Christian Bale as Jim in Empire of the sun.
(Truly amazing performance for such a young actor in such a demanding role.)
Colin Firth - **Mr. Darcy **
Jennifer Ehle - **Elizabeth Bennet **
Toss up for the Best Sherrif of Nottingham: ** Basil Rathbon ** or **Alan Rickman **
**Rathbone **
I agree wholeheartedly with Sean Connery as James Bond and Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.
Also, Andre the Giant as Fezzick and Mandy Patinkin as Inigo in The Princess Bride. Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum.
Robert Patrick played a good Terminator, but there was no way he was the Terminator.
Harrison Ford as Deckard in Blade Runner.
Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (see also: Favorite non-Oscar winning performances).
Gene Hackman as Royal Tennenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums- the part was literally written for the man.
Terence Stamp as Bernadette Bassenger in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (nobody else could give a homely post-op transsexual this much class).
Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction.
Kevin Spacey as Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects.
Malcolm McDowell as Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
No one’s mentioned Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones?
Or Han Solo?
Sorry, folks, there are TWO inimitable Henry Higgineses! Those who have mentioned Rex Harrison as the “only” Higgins obviously haven’t seen Leslie Howard in PYGMALION. Only the best thing he ever did, and as much a trademark performance as Harrison’s!
On the other hand:
As much as I love and admire Leslie Nielsen, it was foolish of him not to realize that only Jim Backus is Mr. Magoo.
Patrick Stewart as both Capt. Picard and Prof. Xavier.
Pick someone else to try those roles, I dare you.
Matthew Broderick - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Val Kilmer - Real Genius
Ok, I was in high school in the 80’s…so sue me!
But yeah, DEFINITELY Connery as Bond…hands-down.
“Hello, Pushy…” “Shaken, not shtirred…” “Mish Moneypenny…”
Ed O’Neill as **Al Bundy **
David Duchovny as **Fox Mulder ** (up until the end when he got bored… I bet he’s pretty bored now).
check the O.P.
<smacks forehead>
in Gods and Generals. Oscar caliber.
Michael Keaton as Batman, but George Clooney as Bruce Wayne.
The entire cast of The Usual Suspects, especially Benicio Del Toro. He’ll flip ya. He’ll flip ya for real.
Keanu Reeves as Neo. Seriously, who else can say “Woah!” with such conviction?
Toshiro Mifune in any Kurosawa movie he did. But, would he have made a better Obi-Wan than Alec Guinness?
I misunderstood the thread title and spent the last hour reading
Wendt v. Host International (the Cheers/bar robot case)!
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/04485f8dcbd4e1ea882569520074e698/38e97db86b8c25c58825695800725cb9?OpenDocument
A copyright holder owns a character, but an actor owns his likeness. Wendt & Ratzenberger lost twice (because the judge ruled the robots didn’t resemble them), but successfully appealed twice (because the judge only looked at photos of the robots instead of viewing them in person to make his comparison [1st appeal], and that the judge only considered physical likeness, and not other factors that could lead the public to believe that the robots were Wendt & Ratzenberger [2nd appeal]) As far as I can tell, the case is still unresolved.
Sean Connery was the best Bond, but both Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan inhabit the role in such a way as to make it their own.
I could easily see John Hurt as Gandalf, or any of several other tall, thin British gentelmen.
Matthew Broderick was Robert Preston’s equal in the tv production of “The Music Man”, and the overall production was better than the movie.
Actors often put their own personality into a role in such a way that they inhabit the role like no other person could, and we cannot imagine another actor giving quite the same performance. However, it’s possible for a character to be played in a different manner, yet still be equally effective depending upon the context of the role.
However, there are times when no one else could possibly perfom a role adequately. Usually this occurs whent the role is created around the actor’s personality, but sometimes an actor fills a character so much that his or her interpretation becomes the character, and anything that differs from that interpretation just seems wrong.
Tony Perkins as Norman Bates comes to mind.
I’ll see your Michael Keaton and raise you an Adam West.
William Shatner as the captain of the Starship Enterprise.
Not to take anything away from Patrick Stewart, who is a fine actor, but there was never any need for a so-called “Next Generation.”
Number Six, no offense intended, but are you serious about Matthew Broderick adequately filling Robert Preston’s Harold Hill shoes? I had the misfortune two weeks ago of spending half an hour on hold with Disneyland’s Customer Information line. During that wait, I was “treated” to young Master Broderick’s rendering of Trouble (Reprise)/Seventy-Six Trombones. He sounded like he was doing a parody of an almost-competent Civic Light Opera performer playing to the back of the community college gymnasium, bound and determined to make every syllable distinct and intelligible. The effect was to make me decide to leave the television OFF, lest I accidentally land on channel 7 for even a moment during the broadcast. Maybe if I had a television set equipped with closed captioning, I could have watched it with the sound turned off; then I MIGHT have been able to take your evaluation of his performance seriously.
For me, John Hurt is Winston Smith from 1984.
Christopher Lambert is The Highlander.
Rowan Atkinson is Blackadder, but perhaps even more so, Tony Robinson is Baldrick.
And I’d have a hard time imagining anyone but Shatner trying to play James T. Kirk.
Btw, speaking of Alec Guiness owning the role of Obi-Wan, did anyone else find it amusing just how obviously Ewan MacGregor was trying to imitate Guiness in Episode 2?
Leonard Nimoy as Spock. And can you believe DeForest Kelley was actually considered for the role first?? He did have a good eyebrow raise, but I just can’t see Dr. McCoy with pointed ears.
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley
And I think Pierce Brosnan owns James Bond much moreso than Connery, but then again, I am not much of a Bond fan.