Best Ever Actors and Actresses [LISTS] - Games

badseed

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Location: FL

StreetSpirit wrote:

Humour was my intent, but making a mess of projectile soda wasn't, lol.

Now that you mention it, Christoph Waltz doesn't belong either. Maybe it was fascination of villains and QT characters? I don't know. I have nothing against Cranston and Smith making the list. However I didn't realize Robert Duvall missed out. That's too bad because he's great. Wait, we're not scholars?

I don't care that Tom Cruise is a weirdo in his personal life. He's a terrific actor who deserves to be on here. Same with Kevin Spacey. Now everyone knows he's a criminal, but that didn't prevent him from getting onto this list. However, I wonder if the scandal cost him some points.

Here's one thing I noticed looking over this list again. It's mostly lead actors, not supporting. Yeah most of these men have played both types of roles, but nearly everyone on here leads more often than supports. McKellen, Waltz, and Sydow are a few exceptions. I wonder if this was an unconscious factor in users decision-making. Is this why Robert Duvall didn't make the list? Robert Duvall is fantastic, one of my all-time favorite actors and it's a little disappointing that he didn't make it. However, he played supporting characters in most of his films (many of which are considered among the finest ever made...both Godfathers, To Kill a Mockingbird, MASH, Network, Apocalypse Now, etc). I guess it's easy to overlook him when he's overshadowed in these films by other actors. Nevertheless, Duvall was always there giving smaller, but no less terrific performances.

Duvall was one of many men who made their mark with supporting roles but didn't get on this list. Joe Pantoliano, Edward G. Robinson, John Goodman, Claude Rains, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Walken, and Paul Giamatti aren't on here either. badseed, did these men get many votes?

Ok, I know I'm ranting now. But the point is don't overlook supporting actors. They're equally important.

Rant over

Not many. Personally I think leading more than supporting when thinking of Von Sydow and Edward G. Robinson. They may have played primarily supporting roles in their old age (like most do as there aren't many old man leads) but they were definitely stars in their prime. Also I'd say people like Walken and even Gary Oldman are roughly 50/50 for leading and supporting parts (my math could be way off, that's just off the top of my head). And while he's had plenty of lead roles, Michael Caine is equally phenomenal and probably as prolific in supporting roles. Without those roles he probably wouldn't have made the list, not because he isn't good enough, but because most people have seen way more of his supporting stuff. But yeah, for some underrated vote counts:

Duvall - 50 points, 2 lists
Pantoliano - 12 points, 1 list
Robinson - 78 points, 2 lists
Goodman - 60 points, 4 lists
Rains - 8 points, 2 lists
Buscemi - 21 points, 2 lists
Walken - 27 points, 3 lists
Giamatti - 31 points, 1 list

badseed

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Location: FL

While we're on the topic of people we think should have been on more than just a couple lists, why don't we talk about some names that didn't make anyone's list. Because to be honest, just about anybody who's anybody made at least one list. There are literally even dozens of people I honestly don't even know who they are. But aside from a handful of names that easily came to my head, I had to pull up another site's unending list to come up with maybe ten names that nobody mentioned. Turns out I didn't have to scroll far to realize there are quite a few more than that. So I've made a gender-neutral list that represents the top 30 actors who didn't make a single list. Not in order of greatness (roughly half of them are considered to be spectacular performers by the majority) but more like how surprised I am of their absence from every list. Because no offense, but if we were doing a worst ever actors list, quite a few names I have written down on this chart would easily make it. So to see some of those guys and gals score points while these names didn't is pretty shocking...

30. Peter Cushing *
29. David Niven
28. Lana Turner
27. William Hurt
26. Ava Gardner
25. Debbie Reynolds
24. Yul Brynner
23. Keanu Reeves
22. Shelley Winters
21. Halle Berry
20. Sharon Stone
19. Anthony Quinn
18. Angela Bassett
17. Sandra Bullock
16. Angelina Jolie
15. William Powell
14. Rachel Weisz
13. Eli Wallach *
12. Mark Ruffalo
11. Anjelica Huston *
10. Harold Lloyd *
9. John Turturro
8. Lily Tomlin *
7. Rita Hayworth *
6. John Barrymore *
5. Sylvester Stallone
4. Eddie Murphy
3. Charles Bronson *
2. Bradley Cooper
1. Ben Kingsley *

* = would have easily made my list if we did top 100s.

bobbyb5

Gender: Male

Location: New York

I love your comical captions on the pictures. I laughed my ass off. They were so funny.

bobbyb5

Gender: Male

Location: New York

Originally I think I had a couple of these people on my list, but what happens is you start looking at other people's list and you say "damn, how did I forget him or her?" And then you start removing people from your list to put these new people on instead. There were so many that would have somehow slipped my mind if I hadn't seen them on somebody else's list. Usually people who you haven't thought about in years, but you remember how great they were.
But I agree with you that some of these people who didn't appear on any lists are just plain lousy. I think some would appear on my least favorite actrors list also. Heh heh.
Here's a couple more but I thought would have been on more lists. Since they were huge stars in their day and were considered to be great by many people.

Myrna Loy
Kirk Douglas
Tyrone Power
Errol Flynn
Richard Burton
Charles Laughton
Jean Harlow
Steve McQueen
Jayne Mansfield
Rudolph Valentino
Roy Scheider
Gene Kelly
Natalie Wood
James Dean
Rosalind Russell

badseed

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Location: FL

bobbyb5 wrote:

Originally I think I had a couple of these people on my list, but what happens is you start looking at other people's list and you say "damn, how did I forget him or her?" And then you start removing people from your list to put these new people on instead. There were so many that would have somehow slipped my mind if I hadn't seen them on somebody else's list. Usually people who you haven't thought about in years, but you remember how great they were.
But I agree with you that some of these people who didn't appear on any lists are just plain lousy. I think some would appear on my least favorite actrors list also. Heh heh.
Here's a couple more but I thought would have been on more lists. Since they were huge stars in their day and were considered to be great by many people.

Myrna Loy
Kirk Douglas
Tyrone Power
Errol Flynn
Richard Burton
Charles Laughton
Jean Harlow
Steve McQueen
Jayne Mansfield
Rudolph Valentino
Roy Scheider
Gene Kelly
Natalie Wood
James Dean
Rosalind Russell

I've bolded the names that also fall into the zero points club.

Gene Kelly was great, but he wasn't half as innovative as Astaire and most historians would place Fred way higher.

Out of anyone on that list I think Kirk Douglas is probably the most surprising. He was a hell of an actor and starred in two Kubrick films. Figured that would be enough to get him in.

Personally to me, I think these lists prove to me who is the most underrated actor of all time. Despite the fact that his two Academy Award winning roles have appeared on BEA lists before, Fredric March only made one list - mine. I don't know why everyone sleeps on this guy (not just here but basically everywhere). I know you all have a hard on for Its a Wonderful Life. I myself went into The Best Years of Our Lives (the film that dominated it at the Oscars) thinking it wouldn't be in the same league and boy was I wrong. March was ahead of his time when it came to emotions captured by facial expressions. He's been in quite a few great movies and he's usually the best part about them.

Looking at all those names makes me wonder if doing two sets of 100 would have been better or if less people would have participated due to level of difficulty.

Glad you enjoyed the pics. I was pretty pleased with my presentation. Sure it's not Hayden levels of pictures for every entry but I thought it was cute.

Hayden

Cool, cool, I dig it. Enjoying how many of these people are still alive. Pretty stellar showing for Frances Mcdormand which is cool, I really think her recent performances in Three Billboards and Olive Kitteridge pushed her over onto the side of one of the 'best ever'. Still not 100% sure if I'm rooting for her to win the Oscar, but I won't complain in the slightest if she gets it.
_________________
Submit Your List for BEA's 2023 Film Poll!

badseed

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Location: FL

You know who else really should have been here? Jane Fonda. As I mentioned of Cruise and Penn earlier I think her public persona has left a lot of people disliking her. She earned 85 points total from four lists so she did alright, but her work from '65-'85 is legendary.

hereforashortime

Gender: Male

I'm surprised Glen Close didn't make it. I mean she wasn't on my list but I've only seen two of her movies, but it seems like she always gets brought up on the actresses who deserve oscars lists, so I figured she'd at least make the low 40's.
_________________
Nothing really matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me.

bobbyb5

Gender: Male

Location: New York

Absolutely true about both Jane Fonda and Glenn Close. I remember to put Jane Fonda but I didn't remember to put Glenn Close now I feel bad about it. I enjoyed her in Fatal Attraction more than just about anybody I can think of. I watched that movie about ten times because of her. Well the rest of the movie was good too, but she was awesome. Same thing with Jane Fonda. I've watched Klute and They Shoot Horses Don't They? a million times just to watch her in them. And a bunch of other ones too. Like the Morning After. She was awesome.

badseed

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Location: FL

hereforashortime wrote:

I'm surprised Glen Close didn't make it. I mean she wasn't on my list but I've only seen two of her movies, but it seems like she always gets brought up on the actresses who deserve oscars lists, so I figured she'd at least make the low 40's.

I didn't necessarily think she was a lock for the list but I definitely thought she'd be on more than just 20% of the lists, 47 points shy of making it in.