ActorsA self-indulgent look at some of my favourites.
The choices are arbitrary, and mine - but these are the men I'd go out of my way to
see. Some, I chose because I like one role they have done; some because I have
liked many roles they have done; some because I admire their talent and like the
movies they appear in. I have tried not to include actors whom I just find attractive,
but the difference can be invisible, especially when I've chosen them for a certain role.It'll be easy to see the types I like: dark Englishmen with large noses. Why they
should be more talented in general than other men is one of the mysteries of
the universe.
Lewis Collins Links for Lewis Collins: A one-role man? Certainly I choose Lewis Collins for this list because of his performance in the British TV-action show The Professionals. He played Bodie, a tough ex-merc with a goofy charm and a dark soul, a man happiest with a girl or a gun under his arm.
Collins brought more to the role than anyone had a right to expect. He brought a range of humour, strength and sensitivity to what might have been a one- dimensional thug.
Russell Crowe Links for Russell Crow
Yes, it was his role as Maximus in
The Gladiator that made me include Russell Crowe in my list, and don't I love the paradigm of noble, suffering heroes.
But he'd already caught my attention in
L.A. Confidential.
Oded Fehr
I would have been just as happy if the movie had been not The Mummy but Oded Fehr vs Arnold Vosloo.
Ralph Fiennes The Ralph Fiennes Movie Page Links for Russell Crow:
It was seeing The English Patient and A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia that made me a Ralph Fiennes addict. An
actor of intensity and subtlety expression. John Steed? Oh, yes. Heathcliffe? That too.
Hugh Jackman Link for Hugh Jackman
I have always loved Wolverine from the X-Men comic book, and the fear was that they wouldn't find actors good enough for the roles - or that they'd camp it up. They always do, in comic book movies, don't they? Just look at Adam West or George Clooney in Batman. Now, the character (created by Len Wein, developed by John Byrne and Chrs Claremont) is Canadian, and I would have liked to see a Canadian in the role. Failing that, I was gunning for Russell Crowe.
I needn't have worried. The good script combined with Jackman's acting talent to give me the Wolvie I've been waiting for.
Snikt.Pictures
Ewen McGregor I was never much of a Star Wars (despite Han Solo) until Ewen McGregor came along as the cute, dutiful Jedi with the swagger and the sense of humour. (Acting with Liam Neeson did no harm, either.) Follow that with the various other bad-boy roles Ewem McGregor has played... The uncontrolable Curt Wild in Velvet Goldmine being a particular favourite. He was most photogenic in The Pillow Book, with calligraphic writing all over him. Most unpalatable in Trainspotting. Most entertaining in whatever venue.
Ian McKellen I saw him first at Ottawa's National Arts Centre in a one-man show called Playing Shakespeare, in which he discussed and reprised the significant Shakespearean roles of his career. I next saw him in London, England, in the lead role in a produciton of Macbeth. He played it in fascist fashion, dressed in black, intense, frightening and heartbreaking all at once.
I saw him play Richard III in Brooklym, in similar style, but much more evil.
I have seen him in various movie roles, ranging from the disappointing (The Shadow) to the delitghtful (X-Men). I had never thought any living actor could make Magento levitate with dignity and presence, and I was delighted to see McKellen prove me wrong. I particularly loved him as Chauvelin in the Anthony Andrews version of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers It was his role in Velvet Goldmime which made me a fan: it's wide, enigmatic qualities. I didn't like him as Steerpike in Gormenghast, but the fault wasn't his: I just don't like Mervyn Peake's stle.heartbreaking all at once.
In Titus, he was the stuff of nightmares. Meyers online
Liam Neeson I think I have run out of superlatives. Even when I don't like his movies (Rob Roy, for example) I like his roles. My favourite role of his, shamelessly, is Qui-Gon in Star Wars: the Phantom Menace. The fan sites
Keanu Reeves Once in the space of a couple of days, I saw Keanu Reeves in Little Buddha, Much Ado About Nothing, and My Own Private Idaho.
Since The Matrix, my enjoyment of his acting has only grown. I just wish I'd seen him as Hamlet in Winnipeg.Online information about Keanu Reeves
Alan Rickman
It was probably Die Hard that did it, or Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, or Truly, Madly, Deeply, but Alan Rickman is one of those actors who voice and presence could enhance any movie for me.
Martin Shaw Once upon a time there was tough, sarcy, sexy Ray Doyle in The Professionals.. Then there were such vagaries such as Zax of Facelift (if you haven't seen it, be proud), Don DeMarco in Ladder of Swords (which was actually quite interesting), Griffin in Cassidy (an Australian mini-series that was, in my opinion, at its best when he was on screen), and Peter Balliol - a Member of Parliament with no scruples whatsoever. There were the roles even I thought were poor:, because unliekable Rhodes in Rhodes, Scott of the Antarctic in the show of the same name.
And then came some of his best roles:Alan Cade in The Chief, and Chauvelin (see above) - the best role in the otherwise lacklustre version of The Scarlet Pimpernel which starred Richard E. Grant.
Samuel WeLord Edrington in Horatio Hornblower: the best of English aristocracy, with a cool wit and a red coat.
West
Then there was Archie Bunting from "Over There", whre war and laughter were combined.
Patrick Stewart It was Sejanus in I, Claudius that I remembered when the rest of that series was mostly forgotten.
Then it was Jean-Luc Picard who took up home in my head, quite happily, for all those years of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
And he was perfect as Charles Xavier in the X-Men movie(Professor X).
A Patrick Stewart
Tritbute Page
Peter Wingfield
In Highlander he was the oldest of the Immortals, a 5,000-year-old perpetual student who once had been Death of the Four Horsemen. He was in Cold Squad and Noah's Ark and is now in Queen of Swords, but I long for the day Peter Wingfield gets a really good movie or series of his own.
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