Self explanatory thread title.
When I first throught of this, I was going to say Johnny Depp for being able to go from Gilbert Grape to Edward Scissorhands to Jack Sparrow. But then I thought the better choice would be Hugh Laurie, for being able to get from the lovable Bertie Wooster all the way to the cantankerous House.
Gary Oldman - sometimes you can’t even recognize him from role to role.
Dustin Hoffman comes to mind. From Willie Loman, to Rainman and Ratso Rizo and throw in Little Big Man not to mention Benjemin Braddock in the graduate.
Brando had a very wide range, but you really have to go back to his youth to see it. What with Stanley K. in Streetcar Named Desire and the Wild Ones and Scoundrels with David Nevin and as Marc Anthony in Julius Caesar.
And Alec Geniss (sorry about the spelling there) with Bridge of River Kwai, the Lady Killers, Star Wars – very wide range.
In the silent era you’ve got to say Lon Chaney. Each character was different and unique (sorry about being redundent).
Jack Nicholson has to be up there. He has well proven himself in everything from drama (A Few Good Men, Terms of Endearment) to comedy (Mars Attacks) to horror (The Shining).
I’ve always thought George C. Scott could make a huge difference with very subtle changes in his performance. Watch him in Patton and Dr. Strangelove; it’s almost the same character but one of them serious and the other hysterically funny.[sup]*[/sup]
And probably not what you had in my by ‘range’, but I can think of an actor who played charaters that were french, english, american, german, chinese and indian.
Figuring out which is which is left as an exercise for the reader.
He’s a great example, too, because of the way he’s made himself sound so American in House. I didn’t even realize that was him until I heard his name mentioned.
You know at first I was going to say, “rats, you beat me to it!” but actually I’m happy that Gary Oldman was the first person mentioned after the OP. He is truly the most amorphous and unbelievable actor I know of.
Others I think are fairly versatile: Edward Norton, Geoffrey Rush, Dustin Hoffman, Val Kilmer and Daniel Day-Lewis.
On the actress side - I’d go for Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Christina Ricci, and Charlize Theron.
Believe it or not, I’ll offer up Brad Pitt. Utterly convincing IMO in completely different roles in 12 Monkeys, Kalifornia, Snatch, True Romance, Fight Club, and Se7en.
Actually I’m a little bored, so just from the top of my head:
Gary Oldman Roles —
Sirius Black - perfect guy for this role.
Commissioner Gordon - unbelievable. Simply unbelievable how good he was as the sort of “average upstanding cop among the corrupt”
Creepy Guy in the Wheelchair in Hannibal
Zorg from Fifth Element - fantastic over-the-top role.
The Crooked Cop in the Professional
A romantic Dracula.
Lee Harvey Oswald.
And the bad guy from Air Force One.
Those were just off the top of my head. Actually, now that I look at it - I believe that Gary Oldman might be a better villian player than Alan Rickman. And that’s bloody saying a lot!
I’ll back you up there - I think he’s a good (and versatile) actor. Unfortunately, he’s been fairly well typecast in recent years. The Great Achilles? The ultimate killer/husband in Mr. & Mrs. Smith? Give me the stoner days of True Romance any day.
I’m also pretty high on Leonardo DiCaprio. I think he has developed into quite an actor despite early success and Hollywood overexposure.
Peter Sellers?
Since you left out 2 of my favorite Oldman roles, I’ll add:
Drexl, the pimp in True Romance and Ludvig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved.
I’ll agree with the Gary Oldman callout – he seems to disappear so well into the role that I almost never go, “Hey! That’s Gary Oldman playing <role>!” until after the movie is over.
He also had a role in one of the BMW mini movies as the Devil. Raced Clive Owen and James Brown (godresthissoul).
Ah, yes yes - just forgot those. Fantastic.
Ben Kingsley?
From Gandhi to Sexy Beast, and all over the place in between.
Cillian Murphy has a weird range of roles.
Another one for Gary Oldham. He was great in Tiptoes as well.
Denzel Washington. I didn’t think he could play a villian, but Training Day proved me wrong.
Kevin Bacon is surprisingly good in a variety of roles.
Jeff Bridges has played a tremendous variety of roles in his thirty-plus years of acting.
Russell Crowe needs to expand his body of work, but Gladiator, Master and Commander, and Cinderella Man are some examples of the variety of roles he can take on, inhabiting the character.
Robert Duvall is another of those actors who just vanishes into the role. You never see him and roll your eyes, thinking “Robert Duvall playing Robert Duvall again.”
And I’ll second this. I read a description of him once that seemed right on target: a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body. He’s a decent comic actor as well as a dramatic one. I almost can’t wait for his looks to fade a bit, to see what he can do with some more meaty roles.
Actresses, I like Emma Thompson. She’s done a fair variety of roles and though she’s occasionally stumbled into a rut genre-wise, she’s pretty damn versatile.