Favourite actors / actresses and why

[Butch 3,456]

Hi,

 

As a bit of an angle on the "TV" show thread, I'd ask who is your favourite film / TV Actor / Actress and why?.

 

For me it's Gene Hackman, he's versatile and is just so strong in some of his roles, noteably in "Unforgiven" where I thought he played an equivalent lead. I also enjoyed his comedic performance in "Get Shorty" and his character in "Enemy of the State". Although I don't deliberately go out of my way to see him in a film, I tend to rest assured that anything he is in is actually going to be half decent.

 

My favourite Actress is Helen Mirren, simply for her performance on the UK TV show "Prime Suspect".

 

I'm pretty undecided on "TV" actors. Bernard Hill in "Boys from the Blackstuff" (UK TV series about the state of the UK in the 80's) still sticks in my mind as an epic and powerful performance, but anything he does from there on in will always be compared to it. Truthfully, there are far too many for me to pick one out.

 

[Samsonite 181]

Grace Park on "Hawaii 5-O." Not bad for an Asian/American/Canadian woman in her early 40s.

Other than that, I haven't kept up on the more recent generation of actors and actresses.

IMHO, there is very little on TV or even in the movies worth watching these days. Most of

it is dark, deviant trash.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Samsonite

[Butch 3,456]

She was also in Battlestar Galactica (new version).

[midlifecrisis 4,048]

I have so many favorites but they are often tied to specific roles and movies - Peck as Atticus Finch or Douglas as Spartacus or Taylor as Cleopatra or Monroe as Sugar Kane.. My all-time favorites are either old and retired or long gone. I rarely enjoy every role they played. My list of great acting and roles is very very long.

 

As to the somewhat younger set - Craig as Bond, Ford as Indiana Jones or a great number of other Alist talents both male and female - Hanks, Lawrence, Driver, Ormond and many others have done movies I really enjoy them in.

 

Sometimes, like "Some Like It Hot", it is the ensemble cast and director that make it so great. One film, "The Seven year Itch", was so great and only had one really big star - Marilyn Monroe - but Tom Ewell nailed his role. I am a fan of his performance but not a fan of the actor. Most of his work is just OK to me. It does not mean he was a bad actor.

[brotherbuzz 3,206]

Tough to say favorite so I'm gonna go with who I'll watch regardless of the movie/ or TV show.

 

Connery. and Sigourney Weaver.

 

TV varies so much so I'll just go with Peter Falk and Ming-Na Wen

[MM 6,562]

Film stars throughout the years, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood...it's hard to measure up to their works.

 

I think that Ben Affleck shows great promise at becoming an all-round film star and director in this era. I also like Mark Wahlberg in his roles lately.

 

TV...hmm. Kevin Spacey, Timothy Oliphant, Walton Goggins.

[Samsonite 181]

Honeysuckle Weeks. Love the name.

She was very good in "Foyle's War".

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle_Weeks

[TKR Bones 26]

John Wayne

[atlas2 4,329]

Marlon Brando

 

Magaret Rutherford

[jacko 8,814]

I often latch onto an actor after seeing them do a good part but then something happens to make me think less of them.

An example might be say Kevin Bacon in Mystic River, then seeing him prancing around like a dick head in a bright jump suit advertising a UK phone network! Harvey Keitel now sells insurance.....

 

I agree Ben Affleck has been doing some more challenging roles recently when his earlier stuff was 'lightweight;.

 

Also a few I admired seem to have had mental or drug issues (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams).....

Always felt Peter Stormare was good but he started out being very silly in The Big Lebowski.

 

So for me my admiration is usually linked to a particular roll.

[Bullfrog 2,224]

My favourite all time film is "The Loneliness of the long distance runner" so I shall go for Tom Courtenay..

 

TV has to be the actor that played Catweasel...

[JONPAT 222]

Best performance I ever seen Hackman in was 'The Conversation'; should of won an Oscar, both film and him.

[Bullfrog 2,224]

My favourite Actress is Helen Mirren, simply for her performance on the UK TV show "Prime Suspect".

 

I'd like to see Helen Mirren and Glenda Jackson as two 50 year old lesbian lovers...

[twitter 4]

Di Niro /Streep.

[js007 795]

Jack Nicholson, Robert DiNiro, Al Pacino

[JONPAT 222]

Hi,

 

As a bit of an angle on the "TV" show thread, I'd ask who is your favourite film / TV Actor / Actress and why?.

 

For me it's Gene Hackman, he's versatile and is just so strong in some of his roles, noteably in "Unforgiven" where I thought he played an equivalent lead. I also enjoyed his comedic performance in "Get Shorty" and his character in "Enemy of the State". Although I don't deliberately go out of my way to see him in a film, I tend to rest assured that anything he is in is actually going to be half decent.

 

My favourite Actress is Helen Mirren, simply for her performance on the UK TV show "Prime Suspect".

 

I'm pretty undecided on "TV" actors. Bernard Hill in "Boys from the Blackstuff" (UK TV series about the state of the UK in the 80's) still sticks in my mind as an epic and powerful performance, but anything he does from there on in will always be compared to it. Truthfully, there are far too many for me to pick one out.

 

I hope you have seen 'The Conversation', one heck of a good movie. I like Hackman too.

 

David Janssen TV & screen, Richard Boone , Broderick Crawford (10-4), Myrna Loy, Dick Powell, Orson Wells, ... just so many that I enjoyed; I am a lucky man to have so much to choose from.

Edited July 9, 2017 by JONPAT