Best movie stars of all time?

[fortunesfool]

Ed Harris. Always great, and can enliven a mediocre film.

Also see Gene Hackman.

[jaykays hat]

Originally Posted by fortunesfool

Ed Harris. Always great, and can enliven a mediocre film.

Also see Gene Hackman.

I agree, on both.

[Zippykins1]

Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman. And for the Brits, Michael Caine, even if he is a Tory.

[robinho67]

Apart from the legends that have been mentioned so far...a more modern choice would be Guy Pearce for me.
He's not always in great films but would def class him as a great actor.
Other favorites would be Sean Penn, Gabriel Byrne, Marlon Brando

[Jonesy]

Brando and Penn are kings of the style of acting I can't stand - the pantomine style of method acting that Brando and Clift brought from the stage to the screen. In my opinion, what works on the stage (and Olivier was a prime example of this), doesn't work in front of a camera. Stanislavski has a lot to answer for.

[thedude]

Ive always thought Penn was poo, never, ever understood the hype he gets.

[evevanify]

Haven't discovered Michael Sheen yet? I have! No, he's not a Johnny Depp or a Tom Cruise, he is just Michael with a smashing good talent! So yes, he is even better than a Johnny Depp or a Tom Cruise. He catches roles in the worlds most famous movies and he can preform them every time in a very different and correct way! No Johnny or Tom who can says that! The funny fact about it is that in my country Sheen is totally unknown, but we Belgians have seen him like thousand times on the silverscreen. He can act in so many different styles (from a vampire to a Tony Blair, from a white rabbit to an American terrorist, from a handicaped fellow to a very glamoured David Frost, and from a warrior to a gay) that he is so good that he becomes unrecognisable, because he can preform each role so very much in its own way.
I am sure Sheen can catch better roles then he mostly takes, like Aro (Twilight) or Lucian (Underworld). Sheen on his very best you can see in Frost/Nixon aswell as in The Queen and Music Within. Three totally different stories, three totally different Sheens.
I really hope he once again can get more serious roles, than his vampire roles or Castor's or whatever, because he is too good for these roles. Give the man the parts he truely deserves. I mostly like to see him play in true stories. I really want to see Michael acting in a shrilling good war movie! (No Gladiator, but a Doctor Zhivago or a Pianist - that sort of level). I'm sure he can.
The man himself is nice, funny and very realisic (huuray for that!) A true actor where other preformer and actors can learn something from.
Carpé Diem, Carpé Michael! He won' disappoint you. He just can't. He's an everymans-look-a-like. Yes, even a James Dean-look-a-like!
Go Michael Go!!

[sassy21]

I would have to say Christian Bale.

I mean he's been acting since he was 13 and he's still going strong. And he'll really commit to a role. Like when he was cast as Trevor Reznik in The Machinist (he dropped his weight down to 8 st 9 lb) and then fresh off The Machinist, he had to bulk up to match Batman's muscular build. He went from about 130 lbs to 230 lbs, then discovered he had actually gained too much weight and corrected this to 190lbs. Thats dedication!

And lets not forget American Psycho or Equilibrium!

[Jonesy]

Originally Posted by sassy21

I would have to say Christian Bale.

I mean he's been acting since he was 13 and he's still going strong. And he'll really commit to a role. Like when he was cast as Trevor Reznik in The Machinist (he dropped his weight down to 8 st 9 lb) and then fresh off The Machinist, he had to bulk up to match Batman's muscular build. He went from about 130 lbs to 230 lbs, then discovered he had actually gained too much weight and corrected this to 190lbs. Thats dedication!

And lets not forget American Psycho or Equilibrium!

Losing weight or putting it on for a role doesn't make you a good actor, it just makes you good at altering your weight. Bale has become hammy, cliched, and laughable. In Batman he's unintentionally hilarious; in Rescue Dawn he needed to be slapped and told to stop pretending he was in the Christmas Panto; and in American Psycho he played himself.

[infostream]

I can tell a good actor if I decide to watch a film (or all their films) because they are in it. For me it is John Wayne and James Stewart.