Dick Warlock in Halloween 2 as Michael Myers
Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs as Hannibal Lecter
Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park as Dr. Ian Malcolm
Tom Hanks in Philadelphia as Andrew Beckett
Robert Englund in A Nightmare on Elm Street as Freddy Krueger

Excellent list, Bub.

Henry Fonda - Once Upon A Time in the West
Anne Baxter - All About Eve
Vivian Leigh - Gone With the Wind
Martin Sheen - Apocalypse Now
Malcolm McDowell - A Clockwork Orange
Ben Kingsley - Sexy Beast
Humphrey Bogart - Maltese Falcon
Maria Falconetti - The Passion of Joan of Arc


Oops! I forgot about Orson Welles in Touch of Evil (though I'm not sure who I would delete)

Thank you, fortunato.

A very close sixth to that list would be Al Pacino again, for Scent Of A Woman, but overall those 5 performances are arguably the best on contemporary celluloid today, IMO.

Another excellent list.
Kingsley in Sexy Beast is crazy!

Seriously! Kingsley makes that movie.


oh, and thanks :)

Agreed.
Especially Max von Sydow in The Virgin Spring. It's unbelievable how he just exudes this horrifying mix of sadness, hatred, grief, and sorrow. The scene in which he's cutting down the tree gives me chills every time I see it.

He really does. I actually want to go watch that now.

Anthony Hopkins--MAGIC

Martin Landau--ED WOOD

Faye Dunaway--Bonnie & Clyde

Robert Mitchum--Cape Fear

Johnny Depp--SWEENY TODD

Quite possibly two of the most underrated performances of all time.

Another one which people don't give much credit for is Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu The Vampyre. Subtle, melancholic, yet absolutely brilliant.

I can't pick out performances I think stand above all others- there's just too much amazing work on film. I can. however, pick out some moments I remember just impressing the hell out of me when I saw them. Each time the performers bowled me over with tiny moments in which I thought with just a slight gesture or series of looks on their face clearly showed me an entire range of emotions and thoughts.

There was a moment in Forest Gump where Gump is trying to figure out what Jenny means about who the father of her child is. You can clearly read Gump's thought process even though he never says a word.

Same thing in A Few Good Men when Nicholson breaks down on the stand.

For Bogart I'm always bowled over by the "play it Sam" scene. Also there's a scene in the terribly underappreciated "Dead End" where Bogart, as a hoodlum of minor reknown goes to visit his mother (played witrh heart wrenching pathos by Ma Kettle herself, Marjorie Main). You ain't no son of mine, she tells him, and the pain of abandonment on Bogart's face is more powerful than anything else he ever did.

And believe it or not, Woody Allen even impressed me with his acting once. I attended a double feature of Casablanca, followed by Allen's Play It Again Sam. As I sat there in the darkness, awash wih the mixture of awe and astonishment at just how GOOD that film is, as happens every time I see that film, and Play it Again Sam starts. In the film Woody is watching the end of Casablanca in a movie theatre, and a shot lingers on his face as HE is amazed at the film he just saw- it was the SAME look I still had on my face. Great job.

A final moment I'll mention is in Happy Birthday, Wanda June. Bill Hickey has the key soliliquey of describing the moment he dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. It's as if he was born to give that speech.

Like some others in this forum, I've spent my time on the stage. While acting is never easy if done well, the fire & brimstone roles are perhaps EASIER. It's the quiet moments that are truly impressive when done well.