And the Best Actor in a Motion Picture...

Throughout my many years as a movie fan, I have been so focused on the films themselves - the stories, that I have very rarely thought about my favourite actors, or if I even had any. More recently, I've given some thought to the question, and I suppose there are actors - and by "actors", I include actresses - that I've looked upon as extraordinary in their craft. I might look at a movie based solely on the fact that so-and-so stars in it. But that sort of mindset isn't really the way I approach films, though, so I think I might simply be drawn to a picture, and if, say, Bill Murray is in it, I'll be more likely to give it a look.

Bill Murray rocked as the oddball Steve Zissou

So I have a starting point. Bill Murray. I remember watching the quirky actor's earliest movies Meatballs, and Where the Buffalo Roam... and then his string of 80's comedy hits, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, and Scrooged. Murray's (usually) warm, if off-beat, sense of humour always appealed to me, and he carried that very natural approach to pretty much every film he did, from Groundhog Day and Rushmore to Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and Moonrise Kingdom. Funny how just about everything he touches becomes a hit, or at least an under-appreciated cult classic.

I'll stick with the comedy genre as I rhyme off some more faves: John Cleese (need I say more? From the Monty Python films to A Fish Called Wanda and beyond... a genuinely funny fellow); Jimmy Stewart (who also turned in fine dramatic roles in Winchester '73, Rear Window and Vertigo.... but his likable, self-effacing style in comedies like Harvey, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Bell, Book and Candle were what first attracted me to his work); Jerry Lewis (I grew up on his Martin and Lewis movies, and loved his early solo films, including The Nutty Professor and The Delicate Delinquent); Jim Carrey (duh! Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber were benchmark goofball flicks); Steve Martin (The Jerk, and Trains, Planes and Automobiles... his earliest movies were his best); Leslie Nielsen (Airplane! and The Naked Gun movies... pure gold!); early Woody Allen (Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Bananas... all among his best); Mark Wahlberg (excellent in both drama - Boogie Nights, Three Kings, and The Departed, but impressed me more in laugh-ins like Rockstar and Ted); and finally one of the greatest comedic actors of all time, Peter Sellers (The Party, The Pink Panther films, and Dr. Strangelove, just to name a few from his huge body of work). 

I have long enjoyed great action and adventure movies, so a whole bunch of old-timers come to mind.... John Wayne (the Duke did westerns, war pictures, and more); Sean Connery (Bond, anyone? But there's more...); Gregory Peck (known best for his dramatic talents in To Kill a Mockingbird, he also served as a "man's man" in The Guns of Navarone and Pork Chop Hill); Humphrey Bogart (classic Hollywood tough guy who did Casablanca, and In a Lonely Place); and moving into more recent decades, there's Arnold Schwarzenegger (redefining the action hero in roles such as Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, and Commando.... and so many more). Oh, and I mustn't forget Mr. Clint Eastwood, best known for his many revisionist westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, Pale Rider), yet I gravitate more toward his Dirty Harry shoot-em-ups. 

Tough as nails Gregory Peck in The Guns of Navarone

The horror and suspense thriller genre has entertained me more than any other during my life as a fan of the cinema. So it's no surprise that Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Basil Rathbone, and Vincent Price are among my faves. Especially Karloff, who made the Frankenstein monster the important pop culture icon that he is today. 

I've already mentioned many actors who've done work across many film genres, yet were often associated with a certain type of movie... like Clint to westerns, Bogart to crime dramas, and Arnold to sci-fi. Some others who fall less easily into particular categories are: Orson Welles, Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, Maureen O'Hara, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Costner, Tom Selleck (more than just TV's Magnum P.I.), Ryan Gosling, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Fassbender, Joaquin Phoenix, Natalie Portman (and I am not talking about her Star Wars gig), Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Goldblum, Gene Tierney, Claude Rains, Ingrid Bergman, Roy Scheider (not just a great shark hunter), Marisa Tomei, Amy Adams, Nicole Kidman, and Chloe Grace Moretz. 

An eerie study in duality: Natalie Portman in Black Swan

I'm sure I've forgotten someone... wait, I sound like an actor onstage, giving his or her acceptance speech. But it is something like that. Paying a little tribute and thanks to all the late great thespians who entertained me and those living, who continue to do so.