Best and Worst Actors

The purpose of this thread is to discuss actors and actresses who have turned in both really good and really bad performances during the course of their careers.
Of course, no performer is going to be great all the time, and some less than stellar performances are to be expected in anyone's oeuvre. But there are some that really stand out for their highs and lows(I can think of at least two without even trying). So please list some of your favorites, along with examples of what you consider to be their best and worst work, and discuss.

My first nominee is Sir Richard Burton.

The Best:
He was absolutely amazing opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was also terrific in The Spy Who Came in From The Cold and Beckett

The Worst: The Exorcist II: The Heretic. To be honest, it's been many years since I saw this turkey, but I remember being so struck by Burton's hammy acting that I found it hard to believe this was the same actor I had admired for so long. Scenery chewing at its finest.

Was it poor directing? I dunno, but there's no question, for me, at least, that there is a vast gulf between the quality of Burton's best and worst performances.

I thought Al Pacino was tremendous in

Dog Day Afternoon(1975)



Unwatchable in

Scent of a Woman (1992)

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"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."- Groucho Marx

I can still recall John Barbour's comments about Burton's performance in Exorcist II. He said that Burton was possessed of so much ham that he needed an exorcism by Farmer John.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

I'm now intrigued to see Exorcist II...

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Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?

-Stan Brakhage

I think it's avant-garde.

I never though of Burton or Pacino as measured performers. Both are fine scenery chewers. I can't imagine why one would even try to give a measured performance in something called Exorcist II: The Heretic. I will have you scenery! You are mine to be chewed! Arrrrrgh!

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Louise Vale first woman to play Jane Eyre in the flickers.

Its "terribly" ahead of its time.

For me he was more annoying thn unwatchable, thou he is unwatchable in "The recruit", "88 minutes", and top of the cake "Righteous kill" along with de Niro. Even Max von Sydow was bad in "the exorcist" 2, thou he was good in some awful films, and the Swedish part of hes carrier.

Well you are partly right DSM. It is terrible.

I hadn't though of Pacino, but you're right: he's a prime candidate. Yes, he was great in Dog Day, but even better, IMO, in The Godfather. And yes, he's been just awful in about everything he's done in the last few years.

That may be true about much of Pacino's latest work (I haven't watched them), but he was terrific in Donnie Brasco which came five years after his Oscar win (which I think isn't actually nearly as bad as some others do... it seems to have become far more cliched from others doing impressions of it than the actual performance. Count how many "Hoo-Haws" there are if you don't believe me and can handle it. Not as many as you thought, huh? )

To cut Burton a tiny bit of slack, his background was as a stage actor. Due to the nature of the beast, stage actors have to...um...emote somewhat more than screen actors do. This could be construed, in a film, as overacting, which is why I didn't mention Equus in my previous post, where Burton comes very close, but doesn't quite cross that line. But Exorcist II....good God.

EDIT: I thought Pacino's performances in both Godfather movies were nicely understated. In particular, the scenes with his ill-fated brother-in-law Carlo (Gianni Russo) and older brother Fredo (John Cazale) were, I thought, wonderful.

EDIT: IT's been pointed out to me that Carlo was Michael's brother-in-law, not son-in-law. Corrected.

Okay, we've looked at Richard burton and Al Pacino so far in this questionable thread. Pacino's presence automatically brought to mind Marlon Brando, one of the finest actors of his (or any) generation. But in looking over his filmography, he hasn't done anything outright horrible, other than The Island of Dr. Moreau, which I hated, but which some people apparently don't think too badly of. I hated him in that film, and didn't care for him very much in The Score (2001), but that may just be me. Any thoughts on Marlon ("the horror....the horror") Brando?


The next name on my original list, though, was Rod Steiger. I admit he was somewhat hammy from the get-go, but that often served him well, particularly in what is probably his most famous role, as Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night, and (my personal favorite) as Mr. Joyboy in The Loved One. But, my God, he went so far over the top in The Amityville Horror(1979) as Father Delaney, that he was practically in outer space. I really didn't follow his career much after that, but I was shocked that the man who was so incredible in The Pawnbroker could really be that bad. Any other thoughts?

In case anyone isn't already aware, I'm basically a Brando fanboy. I honestly think he was the greatest actor in cinema history. He was in some poor films, sure, but nothing could diminish the power of his legendary work.

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I allow my favorite/great actors to have flops. Some from actors I normally like:

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Another one is the Duke

Great in The Searchers



and horrible in :

The Conqueror

And they came out the same year...

I realize that this will get a rise from michaelcorleone and perhaps a few others, but Brando was God in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Guys and Dolls, Sayonara, One-Eyed Jacks (in truth, that may well be my fave), Bedtime Story, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris and Don Juan DeMarco.



I think he was either completely- or borderline-pathetic in these (which are a much-smaller group): The Missouri Breaks (campy but idiotic), Apocalypse Now (by far the worst part of the flick and what makes it most-decidedly NOT a a masterpiece) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (you've got to be jerkin' me off and I a'int feelin' it... sorry.))

Well... you knew you would get a rise out of me. :P

He played against expectations in Apocalypse Now, but his performance was anything but pathetic. I actually think he's brilliant in that film... one of the better supporting male performances of the 1970s. His vocally tonal control and his subdued physical choices contribute to the power of the character.

And in The Missouri Breaks he certainly goes haywire with the character, making bizarre decisions that turn him into something truly odd. However, his accent is pitch-perfect and, peculiar as he might be, he's exceedingly interesting to watch. I think he's fantastic in that film.

As for The Island of Dr. Moreau, yeah... he delivers poorly. But come on, the whole movie delivers poorly. Even thespian David Thewlis turns in a dreadfully lame performance. It's one of those cases where the production went so awry that the actors gave up trying, and it shows in the film.

Brad Pitt is capable of being excellent or terrible.

Excellent...

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

And terrible...

SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET

Overall I think he's great, but that accent in Seven Years in Tibet... Man, it scares me thinking about it.