And to round out my list...
Obiwan's Top 10 Favorite Perfomances of All-Time:
10. Tom Hulce--Mozart in "Amadeus" (Historical hiccups aside, THIS is what I imagined Mozart to be, it's such a perfect matchup...and that LAUGH...!)
9. Heath Ledger--The Joker in "The Dark Knight" (What? No pop-culture figures? Why so serious?)
8. Kate Winslet--Ophelia in "Hamlet (1996)" (She's here for taking what's probably one of if not the hardest tragic Shakespeare heroine--excluding Lady Macbeth, as she's not exactly "heroic," is she?--and giving a rare performance, namely, one that's more than jsut the customary sighs and sobs and suicide...she feels like a real person, not just a plot device for the men to play around with)
7. Ian McKellan--"Richard III (1995)" (So great even Olivier shall not pass him!)
6. Clint Eastwood--The Man With No Name in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" (I'd argue Best Western Performance Ever here)
5. Groucho Marx--Rufus T. Firefly in "Duck Soup" ("Not that I care, but where is your husband?" "Why, he's dead." "I'll be he's just using that as an excuse." "I was with him 'til the very end!" "No wonder he passed away." "I held him in my arms...and kissed him!" "Ah, I see, then it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money--answer the second question first.")
4. Audrey Hepburn/Julie Andrews--Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady" (Hepburn for the film version, Andrews for the stage version...both were great, both get the slot here)
3. Marlon Brando--Don Corleone in "The Godfather" (You CANNOT refuse this...)
2. Kenneth Branagh--Hamlet in "Hamlet (1996)" (THIS is what I think of when I think of Hamlet!)
1. F. Murray Abraham--Salieri in "Amadeus" (GO...WATCH HIM...NOW)
And an Honorary Placement for Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard; no movie role--not even "First Contact" was strong enough to place him in there alone, but between the films and TV series, he earns a spot here.