The webpage wherein I -- Mabster60 -- do estimations of particularly favorite actors' careers to date. This page concentrates only on actors whose careers began in the mid-60's to the present.
Meg Ryan
Promised Land......... Innerspace......... DOA......... When Harry Met Sally......... Joe Versus The Volcano......... Sleepless In Seattle......... The Doors......... When A Man Loves A Woman......... Courage Under Fire......... Restoration......... Addicted To Love......... You've Got Mail......... Hurly Burly......... City of Angels......... Proof of Life......... Hanging Up......... In The Cut......... In The Land Of Women..... Homeland Security... The Deal...... The Women (tentative, in the Norma Shearer role)
Meg Ryan got a rep for being America's Sweetheart (her blonde cutie-pieness rivalled only by sexier brunette Sandra Bullock) in the 1990's with a string of leading-lady roles in several box office hits, beginning with "When Harry Met Sally" opposite Billy Crystal in 1988. She has some distinctive, sometimes annoying little tics like her double-takes and tiny-shocked-face/gasp thingie when She's Upset. But she primarily is a great comic actress with a willingness & ability to play it straight, as she did as the drunken housewife in "When A Man Loves A Woman" opposite Andy Garcia & movie daughter Tina Majorino. Her versatility was put on best display in her first romantic comedy opposite her best leading man, Tom Hanks, in "Joe Versus The Volcano" where she played three distinctly different women: Hanks' dorky lovestruck co-worker in a nightmarish office, an airheaded rich chick, and that woman's more down-to-earth (and the most Meg of the trio) sister. Later, the duo would shine in two of the 90's best (& most popular) romantic comedies: "Sleepless in Seattle" & "You've Got Mail". Ironically, the first role that put her on the map was in a minor flick from the mid-80's playing a tough Midwestern bitch opposite a rather wimpy Kiefer Sutherland. Ryan seems to enjoy taking smaller character roles like these every once in awhile, as she did in "Restoration" as a grubby slattern with a heart of gold, "The Doors" as Jim Morrison's equally tragic wife Pam, and "Courage Under Fire" as a Gulf War casualty up for a controversial Purple Heart. Appallingly, despite all of this good work--not to mention the beaucoup bucks her pictures have made--Ryan has never earned an Oscar nomination. I mean, nothing against a fine player like Emily Watson (who's been nominated twice for great performances in films few people are aware of) but seriously: Ryan not getting Best Actress nods for "WHMS", "Sleepless In Seattle" and "WAMLAW" or Best Supporting Actress noms for "JVTV" and "Restoration" is one of the great mysteries of Academy. As the decade wound down, so did Ryan's box office appeal. Her last three major films--"City of Angels" (the US remake of Wenders' "Wings of Desire") as a surgeon in love with Nic Cage's fallen angel, "Hanging Up", a downer about three sisters dealing with their dying dad (Walter Matthau in his big screen final), and --- opposite bounty hunter Russell Crowe as an American housewife in Central America whose husband (David Morse) is abducted by a rebel group--did only good to middling box office. An offscreen romance with Crowe despite her separation from then-husband Dennis Quaid (who seemed to affect her appeal nicely in the movie in which they met and fell in love "Innerspace" and then badly when he began cheating on her and she left him temporarily for Crowe) did not make her welcome in many middle-class American households. She played excellently against type in Jane Campion's "In The Cut" as a sad-sack teacher who gets mixed up with a psycho killer, complete with erotic love scenes opposite a chunky but studly Mark Ruffalo. Her most recent film--as a real-life boxing promoter--was actually shelved before being released; the clock is currently ticking on this underrated leading lady's movie career.
Whoopi Goldberg
The Color Purple......... Jumping Jack Flash......... Burglar......... Fatal Beauty......... Kiss Shot......... The Long Walk Home......... Ghost......... Sarafina!......... Sister Act......... Short Cuts......... Corrina, Corrina......... Sister Act II......... Soapdish......... Boys on the Side......... Made In America......... How Stella Got Her Groove Back...... In The Gloaming......... Jackie's Back......... The Deep End of the Ocean......... Bogus......... Eddie......... Alice in Wonderland (Cheshire Cat).... The Associate......... girl, interrupted.... Good Fences.........
Caron Johnson began her life onstage in "little theater" companies in NYC and San Diego. Along the way, she learned to mimic a variety of characters of either sex & every race and social level. She got into stand-up comedy, changed her name to Whoopi Goldberg, and became a major star virtually overnight. The great NYC theater & film director (not to mention one-time genius comic star) Mike Nichols produced Goldberg's debut Broadway show in 1985, in which she played: a little black girl yearning to be white, a hip junkie named Tyrone, a sassy Jamaican housekeeper, a philosophical disabled woman, & a shallow surfer chick. A year later, Goldberg was starring in "The Color Purple" as a much put-upon woman of the early 20th Century, a role that won her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Unfortunately, Hollywood did not know what to make of this multi-talented woman. To paraphrase her co-star's character in "TCP": she was black, a woman, & not terribly beautiful. She was the sole reason to see "Jumpin' Jack Flash", a mess of a spy thriller-comedy which only came alive when she was doing hilarious schtick like imitating a blind bluesman, Mick Jagger, and Diana Ross, and being stoned on a sedative. Her next two flicks: purported comedy "Burglar" and bottom-of-the-barrel cop drama "Fatal Beauty" (which gained only minor fame for a romantic love scene between Whoopi and Sam Elliot which was unfortunately cut from the final print) pretty much finished her in Hollywood. She turned to television in the late 80's, in such thankfully offbeat roles as "Bagdhad Cafe" (a one- season sitcom opposite Jean Stapleton) and the pool hustling single mom in the movie "Kiss Shot". She also hosted a Dick Cavettish year-long chat show of great interest that failed to catch on with the public, its 12:30 usual air-time a factor. Then her big screen career was revived with the one-two punch of 1989's arthouse fav "The Long Walk Home" (one of her best performances, as a maid at the beginning of the Civil Rights era) and commercial success 1990's "Ghost" (as a phony medium who serves as a conduit between a widow and her dead husband); she won an Oscar for the latter role and once again her career seemed to be on track, at least in the what-to-do-with-Whoopi sense. Goldberg alternated artier projects like "Sarafina!" (a so-so South African musical) and "Short Cuts" (as a police detective in Robert Altman's popular indie) with the boffo box office flick "Sister Act" (as a Las Vegas singer/gun moll hiding out in a convent after witnessing a murder) which was her most successful film to date. She also starred in one of her better roles as another housekeeper in the 60's drama "Corrina, Corrina" pulling title character Tina Majorino out of her autistic state after the girl's mother has died, not to mention embarking on then-taboo romance with the girl's handsome dad. A popular sequel to "Sister Act" (really not that bad a movie for all its predictablity; fabulous music performances) followed, along with likeable roles in minor hits "Boys on the Side" (as a lesbian pal of Drew Barrymore) and "Soapdish" (as a soap opera writer & confidante of the show's star, Sally Field) before her career began winding down again. Except for ace support work in flicks like "In The Gloaming", as a former pop star's bitter sister in "Jackie's Back!" (both made-for-cable), and as yet another cop opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in "The Deep End of the Ocean", her starring films of the period pretty much fell under the title of one of them: "Bogus". The only good one --"The Associate"-- had her as stock market whiz who has to mimic a man to make waves in that still-sexist industry. Whoop's most recent project, as an idle nouveau riche housewife in a social satire (also for cable) opposite first leading man Danny Glover, was dryly witty but nowhere as fun as her previous work. Offscreen, she has been involved with a series of white guys, including TV star Ted Danson, with whom she made the terrible comedy "Made In America", a concept that has not won her admiration among some members of the black community, even though she is otherwise highly-regarded. Including the filming of her initial Broadway show, she has done three other comedy concerts for HBO: a state of the nation piece in 1988, a whole show devoted to Tyrone, & a NYC performance during her "Sister Act" heyday. She also hosted a show featuring a group of up-&-coming comics and the white-soul band Rockapella, not to mention her continuing charity work for "Comic Relief" with buddies Billy Crystal & Robin Williams. She also starred on Broadway in the revival of "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To the Forum", replacing Nathan Lane for a year.
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Nick Nolte
Return to Macon County.......Rich Man, Poor Man....The Deep.....Dog Soldiers...North Dallas Forty.......Heart Beat......Cannery Row.....48 Hrs......Under Fire.....Teachers.......Grace Quigley......Down & Out In Beverly Hills.....Extreme Prejudice......Weeds....New York Stories.....Farewell to the King.....Everybody Wins......Q & A........Cape Fear......Prince of Tides......Lorenzo's Oil.......I'll Do Anything.......I Love Trouble.....Jefferson in Paris.......Mulholland Falls......Mother Night......Afterglow....U -Turn.....Aflliction....The Thin Red Line.....The Golden Bowl....The Good Thief....The Beautiful Country....Clean....Hotel Rwanda.....Papa
Aging warhorse of the big screen, Nolte has picked up the street cred that Jack (despite a recent slew of good roles) dropped many years ago. Nick has yet to jump the shark in my opinion. He continues to take on the interesting roles, not unlike the Great God Streep. Last thing I saw him in, "The Good Thief", he looked beautiful and acted same. One of those rare leading men (like Harrison Ford) who gets sexier with age. I first remember him vaguely in "Return to Macon County" as a youngish hunk, and then more distinctly because I had read the book several times and thought he was perfect casting, in "The Deep". His scenes with the similarly-craggy Robert Shaw had a homoerotic flavor to them. I particularly have enjoyed him in his rougher roles like "Weeds", "Everybody Wins", "Q&A", & "Affliction"; he always looks as if he's been thrown into a dump truck and had a good fist-fight before delivering his lines. His one lightweight role I really enjoyed was the homeless stud he played in "D&OIBH". Even when he stumbles -- in overwrought dreck like "Teachers", "The Golden Bowl", "Jefferson in Paris", "Farewell To the King", or badly-miscast, as he was in "Lorenzo's Oil" -- he is worth watching & studying. The drunk-driving mug shot is just part of his legacy, suitable for lame jokes at his expense. My favorite of his roles would have to be "Under Fire", where he plays a photojournalist covering the Sandinistas in the early 80's alongside Gene Hackman & Joanna Cassidy; I have seen it perhaps a half-dozen times and I always find different nuances to it, ala "Chinatown", which is my all-time favorite film.
Meryl Streep
"Who are you? What are you?!!" -- Jim Carrey to the Streep at the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony in 2004.
Uncommon Women & Others....Manhattan.....The Deer Hunter.....The Seduction of Joe Tynan.....Kramer Vs Kramer....thriller with Roy Scheider....The French Lieutenant's Woman.....Sophie's Choice......Silkwood.....Out of Africa.....A Cry In The Dark......Plenty.....Heartburn....Ironweed....She-Devil.....Postcards From The Edge....Death Becomes Her.....the whitewater thriller with Kevin Bacon....The Bridges of Madison County......Marvin's Room....Dancing At Lughnasa......Music of the Heart....One True Thing....Adaptation....The Hours....Angels In America....The Manchurian Candidate....Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events....The Devil Wears Prada...
Let's see: she has played at least two of just about everything: an upper-class lesbian, a mistress, a lousy mother, a bad actress, a great mom, a tragic figure, a nutcase, & a real-life heroine. While she has appeared in some disappinting films (the unholy 'comedy' trio Heartburn, She-Devil, and Death Becomes Her predominant), she herself is seemingly incapable of giving a bad perfomance at any of them. She was cold and bitter as the real Lindy Chamberlain, as passionate as Sophie, as ballsy as Karen Silkwood, ladylike as Karen Blixen, endearingly goofy as Renee Zellwegger's dying mom in "One True Thing" and as slovenly repugnant as Leo DiCaprio's mom in "Marvin's Room". She learned how to play violin for "Music of the Heart", let herself look ugly for "Death Becomes Her", and when the role called for it affected credible French, Italian, Polish, Redneck, Danish, and British accents. She can sing too: "Amazing Grace" in Silkwood, "You Don't Know Me" & "I'm Stepping Out" in Postcards, & belting out a boozy love song in that Depression flick with Jack. She has made me cry out loud ("Sophie's Choice", the ultimate kleenex movie), she's made me laugh with her bitchy line readings in Postcards, Manhattan, & Death, and had me on the edge of my seat (that last scene in Madison County). I remember the first time I saw her act, in the PBS presentation of Wendy Wasserstein's autobiographical college-girl play Uncommon Women, playing a fufu Sylvia Plath-ette. I even remember the buzz about her on Broadway and a mid-70's b/w photo in Time magazine of her in an adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" with the Dormouse played by Michael whatisname (Fisher King, Sister Act II, Evening Shade) died of AIDS. Speaking of which disease, she played not one but three distinctly different characters in Angels, most amazingly as an elderly male rabbi! Sometimes I wish she would stumble, and stumble badly, just to prove that she is indeed human. But I really don't think that she's capable. Geez, even her kids are perfect (so far).....
Jack Nicholson.........
Little Shop of Horrors......Easy Rider.....Five Easy Pieces.......The Last Detail.......Chinatown......One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest...Reds....The Postman Always Rings Twice.......Terms of Endearment.......Ironweed.......Broadcast News......The Crossing Guard.....Blood & Wine.......As Good As It Gets......Wolf.......The Pledge.....About Schmidt.....Something's Gotta Give....The Departed......The Bucket List...
Jack really, really screwed the pooch of his acting career in the 80's, so badly that I'll spare you that seemingly endless series of stinkers and concentrate on his highpoints and his recent renaissance as a once-again legitimate actor. He started out in the killer B's of Roger Corman, peaking with his role of a sicko dental patient in 65's "Little Shop". A few years later he re-emerged with absolutely the only reason to see "Easy Rider" as a burnt-out salesman joining the counterculture of the late-60's. In the early 70's he delivered a multiple punch of brilliant characterizations, beginning with the angry, classically-trained pianist trying to make his own way in the world in "5 Easy Pieces". He switched gears as a tough-as-nails sailor MP escorting a dorky young seaman to the brig in "The Last Detail" and followed it with my all-time fav film "Chinatown" as a world-weary private detective in decadent 1930's Los Angeles, a role that should have earned him his first Oscar. He did win in 1975 for playing McMurphy, the smartass punk of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" who winds up a pathetic husk of a man via barbaric psychological treatment. Then Nicholson kind of coasted for a few years until his best bud Warren Beatty cast him as Eugene O'Neill in "Reds" (1981) and he and Jessica Lange starred in a hot 'n' steamy (but not terribly great) remake of James M Cain's "Postman". With the exception of his good-natured astronaut lover of an uptight Shirley MacLaine in "Terms", his subsequent role choices seemed to mirror his bloating body and hair-loss, peaking only with the sad, beatdown bum in "Ironweed" opposite Meryl Streep and a cameo as a pompous anchorman in "News". Jack once again coasted on his name and his offscreen excesses, including his series of affairs with increasingly younger women, fathering several children out of wedlock along the way. Thankfully, Sean Penn hired him to play the lead in his film "The Crossing Guard"; it's not a very good picture, but it at least gave Jack a chance to sink his teeth into something that wasn't boffo box office, a feat he improved upon in the magnificently scuzzy crime drama "Blood & Wine" opposite Judy Davis & Michael Caine. Reinvigorated, Nicholson again starred in a Penn flick as a washed-up cop investigating a missing child incident and falling in love with a young mother (played beautifully by Robin Wright-Penn) whose kid he exploits to find the kidnapper. He hates himself for doing this but it's the only way to catch the creep, even if it means losing Robin; one of his best performances to date.
Debra Winger
Thank God It's Friday......French Postcards....Cannery Row...... Urban Cowboy........Terms of Endearment....Mike's Murder......Black Widow......Legal Eagles.....Everybody Wins......A Dangerous Woman......Shadowlands.......Leap of Faith......Wilder Napalm....Forget Paris......Searching For Debra Winger....
Iconoclastic leading lady if there ever was one, Winger only made a dozen or so films before retiring into semi-obscurity to raise her son by ex-hub Tim Hutton and ironically be the current wife of another minor-but-good actor -- Arliss Howard -- most famous for playing a child molestor. She came back recently to do a weepie for Lifetime, which I unfortunately missed, but will forever be in my heart for that series of excellent performances she gave throughout the 80's up through 1995. Her basic persona is tough little broad who rarely backs down from anything. She could have played Karen Silkwood or Lindy Chamberlain as well as Streep did, but with her own personal kind of edge. She was at her very best in "Terms of Endearment" as the long-suffering daughter, wife, & mom who winds up dying of cancer. Otherwise she was just very watchable in those other films: the sassy cowgirl, the dogged reporter in "Widow", the frightened friend of Mike trying to find his killer, the mildly-retarded homegirl in "Dangerous Woman", Steve Martin's devoted assistant in "Leap", Billy Crystal's disillusioned wife in "Paris" with the pigeon glued to her head in one memorably bizarre scene. The only role I didn't quite buy her in was the poet in "Shadowlands"; she didn't seem particularly interested in the role, which inexplicably earned her a third Oscar nod. She was way more interesting in the oddball cop flick "Everybody Wins" opposite her natural co-star Nick Nolte. She really needs to make another flick with Nolte, let those sparks fly again.
Maggie Smith
The VIP's....Othello....Hot Millions.....The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.....Love & Pain & The Whole Damn Thing.....Death on the Nile.....California Suite.....Evil Under The Sun......Travels With My Aunt......A Private Function......The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.....A Room With A View.....Hook.....Memento Mori.....Sister Act....Sister Act 2.....Richard III......Tea With Mussolini.......Gosford Park......Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.....My House in Umbria..... The Harry Potter films
Maggie Smith is the queen of used-up women. Even in her thirties she seemed much older than her years, such as her quasi-facist schoolteacher in "Jean Brodie", which won her an Oscar. With her chihuahua-ish face and slender frame she has played a succession of unhappy wives and sad spinsters, some with acid tongues, others as clueless as her character in "Room With A View". She turned snippiness into an art-form. Currently, in her mid-70's, she is playing a tough witch-professor in the Harry Potter films for a whole new generation of fans, most of whom are unaware of her Bette Davis-like beginnings.
Denzel Washington
St Elsewhere....A Soldier's Story.....Cry Freedom.....The Mighty Quinn.....Glory.......Mississippi Masala.....Ricochet....Malcolm X....Much Ado About Nothing....The Pelican Brief.....Philadelphia....Crimson Tide.....Virtuosity.......Devil in a Blue Dress.....Courage Under Fire.....The Bishop's Wife.....Fallen.....The Siege......The Bone Collector.....The Hurricane.....Training Day....John Q.....Antwone Fisher.....Out of Time....Man on Fire......The Manchurian Candidate.....Inside Man......Deja Vu...
Washington is shaping up to be the male version of Meryl Streep, with a near-perfect string of quality films beginning with his role of Dr Phil Chandler on the NBC hospital drama "St Elsewhere". I like the way that he plays few romantic leads and concentrates on solid films for thinking men: a lot of SF, crime, & miltary flicks. Supposedly this is due to his refusal to romance white leading ladies and it's proven by his record: only Kate Vernon has gotten to share a liplock with him, in "Malcolm X". As Chris Rock said of him at the 2005 Oscars, this is not a man who would appear in black trash like "Pootie Tang". I especially like him in the indie projects like "Mighty Quinn" & "Masala" and as the cops in "Virtuosity", "Courage Under Fire", & "The Bone Collector", the latter confined to a bed as a near-quadraplegic helping a younger detective (Angelina Jolie) hunt down a serial killer. He more than earned his Oscar playing a duplicitous cop in "Training Day", which ended with a soliloquy of Shakespearean influence. I hope he gets to film more of the Bard: "Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello", & "Richard III" especially; he is meant to do the meatier parts, not relatively lightweight comedies like "Much Ado".
Michelle Pfeiffer
The Hollywood Knights.....Grease 2.....Scarface.....Into The Night.....Ladyhawke.....Natica.....Sweet Liberty......The Witches of Eastwick.....Married to the Mob.....Tequila Sunrise....Dangerous Liasions....The Fabulous Baker Boys......The Russia House.....Frankie & Johnny.....Batman Returns......Love Field.....The Age of Innocence......Wolf.....Dangerous Minds.....Up Close & Personal......One Fine Day......A Thousand Acres.....The Deep End of the Ocean.....A Midsummer Night's Dream.....The Story of Us.....What Lies Beneath......I Am Sam......White Oleander.....Hairspray (finally playing Debbie Harry!)...Stardust...Chasing Montana.
One of the great beauties in Hollywood film history, Pfeiffer started out as a bored bimbo in "Hollywood Knights" as Tony Danza's gf. She got prettier as her name grew in recognition, aping Debbie Harry in "Scarface" and being exquisite as "Ladyhawke". Her acting also improved with every picture, particularly by the time she played a sassy little actress in "Sweet Liberty" opposite Alan Alda; I still core a head of lettuce as she memorably did in this romantic comedy. In my eyes, she stumbled with her next three films, wasting time with a bad adaptation of "Witches", & just plain being wallpaper along with Russell & Gibson in "Tequilla". "Fabulous Bakers" put her back on the map as a serious player and earned her a Best Actress nod in '91. She earned -- yet criminally did not get -- another nod for "Frankie & Johnny", her best performance to date, as a lonely waitress in love with an older man played by Al Pacino; some people said she was too beautiful to play the role but I thought she was excellent: funny when she needed to be, convincingly sad & angry as well. She followed with a comic book role -- two actually, if you count the simpering "Love Field" --- and played a romantic bad girl in Victorian-era NYC in "Innocence". I liked her better as Lou Ann the Marine turned inner-city schoolteacher in "Minds", the object of George Clooney's affection one fine "Day", and the anxious mom reunited with her long-lost son in "Ocean". Her most recent really good role was playing against type as first-class bitch Ingrid in "White Oleander", a woman so predatory and possessive that she drives her daughter's best friend to suicide: Bette and Joan would be proud of her, damn it!
Jane Fonda
.....Tall Story...In The Cool of the Day....Cat Ballou.....Sunday In The Park....Hurry Sundown....Barefoot In the Park.....Barbarella.....They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.....FTA....Klute.....Julia......The China Syndrome....Coming Home......Electric Horseman.....Rollover....The Dollmaker....On Golden Pond....Comes A Horseman.....The Morning After....Old Gringo....Stanley & Iris....Monster-in-Law....Georgia Rule
Yeah, yeah, I know. Traitor /sex-kitten/ daughter of a famous actor / Fitness guru. Also one-time best American actress going. With the exception of Cat Ballou, started out in some pretty dreadful 60's fare, up to and including biggest hit back then, "Barefoot". Left the Hollyweird mainstream for France and an affair with director Roger Vadim, which resulted primarily in daughter Vanessa and the camp bore "Barbarella". Janey must have gotten her consciousness raised between her break with Vadim and the rise of Vietnam's killing machine because by the the time "Horses" came along, she had learned how to act bitterly onscreen and it made people sit up and notice her for the first time. Unfortunately, she pursued anti-war rhetoric in the worst way, culminating in that now-infamous photo of her with the North Viets and subsequent Tokyo Rose-isms on the radio. She returned to her senses & big screens to win her first Best Actress Oscar for her whore Bree Daniels in "Klute". She began to distance herself from radicals and began to focus on what she does best: act. For the next 20 years, she starred as a pretty Lillian Hellman (okay, so it wasn't art imitating life) in "Julia", as a hotshot news reporter after the big story in "China", as a bored housewife in Viet-era Cali who falls in love with a sexy paraplegic vet in "Coming Home" (2nd Best Actress award), as a backwoods mother of many in WWII-era who supports her family with her woodworking skills (Emmy for Best Actress, Movie), as a has-been actress in "Morning" who is pegged for involvement in a murder (her last Oscar nod & one of her very best performances), & as single mom helping a man learn to read in "Stanley". Along the way, she had a strapping hunk of a son with Ol' Pickle Nose and eventually took a much too long break from films by focusing on her aerobics empire and by marrying Ted Turner. Nowadays she's found God, is still hounded by right-wing whacks about the events of 30-some years ago, and is (worst of all) making her return to films in a JLo flick! Talk about a long strange trip, honeys....
Jill Clayburgh
...Hustling....Silver Streak...Semi-Tough....Gable & Lombard...An Unmarried Woman...pro-Palestinian flick....Starting Over....It's My Turn.....I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can.. First Monday in October....recent indie with Jeffery Tambor(?)
Jill didn't make too many movies but whenever she's in one, I'm there. She peaked professionally and commercially with "Unmarried Woman", which garnered her an Oscar nod. I love her in that film as the wronged wife who embarks on a little journey of self-discovery. Sounds corny by today's standards but it still holds up. Before and after that she was leading lady to Burt Reynolds in the great sports comedy "Semi-tough" and the okay love triangle comedy "Starting Over" (her second Oscar nod). She's the only reason to see "Turn", a Michael Douglas vehicle so horrible it was the first flick I ever walked out on. She always had a knack for taking on difficult roles, like the whore to Lee Remick's investigative reporter in "Hustling", the drug-addicted film producer in "Dancing", & the conservative Supreme Court judge opposite liberal Walter Matthau in "October". She raised eyebrows playing Carole Lombard in a mediocre biopic, but came close to screwing the pooch with the one-two punch of a pro-Palestinian film and then as an opera singer who has an incestuous (or so I've heard, never seen it) relationship with her son in "Luna". Pretty much laid low throughout the 80's to raise a family; she was married to a playwright, David Hare I believe, then started to come back in small roles on TV and in indie films. Really would like to see her in a regular role on a quality TV drama.
Tom Hanks
Splash.....Nothing In Common...Punchline....Volunteers.....Big.....Dragnet.....Joe Vs the Volcano....Philadelphia.....Sleepless in Seattle.....Forrest Gump....A League of Their Own....Apollo 13....Saving Private Ryan....That Thing You Do!..The Green Mile....You've Got Mail....Cast Away...Catch Me If You Can...The Terminal...The Ladykillers...The Da Vinci Code..
Hanks was, truth to tell, not one of my favorite actors until he seemed to have grown up by the early 90's. He was cute in light comedies like "Splash" & "Big", and had some good dramatic moments in "Punchline" & "Nothing", but he didn't exactly have any staying power. He appeared in a mess of terrible movies throughout the 80's; I'm only noting the few good ones, and only have "Volunteers" on the list because that's where he met his current wife, Rita Wilson. Wilson is important because I believe she put Tom on the right track; they had some kids together and he seemed to focus more seriously on his acting career and production skills. As his films became more women-friendly, his newfound maturity inspired him to produce great things like the neo-classic WWII mini-series "Band of Brothers". I love all of the romantic comedies he's done with Meg Ryan, even the underrated "Joe" which I think has the makings of a cult classic. Of his dramatic work, I prefer him in "Apollo 13" & "Green Mile" over both of his Oscar-winners; of those two, I think he only deserved the one for "Philadelphia". Gump was treacle for the masses, pure and simple, and was dismissed perfectly by Cigarette Man in a classic X-Files episode, the one where an unpublished manuscript seemed to be the cause of his hatred of humanity, lololol. Hanks' last really meaty role I've seen was the Fedex guy stranded on a desert island for 5 years. Since then, he's been kind of coasting.
Jessica Lange
King Kong....All That Jazz...The Postman Always Rings Twice....Frances...Tootsie...Sweet Dreams....Country.....Music Box.....Everybody's All-American....A Streetcar Named Desire.....Blue Sky...Rob Roy...A Thousand Acres....Hush.....Night & The City....Titus....Normal....Big Fish....Sybil....Grey Gardens...
Lange is like the perfect example of what's wrong in Hollywood. She's beautiful and sexy and a great actress but because she's over 50, they won't cast her opposite guys like Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Pacino, etc who are over 60 and still allowed to star in pictures. With the exception of the horrible Streetcar-90's Style "Hush", her choice in films has been pretty good, like the warrior queen in Shakespeare's "Titus" opposite Anthony Hopkins, the lawyer trying to clear her Nazi father's name in "Music", the young actress in "Tootsie", real-life wildcats Frances Farmer and Patsy Cline, and the sexpot psycho of "Blue Sky". Last thing I saw her in was "Normal" where she played a loyal country wife whose husband wants to get a sex-change; just the scene where she kisses Clancy Brown over the kitchen table proved that she nailed the role perfectly.
Dustin Hoffman
The Graduate....Midnight Cowboy...Little Big Man....Kramer Vs Kramer....Tootsie....Rain Man....Outbreak....Sphere...Meet The Fockers....I Heart Huckabees...
At one time, this tiny troll of an actor with the huge gigantic nose was one of the hottest properties in movies. Then he got older and started making overheated junk like "Sphere" and "Fockers", a needless sequel to a crappy DeNiro flick. He is the greatest master of nebbishness this side of Woody Allen, beginning with his title role in "Graduate", moving onto his sleazy hustler in "Cowboy" and the rotten husband & father, Ted Kramer. I really enjoyed him best as "Tootsie", the alter-ego of his hammy actor Michael Dorsey. He literally could have died in a tragic accident after that performance (I really miss that Dorothy character) and all of his best work would have been done. He was good in "Rain Man" as Tom Cruise's autistic older bro' but it has proved to be one of his most annoying roles and hasn't done much since 1988. I also have a problem separating him from Richard Dreyfuss, even though Dreyfuss is younger and cuter.
Sean Penn
...Bad Boys..Crackers....Fast Times At Ridgemont High....Racing With The Moon......At Close Range....Colors....Casualties of War...Carlito's Way....Dead Man Walking....U-Turn....The Game....Hurly Burly......Sweet and Lowdown....The Thin Red Line....The Weight of Water....I Am Sam.....Mystic River....21 Grams....The Interpreter..The Assassination of Richard Nixon....All The King's Men
Sean's an ugly little cuss with a hot body and a bad temper, or so he was before Robin Wright came into his life and calmed him down. Alas, first wife Madonna had her own enormous career to deal with even though she claimed after their divorce that he was "the love of her life". Before Madge was Elizabeth McGovern, whom Penn met on the set of their lovely period romance feature Racing With The Moon. All through this period == 1982 - 1991 -- Penn was out-acting 80% of his generation's competition. Like his father Leo before him, he began to direct films rather than star in them, beginning with the pretty good blue collar drama The Indian Runner, followed by disappointing sophomore project The Crossing Guard featuring a badly miscast Jack Nicholson in the role Sean should have played (and actually did in Mystic River) -- the grieving father of a dead girl. He rebounded with Jack giving one of his best performances on film in The Pledge; ironically, he seems to have abandoned his avocation to star in more films. Most of his 90's and early new millenium roles have been respectable. The sleazeball in Carlito, the unrepentant murderer in Dead Man, the loving brother of Michael Douglas in The Game, the tough soldier in Thin Red Line, the insecure writer in Water, and the afore-mentioned bitter father role that finally earned him an Oscar for Best Actor in 2004. He needs to direct another film and he needs to do some stagework before he stretches himself too thin ala former actor Robert DeNiro, altho his upcoming role as Willy Stark could be interesting...
Campbell Scott
....Longtime Companion.....Dying Young....Singles....Big Night....The Spanish Prisoner....The Day-Trippers....Delivering Milo....The Secret Lives of Dentists....Roger Dodger.....The Exorcism of Emily Rose.....Music & Lyrics.....
Scott, the son of George C. and stage star Colleen Dewhurst, by all rights should be a bigger star than he already is. Tall, handsome, well-built, and multi-talented, he seems to be perfectly content with his life in the underground. He's best known as Bridget Fonda's boyfriend in Singles -- the pair reunited as a different couple for the sweet comedy-fantasy Milo -- but he's been more impressive in those indies, even small roles in flicks like Daytrippers where he effortlessly leads a woman astray from her guy.
Jodie Foster
Napoleon & Samantha...Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore...Candleshoe....The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane.....Taxi Driver....Freaky Friday....Foxes....Mesmerized....Five Corners....Hotel New Hampshire...The Accused...The Silence of the Lambs....Little Man Tate ....Maverick....Sommersby.....Contact.....Anna & The King.....Panic Room.....Flightplan......Inside Man....The Brave One...Leni Riefenstahl biopic (lead)
In a way, I grew up alongside Jodie Foster. She's a couple of years younger than I but I remember her from her TV work and those Disney flicks she made. She was a tomboy in most of those flicks until Foxes, where she blossomed as a young adult. She had always held her own with major talent, from Helen Hayes to Martin Sheen and Robert DeNiro. I remember her hosting Saturday Night Live all big and hearty with her flat chest and freckled face; rather a shock to see her in her later flicks looking very feminine and curvy. I think Little Girl was her first really meaty role, as an orphaned girl trying to avoid the dastardly clutches of a creepy/pervy Sheen. In Corners she's about ten years older, playing another good girl trying to deal with a psychotic stalker played by John Turturro. She's at her sexiest -- and consequently most pathetic -- in Accused, a cheaply-made indie that finally made her a hot property in Hollywood. This of course was followed with the one-two punch of her role Clarice in '90's Lambs and her great directorial debut with Tate in 1991, with its jazzy score and its offbeat little hero. She's been writing her ticket ever since, in bad flicks opposite Richard Gere and good ones opposite Matthew McConnahey. Most recent coup: playing lead in controversial Leni Riefenstahl biopic.
Faye Dunaway
.Bonnie & Clyde....Chinatown....Three Days of the Condor.....The Towering Inferno.....Network....The Eyes of Laura Mars.....Mommie Dearest....Evita Peron....Barfly....Don Juan DeMarco.....Albino Alligator....Gia....The Rules of Attraction...Back When We Were Grownups...
It's been said that Faye screwed the pooch of her career by playing Joan Crawford in an unflattering light. But it was Crawford herself who at one time wanted Dunaway to play her and -- as camp as this classic has become -- Mommie Dearest is a great showcase for Faye's gifts. I may well be one of the few people who actually liked the tough-nut harpy clean-freak portrayed on film by Miss Dunaway. God knows, I adored her as the psychic fashion photographer, the take-no-prisoners TV exec, the sexy insurance adjuster, the slatternly gun moll, and -- above all -- the exquisitely tragic Evelyn Mulwray which preceded this role. Alas, with the exception of her roles in "Barfly" and in Kevin Spacey's directorial debut, most of Dunaway's talents have been ignored by gutless Hollywood producers unwilling to give her decent roles in A-pictures.
Alfre Woodard
..Cross Creek....L A Law....Miss Firecracker....Crooklyn....Grand Canyon....Passion Fish...Miss Evers & the Boys....one season of Desperate Housewives...
She's such a chameleon, like any good character player. She's a sweaty backwoods geechee in 1930's Florida; she's a goggle-eyed dressmaker in a Beth Henley screenplay; she's a bitter Brooklyn housewife dying of cancer; she's a neurotic nurse working for a bitchy paralysed actress; and she's currently adding a bit of color (so to speak) on "Desperate Housewives".
Bill Pullman
..Ruthless People....Spaceballs....The Serpent & The Rainbow....Rocket Gibraltar...The Accidental Tourist....Sleepless in Seattle.....While You Were Sleeping....A League of Their Own... .Somersby.....The Last Seduction....Independence Day.....Zero Effect....Mr Wrong....Igby Goes Down....The Grudge.....Revelations.....Nobel Son...
I think he is sexy as all getout, or at least he was between 1986 and 1998. Leonard Maltin has pointed out that despite his obvious charms -- tall, blond, blandly handsome and nicely-built -- Pullman never seems to get the girl. One of those reliable types -- like Jeff Daniels -- for playing dads, husbands, rivals, and the occasional hero. And like Daniels, blessed with the ability to add nuance to these ordinary roles. He was properly stoic as the President in his most famous role, "Independence Day", but he was also endearingly dumb as the would-be blackmailer in "Ruthless". I particularly like him as the baseball player son-in-law of Burt Lancaster in "Gibraltar", William Hurt's lovesick brother-in-law in "Tourist", Meg Ryan's sniffly suitor in "Sleepless" (ahh, alliteration) and the oddball detective Daryl Zero.
Diane Keaton
Sleeper....Love & Death.....Annie Hall....Manhattan....Looking For Mr Goodbar....Reds....Baby Boom.....Radio Days.....The Good Mother....Manhattan Murder Mystery....Father of the Bride....Marvin's Room....The First Wive's Club....Something's Gotta Give....The Family Stone....Surrender Dorothy...
Very pretty, all-American girl who chose not to get naked onstage in "Hair" and chose to star in a half-dozen Woody Allen flicks, most of which typecast her as a ditsy neurotic for many years.
Angela Bassett
The Jackson Family......Malcolm X....Passion Fish....What's Love Got To Do With It?....Strange Days......Contact......How Stella Got Her Groove Back....Sunshine State....Akeelah & The Bee...Toussaint...
Principled actress who looks (to me at least) like a black Joan Crawford and acts like Barbara Stanwyck. She hasn't made a lot of feature films, despite her star-making role as Tina Turner a dozen years ago. She's even passed up projects that she found distasteful, specifically "Monster's Ball" which inexplicably won Halle Berry an Oscar. I like her a lot but I wish she would make more pictures. Plus, she's from St Pete, FL!
Al Pacino
Godfather II....Dog Day Afternoon....Serpico....Scarface...Carlito's Way....Heat....Scent of a Woman...Frankie & Johnny.....Dick Tracy.....Looking For Richard....Donnie Brasco....The Devil's Advocate.....Angels in America.....
Pacino is currently the dean of American film, East Coast division (Jack still rules the West), ever since DeNiro dropped the ball in the mid-80's. He has made his fair share of crap, notably stumbling around "Revolution" with an accent that wouldn't exist until at least a century later. I thought the drug kingpin of "Scarface" was beneath him but the character has developed a cult following over the years. But he just owns so many roles: the loser holdup man in "Dog Day", the gangster in "Godfather II", the wounded lover in "Frankie & Johnny", another sadsack in "Donnie Brasco", and Satan himself in the obvious title as well as his take on Roy Cohn in "Angels".
Johnny Depp
..A Nightmare on Elm Street...Cry-Baby....Edward Scissorhands....Ed Wood....What's Eating Gilbert Grape?....Don Juan De Marco....From Hell....Sleepy Hollow....Pirates of the Caribbean (and two sequels)......Finding Neverland.......Charlie & The Chocolate Factory...
A beautiful boy who gradually became one of the most sought-after leading men of his generation, my favorite role of his remains his interpretation of the worst director of his generation, Ed Wood. He managed to give humanity to a clueless dork, and that ain't easy.
Nicole Kidman
..Flirting....Dead Calm...Far & Away....Billy Bathgate....Far & Away....Moulin Rouge!...Eyes Wide Shut.....The Others.....The Hours....The Human Stain....Stepford Wives...Birth....The Interpreter.....Bewitched....The Visiting...
I've liked this girl pretty much from the beginning; first time she caught my eye was in the thriller "Dead Calm", holding her own up against scenery-chewing Billy Zane & tower of strength Sam Neill. Liked her a lot in "Bathgate" as the gangster's unwilling moll opposite the under-valued Loren Dean. Then she married the moron Cruise and proceeded to wilt in his shadow. Divorce was the best thing to happen to her; three great roles in a row: French chanteuse Satine in "Rouge", the ice Kelly blonde in "Others", and painfully neurotic Virginia Woolf in "Hours". Alas, lately she's been starring in hit or miss projects, including hideously unneccessary remakes of film/TV classics. She -- like Meg Ryan -- has also fallen victim to some quack plastic surgeon's unsteady knife, losing all of her natural delicacy. A pity.
Ed Harris
The Right Stuff....Places In The Heart...A Flash of Green...Sweet Dreams.....Paris Trout....Apollo 13....The Truman Show....The Hours....Pollock....A History of Violence....
Sexiest little runt in the business. Beautiful blue eyes and well-built bod combined with topflight (90% of the time; he can get hammy, as in History) acting skills make him one of The Reliables. Has that all-American kind of allure, just like former leading lady Jessica Lange.
Judy Davis
My Brilliant Career....High Tide...Georgia....A Passage To India....Impromptu.....Margarethe Cammermeyer biopic...Blood and Wine...Gaudi Afternoon...Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows....The Reagans.....Swimming Upstream...The Breakup...Marie Antoinette...
Sharp-faced, sharp-tongued Aussie leading lady incapable of playing frilly pink underthings-types. Has been likened to Bette Davis, albeit with a stronger marriage (23 years, 2 kids with actor Colin Friel) and willingness to do TV from the beginning.
Julie Christie
.Doctor Zhivago...Darling....Far From The Madding Crowd.....Farenheit 451...Shampoo....Don't Look Now....Heaven Can Wait...Demon Seed...Heat & Dust....The Railway Station Man....Afterglow....Hamlet...Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban...Finding Neverland...Away From Her...
'It' Girl of the 60's, sophisticated leading lady in the 70's, kind of lost it in the 80's, came back strong with Railway Station Man & Afterglow, & now a once-in-awhile Reliable. New flick has her playing an Alzheimer's vic, as directed by Sarah Polley.
Sally Field
.Maybe I'll Come Home In The Spring (TV)...Norma Rae...Smokey & The Bandit....Places In The Heart.....Punchline.....Steel Magnolias.....Surrender....Soapdish...Forrest Gump....ER (TV)....Brothers & Sisters (TV)
Apple-cheeked sunshine girl who fought against being taken lightly with excellent performances starting with Norma Rae.