Easy Come Easy Gaughin

Lena Headey

I have not seen anything she’s appeared in, but she’s done pretty well for an under-the-radar type.

Ten best roles

10) The Brothers Grimm 9) Possession 8) Gossip 7) Ripley’s Game 6) Twice Upon a Yesterday 5) Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book 4) Imagine Me and You 3) 300 2) Loved Up 1) Aberdeen

Percentile rating

76.52

Philip Baker Hall

You know and love him as Magnolia’s Jimmy Gator, but his careering-defining roles appeared earlier. He did the starngest, but possibly most affecting Richard Nixon ever, in Robert Altman’s bare-bones let’s-just-film-the-stageshow version of Secret Honor. Later, prior to casting him as Jimmy Gator, PT Anderson placed him in the starring role of the contemporary noir Hard Eight. Hall has appeared in nearly 100 films, and most typically plays the stern boss that whoever’s playing the lead role has to report to. He’s sort of the slightly more contemporary Jerry Orbach.

Ten best roles

10) Cradle Will Rock 9) Bruce Almighty 8) Let the Devil Wear Black 7) Rush Hour 6) The Insider 5) The Matador 4) Dogville 3) A House on a Hill 2) Secret Honor 1) Hard Eight

Percentile rating

79.90

Christopher Guest

Maybe eventually as a director or a writer, if he speeds up the pace of his output, but he just hasn’t done enough exceptional acting work to score very highly here. I would consider some of his work to be almost iconic, particularly in Spinal Tap and Waiting For Guffman, but he’s stuck with a number of really small roles in his best ten, so he registers here, but does not score as highly as I had anticipated.

Ten best roles

10) The Last Word 9) 1+1=3 8) Girlfriends 7) Mrs Henderson Presents 6) For Your Consideration 5) The Princess Bride 4) A Mighty Wind 3) Best In Show 2) Waiting For Guffman 1) This Is Spinal Tap

Percentile rating

84.11

Peter Greene

Indie cult favorite, publicized at least as much for his alleged drug problems as for his acting, who will ever be remembered by angsty nihilist hipsters everywhere for his request to go get the gimp.

Ten best roles

10) Scenes Of the Crime 9) Trading Favors 8) The Big Bang Theory 7) Double Tap 6) Blue Streak 5) Sworn Enemies 4) Black Cat Run 3) The Mask 2) Laws of Gravity 1) Clean, Shaven

Percentile rating

70.37

Chocolate beh beez

Known more lately as a walking PR nightmare, and he’s only done one film in the last ten years that I would want to see again, but the younger Mel was such a charismatic screen presence that he could make you willing to stay with crap like Maverick and Lethal Weapon 3. AND he starred in some classics, too. If he gets interested in acting again, I think there’s potential for him to assume a contemporary version of a Cary Grant prototype, if the public can forgive him his embarassing transgressions.

Ten best roles

10) The Bounty 9) Tequila Sunrise 8) Signs 7) Tim 6) The Year Of
Living Dangerously 5) Mad Max 4) Lethal Weapon 3) Braveheart 2)
Gallipoli 1) The Road Warrior

Percentile rating

98.69

Maurice Garrel

French actor who has appeared in over 100 films; he’s about to hit
80. I really know nothing beyond that.

Ten best roles

10) Un Ange Passe 9) Droit De Visite 8) Kings and Queen 7) Les
Enfants Desaccordes 6) Drole De Jeu 5) Anemone 4) Alors Voil 3) Nada
2) Son Frre 1) La Discrete

Percentile rating

80.67

Beverly Garland

Match Game regular whose film career started about 78 years ago (actually, she debuted in DOA in 1950) still turns up to play spunky granny and other old lady roles.

Ten best roles

10) Badlands of Montana 9) The Saga of Hemp Brown 8) Sudden Danger 7) Gundown at Sandoval 6) Go-Getter 5) Chicago Confidential 4) Sixth and Main 3) Pretty Poison 2) It Conquered the World 1) Not Of This Earth

Percentile rating

78.99

Bruno Ganz

I probably have a tendancy to be strongly Amerocentric in my perspective of film. I think it’s natural that people will reflect on the culture in which they were raised more fully than the culture they come to later in life. A big motivating factor in these “projects” I undertake is self-education, and it tickles me when I discover artists whose work I did not know well. I don’t think, for instance, I had any idea of the importance of Catherine Deneuve in French cinema over the last 40 years. Until I did some research, she seemed simply an astonishingly beautiful woman who also happened to turn up in movies occasionally. Today I think I have made a similar discovery about Bruno Ganz’s significance in European film.

I think that Wings of Desire is a measured contemplative work of art, and at the heart of it stands Bruno Ganz’s emotional portrayal of an angel in the throes of indecision; should he give up his immortality and join the humans that he so envies, or should he remain an angel and be unhappy forever? I was surprised to learn that Ganz has a number of essential film roles, most of which I have not yet seen (with the exception of The American Friend, another watching-paint-dry masterwork), although I am interested in his recent film Downfall. It generated a lot of controversy because many saw it as an attempt to humanize Hitler. I am fascinated by this notion, and think it’s probably not the motive behind the films’s production. I think that there is a fine line between explaining behavior and rationalizing it, and I suspect that the writer, director, and producer of that film set out to do the former, and that it was only people’s perceptions, as filtered through a media response to the movie that gave a false impression that the filmmakers were sympathetic to Adolf. But as I say, I haven’t seen it. If I ever have dinner with Mr Ganz, and at any time he gives me a forceful seig heil, I guess I will have my answer.

Ten best roles

10) The Last Days Of Chez Nous 9) Nosferatu the Vampyre 8) The Marquise of O 7) The American Friend 6) Messer im Kopf 5) Eternity and a Day 4) Downfall 3) Dans la Ville Blanche 2) Circle of Deceit 1) Wings Of Desire

Percentile rating

98.44

Michael Gambon

With those unusual face-like-a-folded-fist looks, he’s an unlikely box office hero. But there he is, again and again, frequently appearing in strong supporting roles, often in films that are big hits. He acquited himself well when he took the Dumbledore role, without changing it so much that it was a jarring change, and he’s exceptionally slimy (in an entertaining way) in Layer Cake. Under the rules of the assessment system, there is some question about whether his greatest role (BBC’s production of The Singing Detective) can be included here. I am under the impression that there was a theatrical cut of it that showed in theaters in Europe and some Scandinavian countries, but haven’t been able to confirm it. I will list two scores for him, one including it, one not.

Ten best roles (+1)

11) The Good Shepherd 10) Sleepy Hollow 9) The Gambler 8) The Missing Link 7) Paris By Night 6) Dancing at Lughnasa 5) Turtle Diary 4) Two Deaths 3) The Cook, the Thief, the Wife, and his Lover 2) Gosford Park 1) The Singing Detective

Percentile rating without The Singing Detective: 87.35

Percentile rating with The Singing Detective (replacing The Good Shepherd): 92.65

Peter Gallagher

Mostly a TV guy now, though I understand that The OC has been cancelled. Made a big splash as a part of the sex lies and videotape phenomena (one of the many films touted as the birth of modern independent film, sort of like the hundreds of “next Dylans”). He’s enjoyable enough within a narrow range of secondary characters. I swear that even in still pictures, if you look real close, his caterpiller-eyebrows are always moving. If you look at the picture link above, and think about it real hard, Stephen King could be like the “special kid” version of Peter G.

Ten best roles

10) The Idolmaker 9) The Man Who Knew Too Little 8) While You Were Sleeping 7) The Player 6) White Mile 5) Cafe Society 4) Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle 3) Dreamchild 2) Watch It 1) sex lies and videotape
Percentile rating

84.37