Extraordinary performance by an actor....

by folkloro | created - 13 Sep 2013 | updated - 06 Jan 2022 | Public

Memorable performances by actors in certain films...Sometimes their acting was greater than the film. (Order accidental).

1. Lamberto Maggiorani

Actor | Ladri di biciclette

Lamberto Maggiorani was born on August 28, 1909 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Last Judgment (1961) and Mamma Roma (1962). He died on April 22, 1983 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

In Ladri di biciclette

2. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

In The General

3. Richard Widmark

Actor | Kiss of Death

Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new ...

In Night and the City

4. Malcolm McDowell

Actor | A Clockwork Orange

Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...

In A Clockwork Orange

5. Choi Min-sik

Actor | Oldeuboi

Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han ...

In Oldboy

6. Jason Miller

Actor | The Exorcist

Character actor and playwright Jason Miller had a variety of jobs before he started a writing career and wrote his own play, "That Championship Season", for which he received the Pulitzer Prize Award. Miller gave up his professional writing career in the early seventies to start acting. In 1973, he...

In The Exorcist

7. Adrien Brody

Actor | The Pianist

Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the ...

In The Pianist

8. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

In Falstaff

9. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

In every film he had played

10. Ryan O'Neal

Actor | Love Story

Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal was an American actor and former boxer. He trained as an amateur boxer before beginning his career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place. It was an instant hit and boosted O'Neal's career. He ...

In Barry Lyndon & Love Story

11. Marlon Brando

Actor | Apocalypse Now

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...

In Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, On the Waterfront & A Streetcar Named Desire

12. Marcello Mastroianni

Actor | La dolce vita

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...

In Divorzio all'italiana & 8½

13. Javier Bardem

Actor | Skyfall

Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.

He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were...

In Los lunes al sol

14. Yves Montand

Actor | Jean de Florette

Yves Montand was born on October 13, 1921 in Monsummano Terme, Tuscany, Italy. He was an actor, known for Jean de Florette (1986), Z (1969) and The Wages of Fear (1953). He was married to Simone Signoret. He died on November 9, 1991 in Senlis, Oise, France.

In Le salaire de la peur

15. Emil Jannings

Actor | The Last Command

His real name was Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, and in the early 1900s, he was already working in the theater under Max Reinhardt's company. Important movies where he defined himself as a convincing actor were Passion (1919) and Quo Vadis? (1924), followed by The Last Laugh (1924) (aka The Last ...

In Der blaue Engel

16. Roman Polanski

Director | Chinatown

Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.

His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...

In Le locataire

17. Alec Guinness

Actor | Star Wars

Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...

In Kind Hearts and Coronets

18. Matthew Modine

Actor | Full Metal Jacket

The youngest of seven, Matthew was born in Loma Linda, Ca, to Dolores (Warner), a bookkeeper, and Mark Alexander Modine, a drive-in theater manager. After graduating high school in Imperial Beach, Ca. Modine moved to NYC (1979). Matthew studied with Stella Adler at her Conservatory of Acting. While...

In Birdy

19. Ricardo Darín

Actor | Nueve reinas

Ricardo Darín was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 16, 1957. He works since he was a little boy, and has obtained with the years a remarkable evolution from soap opera gallant and tv comedies to an excellent leading figure of the most importants Argentinian movies. At the age of 10 he ...

In Nueve reinas & El secreto de sus ojos

20. Harry Dean Stanton

Actor | Lucky

Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during ...

In Paris, Texas

21. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

In The Verdict

22. José Garcia

Actor | Bastille Day

José Garcia was born on March 17, 1966 in Paris, France. He is an actor and writer, known for Bastille Day (2016), Now You See Me (2013) and The Ax (2005). He is married to Isabelle Doval. They have two children.

In Le couperet

23. Ivan Barnev

Actor | Vasil

Ivan Barnev was born on July 15, 1973 in Dobrich, Bulgaria. Ivan Barnev graduated from the National Academy for Theatre" and Film Art, Sofia, Bulgaria in Acting in 1996 in the class of Professor Stefan Danailov , with assistants Iliya Dobrev and Ivaylo Hristov . He entered the team of the Youth ...

In Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále

24. Tim Robbins

Actor | Mystic River

Born in West Covina, California, but raised in New York City, Tim Robbins is the son of former The Highwaymen singer Gil Robbins and actress Mary Robbins (née Bledsoe). Robbins studied drama at UCLA, where he graduated with honors in 1981. That same year, he formed the Actors' Gang theater group, ...

In The Shawshank Redemption

25. Claudio Brook

Actor | El ángel exterminador

Claudio Brook was born on August 28, 1927 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was an actor, known for The Exterminating Angel (1962), Licence to Kill (1989) and Simon of the Desert (1965). He was married to Mercedes Pascual, Alicia Bonet and Eugenia Avendaño. He died on October 18, 1995 in...

In El castillo de la pureza

26. Anthony Perkins

Actor | Psycho

Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & ...

In Psycho

27. Jack Nicholson

Actor | Chinatown

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...

In The Shining & One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

28. Ulrich Mühe

Actor | Das Leben der Anderen

Ulrich Mühe was born on June 20, 1953 in Grimma, East Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Lives of Others (2006), Funny Games (1997) and Der letzte Zeuge (1998). He was married to Susanne Lothar, Jenny Gröllmann and Annegret Hahn. He died on July 22, 2007 in Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt,...

In Das Leben der Anderen

29. Romain Duris

Actor | De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté

Appealing actor Romain Duris is the exact example of those who arrived in the movie industry by chance, and to stardom without really desiring it. Discovered by a casting director while he was waiting in front of a high school in Paris, he was offered a role. Between popular successes such as Good ...

In De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté

30. Aurélien Recoing

Actor | La vie d'Adèle

Flashback to Paris, 5 May, 1958. Aurélien Recoing, son of the puppeteer Alain Recoing, is born. He begins training to be an actor in 1974 at the Cours Florent, as well as studying at the Quartier d'Ivry. In 1977, the actor-in-training, who speaks fluent English as well as a little Russian, joins ...

In L'emploi du temps

31. Toshirô Mifune

Actor | Yôjinbô

Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...

In Kumonosu-jô

32. Jacques Villeret

Actor | Le dîner de cons

Jacques Villeret was born on February 6, 1951 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Le Dîner de Cons (1998), Robert et Robert (1978) and Malevil (1981). He was married to Irina Tarassov. He died on January 28, 2005 in Evreux, Eure, France.

In Le dîner de cons

33. Peter Sellers

Actor | Being There

Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his ...

In almost every film he had played

34. Dirk Bogarde

Actor | The Servant

Sir Dirk Bogarde, distinguished film actor and writer, was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde on March 28, 1921, to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the art editor of "The Times" (London) newspaper, and actress Margaret Niven in the London suburb of Hampstead. He was one of three children...

In Morte a Venezia

35. Gérard Depardieu

Actor | Cyrano de Bergerac

Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along ...

In Tous les matins du monde

36. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

In The Remains of the Day

37. Robert Walker

Actor | Strangers on a Train

He possessed the same special brand of rebel/misfit sensitivity and charm that made superstars out of John Garfield and (later) James Dean and Montgomery Clift. In the war-torn 1940s, Robert Walker represented MGM's fresh, instinctive breed of up-and-coming talent. His boyish good looks combined ...

In Strangers on a Train

38. Vincent Cassel

Actor | Black Swan

Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, ...

In L'instinct de mort & L'ennemi public n°1

39. Ryan Gosling

Actor | Blue Valentine

Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, ...

In The Believer

40. Christian Bale

Actor | The Dark Knight

Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries ...

In The Machinist & The Fighter

41. Paul Giamatti

Actor | Sideways

Paul Giamatti is an American actor who has worked steadily and prominently for over thirty years, and is best known for leading roles in the films American Splendor (2003), Sideways (2004), and Barney's Version (2010) (for which he won a Golden Globe), and supporting roles in the films Cinderella ...

In Sideways

42. Billy Bob Thornton

Actor | Sling Blade

Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in ...

In The Man Who Wasn't There

43. Vincent Price

Actor | The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Actor, raconteur, art collector and connoisseur of haute cuisine are just some of the attributes associated with Vincent Price. He was born Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb "Daisy" (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, who was President of the National Candy ...

In Theatre of Blood

44. Klaus Maria Brandauer

Actor | Out of Africa

Klaus Maria Brandauer was a music student and studied drama at Stuttgarter Hochschule. He was a true stage actor and therefore didn't like to work in movies except for two small parts in The Salzburg Connection (1972) and Októberi vasárnap (1979). This changed when Hungarian director ...

In Mephisto

45. John Malkovich

Actor | Being John Malkovich

John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary ...

In Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story

46. Steve Martin

Writer | Roxanne

Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945 in Waco, Texas, USA as Stephen Glenn Martin to Mary Lee (née Stewart; 1913-2002) and Glenn Vernon Martin (1914-1997), a real estate salesman and aspiring actor. He was raised in Inglewood and Garden Grove in California. In 1960, he got a job at the Magic ...

In The Jerk

47. Michael Stuhlbarg

Actor | A Serious Man

Michael Stewart Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California. He attended UCLA, and then The Juilliard School in New York City, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. His other studies included time at the Vilnius Conservatory in Lithuania, the British American Drama Academy at Baliol and...

In A Serious Man

48. John Cusack

Actor | Grosse Pointe Blank

John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American ...

In High Fidelity

49. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Actor | Inception

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, to Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and ...

In Mysterious Skin

50. Jack Lemmon

Actor | The Apartment

Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Mildred Lankford Noel and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., the president of a doughnut company. His ancestry included Irish (from his paternal grandmother) and English. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers ...

In Some Like It Hot

51. Charles Bronson

Actor | Death Wish

The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features--one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long"--Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky, one of 15 children of struggling parents in Pennsylvania. His mother, Mary (Valinsky), ...

In C'era una volta il West

52. Victor Sjöström

Actor | Smultronstället

Victor Sjöström was born on September 20, 1879, and is the undisputed father of Swedish film, ranking as one of the masters of world cinema. His influence lives on in the work of Ingmar Bergman and all those directors, both Swedish and international, influenced by his work and the works of ...

In Smultronstället

53. Vlad Ivanov

Actor | 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile

Vladimir Ivanov is a famous Romanian film and theater actor .He was born on August 6, 1969 in Botosani, Romania. He graduated from University of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography in 1995 .In 1993, he plays first role in the movie Liceenii în alerta. Other notable roles in 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 ...

In 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile

54. Edward Norton

Actor | Fight Club

American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.

His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer ...

In Primal Fear

55. Peter Lorre

Actor | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy in the Slovak area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Hungarian Jewish parents. He learned both Hungarian and German languages from birth, and was educated in elementary and secondary schools in the Austria-Hungary capitol Vienna, but did ...

In M

56. Vincent D'Onofrio

Actor | Men in Black

Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio was born on June 30, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York, to Phyllis, a restaurant manager and server, and Gene D'Onofrio, a theatre production assistant and interior designer. He is of Italian descent and has two older sisters. He studied at the Actors Studio and the American ...

In Full Metal Jacket

57. Christoph Waltz

Actor | Django Unchained

Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He is known for his work with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012). For each performance, he won...

In Inglourious Basterds

58. Roy Scheider

Actor | Jaws

Lean, angular-faced and authoritatively spoken lead / supporting actor Roy Scheider obviously never heard the old actor's axiom about "never appearing with kids or animals" lest they overshadow your performance. Breaking that rule did him no harm, though, as he achieved pop cult status by finding, ...

In All that jazz

59. Peter Finch

Actor | Network

Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womanizer as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ten. There, he ...

In Network

60. Rod Steiger

Actor | In the Heat of the Night

Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at...

In The Pawnbroker

61. Peter Firth

Actor | Lifeforce

Peter Firth was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1953. His parents owned the Waterloo Inn pub in Pudsey, Leeds and he attended Hanson Grammar School in Bradford. Firth took weekend classes at the Bradford Playhouse near his Pudsey home and by his mid-teens was playing in "Camelot" at the ...

In Equus

62. Casey Affleck

Actor | Manchester by the Sea

An accomplished and striking performer, Academy Award® winner Casey Affleck has established himself as a powerful leading man with performances in multiple projects.

Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. His mother, Chris Anne (née Boldt), is a school teacher, and ...

In The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford



Recently Viewed