Best Acting performances

In My Humble Opinion
1

In the spirit of the many movie threads out there right now, what are some of your favorite individual performances in the movies? You know, one of those times when the perfect actor has the perfect role and creates a really seminal character and raises the bar for everyone else, completely apart from anything else in the movie. These are some of my favorites:

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in “Silence of the Lambs”
Ian McKellen as Richard III in “Richard III”
Humphrey Bogart as Sam Slade in “The Maltese Falcon”
Bette Davis as Margo Channing in “All About Eve”
Peter Lorre as the murderer in “M”
Rosalind Russell as Mame in “Auntie Mame”

2

Brando “Last Tango in Paris” Like a documentary
Tommy Lee Jones “Fugitive”(badly caricatured ever since)
R. Lee Ernie “Full Metal Jacket” The director’s power?
Jack Nicholson “Chinatown” rare low-key non-scenery chewing
Faye Dunaway “Network” Ice

3

I could Go on all day…

Kevin Spacey - Swimming with Sharks / The Usual Suspects / American Beauty.

Robert De Niro - Raging Bull / Taxi Driver

R. Lee Ermey - Full Metal Jacket.

Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking / State of Grace

Ed Harris - The Truma Show / State of Grace

Gary Oldman - State of Grace

Jim Carrey - The Truman Show / Man on the Moon

Haley Joel Osmont - The Sixth Sense.

John Turtorro - Everything he’s ever been in, the man’s a genius, namely Quiz Show and Millers Crossing.

Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney - Reservoir Dogs.

Tom Cruise - Born on the Fourth of July / Magnolia

Anthony Hopkins - Remains of the Day / Silence of the Lambs / Legends of the Fall

And loads more I can’t remember at the moment.

4

Best single performance: Denzel Washington as Trip in Glory. Awe-inspiring.

Best ensemble performance: Guy Pearce as Ed Exley, Russell Crowe as Bud White, and Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes, L.A. Confidential.

Honorable mentions:

Humphrey Bogart as LTC Philip F. Queeg, The Caine Mutiny.

Burt Lancaster as Ernst Janning, Judgment at Nuremberg.

Emma Thompson as Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing.

Alan Rickman as The Interrogator, Closet Land.

Mel Gibson as Tom Mullin, Ransom.

Angela Bassett as Mace Mason, Strange Days.

Claude Raines as Louis Renault, Casablanca.

Lou Gossett, Jr. as Fiddler, Roots. (No one specified theatrical performances).

Peter Ustinov as Captain Vere, Billy Budd.

George C. Scott. No need to mention the role, everybody knows it.

Henry Fonda as Frank, Once Upon A Time In The West

Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, Double Indemnity.

Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth, Schindler’s List.

Peter O’Toole and Peter Strauss, Masada (TV again).

Whoopi Goldberg as Celie, The Color Purple.

I second others’ choice of Anthony Hopkins, Bette Davis, and Rosalind Russell.

5

Naturally, I can’t avoid having repeats of others’ choices:
Bette Davis in All About Eve

Kevin Spacey in Wiseguy and Swimming with Sharks

Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List

Robert De Niro in The Godfather, Part II, and Taxi Driver

Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man

John Hurt in The Elephant Man and I, Claudius

Derek Jacobi in I, Claudius

Nancy Marchand in The Sopranos

Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day and The Silence of the Lambs

6

Rosalind Russell in “Auntie Mame”.
Ian Mckellan in “Richard III”.
Anthony Hopkins in every movie I’ve ever seen with him.
Basil Rathbone in his Sherlock Holmes movies.
The entire cast of “Dr. Strangelove”.
The guy who played Merlin in “Excalibur”.

Oddly enough, one of the best pieces of acting I have ever seen was in a low-budget kung-fu flick. In the final fight sequence in “Return of the Dragon”, There is a scene where Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris pause and exchange glances. Neither one says a word, but you know exactly what both characters are thinking.

7

Leonardo DiCaprio in any of his roles (particularly Gilbert Grape and Basketball Diaries)

Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man

Jim Carrey in Liar Liar, Man on the Moon, and The Truman Show

Kevin Spacey in American Beauty

8

Absolutely.

Also:

Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.

Robert De Niro in Awakenings.

Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice.

Wes Bentley in American Beauty.

Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle.

Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. (Bite me. A sexy man who can dance and make sweet love until the roosters crow? Sign me up!)

[Edited by slythe on 12-12-2000 at 10:53 PM]

9

Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting (didn’t he win like an award for that or something?)

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting

Mel Gibson, Braveheart

Richard Dreyfuss, Always

Michael Keaton, My Life and Desperate Measures

Ed Norton, American History X

Tom Hanks, Philadelphia

Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator (I know, everyone else hated him because of the character he played. But that speaks volumes for how well he brought Commedus to life.)

John Cusack, High Fidelity and Say Anything (One of my all time favorites. Lloyd Dobler? That’s me. Only not in High School)
Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade

Michael Douglas, Falling Down and similarly,

Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone

Rodney A. Grant, Dances With Wolves. Man, what a powerful performance as Wind in His Hair.

More later… maybe.

10

[sub]just checking to see if y’all were’ paying attention…[/sub]

Derek Jacobi or Robert Duvall in anything they’re in.

Anthony Hopkins, too (even in blackface as Othello).

11

Duvall, anything, yep.
DeNiro, Taxi Driver, yep.
Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs, yep.

Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously.

Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs.

Samuel Jackson, Pulp Fiction.

(Christopher Walken deserves mention for simply keeping a straight face during his own scene in Pulp Fiction.)

Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke.

Angela Bassett, What’s Love Got to Do With It.

Several folks mentioned R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket. The role was great but not much of a stretch for him. He had been a USMC drill instructor.

12

That would be Nichol Williamson.

I agree that was a very good performance. The thing that appeals to me is that Phoenix seemed to understand how Commodus became evil, and express it in the movie. Envy has just eaten away at his soul until there’s not much human left in it.

[quote]
Originally posted by Lexicon
**

IMO, far and away Douglas’ best performance. I liked him in several other '80s movies also, like The Star Chamber, and Wall Street. But judging by The Ghost and the Darkness and A Perfect Murder, he just sleepwalks through his roles now.

13

Louise Fletcher - One Flew over The Cuckoo’s Nest

DeNiro - Awakenings and Cape Fear

Ray Liotta - GoodFellas

Pacino - The Devil’s Advocate & Scent of A Woman

Russell Crowe - Everything I’ve seen him in (hubba hubba)

Tom Hanks - Apollo 13

Kevin Bacon - Murder in the First

Tom Cruise - Born on the Fourth of July & Interview with the Vampire

Brad Pitt - Kalifornia

John Malkovich - Dangerous Liaisons & Con Air

John Lithgow - Raising Cain

Ed Harris - The Rock

Anthony Hopkins - DUH! Silence of the Lambs

Jodie Foster - The Accused and Silence of the Lambs

Matt Damon - The Talented Mr Ripley

Giovanni Ribsi - Boiler Room

14

Nichol Williamson was AT LEAST as good in the BBC’s production of Macbeth as he was in Excalibur. I highly recommend that anyone who likes either Nichol Wiliamson’s acting or Shakespeare, check out the BBC version of Macbeth.

[Excalibur hijack]

As to Excalibur, having seen it numerous times, I remember writing a letter to someone and having it on in the background and hearing THAT VOICE.

No, not Williamson’s. Patrick Stewart’s. I hadn’t seen the movie since Star Trek:TNG debuted, and the previous times I’d seen Excalibur, I didn’t even know who Patrick Stewart was!
[/Excalibur hijack]

15

Brad Pitt in Twelve Monkeys

16

Jack Lemmon in GlenGarry GlenRoss , in a movie filled with great acting his stands out.

17

John Travolta in “Get Shorty”.

18

Johnny Depp in “Don Juan DeMarco”. I know, you think its cheezy, but its the first movie I remember seeing and realizing what an art acting can be.

/hijack/Besides that, he’s got that dark, dangerous look that I always go for./end hijack

19

In addition to the above mentioned:

Frances McDormand in Fargo

Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen

Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot

Jimmy Stewart in Harvey

Sidney Poitier in Raisin In The Sun

Alec Guiness in damned near anything

Same with Anthony Hopkins

And in the category for surmounting their type-casting:

Marilyn Monroe in Stagecoach

John Wayne in True Grit

Veb

20

Anthony Hopkins for all the movies he’s already been mentioned in.

John Hurt in The Elephant Man and Scandal

Derek Jacobi in most everything, but yes, I Claudius and the narrator in Henry V. Limited role, the latter, but great.

Kenneth Branagh in the title role of Henry V. I used Henry’s before battle prayer as an audition piece after seeing the movie. “Oh God of battles, steel my soldiers hearts…”

Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. That movie is only one of two to win all five top Academy Awards. Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Producer.