My Favorite Steve Martin Performances

9.

Bobby Bowfinger, Bowfinger



Martin also wrote the screenplay for this scathing black comedy where he plays a second rate filmmaker who has a chance to revive his career with a script called "Chubby Rain" and wants a big time action star named Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) to star. Kit refuses but Bobby decides to shoot the movie anyway, filming Kit without his knowledge and utilizing a nerdy look-alike (also Murphy) for close-ups and stunt work.

8.

Roger Cobb, All of Me



Martin turned in a brilliant performance in a physically tricky role as a lawyer hired to handle the estate of a dying millionairess (Lily Tomlin) whose life is turned upside when the woman dies and her spirit enters Cobb and takes over the right side of his body. This performance actually garnered serious Oscar buzz for Martin, but it was never to be.

7.

Jonas Nightingale, Leap of Faith



Martin is superb as a phony faith healer whose traveling clip show is forced to stop in a one horse town where actually miracles start occurring and Jonas is unsettled by townspeople thinking he might be responsible.

6.

Arthur Parker, Pennies from Heaven



Another terrific Martin performance that nobody saw...Arthur Parker is a depression-era song salesman who can't get what he wants in bed from his frigid wife (Jessica Harper) who has an affair with a schoolteacher (Bernadette Peters) who he gets pregnant.

5.

Navin Johnson, The Jerk



Martin became an official movie star with this box office smash about an idiot who was adopted by black sharecroppers who eventually becomes a millionaire and marries a cosmotologist (Bernadette Peters).

I remember when this was released - I believe it was the first one that came out after his debut in The Jerk. To say that a loving, non-comedic tribute to old Hollywood didn't offer what fans of that movie and his wild stand-up routines expected and wanted would be massive understatement. It was our first view into a quirky and unique individual, motivated to take on projects primarily by his own personal passions, regardless of commercial prospects. It reached the point where we were in no way surprised when he'd choose to use his clout to allow him to make a modern adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, an album of bluegrass banjo music, or a quasi-Shakespearean tale of a man given life guidance by a mystical highway traffic congestion sign. It's hard not to respect his dogged dedication to pursuing his personal creative passions, wherever they may lead.

(On the flip side, we can fast forward to recent years, where we have two Pink Panther movies. I'm also enough of a capitalist to appreciate that he still wants to be make some money. More power to him in that regard.)

4.

Michael McCann, A Simple Twist of Fate



Martin was surprisingly effective in this melodrama about a man whose life is changed when an orphaned little girl comes into it.

3.

The Brother, And the Band Played On



Martin impressed as part of the impressive all-star cast involved in this look at the battle against AIDS.

Never seen #4, and had no idea he was in #3!

2.

Davis, Grand Canyon



Martin was Oscar-worthy in this film from The Big Chill director Lawrence Kasdan. Martin plays a schlock movie producer who is rich, successful, and miserable but goes through a real epiphany about his life and career when he gets shot during an attempted mugging.

And here we are # 2 already...as mentioned at the beginning of the thread, anyone who has followed my threads already knows what # 1 is and a quick process of elimination should make it clear for anyone new here but not to the career of Steve Martin...drum roll please...my # 1 favorite Steve Martin performance:

1.

CD Bales, Roxanne



Scoff if you will, but I think Martin was robbed of a Best Actor Oscar nomination for this dazzling performance that was a perfect melding of slapstick clown and romantic leading man. This modern re-thinking of Cyranno De Bergerac finds Martin playing the fire chief in a Colorado mountain town, with a rather large probiscus, who falls for a beautiful astrology student (Daryl Hannah), who though charmed by CD, only has eyes for his new hunky employee, Chris (Rick Rossovich), who doesn't have a brain in his head and actually asks for CD's help in romancing Roxanne. Martin created one of his most likable characters here...CD is clearly the smartest guy in town yet never holds it over anyone's head...he never takes himself too seriously, evidenced in the scene at the bar where he comes up with 20 insults for his big nose and there are few scenes as romantic as CD standing under the tree of Roxanne's house, pretending to speak for Chris but he's really speaking for himself. Hollywood was shocked when Martin was snubbed as the Best Actor nominations were revealed. Chevy Chase hosted the Oscars that year and as a protest on Martin's snub, came onstage wearing a big fake nose.






Hope someone enjoyed the list.

I did, Gideon. And I didn't mess up this time. You've given me some new movies to add to my watchlist. Thank You.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend The Spanish Prisoner. Martin is weirdly great at delivering Mamet's dialogue. Wish he would've played more genuinely sinister characters in his career

HERE is my Steve Martin thread.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I will definitely be checking this one out...love when Martin plays bad guys.

Congrats on finishing your list Gideon.

I wasn't that active here as I've only seen a few of Steve Martin's movies. The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, Father of the Bride, maybe 1 or 2 more that I'm forgetting right now. So haven't seen most of these. I did however watch all of his appearances on Saturday Night Live way back when.

If you haven't seen it, dude, you have to add Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid to your watchlist...thanks to some really amazing editing, Martin does scenes with Bette Davis, Burt Lancaster, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, and many other stars from classic Hollywood. I'm sure you would love it.

I think that's the first of his movies I saw, Gideon.

You didn't mention it so I thought you hadn't seen it, sorry.

Oh that message was meant for Citizen, he was the one who hadn't seen it, got confused, have to look more closely at who's responding to my stuff, sorry for the confusion.