[Closed] Your favourite performance by an actor?

john travolta............pulp fiction

Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast.

Sir John Mills in almost every film he ever made.

Joaquin Pheonix, Gladiator. Made Russell Crowe's performance what it was!

Orson Welles, The Third Man.

john hurt............naked civil servant...brilliant

and johnny depp............in most of his films.

I never liked Brad Pitt til I saw him in Fight Club, 12 Monkeys and Snatch. Good stuff.

Ed Norton is awesome in Fight Club as well.

Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest".

Sir Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, nobody has ever said "I'm sweating like a c**t" and sounded cool saying it.

Richard E Grant in [i]Withnail & I[/i] would have to be one of my favourites.

Rod Steiger, In The Heat Of The Night.
Henry Fonda, Once Upon A Time In The West.

Agree Eric Bana was incredible in Chopper.

Three fish.good shout

Brad pitt in 12 monkeys - Barking, also Joe Black

Seems to be a theme growing but Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys and Fight Club is superb.

+1 for Richard E Grant in Withnail and I; also Robert Donat in The 39 Steps.

Gary Oldman in Leon. Just the right amount of "unhinged".

Robert DeNiro in "A bronx tale"

Basically al DeNiro stuff but this part really shines.

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (with a special mention for My Left Foot)

Robert de Niro, Raging Bull

Bob Peck - Edge of Darkness

Ed Norton - American History X

De Niro - Taxi Driver, Raging Bull a close second.

Ed Norton - American History X

Class hidden gem as well.

The real Director is also forgotten.

Sandra Bullock in "The Lake House" in the scene when she's in the archtiect's office in front of the painting listening to the architect explain about his brother's death.

That 30-second close up on her face. Masterclass in "less is more".

Oh, yeah she's a female actor. Does that count? 🙄

Daniel Day Lewis in 'There will be blood'... to portray such a depth of character is what defines him as one of the greatest method actors to have ever lived.

George C Scott in Patton

Good call.

pah, you lot know nothing!

what is best in life........

Kenneth Branagh playing Hamlet at the RSC around 15 years ago.

Tom Courtney playing King Lear at the Royal Exchange, Manchester around 10 years ago.

Both quite spellbinding, particularly Courtney as he had the pressure of playing in the round.

Tim Robbins in The Player
Kevin Spacey and Pete Postelthwaite in The Usual Suspects

Also completely left field Sylvester Stallone in Rocky I thought he played the part brilliantly.

Forest Whitaker in The Last King Of Scotland

Many as above but I'll add Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown

Christopher Walken in lots of films - I just think he's a fantastic actor.

Heath Ledger - The Joker - The Dark Knight

Christopher Walken in lots of films - I just think he's a fantastic actor.

i.e. The Prophecy

Tom Hardy -Bronson
Con O'Neill - Telstar
Tim Robbins - Shawshank Redemption
Will Smith - 7 Pounds
Agree with Withnail.

I get the impression that all the blokes on here must get their eyes sort of glazing over and their attention spans wiped when a female actor is on screen...

I get the impression that you're trying too hard to make a point...

PS Not happy about Hora agreeing with me. I think I'll have to change my response...

David Cameron - Man of the people

female actor

I once read a semi-autobiographical 'Novel' by one of the Farrely brothers and he describes female actor's as 'mattresses'.

90%+ of the ones in Movies sadly are just that. 🙁

Alec Baldwin in Miami Blues.
Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter.
Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now.

Jessica Simpson - Dukes of Hazard

Oh well, if one of the FARRELY BROTHERS say so...

To be fair, I'd hold their opinion on actors over yours 😉

I would like to put forward a worst actor proposal.

Colin Farrell in Alexander. Blimey that's a piece of cr@p. Found it on a dvd in my travel bag whilst on a work trip yesterday.

clubber - Member
To be fair, I'd hold their opinion on actors over yours

Film watcher accepts maker of lame "comedies" opinion as gospel, shocker...

Not as gospel, just over that of an internet sarcast/stirrer/godsquad-botherer 😉

Oooh look everyone - a simple STW thread turning into a bickering contest. How RARE! 🙄

The little girl in 'Outnumbered'. Utterly chilling. So sweet and adorable, but you know she could destroy your soul...

Oh well, if one of the FARRELY BROTHERS say so...

Err they have created more films/scripts/hits and colaborations than you and me.

Yeah, all those award-winning mattresses getting in the way of the real actors, eh?

You're very sensitive about this Woppit...

Tell me about your mother.

Micheal Caine in Harry Brown

Tell me about your mother.

[img] [/img]

Not sensitive at all. I just think that this example of a bunch of blokes focusing exclusively on another bunch of blokes acting and missing 50% of what's going on because it doesn't involve any men, is kinda pathetic.

Accepting a description of skilled, awarded and professional people as being "mattresses" because they're female speaks volumes about 1: the originator and 2: the acceptee...

along with Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper in True Romance.

ok then Woppit, I'll redress the balance for you.
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Eh?

Anyway,

My vote goes to Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon.

You did say favourite, and not best, right?

Patricia Arquette was brilliant in True Romance too.
Not that women count, of course.

Darn my post was good!

Accepting a description of skilled, awarded and professional people as being "mattresses" because they're female speaks volumes about 1: the originator and 2: the acceptee...

I tend to agree actually but it was funny to stir since you were clearly on a mission about it and let's face it you can hardly complain about stirring...

Jodie Foster in Bugsy Malone?

Most decent roles go to men so blame Hollywood maybe.

Patricia Arquette was brilliant in True Romance too.
Not that women count, of course

oh she certainly does 😀

Charlize Theron was good in Monster. Shame about all the make up though.

Paul Newman in Cool hand luke ....favourite

Harrison Ford in Starwars trillogy basically makes the films.

Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank redemption, closely followed by Richard Burton in Equus - both spellbinding

Also, dare I say Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse 😳

The Green Mile. I actually cried over a big black guy. Stunning acting.

Pook - Member
ok then Woppit, I'll redress the balance for you.

I rest my case.

Can't believe no one has said it - Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

I liked Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Burn After Reading as well. Overacting to the limit.

Will Smith in a lot of his films.

Paddy Considine in Dead Man's Shoes.

Sophie Okenado in "dirty, pretty things"

Steve Buscemi in "Reservoir Dogs" and "Ghost World", in fact Steve Buscemi in pretty much anything.

John Ratzenburger's voice work in the "Toy Story" franchise.

Bob Peck - Edge of Darkness

I remember that on TV - very good drama series.

Also from a TV mini series Jurgen Prochnow's utterly believable protrayal of Herr Kaleun in Das Boot

Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Bastards

harvey keitel - bad lieutenant

de niro - king of comedy

eli wallach - the good the bad and the ugly

Jurgen Prochnow.

AGREE although I remember it as a 3hour film

Bruno Ganz whipped the floor with him though 😉

Heath Ledger did a great job in reinventing such a worn character with the joker. And would have gone on to be even better. R.I.P

[i]Can't believe no one has said it - Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.[/i]

Daffy did on the first page 😀

Definitely agree as he was very good.

[i]Charlize Theron was good in Monster[/i]

Yep, agree there.

AGREE although I remember it as a 3hour film

The full TV mini-series is far, far better - although not much suited to fans of all out action.

The mini-series has the space to capture the crushing boredom and rising tension of long periods of inactivity, bad weather and no contact with the enemy.

You might think that such inactivity (whole episodes IIRC) would be detrimental to the overall production. It is not. The tension, dirt, sweat and anxiety of men living at the end of their nerves pervades your living rooms - and when the depth charges do go of, you think your house is being attacked...

... it also allows for far more detailed and subtle character development than you get in a film (even a long one like the cinema version of das Boot). By the end you feel like you have a real connection with the crew.

Deniro in Sleepers as father bobby, one particular scene where one of the "kids" tells him the whole story of abuse and deniro just stands there to the backdrop of some classical music, doesnt say anything, just starts to cry. pure class.