Most Memorable Film Character/ Acting Performance Ever?

[Pangur Bán]

Who, and in what film, delivered the most memorable film performance.

There are a number of famous performances, like Robert Deniro in Raging Bull, Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront or the Godfather, Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Orson Welles in Touch of Evil or John Wayne in the Searchers. You get the idea.

My favorite?

1)Peter Ustinov, as the emperor Nero, in Quo Vadis
2)Clint Eastwood, in Dirty Harry and its sequels
3)Roger Livesey, in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp


And I'll add, John Hurt, as the emperor Caligula, in I Claudius, even though that isn't a film strictly speaking.

 

[Yoda Power]

Billy Bob Thorthorn(or something like that) in Slingblades(i love that movie)

 

[Mariusz]

The ones that come to my mind in this moment:
1) Al Pacino & Robert De Niro in "The Heat"
2) Gene Hackman in "Unforgiven" and many other of his movies
3) Brad Pitt in "Fight Club"
4) Tim Roth in "4 Rooms"

 

[Mikoyan]

Robert Carlyle in "Trainspotting".

 

[gael]

Joe Pesci (don't know the spelling) 'Goodfellas'.

Brilliant!

 

[Stile]

I agree with Yoda Power. He was awesome in that movie. (So was singer Dwight Yoakam.)

I'll add:
Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"
and for the women
Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction"

 

[Grille]

-K.Hepburn/H.Bogart in "African Queen", just awesome wonderful
-ALL actors in "Leon": J. Reno, G. Oldman, N. Portman...



-Steven Seagal, when sitting at home...


BTW, anyone knows "Coldblooded"? I thought J. Priestley wasn't an actor since I watched this one.

 

[Greadius]

Henry Fonda in "12 Angry Men"

And of course Britney Spears in... what was that movie called again?

 

[jack merchant]

Crossroads.

Ehm.............

Ouch !

jack hides in a corner and curses his ability to remember all sorts of insignificant facts

 

[Flak]

Whoopie Goldberg in The Color Purple
Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction
Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams
Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Marlon Brando in Apocolypse Now
Cher in Moonstruck

 

[naervod]

Flak- Cher in Moonstruck was great.

One of my favorites is Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life

 

[Greadius]

And who could forget Robert de Niro's performance in "Rocky & Bullwinkle", or Jack Nicholson in "Wolf"


I had a point here, really. Is it the actor or the script/directing/production that make a performance great?

 

[Serutan]

Originally posted by Greadius
And who could forget Robert de Niro's performance in "Rocky & Bullwinkle", or Jack Nicholson in "Wolf"


I had a point here, really. Is it the actor or the script/directing/production that make a performance great?

I'd say both. You have to have both a strong script *and* a strong actor(ress) to get the "great performance". As you note with your example, a bad script,etc. will bring down a good actor, and conversely, a bad actor will bring down a good script...

My performance is Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove".

 

[Higher Game]

Sylvester Stallone in Rambo. I love that movie! "I only want my country to love me as much as I love it." That brings me to tears every time I hear it.

 

[Talon]

Dustin Hoffman, Little Big Horn

For a comedy, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in "Silver Bullet".

 

[wilbill]

Dustin Hoffman, yes, but in Midnight Cowboy

 

[metalhead]

Without a doubt, and I know stonesfan will back me up on this, Jeff Bridges as The Dude in The Big Lebowski. Hell, John Goodman as Walter in that movie is just as memorable.

Others would be:

Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny
Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men, or as the Rain Man in, well, Rain Man
Chris Farley as Tommy Callahan in Tommy Boy
Gene Wilder as Dr. Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein
Malcolm McDowell as Alex De Large in A Clockwork Orange
Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill, and Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas

And I can't believe I'm the first to mention Ashton Kutcher as Jesse Richmond in Dude, Where's My Car?

 

[jiml_63]

Tom Hanks in Apollo 13/Philadelphia/Cast Away
Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Bill Murray in Caddyshack

 

[YNCS]

Robert Duval in Apocalypse Now.

 

[Yoda Power]

Arnold S in True Lies, say what you want but that movie is hilarious, so is Arnold.