Greatest character actor ever?

[NotFadeAway]

I'm bored, and I was thinking to myself, who is the greatest character actor to ever be in film? I'm drawing blanks now, so help....

 

[CFE]

edit: double

 

[CFE]

John Hurt
Bill Paxton
James Cromwell
Clancy Brown
Gary Cole
Steve Buscemi
Chris Cooper
Jeffrey Tambor
J.K. Simmons

There are several others though, but these come to mind right away.

 

[simplysuperhero]

Laurence Olivier - no one comes close

 

[Nivek]

Warren Oates

 

[MAN O STEEL]

Jim Carrey - greatest character actor ever. he can play everything & anything.





Steve

 

[Wiseman]

Ron Perlman

 

[ttotheusher]

Christopher Walken
William Fichtner

Does anyone else they should play father and son? They look quite alike.

 

[Maresk]

Gary Oldman.

 

[Nivek]

Marlon Brando
Jackie Gleeson
Ned Beatty

 

[nite-owl]

Gene Hackamn

 

[WeaponXProject]

John Hurt
Bill Paxton
James Cromwell
Clancy Brown
Gary Cole
Steve Buscemi
Chris Cooper
Jeffrey Tambor
J.K. Simmons

There are several others though, but these come to mind right away.

I love your list except for Bill Paxton. He is a character actor but he's not that good. He's just one of Cameron's friends and ends up in T-1 (punk at the beginning), True Lies, Aliens, Titannic

I'd add actors like Bruce Campbell, Crispin Glover, Tom Wilkinson, Dennis Hopper, John Lithgow, William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Frank Langella...that's all I got for now.

 

[livrule]

Christopher Walken
William Fichtner

Does anyone else they should play father and son? They look quite alike.

Amen to that

 

[Episode29]

Peter Lorre
Claude Rains

 

[GhostPoet]

Keanu Reeves!


...oh wait.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Paul Giamatti

 

[ABleedingCorpse]

Gary Oldman.

I second this.

 

[Sarg92]

Edward Norton and Johnny Depp.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Yeah, Oldman for sure.

Depp and Lewis.

 

[The Chairman]

Gary Oldman
Willem Dafoe
Tim Roth
Robert Forster
Stephen Tobolowsky
Vincent Schiavelli (R.I.P.)
Frank Vincent
William Fitchner
Steve Buscemi
Peter Stormare
Martin Balsam (R.I.P.)
Sydney Greenstreet (R.I.P.)
Harvey Keitel
Michael Madsen
Ving Rhames
Christopher Walken

 

[Octoberist]

Gary Oldman

Peter Sellers

 

[gwynplaine]

Hard to pick just one, there are so many. I personally really like those character actors from the actor's studio, guys like Eli Wallach, Karl Malden, Martin Balsam etc...
Also the late great John Cazale comes to mind (Sal in Dog Day Afternoon and Fredo in the Godfather).
But really there are too many to name just one.

 

[wobbly]

I'd Add Brian Cox to the aforementioned.

 

[Mister H.]

I'll just list a few currently working that I think are tremendous character actors:

Gary Oldman
Robin Williams
Ellen Burstyn
Robert Downey, Jr.
Johnny Depp


I think Heath Ledger was well on his way to becoming a fantastic character actor, but unfortunately...

 

[co2]

Gary Oldman.

That would be my vote. There are movies where you would never believe it was the same guy.