Best Last Film - Actor

Some people might pick Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), James Dean (Giant) or Peter Finch (Network) but I am going with John Wayne in The Shootist (1976).


It may not be the best film in the world but JB Books went out shooting and it was a great way for the dying John Wayne to wrap up his career.

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

I guess my chioce would depend on whether or not I'm giving more weight to the performance, or merely the quality of the last film they were in, regardless of their own contribution.

Anyway, he wouldn't be my choice, since I didn't much like the film, but I imagine a lot of people would choose John Cazale, who filmed The Deer Hunter even after learning he had bone cancer, and died before the film was finished.

Bruce Lee... Enter the Dragon

Brandon Lee... The Crow

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Richard Farnsworth
The Straight Story

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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

OK, mine has never been considered anything great. Then again, the most of you have probably never even heard of it. Either way, I have always loved it. Soooo, my choice is . . .

Jimmy Stewart ~ Right of Way (1983) (TV) ~ Teddy Dwyer



Bette Davis ~ Mini Dwyer
James Stewart ~ Teddy Dwyer
Melinda Dillon ~ Ruda Dwyer

He did the voice of Wylie in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also did six episodes as Miles Colbert in North and South, Book II (1986), and one episode as The Invisible Dr. J in My Secret Identity (1991). However, the last movie that he actually starred in, was this made for TV movie/drama. I finally got my hands on a copy a couple of years ago.

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Oliver Reed.... Although I'm not sure I'd say Gladiator was his best film, it was one of his better ones... and his last one...

Excellent choice Holden. I think this'd be my pick too.

My pick is Cagney who went into retirement after filming One, Two, Three in 1961. Yeah, I know he later did voice performances and had that bit part in Ragtime, but One, Two, Three was his last real movie and one of his best performances ever. A great comedy with great director Billy Wilder, it contained several little references to other great Cagney roles: a coo-coo clock playing Yankee Doodle, Red Buttons doing a Cagney tough-guy imitation, a threatened grapefruit to the face. Cagney walked away from the business at the height of his form with one last great role.

I'd been more impressed if Wayne had quit with The Cowboys. I strongly dislike The Shootist because they rewrote the book to give some "meaning" to Books' death and let him go out as a success. In the book, it's the kid who kills the old gunfighter after he's survived the shoot-out in the bar. Kid shoots him in the back, steals his gun, horse, and the money the old outlaw had left his mom, and heads West with plans to be a famous gunman just like ol' JB. The Shootist spotlights Wayne the Movie Star, when it could have been a tribute to Wayne the Actor if he hadn't had them rewrite the plot to make his character look better.

But that's just my opinion. You and everyone else in the world liked it the way it was done.

Cagney was great in the Cold War classic, but you're cheating when you call it his last film. Of ones which haven't been mentioned, I'll name three more of the best actors ever who gave strong performances in their last theatrical film. Even if they don't quite rival their greatest performances, they were all nominated for Best Actor Oscars, and the last one won: Paul Muni in The Last Angry Man, Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond.

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

Indeed, I AM going to say Heath Ledger. One of the greatest performances of all time.

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Now if you let me...you won't regret me...$hit if you let me, you won't forget me.

Raul Julia in Streetfighter, baby. Ok, sick joke. Though I do love Julia for all the great performances he did prior to that.

I'm going to be predictable and 2nd the Heath Ledger mention. Because if you're gonna go, go with smile..

I really wish I could say that Ledger's performance as the joker is overrated, but I cannot. It simply is one of the great performances of the modern era and the Dark Knight is definitely the film that fits this thread the best

Attention Half the People in This Thread: The Dark Knight was not Ledger's last film.

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the angel stayed until something died, one more murder suicide

Great choice, great performance, great film. Awfully sad how everything turned out for Farnsworth.

Bruce lee films are nice

I like Titanic as well