Best and Worst actors of all time..

[GBA]

Hi Guys,

There is a lot of best and worst threads going around at the moment so I was wondering what are your favourite and most hated performers in the whole of film?

Worst:
I'm defiantly nominate Keanu Reeves for a incredible amount of woodenness only paralleled in trees.

Best:
I going to go for Clint Eastwood, he just has a particular acting style with a suspicion of authority making him a great anti-hero. Also Al Pacino just for being him...

Also an honourable mention to Morgan Freeman for being able to play a Pimp in Street Smart and God in Bruce Almighty!

What are your nominations?

 

[Wes R]

worst: Nick cage

best: not sure. I don't have any faves. Robert Downey Jr has stepped up to the plate though.

 

[Lunaman]

My answer to this question lies in this article, especially the first couple paragraphs.
Film Crit Hulk Smash: ACTING 101 | Badass Digest

 

[Apollo]

"Actings the easiest thing to do in the world. Just don't ever let them catch you doing it"

 

[Apollo]

A hard question, Best list

Old school, Lawrence Olivier, Alec Guiness, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracey.

New, Brando, Pacino, Deniro

 

[SludgeMunkey]

worst: Nick cage

best: not sure. I don't have any faves. Robert Downey Jr has stepped up to the plate though.

Totally agree with you. Nick Cage can only play Nick Cage and therefore ruins every script he touches. (exception: Lord of War- he still plays himself, but I was the only person on the planet that actually liked that flick, I think...)

Then again, there is Colin Farrell, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt to consider as worst ever...


As for best, there is a ton on my list, but Daniel Day Lewis always jumps in my mind first, followed by Sir Anthony Hopkins and Michael Caine, and then Sean Connery.

 

[Dexter2999]

These are just actors of today.

Deniro, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, Denzell Washington, Kevin Spacey, Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt is a better actor than I want to give him credit for. Wil Smith has range. Jeffrey Rush, John Turturro, Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Billy Crystal. I want to list Pachino here but I can never forgive his performance in HEAT, where he tried to make a big role out of pointless voice inflection. (The role was supposed to be identical to Deniro's role IMO, as they were supposed to be mirror images of each other...one a cop, one a criminal. However, Pacino seems incapable of playing that low key of a role.)

Tons of Brits are great actors. I don't know many names.

Past, well, I find many performance "stilted" as that was the style of movie making at the time. But some of fav's are Bogart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Sydney Poitier. EDIT: Add Jimmy Stewart

I wish I could name Gene Hackman as one of the best of all time, but his record can be "hit or miss" don't know how much of that is his performance or the projects he picks.

Many actors have made careers out of being themselves, like Nick Nolte, Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood, Keanu Reeves, etc. I still enjoy what they do, but it is difficult to call them the "Best actor of all time"

Worst of all time? Ech, I've always hated Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland, Frank Sinatra (singer=yes, actor=no), and George Segal. But in truth, there are so many actors that were lucky to get even one movie and bad enough to never work again.

The grumpy old man in me still classifies "actors" as male so this list is male. Plus, I find I am much more forgiving of women's performances for some reason (that is probably a deep rooted misogynist issue.)

 

[Apollo]

Yeah I agree with you and the article linked above about Deniro and Pacino just coasting now.

Al's last great performance for me was Scent of a Woman everything after has been pretty bad imo

I want to list Pachino here but I can never forgive his performance in HEAT, where he tried to make a big role out of pointless voice inflection.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

So many greats and even more awful... Don't know if I could pick just a few! :lol

 

[Apollo]

I think the best Actor of my generation, I'm 51, is Daniel Day Lewis

 

[Michael Bergeron]

I think the best Actor of my generation, I'm 51, is Daniel Day Lewis

Right up there for sure!

 

[Reelo]

Worst, Nick Cage, couldn't agree more. What's more, add to that his ability to always chose bad scripts/films to play in.

Best? Phew, lots I could think of...

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

[Amish Trooper]

I would list one if the best Gary Oldman

Worst...hmmmm

 

[Dracosfire83]

Best for me is Steve Buscemi. Never saw him in a role I didn't like. Plus I always wanted to see him play Maximum Carnage in a Spiderman movie.

Worst hands down is Will Ferrell. I hate every role he played that he tried to be funny in. He just come off really annoying.

 

[MFP 2020]

Too many good ones to pick a best.

Worst is easy: Hayden Christiansen. I mean, if you can even call him an actor.

 

[GBA]

worst: Nick cage

best: not sure. I don't have any faves. Robert Downey Jr has stepped up to the plate though.

I forgot about either of them. Nick Cage is terrible and Robert Downey Jr is great!

Nick Cage finds it impossible to find good movies. When watching Bangkok dangerous I just felt why? Why can he do nothing good!

 

[Jannix Quinn]

Wost is Anthony Hopkins. He's so wooden.

Best is Ewan McGregor. He is always watchable, even when the movie isn't.

 

[Jet Beetle]

Best by far no others even come close is -- BRANDO - I'll say it again - MARLON BRANDO. Another Great who outweighs anyone else named so far is James Mason. I'll move my timeline up and say out of people working today - Sam Neill and I know this is going to get a laugh but Steve Carell is actually amazing - watch him on the Office then swing over to Looking for a Friend at the end of the World.

Worst - there are so many, Keanu and Brad Pitt seem to be trying to earn that mantle. Pitt is seriously just terrible - his delivery in Interview with a Vampire is almost comedic.

I can't believe so many people have named Robert Downey Jr in the best category - more like a flavor of the month. He sucked in Chaplin and in his recent films he pretty much plays the same dude - Sherlock Holmes has the same supercilious swagger as Tony Stark.

 

[Philly]

Worst: Ryan reynalds.

Best: Cuba Gooding jnr

 

[nitrox]

I'll agree that Nick Cage does some truly bad films but I think he did a great job in Kick Ass, probably his best performance.

Oh and for best actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman. That guy is fantastic!