Good actors...

I was wondering what makes a good actor, what separates the Men from the boys (like Leonardo Di Caprio)?? Which actors do you think are good actors, that don't merely deliver a line but for the duration of the movie become the characters themselves, live what they live through and see the world throught their characters' eyes?? These are a few of them that I can think of that match this description:

- James Dean (especially in East of Eden)
- Dustin Hoffman
- Robert De Niro
- Al Pacino
- Brad Pitt (despite the fact that he's Hollywood's "Pretty Boy" I still think he has some talent)
- Jack Nicholson
- Anthony Hopkins
- Mel Gibson
- Bruce Willis
- Arnold Schwartzenegger

Any others you can think of??


P.S. I was only kidding about Arnie

Sorry Chris, I just realised that I had the Feedback/Suggestions page open and that I posted to the wrong forum (oops)!! Could you move it to the General Discussion forum where it belongs?

Thanks!

Geoffrey Rush
Stephen Rea
Gabriel Byrne
Russell Crowe (whom i knew and loved before the hollywood craze)
Jean Reno
Daniel Auteuil

and where be the black folks on this list?

Sidney Poitier my darlings, Sidney Poitier ...
Morgan Freeman
Samuel L. Jackson (if you can have Bruce Willis on there I think he counts too)

actually, i think Leonardo di Caprio has more acting talent than Brad Pitt ... come on! Have you ever seen What's Eating Gilbert Grape? that right there should be what makes him the winner.

I must admit that I haven't seen that one, though I base the judgement on his world famous Titanic performance (not that I didn't like Titanic, I liked it for entirely different reasons), also the Man in the Iron Mask and the Beach...the only worthwile film of his that I have seen would be Romeo and Juliet, where he wasn't too bad.

As for the black folks, I completely forgot, I was half asleep when I was typing the list!

I'd have to disagree with you about Morgan Freeman though, especially after his "Deep Impact" and "Chain Reaction" performances (though I admit again I haven't seen an overwhelming number of his films)!

I'd take Brad Pitt's '12 Monkeys' performance over Leonardo di Crap-io anytime.

How about these:

Val Kilmer - 'The Doors'
Kevin Kline for everything he's ever been in
Robin Williams - 'Good Will Hunting' & 'Dead Poets Society'
Richard Dreyfuss - 'Close Encounters' & 'Always'
Tom Hanks for everything except 'Turner and Hooch'
Michael Douglas for everything
Harrison Ford - 'Witness'

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I agree with all those you've listed.

I also think that Tom Cruise is capable of moments of brilliance, if you ignore MI2 .

Tom Berenger is one of my favourite actors - I also love Willem Dafoe. Then add Tommy Lee Jones.

What about Pierce Brosnan - a great Bond, I feel.

Zeph - this thread is just fine where it is. Feedback and Suggestions was created for posts and comments about this website specifically - IE: if you don't like the colors, or think we should change the logo, etc.

That said, nothing beats Anthony Hopkins in "The Edge."

Well, okay. One thing beats that: Robert Duvall in "The Apostle."

Ah, Duval...

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning..."
"Someday this war's gonna end"
"Charlie don't surf!"

A wonderful actor.

I want to mention Robin Williams again because of his performances in "The World According to Garp", "The Fisher King" and "Awakenings", all of which are as good, if not better, than his performances in "Good Will Hunting" and "Dead Poets Society".

Also, I would include Denzel Washington on my list of greats. My list would also include Delroy Lindo and Mykelti Williamson, though the two of them don't seem to get enough roles that show off their talents.

Gene Hackman is another of my faves. He's been good in too many films to list. Jack Lemmon is another.

Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman (already mentioned) are also two of my favorites (Hoffman especially).

My list would also include the just-deceased Jason Robards, as well as folks like George C. Scott (but not for his short-lived TV show on FOX) and Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant and many other classic actors.

I also think Nicholas Cage has his moments. And Tim Robbins has put in some very good performances in his career. I'm also a fan of Jeff Bridges, even though he's had some stinkers.

Oh, and DeNiro. I think DeNiro is very good, too, even though he often plays the same character over and over again (For a change of pace, though, his performance in "Awakenings" was excellent).

Robbins is highly underrated. He's incredibly funny, as is evident in both "The Hudsucker Proxy" and "Nothing to Lose", and he's great at the other end of the spectrum...he was downright amazing in "Arlington Road" - one heckuva cool movie.

As for Pacino: just try to watch his big ending speech in "The Devil's Advocate" and not wet your pants - he's creepy as heck there man...and he really gets fired up for it.

Ok, so let's see what we have so far...

- James Dean (especially in East of Eden)
- Dustin Hoffman * *
- Robert De Niro * *
- Al Pacino * * *
- Brad Pitt (despite the fact that he's Hollywood's "Pretty Boy" I still think he has some talent) * *
- Jack Nicholson
- Anthony Hopkins * *
- Mel Gibson
- Bruce Willis
- Geoffrey Rush
- Stephen Rea
- Gabriel Byrne
- Russell Crowe * *
- Jean Reno
- Daniel Auteuil
- Sidney Poitier
- Morgan Freeman
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Val Kilmer
- Kevin Kline (I'm wondering how I forgot this guy in the first place!!)
- Robin Williams - 'Good Will Hunting' & 'Dead Poets Society' * *
- Richard Dreyfuss - 'Close Encounters' & 'Always'
- Tom Hanks for everything except 'Turner and Hooch'
- Michael Douglas for everything
- Harrison Ford - 'Witness'
- Tom Cruise
- Tom Berenger
- Tommy Lee Jones
- Pierce Brosnan
- Denzel Washington
- Gene Hackman
- Nicholas Cage
- Jeff Bridges
- Tim Robbins * *
- Arnold Schwartzenegger (not to forget him)

I hope I got everyone so far! This could easily be a list of some of the best actors of all time! By the way, any name with stars after it has recieved more than one vote!

P.S. Come one people, I've noticed that there's not a single female actress on the list! How about this:

- Julia Roberts
- Meg Ryan
- Sandra Bullock...

If it were called "Good actresses..." - I might have mentioned one. :P

I think Bullock is good, as is Roberts. I'm not nuts about Meg Ryan - I find her playing very similar characters in each of her movies.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are my two all-time favorites. Who can even argue their talent?

Then you have Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. What about Michael Caine? Another excellent actor.

Kevin Spacey is enormously talented and the ever-amazing, Gary Oldman, impresses me to no end.

Oops, I realised that ten minutes after posting so I started another thread...Sleep deprivation has some marvellous effects!

My Top 5 :
Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Norton
and
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
Edward Norton

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to me, Actors who really can act, this has nothing to do with their fame level, it's all about their acting abilities:

John Travolta
Robert De Nero
Matthew Mcconaughey
and maybe
Anthony Hopkins

Note: these are not my favorite actorse, well, two of them are, one of them I don't really like, but to me these are the top of the top.

there are other GREAT actors who I admire more, but when it comes to acting abilities, those are the best to me

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to me good actors are, in no particular order either

1. Stellan Skarsgård (Sweden)
2. Mads Mikkelsen (Denmark)
3. Anthony Hopkins
4. Malcolm McDowell
5. Ville Virtanen (Finland)

They are all great actors.. 2 are classic actors... the other three.. you must watch a film from their home country in order to see how great they are....

Why are we reviving a 14 year old thread?

On the subject, I don't think I need to answer it, really. It's pretty obvious.

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But what was it fourteen years ago?

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