Gary Oldman is the greatest actor who has ever lived and its not close

[WrestlingRasta]

Bradley Cooper has played a wide range of characters.  From the snotty prick in Wedding Crashers to the drunken musician in A Star is Born, and a lot in variance in between.  

[mspart]

24 minutes ago, WrestlingRasta said:

Bradley Cooper has played a wide range of characters.  From the snotty prick in Wedding Crashers to the drunken musician in A Star is Born, and a lot in variance in between.  

A racoon too.   How  many actors have done that?

mspart

[mspart]

He was good in Red Riding Hood.   First a nice guy, then a bad guy. 

mspart

[Hammerlock3]

5 hours ago, PortaJohn said:

Solid pick. Hard to argue.  My pick goes to Daniel Day Lewis.  

as alluded to by Vak, DDL is amazing, but if we are talking GOAT, i'm taking away points for his reputation as a method actor, which I think has taken on a life of its own in a similar way to how Tom Cruise doing stunts inflates his reputation, and DDL is also is not nearly as prolific.

[Hammerlock3]

2 hours ago, WrestlingRasta said:

Bradley Cooper has played a wide range of characters.  From the snotty prick in Wedding Crashers to the drunken musician in A Star is Born, and a lot in variance in between.  

he's quite good but he isn't top 20 

[PortaJohn]

4 minutes ago, Hammerlock3 said:

as alluded to by Vak, DDL is amazing, but if we are talking GOAT, i'm taking away points for his reputation as a method actor, which I think has taken on a life of its own in a similar way to how Tom Cruise doing stunts inflates his reputation, and DDL is also is not nearly as prolific.

Are you serious?  Bill the Butcher is one of the most iconic characters in cinema history.  Way more iconic than any character Oldman has played.  DDL also has Lincoln and many consider his role at Daniel Plainview the best acting job in cinema history 

[Hammerlock3]

Just now, PortaJohn said:

Are you serious?  Bill the Butcher is one of the most iconic characters in cinema history.  Way more iconic than any character Oldman has played.  DDL also has Lincoln and many consider his role at Daniel Plainview the best acting job in cinema history 

prolific as I am seeing now mean "producing in large quantities". So Eric Robert is more prolific than DDL and Gary Oldman combined. Do you mean DDL is more prominent? Yes.

[PortaJohn]

Just now, Hammerlock3 said:

prolific as I am seeing now mean "producing in large quantities". So Eric Robert is more prolific than DDL and Gary Oldman combined. Do you mean DDL is more prominent? Yes.

Gotcha, My bad

[Hammerlock3]

1 minute ago, PortaJohn said:

Gotcha, My bad

Also, DDL as Daniel Plainview is probably the second best acting performance ever IMHO. oops sorry i didn't get to the end your post. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Hammerlock3

[PortaJohn]

Just now, Hammerlock3 said:

Also, DDL as Daniel Plainview is probably the second best acting performance ever IMHO.

What's your #1???

[Hammerlock3]

Just now, PortaJohn said:

What's your #1???

Hesitant to say it, because I think its a crappy crappy movie which was rescued by him, but Ledger's joker to me takes it. I know he was in makeup and prosthetics, but I still feel like the transformation was remarkable. I don't even like the "he died for the role" line, I just think he commanded the screen better than anyone ever has. 

[PortaJohn]

4 hours ago, VakAttack said:

It's such a subjective art form.  In general I disagree because he tends to do his absolute best stuff as a supporting role, not as a lead, but obviously to each their own.  I love him in True Romance and the Fifth Element in particular.

I find DDL to a bit pretentious in his performance, but obviously he's highly respected.  

To me, I think DeNiro has the highest highs as a performer and leading man, and can do support roles, also; however, he has consistency issues.  That period from the late 80s thru the late 90s had some huge, huge highs, though.

I enjoy Hanks, but most of his best roles are all riffs on the same general persona.

I'm a big Nicholson fan, so his name deserves a (second) mention.

I think Matt Damon is incredibly underrated and is extremely versatile

 

Subjective is right. Fair point on supporting role but I think it's tricky.  In the De Niro circle they'd tell John Cazale heads and shoulders above was the best.

I like Matt Damon but he's always Matt Damon playing a version of Matt Damon. My favorite role he's done is Stuck on You.  I think his costar in Rounders, Edward Norton, is a level above.  He can really sell a character.  He literally scared me in the flashback scenes in American History X

[PortaJohn]

9 minutes ago, Hammerlock3 said:

Hesitant to say it, because I think its a crappy crappy movie which was rescued by him, but Ledger's joker to me takes it. I know he was in makeup and prosthetics, but I still feel like the transformation was remarkable. I don't even like the "he died for the role" line, I just think he commanded the screen better than anyone ever has. 

Best Joker ever

[Hammerlock3]

16 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

Subjective is right. Fair point on supporting role but I think it's tricky.  In the De Niro circle they'd tell John Cazale heads and shoulders above was the best.

I like Matt Damon but he's always Matt Damon playing a version of Matt Damon. My favorite role he's done is Stuck on You.  I think his costar in Rounders, Edward Norton, is a level above.  He can really sell a character.  He literally scared me in the flashback scenes in American History X

We can have are own GOATs but i personally don't think being mainly a supporting actor hurts oldman.

Hanks, Damon and even dicaprio are great actor who lean into playing nondescript, "everyman" type characters. If they played Drexel (see below if unfamiliar) it would come off like Tom Cruise in the fat suit in tropic thunder, meaning as a goof. Damon was great in Team America though.

Keep in mind Oldman is english.

Edited 16 hours ago by Hammerlock3

[scourge165]

6 hours ago, PortaJohn said:

Are you serious?  Bill the Butcher is one of the most iconic characters in cinema history.  Way more iconic than any character Oldman has played.  DDL also has Lincoln and many consider his role at Daniel Plainview the best acting job in cinema history 

That's just insane. He's...EASILY the greatest actor of this generation.

I don't know why his style of preparing for a role would detract from it, but remember when he tapped his plastic eye with that sharp knife? 

That was a thin layer and he had to train himself to keep his eye open. That's just ONE of dozens of anecdotes that sticks out that adds so much to role.

 

The dude's weird, he's EASILY the greatest actor in history IMO. At LEAST the last 30 years. Has he been in a bad role? 

I don't think you can find a list without DDL near the top if not at the top of greatest actors EVER.

 

Tom Cruise was great... before he just basically took the same role in every movie the last 30 years(A Few Good Men was great for example...though even there, that was just the non-action lawyer role which he then meshed with the firm and then went to over the top action movies...which is fine, but I can't get past the scientology stuff). 

Anyway, he's not in the same group as Daniel Day Lewis. More people have seen Tom Cruise movies, they've been ore successful, though if that's the metric, the sister in the Godfather, Adriana in Rocky would be one of the "top" Female actors of all-time and Harrison Ford would be the "best" Male star of all-time. 

[jross]

DDL is great…

Leo D. and Denzel W…

Often… Clint Eastwood or Mel Gibson.  I’m going to watch the movie…

Not all have oscars and that doesn’t matter.

[jross]

Acting chops… DDL, Norton, Oldman

How about Christian Bale.

[PortaJohn]

7 hours ago, scourge165 said:

Tom Cruise was great... before he just basically took the same role in every movie the last 30 years(A Few Good Men was great for example...though even there, that was just the non-action lawyer role which he then meshed with the firm and then went to over the top action movies...which is fine, but I can't get past the scientology stuff). 

Tom Cruise in Magnolia was amazing.  Should've won an oscar.  

[WrestlingRasta]

14 hours ago, Hammerlock3 said:

he's quite good but he isn't top 20 

Yeah I wasn't trying to make a claim for him being at the top of the list, still a whole bunch of actors on what may be my all time great list above him.  Just in the context of playing versatile roles, he has played some very wide ranging roles and done very well with them.