Who Played the Most Iconic Movie Characters?

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The discussion centers around iconic movie characters and the actors who portrayed them, with notable mentions including Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone and F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri in "Amadeus." Participants highlight the depth of human emotion captured in performances, such as Jack Nicholson's role in "A Few Good Men" and Kathy Bates in "Misery." The conversation also touches on the challenge of forgetting an actor's real-life persona to fully appreciate their character, with examples like Morgan Freeman in "Shawshank Redemption" and Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman." The debate extends to the merits of comedic versus dramatic acting, emphasizing the skill required in both genres. Overall, the thread showcases a rich appreciation for memorable performances across various films.
  • #51
marlon said:
I disagree...he'd do a terrific job at it. It would probably be a manifestation of comic acting that we have not yet seen.
He tried it. in "The Freshman," he spoofed his role in the Godfather. Not real memorable. He also did comedy in Guys and Dolls. I thought he was pretty good in that.

He is one of my favorite actors. His performance in The Godfather was excellent.
 
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  • #52
Has anyone mentioned Benecio Del Toro in Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas?
 
  • #53
marlon said:
the people you mentioned here are indeed true geniuses.

Okay, how about Brando as Mr. Bean? :smile: Now there's one that never occurred to me before!
 
  • #54
I'm sticking with the 'best character' bit, regardless of who acted it. Not because Donald Sutherland is a Canuk, I loved the Oddball character in "Kelly's Heroes". Also Wolverine in the X-men (despite Hugh Jackman being a lot taller, younger, and leaner than the comic book version, he absolutely nailed the role).
As for the females, I think that Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz', Scarlett O'Hara, Blanche from 'A Streetcar Named Desire', and Virginia Woolfe are all pretty much in the legendary classics category.
 
  • #55
Ivan Seeking said:
Okay, how about Brando as Mr. Bean? :smile: Now there's one that never occurred to me before!


yeah man, you are so funny

:rolleyes:

i am laughing my ass off here

:zzz:

marlon
 
  • #56
Danger said:
I'm sticking with the 'best character' bit, regardless of who acted it. Not because Donald Sutherland is a Canuk, I loved the Oddball character in "Kelly's Heroes". Also Wolverine in the X-men (despite Hugh Jackman being a lot taller, younger, and leaner than the comic book version, he absolutely nailed the role).
As for the females, I think that Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz', Scarlett O'Hara, Blanche from 'A Streetcar Named Desire', and Virginia Woolfe are all pretty much in the legendary classics category.

i once saw a movie where Sutherland played alongside Sean Connery...I believe it was on the Ronnie-Biggs train robbery or something. I do not recall the name , though

marlon
 
  • #57
I want to defend Leslie Nielsen for his great comic performance in Airplane, a well as the original Naked Gun TV series.

At the time, and I was there, Airplane was a revolutionary comedy. No one had taken dead pan humor so far,and Leslie Nielsen did it better in that film than most of the others.

The Naked Gun TV series was canceled because the dead pan humor went completely over the heads of the average TV viewer. Joe Average just couldn't follow the sight-gags going on in the background while Nielsen played it straight in the forground, That was just plain sad.

In the subsequent Naked Gun movies Nielsen deliberately (and perhaps maliciously) dumbed his performance down, and started affecting the scenery-chewing mannerisms and mugging whereby dull-witted people are alerted to the fact what they are watching is a comedy.
 
  • #58
  • #59
Jean Reno-Leon
Ingrid Bergman-Casablanca
Monica Bellucci-Malena(I know she's not a good actress)
*s - PF movie
 
  • #60
Those characters are quite "out-of-date",
Movies can be shared via the p2p, if you like you can use filesharing sustems to download good new movies. Ads are noisy stuff in those sharng systems I know, but it is not what you really want to get.

Sharing systems are also good in that it is hard to realize who's who when the number of users increases considerably...
 
  • #61
If only the TV show scrubs was counted in this thread...about MOVIE characters... :*(
 
  • #63
Emieno said:
Those characters are quite "out-of-date",
Movies can be shared via the p2p, if you like you can use filesharing sustems to download good new movies. Ads are noisy stuff in those sharng systems I know, but it is not what you really want to get.

Sharing systems are also good in that it is hard to realize who's who when the number of users increases considerably...
No need, I record all of thrilling movies via my sky TV. I'll watch them back when I have time.
About movie characters, Sarah Michelle Geiler (spell?) is my favorite actress.
 
  • #64
Samanthakrjx said:
, Sarah Michelle Geiler (spell?) is my favorite actress.
Then give me Jennifer Love Hewit in i know what you did last summer, with the blue top, mmm, great acting too o:)

marlon
 
  • #65
Samanthakrjx said:
No need, I record all of thrilling movies via my sky TV. I'll watch them back when I have time.
About movie characters, Sarah Michelle Geiler (spell?) is my favorite actress.
Ah.. yes. the original Kendall
 
  • #66
How did you guys know so many?
 
  • #67
Persefone said:
How did you guys know so many?

we all followed extensive movie-courses while being in college.

marlon
 
  • #68
Gene Hackman in... EVERYTHING! But especially The Conversation, The French Connections, The Royal Tenenbaums and... EVERYTHING!
 
  • #69
Mustn't forget Dr. Strangelove.
 
  • #70
Darth Vader! Didnt think much of anakin though.
 
  • #71
Tom hanks in forest gump. After that every time i see tom hanks i still think "idiot".

If u want to see cheesy a$$ acting , Taiwanese dramas and soaps.
 
  • #72
After keeping silent and trying to check for awhile, i am trully trying my best to figure out who is the best actrees I love but unfortunately no one comes up in my head. :sad:
 
  • #73
Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind is definitely at the top of my list!
 
  • #74
Reese Witherspoon in Freeway - That should be a shocker. :smile:

Actually, she was very good in that movie - definitely a change in character (except she made it way before Legally Blonde). Freeway also had another interesting actress in Amanda Plummer (always an interesting character in a movie even if not very versatile).
 
  • #75
infinitetime said:
Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind is definitely at the top of my list!

very true

marlon
 
  • #76
John Wayne - Quiet Man
Maureen O'Hara - Quiet Man
Donald Sutherland - The Eye of the Needle
Sonia Bragga(sp) - anything where she seduces anyone in the 80's
 
  • #77
Airplane sure is a funny movie. I am watching it right now.
Good old leslie neilson

"Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?... have you been to a gymnasium?... do you like movies about gladiators?... have you ever been inside a turkish prison?"

Funny stuff.

edit: whoops! wrong actor, I was thinking of the captain!


As for greatest movie characters though. Rain man is definitely up there. Basically anything dustin hoffman is good.
 
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  • #78
Robert Duvall as Captain Kilgore in Apocalypse Now

Ian McKellen as James Whale in Gods and Monsters

Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate

Montgomery Clift as Robert E. Lee Prewitt in From Here to Eternity

R. Lee Ermey as the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket

George C. Scott as Patton in Patton

Daniel Day Lewis as Bill "the Butcher" Cutter in Gangs of New York

Denzel Washington as Private Trip in Glory

Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List

Charles Bronson as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West

And, of course, the most memorable film character ever . . .

James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader


(in case you didn't notice, I'm heavily biased toward war films)
 
  • #79
One more..

Robert De Niro in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as Frankenstein. (not the scientist, the monster)
 
  • #80
It's funny, because I think the single greatest living actor, Gary Oldman, has never created one of the great screen characters.

The reason I count him as the greatest is because he is a consumate chameleon: virtually unrecognizable from one role to the next. He is a real actor.

He was Mason Verger in Hannibal, Dracula, in Brahm Stoker's Dracula, he was in The Fifth Element, he was Dr, Smith in the movie Lost In Space, he played Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and he was fantastic as a dirty cop in Romeo Is Bleeding, to name some. Somehow he hasn't been matched up with the breakthrough role that would make him a household name.
 
  • #81
Jamie Foxx in Ray, hands down
 
  • #82
This is a very little-known Canuk movie, but well worth checking out. Based in BC, released in 1990, 'Chaindance' deals with a prisoner who is assigned as caregiver to cerebral palsey victim, to whom he is handcuffed. Michael Ironside is the prisoner, and is as good and powerful in that role as in any other. The stand-out, though, is an absolutely stunning performance by Brad Dourif as Johnny Reynolds, the CP victim with a serious attitude problem.
 
  • #83
Gregory Peck, in To Kill A Mockingbird.
 
  • #84
Billy Bob Thornton, in Slingblade.
 
  • #85
zoobyshoe said:
It's funny, because I think the single greatest living actor, Gary Oldman, has never created one of the great screen characters.

The reason I count him as the greatest is because he is a consumate chameleon: virtually unrecognizable from one role to the next. He is a real actor.

He was Mason Verger in Hannibal, Dracula, in Brahm Stoker's Dracula, he was in The Fifth Element, he was Dr, Smith in the movie Lost In Space, he played Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and he was fantastic as a dirty cop in Romeo Is Bleeding, to name some. Somehow he hasn't been matched up with the breakthrough role that would make him a household name.

I see your point about him being a chameleon, but I think he did create one if not "great" screen character, one that was memorable (if disturbing) for me, and that was his role as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols in "Sid and Nancy." I also thought his characterization was really strong in another disturbing film, "State of Grace," where he played a messed up Irish gangster.
 
  • #86
marlon said:
Les, how do you feel abut the Salieri-role of FM Abraham ? I would love to hear your opinion on that.

Sorry, I missed this earlier. I thought Abraham did an excellent job. I also really enjoyed the creative angst writers gave the Salieri character where he was so undone by having his technically correct approach surpassed by Mozart who just would listen or look at his score and say "doesn't quite work does it?"
 
  • #87
One of my favorite Harvey Keitel characters was in a little known movie called "The Duelists." Based on a true story set during the Napoleonic period, Keitel does a great job of portraying an arrogant French officer obsessed with his "honor" (read: ego). The photography is beautiful, shot on location in France. But the duels are so realistic you cringe during them. One reviewer wrote:

"This is an authentic impression of the Napoleonic period, and centers around a meaningless but life-long feud between two French officers, portrayed by Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine. The swordplay is so real, that when Keitel stabs Carradine in the shoulder with the point of his sword, in one scene, Carradine just drops to the floor and goes into shock. What a relief, there’s no quadruple-super-duper-pirouette…or wires that whisk him away-just what happens in reality: if you get stabbed in the shoulder, you drop."


Speaking of great duels (and characterizations) how about Liam Neeson in "Rob Roy." There were good bouts throughout. The best was with Tim Roth, who was awesomely despicable, which helped make the fight at end even more gripping. Jessica Lange had a great performance too I thought.
 
  • #88
Well, now I'm wound up thinking about relatively little known films great actors were in.

Everybody knows Christopher Walken has played some interesting characters not the least of which was the nearly-psychotic Russian roulette player in "Deer Hunter." After that he seemed to specialize in creepy roles.

A role he played that chilled me to the bone was based on a true story "At Close Range." He is a professional and murderous thief who let's his two sons, played by Sean and Chris Penn, join his crew. Check out reviews around the web if you haven't seen this movie, everyone raves about it and can't understand why it was overlooked. The music was good too, with Madonna's "Live to Tell" adding the perfect eerie atmosphere to the tragic events.

Here's a short review from Amazon:

"One of the overlooked films of the 1980s, perhaps because it is such a downbeat tale of an amoral family. Sean Penn plays a kid whose small-time criminal impulses are stoked to a new level when he falls in with his father (Christopher Walken), a vicious career criminal for whom no problem is so large that it can't be solved by a murder. At first exhilarated by the attention from his father (and the jobs he gives him to do), he gradually catches on to just what a bad guy Dad really is. But when he tries to extricate himself, he discovers that Dad now has him squarely in his sights. Penn is terrific in a role of emotional complexity, while Walken, king of the creeps, is positively frightening as this soft-spoken but highly lethal patriarch."
 
  • #89
Les Sleeth said:
I see your point about him being a chameleon, but I think he did create one if not "great" screen character, one that was memorable (if disturbing) for me, and that was his role as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols in "Sid and Nancy."
I haven't seen this movie, but all I have to know is that it was Gary Oldman to believe it was an intense and convincing performance.
I also thought his characterization was really strong in another disturbing film, "State of Grace," where he played a messed up Irish gangster.
Again, I haven't seen it, but now I have two listings for the next Gary Oldman Film Festival I hold, here at the zoobie brush shelter.

Producing a Great Screen Character is, I believe, ultimately outside any individual's control, and boils down to a lucky confluence of actor with role, supported by great directing, good screenplay, proper cinematography, creative score, and above all, excellent editing.
 
  • #90
"Fox Mulder, Fbi!"
 
  • #91
Ivan Seeking said:
Okay, how about Brando as Mr. Bean? :smile: Now there's one that never occurred to me before!
That would be challenging. Actually, I can't see anyone to Mr. Bean, but Atkinson. :biggrin:



For drama - Henry Fonda and Kathryn Hepburne in "On Golden Pond" - very touching movie.

How about Burt Lancaster as Paul Labiche in "The Train" (1964) or as Robert Stroud in "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962)?

Alec Guinness did play Obi Wan Kenobe in the first Star Wars movie. He played a British colonel in "Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), and William Holden played an American officer. Excellent movie.

James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" (1954).
 
  • #92
Margaret Hamilton: The Wicked Witch of the West, in the Wizard of Oz.
 
  • #93
all of these great people and nobody mentioned danger in the PF movie?! that was a great part!
 
  • #94
yomamma said:
all of these great people and nobody mentioned danger in the PF movie?! that was a great part!

what are you talking about ?

marlon
 
  • #95
I take it Jeff Bridges playing The Dude, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing, has already been mentioned?
 
  • #96
yomamma said:
danger in the PF movie?!


Yes,I've mentioned but with *s! but I want to choose another person for my movie.I already have story for my film! :wink:
 
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