Favorite Actors

Nate’s 9: Favorite Actors

                I suppose this is fitting, considering the Oscars and all.  I thought the music band/artist top 9 was difficult.  I literally went into this with about 75 potential actors that could make this list.  I have even separated out the actresses into another list and still can’t put it together.  This is probably a list that could change every time a new film came out, but these are the 9 that I couldn’t do without.

* I would first like to give a shout out to two actors that didn’t make the list, but could’ve.  Christopher Walken was absolutely brilliant in “Deer Hunter”, but I just haven’t seen enough of his films to get him past the early rounds.  John Turturro is mesmerizing while also being amusing in just about everything that he does (Mr. Deeds, Secret Window, Lebowski), but the total work and the depth of his characters leave me thinking that there are others more deserving, even if I do enjoy his work just a tiny bit more. 

** Joseph Gordon-Levitt is very close to this list.  What he has done at his age is incredible, and I look forward to more of his work. 

#9. Dustin Hoffman – I first saw “The Graduate” as a sophomore in high school, and could not have guessed how brilliant that film really was.  I figured that any film shown in the high school classroom was just a study of the arts and language, and couldn’t be one of the greatest.  In his case I was wrong, and everything that I have seen him in since has left me with a  sense of respect for him.  “Kramer vs Kramer” is one of my favorite films of all-time, “Stranger than Fiction” and “Meet the Fockers” show off his versatility and sense of humor. “Wag the Dog” and “Dick Tracy” allows for his creativity colors to shine through, and I feel like once I’ve seen “Rain Man” (I know), he may have a shot at moving higher up this list.

#8. Heath Ledger – Now before you judge, you have to know 2 things.  First, I was rather bored with “Brokeback Mountain” and still haven’t any urge to re-view the film with hopes of enjoying it more. Second, his role as the Joker is one of my on-screen favorite film moments in my entire life.  He owned that movie.  For as good as Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart were, he ran away with this film. It’s not very often that an actor can fully embrace the role he is in and go to the necessary place to bring that character out.  He did it, and artistically, it was beautiful.  You felt like the Joker was a real person who had a real past with real problems.  Beyond that, “Lords of Dogtown”, “Monster’s Ball” and “A Knight’s Tale” all really got my attention.  He could do a little bit of everything, and I thought he’d be on track to become one of Hollywood’s greats.

#7. Denzel Washington – He was out (Edward Norton).  He was in.  Then I took him out (Matt Damon). Now he’s back in again.  The only reason he was even on the fence in the first place is because I forgot about five of the films that he acted in including: “American Gangster”, “John Q”, and “The Hurricane”.  Add those to the list of movies, and he’s packed a pretty big punch.  I first saw his brilliance as “Malcolm X”, but only as X. I was more engrossed with Malcolm X as a character, and not the fact that Denzel was playing him, but that’s a testament to how good he was.  He was good in both “Philadelphia” and “The Pelican Brief” but then he hit a ridiculously first-class hot streak with “The Preacher’s Wife”, “The Bone Collector”, “He Got Game”, “Remember the Titans”, and of course “Training Day”.  He won his first Best Actor for Training Day, which I personally think was long overdue.  My favorite of his is still “Man on Fire”, but he has definitely become one of the greats, and still has plenty of time.

#6. F. Murray Abraham – This is without seeing Amadeus.  I know it’s probably sacrilege, considering my interest in the musical arts, and my obsession with seeing the great films of my childhood.  In any case, Abraham has always done a great job with what he’s had, and I love him most for his roles in “Scarface”, “The Name of the Rose”, and “Finding Forrester”.  Over the last few years I’ve seen more of him on television, but I still enjoy his work best on the big screen.  Now I better go and put Amadeus into my Netflix queue. 

#5. Tom Hanks – I used to think he was annoying and kind of overrated; wasn’t he a comedian?  I waited years before I saw “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump” although I’m not quite sure why.  Talk about back-to-back success. Many would consider those to be Hanks’ greatest work.  What I’ve really enjoyed though is the films he’s done more recently.  Even though it was difficult to follow, “Cloud Atlas” really showed how much talent Hanks has.  “Catch me if you Can” was entertaining for me from start to finish, and “Road to Perdition” displayed Hanks’ dark side.  For all those great films though, I would have to say that “The Green Mile” and “Cast Away” are my top two though.  A true testament of his greatness was his relationship with a dangerous prisoner and the complexity of learning his story while also still running a prison floor with a strict hand, and then followed that up with a two hour movie about a relationship with a volleyball.  Two winners among many.

#4. Marlon Brando – If I knew more about the world of film, and the development and improvements that have been made between the eras, I think that Brando would be my #1 actor of all-time.  Everyone in the industry talks about how he was able to change every single time Hollywood required their actors to be different and new and interesting, and they also talk about how he was a big reason for all those changes.  I only know Brando from the Godfather film of course, and I’ve now recently seen “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Apocalypse Now” after years of being berated for not having seen either film.  I know he’s brilliant, but he could’ve made this list just for the few movies that I did see him in. He’s that good.  With the exception of “The Score” which could’ve been so much better, he dwarfs all newcomers that want to challenge for the Greatest of All-Time.

#3. Robert De Niro – Dustin calls him Bobby.  That’s probably one of my favorite things about him.  Because De Niro is such a hard ass, that I can’t imagine him allowing anyone to call him anything other than Robert De Niro.  His list of films that I’ve enjoyed is so preposterously long that I’m not going to mention all of them.  I just hope that you (the reader) have seen those movies in the same way you probably wish that I finally see “The Karate Kid”, “Legends of the Fall”, and “Casablanca”.  His most memorable for me are the young Vito Corleone, the CIA agent Jack Byrnes, Rothstein, LaMotta, Travis Bickle and of course Jimmy Conway from the classic “Goodfellas”.  And there’s so many more to mention.  I would say the only reason that I don’t have Bobby any higher on my list is because he hasn’t had his Donnie Brasco moment (hint, hint) and he has had a couple of “oh boy” films that I wonder if he ever regrets getting involved in.  But he’s as good as anyone that has graced the big screen.

#2. Al Pacino – Lefty was my first real introduction into getting lost into a character.  I have seen many Pacino films sense then, a very high number in fact, but as luck should have it, the first time I remember seeing Pacino on the big screen was as Lefty Ruggiero in the film Donnie Brasco.  All the credit in the world goes to him, because I didn’t see the movie as Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, but as Lefty and Donnie.  He has done that numerous times for me since then, if not the most.  I just finally watched Serpico; that was a character study at its finest.  He was dazzling in that movie.  Beyond that he has been: Tony Montana, Michael Corelone, Carlito, Frank Slade, Vincent Hanna, and John Milton a.k.a. the Devil.  Not unlike De Niro, he has dominated scenes in those films, and I’d be careless if I didn’t say that he completely made the Scarface film.  I’m not sure Tony Montana could have been played by anyone else, and with has much vigor and charisma as Al Pacino did it.  Another living legend, no doubt.

#1.  DDL (Daniel Day Lewis) - And by #1, I mean #1 with a bullet. I have yet to see “Lincoln” as well as “My Left Foot”.  Some might say those are his two best films.  I can’t say I disagree, only that I haven’t seen them.  I have only seen five Daniel Day-Lewis films.  “There Will Be Blood”, “The Crucible”, “Nine”, “In the Name of the Father” and “Gangs of New York”.  He captured my attention in all five.  His skill set is simply astounding.  Without giving anything away, his role as Daniel Plainview in “There Will Be Blood” is probably my single favorite acting performance of all-time.  He doesn’t need to use lines; he just owns the screen.  Bill the Butcher is one of the great villains of all-time, and was far more interesting than Amsterdam Vallon (Leo DiCaprio) and William Tweed (Jim Broadbent). Between those two, it’s enough without seeing Daniel Day achievements as Abe or Hawkeye or Christy Brown.

 

A nod also to Spacey, Freeman, Bridges, Rush, Leo, Damon, JRM, Duvall, Brody, Fiennes, Hopkins, Depp, Norton, Beatty, Dern, Wilkinson, Dinklage, Malkovich, Pollack and all the others who give great performances on the big screen.  I wish there was room for you.