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Which Actor Has Had The Best Career Ever?

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Jarlaxle

Member
I'd have to say Tom Hanks probably although there are a fair number of good choices here. I was just watching "Big" again yesterday and remembered how much I enjoy Tom Hanks and most of his movies.
 

Jenov

Member
Tom Cruise. Still going strong and starring as leading man in actions movies that could go to actors half his age.
 
I'm gonna say Sam Rockwell. Dude has been in movies big and small, probably made decent bank (not LEADING STAR money, but probably more than I ever will), gets to keep a level of anonymity, and goes home to Leslie Bibb.

I'd take it.
 

megamerican

Member
Clint Eastwood. Iconic actor that became an iconic director. He had very few missteps and more than a few legitimately great movies both in front of and behind the camera.
 

jmdajr

Member
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Christopher Lee. He was THE MAN for 7 decades.

Yeah. That was pretty fucking good!
 

ReAxion

Member
The lady from the Twilight Zone ep I saw last night. Walked right into the film and lived forever with all her friends.
 

Speevy

Banned
Christopher Lee was so badass that he invented a way to keep himself from dying just so he could do those stupid Hobbit movies.
 

gogosox82

Member
Samuel L Jackson
Denzel Washington
Daniel Day Lewis
Meryl Streep
Cate Blanchett
Julianne Moore

All of them have had fantastic careers.
 

Farsi

Member
Hanks
Nicholson
Streep
Blanchett

Dicaprio has my favorite filmography resume. Since 2002 he's been consistent with his movie choices. Besides 1 or 2 bad apples, all of them were good to great.
 
John Cazale

Five films, all classics.

who..? i swear i've never heard of him. what five films?

Al Pacino.

Dude was Michael Corleone, Scarface, and Serpico.

i know Pacino of course but.. who, who and who? should i know those characters?

i guess i should watch some American cinema. i just think it's mostly worthless tripe so i haven't paid much attention for decades. i'm honestly too busy catching up on some of the Croatian (and Serbian, to an extent) existential policron-dramas from the 60s/70s. way too many i've missed.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
John Cazale: Every movie he's ever been in Nominated for Best Picture.

Daniel Day Lewis: Because he's Daniel Day Lewis.

Christopher Lee: Was a Jedi, a Wizard, Dracula, Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, Another Count (that makes 3) and a rock star. Might have lived the greatest life ever
 
I'll go with John Wayne. He's played a variety of roles and worked with a handful of classic directors and all that, but what makes him stand out from everyone else is that to this day he is synonymous with Westerns when noone else can make a similar claim about any another genre.

Leo might end up topping everyone by the time his career is up. He has worked with Cameron, Iñárritu, Nolan, Tarantino, Eastwood, Spielberg, Boyle, and is Scorsese's go to guy. Nearly everything he puts out is money in the bank and he's just slightly over 40.

Daniel Day Lewis might possibly be the best actor of modern times, but I don't associate "best actor" with "best career".
 

luso

Member
From European cinema I can now only remember Jean-Louis Trintignant,Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren, their careers spans more than 6 decades.
 
Keanu Reeves. He is immortal and while he appears to have virtually no actual acting ability, he or his agent pick the movies that are absolutely perfect for his... style.

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I haven't seen anyone mention Christian Bale yet. He's been in many excellent films, won an oscar, and he IS Batman.

Ben Affleck and Leonardo Dicaprio are also excellent.
 
Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford.

And me Orson Welles until I died after Transformers, but I'm back spiritually to speak with you on GAF. You're witnessing my true digital form.
 

The Boat

Member
Probably Schwarzenegger.

He wanted to be a bodybuilder, so he went and did it.
He wanted to be an actor, so he went and did it.
He wanted to be a politician, so he went and did it.

Dude is just a string of "I want to go do this" and then fucking went out and did it.
He also did his housekeeper.
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
Jack Nicholson, Olivia de Havilland, Laurence Olivier, Di Caprio...list is very long and can't pick one, it's too varied
 
Career-wise, Toshiro Mifune

Although De Niro 73-90 is legendary (outside of no angels with penn)

1973 Mean Streets
1974 The Godfather Part II
1976 Taxi Driver
1976 1900
1976 The Last Tycoon
1977 New York, New York
1978 The Deer Hunter
1980 Raging Bull
1981 True Confessions
1983 The King of Comedy
1984 Once Upon a Time in America
1984 Falling in Love
1985 Brazil
1986 The Mission
1987 Angel Heart
1987 The Untouchables
1988 Midnight Run
1989 Jacknife
1989 We're No Angels
1990 Stanley & Iris
1990 Goodfellas

Between 90-97 he also made great movies but some duds in there.
 
What sucks is Pacino and DeNiro's careers nosediving around late 90's and early 00's and never quite recovering again. They were in a weird patch where they were pushing 50's but couldn't star as leading men anymore, and the roles for older leading men was not really there (still isn't). Their swansong is Heat. DeNiro's career picked up slightly afterwards as he veered into the comedic territory and Pacino had a blip in Insomnia and in Oceans 13 ten years later, but never went to become successful again.
 

120v

Member
Tom cruise has done spectacularly well considering everything from his personal life along with aging should've consigned him to direct-to-DVD status by now
 
Nina Hartley

She's an RN, author, speaker, director, and worth over 2 million.

She's also starred in 938 porn films over the past 40 years.
 
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