100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time

	100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time
	by Premiere Magazine
#	Character Name	Played By	Film Title	The Performance
1	T.E. Lawrence	Peter O'Toole	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)	An unfathomable, desert leader legend, alternatingly self-confident, querulous, deeply wounded, or frighteningly vengeful.
2	Terry Malloy	Marlon Brando	On the Waterfront (1954)	A callow young boxer, a dumb and innocent pawn, who leads a defiant crusade as a stoic iconoclast.
3	Sophie Zawistowski	Meryl Streep	Sophie's Choice (1982)	An Auschwitz inmate faced with pure horror - and then a survivor's torment and guilt.
4	Sonny Wortzik	Al Pacino	Dog Day Afternoon (1975)	A strutting, raw, nervously inept bank robber who steals money to pay for his boyfriend's sex-change operation.
5	Margo Channing	Bette Davis	All About Eve (1950)	An aging, threatened grand dame/diva of the theater.
6	George M. Cohan	James Cagney	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	An exuberant and dazzling song-and-dance performer and 'grand old man'.
7	"Ratso" Rizzo	Dustin Hoffman	Midnight Cowboy (1969)	A persevering, slumping, filthy, sweaty, rodent-like tubercular street hustler.
8	George Bailey	James Stewart	It's a Wonderful Life (1946)	An Everyman whose dreams slowly fade as his responsibilities preclude his ambitions.
9	Frederick Frankenstein	Gene Wilder	Young Frankenstein (1974)	A poor, doomed and frantic lunatic doctor - both sophisticated and childish.
10	Jake La Motta	Robert De Niro	Raging Bull (1980)	A blunt, ferocious, sinewy boxer and puffy-faced, overweight entertainer in his later years.
11	Christy Brown	Daniel Day-Lewis	My Left Foot (1989)	A lusty, complicated, and brilliant writer afflicted with cerebral palsy.
12	"Badass" Buddusky	Jack Nicholson	The Last Detail (1973)	A rebellious, steely-eyed, anti-authoritarian, combustible Navy man transporting a hapless young grunt (Randy Quaid) to prison.
13	Eleanor of Aquitaine	Katharine Hepburn	The Lion in Winter (1968)	A crafty, scheming and manipulative 12th-century queen.
14	Mac Sledge	Robert Duvall	Tender Mercies (1983)	A broken-down, ex-country music legend who finds redemption in the love of a widow and her young son.
15	Josh Baskin	Tom Hanks	Big (1988)	A young teenage-boy whose dream comes true to be 'big' when he is morphed into the body of a toy-company executive.
16	T.R. Devlin	Cary Grant	Notorious (1946)	A cruel and pained government agent who subtly assaults the character of a socialite (Ingrid Bergman) that he eventually rescues.
17	Malcolm X	Denzel Washington	Malcolm X (1992)	A multi-faceted role: a smooth and ruthless Harlem hustler, a firebrand black nationalist and leading minister in the Nation of Islam, and a contemplative, controlled and convincing leader.
18	Bess McNeill	Emily Watson	Breaking the Waves (1996)	An expressive, beguiling, wide-eyed, simple-minded woman who believes that her sexual degradation will save her paralyzed husband's life.
19	Frank Galvin	Paul Newman	The Verdict (1982)	A world-weary alcoholic, ambulance-chasing lawyer who redeems himself by exposing the truth in a medical malpractice suit.
20	Michael Corleone	Al Pacino	The Godfather, Part II (1974)	A holl0w-eyed, evil, and dark successor to the role of gangster Don.
21	Cabiria	Giulietta Masina	Nights of Cabiria (1957)	A tough-as-nails, yet very human heart-of-gold hooker.
22	Edward Scissorhands	Johnny Depp	Edward Scissorhands (1990)	A shy, sad, and innocent freak-newcomer to a town.
23	Jeffrey Wigand	Russell Crowe	The Insider (1999)	A stressed-out, distrustful, paunchy, fifty-something tobacco executive-turned-whistleblower.
24	Fred C. Dobbs	Humphrey Bogart	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)	An anxiously-desperate, paranoid gold-lusting prospector.
25	Ninotchka	Greta Garbo	Ninotchka (1939)	A severe yet earthy Soviet envoy who falls in love with a French count.
26	Joan of Arc	Maria Falconetti	The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)	A wide-eyed, saintly martyr who suffers tri
27	Paul	Marlon Brando	Last Tango in Paris (1972)	A grieving, toxic-raging widower involved with an anonymous lover.
28	Hildy Johnson	Rosalind Russell	His Girl Friday (1940)	A retiring, whip-smart journalist wishing to get married, with razor-sharp, sparkling wit.
29	Chance the Gardener	Peter Sellers	Being There (1979)	An, innocent, illiterate fool-sage gardener with pure and simple (and misinterpreted) observations about caring for plants.
30	John "Scottie" Ferguson	James Stewart	Vertigo (1958)	An obsessed, mourning fetishist only interested in dressing up a woman in the likeness of his dead, platinum-tressed lover.
31	Ray Charles	Jamie Foxx	Ray (2004)	An R&B legend and unique voice in pop music.
32	Holly Golightly	Audrey Hepburn	Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)	A regal, ditzy, coy and beguiling New York City call girl.
33	Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels	Dustin Hoffman	Tootsie (1982)	A frustrated cross-dressing New York actor transformed into a wispy-voiced steel magnolia.
34	Johnny Gray	Buster Keaton	The General (1927)	A stunt-performing train engineer who must save his two loves, his sweetheart and his locomotive.
35	Truman Capote	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Capote (2005)	A vain and self-loathing gadfly writer who ends up in catatonic despair.
36	Evelyn Cross Mulwray	Faye Dunaway	Chinatown (1974)	A damaged, world-weary, and innocent femme fatale.
37	Harry Caul	Gene Hackman	The Conversation (1974)	A quiet, repressed, and intensely private expert wiretapper with a guilty conscience.
38	Maria Tura	Carole Lombard	To Be or Not to Be (1942)	A beguiling, ravishing wife of a Warsaw acting couple that resists the Nazis.
39	Richard III	Laurence Olivier	Richard III (1955)	A sinister and murderous king.
40	Suzanne Stone	Nicole Kidman	To Die For (1995)	A sexy, and sometimes cool, aspiring anchorwoman.
41	Jules Winnfield	Samuel L. Jackson	Pulp Fiction (1994)	A modern-day, chattering hitman/gangster who engages in Biblical gunplay.
42	Travis Bickle	Robert De Niro	Taxi Driver (1975)	An intensely violent loner intent on cleaning up New York's streets.
43	Jim Stark	James Dean	Rebel Without a Cause (1955)	An anguished teenager pained by his parents ("You're tearing me apart").
44	Tramp	Charlie Chaplin	City Lights (1931)	An iconic, desperately poor and compassionate Tramp infatuated with a poor, blind flower girl, and friends with a suicidal, alcoholic millionaire.
45	Tracy Flick	Reese Witherspoon	Election (1999)	An anal-retentive go-getter determined to win a student council election with the slogan "Pick Flick".
46	Chuck Noland	Tom Hanks	Cast Away (2000)	A desperate island castaway forced to communicate with a volleyball.
47	Randle Patrick McMurphy	Jack Nicholson	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	A mischievous, low-level, misfit asylum inmate who fakes his mental illness.
48	Phil Connors	Bill Murray	Groundhog Day (1993)	A sarcastic, misanthropic weatherman reliving the same day in the same small town many times.
49	Elisabet Vogler	Liv Ullmann	Persona (1966)	A stage star who suddenly stops speaking.
50	Sam Spade	Humphrey Bogart	The Maltese Falcon (1941)	A wise-cracking, tough-acting, seedy detective.
51	Tom Joad	Henry Fonda	The Grapes of Wrath (1940)	An ex-con Everyman forced on the Okie migration to California during the Great Depression.
52	Miss Kenton	Emma Thompson	Remains of the Day (1993)	A dutiful and gracefully-defiant head housekeeper of a 1930s English manor, involved with an emotion-smothering model butler.
53	Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting	Daniel Day-Lewis	Gangs of New York (2002)	A murderous, boisterous, angry-eyed, passionate, and self-rightous overlord.
54	Tracy Lord	Katharine Hepburn	The Philadelphia Story (1940)	A regal rich girl with a radiant, mischievous, sexy, and ebullient spirit.
55	Virgil Tibbs	Sidney Poitier	In the Heat of the Night (1967)	A Philadelphia homicide detective embroiled in a murder case in the Deep South with a redneck police chief.
56	Sarah Tobias	Jodie Foster	The Accused (1988)	A multi-faceted gang-rape victim with a sharp tongue and shady reputation.
57	Lasse Karlsson	Max Von Sydow	Pelle the Conqueror (1987)	A Swedish widower who emigrated to Denmark with his beloved young son.
58	Ellen Ripley	Sigourney Weaver	Aliens (1986)	A tough, buffed, bad-ass mama facing the otherworldly alien with assertive girl power.
59	Severine Serizy	Catherine Deneuve	Belle de Jour (1967, Fr.)	An icily timid, haute-bourgeois wife with bizarre masochistic dreams who works afternoons at a brothel.
60	Annie Hall	Diane Keaton	Annie Hall (1977)	A ditzy, loopy, nervous, complicated and intelligent woman.
61	Amon Goeth	Ralph Fiennes	Schindler's List (1993)	A depraved, driven and restless Nazi concentration camp commandant.
62	Sid Vicious	Gary Oldman	Sid & Nancy (1986)	A desperate, overdosing punk rock band member.
63	Mabel Longhetti	Gena Rowlands	A Woman Under the Influence (1974)	A eager-to-please housewife slowly going crazy.
64	'Fast' Eddie Felson	Paul Newman	The Hustler (1961)	A cocky, perennially-losing pool shark.
65	Jerry/Daphne	Jack Lemmon	Some Like It Hot (1959)	A grouchy Chicago bass player transformed into a Miami party girl dressed in comical drag.
66	Jane Craig	Holly Hunter	Broadcast News (1987)	An effervescent, complicated, and neurotic TV news producer.
67	Henry Drummond	Spencer Tracy	Inherit the Wind (1960)	A gruff, persuasive lawyer with leonine scowls who exposes the inanity and hatred behind a new law forbidding the teaching of evolution.
68	Dr. David Huxley	Cary Grant	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	A strait-laced, bumbling paleontologist who stammers, cringes, walks into doors, bumps heads, sings with a dog, slips on an olive, dons a negligee, etc.
69	Norma Desmond	Gloria Swanson	Sunset Boulevard (1950)	A washed-up, monomaniacal silent-film diva.
70	Hannibal Lecter	Anthony Hopkins	The Silence of the Lambs (1991)	A brilliant psychiatrist/serial killer with a taste for human flesh.
71	Karen Silkwood	Meryl Streep	Silkwood (1983)	A suffering Texan whistle-blower at an unsafe nuclear plant.
72	Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester	Judy Garland	A Star Is Born (1954)	A vulnerable club singer with a fabulous voice and twitchy lips.
73	Tony Manero	John Travolta	Saturday Night Fever (1977)	A strutting, cocky, narcissistic, intoxicating disco dancer.
74	Lili Von Shtupp	Madeline Kahn	Blazing Saddles (1974)	A slatternly, speech-impaired Germanic bar performer, billed as the "Teutonic Titwillow".
75	Diana Scott	Julie Christie	Darling (1965)	A mercurial, spoiled, manipulative model/actress anti-heroine.
76	J.J. Hunsecker	Burt Lancaster	Sweet Smell of Success (1957)	An all-powerful, cruel gossip columnist wh
77	Leo Smalls, Jr. (aka Fast Black)	Morgan Freeman	Street Smart (1987)	An alternatingly smooth and menacingly sinister New York pimp.
78	Sanjuro Kuwabatake	Toshiro Mifune	Yojimbo (1961)	An out-of-work samurai offering his services to a crime-war-ridden town.
79	Captain Jack Sparrow	Johnny Depp	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)	An outrageous, redefined pirate character with gold-capped teeth and mascara.
80	Catherine	Jeanne Moreau	Jules and Jim (1962)	An attention-craving woman involved in a menage a trois with French-born Jim (Henri Serre) and Austrian Jules (Oskar Werner).
81	Clementine Kruczynski	Kate Winslet	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)	A rainbow-haired, impulsive, motor-mouthed bohemian who erased her boyfriend's (Jim Carrey) memory.
82	General George S. Patton, Jr.	George C. Scott	Patton (1970)	A gruff-voiced, regal military genius and ego-driven eccentric.
83	Brandon Teena	Hilary Swank	Boys Don't Cry (1999)	A real-life Nebraska woman determined to be a man, leading to her violent and tragic death.
84	Lilly Dillon	Anjelica Huston	The Grifters (1990)	A cool, aging grifter who murders her son (John Cusack).
85	Frances Farmer	Jessica Lange	Frances (1982)	A vulnerable starlet on the verge of insanity.
86	Bruno Anthony	Robert Walker	Strangers on a Train (1951)	A seductive and evil psychopath who trades murders with a tennis player (Farley Granger) that he met on a train.
87	Ethan Edwards	John Wayne	The Searchers (1956)	A stoic, rugged, ex-Confederate anti-hero on a vengeful search for his Comanche-kidnapped niece.
88	Nick Chevotarevich	Christopher Walken	The Deer Hunter (1978)	A gaunt, hollow-eyed war casualty forced to play Russian Roulette in Saigon.
89	Juxian	Gong Li	Farewell, My Concubine (1993)	A scheming, manipulative courtesan involved in a love triangle with her gay husband and his 'stage brother'.
90	Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski	Jeff Bridges	The Big Lebowski (1998)	The Dude, His Dudeness, El Duderino, a full-time slacker, bowler, and roach-smoker.
91	Bree Daniels	Jane Fonda	Klute (1971)	A non-stereotypical hooker with an emotional heart.
92	'Dirty' Harry	Clint Eastwood	Dirty Harry (1971)	A cool, bigoted cop who tortures suspects.
93	Mildred Pierce	Joan Crawford	Mildred Pierce (1945)	A self-possessed, hard-working single mother devoted to winning her obnoxious daughter Veda's love.
94	Hans Beckert	Peter Lorre	M (1931)	A compulsive serial child murderer/predator with bulging eyes and whiny, nasal voice who whistles the Peer Gynt Suite.
95	Tina Turner	Angela Bassett	What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)	A vulnerable pop diva who triumphs over adversity, and brutal domestic abuse.
96	Billie Dawn	Judy Holliday	Born Yesterday (1950)	A bubble-headed chorus girl in search of culture, with the voice of Betty Boop.
97	Don Logan	Ben Kingsley	Sexy Beast (2001)	A sadistic, violent, sociopathic gangster.
98	Phyllis Dietrichson	Barbara Stanwyck	Double Indemnity (1944)	A hard-boiled killer and femme fatale.
99	Navin Johnson	Steve Martin	The Jerk (1979)	"I was born a poor black child..."
100	Alex De Large	Malcolm McDowell	A Clockwork Orange (1971)	A self-aggrandizing, sadistic rapist and hooligan, for whom McDowell suffered various forms of torture for the performance (near drowning, scratched corneas, etc.).