Best Performance

Bjork in DANCER IN THE DARK
Nicholson in CUCKOO'S NEST

It's nice to see that this thread got resurrected. But I can't believe that none of the following were ever mentioned:

Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird

Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, The Entertainer....

Cary Grant in Notorious

Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen, Bringing Up Baby, The Lion In Winter, A Long Day's Journey Into Night....

Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

James Stewart in Harvey, Winchester '73, Vertigo, The Flight of the Phoenix, It's A Wonderful Life...

I agree with many of the other posts about current actors, but as Holden said, there were some great performances prior to 1970, and I think they deserve some mention.

Henry Cele - Shaka Zulu
Marlon brando - Godfather
Deniro - Goodfellas, etc.
Kingsley - Ghandi
Russel Crowe - A beautiful mind
Depp - Donnie brasco
Pacino - Scarface, etc.
Brody - The pianist
Bassett - What's love got to do with it
Begnigni - La vita e bella
Hoffman - Rain men
Gossett Jr. - An officer and an gentleman
Hopkins - Remains of the day and many others
Gene hackman - Mississippi burning and many others

Paddy Considine as Morrell in A Room For Romeo Brass is one of the most outstanding performances ever, especially for an actor making his first ever screen debut. The character was just spot on in terms of him being a weird, lonely, hyper and pathetic man. Brilliantly played and an overlooked performance

Stephen Graham's psychotic Combo in This Is England rivals Considine's tour de force . I'm not quite sure if I have seen anything like it. The more I watch him perform as Combo, the more I wonder if he is truly acting. That's not an exaggeration. I can quite honestly say that Graham's portrayal is one of the most terrifying performances I have ever seen in my 22-year-old life. That is saying a hell of a LOT.

Oh, and special mention goes to Guy Pearce's Leonard Shelby performance. Beautiful. Just...beautiful.

Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice

Bette Davis in All About Eve

Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath

Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York

Robert Shaw in Jaws

Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe

I usually don't like Tom Cruise as an actor, but I thought he did a pretty good job in Eyes Wide Shut. I also thought Nicholson was brilliant in As Good As It Gets.

The best performance I think I have ever seen is by Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird.

Robert DeNiro (all , IMO)

Jodie Foster - The Accused

Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind

Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting

Johnny Depp - Edward Scissorhands

Marlon brando - Godfather
Russel Crowe - A beautiful mind

Really the best actor award is given to those whose performance is most good and it should be out of recommendation.

Kate Winslet---The Holiday
Nicolas Cage---Face off,Weatherman
Tom Hanks---Forrest Gump
Ewan McGregor---Transportting
Natalie Portman---Leon,Where the heart is
Sean Penn---U Turn

Nicolas Cage has these sad eyes,his face was born for acting,whether in the Lord of War,face off,weatherman,or Gone in 60 seconds,he just turns everybody on.Natalie Portman has always been one of my favourite actresses.Her stunning acting in Leon and Where the heart is are heartbreaking.The latter film seems to have drawn little attention,but I was totally into it.U turn is a good film,blood,sex,violence,suspicion, incredible bad fortune and the twisted plot. It gets the adrenalin flowing all the time.

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Incredible performance by Begnigni definitely his best and one of the best to come out of Italy!!

Nicolas Cage = Face off,Weatherman,Ghost Rider,Gone in 60 Second
Tom Hanks = Forrest Gump, Outcast

Mel Gibson - BraveHeart and The Patriot

Bruce Willis - Armageddon

Anything Daniel Day Lewis has done is excellent. He's one of the best actors out there now. Can't wait for There Will Be Blood.

Christoper Walken in The Deer Hunter is another one I would put in the top 10 of best performances.

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"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."

Gibson - Braveheart
Cuba - Jerry Maguire
Benicio - Traffic
Damon - Good Will Hunting
Depp - Donnie Brasco

Jim Carrey -for comedy
Mel Gibson -for drama
Nicholas Cage -in action
Orlando Bloom - Lord of the Rings (Legulas)

For a young dude Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland was great.
also:

Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin
Another Little Person Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine

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nicholas cage-in any movie
depp-made looking like a pirate like fun and a trip in itself even if it made me want to brush my teeth for 10mins
anthony hopkins- in any movie
ashley judd- southern accent still shows thru ( i'm from tn)
cameron diaz-her choices as a actress shows she doesnt like to be typed cast
julia roberts- in any movie
billy crudup-just because he is so fine and not hard on the eyes

No way I could pick a favorite performance of all-time. This'll do just fine for now.

Gunnar Bjornstrand as Tomas (Winter Light)
Marlon Brando as Paul (Last Tango in Paris)
Nicholas Cage as Charlie/Donald Kaufman (Adaptation)
Tom Cruise as David Aames (Vanilla Sky)
Catherine Deneuve as Severine (Belle De Jour)
Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-Su (Oldboy)
Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta (Raging Bull)
Giulietta Masina as Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria)
Toshiro Mifune as Tajomaru (Rashomon)
Jeanne Moreau as Catherine (Jules and Jim)
Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone (The Godfather/The Godfather Part II)
Takashi Shimura as Kenji Watanabe (Ikiru)
James Stewart as Scottie (Vertigo)
Liv Ullmann as Marianne (Scenes from a Marriage)
Max Von Sydow as Tore (The Virgin Spring)
Naomi Watts as Betty/Diane (Mulholland Dr.)