My 20 Favorite Actors

Seeing as how the 20 Favorite Actresses meme has taken hold of my film-blogging cohorts so completely, I see no reason to delay in starting a 20 Favorite Actors meme, too. It was tough picking my crew (and remember: they're my faves, not the best), but without delay, here are my choices, with twenty runners-up close behind:

Clint Eastwood (key films: Dirty Harry, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, The Beguiled, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Million Dollar Baby, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, In The Line of Fire, Bronco Billy, Escape from Alcatraz, White Hunter Black Heart, Play Misty for Me, A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Gauntlet, Tightrope, A Perfect World, Paint Your Wagon, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Joe Kidd, Magnum Force, Kelly's Heroes, Unforgiven, Gran Torino, Trouble with the Curve)

James Stewart (key films: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Naked Spur, Winchester '73, Bend of the River, The Philadelphia Story, The Glenn Miller Story, Harvey, Anatomy of a Murder, The Stratton Story, The Man from Laramie, The Shop Around The Corner, The FBI Story, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Destry Rides Again, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Naked Spur, Broken Arrow, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Shootist)

Jack Nicholson (key films: Chinatown, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Five Easy Pieces, Terms of Endearment, Carnal Knowledge, The Shining, The Passenger, The Last Detail, Easy Rider, The Pledge, About Schmidt, Broadcast News, The Border, Prizzi's Honor, As Good As It Gets, The Terror, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Shooting, The Departed, Hell's Angels On Wheels, Tommy, The King of Marvin Gardens, Hoffa, Batman, Ironweed, Blood and Wine, A Few Good Men, The Witches of Eastwick, Ride in the Whirlwind)

Paul Newman (key films: Hud, Harper, The Hustler, Hombre, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Color of Money, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Verdict, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Sting, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Nobody's Fool, Absence of Malice, The Left-Handed Gun, The Hudsucker Proxy, Road to Perdition, Torn Curtain, Cars, WUSA, Pocket Money, Twilight, Buffalo Bill and the Indians)

John Heard (key films: Chilly Scenes of Winter/Head Over Heels, Cutter's Way, Mindwalk, Heaven Help Us, Heartbeat, Between The Lines, The Sopranos, Home Alone, Big, After Hours, Cat People, The Trip to Bountiful, Beaches, Rambling Rose, C.H.U.D., Waterland, Pollack, In The Line of Fire, Animal Factory, Sweetland, Too Big to Fail, Sharknado)

Robert De Niro (key films: Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, The Deer Hunter, The Godfather Part II, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Jackie Brown, Awakenings, 1900, Once Upon a Time in America, Analyze This, Copland, Great Expectations, New York New York, Bang The Drum Slowly, True Confessions, Brazil, What Just Happened, Everybody's Fine, Stone, The Mission, This Boy's Life, Heat, Wag the Dog, Bloody Mama, Silver Linings Playbook)

Henry Fonda (key films: Twelve Angry Men, On Golden Pond, My Darling Clementine, Young Mr. Lincoln, Once Upon a Time in The West, Fail-Safe, The Lady Eve, The Wrong Man, Mister Roberts, The Grapes of Wrath, The Ox-Bow Incident, Fort Apache, Madigan, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Tin Star, My Name is Nobody, Gideon's Trumpet, You Only Live Once, In Harm's Way, The Longest Day, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, Advice and Consent, Jesse James, The Boston Strangler, The Best Man, Jezabel)

Spencer Tracy (key films: Fury, Boys Town, Judgment at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, Adam's Rib, State of the Union, Captains Courageous, The Old Man and the Sea, Bad Day at Black Rock, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Desk Set, Father of the Bride, A Guy Named Joe, Pat and Mike, Stanley and Livingstone, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World)

Boris Karloff (key films: Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, Scarface, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Criminal Code, The Mask of Fu Manchu, The Black Cat, The Body Snatchers, Bedlam, The Raven, The Terror, Targets)

Thomas Mitchell (key films: Stagecoach, The Sullivans, Gone With The Wind, Lost Horizon, It's A Wonderful Life, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Make Way for Tomorrow, Only Angels Have Wings, Our Town, Tales of Manhattan, Wilson, High Noon)

Woody Allen (key films: Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, Play It Again Sam, Bananas, Manhattan, The Front, Sleeper, Take the Money and Run, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Love and Death, Stardust Memories, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, Scenes From A Mall, Zelig, Hannah and Her Sisters, King Lear, Manhattan Murder Mystery, To Rome With Love, Fading Gigalo)

Morgan Freeman (key films: The Shawshank Redemption, Street Smart, Million Dollar Baby, Se7en, Glory, Unforgiven, Driving Miss Daisy, Levity, The Sum of All Fears, Deep Impact, Invictus, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Lean on Me, Teachers, Clean and Sober, Now You See Me)

Groucho Marx (key films: Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, Coconuts, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Skiddoo, Monkey Business, A Night in Casablanca, At The Circus)

Jeff Bridges (key films: The Last Picture Show, Bad Company, Starman, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Cutter's Way, The Last American Hero, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, Iron Man, Tron, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Contender, Crazy Heart, The Fisher King, Seabiscuit, Hearts of the West, Texasville, The Door in the Floor, Heaven's Gate, Stay Hungry, True Grit, Fat City, Rancho Deluxe)

Gene Hackman (key films: The French Connection, Bonnie and Clyde, Scarecrow, The Conversation, Night Moves, Unforgiven, Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, Superman, Superman II, The Royal Tennenbaums, Twice in a Lifetime, All Night Long, The Poseidon Adventure, Prime Cut, Young Frankenstein, Reds, The Quick and the Dead, Twilight, The Birdcage, I Never Sang for My Father, Cisco Pike)

Peter O'Toole (key films: Lawrence of Arabia, The Stunt Man, The Ruling Class, Becket, Creator, The Lion in Winter, What's New Pussycat, Venus, My Favorite Year, Lord Jim, Caligula, The Last Emperor, Venus, Ratatouille)

Steve Buscemi (key films: Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, Ghost World, Trees Lounge, Boardwalk Empire (TV), Interview, Mystery Train, Parting Glances, Living in Oblivion, Con Air, In The Soup, Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, Monsters Inc., Airheads, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Big Fish)

Lawrence Olivier (key films: Wuthering Heights, Sleuth, Rebecca, Henry V, Richard III, Marathon Man, Othello, The Prince and the Showgirl, That Hamilton Woman, A Little Romance, The Entertainer, Hamlet, Spartacus, Clash of the Titans, The Boys From Brazil, Khartoum)

Michael Caine (key films: Sleuth, Educating Rita, Deathtrap, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules, Zulu, The Man Who Would Be King, Alfie, The Ipcress File, The Italian Job, Get Carter, Noises Off, Children of Men, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Quiet American, Inception, Blood and Wine, Little Voice, Mona Lisa, Gambit, Now You See Me, Play Dirty)

Burt Reynolds (key films: Deliverance, White Lightning, Starting Over, Smokey and the Bandit, Boogie Nights, Sharkey's Machine, Best Friends, The Longest Yard, Breaking In, The End, Citizen Ruth, Gator, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, A Bunch of Amateurs, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, Hustle, Shamus, Evening Shade (TV))

My twenty (incredible, to say the least) runners-up are: Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, Daniel Day-Lewis, Albert Finney, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Depp, Orson Welles, Robert Duvall, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Chaplin, Bill Murray, Albert Brooks, Max Von Sydow, Charles Durning, Ian Holm, Dennis Hopper, and Tom Wilkinson.