# Actors with the Greatest Range **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2007, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333 "2007-01-31T22:26:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/61 "2007-02-02T12:28:31Z")
Can I toss in **Hugh Jackman** and say that he isn’t over the top and scene chewing, but he is a solid performance even in the dreckiest peices of shit. He’s won a tony on Broadway, been a rat, a penguin, a magician, a time traveler (twice) and wolverine. I’d also like to throw in Gary Sinese. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/62 "2007-02-11T08:48:52Z")
Miranda Richardson who’s contributed so much in movies,t.v.and stage to do her justice but two extremes of character were the Irish terrorist in The Crying Game and the comic “Jolly Hockeysticks” accent of Elizabeth in Blackadder. It is so refreshing nowadays to watch someone who can actually act and BE different characters. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/63 "2007-02-11T10:32:38Z")
\*\*Chris Cooper \*\* plays an great ‘every day’ man. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/64 "2007-02-11T10:49:48Z")
There are at least four actors who call themselves Daniel Day-Lewis: one in _My Left Foot_, another in _My Beautiful Launderette_, yet a third in _The Last Of The Mohicans_, and the fourth in _The Age Of Innocence_. There may well be more of him out there. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/65 "2007-02-11T11:16:51Z")
I’d say Alfred Molina - I never spot him in a movie until the end - he has a real ability to appear to be from any number of countries- English, South American or middle eastern. I also can’t work out whether he’ll be a goodie or a baddie, which for me is another mark of someone who never plays to type. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/66 "2007-02-11T13:19:08Z")
I can’t believe that we have gotten into the second page of this thread and none of you have mentioned **Gary Oldman**. "Gary Oldman is the best actor in the world. There are a lot of excellent actors, but very cerebral. They need six months to get the sense of the thing. If the guy has to be a garbage collector, he [the actor] has to be a garbage collector for half a year and all that bullshit. With Gary, if you say you’ve got to play a garbage collector he’ll ask what time we start shooting tomorrow and can he play it. Right away. No other actor in the world can do that … " --Director Luc Besson to Empire, July 1997. For me, you can define Oldman’s range in two films, **True Romance** and **JFK**. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333/67 "2007-02-11T15:38:24Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] There are at least four actors who call themselves Daniel Day-Lewis: one in _My Left Foot_, another in _My Beautiful Launderette_, yet a third in _The Last Of The Mohicans_, and the fourth in _The Age Of Innocence_. There may well be more of him out there. [/QUOTE] You forgot the guy going by that name in _Gangs of New York_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-greatest-range/390333.md?page=3)