Who is the greatest living actor and actress.

a reply to: athousandlives
Christian Bale. His work in 'The Fighter' was unsurpassed. Absolutely brilliant.

a reply to: Necrobile

Gary Oldman. Unsung. He has one of the finest ranges in the business. He is always convincing, especially as a bad guy. And speaking of bad guys, how about Willhem DaFoe. Man his Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart was just about the creepiest ever.

Denzel Washington.

i think tom hardy will eventually be recognized as one of the greatest actors of his generation.
he is always spot on.
i will use bronson as an example. the move was not all that fantastic but tom hardy was amazing in that movie.

a reply to: Ceeker63

Depp. And just in case you have never scene it, my favorite of his is 'Ed Wood'. He completely fell into that strange character. I kept forgetting it was him. And also in that move was Martin Landau playing the dying Bela Lugosi. I was raised on the old Lugosi and kept forgetting I was watching Landau and not Lugosi himself. He won best supporting for the role. If you love Depp this one would be a crime to miss.

a reply to: TinySickTears
Hardy. I'm warming to him quickly. It took me half way through the Reverent to figure out who that actor was. I kept going like' I know this guy, I know this guy and whoever he is he is really good.

a reply to: LenatasataneL

George Clooney & Meryl Streep.
OR
Johnny Depp & Meryl Streep.
+ A shoutout to Bryan Cranston.

I vote Robert Downey for actor. Surprisingly good in Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, and he showed a lot of versatility in Tropic Thunder. He played an Australian actor playing a black soldier playing Vietnamese rice farmer, and it was really convincing. He can do action, comedy, drama, horror, whatever.


Tom Hanks is also pretty versitile.

I'll have to think on actress for a bit.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Downy. Look at how he was ostracized by Hollywood for his younger misbehavior. How he overcame that and now is Mr. Big Box office. Real talent. I remember seeing him way back in "Back to School" doing only a bit part and thinking at the time that maybe he had a future. But I'm with you on Tropic Thunder. That role was just perfection.

a reply to: Mousygretchen

Cranston. He really played the range of a devolving man through out that series. But it was not until I saw Trumbo that I realized just how good he really is. And isn't he playing Johnson in a soon to be released "LBJ?

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
Oh yeah, that aired 2 weeks ago. Great performance.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: Ceeker63

Depp. And just in case you have never scene it, my favorite of his is 'Ed Wood'. He completely fell into that strange character. I kept forgetting it was him. And also in that move was Martin Landau playing the dying Bela Lugosi. I was raised on the old Lugosi and kept forgetting I was watching Landau and not Lugosi himself. He won best supporting for the role. If you love Depp this one would be a crime to miss.

You might like "Sunset Boulevard".

a reply to: Restricted
Oh no. I LOVE Sunset Boulevard. The one with Holden and Swanson? Seen it a a dozen times. Her performance was iconic and versions of her character in that have rippled through the moves for years. And the ending, He floats in the pool and she is taken away for her screen test. Brilliant ending. Not your happy feel good ending, but a brutal no body wins ending. Just great.

Jack Nicholson/Gary Oldman/Daniel Day-Lewis/Don Cheadle

Kate Winslet/Kathy Bates/Natalie Portman/

subject to subjective change. ;o)

ETA: as above

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

I remember him in Back to School also, Dangerfield being my all time favorite comedian. I confess I had my doubts when I heard he was cast as Tony Stark, thinking of his drug problems. But I sit corrected, he made a believer out of me.

Hubby laughs at my penchant for British actors -- Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant. I put it down to great acting chops, a sexy smile and that accent!

Too many great actors/actresses to list. In no particular order:

Christopher Walken
Robert Downey, Jr.
George Clooney
Jeremy Irons
Javier Bardem
Alan Rickman
Geoffrey Rush
Cate Blanchette
Meryl Streep
Angelina Jolie
Kate Winslet
Emma Thompson
Helen Mirren
Jodie Foster

My favs list...

Living:

Meryl Streep (my top fav actress)
Helen Mirren
Judy Dench
Maggie Smith
Betty White
Emma Thompson
Helena Bonham Carter
Kathy Bates
Frances McDormand
Bette Midler
Cate Blanchett
Natalie Portman
Sandra Bullock
Rachel Weisz

Morgan Freeman (my top fav actor)
Ben Kingsley
Sean Connery
Michael Caine
Bill Nighy
Liam Neeson
Geoffrey Rush
Kevin Kline
John Cleese
Colin Firth
Johnny Depp
Denzel Washington
Tom Hanks
Jack Nicholson
Tommy Lee Jones
Leonardo DiCaprio




No longer living:

Jack Lemmon
Walter Matthau
Robin Williams
Alan Rickman
Cary Grant
Katherine Hepburn

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Good to hear someone else loves the classics.

This is hard to gauge. Do you mean by talent or enjoyability? There are few that can do it all and still be interesting. Steve Buscemi comes to mind. He did Crazy Eyes in Mr Deeds and scary Garland Green in Con Air. Sheer talent? Kevin Spacey? Sir Ian McClellan? Tim Curry? Actually Tim's a lot like Steve, can do it all. Actresses? Only 2. Duke it out for #1. Helen Mirren and Cate Blanshet.

originally posted by: Necrobile
a reply to: LenatasataneL
I think I can sum up the greatest of all time with one simple name: Gary Oldman.

⬆⬆What he said. He's a total chameleon, becomes each character he plays. He was great as Drexel the pimp in Tarantino's True Romance, as the Russian terrorist hijacker in Air Force One (cheesy film, but he's the best part), as Dracula, Commissioner Gordon in the Batman films, and as agent Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. He's the only one who could convincingly portray such a wide variety of personalities. I also like Daniel Day Lewis, but he's not quite in the same league imo. Good mention of John Lithgow, he doesn't get the credit he deserves, very versatile. And I'm not putting him near the top but Clive Owen is another actor who I believe is underappreciated and underutilized.

For female actor, Julianne Moore has done some really fantastic work.