By far the best work of a screen actor's life

Don't forget Straithairn's role in "A League Of Their Own." Nice work as commish of the women's league.

"I really liked that part when you scratched your balls for an hour. Until then, I couldn't tell whether you were drunk or dead."

 

He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Primal Fear.

 

And he was great in "The People vs. Larry Flynt", "Fight Club", "25th Hour" and "Rounders". He's the best actor around under the age of 40.

 

Pitt's always been willing to put his looks aside...he was great in "Snatch", when he played a greasy gypsy...and in "Ocean's 11" he was basically the straight man, who was always eating.

 

Great, great call, Lex.

 

Lot of good calls on this thread. A few more for the bin:

-- Rob Brown, Finding Forrester
-- Matthew Broderick, Glory
-- Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple
-- Ice Cube, Boyz in the Hood
-- Jeff Daniels, Gettysburg
-- Joe Pesci, JFK (in some alternate universe where Goodfellas was never made)

 

Stephen Stucker - Airplane     ;D
Bruce McGill  -  61*
John Belushi - Animal House
Fred Gwynee - My Cousin Vinnie

 

Great call on Affleck in Good Will Hunting.

I disagree on Robbins in Shawshank. I love Shawshank, but The Player is my favorite Tim Robbins flick.

This thread has a very easy answer for me - Russell Crowe in The Insider. To me, his other roles have been good, not great. The New York Times called Gladiator "The most expensive Chanel commercial ever made," and I agree. But The Insider really took him outside of who he is. You'd never convince me now-- knowing what I know about the actor-- that he could play a role like that and elicit such sympathy. But back then, he played the hell out of it.

 

What about his turn as Jim Braddock in Cindarella Man?

 

Keanu in The Gift. Maybe it was because he was actually acting.

 

I think the best work of Jeff Daniels' life was "The Squid and the Whale." I always thought he was a good, underrated actor, but that movie was a real eye-opener.

 

I have no idea what Gladiator has to do with Chanel