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.
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.
**Chris Cooper ** plays an great ‘every day’ man.
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.
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.
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.
You forgot the guy going by that name in Gangs of New York.