MovieChat Forums > On the Waterfront (1954) Discussion > Greatest Male Film Performances

Greatest Male Film Performances

posted 18 years ago by donscarface2
147 replies | jump to latest

Marlon Brando- On The Waterfront
Robert De Niro- Raging Bull
Marlon Brando- The Godfather
Al Pacino- The Godfather Part 2
Alec Guinness- The Bridge On The River Kwai
Humphrey Bogart- Casablanca
Jack Nicholson- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Anthony Hopkins- Silence Of The Lambs
Gregory Peck- To Kill A Mockingbird
Kevin Spacey- American Beauty

My favourite actor of all time is Marlon Brando which is evident in my selection. Also, although Hopkins only appears for 16 minutes in Silence Of The Lambs, those 16 minutes are pure gold.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] bill38112 16 years ago

I'm kind of surprised that the following don't appear on anyone else's lists:

Richard Burton, Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf, Equus (seven career Oscar nominations)
Rod Steiger, The Pawn Broker (three career Oscar nominations)
Dennis Hopper (a contemporary of Brando and Dean and he's still here)Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, True Romance

These names appeared on other lists, but not the performances:

Peter O'Toole, A Lion In Winter
Gary Oldman, Coppola's Dracula, True Romance (a black pimp with dreadlocks, "I didn't know it was White Boy Day")
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain

I also gotta add "Ditto" to
Michael Keaton's Beatlejuice

[–] jcgcsc 16 years ago

Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront/ The Godfather/ Apocalypse Now
Al Pachino - Dog Day Afternoon/ The Godfather/ The Godfather Part II
Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver/ Raging Bull/ The Deer Hunter
Malcolm McDowell - A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs
Heath Ladger - The Dark Knight
Peter Finch - Network
Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove
Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate/ Rain Man
Leonardo Decaprio - The Aviator
Jack Nicholson - On Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest/ Chinatown
Edward Norton - Primal Fear/ American History X/ Fight Club
Peter O' Toole - Lawrence of Arabia

[–] the_vines9 15 years ago

Didn't read all the posts, just wanted to say that I thought DiCaprio was phenomenal in The Aviator

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] chrisasiama 15 years ago

Max Schrek - Nosferatu the Vampire
Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront, The Godfather, A Streetcar Named Desire
Lee J Cobb - Twelve Angry Men
Anthony Perkins - Psycho
Humphrey Bogart - The Maltese Falcon
Edward G Robinson - Key Largo
James Cagney - White Heat
James Stewart - Vertigo
Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear
Al Pacino - The Godfather part 1 & 2, Serpico
Johnny Depp - Edward Scissorhands, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Morgan Freeman - The Shawshank Redemption, Gone Baby Gone
Tim Robbins - The Shawshank Redemption
Gabriel Byrne - Miller's Crossing
Harvey Keitel - Bad Lieutenant
Ben Kingsley - Sexy Beast
Ray Winstone - Scum
Dennis Hopper - Blue Velvet
Robert Duvall - Apocalypse Now
Leo DiCaprio - The Basketball Diaries
Jack Nicholson - Batman, The Last Detail, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Shining

[–] Vinyard1 15 years ago

Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part II is amazing! Robert De Niro was also great in The Godfather: Part II but not as good as Al Pacino. (I know some people will attack me for this)

[–] Bean1188 15 years ago

I'm sure there are a few here that people will disagree with as far as the "greatest" performances. But, I think they are definitely notable, and are some of my favorites.

John Hurt - The Elephant Man
Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver/The Deer Hunter
Andy Serkis - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Malcolm McDowell - A Clockwork Orange
Billy Bob Thornton - Slingblade
Christian Bale - American Psycho
William H. Macy - Fargo
Jack Nicholson - The Shining/One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest
Tom Hanks - Forest Gump
James Stewart - Vertigo
Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men
Gregory Peck - To Kill A Mockingbird
Paul Newman - Cool Hand Luke
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda
Daniel Day Lewis - The Crucible

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] arubi2 14 years ago

My Top 25 male of all time:

Robert Mitchum - The Night of the Hunter
Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront/The Last Tango in Paris
Robert De Niro - Raging Bull/Taxi Driver
James Stewart - Vertigo
Lon Chaney - The Unknown
Per Oscarsson - Hunger
David Thewlis - Naked
Boris Karloff - The Body Snatcher/Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein
Paul Muni - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang/Scarface
Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
Anthony Perkins - Psycho
Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times/City Lights
Burt Lancaster - The Leopard/Sweet Smell of Success
Dean Stockwell - Compulsion
Richard Burton - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold/Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski
Peter Lorre - M/Mad Love
Paul Newman - Hud/The Hustler
Alec Guinness - Kind Hearts and Coronets/The Ladykillers
Raimu - The Baker's Wife
Takashi Shimura - Ikiru
Jeff Goldblum - The Fly
Jeremy Irons - Dead Ringers
Dustin Hoffman - Tootsie
Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove/Being There/A Shot in the Dark

P.S.

But none of those mentioned above can ever come close to Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc who I believe is one of the very first film actors to use the Method and nobody has perfected it as much as she did even after eighty years.

Oh and Anthony Hopkins's 15 minutes in The Silence of the Lambs is sooo OVERRATED. He nailed the part, yes but he gave better performances in other films and other actors gave better performances than he could ever dream of.