Great actors jump off the screen and connect with the audience on an emotional level. There is an explanation for why actors and actresses have been cultural icons since the inception of fame. Before cinema, theater actors, vaudevillians and opera singers gained fame. Before videos had sound, actors like Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Theda Bara captivated audiences. The greatest actors take the time to improve their craft. There are many tactics for technical acting, from technical acting to Stanislavski’s Formula for Meisner’s Technique, but the end result is the same: conveying the truth through a facsimile. All actors do precisely that.
This list comes with a few parameters simply because of how many great actors there truly are. For this list, the actors chosen have made contributions to films with sound. This doesn’t mean they haven’t worked on stage, TV or silent film. Many on this list have especially appeared in theater and TV as well. However, all of these actors could be considered “film actors.”
This list also focuses on actors who have starred in films in English as the primary language. World cinema has many wonderful actors, including Shah Rukh Khan, Toshirô Mifune, Dolores Del Río, Brigitte Bardot and many others. However, to remain on the Focused list, all of the selected actors have contributed to the American film industry and “Hollywood. “
Marilyn Monroe is often remembered more as a bombshell than an actress, which in many ways discredits her. Monroe’s career was cut short by her tragic death in 1962 at age 36. However, during her life, she cared deeply about the craft of acting. She studied method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and started her own film production company in the 1950s.
Monroe began with small film roles in the 1940s before breaking into comedies and musicals in the 1950s. She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for Some Like it Hot in 1959 and is known for films such as Niagara, How Marry a millionaire, Gentlemen. I preferred Blondes, The Misfits and Seven Year Itch. Monroe is not appreciated enough for her exacting comic timing. If you think she’s just a “dumb blonde,” it’s because she’s so convincing.
Michelle has recently returned to American audiences, with hit roles such as Crazy Rich Asians and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. However, Yeoh has been starring in films since the 1980s. She began acting after being crowned Miss World Malaysia. Her career in Hong Kong films brought her to American audiences in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.
She is known for films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha and A Haunting in Venice, as well as television shows such as Star Trek: Discovery. In 2023, she became the first Asian actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.
While many millennials will play Raul Julia as Gomez in the Addams Family films of the 1990s, Julia first rose to fame as a Shakespeare actress on the New York theater scene. She worked on stage and Broadway before her film debut in The Panic in Needle Park in 1971.
He acted in films in Hollywood and his native Puerto Rico and was active in New York’s theater scene through the early 1990s. His filmography includes Kiss of the Spider Woman, Tempest, One From The Heart, Romero and Mack the Knife. Julia is notable for his commitment to roles. While his final film, 1994’s Street Fighter, was critically panned, his performance has been praised for his steadfast presence and control.
While Cicely Tyson appeared in TV shows and movies since the late 1950s, she earned acclaim for her performance in 1972’s Sounder, which earned her an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination.
He went on to appear in films and series such as Roots, Fried Green Tomatoes, A Lesson Before Dying, Because of Winn-Dixie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Help, and House of Cards. During his 70-year career, he has won a Tony, a SAG Award, an Emmy, an Academy Honorary Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Peabody Career Achievement Award, and a Kennedy Center Honor.
Ben Kingsley is perhaps best known to younger audiences for his appearances in Marvel films such as Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, he acted in more than 90 films in his five-decade career. He began his acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 before making his film debut in 1972’s Fear Is the Key.
He would go 10 years before returning for a film with 1982’s Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. While his performance was praised, he was also criticized for his use of brownface. While Kingsley is of Indian descent, he wore dark make-up for the film. He has since appeared in films like Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Bugsy, Sexy Beast, House of Sand and Fog, Hugo and Shutter Island.
A true triple threat, Rita Moreno made her Broadway debut at age 13. While Moreno had small parts in 1950s musicals like Singin’ in the Rain and The King and I, she got her big break as Anita in 1961’s film adaptation of West Side Story, for which she also received an Oscar.
He would go on to win a number of EGOT awards, as well as a Peabody Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. He has appeared in more than 150 films and television shows, adding cult status. hits like The Slums of Beverly Hills, children’s shows like Carmen Sandiepass and The Electric Company, and television shows like Oz and Jane the Virgin. In 2021, a documentary about her life will be released, Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided to Go, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
Born to Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, Lauren Bacall started her career as a teenage model before making her film debut alongside her future husband Humphrey Bogart in 1944’s To Have and Have Not.
Early in his career, he had to exercise his voice to lose his nasal quality by shouting passages from Shakespeare for hours a day. Bacall went on to star in films alongside Bogart, adding The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. He also directed several old comedy films such as Designing Woman, Sex and the Single Girl, and How to Marry A Millionaire. He acted in plays and television shows and worked until the 2000s. Her last guest starring role in an episode of Family Guy in 2014 before her death that same year.
Forest Whitaker graduated from USC with a BFA in 1982; That same year, he appeared on Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In the 1980s, he made a name for himself appearing in films such as The Color of Money, Platoon, and Good Morning, Vietnam. In the 1990s, Whitaker was not only a highly respected actor, but also a director with films like Strapped, Waiting to Exhale, and Hope Floats. He also directed Whitney Houston’s music video for “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” in 1995.
In 1988, he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Bird. He would go on to win an Academy Award for The Last King of Scotland in 2007. He has also won a BAFTA, Emmy Golden Globe and two SAG Awards. He has appeared in films like The Butler, Arrival, Panic Room, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Black Panther.
Jason Robards is rarely a very family-oriented person, but that’s the problem. Many wonderful actors are not celebrities. Many actors have given iconic performances, adding actors such as Margo Martindale, James Hong, Denis O’Hare, Karl Malden, Keith David. and Stephen Root, to name a few. However, Robards is probably one of the greatest actors of all time. He is one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Actor, which is a competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award. Award. He was also inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979.
Robards made his film and radio debut in the late 1940s. He made his film debut in The Journey in 1959. He then won an Oscar for All the President’s Men in 1976. The following year, he won his second Oscar for Best Actor in Distribution. for Julia. He can also be seen in films such as Once Upon a Time in the West, Magnolia, The Day After and Philadelphia. He has also appeared in plays and television shows, adding his last performance in Coming Home in 2000.
Angela Bassett made “the thing” an acting career that spanned more than four decades. He studied acting at the Yale School of Drama before working in theater in New York City and moving to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to continue his studies. acting career. Made a sensation in the early 1990s with films such as Boyz n the Hood and Malcolm X.
Bassett later appeared in What Love Has to Do With It, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Regained the Rhythm, Akeelah and the Bee, and Black Panther. She also worked in television, adding an existing lead role and as an executive producer on 9-1-1. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and won an Academy Honorary Award. He also won two Golden Globes, most recently for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Michael Shannon is rarely a completely familiar surname, but most audiences have noticed his work. Werner Herzog once called Shannon “the most productive actor of his generation. “Shannon has appeared in more than 70 films, including 8 Mile, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, The Night Before, Elvis
While Shannon acted in a few plays in Chicago in the early 1990s, her first “filmed” role was in the 1993 music video for the song “House of Pain” by the rock band Every Mother’s Nightmare. However, his film debut came later that year in a small role in Groundhog Day. Since then, he has been nominated for two Academy Awards and won two SAG Awards.
Morgan Freeman made his film debut (as an uncredited character) in Sidney Lumet’s The Pawn Broker in 1964, and he made his stage debut the same year on the West End in Hello, Dolly! In the 1970s, he appeared on the children’s TV show The Electric Company.
However, most audiences will recognize him for his prolific film career, which began after his Oscar-nominated role in Street Smart in 1987. She went on to star in Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Seven, Million Dollar Baby, The Dark Knight, and Invictus. In 2018, 8 women accused Freeman of having an out-of-place habit on set; however, the SAG took no action and let the actor retain his award for excellence. Freeman has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including one, as well as seven NAACP Image Awards and the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the highest-paid actors working today. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before acting in films in the early 1990s. He broke through with 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Since then, he has starred in movies like Romeo + Juliet, Titanic, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Killers of the Flower Moon.
DiCaprio, a regular collaborator of Martin Scorsese, has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, adding one for The Revenant in 2015. However, he is also the only actor on this list who has won a Golden Raspberry Award and who is nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award. Award for Worst Actor for The Beach of the Year 2000. While his private life was criticized for publicly dating very young women in the 2000s, DiCaprio’s commitment to acting and his ability to disappear into roles have cemented him as one of the most important actors of his generation.
Ian McKellen is much more than Gandalf or Magneto. The veteran actor got his start in theater in the 1960s. While he won the first of six Laurence Olivier Awards in 1977 and has appeared in films, television shows and theater productions since the mid-1960s, it wasn’t until the 1990s who became known in cinema.
He was nominated for his first BAFTA in 1996 for Richard III and nominated for his first Academy Award in 1999 for Gods and Monsters, becoming the first gay actor to be nominated for an LGBTQ role (Coleman Domingo would be in 2024). McKellen came out as gay in 1988 and is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights. At 84, he still works. McKellen is known for his roles in A Touch of Love, Plenty, Six Degrees of Separation, Restoration, Mr. Holmes, and, of course, The Lord of the Rings.
Frances McDormand has been acting since the 1980s but has garnered widespread critical acclaim more recently. Keaton Bell wrote for Vogue Magazine in 2021, “long considered one of our greatest living performers… McDormand makes you believe every person she plays is a flesh-and-blood human who continues living out their life once the cameras stop rolling.”
Frances McDormand debuted in the film Blood Simple, her husband Joel Coen’s first film, in 1984. Since then, she has appeared in films such as Fargo, Almost Famous, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Nomadland. She earned her first Oscar nomination for 1988’s Mississippi Burning. She went on to win four Oscars, three BAFTAs, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, four SAG Awards and a Tony. She still often appears in her husband’s films and has been in nine Coen Brothers films.
Alan Arkin has played many roles in his more than 60-year career. In the 1950s he was the singer and guitarist of the band The Tarriers. In the 1960s, he directed comic book comedies in Chicago’s Second City. In the 1970s, he starred in four episodes of Sesame Street and directed two comedy films, Little Murders and Fire Sale. He earned his first Academy Award nomination in 1967 for The Russians Are Coming and won his first Oscar 40 years later, in 2007, for Little Miss Sunshine.
He is known for roles in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Argo, Wait Until Dark, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross and The Kominsky Method. From Tony-winning Broadway performances to voice acting on BoJack Horseman, Arkin appeared in over 110 projects. While he passed in 2023, his last movie, The Smack, is set to be released posthumously in 2024.
Roger Ebert said of Ingrid Bergman, “She doesn’t simply gaze… she peers into the eyes, searching for meaning and clues, and when she is in a close two-shot with an actor, watch the way her own eyes reflect the most minute changes in his expression.” Her expressiveness is one of the things that set her apart as an actor.
Bergman got his start in Swedish and German cinema in his home Sweden. She came to American audiences in Intermezzo in 1939. She later starred in films such as For Whom the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, Anastasia, Casablanca and Notorious. He has won awards during his career, including 3 Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and 4 Golden Globes.
While Cate Blanchett’s first film role was as an unnamed cheerleader in the 1990 Egyptian boxing film Kaboria, she had already made a splash in Australia’s theater scene. She landed her first supporting film role in 1997’s WWII film Paradise Road. The following year, she gained notoriety and an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth in 1998’s Elizabeth.
Since then, he has appeared in films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Aviator, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Carol and Tár. Even in her less serious works, such as Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnarok or Cinderella, Blanchett brings seriousness and fulfillment to her characters. It has been nominated for 8 Oscars, winning two, in addition to 4 BFTAs and 4 Golden Globes.
While Humphrey Bogart is remembered for his paintings in film noirs and dramas such as The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Casablanca, he began his career on Broadway. She made the leap to film in The Dancing Town in 1928, then rose to fame with her role in High Sierra in 1941.
During his career, he was nominated for 3 Academy Awards for Best Actor, including one for his role in The African Queen. He is also remembered for his common collaborations with his fourth wife, Lauren Bacall. The two met on the set of To Have and Have Not in 1944, when Bacall was just 19 years old (Bogart was 44 at the time). The two appeared together in five films before Bogart’s death in 1957 from esophageal cancer.
Denzel Washington got his big break in the medical drama St. However, he is best known for his paintings in films such as Glory, Malcolm X, Philadelphia, Inside Man, American Gangster, and The Tragedy of MacbethArray.
He has won two Oscars, three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award), a SAG, and a Tony Award. In 2022, Washington was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Washington is also a favorite of director Spike Lee. He directed his first film, Antwone Fisher, in 2002 and has since taken on director and producer roles, including for the award-winning 2016 film Fences.
Cary Grant is as notable for his drama performances as his comedic work. Grant started his career as a vaudeville performer and comedian in the early 1920s. In 1932, he made eight movies, including his film debut, This Is the Night. He went on to appear in over 40 films before retiring from acting in 1966.
In particular, Grant has appeared in films such as To Catch a Thief, Indiscreet, North to Northwest, Bringing Up Bathrough, The Philadelphia Story, Charade, His Girl Friday, Arsenic and Old Lace, and That Touch of Mink. Grant was a favorite of director Alfred Hitchcock and was known for treating his female colleagues with respect. His biographer, Graham McCann, said of Grant: “No other guy looked so classless and so self-assured. . . at ease with the mischievous as well as with the comic. . . old man so well and with such a subtle style. . . in short, he played the role very well: Cary Grant made men seem like a clever idea.
Robert De Niro has starred in many iconic films and also some very bad ones. It probably has the most varied track record of anyone on this list. However, even in films like Dirty Grandpa or New Year’s Eve, there’s something electric about De Niro. The actor is probably best remembered for his roles in Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Killers of the Flower Moon, Cape Fear, and The Godfather Part II (but admittedly, he’s wonderful in Meet the Fockers).
De Niro is a common collaborator of Martin Scorsese after he came to him through director Brian De Palma in the 1970s. In the mid-2000s, De Niro’s career suffered a crisis; However, he experienced a resurgence in 2017 after betting on Bernie Madoff in HBO’s The Wizard of Lies. The Kennedy Center revered him saying: “One of the most important actors in American cinema, Robert De Niro demonstrated a mythical commitment to his characters. Notably, De Niro also co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival.
Katherine Hepburn began her 60-plus year film career in A Bill of Divorcement in 1932, after starting out in theater in the late 1920s. She holds the record for the most Academy Awards won through a performer for his roles in Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond.
Other notable films starring Hepburn include The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen, Suddenly, Last Summer and Bringing Up Baby. Hepburn brought the same acting chops to screwball comedies and Shakespeare plays alike. However, she was shunned by many in Hollywood for her unconventional lifestyle, which included wearing pants and being outspoken.
Viola Davis began her career in theater and television in the late ’90s and early 2000s before her film breakthrough in Doubt in 2008. Since then, she has starred in The Help, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Woman King, and How to Get Away. With murder.
Davis has become known for her emotionally powerful acting performances. She has been nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one for 2016’s Fences. The win made Davis the first black actor to win the Triple Crown of Acting. She is also only the third performer to achieve both EGOT and Triple Crown of Acting, after Rita Moreno and Helen Hayes.
Laurence Olivier kind of needs to be on this list. While he has a complicated legacy (especially when it comes to his use of blackface), the highest honor in British theater, the Laurence Olivier Award, is literally named after him. Aside from his accomplishments in theater, he was nominated for eleven Oscars, won one competitive Academy Award (and received two Academy Honorary Awards).
Olivier was a classically trained actor who disliked method acting. During filming Marathon Man, he told a method acting Dustin Hoffman, “Why don’t you just try acting?” Olivier appeared in films such as Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Spartacus and The Boys from Brazil. He also directed himself in a trilogy of Shakespeare films: Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III. While many of his best performances came from the 1940s and 50s, he worked into the 1980s in theater, film and TV.
One of Britain’s most prolific actors, Sir Anthony Hopkins, began his theater career in 1960. In 1965, Laurence Olivier cast Hopkins as an understudy at the Royal National Theater in London. Hopkins replaced Olivier when he suffered appendicitis in 1967 in a production of The Dance of Death. Hopkins won the Olivier Award for Pravda in 1985.
While he made film appearances in the early 1960s, his big break came with 1968’s The Lion in Winter. Hopkins went on to star in films like The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, Nixon, Amistad and The Two Popes. Hopkins became the oldest Oscar winner after he won for Best Actor for 2020’s The Father at age 83. Hopkins is still currently working as an actor at age 86.
Sidney Poitier more than an actor; He is a director, diplomat and one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s golden age. During his more than 60-year career, he starred in films such as Porgy and Bess, A Raisin in the Sun, To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night.
Poitier was the first black and first Bahamian actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for 1963’s Lilies of the Field. He also received two Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an honorary knighthood. Many have called Poitier the first African American movie star.
Meryl Streep is considered the “best actress of her generation. ” Although she began in the New York theater scene, she temporarily made the leap to film and made her film debut in Julia in 1977. By 1980, she had already been nominated for two Academy Awards and won her first award for Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer.
She won two more Oscars for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady and became the most nominated actress in Golden Globe history. Although she is primarily known as a film actress, she has also played television roles on shows such as Only Murders in the Building and Big Little Lies. Streep has also put her songwriting and Broadway talents to smart use in musicals like Mamma Mia!, Into the Woods, and Mary Poppins Returns.
Marlon Brando is remembered for many things, adding his romances with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Rita Moreno, his rebellious attitude, his questionable statements about Jews, imaginable homosexuality, his participation in civic and indigenous rights movements and his activism against apartheid. However, his contributions to the art of acting could be his greatest legacy.
Brandon is credited with being an early adopter of Stanislavski’s system and in so doing popularizing method acting. He worked with Stella Adler in the 1940s and spent most of the ‘40s on Broadway before appearing in his first film, The Men, in 1950. His second film, 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire, earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He went on to win two Oscars for On the Waterfront and The Godfather. However, he refused his Oscar for The Godfather and had Sacheen Littlefeather use his allotted speech time to make a statement on Native mistreatment. While he was supposed to appear in Scary Movie 2, he had to leave the production due to illness, making his last released film, 2001’s The Score, before his death in 2004. Other notable Brando films include Mutiny on the Bounty, 1978’s Superman, Last Tango In Paris and Apocalypse Now.
Bette Davis, a vintage Hollywood icon. During her 60-year career, she twice won the Academy Award for Best Actress and was the first user to be nominated for 10 Academy Award nominations for acting. Davis is remembered for All About Eve, Whatever Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Now, Voyager, Jezebel, Mr. Skeffington and The Star. She was also the first woman to win the AFI’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1977.
While Davis gave that impression in several films in the early 1930s, he made a splash in 1934 in Of Human Bondage. In 1936, critics like Graham Greene were making a song praising Davis. Greene wrote: “Even the most insignificant film: I would watch Miss Davis more than any competent film. Davis was known for taking on complex, unsympathetic roles and did not hesitate to play a villain. He worked until his death. Davis collapsed at the American Cinema Awards in 1989 after her breast cancer returned and she died that same year.
Conclusion
There are so many amazing actors: far too many to fit on one list. However, these are just some of the actors who have left a lasting mark on Hollywood and film history itself. From comedy to drama, these actors approach roles with excitement, dedication and mastery of their craft, making them the greatest actors and actresses of all time.
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