Greatest Contemporary Male Actor

[DemocratSinceBirth]

[Bennyboy]

1. jack Nicholson?

[Twillig]

2. American male actor, i gather.

What, no Depp?

[MissMillie]

3. I was wondering where Ian McKellen was....

And Michael Caine.

[supernova]

5. I would agree with Ian McKellen

being the best over all.

DeNiro is good at certain things, but he's not known for a great range. Sorry for the haiographers.

Johnny Depp is the greatest American Actor and I think Sean Bean is the best British actor after McKellen.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I was going to say either DeNiro or Hoffman, so I voted DeNiro.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. I'm partial to Philip Seymour Hoffman

[Shakespeare]

9. Same here.

Just thinking about his character in The Talented Mr. Ripley gives me chills. Very, very talented actor.

[jobycom]

10. He's better than at least half that list. nt

[jane_pippin]

14. This is the right answer.

[HamdenRice]

7. You left out Johnny Depp

Donny Brasco, Ed Wood -- absolute genius. He does a lot of schlock, but when he gets a good role, there are few alive who are better.

[Tikki]

21. Definitely, Johnny Depp....

Tikki

[Mad_Dem_X]

8. None of the above.

DeNiro, Pacino, and Nicholson tend to play the same characters over and over, IMO. I'd go with Kevin Spacey or even Johnny Depp.

[jobycom]

11. Geoffrey Rush? Tom Hanks? Denzel Washington? Phillip Seymour Hoffman?

It's hard to satisfy everyone, but any list that doesn't at least include Geoffrey Rush makes me go :grr:

[Orrex]

17. Phillip Seymour Hoffman astonishes me

What an ecclectic range he has! A damn fine actor IMO!

[jobycom]

18. Yes. As does Geoffrey Rush.

Captain Barbosa, Peter Sellers, Trotsky, The Marquise de Sade...

There are two basic types of actors, to me. There's the emotional actor, who can rip your heart out by expressing extreme anguish, love, suffering, whatever. Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, that type. That's the most popular type nowadays, though some are very skilled. Then there's the appearance actor, who takes on a complete persona unrecognizable as himself or herself. These make great stage actors, where nuanced emotions aren't as important as dramatic portrayals. These actors often get labeled as the "best," though it's just really a style difference. Johnny Depp, Jim Broadbent, Philip Seymour Hoffman, come to mind. The problem with this style of acting is that the character is usually so stiffly constructed that they cannot portray extreme emotion and stay in character. They rely on the director. Like Johnny Depp, whose emotions usually come from very subtle eye expressions and very good scene directing.

Some actors can do both kinds of roles, or do a little of each: Leonardo di Capprio, Denzel Washington, Robert DeNiro. Johnny Depp does this sometimes, like in "Finding Neverland" or the Roman Polanksi film he did (forget the name). They take on new personas, but not to the point where they can't sob wildly--and usually when they do sob, they look more like themselves than the character they are playing.

I can only think of two right off that can do both completely at the same time--they can create a complete character unrecognizable as themselves, and still portray the most passionate emotions. Meryl Streep, and Geoffrey Rush. But I think Hoffman could do it, given the right role.

just my thoughts. Can you tell I'm bored at work? :)

[smirkymonkey]

36. I agree w/ Geoffrey Rush.

He's extremely versatile and talented.

[RandomKoolzip]

38. He's Australian.

[IndianaJones]

12. No Denzel? Well. nt.

[wildhorses]

13. anthony hopkins? gene hackman?

:shrug:

[idgiehkt]

24. Yep, Gene Hackman is amazing.

:hi:

I think Matt Damon is good and Brad Pitt is a great actor, the others are kind of 'meh'.

[mac56]

15. John Cusack.

nm

[RedStateShame]

16. None of the above: Christian Bale.

[Twillig]

26. Damn straight. n/t

[AmyDeLune]

34. Double Damn Straight! ;-) n/t

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

19. Can I ask which John Travolta performance warrants

his name at the top of the list? Obviously, in certain roles he's got bankable star power and he's appeared in some influential movies (Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Battlefield Earth ;) ) but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who'd back him as the "greatest contemporary male actor." I feel the same way about Richard Gere.

[Phillycat]

22. Seriously! And...my vote: Kevin Spacey.

[idgiehkt]

20. Viggo Mortenson

he can play both character roles and leads, his character roles are more interesting to me...I don't think I've even seen him in a lead role, G.I. Jane was the most prominent role I've seen him in. I think Brad Pitt could play alot gritter roles than he does has in a while, he was really good in Kalifornia and Fight Club. I really love Eric Roberts, too; that man truly can play any character well no matter how good bad or in between they are.

[bluethruandthru]

30. Viggo!!

He gets my vote. Can't wait for Eastern Promises - starring Viggo - coming out later this month!

[graywarrior]

23. Alan Rickman or Anthony Hopkins

[VLC]

25. Kevin Spacey should be on that list.

All good.

[ellisonz]

27. Pacino

[mentalsolstice]

28. Other - Sean Penn n/t

[BlueIris]

29. Um, there's this guy named Sean Penn.

Maybe you should go watch some of his films.

[mentalsolstice]

31. Great minds think alike!

I'd pay just to watch him sit around in sackcloth.

[SarahB]

32. No Tim Robbins?

:wtf:

[DU GrovelBot]

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[mentalsolstice]

35. Discussed this at lunch today...

Forest Whitaker
Russell Crowe
Leonardo DiCaprio
Don Cheadle
Clive Owen
Liam Neeson
Ralph Fiennes
Daniel Day-Lewis

[Kali]

37. Keanu Reeves, man.

:rofl:

[RandomKoolzip]

39. Bill Murray, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Cooper, Alan Arkin

[hyphenate]

40. I cannot believe this!

Not one person suggested Dustin Hoffman? Or Tom Hanks? Or Samuel L. Jackson? Or Morgan Freeman? Or Sidney Portier? Tommy Lee Jones? Joe Pesci? Christopher Walken? Ed Harris? Kevin Bacon? Even Bruce Willis? And while some might laugh, Jim Carrey?

Any of these should replace several on that list! I think that John Travolta, Richard Gere, and even Brad Pitt are vastly overrated, and that we can't really reduce the number of actual "great" performers to a single actor, regardless of our personal favorites.

I would be remiss to not suggest that we think less of a performer's "range" and more on their skill and adroitness in handling a single role: are they believable? Can we become a participant and not a voyeur? Are they conveying a character to the audience or just an actor reciting lines on a page? Are they making us feel empathy with them, on a level where we care whether they live or die?

I think, though, TV actors often are better actors than film actors. If an actor is in a regular series and performs more than one episode's worth of lines and remains as in character as possible week after week, they are providing us with a memorable and remarkable job. Take Tony Shaloub, for example. Many of us have seen Tony in many roles, but few will ever think of Adrian Monk as anything less than a fully realised person. Christopher Meloni's name might be less known, but the fury and vigilantism of Elliott Stabler surpasses even Chris and the scripts. Few will forget Jerry Orbach, but Lenny Briscoe is forever. Gil Grissom's face instantly comes to mind. And whether we like the actor or not, Horatio Caine is someone we will likely never forget.

And of course there are many of these character "legends" throughout the history of television: Perry Mason, The Saint, James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Cliff Huxtable, Archie Bunker, Matt Dillon, etc. When an actor is capable of providing us with a gift of such depth within a performance, we tend to forget that it's an actor every week, making the actor important to us in a way that was never possible a hundred years ago.

But I digress--as usual! ;)

I know it's hard to narrow it down to just ten--damn the limitations of a poll!--but I think that sometimes it's important to take more into consideration than just a handful (or a couple of handfuls!) of roles and try to make a choice when it's near impossible to do so.

[hyphenate]

41. My bad

One person did mention Tom Hanks, and I want to add Tom Cruise to the list of overrated performers.

[MrSlayer]

42. Johnny Depp.

Why would you even have wooden actors like Pitt, Cruise and Damon on this list? I would have said DeNiro if he hadn't ruined his legacy by appearing in so many bad movies in the latter part of his career. I voted for Pacino because you have no "other" choice.