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I just wondered if everybody had a favorite. Mine is by far Meryl Streep, hands down. One of the most talented, versitile actresses ever. Two of my favorites were THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and THE HOURS.
This is hard to pick only one and I was thinking drama. Then I thought what actor do I go see a movie just because he/she is in it. I can think of two but I'll go with Adam Sandler. Why? Because I like his sense of humor and his movies usually have music from my generation.
I just wondered if everybody had a favorite. Mine is by far Meryl Streep, hands down. One of the most talented, versitile actresses ever. Two of my favorites were THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and THE HOURS.
Male:
Cary Grant - he had such charm and wit about him, he made you forget you were watching a movie. You want your dh to be like him.
John Wayne - How else would I have fallen in love with rugged cowboys?
James Stewert - ah, what can I say, he made my all time favorite movie, he was so sincere and so compelling. He reminded me of my dad.
Female:
Maureen O'hara - fiesty redhead was ahead of her time.
Sophia Loren - I wanted to grow up and look just like her. Alas, didn't.
Of the above mentioned actors/actresses, my favorite:
Cary Grant simply because he had to overcome so much to act, and his 'real' life never did show or bleed through in his acting.
The first person who came to mind was Susan Sarandon. I have watched her since Rocky Horror at the Rialto in Pasadena! I don't always like the movies she is in, but her acting is fabulous.
My favorite actor is Johnny Depp. He's never boring, and really seems to disappear into his roles (and I don't just mean because of the make-up)!
Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson are my fave actresses. They've been great in every movie, and always bring so much to their roles, IMO.
Katharine Hepburn - Even begged my parents to take me to see her on Broadway in The West Side Waltz when I was 11 or 12. I am glad they did. I was a precocious and obnoxious child but I found her performances in The African Queen, The Desk Set, and The Lion in Winter (where she portrayed my 25x removed grandmother) so exceptionally compelling that I had to see her in person.
At her entrance the audience stood and applauded for 6 or 7 minutes yet such were her acting skills that 10 minutes later you completely forgot you were watching Katharine Hepburn performing just a few feet away. THAT is talent.
Audrey Hepburn - Not quite the caliber of Kate the Great, but she had a screen presence that no other actress has ever been able to duplicate. I've not met anyone who doesn't completely fall in love with her no matter the film. What she and the film camera had together should be rated NC-17. She reaches the soft parts of your heart the way few actors ever could just by being on the screen. The definition of charm.
Marlon Brando - "I coulda been somebody. I coulda been a contender." Phenomenal ability. Yes he looks like Marlon Brando, but just who is it who stole his body and took over his brain? Brando had electric charisma but also a subtle talent that never ceased to amaze. I thought I had seen it all until I saw him in Julius Caesar. Playing against Gielgud AND James Mason AND Edmond O'Brien?? How could he survive against such enormous Shakespearean-trained actors on their home turf?? And then I saw him and he was the best Mark Antony I have ever seen. The Elizabethan words left his lips as naturally as water from a spring.
Archibald Leach as Cary Grant portraying other people - Like Audrey Hepburn is for women, he had the greatest screen charisma of any male actor. His comedy was magical and he managed extremely difficult screwball farce better than any other male lead. No matter how ridiculous his characters, he was always Cary Grant. Nobody really remembers WHO he portrayed, it doesn't matter. He was Cary Grant and all his films run together like a giant autobiography: The Adventures of Cary Grant. You knew who he would be, how he would act, what his mannerisms would be. It was OK, we just liked seeing Cary Grant because he was likable even when he was slightly villainous. Who the hell Archibald Leach was, the world may never know. He remained as privately mysterious as Garbo.
Silents
Greta Garbo - One of the first un-stagey, naturalistic actors, she transitioned to sound without problem if not without some anxiety. Garbo was alluring, highly sexual, and able to convey more without words than censors would allow many other actors with words.
Gloria Swanson - Her greatest role wouldn't come until the landmark Sunset Boulevard when she brilliantly melded silent acting with sound acting. In quite a few scenes, she let's down her guard and acts as a sound actress would but when she tries to seduce Joe she goes back to the alluring screen siren she was in the 20s using an acting style that became wonderfully grotesque. That took exceptional skill and I think it's the best acting by an actress in the sound era; Rene Falconetti, the greatest of the silent era.
Lon Cheney - Likely the greatest character actor who has ever lived. He could portray anyone. From Quasimodo to Mr. Hyde to The Phantom of the Opera (no makeup!), Cheney's films live on as classics from the silent era because he starred in them. Character actors are the unsung heroes of Hollywood. They give us the characters we love again and again, rarely appreciating the unique talent that it takes to create them. Cheney is one of the rare exceptions who carried major films all on his own and gave them a human resonance we appreciate even today.
My favorite actor is Johnny Depp. He's never boring, and really seems to disappear into his roles (and I don't just mean because of the make-up)!
Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson are my fave actresses. They've been great in every movie, and always bring so much to their roles, IMO.
He is the only actor alive today whose films I will see simply because he's in them. A superb actor with astonishing range and an uncanny ability to choose great material.
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had to choose 3
