Best British actor

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“The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson

Christine - Yes!

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Officialadamn

Living

Daniel Day Lewis
John Hurt
Anthony Hopkins
Paddy Considine
Tom Courtney
Tim Roth
Colin Firth
Gary Oldman
Ben Kingsley
Ralph Fiennes
Alan Rickman
Christopher Lee
Sacha Baron Cohen
Steve Coogan
Richard Attenborough




Dead

Alec Guiness
Laurence Oliver
Peter Sellers
Peter O'Toole
Charlie Chaplin
Harry H Corbett
Rex Harrison
John Gielgud
Richard Burton
David Niven
Cary Grant

I don't really have an opinion of who's the best actor, but I have my favorites. From the list:

Laurence Olivier, Alan Rickman, Patrick Stewart, Ewan McGregor, David Tennant

I also like Martin Freeman, who's not on the list.

And what??? Kiefer Sutherland is British???

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It's like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting...

Michael Caine

No, they'd be UK citizens. Britain doesn't include N.Ireland.
He was born in London, so he probably has dual citizenship.

Surely it's Alec Guinness?! Stage, screen, genre, made no difference. Are Pete Postlethwaite or Nigel Hawthorne not on it? That's a huge oversight, if that's the case. They were both brilliant actors. Nice to see Ronnie Barker and Richard Briers on the list.

Of the current actors, I'd go with Mark Strong, Tim Roth, Gary Oldman (when he's not doing his OTT Hollywood baddie) and Jim Broadbent.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Craig Roberts. Great actor !

Christian Bale, Anthony Hopkins or Richard Burton... no bias here.

Has anyone mentioned Patrick Stewart yet?

I don't think they have. I would have, if he'd done more cinema, or, maybe that should read, had I seen more of his big screen work. However, for tv and stage, you'd have to mention him.

Yes, watch Scenes of a Sexual Nature. Or rather, don't, it's awful.

In general, though, I agree with you, I like Hardy a lot and he's brilliant in Bronson. Also check out the TV movie Stuart: A Life Backwards if you haven't seen it. Disturbing film but a good performance.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is another good British actor who is starting to get more recognition now after 12 Years a Slave.

My vote would be for Ben Whishaw, though. Best known as the newest incarnation of Q in the James Bond series, he's good in everything. Highlights: Cloud Atlas, Perfume, The Hollow Crown (he plays Richard II).

I'm really surprised nobody has said Benedict Cumberbatch yet. He is awesome is everything he does, and fantastic on Sherlock. Honorable mentions would have to be gary oldman and tom hardy

Michael Cane. And RIP Richard Burton.

My current top 5 Brititsh Actors

1. Gary Oldman
2. Tom Hardy
3. Ian McKellen
4. James McAvoy
5. Patrick Stewart

Some weird opinions here. Martin Freeman? Sacha Baron-Cohen? Seriously? In the same thread listing such gigantaurs of acting as Burton, Hopkins, Olivier, Guiness and Hurt? The Mind Boggles. The fact that Jude Law and Rowan Atkinson are above the likes of Oliver Reed makes my teeth itch. Who is voting for these things?

I quite like Michael Sheen and Paddy Considine. But Ben Kingsley probably gets top slot out of those still alive.

Michael Caine, in my opinion is a dreadful actor. Must be one of the luckiest people alive.

This should include women too, in which case Olivia Chapman and Tilda Swinton would be right up there.

Well, this says actor, not actress. My guess is that's why women aren't included. Of course, now everyone's an actor regardless of gender, but those people are wrong.

My guess is that people are voting for currently alive working actors rather than 'all-time best' actors.

Freeman is basically the same in everything, he's lucky that the everyman character he plays so well is a type that appears in a lot of different stories.

Sacha Baron-Cohen is a versatile and very successful comic actor. Not all actors declaim Shakespeare. Some sing I Like to Move It Move It as animated lemurs.

Jude Law was good in The Talented Mr. Ripley. That's, er, about it. I like the Sherlock Holmes movies but I wouldn't say it's a great performance. But he's prettier than Oliver Reed, so maybe that helps.

Very true. I agree with you.
In the 60s Michael Caine was in the right place at the right time - the zeitgeist was right. I don't rate him as an actor as such but as a British icon he's a geezer.

For some reason, I have the hardest time remembering that Christian Bale is British.