Favorite Performances

[YaBoyTopher]

What are some of your favorite performances by an actor or actress of all time?

It dosent matter if you like the movie or not i just want to know which performances stick out to you.

Which ones will you remember forever?

There are alot that come to mind for me but here are a couple.

Nicholas Cage as Ben in Leaving Las Vegas. I dont know what it is but that was just an amazing performance to me.

Denzel Washington as The Hurrican in the Hurricane, if you havent seen this film you have to it is a amazing performance and the best of Denzels career imo.

Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor in Thank You For Smoking... I dont know why but i just loved this character and this performance.

Tom Hanks as Forest Gump...I dont need to explain this one Forrest is just a great character and Tom played him perfectly.

Matt Damon as Michael Bourne in all the Bourne movies... Im a big Damon fan and i think he plays Bourne Perfectly.

John Travolta as Tony Mareno in Saturday Night Fever... this is a timeless character in a classic (atleast in my eyes) film, the opening scene to this film is immortal and i will always remember the swagger travolta had while playing this character.

AND

Heath Ledger as The Joker... I dont know how this one will fair in the test of time, but since it is so fresh in my mind i have to have this one on the list.. it exceeded my very high expectations He immersed himself so deeply in this role it was amazing.

Ok so thats my short list... what you guys think? what performances make your list?

[Billy Pilgrim]

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood
Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti in A Woman Under The Influence
Jeff Daniels as Bernard Berkman in The Squid and the Whale
John Turturro as Barton Fink in Barton Fink.
Jack Nance as Henry Spencer in Eraserhead
Gael Garcia Bernal in The Motorcycle Dairies
Samuel L. Jackson as Ordell Robie in Jackie Brown
Jack Nicholson as R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Ewan McGregor as Renton in Trainspotting
Nicholas Cage as Charlie Kauffman and Donal Kauffman in Adaptation
Thora Birch as Enid in Ghost World
Michael Sacks as Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five (very underrated film and performance)
Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter in Fargo
Bud Cort as Harold in Harold and Maude
Johnny Depp as Dr. Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson) in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Emile Hirsch as Alexander Supertramp in Into The Wild
Ben Gazzara as Charles Serking in Tales of Ordinary Madness
Jim Carrey as Joel Barrish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garey Oldman as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy
Mark Wahlberg as Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights

The list can and will go on and on, but I'll stop with these 20. I don't know if I'd call it a "top 20" per se, but they're 20 performances I can think of off the top of my head that I love. They're performances that often make the movie for me.

[Tabula Rasa Productions]

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
Brad Pitt in Troy (Don't laugh!)
Edward Norton in...his first movie, I forgot, he played a serial killer.
Leonardo DiCaprio in Departed
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs
Carey Elwes in Princess Bride

[TheMacB]

Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson in Scenes From a Marriage.

[mjjason]

Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys
Bruce Willis in Die Hard

[Deepfocus88]

Mel Gibson in the Mad Max movies. I dunno, thats the first that comes to mind.

[Dingos8mybaby]

Michael Keaton - Beetlejuice
Gary Oldman - True Romance
Spencer Tracy - Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Kirk Douglas - Paths of Glory
Daniel Day Lewis - Gangs of New York
Ben Kingsley - Ghandi
Sylvester Stallone - Rocky (This would be considered bloody brilliant if it wasn't just Sly playing himself...)
Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice (She learned how to speak Polish for pete sakes!)
Rosalind Russell - His Girl Friday
Walter Matthau - I.Q.

[YaBoyTopher]

Edward Norton in...his first movie, I forgot, he played a serial killer.


Yes i forget about that one but the movie was called Primal Fear that was an excellent performance by Norton... I cant believe i forgot that one cause im such a big Edward Norton fan.

He was also very good in Rounders, Fight Club and the Illusionist.

And i cant believe i left Daniel Day Lewis off my list he is such an excelent actor... i must say my favorite performance of his is Gangs of New York.