitt (Snatch/Oceans 11/Fight Club)
Al Pacino (Scarface/Any Given Sunday)
Bruce Willis (Die hard)
Mark Wahlberg (The Departed/ 4Brothers)
John Travolta ( Pulp Fiction)
Robert DeNiro (Casino)

Not in any order.(Favourite performance)

Al Pacino(Dog day afternoon/Glengarry Glen Ross)
Bob Denerio(Casino)
Denzel Washington(Training day)
Leo Dicaprio(Catch me if u can)
Dustin Hoffman(Midnight Cowboy)
Jack Nicholson(As good as it gets)
Christopher Walken(True Romance)
Philip Seymour Hoffman(Owning Mahowny/Along came Polly)
Johnny Depp(Edward scissor hands)
Brad Pitt(Snatch)

Sir Anthony Hopkins just missing out

I never thought I'd see the day when Markie Mark was in a Top 10 actors list!

Toshiro Mifune (Stray Dog, High & Low)
Peter Sellers (Pink Panther, Dr Strangelove)
James Stewart (Vertigo, Mr Smith Goes to Washington)
Daniel Day Lewis (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father)
Tony Leung (Chungking Express, Infernal Affairs)
Klaus Kinski (Aguirre Wrath of God)
Henry Fonda (12 Angry Men, Once Upon A Time in the West)
Paul Newman (Hustler, Cool Hand Luke)
Jack Nicholson (Chinatown)
Vincent Cassel (La Haine)

In no particular order,these are the actors who i love to watch they have all made some fantastic films.

1. Denzel Washington.

2.Morgan Freeman.

3.Tom Hanks.

4.Robert De Niro.

5.Jack Nicholson.

6.Jim Carrey.

7.Kiefer Sutherland.

8.Christian Bale.

9.Jonny Depp

10.Robert Downey.JR

Good call Das on Tony Leung, Internal Affairs is a great film (The Departed was the remake). I really need to see La Haine it's meant to be awesome and quite heavy, but haven't got around to it - as much as I love Vincent Cassel, I avoided some of his French films after seeing Irreversible, great film but so harsh and psychologically affecting it kinda made me not want to see films that harsh again. But I fell back in love with Cassel films with Mesrine

Yeah Tony Leung I find is a often overlooked actor, he has down some wonderful films and performances through the years. I personally find Infernal affairs to be far better than the Departed, Scorcese and the script writer made a real hatchet job I thought. Then again I've never seen the fascination with DiCaprio either, find him to be more often than not quite terrible with a few decent performances down the years.

I love all those Cassel films but I can definitely see what your saying with Irreversible. Though its a favourite of mine as not only do you get Cassel you get his stunning wife Monica added in. La Haine is well worth he watch if you get the time, for me its his best piece of work.

Tom Cruise deserves a mention imo

True but then he does seem to play similar parts mostly. I do like him, and the obvious exception is his part in Tropic Thunder, which was awesome.

And Collateral

My fav tom cruise is in magnolia!

He is just bat crazy in it- probally kinda like who he really is i suppose

Smirnoffpriest wrote:True but then he does seem to play similar parts mostly. I do like him, and the obvious exception is his part in Tropic Thunder, which was awesome.

He plays a rock star in Rock of Ages which is a very different role, but one of his good ones as well. While the rest of the film was a bit 'meh', he was really good in that role.

I ain't seen that, is it worth seeing? (I'll prob see it anyway but it's always good to know how much effort it's worth).

Smirnoffpriest wrote:I ain't seen that, is it worth seeing? (I'll prob see it anyway but it's always good to know how much effort it's worth).

Not really...

It's just a bit 'meh', it's not an especially bad film, just not really worth it.

I see, like most Adam Sandler films then?

I guess I'll just wait for an opportunity when it's one and I'm around rather than going out of my way to watch it.

Well it's an 80s rock musical, I wasn't that big on most of the songs in the film and it has an unnecessary romance angle with an annoying female lead. Tom Cruise and his manager (Paul Giamtti) as well as Alec Baldwin and Russel Brand are the best parts, but they are secondary to the stupid romantic angle.

It's a common thing these days for films to feel obliged to put in a romance angle, even when it's just not needed.

Favourites rather than best and in no particular order.

Al Pacino
Robert De-Niro
Harrison Ford
Daniel Day Lewis
Denzel Washington
Bill Murray
Bruce Willis (for die hard)
Tom Hanks
Gene Hackman
Clint Eastwood

Great topic. Hard to pick yen but i gave it a go. In no particular order and there are a few i could have changed.

Gene Wilder.
John Cusack.
Paul Newman.
Gregory Peck.
Geoffrey Rush.
Gene Hackman.
Brendan Gleeson.
Michael Douglas.
Kevin Spacey.
Rob de Niro.

Michael Caine
Anthony Hopkins
Brad Pitt
Leonardo Di Caprio
Kevin Spacey
Denzel Washington
Christoper Walken
Michael Fassbender
Ryan Gosling
Vincent Cassell

Again no order

Denzel Washington
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Jack Nicholson
Edward Norton
Leonardo Di Caprio
Al Pacino
Johnny Depp
Sam Rockwell
Tom Hardy
Brad Pitt (10th, that much I can say)

Honourable Mention: Heath Ledger, no doubt he'd make the top 10 if he hadn't passed away so soon...

SharkSoul wrote:Michael Caine
Anthony Hopkins
Brad Pitt
Leonardo Di Caprio
Kevin Spacey
Denzel Washington
Christoper Walken
Michael Fassbender
Ryan Gosling
Vincent Cassell

That's a nice list Shark

Though I'm yet to be entirely sold on Fassbender and it's a bit soon for Gosling

In no particular order.

Robert Downey Jr,
Guy Pearce,
Christian Bale,
Johnny Depp,
Brad Pitt,
Alan Rickman,
Billy Bob Thornton,
Pete Posthelwaite,
Paul Newman,
Matt Damon.

Appreciated smirnoffpriest.

Not to sure if you have seen some of Goslings earlier work such as Half Nelson, Lars and the Real Girl or Blue Valentine but I would recommend all three.

As for Fassbender the same can be said, check out Hunger and Shame. I agree it is early in his career but I like what he has done and I think he will go on to be an all time great.

love shame and hunger.

fassbender, hardy and gosling are my fav3 young actors.

The english actor that is gonna play Superman is also supposedly the nuts an all..

will be interesting to see him

1. Michael Douglas...
2. Gerard Depardieu
3. Richard Burton
4. Walter Matthau
5. Ian Charleson (Terror at the opera, Chariots of fire)
6. Michael Caine
7. Carl Weathers
8. John Saxon
9. TOM BERENGER
10. Meg Ryan

in no particular order...

Al Pacino
Orson Welles
Clint Eastwood
Michael Caine
James Stewart
Sean Penn
Robert de Niro
Anthony Hopkins
Henry Fonda
Daniel Day Lewis

and actresses

Katherine Hepburn
Helena Bonham-Carter
Meryl Streep
Elizabeth Taylor
Judy Dench
Lauren Bacall
Barbara Stanwyck
Olivia de Havilland
Rita Hayworth
Ingrid Bergman

So many great, talented, modern actors / actresses just miss my list... but I tend to favour the classic 20th C ones.

also in no particular order:

john turturro
tim roth
henry fonda
christopher walken
kevin spacey
marlon brando
jon goodman
steve buscemi
stephen graham
billy bob thornton

frances mcdormand
audrey hepburn
christina ricci
chloe sevigny
faye dunaway
winona ryder
holly hunter
natalie portman
jennifer jason leigh
reese witherspoon

There's some real gems in your lists, Galted.

These top 10 lists are very hard to put together.

Just read your reviews in the 'recently watched' thread. Carey Mulligan has got a certain style and class. Early days yet but she will go very far I believe.

Thanks lb, don't mean to have a big love-in but was inspired by yours. Agree how hard they are to compile, could probably name completely different ones next week. Decided while bored at work a couple of years back to compile a top 1000 film list which was a bit ambitious & turned into a top 108 but even that's subject to continual inner-strife.

I put this in the "too hard" basket...just read Linebreaker's list and thought , pretty hard to argue with ...then thought , what about Richard Burton ...and Audrey Hepburn...
But who would I leave out ?

As I say , just too hard...

lbs list is good. But i would have to take out caine and eastwood- and stick in more versitile actors like oldman and kingsley.

There are two types of actors out there IMO. versitile ones and ones that just have an amazing screen presence(more likely to be on my fav actors list!)

A top 10 is to hard for these lists I allways go over

Fair enough mysti.
I should have had Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Gary Oldman in there... and Audrey.. Debbie Reynolds and even Shirley Temple.

still a good list- many are in my top ten..

Just saw lincoln- another completley chamelion performance by DDL..

It's uncanny how he sort of naturally looks like Abe... well sort of?

I'm about to read O'Reilly's book on him (also the JFK one). Not a huge fan of O'Reilly - he's a bit wound up to say the least - but I hear he's a damn good writer. Will definitely go and see the film.

The most frighteningly realistic portrayal I've seen was Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy - played him better than Sid played himself.