So, to be able to be different in every single role, and adapting as necessary, whilst giving a top-notch performance, is most definitely more important to looks, although it certainly does help a smidgen.
6. Christopher Lee
What really amazes me about Lee, isn't the immense array of films and appearances that he's made over the years, even though that is pretty incredible. It's the fact that even at the age of 89, he is still very much a strong part of the film industry and as of writing this, Lee has FIVE productions in the pipeline. For a career that started in 1946, wow, you have to have a huge amount of respect for this guy.
Best of the Best: Dracula (several variants), The Man with the Golden Gun, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings etc etc
Favourite Performances: Alongside his performance in Witch Mountain, Lee was also pretty scary when he lent his voice to the 1982 animated film: The Last Unicorn. However, my favorite performance has to be in the video game series Kingdom Hearts, for which he gave the voice of DiZ. I think what was so amazing about this character, wasn't really the performance, but just the fact that it was Christopher Lee. Here was a game that brought together two of my favorite things in Disney and in Final Fantasy, and Lee had provided a voice for it. That was pretty incredible.
5. Bruce Willis
Willis' major breakthrough, Die Hard, is probably still one of his most-loved films proving that Willis has always made a presence for himself in front of a camera. And for that reason alone, he's kinda earnt that hard-faced attitude.
His role that really intrigued me was as the father of Elizabeth, who dated Ross Geller, in Friends. For me, the role proved that Willis doesn't take himself too seriously.
Best of the Best: The Sixth Sense, Die Hard, Fifth Element, Unbreakable, Twelve Monkeys, Sin City.
Favourite Perfomance: Bruce Willis is one of those actors who has had so many more hit films, than absolute flops, that I'm finding it incredibly difficult to name my absolute favorite performance. In fact, I'm finding it easier to pin-down his very few questionable films, that I half can't believe Willis did them: Nancy Drew (no surprise that was uncredited), Rugrats Go Wild (seriously....Rugrats?? I know he did Look Who's Talking, but Rugrats is just...no!) and The Whole Nine Yards (brilliant castings, terrible film). I know I've listed my absolute favorite films, but there have been so many brilliant performances including: Pulp Fiction, Armageddon etc.
4. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp has become one of those actors who simply needs to have his name on the poster, purely for the purpose of selling a film. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't help feeling that his name is too highly regarded for it's own good. For example, I strongly felt that his character's role, in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was made larger, purely because it was being played by Depp. Now, I know I haven't read any of the book in a long time, but I really don't remember the Mad Hatter being in it that much.
Best of the Best: Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Sleepy Hollow.
Favourite Performance: This one you can probably guess, but for me, Jack Sparrow is just comedy genius. His introductory scene in the very first Pirates film, where his boat is sinking and he literally steps from the Crows Nest right onto the harbor getty is just hilarious. Depp plays the drunk and slightly insane character with such perfection, that it has become difficult to watch any of his other roles without comparing and contrasting it to this one.
3. Gary Oldman
Some actors appear to be born to play a particular role, and they play that one type of role incredibly well, but Gary Oldman seems to have been born to play every role, and he plays every one of them so well. If there was a concise list of actors that young boys should aspire to be, Oldman should be very high up on that list.
Best of the Best: Fifth Element, Leon, Batman, Harry Potter
Favourite Performance: This was a hard choice to make, but after a lot of deliberation with Chris, we agreed that Oldman's best performance, for us, was most definitely in The Fifth Element. What we liked most about his performance as Jean-Baptiste was the quirkiness and general weirdness about the character. The performance was quite intelligent, because Oldman played it in a way that had Jean-Baptiste come across as this idiotic buffoon, when really he was, to put it bluntly, a pyscho. He's also completely unrecognisable to the Gary Oldman that we see in his other roles.
2. Leonardo DiCaprio
The interesting thing about DiCaprio is that following his huge success in films such as Romeo and Juliet, Titanic etc, I'd started to feel like his career would wane, as he began to lose that little boy cuteness as he grew up. As a result I really expected him to fade away into the typical pool of child stars who were popular whilst they remained "cute", but the public eventually grew tired of, because behind the looks wasn't that much of a serious actor (think Zac Efron, Macauley Culkin, Corey Feldman etc). But, DiCaprio has proven several times over that he is not just a pretty face, in fact, he's a darn good actor to boot, able to take on a huge variety of roles, which was evident as long ago as 1993, when he played Arnie in What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
I'm very intrigued as to how DiCaprio is going to play his latest role as Jay Gatsby, in Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby, but since I am definitely not a fan of Robert Redford, or his own portrayal of Gatsby, DiCaprio can only do better.
Oh, and the fact that I just happen to share my birthday with DiCaprio is also quite nice ;)
Best of the Best: What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Inception, Shutter Island, The Beach, Romeo and Juliet.
Best Performance: I've come across a few people that have disagreed with me over this opinion, but I honestly believe that the character of Arnie Grape, in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (also starring Johnny Depp), was an incredibly difficult role to play, but DiCaprio played it perfectly. For me, he played it so well that you really believed that he had the issues of his character (and I know some people would argue that he does, but that's something else entirely).
1. Robert Downey Jnr
The most intriguing thing that Downey Jnr is the fact that he is not a perfect person, he's done drugs, he's been arrested and his gone pretty much as low as most humans could possibly get to in life, but despite everything, despite his issues, his addictions and his many mistakes, he has still managed to completely bounce back, and grab hold of a waning career and make an even bigger star for himself.
Similar to Johnny Depp, Downey Jnr is brilliant at playing quirky characters, who are deep, dark and intelligent, but funny in the way that they deliver their genius. But, this is pretty much where the similarity of his roles ends, because each of them is completely different, whether it's the rich kid arrogance of Tony Stark (Iron Man), or the obsessive serial killer fan-boy that is Wayne Gale (Natural Born Killers), or the drug-induced fast-thinking, bare-knuckle fighting of Sherlock Holmes.
Best of the Best: Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man, Natural Born Killers, Ally McBeal, Chaplin, Wonder Boys.
Favourite Performance: I hate to pick one of his most recent roles, but my absolute favorite performances is definitely as Sherlock Holmes. I love the deep intelligence of the character that Downey Jnr portrays, and the way that Guy Ritchie's Direction has broken down the characters thoughts.
Whilst it could possibly be argued that the arrogance and intelligence of Holmes are very similar to the arrogance and intelligence of Tony Stark, Downey Jnr plays this role so differently as Holmes as completely different issues and motivations.
In case you've forgotten the greatness that is Sherlock Holmes, here's the trailer for the upcoming Sherlock films: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows which is due for release December 2011:
Who would be in your Top Six Actors?