Actors and Actresses who MAKE a film for you.

not these days - even the great actors are in shitty films.

Richard Burton

Marlon Brando

Elizabeth Taylor

Bette Davis

Classic: Ingrid Bergman and Paul Newman

Contemporary: Rachel McAdams and Jake Gyllenhaall

Catherine Deneuve

Giulietta Masina

Gena Rowlands

Max Gail - has he been mentioned around here?

Michael Fassbender

James Garner

Claude Rains

Barbara Stanwyck

Eve Arden

Diana Rigg

Joan Hackett's diction and manner are just too much for me, OP, but you might want to check out on Amazon Prime the Theatre 62 remake of REBECCA, with Hackett as the second Mrs. DeWinter. Amazon Prime also has How Awful About Allan where she's second fiddle to Tony Perkins and Julie Harris.

Natalie Wood. Not a great actress but fascinating to watch. And she’s gorgeous.

Oh god....

Elizabeth Taylor

Rod "Chew That Scenery & Grimace Like That Fart Was Painful & Wet" Steiger?

Okay then.

Michael Caine

Cher

Louise Linton.

Eve Arden

Jessica Lange

Mahershal Ali

Patty Duke

Toni Collette

Lynn Thigpen

Guy Pearce

Joan Crawford made damn near anything she was in watchable. To a lesser degree, "B" movie actress Marie Windsor & Sydney Greenstreet were always a treat in everything they did!

Edna May Oliver & James Gleason made a great pair and even though the movies were creaky they are fun to watch. Character actors are often the gems in a film but there's already a thread on that. Lillian Gish, Joan Crawford, W. C. Fields, Irene Dunne, Charles Laughton, Mae West, Ronald Colman, William Powell, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor, Bette Davis, Claude Rains, James Cagney, Agnes Moorehead, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, the "Carry On. . . " casts, Vanessa Redgrave, Maggie Smith, Frances McDormand.

God, movie stars haven't gotten so small.

I've gotta give it to Susan Hayward (Miss Helen Lawson herself). From the beginning to the until the end of her screen career, she gave 200% of herself in EVERYTHING she appeared in!

R21 I concur! Love me some Hayward.

Dirk Bogarde

Shelley Winters

Thelma Fucking Ritter.

Kathleen Turner.

Practically everyone on that notorious Box Office Poison list of 1938.

Agnes Moorehead

Glenn

Robert Mitchum. Even past his prime and wildly miscast in Ryan’s Daughter.

An old soul from his salad days to the very end.

Halle Berry

Faye Dunaway

Sandy Dennis

Geraldine Page

Susan Tyrrell

Thanks, R8, I'll do that!

Geez, all these old and dead people.

Who are great actors today?

I can think of people who have been wonderful in things, of course, but those who are actively working and not making huge missteps? Who is there?! Brie Larson was excellent in Short Term 12 and again when she gave that same performance in Room, but now? Uhm no... Captain Marcel? Natalie Portman has been excellent 3 times and recognized each time. Kate winslet, the actress of her generation— really bad films and missteps for years. Though ammonite is nice step in right direction, she should be doing those films only. I don’t like Ronan, whatever her name is. We have our wonderful character actors, the men, we have hunks... shit, maybe Elisabeth Moss is the only actress delivering consistently damn strong performances these days. Whatever that means... People say she’s ugly. So what? Maggie gyllenhaal getting her sagged flag jack tits out as a wrecked street walker? She has balls and can play these extreme sexual things like no one else. I just don’t think we’re getting the constant stream of good work from people these days.

Today's best of the best:

Colin Farrell

Idris Elba

Eric Bana

Craig. Daniel Craig.

Joel Edgerton

Matthew Rhys

Aidan Gillen

Tom Hardy

Joel edger ton?! Noo, looks like he has a nice dick but is wooden. Colin is a juicy actor though. Soulful, a man who seems like he actually has feelings

I watched 2 indies both with actresses I considered to be nothing and didn’t even know what they looked like... now they may still end up being nothing but each, IMO, now has at least one excellent performance under their belts.. Olivia Wilde in meadowlands and much more so even, Haley Bennett in swallow

R31 Yas re: Sandy Dennis. God, I love her.

You know who the answer is? Ok bitches, it’s Dianne Wiest.

And I think Frances Conroy has done some of the finest work I’ve -ever- seen in SFU. I remember just watching this scene where she’s mourning Nate and I’m like “THAT is as good as it gets.” ...also Toni Collette. The last 10 minutes of Japanese Story, I’m like “Oh most definitely.. this is one of our best actresses.”

Wiest is so good.

[quote]r21 I've gotta give it to Susan Hayward (Miss Helen Lawson herself). From the beginning to the until the end of her screen career, she gave 200% of herself in EVERYTHING she appeared in!

I basically lost all respect for her as an actress after I saw this scene in WHERE LOVE HAS GONE.

This is the worst acting I have seen by a major star, [bold]EVER[/bold]! I mean, this is exactly what Helen Lawson (!) would be like in a movie - overbearing, uninflected.... not a hint of artistic instinct.

R43 Really now - ALL respect? Please. Susie KILLS.

Geraldine Page from Summer and Smoke, Sweet Bird of Youth, Dear Heart, Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice, Day of the Locust, Interiors, The Pope of Greenwich Village...always fascinating to watch

In addition to a lot of the actors previously mentioned:

-Gene Hackman

-Jeff Bridges

LOL @ R43. That was pretty bad. That's one of the Hayward films I've never seen before. I've read the stories though of how during Bette Davis' last day of filming, she threw her wig at Susan & called her a bitch. She felt that Susan refused to give her any room in their scenes together for Bette to have HER MOMENT. Something that actors sometimes give to each other as a courtesy.

I read a Hayward biography years ago that pointed out that during that period in her life she was pretty much over Hollywood. She had married some deeply religious Southern piece of shit that (naturally) hated The Blacks & The Gays and moved with him to his farm somewhere.

Yes. Geraldine Page in Interiors. Wow.

David Fincher - In a phone interview, Fincher compared Seyfried to Cameron Diaz — a mainstream comedienne who was always capable of giving more, even if she was rarely asked for it.

Albert Finney Gena Rowlands

Anjelica Huston

Dianne Weist

Sigourney w

Jack Nicholson

Daniel Day-Lewis

Katherine Hepburn

Maureen Stapleton elevated every film she appeared in.

R48 Totally.

Annette Bening. Love ya, Annette.

Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Mae West, James Mason, Anthony Perkins, Glenda Jackson, Sissy Spacek, Mia Farrow, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Barbara Stanwyck, Jeff Bridges, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Gerard Depardieu, Isabelle Huppert, Bruno Ganz, Vanessa Redgrave, Mary Astor, Babs, Judy Garland, Debra Winger, Diane Keaton, Jodie Foster, Hattie McDaniel, Octavia Spencer, and a host of lesser known European actors.

R45 is actually F. Murray Abraham.

R56 How could we forget Nettie!

Nicole

[quote]R48 Yes. Geraldine Page in Interiors. Wow.

I prefer Page when she’s more over the top.

She’s kind of a fun, stagey ham.

Julianne Moore. Seriously.

Wendy Hiller

Thelma Ritter

Maggie Smith

Judi Dench

Ralph Richardson

Alan Rickman

Geoffrey Rush

John Gielgud

The incomparable Joan Blondell

Geraldine Page is fine if you want a stink bomb going off in every scene she's in, fuming the screen so that all you can see is her and all you can hear is her so-wise, so-weary, so-desperate cackle and trombone-slide of a voice, accentuated by all those little flourishes she copied from Jessica Tandy's Blanche and Laurette Taylor's Amanda Wingfield. "Interiors," one of the greatest comedies in the history of film, is her Everest.

Page is excellent in “The Trip to Bountiful” and in everything else she’s in, really.

R64, She received an Oscar nomination for the forgotten "Pete 'n' Tillie".

'Trip to Bountiful" is a screeching, one-note, lap-slapping lobotomy picaresque.

I'm not complaining. I like Page in all her selfish, unconnected-to-any-other-actor-on-stage-or-screen egotism.

But her tics, tricks and mannerisms made Maggie Smith look like a paralyzed coma patient. Like if Joan Crawford were a soprano instead of a baritone and had started on the legitimate stage and then acquired situational tremors.

I’m posting this everywhere, bitches, hold my wig!

[quote]“I always loved what Jessica Lange said. She said, “See these? I’ve earned these.”

I've never understood the point of liking actors this way -- directors, yes, as they have a point of view. Actors just act, sometimes well, sometimes badly. Without a good script and a good director, an actor is nothing.

If a movie has Chris Cooper, Alan Arkin, Alan Rickman, Christian Bale, or Kevin Bacon in it, I'm more inclined to watch.

Oh, for sure Meryl Streep.

Hahahaha. Just kidding.

Twitter has exposed the utter banality of most celebrities.

From the Old Days:

Bette Davis, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Vivien Leigh, Gene Tierney, Errol Flynn, Deborah Kerr,

From today:

Jessica Lange, David Strathairn, Diane Lane, Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve, Saoirse Ronan, Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Pfeiffer, Russell Crowe (he's a douche but I think he has a lot of charisma....so sue me!)

Mary Wickes

An English contingent: Helen Mirren, Olivia Colman, Keeley Hawes, and less known, Janet McTeer (who I haven't seen in anything in ages) and Sarah Lancashire. Each likeable actresses who can do a lot of different things.

I like actresses whose fame doesn't get in the way of their work. Mirren and Colman are the most well known but only with Mirren do I struggle to forget it.

For men, I quite like Charles Dance. He does seem to elevate whatever he's in.

Margo Martindale, especially if she's mean. Justified is next up on my binge watch list.

Sigourney Weaver Jim Rash Queen Latifah Regina King Melissa McCarthy Kevin Kline

Actors who made a film for me?

I'd say Kevin Costner. No one with any sense would hire me for that role, but he did.

Another vote for Latifah, now I see her mentioned... she's someone who exudes a kind of likability, no matter what kind of part she's playing. Somewhere between rascal and pal.

James McAvoy. Great actor with a fantastic ass.

R79 He’s so fucking sexy.

Simone Signoret

I could Google this ass?

[quote]Thelma Fucking Ritter.

Another vote for Thelma Ritter

Sure, R82. McAvoy has done plenty of nudity.

Denzel because he is hot. Sometimes chooses weird projects, like The Magnificent Seven.

R81, Check out "Games", with Simone, James Caan and Katharine Ross.

Jane Fonda is rarely less than completely involving. She has It, plus a brain.

(Though curiously, I’m not in love with “Grace & Frankie”.) (I think that’s more the writing, though.)

Ellen Bursting.

^Burstyn

Barbara Stanwyck

Judy Holliday

Thelma Ritter

Deanna Durbin

Charles Laughton

Elsa Lanchester

Judy Garland

S.Z. Sakall

Claudette Colbert

Joel McCrea

Mary Astor

Eve Arden

John Garfield

Fredric March

Oh Mary Astor for real!! Lol.

Another vote for Jane Fonda!

R36 Idris Elba only for me, but he needs to be naked in the film!

For you r58 - best for Miss Bancroft’s reaction.

Love all of their reactions, R94, especially Lange mouthing “Geraldine Page” before Abraham.

Another vote for Thelma Ritter. All About Eve, Rear Window, Pillow Talk, The Mating Season, Birdman of Alcatraz... too many to name. Has any supporting actress been nominated for more Oscars? No matter what the movie is like, she's guaranteed to make it worth watching.

Joaquin Phoenix

Speaking of currently working actors, I'd watch anything with Benedict Cumberbatch.

Griffin Dunne

David Strathairn

They never get top billing, but when you see either one of their names in the opening credits, you know it's going to be good.

R96, "The Mating Season" is a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

It's Thelma's picture, even though she's billed fourth behind Gene Tierney, John Lund and Miriam Hopkins.

John Gielgud - Peter Lorre - Vivien Leigh - Maggie Smith - Greta Garbo.

(I'm ancient and tired of films decades ago... some time after Jaws and Star Wars. Fuck 'em expecting me to like a children's action-adventure shit)

Add "Pickup on South Street" for another more serious (with a few wisecracks) performance by Thelma Ritter as a stoolie working with police and pickpockets. She's fabulous as usual.

Had the pleasure of seeing Page in Agnes of God on Broadway co starring Amanda Plummer and Elizabeth Ashley and in her last Broadway appearance in a revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit; she died during it's Broadway run. As an actress she had such brio. Pauline Kael referred to her performance in The Pope of Greenwich Village as "enthrallingly hammy" When Page won the Oscar on her eighth nomination, Anne Bancroft was a nominated for Agnes of God, the role Page originated.

Patricia Neal. I would have never made it through In Harm’s Way without her. She’s great in HUD.

Patricia Neal is rare and phenomenal. Her acting is [italic]rich,[/italic] yet straightforward.

Roz

Roz "Pinky Toscadero" Kelly?

Yes, Rose.

^cough^

Miss Richard E. Grant. She steals every scene he is in!

Philip Seymour Hoffman. Alas he's no more.

No more what?

Daniel Day Lewis

Tuesday Weld

Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Lee, Zelda Rubinstein, Karen Black, Asia Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Sheri Moon Zombie, Barbara Steele, Donald Pleasence, Bela Lugosi, Danielle Harris

Tilda Swinton

Javier Bardem

Leonardo DiCaprio

Michelle Pfeiffer

Mads Mikkelson

Willem Dafoe

Grayson Hall

Mary Woronov

Adrienne Barbeau

Lin Shaye

Dee Wallace

Toni Collette has never given a bad performance and I'd watch her do anything. She's equally great in dramas and comedies and everything in between. And she sings, too. A shame that she got close to being in both Chicago and Sweeney Todd. She needs her own movie musical.

It's interesting how many horror actors have been listed here. A lot of them really are great in everything and this is why the horror genre is so underrated. It gives actors (especially women of a certain age) fun material to work with.

Every film would benefit from the presence of someone like Mary Woronov. She's been in some real stinkers and still walks away with her dignity intact every time. That's true star power.

Someone in another thread suggested that Toni Collette would be a great Mama Rose in the film version of Gypsy.

Toni would probably end up being the definitive Rose if she were to do it. I'd love another film version, but I'd settle for her doing it on stage. She's got the pathos, humor, and voice for it.

Jean Smart elevates everything she is in.

Tilda Swindon, Joan Allen, and Julianne Moore.

All three of them fascinate me, each in a unique way.

*Swinton

Tyrone Power.

Montgomery Clift.

Tom Wilkinson.

Richard Gere.

Michael Caine.

Diane Lane.

Helen Mirren.

Ed Harris.

Paul Rudd.

Andy Garcia.

Christian Bale, Paul Rudd, Tom Hardy, Keanu Reeves

R126 Diane Lane has been acting over 40yrs and has only been interesting a few times. I like her and of course she’s beautiful.

Fifi Fingle

Madeline Kahn - Ruth Gordon - Elsa Lanchester - as someone above mentioned, Grayson Hall - Julie Harris

I like weird women.

Peter Capaldi

Richard E. Grant

Christopher Walken

Louis Garrel

Nastassja Kinski

Alain Delon

Jack Davenport

[quote]Actors and Actresses who MAKE a film for you.

You mean...like a mixed tape?

Isabelle Huppert

Mark Rylance

I could afford only basic cable TV. "Wolf Hall" was telecast by Public Television. HOOKED.

I know he does comedy on the stage, especially Shakespeare's comedic characters, but I wish he'd do a comedic film, and no, the laugh-out-loud terribleness of Sean Penn's "The Gunfighter" doesn't count.

I'd like to see him accept a huge salary by playing a Bond or Marvel villain, too.

Erland Josephson - Liv Ullman - Bibi Andersson - Max von Sydow - love my Swedes (and Norwegians)

Kurt Russell

Did Kurt and Goldie hire a new PR firm?

Suddenly, they're everywhere, cover of People Magazine, profiled on CBS Sunday Morning, etc.

Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Ben Whishaw, Juliette Binoche, Gene Tierney, Richard Burton. Oh, Deborah Kerr. I might add Rex Harrison whose performance as Caesar in their Liz and Dick "Cleopatra" show went a long way to redeeming the film.

Fred Willard

Eve Arden

Thelma Ritter

Catherine O'Hara

All make any film more enjoyable Regardless of how the rest of the film is, you know that their part is going to be enjoyable

Ben Whishaw is always very welcome. I didn’t know he was in The Lobster or The Danish Girl, so nice to see him sneak in. Steals all his scenes as well.

Angela Lansbury in Gaslight, The Manchurian Candidate, Something for Everyone and Death on the Nile

R142, You left out "Blue Hawaii".

María Casares, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, Monica Vitti, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe

You have all taken mine.

Jessica Lange

Gena Rowlands

Sigourney

Toni Collette (To whoever mentioned Japanese Story- What a film and performance. The scene when the "event" happens is probably one of the most harrowing moments I have ever seen- mainly due to Toni's performance. And she gets even better as the film goes on. Very striking and forgotten film.

Love the same person who mentioned Frances Conroy. I recall saying a very similar thing during that very scene you mentioned. She really captured the truth of that moment. And you want to look away because you feel that you are intruding on someone's very private moment. She was AMAZING on that show. And she had a few other scenes like that in the series. One with David in Season 1 or 2. She truly is a fine actress.

Ruth Gordon.

Tim O'Tay

Patricia Clarkson

Sigourney Weaver

Meryl Streep - even when I KNOW it's going to be trash.

Mads Mikkelsen and his incredible bone structure.

R145 It was me. How cool that you saw the same things!

Mads Mikkelsen is so creepy yet so hot. I'd definitely fuck him but I'd feel weird about it.

Yes to Toni Collette. She played a vain actress in The Big Hit. There's a scene in the movie were Ale Baldwin and Matthew Broderick as trying to convince her to be in their movie. She's sensational.