Top 100 Male Actors

1. Robert De Niro:

Considered the best actor of his generation, Robert De Niro has built a durable star career out of his formidable ability to disappear into a character, whether tempering his charisma to become a believable everyman or imbuing his renowned gallery of mobsters and psychopaths with a compelling, frightening authority.

2007 position: #1

Top 10 Performances

1. Raging Bull (1980) - Jake La Motta
De Niro and Scorsese's masterpiece. Though Scorsese suffered a physical breakdown after New York, New York, De Niro convinced his friend that Raging Bull could be the de facto cure, and the pair reworked Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin's initial adaptation of boxer Jake La Motta's autobiography. With Rocky's (1976) producers backing them, Scorsese and De Niro went to creative extremes to do justice to La Motta's capacity for taking a beating in the ring and living brutally outside it, revealing the blood on the ropes and refusing to gloss over Jake's spousal abuse. Along with his notorious 60-pound weight gain that rendered him unrecognizable as the middle-aged Jake, De Niro also trained so intensely for the outstanding fight scenes that La Motta himself averred that De Niro could have boxed professionally. Along with his physical dedication, De Niro won over critics with his ability to humanize La Motta without softening him; though some were put off by La Motta's repugnance, none could deny that Scorsese and De Niro had created an extraordinary biopic and Raging Bull received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. After Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan the day of the Oscars, De Niro attended the re-scheduled ceremony and pointedly noted at the end of his acceptance speech for his richly deserved Best Actor statuette, "I love everybody."

2. Goodfellas (1990) - Jimmy Conway
Returning to the Scorsese fold, playing the cruelly duplicitous Irish mobster Jimmy "The Gent" opposite Ray Liotta's turncoat Henry Hill in the critically lauded Mafia film. De Niro's performance is fantastic, starting off as the effortlessly cool gangster who becomes unpredictable and paranoid. It's a wonderful performance which was perhaps unfairly unnoticed amongst the more showy roles come awards season.

3. The Deer Hunter (1978) - Michael Vronsky
An astonishing portrayal as the enigmatic steelworker-turned-Green Beret in Michael Cimino's stunning film, a compelling central performance that held the film together and brought him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

4. The Godfather Part II (1974) - Vito Corleone
Francis Ford Coppola was impressed enough by Mean Streets to cast De Niro as the young Vito Corleone in the early 1900s portion of The Godfather Pt. II. Closely studying Brando's Oscar-winning performance as Don Corleone in The Godfather, and perfecting his accent for speaking his lines in subtitled Sicilian, De Niro was so effective as the lethally ambitious and lovingly paternal Corleone that he created Oscar history when he took home an acting prize, albeit Best Supporting, for playing Vito.

5. Taxi Driver (1976) - Travis Bickle
After working for two weeks as a Manhattan cabbie and losing weight, De Niro transformed himself into disturbed "God's lonely man" Travis Bickle. An extreme study in urban alienation, De Niro's Vietnam vet Bickle was painfully awkward with people, whether hanging out with fellow cabbie Peter Boyle, disastrously courting Cybill Shepherd, or trying to verbally save Jodie Foster. Once he began preening in front of the mirror with his weapons and issuing his reflection the signature "You talkin' to me?" challenge, however, Bickle became frighteningly alive before descending into the climactic ultra-violent bloodbath. One of the definitive films of the decade, Taxi Driver earned the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, good box office, and several Oscar nominations including Best Picture and De Niro's first nod for Best Actor.

6. Cape Fear (1991) - Max Cady
De Niro worked with Scorsese again in this thriller remake. Sporting a hillbilly accent and pumped-up physique, De Niro's vengeful rapist Max Cady was a terrifying creation, particularly in his quietly creepy seduction scene with Juliette Lewis. It became Scorsese and De Niro's biggest hit together and earned another Oscar nod for the star.

7. Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) - Bruce Pearson
De Niro caught the critics' attention with his completely different performance as a dying, simple-minded catcher in the quiet baseball drama.

8. Mean Streets (1973) - John 'Johnny Boy' Civello
Though he initially didn't want the part, De Niro transformed Johnny Boy into an indelible combination of anarchic energy and violent stupidity, from the moment he blew up a mail box onscreen, through his humorous improvised monologue about Joey Clams to his bloody end. Though Mean Streets failed at the box office, its assured style and superb acting turned Scorsese and De Niro into rising artistic stars.

9. Awakenings (1990) - Leonard Lowe
Earning an Oscar nomination for his touching performance as a coma patient in Penny Marshall's popular drama.

10. Midnight Run (1988) - Jack Walsh
Co-starring as a bounty hunter opposite Charles Grodin's bail-jumping accountant, De Niro finally got to show his lighter side, and the hilarious pair turned Midnight Run into a summer sleeper hit.

2. Al Pacino:

Arguably the greatest and most accomplished actor of his generation, Al Pacino became a cultural icon thanks to revered performances in a wide range of classic films. Coming to prominence during the 1970s – a period commonly regarded as Hollywood’s last Golden Age – he possessed none of the classic features of leading men from Tinseltown’s previous heydays, but nonetheless, enthralled audiences with absorbing performances on screens both large and small, as well as on stage. As a Method actor, Pacino revealed the dark complexities of characters like Frank Serpico, Sonny Wortzik and Colonel Frank Slade. But in life, the actor remained an elusive figure, preferring to avoid disclosing anything of a personal nature. Despite such reluctance to open up about his life, Pacino maintained a long, prominent career in which he accomplished acting’s rarest of feats—winning Oscar, Emmy and Tony awards.

2007 position: #2

Top 5 Performances

1. The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974) - Michael Corleone
Francis Ford Coppola persuaded a skeptical Paramount Studios to accept the actor as the dark and brooding mob boss Michael Corleone. Though Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro won Oscars for portraying Vito Corleone in the compelling original and even better sequel, it was Pacino's Michael that dominated both films, maturing from a cherubic war hero to cold-blooded mobster, who coolly orders executions, including one on his own brother (Cazale). Pacino was the right actor at the right time to play the lonely tyrant – his finely calibrated, dark volatility perfectly embodying the alienation and moral tumult of the decade.

2. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - Sonny
Continuing to establish his tragic, hair-trigger persona in a bravura performance as Sonny, the bungling bisexual bank robber exposed to the glare of the media as he holds hostages in Sidney Lumet's incredible true crime story.

3. Scarface (1983) - Tony Montana
An outrageously menacing performance in Brian DePalma’s remake. Like the film itself, Pacino was deliciously over-the-top, but undeniably potent. Regardless of the negative criticism the film received, it marked another seminal moment in the actor’s long career and later became a cult favourite.

4. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - Ricky Roma
Despite winning the Oscar for Scent of a Woman, Pacino's best performance of this year came in the adaptation of David Mamet's blistering Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Picking up an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Ricky Roma, a hotshot real estate salesman competing with an office occupied by a bunch of down-and-out losers, Pacino was one of many stand-outs in the excellent ensemble.

5. Donnie Brasco (1997) - Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero
An atypical, introspective turn as a low-level gangster in Mike Newell's tremendous story of two men who grow to admire one another. As far removed from Michael Corleone as one can get in the mob food chain, Pacino's world-weary Lefty was tragic and pathetic, but also intensely human and real, inspiring the audience’s understanding and sympathy. The always fine Johnny Depp, in the title role, raised his acting level a notch in keeping with the high standards set by his co-star.

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Full Lists Of Male Actors

1. Robert De Niro
2. Al Pacino
3. Jack Nicholson
4. Paul Newman
5. Robert Duvall
6. Johnny Depp (+ 6)
7. Gene Hackman
8. Philip Seymour Hoffman (+ 27)
9. Dustin Hoffman
10. Michael Caine

11. Meryl Streep
12. Cate Blanchett (+1)
13. Tom Hanks (+2)
14. Liv Ullmann
15. Harrison Ford
16. Morgan Freeman (+7)
17. Daniel Day-Lewis (+24)
18. Russell Crowe (+26)
19. Albert Finney (+7)
20. Julianne Moore

21. Kevin Spacey
22. Emma Thompson
23. Peter O'Toole
24. Olivia de Havilland
25. Kate Winslet
26. Anthony Hopkins (+6)
27. Shirley MacLaine
28. Sidney Poitier
29. Kirk Douglas
30. Diane Keaton

31. Max von Sydow
32. Edward Norton (+4)
33. Judi Dench
34. Denzel Washington (+13)
35. Frances McDormand
36. Billy Bob Thornton
37. Ed Harris (+14)
38. John Hurt (+8)
39. Clint Eastwood
40. Brad Pitt (+14)

41. Ellen Burstyn
42. Julie Christie (+10)
43. Ralph Fiennes (+12)
44. Vanessa Redgrave (+27)
45. Ian McKellen
46. Karl Malden
47. Angela Lansbury
48. Ian Holm (+13)
49. Samuel L. Jackson
50. Jean Simmons

51. Leonardo DiCaprio
52. Chris Cooper
53. Laura Linney (+16)
54. Viggo Mortensen (NEW)
55. Jodie Foster (+22)
56. Tom Cruise
57. Sissy Spacek
58. James Earl Jones
59. Sean Penn
60. Juliette Binoche

61. Tommy Lee Jones (NEW)
62. Robin Williams
63. David Strathairn (+15)
64. Jeff Bridges (+8)
65. Helena Bonham Carter (+25)
66. William Hurt (+33)
67. Sean Connery
68. Maggie Smith
69. Faye Dunaway
70. Ben Kingsley

71. Sigourney Weaver
72. Uma Thurman
73. Don Cheadle
74. Tim Robbins
75. Jon Voight (+10)
76. Benicio Del Toro
77. Alan Arkin
78. Helen Mirren
79. Harvey Keitel (+3)
80. Emily Watson

81. Susan Sarandon (+19)
82. Catherine Keener (NEW)
83. Joan Fontaine
84. Nicole Kidman
85. Woody Allen
86. Jane Fonda
87. Bill Murray
88. Renee Zellweger
89. Bob Hoskins
90. Dennis Hopper

91. Laurence Fishburne
92. Judy Davis
93. Tom Courtenay
94. Gerard Depardieu
95. Liam Neeson
96. Willem Dafoe
97. Isabelle Adjani
98. Michelle Pfeiffer (NEW)
99. Joan Allen (NEW)
100. William H. Macy