Best Acting Performances You Have Seen
jamesisace
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For me,
Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice
Katharine Hepburn - The Lion In Winter
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest & The Shining
Morgan Freeman - The Shawshank Redemption
Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs
Kathy Bates - Misery
Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry
Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting
Denzel Washington - Malcolm X
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln & No Country For Old Men
Marlon Brando - The Godfather
Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver & Raging Bull
Paul Newman - Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Lupita N'Yongo - 12 Years a Slave
Vivien Leigh - Gone With The Wind
Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice
Katharine Hepburn - The Lion In Winter
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest & The Shining
Morgan Freeman - The Shawshank Redemption
Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs
Kathy Bates - Misery
Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry
Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting
Denzel Washington - Malcolm X
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln & No Country For Old Men
Marlon Brando - The Godfather
Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver & Raging Bull
Paul Newman - Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Lupita N'Yongo - 12 Years a Slave
Vivien Leigh - Gone With The Wind
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I like the period, though. I thought Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was striking as Henry VIII in The Tudors.
Bjork - Dancer in the dark
Nicole Kidman - The Others, Rabbit Hole, Moulin Rouge
Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh - A streetcar name desire
Bette Davis - What ever happened to baby jane
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Charlize Theron - Monster
Hilary Swank - Boys don't cry
Kate Winslet - Titanic
Leo Dicaprio - The Aviator
Cate Blanchette - Blue Jasmine, The Aviator, Elizabeth
Whoopi Goldberg - The Color purple, Ghost
Michelle Williams - My week with marilyn
Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis - The Help
Barbra Streisand - Funny girl, Yentl
Judy Garland - The wizard of oz, A star is born
Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones - Chicago
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson - The Shining
Mo'Nique - Precious
Angelina Jolie - Girl interrupted and Changelin
Brittany Murphy - Girl interrupted
Brad Pitt - Curious case of benjamin button
Ryan Gosling - Blue valentine
Daniel day lewis - My left foot
Sally Hawkins - Happy go lucky
Lesley Manville - Another year
Julianne Moore - The Hours
Ellen Page - Juno
Carey Mulligan - Never let me go
Keira Knightley - Atonement, The Duchess
Julia Robers - Pretty woman, Erin Brockovich
Tim Curry - Rock horror picture show
Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins - The silence of the lambs
Toni Colette - The sixth sense
Julie Andrews - The sound of music
Diana Ross - Lady sings the blues
Helen Mirren - The queen
Jim Carrey - Man on the moon, The truman show
Zhang Ziyi - Memoirs of a geisha
Marion Cotillad - La vie en rose
Bette Midler - The Rose, Gypsy
Maggie Smith - The prime of miss jean brodie
Marilyn Monroe - Gentlemen prefer blondes
Sissy Spacek - Coal miner's daughter
Meg Tilly - Agnes of god
Michelle Pfeiffer - The fabulous baker boys
Judi Dench - Mrs Brown
Kevin Spacey - American Beauty
Naomi Watts - 21 Grams
Jamie Foxx - Ray
Dustin hoffman - Kramar vs Kramar
Matthew M - Dallas buyers club
Heath Ledger - The dark knight
Phillip seymour hoffman - Capote
Drew Barrymore - Grey Gardens
Claire Danes - Temple Grandin
Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur - Mame
Mia Farrow - Rosemary's Baby
Cher - Mask
Amy Adams - Junebug
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom
Yep, ooops
Tom Hardy - Bronson
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - 50/50
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Samuel L Jackson - Pulp Fiction
Steve Buscemi - Reservoir Dogs
Edward Norton - American History X
Leonardo DiCaprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
Hugo Weaving - V For Vendetta
Colin Farrell - Phone Booth
Jim Carrey - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Saoirse Ronan - Hanna
Sam Rockwell - Seven Psychopaths
Al Pacino - Angels in America (I'm allowed to count this right?)
Jeff Goldblum - The Fly
Brenda Blethyn - Secrets and Lies
Timothy Spall - Secrets and Lies/Pierrepoint
Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mocking Bird
Robert De Niro - King of Comedy
Hugh Laurie - Mr Pipp
Montgomery Clift ditto, but especially From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions and Wild River
James Stewart...would pick out It's A Wonderful Life and Mr Smith goes to Washington.
Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon
Oliver Hardy in everything he did. (and not joking there, however silly that sounds!)
Loads more, but those spring to mind immediately!
Anthony Perkins - Psycho
Nicole Kidman - The Hours
Sissy Spacek - Carrie
Alan Rickman - The Harry Potter series
Logan Lerman - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Ezra Miller & Tilda Swinton - We Need To Talk About Kevin
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook (better than Jennifer Lawrence in my book, not that she wasn't excellent either)
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth
Jim Carrey - The Truman Show
Emma Stone - Easy A (VERY funny)
James Franco - 127 Hours
Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part 2
Al Pacino - The Godfather
Russell Crowe - Gladiator
Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump
Denzel Washington - Training Day
Leonardo DiCaprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape
John Hurt - The Elephant Man
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Michael Douglas - Wall Street
James Stewart - Anatomy of a Murder
Dustin Hoffman - Kramer vs. Kramer
Spencer Tracy - Bad Day at Black Rock
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda
Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird
Gary Cooper - High Noon
Daniel Day-Lewis - In the Name of the Father
Morgan Freeman - The Shawshank Redemption
Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs
Robert de Niro ..Raging Bull and This boys life.
Faye Dunnaway...Mommie Dearest
Tom Hanks...Philadelphia.
Paul Newman...The Verdict.
Christian Bale..... American Psycho.
Kate Winslett....Revolutionary Road.
Bill Murray.... What about Bob.
Steve Martin....Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Daniel Day Lewis... My left Foot.
Leonardo de Caprio....This boys life.
Jack Lemmon and Pacino - Glengarry Glen Ross
Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
Kevin Bacon - Murder In The First
Gary Oldman - Leon
Paddy Considine - Dead Man's Shoes and A Room For Romeo Brass
Julianne Moore and Heather Graham - Boogie Nights
Alison Steadman - Life is Sweet
Bob Hoskins - A Long Good Friday
Laura Dern - Inland empire
Mia Wasakowska - Jane Eyre
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple.
Christophe Waltz - Inglouorious Basterds/ Django Un-chained
Tim Roth - Reservoir Dogs
Alicia Silverstone - Clueless
Alec Baldwin - Glengarry Glen Ross
R Lee Ermey - Full Metal Jacket
Sienna Miller - Factory Girl
...to name but a few.
Sally Field - Steel magnolias
Courtney Love - The people vs Larry flint
Natalie Portman - Closer
Forest Whitikar - The Butler
James Franco - 127 Hours, Springbreakers
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Laura Linney - The life of davis gale
Colin Farrell - In bruges
Mary Tyler Moore - Ordinary people
Holly Hunter - The Piano
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Melancholia, Anti-Christ
Scarlett Johansson - Her
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Maggie Gyllenhaal - The dark knight, Sherrybaby
Halle Berry - Frankie and Alice
Patricia Arquette - Stigmata
Pauline Collins - Shirley Valentine
Kathy Burke - Nil by mouth, Elizabeth
Jennifer Lopez - El Cantante
Sarah Michelle Gellar - Cruel intentions
Reese Witherspoon - Election, Legally Blonde
Thora Birch - Ghost world
Sarah jessica parker - The family stone
Albert Finney - Erin brockovich
Ed Harris - The Hours
Matt Dillon - Crash
Thandie Newton - Crash, Beloved, For colored girls
Loretta Devine - For colored girls
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Barbara Hershey - Black swan
And in "The Accused".
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Vivien Leigh - Gone With The Wind
There have been many great performances by actors before and since, but for me those three are in a completely different league to everyone else.
Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men also comes very close to making that list
Sylvester Stallone - Cop Land
Charlize Theron - Monster
Al Pacino - Scarface
Robert De Niro - Raging Bull
Denzel Washington - Training Day
Leonardo Di Caprio - Catch Me If You Can
Danny Glover - The Colour Purple
Chiwitel Ejiofor - 12 Years A Slave
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years A Slave
Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice
Halle Berry - Monster's Ball