# Two greatest actors of the 20th century **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714 "2010-05-08T02:32:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/21 "2010-05-10T09:46:32Z")
No love for Laurence Olivier or Alec Guiness? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/22 "2010-05-10T11:45:03Z")
Movies only? Men: Jimmy Stewart Warren Oates Women: Meryl Streep Sissy Spacek ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/23 "2010-05-10T12:56:36Z")
Male- Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman. Female- Meryll Streep and Jodie Foster. Other- Jaye Davidson and Linda Hunt ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/24 "2010-05-10T16:08:12Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Bearing in mind that the OP asked for the greatest actors **of the twentieth century** , Kate Winslet is a highly questionable choice. Her career started in the 90s and she did some fine work but her best work has been since 2000. She was terrific in the 90s; she’s been knocking it out of the park since the turn of the century. She was phenomenal in her first feature role, _Heavenly Creatures_, and did the best portrayal of Ophelia I’ve seen in Branaugh’s _Hamlet_. While Jane Austen stories aren’t generally to my taste, she very clearly stood up to the more experienced _Emma Thompson_, and was the best thing about _Holy Smoke_ and the histrionic _Quills_. If anything, I’d have to say that were 20th Century output, as limited as it is, was consistently better than her post-2001 films in which the only real standout roles were in _Iris_ and _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_. I haven’t seen _The Reader_ or _Revolutionary Road_ so I can’t comment on that, but the rest of her work this decade has been largely indifferent to awful; even she couldn’t sell _The Life of David Gale_. > [@Quartz](#): > > No love for Laurence Olivier or Alec Guiness? See post #10. Olivier was really a stage actor, and when he came to doing more naturalistic roles in film that weren’t play adaptations he always seemed a little stiff and stagey. Guinness, on the other hand, is the consummate character actor who could disappear completely into a role. I think his best work was in the little seen but highly topical _The Prisoner_, and his role as aged spymaster and weary cuckold George Smiley in the BBC mini-series adaptation of John Le Carré’s _Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy_ and the sequel _Smiley’s People_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/25 "2010-05-10T16:57:53Z")
Men: Jack Lemmon Russell Crowe Women: Meryl Streep Judi Dench Others who came thisclose to making the cut: Daniel Day-Lewis, Helen Mirren, James Stewart, Marlon Brando, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edie Falco, Ian McShane, Gary Oldman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, James Gandolfini, John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Christopher Plummer ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/26 "2010-05-10T19:26:35Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > No love for Laurence Olivier or Alec Guiness? > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > See post #10. And post #11. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/27 "2010-05-10T19:50:58Z")
“Greatest Actor” is a tough one, mostly because I know so little about stage acting in the epoch. “Greatest Film Actor” is easier, I suppose: Humphrey Bogart Jack Nicholson For a while it looked like DeNiro and Hoffman would have taken these honors, but the work just hasn’t been there. Were I to list my two personal favorites, I’d say John Wayne and Boris Karloff. Both had vastly underrated range, but I’d be a fool to say they were actually better than the names above. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/28 "2010-05-10T21:48:40Z")
Contenders: Paul Newman Robert Redford Gene Hackman Dustin Hoffman Phillip Seymour Hoffman Robert DeNiro Al Pacino Marlon Brando Alec Guiness Laurence Olivier Humphrey Bogart Jack Nicolson Jack Lemmon Tom Hanks Gary Oldman James Cagney … Man…there’s a lot. Is that even half the likely suspects? Anyway, for my money - Nicolson and DeNiro Women would be - Hepburn and Streep (Seems like they’ve mostly seperated themselves from the pack). ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/29 "2010-05-10T22:12:45Z")
I haven’t watched many old movies, so I’ll go with Oldman and DeNiro. And I think Tom Hanks is terrible. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714/30 "2010-05-11T12:17:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Bearing in mind that the OP asked for the greatest actors **of the twentieth century** , Kate Winslet is a highly questionable choice. Her career started in the 90s and she did some fine work but her best work has been since 2000. She was terrific in the 90s; she’s been knocking it out of the park since the turn of the century. I tend to agree with this. She must be either at the top or in the running for best actress of the 21st century. What’s remarkable with her is (just like Hepburn) with her looks she really didn’t need talent. She would have been a star just based on her beauty. Instead, she turned out to be a hugely talented actress. Also, I’d like to put in the discussion Paul Giamatti. I don’t think he’s the best, but awfully close. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-greatest-actors-of-the-20th-century/538714.md?page=1)