Suppose the title says it all.

Name of Actor - Name of Movie

Naomi Watts - 21 Grams

Tim Robbins - Mystic River

[EDIT] Also, if you could find a decent quality of their acting on that specific movie on youtube  :) [EDIT]

Male

Ben Kingsley - House of sand and fog

Female

Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist

Hmm, one from each gender,
OK, this is going to date me just a tad, but here goes.

Ruth Gordon - Harold & Maude

Stacy Keach - The Ninth Configuration

E.D.

I'll do you one better (worse?), Brett!

Gene Tierney -- Leave Her to Heaven

Robert Mitchum -- Night of the Hunter

Easy...

Trevor St John... Everything he's ever done.  

Notably:

"dog town" < Young in this one, 27 probably, but it shows the seedy, go nowhere side of small towns and their inhabitants like no other movie.  Very depressing flick, but very real.  John Favre turns in a helluva performance as the main antagonist, but pales in comparison to Trevor St. Johns lead.

"the art of getting over it" <  If you are lucky enough to see this film you won't ever forget it.  His performance is of pure brilliance.  His emotions and pain run vastly deep and literally pour off the screen... A "bad guy" in a sense, but with this huge double sided sword you carry for him for all he's been through.  The most powerful movie I've seen since Magnolia <my favorite movie of all time.  No other movie has left a bigger impact on me.

More over his work on Oltl was above and beyond the talent of his coworkers.   His portal of Todd Manning/Victor Lord Jr will go in the books when all is said and done -- which is coming up in January sadly.

Man, am I in the wrong field! Of all these movies listed, the only one I've seen is the Exorcist. I've heard of 2 of the others selected, and the rest I have no clue whatsoever. So I guess I'll stay out of this game, but I'll check in for the education. Maybe I'll come across some of these films.  

Daniel Day Lewis - My Left Foot
Michael Fassbender - Hunger

Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers. The only actor in history to make birthday cake and ice cream disturbing and poignant at the same time.

Naomi Watts - 21 grams

SPOILERS**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ecBlfUzZA
SPOILERS**

Tim Robbins - Mystic River

SPOILERS**

SPOILERS**

Loving all of these posts guys.

Robert Shaw - Jaws

Matthew Broderick is great in Glory too. These are my 2 favorite films so I'm a little biased...

going to have to think about this one for a bit, but here are some honorable mentions...

Sam Rockwell- Moon

Nicolas Cage - Matchstick Men

Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad (yeah, I know, we're talking about movies, but I can't NOT point this one out)

Quoted from leitskev Man, am I in the wrong field! Of all these movies listed, the only one I've seen is the Exorcist. I've heard of 2 of the others selected, and the rest I have no clue whatsoever. So I guess I'll stay out of this game, but I'll check in for the education. Maybe I'll come across some of these films.

Kev,

You've gotta see Harold and Maude, which Brett mentioned.  One of the strangest and funniest and happiest movies you'll ever see.

Ruth Gordon did give an excellent performance in that film. Harold and Maude is my favourite Christmas movie.   I think it has just the right emotion for the holiday.  Anyway, that's probably just me.

I believe that the better an acting performance is the less you notice it in a film.  Judging just by that the best actor today is Meryl Streep because she just seems to become part of the film (at least in most of the earlier movies she's done).  Laurence Olivier also had this ability but he's dead now.  

However, here's some other performances that were fantastic.

Truman Capote/Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote
Michael Dorsey/Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie
Malcolm X/Denzel Washington in Malcolm X

There's lots of them. I could go on but I won't.

Meryl Streep is probably the best actress alive today. She's awesome.

Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter is unbeatable!

And then there's Harold and Maude!

At least I have heard of it. I was never a huge fan of movies. Since I started writing a year ago I am more interested, but I spend most of my free time either writing or reading scripts. I should make a point to watch one classic a week. Like homework.

Kevin, I know the feeling! I don't have the best knowledge of film but hopefully this will improve. I'll look out for those posted here.

One performance I remember being impressed with was Charlize Theron in monster. Part of this must lie in the low expectations I had when the film started, which helped turn it into a pleasant surprise. Every time I have high expectations of a film there are rarely met, which may be unfair.

If we had a thread for the worst I recall a certain film, Hope Floats, with Sandra Bullock, that left me amazed at how poor it was, especially the ending.

A couple of weeks ago, I was channel surfing one morning, and there was a Betty Davis movie on. I really have seen only a few films from the black and white era, but obviously I've heard of Betty Davis, so I stopped to watch for a bit, curious. I can't recall the name of the film, but it took place in the ante-bellum South, on a plantation of course. I have to say, I really could see what the fuss was all about. She had this really strange and unique intensity about her. She was fragile and crazy and powerful and unpredictable all at the same time. It was like she sucked in all of the surrounding energy from other people and then radiated it. Very intense, and very hard to take your eye off her. Definitely one of a kind.

I've already said my film knowledge is too limited to choose greatest performances, but I will mention one not probably discussed much: Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. He does a great job of portraying the idea that until they break you, you're still free, even if you are in prison. Escape doesn't matter as much as the idea of escape, and though it's about prison, that applies to just about anyone in their own life. Newman does it with few words in this performance, but in his eyes you see a man who refuses to be broken, and clings to that instinct with every fiber of his life.

That, and he wins an egg eating contest!

It still floors me she was 75 when Harold & Maude went into production.
Even out of context, this scene wells up so many emotions for me.



And this scene from Ninth Configuration still gets me today.
Keach's transformation on the screen is truly chilling.
Even moreso when in the context of the subdued performance he gives in the film.