Following on from my recent post about the Mount Rushmore of Film Directors, I’ll be listing my personal choice for the Mount Rushmore of Actors. Again, this idea is borrowed from the Cinemasins podcast, so definitely go and give that a listen for a much more comprehensive view on films. These are my personal picks for my four favourite Actors of all time.
It’s worth noting that my age obviously has a big impact on this list. Actors like Marlon Brando, Cary Grant and Paul Newman all had huge impacts on the film industry, but were simply before my time. My list covers my personal range of film experiences.
- Tom Hanks – My choice for number 1 was a relatively easy choice. Tom Hanks is the one of the most versatile and well-known actors in history. He’s been in some absolute classics, including Forrest Gump, Castaway, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia and Road to Perdition, just to name a few. He was also acclaimed for his voice work in Disney’s Toy Story film series. I think his performance in Forrest Gump is particularly noteworthy, as a kind-hearted, dim-witted man going through an incredible journey, whilst struggling to grasp the basic concepts of humanity and social skills. Hanks has had some misfires for sure (The Da Vinci Code series springs to mind) but even if the film ends up being bad, he always ends up shining through with a good performance. His films also cover a wide range of genres and styles, and his roles are diverse and require talent in many different ways. A truly incredible actor, he’s been nominated for an Academy Award 5 times, winning twice.
- Denzel Washington – My choice for the coolest actor who’s ever lived, Denzel Washington brings a toughness and authority to every film he appears in. Take a film like The Equalizer for example. A fairly generic movie with a fairly generic plot becomes infinitely more enjoyable and entertaining thanks to him being in the lead role. He has also shown good range as an actor, going from deep, emotional films like Philadelphia to brash, brutal performances like Training Day, he shows a talent to adapt to whatever he’s appearing in. His other fantastic performances include Fences, Flight, American Gangster, Cry Freedom, Malcolm X, Glory, and He Got Game. Washington is also known for his accurate and excellent portrayals of real-life figures (As shown in Malcolm X and Cry Freedom). He’s been nominated for an incredible 8 Academy Awards, winning twice.
- Kevin Spacey – I hate the idea of writing about Spacey, with all of the details about his abuse now widely know. It’s become clear he’s an awful human being, but I couldn’t leave him off this list, as some of his performances are my all-time favourites. I would personally put Spacey forward as the best villian actor of all time. His roles in Seven and The Usual Suspect are mesmorising and he plays the bad-guy part so brilliantly. His recent roles in Baby Driver and Horrible Bosses were also fantastic and the Netflix series House of Cards is only as good at is because of Spacey’s incredible performance as the lead. His role in American Beauty however, is I think his most amazing performance. Spacey plays the role of a man in the midst of a mid-life crisis, and his performance won him 1 of his 2 Academy Awards (nominated and won twice). An extremely capable all-round actor, it’s such a shame that he abused his position so badly.
- Leonardo DiCaprio – DiCaprio is the youngest on this list, and it shows just how much talent he has that he’s been able to put in the amount of incredible performances in a shorter time-frame. Every performance he does is outstanding, and again, he’s an incredibly varied actor. My favourite performances of his include Catch Me If You Can, Inception, The Revenant, Shutter Island, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Aviator and Django. He is able to play brilliantly the good-guy (The Aviator, The Departed), the bad-guy (Django) and something in-between (Catch Me If You Can, The Wolf of Wall Street). His performance in Titanic must also be mentioned (even if I don’t personally like the film) as it one of the most famous performances by an actor. He shows incredible talent, and his repertoire will no doubt be considered alongside the best of all time, one day. He’s been nominated for 6 Academy Awards, winning once.
As usual, there was a large number of actors I considered that didn’t make this list. Daniel Day-Lewis immediately comes to mind, as I consider him one of, if not the most talented actor who has ever lived. However, I made my choices based on the biggest number of performances in my favourite films, and while I love There Will be Blood and Lincoln, the four I chose simply had a larger number of performances as my personal favourites.
Jack Nicholson, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins and a surplus of others were also considered, and while some like Hopkins have some of my favourite individual performances, they don’t have as many as the ones who made the list.
So those are my choices. As always, check out the Cinemasins podcast for a much more diverse and comprehensive list and do let me know what you thought of my choices – did I miss anyone big? Is there someone you would put as an immediate number one? I thoroughly enjoy making these lists, trying to trawl back through all the films I’ve ever seen and deciding which ones were my favourites. My next Mount Rushmore post will be about the four films I consider my favourites.
Matt Mikhael
MattMikhael 