Best Actor- All Time (according to IMDB)

Well, it wouldn't be the last time Hollywood squandered money on cattle. Giant was filmed out in the area of West Texas where I grew up (which means anywhere within about a 100-mile radius of any point) and there's a famous local story about the opening scene where, as the credits roll, you see a herd of cattle being driven down to water tank. Seems the movie crew went to this ol' rancher on whose ranch they were filming and told him they would pay him some such money if he'd have his hands move some cattle so they could get a background shot. So he suggests this location and said he could have his cowboys move the cattle down there shortly after dawn. Movie crew agrees, writes him a check, sets up their cameras, and sure enough shortly after dawn here comes the herd down for water. What the rancher didn't tell them, however, was that he was planning to move the cattle onto that range that morning anyway and the movie crew could have gotten the shot for free.

I'd heard that Red River was overtime and over-budget, but didn't know it had to do with the cattle. For $1.5 million back then, I'd think Hollywood could have bought a herd of its own.

Still, it seems to me that the ending must have been the result of problems with the script. Seems to me the way Wayne played his character all through the earlier part of the film, someone had to die or be badly wounded, maybe crippled at the end of the movie. Instead Cherry ends up down but still kicking, while Wayne and Clift come out without much more than bloody noses. What do you think? Should the ending have had more punch? I saw one online review that said that in the original serialized magazine story, Dunston (who for some reason I keep calling Tunstill, a character in the Lincoln County Wars) dies from the wound received from Cherry and Matt and Tess bury him in Texas beside the Red River near his ranch.

Read somewhere that Gary Cooper was offered Wayne's role but rejected it because the character was too unsympathetic. Even better, they say the role of Cherry was offered first to--Cary Grant! A trimmed down version of that role went to John Ireland. Now wouldn't you have loved to see Grant in a Western!!!

I read an article that Will Smith films have grossed on average more money than any other actors films. I would also suggest that Christian Bale may be the best and most versitle actor of our era.

I think most people that do polls have their head up their ass when it comes to selecting best actors. There is a majority consensus among actors that in every generation there was a standout:
BRANDO, DENERO,DECAPRIO
Katherine Heburn, Meryll Streep, ?

i think we can put this thread to rest - since we already know who the best is

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Yeah, Bogart, followed by Alec Guinness (for males anyway).

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