# Actors and Actresses Signature Film
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 9, 2001, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433 "2001-10-09T22:56:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/21 "2001-10-11T03:03:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Zoggie \*
> \*\ ***Shirley Ujest** - He’s in the new FOX TV show (don’t know what’s happened to it, though), “24.” \*\*
I saw promos for it tonight. It got delayed because of the attack. I think it comes out before November.
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### Author:  [@Limerick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limerick)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/22 "2001-10-11T05:14:04Z")
OK, how about a real challenge? Tom Skerrit (sp?)?
He’s been in every damn thing ever made.
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### Author:  [@frock75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frock75)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/23 "2001-10-11T05:16:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Limerick \*
> \*\*OK, how about a real challenge? Tom Skerrit (sp?)?
>
> He’s been in every damn thing ever made. \*\*
Poison Ivy
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### Author:  [@Limerick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limerick)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/24 "2001-10-11T05:34:53Z")
You consider that to be his signature film?? Heh.
Sweet lord, I’ll never see \*\* Steel Magnolias \*\* in the same light again.
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### Author:  [@thermalribbon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thermalribbon)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/25 "2001-10-11T18:30:40Z")
[list]
[li] **Robert Duval - Apocalypse Now** [/li][li] **Harvey Keitel - Resevoir Dogs** [/li][li] **James Woods - Once Upon A Time in America** [/li][li] **Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking** [/li][li] **Danny Aiello - Do The Right Thing** [/li][li] **Laurence Fishburne - Boyz 'N the Hood** [/li][li] **Woody Allen - Annie Hall** [/li][li] **John Turturro - Barton Fink** [/li][li] **William Hurt - The Big Chill** [/li][li] **Warren Beatty - Bonnie & Clyde** [/li][li] **Richard Dreyfus - Down And Out in Beverly Hills** [/li][li] **Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest** [/li][li] **Danny DeVito - Ruthless People** [/li][li] **James Garner - The Great Escape** [/li][li] **Joe Mantegna - House of Games** [/li][li] **Donald Sutherland - Ordinary People** [/li][li]\*\*Gabriel Byrne - Miller’s Crossing[/li]
etc…
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### Author:  [@Spoonbender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoonbender)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2001, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/26 "2001-10-12T02:13:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by watsonwil \*
> \*\*What about Tom Hanks? He’s tough. \*\*
Yeah - he’s got an impressive body of work but I agree that Gump seems to be his signature.
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by thermalribbon_
> \*\*Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking
> Richard Dreyfus - Down And Out in Beverly Hills \*\*
I dunno - I might say _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ for Penn and either _Close Encounters_ or _American Graffiti_ for Dreyfuss. And finally:
Haley Joel Osment - _The Sixth Sense_
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### Author:  [@thermalribbon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thermalribbon)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/27 "2001-10-12T04:47:34Z")
I’ll buy _Close Encounters_ for Dreyfuss. I didn’t evern think of that, but now that you mention it, I totally agree.
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### Author:  [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2001, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/28 "2001-10-12T11:38:28Z")
It may not be their best or most famous films, but I always associate the following actors with these films:
Mel Gibson: Mad Max (but Braveheart is a close second)
Robert DeNiro: Raging Bull
Kevin Costner: Bull Durham
Kathy Bates: Misery
Spencer Tracy: Captains Courageous
Katherine Hepburn: Adam’s Rib
Jimmy Stewart: It’s a Wonderful Life
Clint Eastwood: The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Claudette Colbert: It Happened One Night
Charlton Heston: Ben Hur
Val Kilmer: Tombstone
Yul Brenner: The King and I
Jack Lemmon: The Apartment
William Powell: The Thin Man series
Myrna Loy: The Thin Man series
Jamie Lee Curtis: Halloween
and as for the Tom Skeritt question? M_A_S_H_
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### Author:  [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2001, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/29 "2001-10-12T11:40:40Z")
And I forgot to add
Jack Nicholson: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2001, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/30 "2001-10-12T19:04:06Z")
Christopher Reeve - Superman
Morgan Freeman - Lean on Me
Edward James Olmos - Stnad and Deliver
Peter Weller - RoboCop
Denzel Washington - X
John Belushi - Animal House
John Houseman - The Paper Chase
Alicia Silverstone - Clueless
Jason Lee - Mallrats
Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting
Jodie Foster - The Accused
McCauley Culkin - Home Alone
Sam Shepard - The Right Stuff
Steven Seagal - Hard to Kill
Jennifer Beals - Flashdance
Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda
Frances McDormand - Fargo
Nicolas Cage - Raising Arizona
Anthony Michael Hall - 16 Candles … or Weird Science
Judd Nelson - The Breakfast Club
Kevin Costner’s _has_ to be Dances With Wolves.
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### Author:  [@Peta\_Tzunami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peta_Tzunami)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-actresses-signature-film/86433/31 "2001-10-16T14:30:21Z")
Perhaps you could better define “signature film” because some of these actors have a large body of work, and I would be apprehensive to select ONE film as an absolute “signature film.”
For example,
Liam Neeson - best recognized for “Schindler’s List” and “Star Wars Episode I” but one could argue for either Rob Roy or Michael Collins.
Tom Hanks - “Forest Gump” is mentioned, but “Big” is the movie that REALLY broke his successful movie career.
Jack Nicholson - one could easily argue that “The Shining” is Nicholson’s signature film.
It depends on whether you’re defining “signature film” as the film that really brought them to the attention of the mainstream movie-going audience, as the film they are best known for, as the character they are most often associated with, the film that epitomizes the actor or the film that made the most money (box office, video sales or both?). All but the first and last definition here are fairly subjective. And there could be more definitions.
Many of the selections seem both subjective and affected by age (generation)…is that the way the OP was intended, i.e. what role do YOU consider their signature, rather than the more objective what is their signature film?
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