And the award goes to Hugo Weaving as V in V For Vendetta: the Wachowski brothers had the good sense to stick with David Lloyd’s iconic mask design, but I swear that Weaving gave the damn thing expressions.
Runner up? Peter Wyngarde’s uber-louche drawling as Klytus in * Flash Gordon*: “Interesting girl. I think she found it rather enjoyable”.
Where’s the love for Darth Vader?
Andy Serkis as Gollum.
I opened this thread to hand the award to Hugo as V as well, so good job OP 
It’s freaky how he give that lifeless mask life.
John Hurt got an Oscar nomination for his performance as John Merrick, in The Elephant Man.
Terrible, watch him over-acting dreadfully as he shakes his finger in Princess Leia’s face.
Also agreed, fantastic performance, in both voice and mannerisms.
Interesting factoid: Some of the scenes in the final film are actually from the original actor chosen for V, and no Hugo.
The question is: do you nominate David Prowse? I think not. Do you nominate James Earl Jones? Then you might as well nominate every other voice over actor in the world. Do you nominate Hayden Christensen?
:ducks and runs:
Yep…good to see great minds thinking alike. I was coming in to say Hugo Weaving as well…
Question: Does Motion Capture count? (Woundn’t think so)
If it did, the Award would be a tie for me between Doug Jones (Pan’s Labrynth) and Andy Serkis (R.O.T.P.O.T.A.)
She “died of a broken heart”, followed by her space doctor’s credibility.
Mary Tyler Moore.
Great legs.
In FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the actor playing Blofeld gives a marvellous performance, although his face is never seen. He radiates evil. I think it’s a different actor in THUNDERBALL, but that guy also does a very threatening job.
Technically, many of Gollum’s expressions are that of Serkis which were then computer-transmogrified. He probably still qualifies in a broad sense.
“Hello, this is Carlton, your doorman…”
I’ll nominate Jeremy Bulloch as Boba Fett in ESB and (original, not SE) RotJ.
The winner by quite a bit, for me.
Here he is performing the role, with the final version below it.
Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory.
Not a best, but Mila Kunis’ first film role was in Krippendorf’s Tribe. Her face wasn’t seen but her voice was unmistakeable.
+1
Edward Norton as Baldwin IV in Kingdom of Heaven.