100 Greatest Performances of All Time

Premiere Magazine just published their list of the 100 Greatest Performance of All Time.

Some thoughts:

When I personally think of the greatest performance of all time, I think of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It's not on the list, and I'd complain about that, but:

8. James Stewart as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. It's kind of a companion piece to Mr. Smith to me, and almost as good, so I'll accept this as compensation. Stewart makes the list once more as well:


30. James Stewart as John "Scottie" Ferguson in Vertigo. But I haven't seen it. Vertigo is very high on my list of movies I am embarrased not to have seen.

90. Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski in The Big Lebowski. The Dude makes the list! You don't know how happy this makes me. I actually think this is way too low. One of the top ten comedic performances of all time.

1. Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia Haven't seen it so I can't comment. In fact, I haven't seen any of the performances from one through six. But I have seen:

7. Dustin Hoffman as "Ratso" Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. Great performance. It almost seems like too small a role to be this high on the list, but definitely deserves to be on the list somewhere. Dustin Hoffman is a favorite actor of mine, and makes it once more:

33. Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie. Entertaining movie, but I think there are other better Hoffman performances, including The Graduate, Papillon, and yes, Rain Man. And the other Hoffman makes it too:

35. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in Capote. Most recent performance on the list, and I haven't seen it.

9. Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. I absolutely LOVE this movie, and I LOVE Gene Wilder in it. But the ninth best performance of all time? Not exactly.

15. Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin in Big. Good call. Much better than his oscar winning performances in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. And also, much better than:

46. Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland in Cast Away. That doesn't deserve to be on the list.

17. Denzel Washington as Malcolm X in Malcolm X. I wholeheartedly agree.

22. Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands in Edward Scissorhands. Again, love the movie, and love the performance. But I think 22 is a little high. And:

79. Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Also a good performance, but I'd put his performance in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on instead.

23. Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider. I wasn't impressed. He deserved to be on the list for A Beautiful Mind instead.

29. Peter Sellers as Chance the Gardener in Being There. Saw it, wasn't impressed.

31. Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray. Maybe a little high, but I generally agree. I don't see how you put this on and leave off Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, or, for that matter, Reese Witherspoon. Actually Reese did make the list:

45. Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick in Election. I have to admit, that was a pretty entertaining performance. The movie as a whole was kind of mediocre to me, but Reese was good.

40. Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone Maretto in To Die For. Am I the only one who doesn't see what was so great about that performance?

41. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. This is a top ten performance for me.

42. Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. De Niro's best performance, could also be a top ten performance for me.

47. Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Yet another potential top ten performance.

48. Bill Murray as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day. Wow. Surprised to see that on the list. But I agree.

53. Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York. Yep, that was a good one.

54. Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story. No one was like Kate. Well, except Cate Blanchett in Aviator.

58. Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens. Different kind of choice, but I approve.

70. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Of course.

73. John Travolta as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. The hair!

74. Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles. Loved it.

81. Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Great, great movie, and great, great performance.

87. John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. Don't care for the movie, or the man.

100. Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange. The movie's great, and McDowell is fine, but I give more credit to Stanley Kubrick than to McDowell.

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