Who is the best "mature" leading actor today

[gcutler]

All the talk about Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption made me think, who else deserves praise for similar aged roles(lets say in the over 50 category).

Gene Hackman has been in sooo many great movies (Crimson Tide is really Hackman and Washington at their best, but Washington is under 50)

Al Pacino, Robert Dinero, Sean Connery?

[jrjcd]

Men:
1.) Sean Connery
2.) Gene Hackman
3.) Robert Duvall
4.) Sean Connery
5.) Anthony Hopkins
6.) Marlon Brando
7.) Clint Eastwood
8.) Morgan Freeman
9.) James Garner
10.) Sean Connery

Women:
1.) Susan Sarandon
2.) Judi Dench
3.) Rosemary Harris
4.) Julie Harris
5.) Barbara Rush(yowza-woo woo)
6.) Lauren Bacall
7.) Janet Leigh
8.) Bibi Andersson
9.) Beverly Garland
10.) Joan Collins

[Richard King]

aged roles(lets say in the over 50 category).HEY WATCH IT!!

[TNGTony]

I agree with JR's list for men. But I think Harrison Ford needs to take the place of one of the Sean Connerys. :)

Is Martin Landau still kicking?

See ya
Tony

[gcutler]

Originally posted by jrjcd

Women:
1.) Susan Sarandon...

THe women are right when they complain about the choice of roles for "mature" women being almost non-existant. Actually I think all the roles available goto Susan Sarandon or Judi Densch.

I'm guessing, but I assume that Gene Hackman (no matter how old he gets) isn't having a very hard time finding movies (I bet he still gets to pick and choose with ease?)

[Mark Holtz]

How about Denzil Washington? Sidney Pointier? Pierce Brosnan? Timothy Dalton? Patrick Stewart? Avery Brooks? Robert Guillaume? Harrison Ford? Bruce Boxleitner? Antonia Banderas? LeVar Burton? Andreas Katsulas? Peter Jurasik?

How about Laurence Fishburne? During a stage performance in NYC, somebody's cell phone rang. He actually stopped the performance and asked the person to turn off the cell phone. The whole audience applauded.

As for Judi Dench..... it's seems that she is a perpetual Oscar nomintee, but never the winner. (sigh)

[gcutler]

Antonio, Denzel and LeVar are under 50 (That is this threads defintion of "Mature"). Laurence fishburn as well I think.

[markh]

I'd have to put Morgan Freeman at the top. I can't think of a movie I haven't liked his performance in.

Gene Hackman has to be up there too, along with Clint Eastwood.

I guess that's why I liked Unforgiven. It was interesting too see those older guys in a movie about men trying to go back and doing things they did (gunfighting) when they were younger. The only problem was that their way of doing things wasn't accepted by society anymore. It also wasn't as much fun as they remembered it either.

[gcutler]

Or Space Cowboys (with Eastwood, Sutherland, Garner and Jones) another example. But of course their "Cowboy" way of doing things vs the "Follow Orders" young guys is what saves the day.

[Atomic Buffalo]

Having recently seen "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Heartbreakers," and having just seen "Heist" last night, I must choose Gene Hackman.

My brother just asked me an interesting question today: has Gene Hackman ever played a guy who's not in charge?

Here's a thought: both Sly and Arnold are over 50.

[Unthinkable]

Originally posted by gcutler


THe women are right when they complain about the choice of roles for "mature" women being almost non-existant. Actually I think all the roles available goto Susan Sarandon or Judi Densch.

I'm guessing, but I assume that Gene Hackman (no matter how old he gets) isn't having a very hard time finding movies (I bet he still gets to pick and choose with ease?)

I don't think I've ever seen a movie with Susan Sarandon yet where she isn't required to break down and cry her eyes out every 20-25 minutes or so.  I think somewhere in her contract she has a clause that stipulates someone in the movie, preferably a close blood relative must pass away from a grave illness like cancer and she must be called on to ball her eyes out for at least a good 1/3 of the movie!

 :lol:  

 

[toomuchtv]

For character strength, be it dramatic or comedic, hero or villain, it has to be Hackman all the way. He certainly gets my vote for vesatility

[Martyva]

whoops--Jean Reno, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and a hole bunch more

[Martyva]

Speaking of wholes how about Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Liam Neeson?

[Martyva]

And the guy who don't like to act Shirley maclain's lil brother?

[Martyva]

Kevin Kline Scott Glenndanny Glover and most of the rest of silverado

[gcutler]

Martyva, if you're not going to contribute names, why bother :p

[Martyva]

does that include Robin Williams, John Cleese and the rest of Monte Python?

[John Walsh]

I would have to say my favorites are

1) Morgan Freeman (he should have owned that first oscar)

2) Gene Hackman (Think of all his movies - even Hoosiers)

3) Sean Connery (can't argue with a man who has a license to kill)

4) Jean Reno (Leon, The Big Blue etc. - Classics)

5) Anthony Hopkins (Such class- even as a serial killer)

6) Robert Dinero (very versatile)

7) Kevin Kline (Life as a House was a stellar performance)

8) Al Pacino

9) Tommy Lee Jones

10) Gabriel Byrne

[Martyva]

Samuel L Jackson "now thats a tasty burger"

[gcutler]

I've never liked Samule L Jackson, much of the time it seems that he isn't acting, but yelling. Especially in "The Negotiatior" opposite J.T. Walsh, and Kevin Spacey you just see the difference in acting quality. I just get the feeling as his lines come up he thinks "Ok, time to act again"..."Ok, stop acting"

[jrjcd]

J.T. Walsh is a wonderful actor that's passed on...

BTW-i replaced one of my "sean connery"s with a "robert duvall"...

[Unthinkable]

Originally posted by John Walsh
I would have to say my favorites are

1) Morgan Freeman (he should have owned that first oscar)

2) Gene Hackman (Think of all his movies - even Hoosiers)

3) Sean Connery (can't argue with a man who has a license to kill)

4) Jean Reno (Leon, The Big Blue etc. - Classics)

5) Anthony Hopkins (Such class- even as a serial killer)

6) Robert Dinero (very versatile)

7) Kevin Kline (Life as a House was a stellar performance)

8) Al Pacino

9) Tommy Lee Jones

10) Gabriel Byrne

I can't honestly disagree with a single choice listed above from 1-9. 10 looks good to me also, but I'd be way tempted to try and sneak Denzel Washington and Kevin Spacey into this list somehow if age discrimination wasn't a determining rule at play.  Denzel's only really *horrible* movie that I saw in the last 12 years would be John Q.  He may have had a few other not so great ones, but generally speaking you can count on consistently good things from him when he's casted.

Spacey managed to do something in K-Pax that few other actors could have pulled off I thought.  I could take just about any random 3-5 minute clip from that movie and watch it and be completely sold on K-Pax being a real planet that I'd like to visit myself and him being the genuine alien being.  I don't think I could say that Mel Gibson sold me on his preacher role in Signs the same way.   

[gcutler]

If we changed it to 40, the choices would be totally skewed. I find that any movie with Kevin Spacey is worth a good look (no matter how much the storyline sounds uninteresting) "Big Kahuna" was very interesting and they all did a great job (but Spacey was king). But "THe Usual Suspects" is such perfection for Spacey, that if he stopped working after that movie, his memory would ba assured

[jrjcd]

even in horrible rubbish like "pay it forward" spacey is good...kinda like brando-i'll watch him in anything and i proved it by seeing that dreadful "island of dr. moreau" he was in

[jrjcd]

also, william devane comes to mind ...

[gcutler]

Originally posted by jrjcd
even in horrible rubbish like "pay it forward" spacey is good...kinda like brando-i'll watch him in anything and i proved it by seeing that dreadful "island of dr. moreau" he was in


I believe Brando was letting "Stuart Little 2" be projected on his Backside for the Widescreen presentations :D He will get a special Oscar for that.


This brings up a question. Many believe that any level of Atristic Genius comes with a large level of insanity (or some form of mental anguish). But is you look at some of my favorite actors of the past 50 years

Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas, Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, they are not known to be unusually crazy (not like the kind of like the crazy of Marlon Brando or Mozart or others...)

[Unthinkable]

Originally posted by gcutler
If we changed it to 40, the choices would be totally skewed. I find that any movie with Kevin Spacey is worth a good look (no matter how much the storyline sounds uninteresting) "Big Kahuna" was very interesting and they all did a great job (but Spacey was king). But "THe Usual Suspects" is such perfection for Spacey, that if he stopped working after that movie, his memory would ba assured

Oh my head.  I just saw The Shipping News tonight for the first time and I was totally blown away by how good he is in that one as well.  There was a rather moving featurette included on the dvd covering all the behind the scenes work that went into bringing his character to life and he mentions how difficult it was to tell the story of R.G. Quoyle when his character is so quiet/reserved/lost so he essentially has to tell his characters story doing a large bit of acting solely through just his facial expressions alone when he reacts to every single endless tragedy that his life offers up.  It is just absolutely amazing how much talent and humor he has in bringing characters to life.  I am starting to think that he has probably forgotten more about acting then most actors will ever hope to aspire to after K-Pax, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty and now this gem.  Couldn't believe that the little girl in this movie was actually played by triplets all the way throughout the movie.  Never would have realized it had I not watched the behind the scenes stuff and even after seeing it you still can't tell the girls apart at all. 

Oh and all the Judy Dench supporters just got my vote tonight as well.  Between this and all her reprised roles as M in the Bond films and Chocolat she is well deserving of such praises.        

 

 

[gcutler]

Dame Judy was really great in "Mrs. Brown" (amongst oh soo many).

[jrjcd]

if there is justice in the world, someone will put up the money to film "the iceman cometh" with spacey as hickey....

he should well be considered on of the greatest actors of this generation....

[Martyva]

Saw Kpax. Still haven't seen a Spacey movie that would qualify him as "great".

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Martyva
Saw Kpax. Still haven't seen a Spacey movie that would qualify him as "great".

What about "The Usual Suspects"??? That classifies him as great IMHO.

Big Kahuna also has him with some great scenes

Glengary-Glenross (if you can handle the language) also has some great scenes with him in them.

American Beauty as well....

[Martyva]

As old as i am, i rate action movies on how soon i fall asleep. i've tried to watch "Usual suspects" several times and have fallen asleep in every case. i'm not saying that Kevin Spacey is not a good ensemble actor, just not a "great" one.

[jrjcd]

it's hard to rate how great (or bad, for that matter) based sorely on his movie resume', because so many hands are in the making of the soup-a good example of this is christopher walkin, who, based on his film work, one would assume he was only good for creepy horror roles(boris karloff suffered the same fate), and it's a shame that most people won't ever see kevin spacey in "the iceman cometh" or walkin in any of his stage roles...

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Martyva
As old as i am, i rate action movies on how soon i fall asleep. i've tried to watch "Usual suspects" several times and have fallen asleep in every case. i'm not saying that Kevin Spacey is not a good ensemble actor, just not a "great" one.

"The Usual Suspects" is sooo much more than "An Action Film". If you can get to the end, the payoff is FANTASTIC. It is one of the few movies where I have said "WOW", and had many many discussions related to the ending. Missing the end of "The Usual Suspects" is kind of like watching "Its a Wonderful life" and turning it off right when George Baily is about to jump into the river. The payoff comes at the end.

If you have to watch it in 3 or 4 sittings of 30 minutes each, it will still be worth it.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by jrjcd
it's hard to rate how great (or bad, for that matter) based sorely on his movie resume', because so many hands are in the making of the soup-a good example of this is christopher walkin, who, based on his film work, one would assume he was only good for creepy horror roles(boris karloff suffered the same fate), and it's a shame that most people won't ever see kevin spacey in "the iceman cometh" or walkin in any of his stage roles...

But I think Kevin Spacey would be happier with his "Typecasting" than Christopher Walkin would be with his. I think Spacey has the advantage of looking like an Average Looking, Average Guy (a guy who would be easily lost in the crowd). Where as Christopher Walken would easily catch the eye of any security guard in the building (I wonder how often his shoes are checked as the airport)

Thinking of "the crazy guy", Spacey's role in "Seven" is also another great example of his abilities. Totally believable as an Alien Visitior, Serial Killer, Nermil the Snitch, Hollywood Cop, etc

[jrjcd]

and to be honest, he's about the only actor i can think of to do lector other than hopkins...