My top 20 actors (alive)
by daria84 | created - 24 Dec 2011 | updated - 06 Apr 2012 | Public
1. Geoffrey Rush
Actor | The King's Speech
Geoffrey Roy Rush was born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His mother was of German descent and his father had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. ...
Can play comedy, drama, action, just give the man a script and you know he'll turn it into something memorable.
2. Johnny Depp
Actor | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one ...
One of the most versatile actors of our times, can play just about anything you give him, and well played.
3. Jack Nicholson
Actor | Chinatown
Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...
I don't think I need to say anything about Nicholson's skills, his work speaks on its own.
4. Ciarán Hinds
Actor | Belfast
Ciarán Hinds was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on February 9, 1953. He was one of five children and the only son. His father was a doctor who hoped to have Ciarán follow in his footsteps, but that was not to be. It was his mother Moya, an amateur actress, who was the real influence behind his ...
A highly talented actor who is terribly underrated, after Rome and Munich which by the way must have gotten him at least an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, he should have been getting great roles in great movies... Mysteriously enough, that hasn't happened and I wonder why...
5. Jeff Bridges
Actor | The Big Lebowski
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...
Loved him in True Grit, has had a long career and keeps getting better every time.
6. Colin Firth
Actor | A Single Man
Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's...
Finally got a role that allowed him to display all his talent, The King Speech was an amazing movie that I can't imagine anybody pulling off the role of Prince Albert like Colin did.
7. Tom Hanks
Producer | Cast Away
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has ...
Forest Gump, Philadelphia, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, The Green Mile.... every single one of then turned into a memorable movie because of Hanks.
8. Alan Rickman
Actor | Die Hard
Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London, to Margaret Doreen Rose (Bartlett), of English and Welsh descent, and Bernard Rickman, of Irish descent, who worked at a factory. Alan Rickman had an older brother (David), a younger brother (Michael), and a younger sister (Sheila). ...
Always the smooth guy, always adds something extra to any project he participates in.
9. Michael Emerson
Actor | Saw
Michael Emerson was born on September 7, 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. He is an actor, known for Saw (2004), Lost (2004) and Person of Interest (2011). He has been married to Carrie Preston since September 5, 1998.
Another underrated actor, famous for turning Ben from Lost into one of the most loved characters despite all of his deeds. I would like to see him more in movies, although I believe he has specialized in TV shows and feels comfortable there.
10. Sean Penn
Actor | Mystic River
Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.
Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...
Sean Penn can play good guy, bad guy, and always be cool with it. Even with "I am Sam" which a lot of people disliked, I thought he did a good job, it was a challenging role and he managed it pretty good.
11. Tim Robbins
Actor | Mystic River
Born in West Covina, California, but raised in New York City, Tim Robbins is the son of former The Highwaymen singer Gil Robbins and actress Mary Robbins (née Bledsoe). Robbins studied drama at UCLA, where he graduated with honors in 1981. That same year, he formed the Actors' Gang theater group, ...
Another versatile actor who is great both in draw, action and comedy. Haven't seen much of him, sure hope that changes.
12. Al Pacino
Actor | Serpico
Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.
He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...
The Godfather was probably the best movie ever made, and a big part of that success was Pacino's Michael Corleone.
13. Robert De Niro
Actor | Cape Fear
One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...
Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Cape Fear... I can go on and on, even in Machete he was excellent.
14. Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor | Inception
Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...
A great example that a pretty boy teenage idol can turn into a serious actor and a good one. I just loved seeing him evolve from Jack of Titanic who spanned young girls heads and hearts in the late 90's, into a secret thief, a gang member, an undercover cop, and the head of CIA.
15. Anthony Hopkins
Actor | The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...
Sir Anthony Hopkins, another master in every role and owner of one of the few characters in movie history that continue to compel audiences. Dr. Lecter is forever immortal thanks to Hopkins brilliant performance.
16. Edward Norton
Actor | Fight Club
American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer ...
Another underrated actor, even though he's shown many times how amazing he can be. American History X is proof how how Norton can play, in a single movie, a character with an extreme change of attitude and personality, and be believable in both facets.
17. Vincent Cassel
Actor | Black Swan
Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, ...
International actor who has had the change to contribute in great movies and be believable in all of them.
18. Bruno Ganz
Actor | Der Untergang
Bruno Ganz was an acclaimed Swiss actor who was a prominent figure in German language film and television for over fifty years. He is internationally renowned for portraying Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall (2004).
Ganz was born in Zürich, to a Swiss mechanic father and a ...
I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing, but whoever attempts to do a Hitler movie, will have to top Bruno's performance in "Der Untergan" and I really don't think that'll happen.
19. Javier Bardem
Actor | Skyfall
Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.
He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were...
Can play a charming guy with the same ease he can play a stone cold killer with a funny hair-do, Spain's best talent contribution to the world.
20. Liam Neeson
Actor | Kinsey
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an ...
IMO he was robbed of the Oscar in Schindler's List, every time I watch that movie I cry like a baby in the end with his performance, where he keeps blaming himself for not doing more than what he did. Now he's more focused on action roles, which is fine, we have already seen what an amazing actor he is.
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