[lini]

Hmmm, Orson Welles... Michel Piccoli... Gert Fröbe... hm... John Wayne... James Garner... Klaus Kinski... Jean Paul Belmondo... Alan Rickman... Kevin Spacey... Dan Akroyd... Bud Spencer & Terence Hill... Lino Ventura... Roger Moore & Sean Connery... hmmm... William Powell... Charlie Chaplin, of course... Marcello Mastroianni for sure... hmmm... George C. Scott... Burt Lancaster (

!)... Henry Fonda... James Coburn... Edward Fox... definitely Robert de Niro for versatility... hmm... yeah, and Jack Elam! ... Burt Reynolds... not to forget Steve Martin... Gene Wilder... Jackie Chan... [size=xx-small]*heck, this turns out to be rather tiresome... zzzzz*[/size]

And, yes, I like actresses, too - like... uhm... Tilda Swinton... [size=xx-small]*zzzzzzzz*[/size]

Lini

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant My apologies. Yes he did manage to pull off a Puerto Rican bad boy. I can't quite remember Dog Day Afternoon, but wasn't he another bad boy in that one? "True life" isn't the same as transforming into a believable Nixon, Malcom X, Ed Wood, Buddy Holly, etc. Perhaps Pacino can do the "Teflon Don" if they make a movie about him.

Uh... Serpico? Real life, well documented story on the guy who blew the whistle on NYPD corruption in the 60s and early 70s. Got a nomination for best actor.

My fav at the moment is Philip Seymore Hoffman

 

[mbriant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant IMO, even the recognized greats like Pacino and DeNiro have become predictable and repetitive in their on-screen mannerisms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobeau Uh... Serpico? Real life, well documented story on the guy who blew the whistle on NYPD corruption in the 60s and early 70s.

Actually, I just watched Serpico again a few days ago. And it is an excellent movie. But again, if you read what I'd posted you'll see I said "have become". Serpico was filmed how long ago? Pacino was a young actor at the time. My point is that many of the so-called greats seem to fall into a rut where they start to come across as a very similar character with identical mannerisms from movie to movie. Also when I mentioned character acting and portraying famous people, I meant people the viewer would know and could compare to the actor's portrayal. I don't think any of us knew or know what the real Serpico was like at all, so who's to say if Pacino did him justice or not?

Again, I'm not saying these guys are bad actors by any means ... just that either their abilities become a little over-exaggerated after they've been a few good movies, or that they get lazy as they get more famous and don't stretch themselves beyond doing a dramatic rendition of themselves for every part they do.

 

[bobeau]

You mentioned Dog Day which was in the same time period so I brought it up. While Serpico wasn't a public figure, Al Pacino lived with Frank prior to the movie and the events which occurred were close to reality.

Completely agree on what Al Pacino has become. And to a certain extent most A listers, they're not actors, they're personalities reciting words.

 

[wally]

there are so many good actors I appreciate - Brad Pitt will shine in just about anything he does (especially fight club), Jean Reno is an epic actor, and a new talent who I like is Zach Braff - who showed in Garden State that he can do more than just comedy acting

 

[PinkFloyd]

Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton, Peter Sellers, Elliot Gould, James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Gerald Depardieu, James Mason, Carey Grant, Humphrey Bogart to name but a few.

 

[Leporello]

Jean-Pierre Leaud
Marcello Mastroianni
Christopher Walken
Jack Nicholson
John Wayne
Jeremy Irons

Rita Hayworth
Barbara Stanwyck
Monica Vitti
Beatrice Romand (in the Rohmer films)
Jeanne Moreau


Regards,

L.

 

[J W]

Charlton Heston just because.
 
Gunnar Bjornstrand. He was a part of many great films and often gets overshadowed by his director.
 
Richard Burton.
 
Oh, sorry for the thread bump. The most recent one was a "list" thread. I hate list threads because they consist of people making enormous lists which I never read. There is a thread "Who is your favorite actor?" from 2003, but it had fewer posts than this one.

 

[virometal]

Good bump. For actors, I'll go with Steve McQueen as if that isn't obvious. He wasn't a truly exceptional actor. But his cool and machismo more than made up for it. I loved the steel his eyes with just a hint of vulnerability. He played characters that kept the world waiting and at arm's length. For me, his image came to epitomize masculinity. A man that was in control of every situation, no matter what his circumstances. The Great Escape and Papillon were great examples of such. A then common motif was to rebel, then ultimately fail on one's own terms. To me at least, no one did it better than McQueen. 
 
Katharine Hepburn would be my pick for the ladies. My favorite performance of hers, was opposite O'Toole in The Lion in Winter. Her sharp wit has never been better filmed. Although, one can't say there isn't competition in such classics as Adam's Rib and Bringing Up Baby. There was something about her. She srtuck me as the kind of person, that pierced you within a minute of first meet. Hepburn was a women I would never dare tell a lie to, part out of respect, part out of fear. 

 

[Rich77]

Quote:

I think performance-wise it has to be Edward Norton. Brad Pit also did a great job with Snatch.

But there's also Bruce Willis who's starring in 2 of my all-time favourites Pulp Fiction and Sin City.

Just watch Fight Club if you want to see them both do the performance of their careers'

(alright maybe not Brad's but Norton's was on the money)
 
Mine is a toss up between Norton, and Christopher Walken. Walken is hilarious, but his movies aren't my style but I LOVE his acting...Norton does more movies I like and is insanely awesome. Both cool actors.

 

[KevDo]

Well, apart from some of the all time greats already mentioned I'd just to input a little something.
 
Zooey Deschanel.
 
I know I know, a lot of people say she only ever plays one character and I can understand where they're coming from, at a glance, they're right to assume so. Get to know her and you'll see they're nothing alike, much like the comparison between herself and Katy Perry- they look nothing alike. I love the characters Zooey decides to play and I love how she plays them.
 
The thing about Zooey that pulled me in (apart from the uncontrollable desire to watch her) was her acting style. In many recent years actresses just try to win an oscar by being over-dramatic, trying to steal the show, shouting, crying and screaming. Zooey on the other hand can scream without raising her voice, she can scream with just opening her eyes that little fraction more. It's her subtleties that make her a joy to watch. Her body language, her eye and head movements and how they move with each other, the shape of her mouth when she talks, her half-smiles, her timing. She's never over the top, in fact, she doesn't have to do much at all but the little things she does do she does perfectly. Example. in "The Good Life" there's a shot where Zooey and the other guy (can't remember his name) are walking down the road. The camera has them both in frame, 3/4 length shot so not close in at their faces at all. The guy is talking about how the cinema owner (who he takes care of practically) lost his wife and as soon as he says that you can see Zooey very lightly and subtly biting her bottom lip.. so subtle. Another is the end of "Gigantic" which the film practically ends on, not as subtle as the other example but as the film relies on it you can't blame it.
 
After watching her films I'm always left wanting more and not a lot of actresses have done that, in fact, I can't name another one. I suppose I have a soft spot for Zooey but she did pull me back into actively watching movies and that in itself proves to me she was made for celuloid (or, well, silicon? in this digital age).

 

[tdockweiler]

Here's a few off the top of my head:
 
William Hurt (his old movies are really good, especially "The Accidental Tourist")
Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Tom Hanks
Sol Kyung-gu
Michael J Fox
Sidney Poitier
Lau Ching-Wan
Jack Nicholson (took me forever to like him)
Dustin Hoffman
Morgan Freeman
Steve McQueen
Robert Duvall
Tatsuya Nakadai
 

 

[Calexico]

Brad Pitt
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Inglourious Basterds
(Fight Club)
(Seven)
 
Scarlett Johansson
Lost in Translation
In Good Company
(Match Point)
 
I love Lost in Translation... and Brad Pitt is in fly movies.  I was really impressed with Hugh Grant in About A Boy but I haven't seen any of his other movies.

 

[BobSaysHi]

Quote:

I like Morgan Freeman. He is as good as it gets IMO. He gives powerful performances that are very natural and he never overdoes it. Some of my fave performances are Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, Glory, and Se7en.

took the words right out of my mouth. Shawshank is my favorite movie... ever 

 

[Ttvetjanu]

Females:
Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson and Deborah Ann Woll <3
 
Males:
Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp