The Ten: Best Actors of All Time Relay

Nostra from the very entertaining blog myfilmviews.com started a great series/blogathon called "The Ten: Best Actors of All Time Relay". The idea is

 I’ve created a list of what I think are the best actors. At the end I, just like in a real relay race, hand over the baton to another blogger who will write his own post. The blogger will have to remove one actor (that is an obligation) and add his own choice and describe why he/she did this. At the end the blogger chooses another blogger to do the same. The idea is to make this a long race, so that each blogger gets a chance to remove and add an actor. We will end up with a list (not ranked in order) which represents a common agreement of the best actors.

The Previous Entries:

• My Film Views
• The Focused Filmographer
• Front Room Cinema
• I Love That Film
• FlixChatter
• All Eyes On Screen
• Time Well Spent
• The Warning Sign
• moviesandsongs365
• And So It Begins…
• cinematic corner.
• Andy Buckle’s Film Emporium
• Duke and the Movies
• Southern Vision
• Defiant Success
• Cinematic Paradox
• Encore Entertainment
• Okinawa Assault
• Amiresque
• Flickers 

The actors

Humphrey Bogart

Marlon Brando

Daniel-Day Lewis

Robert De Niro

Ralph Fiennes

Paul Newman

Jack Nicholson

Richard Burton

Peter Sellers

Jeff Bridges

After mulling over the top ten, I have decided to remove Peter Sellers just for the slightly embarrassing reason of not seeing a lot of his work. 


OUT                                                                           

When I was asked to add my pick, I had 4 or 5 choices that stuck into my head for a couple of days: Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Viggo Mortensen. I settled on one- I may change my mind and decide I was wrong, but it would be too late by then. So I have decided to go with 


IN                                                 

Gary Oldman is my choice for one simple reason: DIVERSITY. The man has been everything from Sid Vicious (Sid and Nancy-1986), to an Irish American Gangster (State of Grace- 1990), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), to Dracula (1992) and had the part of the dreaded villain more than once in his lifetime (Leon, The Fifth Element, Air Force One). Now he is known and loved for portraying universally loved characters such as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film series, James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, and George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). Only one Oscar nomination under his belt, but I think you all agree that it is too little for this man. Diversity for me is one of the crucial things that an actor should have in order to survive and stand out from the rest of the film world and I believe Gary Oldman proves it in the roles he chooses. Oh, and he is damn fine at what he does. If he weren't, he wouldn't be here, right? 

I hope you agree! I'm always rooting for the underdog, so here is one for your list :)

I now officially pass the torch to the lovely Ruth from "...let's be splendid about this"