Top 5 Hollywood actors of the last 30 years

Top 5 Hollywood actors of the last 30 years

The actors in this list are all brilliant in their own right. It is difficult to sort them in any order. Their combined tally of 10 Academy Awards and 38 Nominations is proof enough of their ability and they are not required to score high in the rankings of people like me. Rankings like these are mostly determined more by personal likings than anything else. But still since we are making a list someone has to come to the top. So here goes:

5. Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman image courtsey: thegoldenyears.org

Dustin Lee Hoffman has the amazing quality of taking on any role and making us believe that he is the guy next door caught in an extraordinary situation. His first major breakthrough came in the movie ‘The graduate’ where he captured the right level of awkwardness of a young man being seduced by the mother of his girlfriend. Hoffman received his first academy nomination for the role. He would go on to receive 7 nominations in his life time of which he has won two, both for Best Actor. He won his first Oscar for playing the role of a single father and for capturing his anguish while going through a custody battle with his estranged wife in Kramer vs Kramer in 1979. The second was in 1988 for playing the role of Tom Cruise’s autistic brother in Rain Man.

His other notable performances included Midnight Cowboys, Lenny, Tootsie, Wag the Dog, and Marathon Man. In most these movies he played the ordinary guy, the underdog whom the audience would be forced to cheer on. Definitely one of the greats.

4. Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks image courtsey: wallpaperbase.com

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks’ graduation from playing goofball characters to playing dramatic characters was sudden and unexpected. But it helped in making him one of the greatest actors in modern era. He has the ability to get into the skin of his characters and give superlative performance. His performance in Castaway is a testament to his brilliance where he acts a major portion of the movie without dialogues. His first major success was with the 1984 romantic comedy Spalsh. But he earned critical as well as box office success with the 1988 movie Big which also gave him his first Oscar nomination. He would go on to get 5 Oscar nominations winning 2 of them.

The role that really made him a heavy weight in Hollywood was that of a gay lawyer suffering from AIDS who sues his former employers for firing him because of his disease in the movie Philadelphia

. Hanks gave a touching performance in it and followed it up with his brilliant portrayal of a simpleton in Forrest Gump the very next year. Both these roles helped him in winning back to back Oscars, a feat that was achieved only once before by Spencer Tracy. His other notable works include Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile and Catch Me If You Can. He is truly a loveable great actor.

3. Al Pacino

Al Pacino image courtsey: poster.net

To me Alfredo James Pacino will forever be Michael Corleone of the Godfather trilogy. If ever an actor is said to have lived a role it is this. Pacino made the role so immortal that you can never think of one without thinking of the other. It also earned him his first Oscar Nomination. It has to be said that the Academy has been slightly unfair to him by giving him the nod only once among 8 nominations. He is also the first actor to have been nominated in two different categories in the same year. He eventually won the Best Actor for his portrayal of a retired blind Lieutenant Colonel in The Scent of a Woman.

Though he is best remembered for giving towering performances in gangster flicks like The Godfather Trilogy and Scarface, it would be unfair to classify him in that genre alone. He has given other versatile performances in Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, …And Justice for All and Glengarry Glen Ross. His portrayal as the devil in the Devil’s Advocate elevated an otherwise ordinary movie to the status of a good movie. His hallmark is his dialogue presentation and the energy that he exudes on the screen.

2. Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro image courtsey: poster.net

Robert Mario DeNiro, Jr gained internal stardom playing the role of Vito Corleone in The Godfather II. It also garnered him his first Oscar. There has always been a lot comparison between him and Pacino. The reason we have rated him higher than Pacino is because of his wider range of roles and its versatility. He was part of one of the most successful actor-director combinations ever with Martin Scorsese by working with him in 8 movies. The duo reeled off one classic after another in their prime which has stood the testament of time.

De Niro’s devotion to acting is legendary. For his Oscar Winning role as boxer Jake LaMotta he put a lot effort into the gaining weight to play the character’s later stages in life and then lost it to play his younger life. Overall De Niro has been nominated by Academy 6 times of which he has got the nod twice. His other notable performances include Taxi Driver, Deer Hunter, Awakenings, Cape Fear, and Good Fellas. De Niro is an actor whose performances stay with you long after you have watched it. His immortal line ‘You Talkin’ to me?’ is proof enough of that.

1. Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson image courtsey: ari.cankaya.edu.tr

Born John Joseph Nicholson is known for his portrayal of larger than life or over the top characters. He is guy that you love to hate but still can’t take your eyes off of when he is one the screen. His greatest asset is that he makes acting look so easy. He has won the Academy Award 3 times and is tied with Walter Brennan for most wins by a male actor. His is also tied with Spencer Tracy for most Academy nominations for a male actor with a tally of 12 nominations. He has been nominated for an Oscar in every decade from 1960.

His is the guy you should run to if you want to see insane and menacing performances. But that is not to say that he doesn’t have the versatility to act in other roles as well. His Chinatown and Terms of Endearment or even As Good As It Gets is proof enough of that. I first saw him in Batman as the joker and was totally blown away by it. Years later I saw his ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ which garnered him his first Oscar and understood why he is considered as one of the best actors of all time. It was further solidified when I saw A Few Good Men where in the final few minutes he transformed an otherwise okay-ish movie into something beyond its level. That is Jack Nicholson an actor in a totally different league from the rest.