Bud Cort

Ten best roles: 10) The Secret Like of Sigmund Freud 9) Ted and Venus 8) The Big Empty 7) Brain Dead 6) But I’m a Cheerleader 5) Love Letters 4) Brewster McCloud 3) She Dances Alone 2) Why Shoot the Teacher 1) Harold and Maude

Percentile rating: 83.89

Peak Period: 1970 – 1983

Neighborhood: David Arquette, Maria Bello, Julie Hagarty, Carol Kane, Matthieu Kassovitz, Robert Loggia

Ruth Gordon

Ten best roles: 10) Any Which Way You Can 9) Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice 8) Action in the North Atlantic 7) Boardwalk 6) Abe Lincoln in Illinois 5) Where’s Poppa 4) My Bodyguard 3) Dr Erlich’s Magic Bullet 2) Rosemary’s Baby 1) Harold and Maude

Percentile rating: 88.33

Peak Period: 1968 – 1979

Neighborhood: Penelope Cruz, Andre Dussollier, Aaron Eckhart, Brendan Fraser, Tom Hulce, Sergi Lopez

Best ten roles: 10) The Rockateer 9) Mary Queen of Scots 8) Looney Tunes Back in Action 7) Wuthering Heights 6) Agatha 5) Hot Fuzz 4) The Lion in Winter 3) The Living Daylights 2) The King’s Whore 1) Antony and Cleopatra

Percentile rating: 77.96

Peak period: 1970 – 1990

Neighborhood: Pierre Curzi, Dana Delaney, Vincent Gallo, John Getz, Ernie Hudson, Shia LeBeouf

Little troll-like dude, showed up in a handful of 80’s movies as a sort of generic bum. You may know him from UHF (see pic), but his parts’ so small there it doesn’t even register under this system. Nor does much of anything else, frankly. He’s been gone 18 years. I don’t know why my friend Jaybird requested him, but here goes (almost literally) nothing.

His only two significant roles: 2) Track 29 1) Mother Goose Rock n Rhyme

Percentile rating: 8.84

Peak period: 1988 – 1990

Neighborhood: Aaron Ashmore, Garcelle Beauvais, Rini Bell, Duane Boutte, Paget Brewster, Julie Gonzalo

Brolin’s been on quite a hot streak between No Country, W, Grindhouse, and Milk, and someone requested a reassessment based on this string of roles. He was close to the 70th percentile; this round of new roles jumps him almost halfway to 100, and over his dad. These two years promise great things for his immediate future.

Ten best roles: 10) Hollow Man 9) All the Rage 8) The Goonies 7) American Gangster 6) Slow Burn 5) Coastlines 4) Grindhouse 3) Milk 2) W 1) No Country for Old Men

Percentile rating: 85.49

Peak Period: 2007 – now

Neighborhood: James Caviezel, Maria de Madeiros, Angie Dickinson, Christopher Guest, Marcia Gaye Harden, Yaphet Kotto

In memorium of this actor, popular in Australia for decades, who I did not know until Lambdamooer Ko brought him to my attention. He’s been a stalwart of Australian cinema for going on 60 years, with his most note-worthy work occuring as Detective Inspector Craddock in a series of Miss Marple films in the mid 60’s. I don’t actually recognize him from his picture, but he’s been in a number of movies I like, including Breaker Morant, A Cry in the Dark, and the hilarious little-known comedy The Castle. RIP.

Ten best roles

10) Murder She Said 9) Eliza Fraser 8) Breaker Morant 7) My First Wife 6) Into the Straight 5) A Test of Love 4) Murder at the Gallop 3) Murder Most Foul 2) Innocence 1) Murder Ahoy

Percentile rating

77.02

It’s unsung hero time! Occasionally I will run the numbers for an actor and be taken by surprise. That’s definitely happened here. Morton is a powerfully emotive performer. She’s played a number of characters who are either damaged or physically disadvantaged, like her most famous role opposite Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

Her first public splash in the States came in Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown. (She had been a minor British TV star for some time.) Playing the romantic interest against fidgety Sean Penn as a Django Reinhardt-obsessed guitarist, she portrayed a mute, requiring her act with only body control and facial reactions, like silent screen stars. That Oscar-nominated role is not included in my list of her ten best, testament to the overall quality of her selected filmography.

Ten best roles

10) Lassie 9) Synedoche New York 8) Minority Report 7) Under the Skin 6) Expired 5) Jesus’ Son 4) Longford 3) In America 2) Morvern Callar 1) Control

Percentile rating

96.48

Looking a bit like Kate Beckinsale’s older sister, Julia Ormond is who producers call when they need a French brunette and Juliette Binoche has already said no.

Ten best roles

10) First Knight 9) Sibirsky Tsiryulnik 8) The Baby of Macon 7) Smilla’s Sense of Snow 6) Nostradamus 5) Captives 4) Sabrina 3) The Prime Gig 2) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 1) Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Percentile rating

73.29

Proof that you can overcome unusual looks and achieve film success. Postlethwaite, bless his heart, looks like a duck. And I don’t mean that his face looks like the face of a duck; his face looks like an entire duck. Good actor though; he’s capable of humor, but he’s at his best as the quintessential intense no-nonsense working man, gruff but wise.

Ten best roles

10) Dark Water 9) The Grass Arena 8) When Saturday Comes 7) The Constant Gardener 6) Rat 5) The Usual Suspects 4) Among Giants 3) Brassed Off 2) Distant Voices, Still Lives 1) In the Name of the Father

Percentile rating

86.24

Ray Liotta does the wild-eyed, hysterical maniac act so well that it darn well pigeon-holed him after a number of terrific performances early in his career (Something Wild and Goodfellas specifically.) Frankly, he probably would have been more suited to play The Joker than Jack Nicholson in the first Tim Burton Batman film. As much as I like Nicholson, looking at that performance now, there’s a lot of “hey look what I’m doing” in his performance. Liotta could have projected more of the “maybe he’s really crazy” vibe that Heath Ledger mastered in the latest one.

Once casting directors had Liotta pegged as that lunatic guy, he began to appear more frequently in really bad movies playing at that volume and intensity. As he result, he’s got a few films on his resume like Turbulence, which just demonstrates that its hard to write memorable scenes with a character who starts the take at level 11.

He’s capable of small, nuanced performances (see Dominick and Eugene, for instance,) but he’s mostly going to remembered, I think, for those early Barry McNutflake roles.

Ten best roles

10) Slow Burn 9) Corrina Corrina 8) Phoenix 7) Identity 6) Field of Dreams 5) Copland 4) Something Wild 3) Narc 2) Dominick and Eugene 1) Goodfellas

Percentile rating

89.09

I really like Rachel Griffiths, although primarily for her work on Six Feet Under, one of my favorite TV series ever (it’s worth slogging through all 6 seasons if only for the series end, which is one of very few in my memory that was not a tremendous disappointment.)

She established her reputation in Australian film, during which time she demonstrated an intense intelligence, along with a mischievous streak. After 5-6 Australian films, often appearing with Toni Collette, they both began to turn up in American productions, Griffiths most prominently in the Disney crowd-pleasing The Rookie. Then Six Feet Under happened, and she mostly disappeared from films for a while. She’s currently starring in the ABC weekly drama Brothers and Sisters, so she’s probably mostly out of film for the immediate future.

I participate in a mostly-weekly film group. There are four of us, and the choice of the weekly film rotates through the group alphabetically. One of Griffith’s best roles an interesting identity-switch film. One of the film group folks had read a great review of this film, and brought it to movie night.

Or so he thought. What we actually saw was a horrifyingly bad JoBeth Williams film of the same title. You can peek at it here

Me, Myself, and I

To this day we have never let the guy forget that we had to sit through this thing, which frequently collapsed into Ms Williams breaking into unbearable shrieking in her attempt to portray schizophrenia. And it’s a comedy. Starring George Segal. Which of course makes it one of our favorite nights in the history of movie night, since we get to hector the guy about it endlessly. He also brought Salmonberries. I can’t recommend it.

Ten best roles

10) Among Giants 9) Amy 8) Divorcing Jack 7) The Hard Word (she’s blonde!!! and hot!!!) 6) Jude 5) Hilary and Jackie 4) Muriel’s Wedding 3) The Rookie 2) Me Myself I 1) After the Deluge

Percentile rating

84.73