Greatest movie actor ever

DeNiro has made so many bad movies that I think that should count against him to some extent... Even with that, he's still in the conversation...

If we're going last 40 years or so...

Jack Nicholson
Marlon Brando
Robert DeNiro
Al Pacino
Dustin Hoffman
Robert Duvall
Sean Penn

 

What a shitty fucking list.

I'll go with Walter Matthau.

 

Spacey and Hackman are good adds. Although Spacey hasn't done too much lately, although I'm not sure why.

 

I still say Charlie Chaplin. He did make the transition and earned an Oscar nomination for The Great Dictator, his first true talkie.

Also can't the reverse be said? Could a modern actor or actress still be a star without the crutch of sound? I'm thinking that not many could swing it.

 

Because he's still busy whacking off in the shower.

 

I knew when starting this thread you would come in and start adding, as if my list was supposed to be definitive. I think Wayne played to type his entire career and was stiff. Bridges is in the conversation for best current actor, but for most of his career, he was a strong No. 2. The same could be said for Christopher Walken and Morgan Freeman.

As far as silent movies (and foreign-language movies), I think speaking (and being understood) is such a vital part of acting that it's unfair to compare them against one another. I realize it was a different skill set, but I also think that silent skill set was inferior.

 

If they gesticulated or overexpressed like someone in a telenovela, which was the main part of the silent skill set.

 

If there is a supporting actor division I would submit

Michael Caine
Morgan Freeman
Joe Pesci
Harvey Keitel
Christopher Walken

 

Me, too. I think he's the best actor you named.

Dennis Hopper: His best roles have been supporting.
Denzel Washington: He plays the same damn guy in every movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio: He probably is the second-best actor on this list, but part of that is because he only chooses great roles.
Brad Pitt: He's good but not even close to the discussion of best ever.
Johnny Depp: Seriously, have you seen his work the last decade?
Don Cheadle: He was great in Hotel Rwanda, but otherwise he doesn't stand out.
Paul Giamatti: Has he ever had a lead role in a great movie?
Joaquin Phoenix: He's very good and joins Seymour-Hoffman and DiCaprio on the best active actors list.

 

Her character was shallow as written. Can't blame the acting for that. If anything, her acting reflected the character perfectly.

Anyway, I'm not going to argue with Day-Lewis. He could easily have won another Oscar for In The Name Of The Father. He was mesmorizing in There Will Be Blood. He's outstanding.

Acting is a hard thing to judge because acting is often a production of the genre and script as much as anything else.

Someone like, say, William Holden or Lee Marvin, is perfect for an action film because they bring depth to a genre that doesn't always have it. But you wouldn't cast Holden in a Shakespeare period piece. Or Marvin in a musical. (Oh wait ...)

I guess that's what makes someone like Paul Newman so great. He was equally good in an action movie as he was in drama as he was in comedy. There's a few others in his versatile class, but not many.

 

PS Hoffman
Ed Harris
Samuel L. Jackson
John Turturro

 

Essentially plays the same person in nearly every movie I've seen him in. Either the neurotic put-upon guy or the neurotic bad guy.