Greatest actors of all time

Marlon Brando▲ Rising

He mumbled and slouched his way through 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'On the Waterfront' and in doing so blew up the mannered, theatrical style of acting that came before him, replacing it with something raw, internal, and dangerous. Then he came back two decades later as Vito Corleone, cotton-stuffed cheeks and all, and proved the revolution had staying power. Every actor on this list is working in a house Brando built.

Known for: The GodfatherActing Oscars: 2

added by IJR

Daniel Day-Lewis▲ Rising

He built an oil derrick and drank Plainview's milkshake with a menace so total that 'There Will Be Blood' feels less like a performance than a possession, and he did it after learning to skin animals and live off-grid for 'The Last of the Mohicans.' Three Best Actor Oscars and a near-mythic commitment to total immersion — he disappears so completely you forget an actor is even in there. No one else on this list has a stranger, more monastic relationship to the craft, and none has fewer misses.

Known for: There Will Be BloodActing Oscars: 3

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Robert De Niro▲ Rising

He gained sixty pounds to play Jake LaMotta's washed-up years in 'Raging Bull' and spent months learning to box for the earlier ones, the kind of preparation that turned 'method' into a household word. Pair that with Vito Corleone, Travis Bickle's twitchy paranoia, and Max Cady's leering menace, and you have a run through the '70s and '80s that's arguably unmatched for sheer range and intensity. He later became a punchline for coasting through comedies, but the peak was so towering it barely dents the case.

Known for: Raging BullActing Oscars: 2

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Jack Nicholson▲ Rising

That grin — sly, dangerous, permanently amused at everyone else's expense — powered him through 'Chinatown,' 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' and 'The Shining,' three totally different registers of charisma and menace. He won three Oscars while somehow always seeming to be having more fun than anyone else in the room, turning counterculture cool into old-guard institution. Nobody made intelligence look this much like danger.

Known for: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestActing Oscars: 3

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Al Pacino

He went from quiet menace as Michael Corleone — the slow-burn transformation from reluctant son to ice-cold don — to full-throttle, hoo-ah theatrical fireworks in later years, and somehow both modes are canonical. 'Dog Day Afternoon' and 'Serpico' showcase a coiled, live-wire intensity that defined New Hollywood's anti-hero era. The volume got turned up over the decades, but the early work is some of the most controlled, devastating acting ever put on film.

Known for: The GodfatherActing Oscars: 1

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Denzel Washington

He turned Alonzo Harris in 'Training Day' into one of cinema's great villains, all swagger and rot beneath the badge, after decades of being Hollywood's most reliable embodiment of moral gravity in films like 'Malcolm X' and 'Glory.' He carries movies with sheer command of presence — the way he says a line does half the directing for you. The rare actor who's both a movie star and a serious actor at the same time, and has been for forty years.

Known for: Training DayActing Oscars: 2

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Anthony Hopkins▼ Falling

Sixteen minutes of screen time in 'The Silence of the Lambs' was all he needed to make Hannibal Lecter one of the most terrifying and quotable characters ever put on film, and it won him the Oscar almost on principle. He's spent a career oscillating between that kind of icy control and wounded, buttoned-up vulnerability, as in 'The Remains of the Day.' Few actors have done so much with so little wasted motion.

Known for: The Silence of the LambsActing Oscars: 2

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Tom Hanks▼ Falling

He made decency and ordinary-guy warmth into a kind of movie star superpower, whether marooned on an island talking to a volleyball in 'Cast Away' or wasting away with quiet grace in 'Philadelphia.' Forrest Gump turned him into America's default embodiment of goodness, a title he's never really relinquished. He's the counterargument to the idea that great acting requires darkness — sometimes it just requires total, unguarded sincerity.

Known for: Forrest GumpActing Oscars: 2

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Leonardo DiCaprio▼ Falling

From teen heartthrob drowning in 'Titanic' to the obsessive, snarling intensity of 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and the frontier suffering of 'The Revenant' (raw bison liver and all, finally landing the Oscar), he's spent three decades restlessly avoiding typecasting. His Scorsese collaborations alone — Gatsby, Howard Hughes, Jordan Belfort — form a master class in charismatic self-destruction. Still the most bankable actor of his generation who also chases serious work relentlessly.

Known for: The RevenantActing Oscars: 1

added by IJRin 2 rankings

Paul Newman▼ Falling

Those blue eyes and that effortless cool made him a movie star, but 'Cool Hand Luke' and 'The Hustler' showed the ache and stubborn defiance underneath the charm, the rebel who keeps getting knocked down and keeps standing back up. He waited decades for a competitive Oscar, finally winning for reprising Fast Eddie in 'The Color of Money.' A gold standard for how to be both a leading man and an actual actor without ever seeming to try too hard.

Known for: The HustlerActing Oscars: 1

added by IJR