Powerful Lead Performances by Actors

[matrix_ghost]

I had the idea for this thread after i watched Gandhi .
Kinglsey was absolutely stellar in this and deserved the Best Actor award.
And i'm not talking about movies with ensamble casts who all deliver good performances ( like the LOTR movies or Departed) and have one person who steals the show ( in the case of LOTR Serkis as Gollum and Nicholson in Departed). In those cases i that even if the characters would give moderate performance ,the movie would've still been weel received because of the overall quality of the other actors.
But here i'm talking about those singular LEAD performances that if they otherwise turned out to be okay/moderatemovie would fail completely or at best be nothing memorable.



I'll start
Ben Kingsley in Gandhi
Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood ( & to a lesser extent gangs Of New YOrk)
Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line
Alec Guinness in Bridge On the River Kwai [/b]
Peter O'Toole in Lawrence Of Arabia
Edwart Norton in American History X
Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump
Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day & Silence Of the Lambs
Michael Dougles in Wall Street
Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver & Raging Bull & Deer Hunter
Christian Bale in The Machinist & American Psyho


I'm sure there are many other but these as the ones currently buzzing in my head

 

[dude stannis]

Bruce Willis in Die Hard
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

 

[That-Guy]

Guy Pearce - Memento
Sharlto Copley - District 9
David Strathairn - Good Night and Good Luck
Matt Damon - The Talented Mr. Ripley
Emily Mortimer - Transsiberian
Christopher Reeve - Superman
Charlize Theron - Monster
Ellen Page - Juno & The Tracey Fragments
Hugh Jackman - The Fountain
Sean Gullette - Pi

 

[Drizzle]

Robert Downey Jr in "Sherlock Holmes". He really made the movie. I would have enjoyed it much less if he hadn't been in it.

 

[Laderlappen]

Your examples doesnt fit your description. Many of those movies have much more to offer than the leading performances, and some of those have much better ensembles than LOTR & The Departed.

Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice is the perfect example. One of the most brilliant performances of all time, but without her the movie wouldnt be anything worth seeing.

 

[chamber-music]

Alan Rickman - Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Tom Hardy-Bronson

Nic Cage-Bad Lieutenant: Port of call New Orleans

 

[Carnotaur3]

Alan Rickman - DIE HARD

Fixed.

 

[ImWithTeamConan]

Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire, for me.

 

[CGHulk]

Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man

 

[The BatDude]

A few that haven't been mentioned
Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange
Bruce Campbell as Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy
Dennis Hooper as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet

 

[kang604]

daniel day lewis as bill the butcher... i know he wasnt the lead but he carried the movie and one of the best performances in a movie period, imo

will smith in i am legend

denzel washington in training day

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Christian Bale - 'Empire Of The Sun'

Brandon Lee - 'The Crow'

Val Kilmer - 'Tombstone'

 

[The BatDude]

Sam Rockwell in Moon
Tom Hardy in Bronson
Christian Bale in The Machinist
anything by Robert De Niro

 

[Schlosser85]

Some performances that made the movie worth watching:

Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York

Edward Norton in Primal Fear

Anthony Hopkins in Fracture

Jodie Foster in Flightplan

George C. Scott in Patton (duh)

Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

 

[kane9321]

Denzel Washington- Malcom X

 

[That-Guy]

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Aviator, Blood Diamond and Revolutionary Road
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road
Cate Blachett - The Gift
Clive Owen - Croupier
Sean Penn - Milk

 

[Bim]

A few come to mind:
- Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs)
- Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
- Christian Bale (American Psycho)
- Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)
- Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road)
- Charlize Theron (Monster)
- Edwart Norton (American History X)
- Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting)

 

[ImWithTeamConan]

One I just saw today: Max Records in Where The Wild Things Are.

 

[lime]

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New Yrok
Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs
Williams - The Fisher King
Oldman - Dracula
Hanks - Forest Gump
Pitt - Legends of the Fall
McGregor - Trainspotting
Beningi - La vita e Bella
Gibson - The Patriot
Brody - The Pianist
Penn - I Am Sam
Penn - Dead man walking
Penn - Mystic River
Penn - Milk
Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
Firth - A Single Man

 

[GhostPoet]

Leslie Nielson - Naked Gun


=P

 

[childeroland]

Robert Mitchum - The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Out of the Past, Cape Fear, The Night of the Hunter
Viggo Mortesen and Armin Mueller-Stahl, Eastern Promises
Naomi Watts, 21 Grams, Mulholland Drive
Humphrey Bogart, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Bette Davis, The Petrified Forest, All About Eve (that film is totally hers, great as George Sanders is)
Robert Duvall, The Apostle
EDIT:Ian Holms, The Sweet Hereafter
Mia Kirshner and Bruce Greenwood, Exotica

 

[Bunker]

Am I srsly the first one to mention Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon?

Probably the best performance of all-time behind De Niro in Raging Bull.

tsk tsk

 

[Bunker]

....

 

[Franklin Richards]

F Murray Abraham - Amadeus


[YT]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/A5BpzmTIZMU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/A5BpzmTIZMU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YT]