Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

This isn’t an easy piece to write for many reasons… Firstly, there are hundreds of thousands of actors working in Hollywood today. Granted, major studios tend to pick casts from a list of about 50 names (Unless they’re working on a Tarantino picture. I wouldn’t be surprised if that guy considered raising actors from the dead in a voodoo ritual if he thought they would be a good accompaniment to Samuel L Jackson in his next big role… Robert Forster for Christ’s sake!) and that is split up into age groups so casting crews have an even easier job. Despite this list, I have to think about MY favourite actors from the thousands of movies I’ve seen, be it a working legend like Robert De Niro or the forgotten action hero Michael Beihn.

So, I gotta come up with 5 names, 5 actors that can almost instantly make me enjoy a film just by the merit of them being in it. I guess I’ll have to start with the easy ones. These are the ones that came into my head without any hesitation. Well, there’s only one of them.

I feel that this man is the most versatile actor of this, or any, time. He has played it all; A drug-dealing wannabe rasta, a crooked DEA agent, a deranged football hooligan, an exiled wizard, a hugely disfigured, wheelchair bound psychopath bent on revenge and even Jean Baptiste Emanuel Zorg – A futuristic corporate fat cat with an evil streak and a creepy southern accent. Hell, the guy even played Dracula! (albeit in one of my least favourite adaptations of the story. *Screw you Keanu Reeves!!!!*) I’m speaking, of course about England’s best export, Mr. Gary Oldman.

Born in New Cross in 1958, Gary Oldman’s movie career spans the late half of his life and includes some of my all-time favourite movies such as Leon and True Romance. He plays a villain better than almost any other actor working today and his roles as such villains are always played with an intensity and twist that only Oldman could bring to them. That said, he has played some good guys and done it very well indeed. He plays Sgt./Lt. James Gordon in the only good Batman movie since Michael Keaton sweat his ass off in the rubber suit; Batman Begins. He’s never seen an Oscar but has won many awards and has been nominated for many more. Oddly, the work he gained most awards for was a film that he wasn’t even in. Nil By Mouth (1997) was Oldman’s first and only outing as a writer and director but it more than proved him capable, winning a BAFTA and 8 other awards. It was also nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes in 1997 where Kathy Burke won Best Actress for her role in the movie. There’s no denying Nil By Mouth is a great, powerful film, but it’s Oldman’s acting that has got him a place in my top 5, a place I see him staying in for the foreseeable future.

My next actor is, in my eyes, the finest black actor in Hollywood. I might be swayed a little by the fact that he shared the lead in my favourite movie of all time; The Shawshank Redemption, but his other roles, I feel, make him a worthy addition to my list. Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis in 1937 but his movie career didn’t start until nearly 30 years later with his first cameo role in 1964. I feel, however his career has only come into it’s own in the last 20 or so years. Aging seems to have brought out Freeman’s best talents as an actor landing him roles as wiser, older men in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Se7en. The man’s voice is worth mentioning too, his recent work as narrator in War of the Worlds and March of the Penguins is a testament to this. Unlike Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman has seen an Oscar and as well as winning one for his supporting role in Million Dollar Baby, he’s been nominated for 3 others. At 70, I doubt his film career will go on for much longer although IMDB has him down as working on a whopping 7 current projects including the sequel to Batman Begins; The Dark Knight.

Next up, one of the younger guys. Although I feel that this actor is just as versatile as Gary Oldman, he didn’t spring to mind right away. This is probably because he hasn’t been in that many movies, especially in comparison. I don’t know why my list seems to have a Batman Begins theme running through it (or is it that Batman Begins has a ‘great actors’ theme?) but that continues here with the actor who played the movie’s eponymous hero.

Born in Wales in 1974, Christian Bale started work in TV in 1986. What he did there must have made an impression, however, because the next year saw Stephen Spielberg cast him in the lead role in the stunning Empire of the Sun, a film nominated for 6 Oscars, not bad for a 13 year old kid. The next few years held some lower profile work as well as voice acting in Disney’s Pocahontas. His career seems to take an abrupt incline after the year 2000 when he was cast as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, a film which I loved but only received mixed reviews. Over the past 7 years his most notable performances are in The Machinist, a role for which Bale shed nearly half his body-weight in an unprecedented crash diet, Harsh Times, the fantastic but slightly depressing crime drama and of course Batman Begins. These three roles are hugely different and truly define what makes Christian Bale such a great actor.

My next choice is an odd one. He’s gotten a lot of critical acclaim recently but if you look down his filmography (with the odd exception) it’s hard to see why. He’s been involved in some real stinkers. Something about him, however, always makes me want to continue watching. He’s likable and seems to act emotions better than 99% of actors out there. Paul Giamatti was born in Connecticut in 1967 but wasn’t seen in an acting role until 1990. One performance sums it up for me though. American Splendor (2003) is one of the most bizarre, yet well thought out movies I’ve ever seen. It’s original mixture of fiction and pseudo-reality makes it impossible to get bored. In this movie Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar, a man who turns his boring every day life into a hit comic book. One ting remains true for Paul Giamatti, even if the film turns out to be bad, his performance in it is always memorable.

My fifth and final actor was chosen from a group of actors in the same league, mainly because I only recently re-discovered his early work and loved it. This actor is probably most famous for his role in arguably the greatest mafia story of all time; The Godfather trilogy. What a way to start a career.

Al Pacino was born in New York in 1940 and made his first appearance in 1986. 4 years later he made cinema history as Michael Corleone in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, a movie that won 3 Oscars and 19 other awards. This was shortly followed by The Godfather part II in 1974. Thought of as one of the very few sequels to out-do it’s original winning 6 Oscars and another 7 awards, it was the first ever sequel to win Best Picture. The very next year Pacino starred in one of my all time favourite movies, Dog Day Afternoon. This true story of a New York bank robbery turned media circus shows off Pacino’s acting talent at it’s very best and a lot of modern films are clearly influenced by Dog Day Afternoon. His career after this is uniformly busy, with some hits and some misses. Most notable appearances are in Donnie Brasco, Heat and Scent of a Woman but other, less acclaimed performances are still well above par. Sadly, Pacino joins Morgan Freeman as an actor approaching the end of his career. Still, I look forward to his future work.

So there, my 5 favourite actors. Something I will probably get asked is “Why haven’t you included Robert De Niro?” and to that I reply, I know he’s a great actor and so do you. Empire readers voted him the Greatest Actor of All Time a few years back so they know as well. The man has so many Oscars I hear he uses them as doorstops and even had one converted into a toilet plunger. I didn’t include him in this list because he seems like a bit of a given. Like, it goes without saying that he’s a great actor so i won’t bother saying it again.

Another question will probably be; “Okay, so who are your 5 least favourite actors?” Well, that’s for another time all together, but I bet it’ll be easier to write than this.

So who nearly made the top five? Well among the ones who were considered are Kevin Spacey, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Ian McKellen, John Hurt, William H. Macy and William Hurt. All fantastic actors and worth a definite mention but the ones I did choose all seemed to have an effect on me that none of the others had. I think back to all of my five’s movies and a smile comes across my face. I remember why I love cinema so much, and why everyone should.