The most memorable film roles by an actor and actress

formerly present wrote:

OP, do you you mean the one most memorable role among *all* actors/actresses, or do you mean the most memorable for *each* actor/actress? Sorry, the thread title/OP aren't clear.

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Throw all the actors and actresses into a pool and pick your most memorable role for an actor 'and' actress from that pool.

But you have a great idea.

What was DeNiro's most memorable role? Max Cady in "Cape Fear."

Brando's? "Godfather."

Streep's? "Sophie's Choice"

Robert Duvall's? "Tender Mercies."

Humphrey Bogart's? "The Maltese Falcon."

James Dean's? "East of Eden."

Marilyn Monroe's? "Bus Stop."

Peter O'Toole's? "Lawrence of Arabia"

Jack Nicholson's "Five Easy Pieces"

Dustin Hoffman's? "Midnight Cowboy"

Jon Voight's? The TV series "Ray Donovan."

Henry Fonda's? "Once Upon a Time in the West."

Peter Seller's? "The Pink Panther."

Liz Taylor's? "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?"

Clark Gable's? "The Misfits."

Jack Lemmon's? "Days of Wine and Roses"

Al Pacino's? "Frankie and Johnny"

Jeff Bridges's" "The Fabulous Baker Boys"

old guy 74 wrote:

Streep's? "Sophie's Choice"

Peter Seller's? "The Pink Panther."

Jeff Bridges's" "The Fabulous Baker Boys"

Three strikes.

Streep was better in The Iron Lady.

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove

Jeff Bridges as the dude, dude...

old guy 74 wrote:

Not necessarily the best acting, but the most memorable.

Vivien Leigh as Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in "The Godfather"

That was exactly what I was thinking of when I read the thread title.

I would suggest that Leigh's performance is probably the best of any actress on film.

You mentioned some of our greatest actors in memorable roles. Nevertheless I think of other films when I hear their names. Not necessarily greatest role but the role I think of them in, I believe you'll know which actors I'm referring to:

Raging Bull, Casablanca, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Midnight Cowboy, The Grapes of Wrath, GWTW, Save the Tiger, Godfather 2

It just shows us how great they are.

coach wrote:

You mentioned some of our greatest actors in memorable roles. Nevertheless I think of other films when I hear their names. Not necessarily greatest role but the role I think of them in, I believe you'll know which actors I'm referring to:

Raging Bull, Casablanca, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Midnight Cowboy, The Grapes of Wrath, GWTW, Save the Tiger, Godfather 2

It just shows us how great they are.

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I know from previous threads that we have similar tastes in movies so it doesn't surprise me that you thought of Clark Gable in GWTW. I actually agree, but I mistakenly went with "The Misfits" because I liked it better than GWTW. My first thought for Henry Fonda was "Grapes of Wrath" but he was so great in "Once Upon a Time in the West" I had to lean that way. As someone else mentioned previously I think Vivien Leigh in "Streetcar" was the greatest acting (if it was acting) ever. Even her husband, Laurence Olivier, couldn't top that!

A few additions:

Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet

Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca

Sue Lyon in Lolita

James Mason in Lolita

Christopher Walken in At Close Range

Willem DeFoe in Wild at Heart

Paul Newman in Hud

Ben Johnson in The Last Picture Show

Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Leslie Howard in Petrified Forest

Jessica Lange in Sweet Dreams

Reese Witherspoon in Freeway

Daniel Day Lewis in Unbearable Lightness of Being

Penelope Cruz in anything

Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs

Brad Pitt in Kalifornia

Brigitte Bardot in "And, God Created Woman" In fact, - forget the Universe - Brigitte was God's greatest creation.

Penelope Cruz in anything?

Bette Davis and Daniel Day Lewis in anything

The hard part of the question is that the very best actors are awesome in several films, so while they certainly create iconic characters, it's hard to pick the most iconic. DDL is definitely one of the best of all time. A guy like Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men wasn't his best, but certainly iconic.

**stipe wrote:

The hard part of the question is that the very best actors are awesome in several films, so while they certainly create iconic characters, it's hard to pick the most iconic. DDL is definitely one of the best of all time. A guy like Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men wasn't his best, but certainly iconic.

Yes, and the joy here is thinking about so many of these great performances and great films.

Also Alicia Vikander in anything.

Sean Penn in Fast Times.

CoachB wrote:

Linda Hamilton - Sarah Conner

Sigourney Weaver is responsible for setting a standard for women as heroes of a sci-fi film (Alien 1979). Then Linda Hamilton took it up another level as the meek-completely-helpless female in Terminator to the warrior-destroyer of terminator machines in T2 ... a stunning transformation.

Denzel Washington has got to be on any of these lists, whether for Training Day, Man on Fire, or a host of others, as does Michael Douglas for Falling Down or the Game, and Guy Pearce for Memento, and Malcolm McDowell as Alex in A Clockwork Orange.