The Five Actors Who Make Each of My Top 100 Favorite Films Special To Me

Just a few days ago, I posted a list of my "Top 0001 to 0100 Favorite English Language Films In Numerical Order," with those same film titles also arranged by year in a subsequent second list. Not too long before that, I posted an earlier, less precise list of my "Top Favorite 0001 To 1500 Films," arranged in fifteen groups of 100 titles, with the movies in each succeeding group listed in their own alphabetical order. I am basically satisfied with my list of the "Top 0001 To 0100 English Language Films In Numerical Order," and I was pleasantly surprised and slightly amazed to see the relatively even historical spread of those 100 titles across the eight decades (the 1930s to the 2000s) from which they were drawn. Had other films from farther down in my larger list of 1,500 favorites been included, I'm certain that another decade-- namely, the 1920s-- would also have received representation in the spread.

I am less satisfied with that larger list of my "Top Favorite 0001 To 1500 Films" simply because I now realize that in attempting to mix both the English Language and the Foreign Language films, as I did in that larger list, I neglected to consider all of the possible Foreign Language film candidates I should have included. Plus, the mere size of that 1,500 film list, and the difficulty I had in altering it once it was near completion, led to the "order" of the overall list (rough as it was, with simply 15 "ordered groups," each comprising 100 alphabetized titles) being less accurate than I had originally hoped it might be.

Nevertheless, that earlier 1,500 film list, as a whole, is a reasonably good "snapshot" of the body of films I would count as being "my favorites" from among the 6,500 to 7,500 films I have probably seen in my life. If I were to redo that 1,500 title list right now, I would probably delete about 35 of the English Language titles and replace them with 25 Foreign Language titles and 10 different English Language titles; and I'd slightly shuffle the overall order of the titles from group to group, and especially so with the 35 newly added titles.

In the process of creating those lists, it had occurred to me to wonder, "What constitutes a 'motion picture' in the first place, and what makes it a good or bad (that is, a great or sub-standard, a loved or disliked) movie." The answer at which I have finally arrived for these questions is basically this: "The 'final cut' collection of the performances by the actors in the film, in conjunction with the quality of the writing in the script, especially in terms of its storyline and dialog, are the two main factors which not only constitute a 'motion picture' in the first place, but also determine its relative 'quality' in the pantheon of movie history."

Needless to say, the "direction" of a film, and the cinematography, and the editing, and all of the other assorted "arts and crafts" of film making, are highly important, and add or detract from the quality of a given movie; but, basically, it is the script and the collective acting performances which ultimately "make" a film good or bad. And, while the script is of paramount importance in helping to create a "great" film (since even "merely adequate" actors often "rise to the level of the script"), it is TRULY the actors' actual performances that make films personal favorites, in my view. For, indeed, if the collective acting performances are good enough, "just average" or even moderately "poor" scripts can sometimes become memorable (and very lovable) "favorite films."

So, what I have come up with, in examining this concept of the collective quality of the actors' performances being (in the final analysis) of supreme importance in "making" favorites among films, is this assertion: In the case of virtually every favorite movie, except for those rather rare films with extremely small casts, I believe a person should be able to cite (at the very least) FIVE actors whose performances provided that specific "favorite film" with its own special qualities; with its enduring, "shining luster," in terms of one's memory; with its real sense of cinematic "greatness;" or with its "special sense of meaning" for that individual movie fan.

With that goal in mind (and also to test and "prove" the validity of this theory), I had determined to chose the FIVE specific actors, for each of my "Top 0001 To 0100 Favorite English Language Films," whose performances were most important (to me) in making it a "Favorite Film." Thus, after very careful consideration for each film, I am reposting my list of those same 100 favorite films with the names of the FIVE specific actors/actresses, for each film, listed below the title of the respective movie. You may notice, from film to film, that the names of certain famous actors often repeat; whereas, some of the other names may appear only once. Neither of these factors is too odd, as I do tend to like (and to appreciate the performances of) certain actors more than of others; yet, I'd like to believe I am also able to spot a "quality," or an "endearing," performance no matter who is giving it.

I think that posting this list of the films, WITH the names of the actors whose performances made those films "special favorites" in my eyes, should not only give the thoughtful reader of this list a greater insight into my personal tastes, but also a few insights into the relative strengths and abilities of the members of the overall talent pool of actors from across the last eight decades. Further, I hope this minor attempt at a deeper analysis of what makes films "favorites" will help the reader of this list to be better able to grasp and appreciate his/her own favorites in the world of films, and WHY they are his or her favorites.

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Top 0001 To 0100 Favorite English Language Films In Numerical Order

0001 Unforgiven (1992)

Clint Eastwood ... Morgan Freeman ... Gene Hackman ... Richard Harris ... Jaimz Woolvett

0002 The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Humphrey Bogart ... Peter Lorre ... Sydney Greenstreet ... Lee Patrick ... Elisha Cook Jr.

0003 My Fair Lady (1964)

Rex Harrison ... Audrey Hepburn ... Wilfrid Hyde-White ... Stanley Holloway ... Theodore Bikel

0004 The African Queen (1951)

Humphrey Bogart ... Katharine Hepburn ... Robert Morley ... Peter Bull ... Theodore Bikel

0005 From Russia With Love (1963)

Sean Connery ... Lotte Lenya ... Robert Shaw ... Pedro Armendáriz ... Bernard Lee

0006 Charade (1963)

Cary Grant ... Audrey Hepburn ... Walter Matthau ... James Coburn ... George Kennedy

0007 The Big Chill (1983)

Kevin Kline ... William Hurt ... Jeff Goldblum ... Glenn Close ... Meg Tilly

0008 The Great Escape (1963)

Steve McQueen ... James Garner ... James Coburn ... Charles Bronson ... Richard Attenborough

0009 Sense And Sensibility (1995)

Hugh Grant ... Emma Thompson ... Alan Rickman ... Kate Winslet ... Hugh Laurie

0010 My Man Godfrey (1936)

William Powell ... Carole Lombard ... Gail Patrick ... Eugene Pallette ... Alan Mowbray

0011 The Ipcress File (1965)

Michael Caine ... Nigel Green ... Guy Doleman ... Gordon Jackson ... Sue Lloyd

0012 Sabrina (1954)

Humphrey Bogart ... Audrey Hepburn ... William Holden ... John Williams ... Walter Hampden

0013 55 Days At Peking (1963)

David Niven ... Charlton Heston ... Ava Gardner ... John Ireland ... Robert Helpmann

0014 The Thin Man (1934)

William Powell ... Myrna Loy ... Maureen O'Sullivan ... Cesar Romero ... Edward Brophy

0015 South Pacific (1958)

Rossano Brazzi ... Mitzi Gaynor ... John Kerr ... Ray Walston ... Juanita Hall

0016 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Peter Sellers ... George C. Scott ... Sterling Hayden ... Keenan Wynn ... Slim Pickens

0017 Mister Roberts (1955)

Henry Fonda ... William Powell ... James Cagney ... Jack Lemmon ... Ward Bond

0018 The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Cary Grant ... Katharine Hepburn ... James Stewart ... Mary Nash ... Roland Young

0019 To Have and Have Not (1944)

Humphrey Bogart ... Walter Brennan ... Lauren Bacall ... Marcel Dalio ... Dan Seymour

0020 Soldier In The Rain (1963)

Steve McQueen ... Jackie Gleason ... Tuesday Weld ... Tom Poston ... Adam West

0021 Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music (1970)

Joe Cocker ... Country Joe McDonald ... Arlo Guthrie ... Carlos Santana ... Jimi Hendrix

0022 Catch-22 (1970)

Alan Arkin ... Art Garfunkel ... Bob Newhart ... Jon Voight ... Orson Welles

0023 As Good As It Gets (1997)

Jack Nicholson ... Helen Hunt ... Greg Kinnear ... Cuba Gooding Jr. ... Harold Ramis

0024 Green Card (1990)

Gérard Depardieu ... Andie MacDowell ... Bebe Neuwirth ... Robert Prosky ... John Spencer

0025 A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

John Cleese ... Jamie Lee Curtis ... Kevin Kline ... Michael Palin ... Maria Aitken

0026 About A Boy (2002)

Hugh Grant ... Toni Collette ... Rachel Weisz ... Nicholas Hoult ... Natalia Tena

0027 The Big Sleep (1946)

Humphrey Bogart ... Lauren Bacall ... Martha Vickers ... Dorothy Malone ... Elisha Cook Jr.

0028 The Exorcist (1973)

Jason Miller ... Ellen Burstyn ... Max von Sydow ... Lee J. Cobb ... Linda Blair

0029 Dogma (1999)

Ben Affleck ... Matt Damon ... Linda Fiorentino ... Alan Rickman ... Chris Rock

0030 Quiet Days In Clichy/ Stille dage i Clichy (1970)

Paul Valjean ... Wayne Rodda ... Ulla Koppel ... Avi Sagild ... Susanne Krage

0031 Stalag 17 (1953)

William Holden ... Otto Preminger ... Peter Graves ... Neville Brand ... Sig Ruman

0032 Local Hero (1983)

Peter Riegert ... Burt Lancaster ... Fulton Mackay ... Denis Lawson ... Jenny Seagrove

0033 Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

James Stewart ... Kim Novak ... Jack Lemmon ... Ernie Kovacs ... Elsa Lanchester

0034 Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Edmund Gwenn ... John Payne ... Maureen O'Hara ... William Frawley ... Natalie Wood

0035 The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Marilyn Monroe ... Tom Ewell ... Robert Strauss ... Oskar Homolka ... Sonny Tufts

0036 The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Cary Grant ... David Niven ... Loretta Young ... Monty Woolley ... James Gleason

0037 Goldfinger (1964)

Sean Connery ... Gert Fröbe ... Honor Blackman ... Harold Sakata ... Bernard Lee

0038 The Blues Brothers (1980)

John Belushi ... Dan Aykroyd ... Carrie Fisher ... Cab Calloway ... Aretha Franklin

0039 Michael (1996)

John Travolta ... Andie MacDowell ... William Hurt ... Bob Hoskins ... Robert Pastorelli

0040 Crossing Delancey (1988)

Peter Riegert ... Amy Irving ... Jeroen Krabbé ... Reizl Bozyk ... Sylvia Miles

0041 Trading Places (1983)

Dan Aykroyd ... Eddie Murphy ... Jamie Lee Curtis ... Don Ameche ... Ralph Bellamy

0042 Rebecca (1940)

Laurence Olivier ... Joan Fontaine ... Nigel Bruce ... George Sanders ... Judith Anderson

0043 The Pink Panther (1964)

Peter Sellers ... David Niven ... Robert Wagner ... Capucine ... Claudia Cardinale

0044 The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Monty Woolley ... Bette Davis ... Jimmy Durante ... Reginald Gardiner ... Billie Burke

0045 The Wheeler Dealers (1963)

James Garner ... Lee Remick ... Phil Harris ... Chill Wills ... Jim Backus

0046 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Johnny Depp ... Geoffrey Rush ... Keira Knightley ... Jonathan Pryce ... Orlando Bloom

0047 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Ian McKellen ... Cate Blanchett ... John Rhys-Davies ... Elijah Wood ... Orlando Bloom

0048 Walk the Line (2005)

Joaquin Phoenix ... Reese Witherspoon ... Robert Patrick ... Dallas Roberts ... Waylon Payne

0049 Kate and Leopold (2001)

Meg Ryan ... Hugh Jackman ... Liev Schreiber ... Breckin Meyer ... Bradley Whitford

0050 High Fidelity (2000)

John Cusack ... Jack Black ... Joan Cusack ... Tim Robbins ... Lili Taylor

0051 Casablanca (1942)

Humphrey Bogart ... Ingrid Bergman ... Claude Rains ... Sydney Greenstreet ... Peter Lorre

0052 Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

David Niven ... Cantinflas ... Robert Newton ... Shirley MacLaine ... Robert Morley

0053 National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

John Belushi ... Peter Riegert ... Tim Matheson ... Tom Hulce ... Karen Allen

0054 The Color Of Money (1986)

Paul Newman ... Tom Cruise ... Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio ... Forest Whitaker ... John Turturro

0055 Harvey (1950)

James Stewart ... Josephine Hull ... Peggy Dow ... Cecil Kellaway ... Jesse White

0056 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Harrison Ford ... Alec Guinness ... Mark Hamill ... Carrie Fisher ... Peter Cushing

0057 Ghostbusters (1984)

Bill Murray ... Dan Aykroyd ... Harold Ramis ... Sigourney Weaver ... Rick Moranis

0058 The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Alec Guinness ... William Holden ... Sessue Hayakawa ... Jack Hawkins ... James Donald

0059 Home Alone (1990)

Macaulay Culkin ... Joe Pesci ... Daniel Stern ... Catherine O'Hara ... John Candy

0060 Beat the Devil (1954)

Humphrey Bogart ... Jennifer Jones ... Robert Morley ...Peter Lorre ... Gina Lollobrigida

0061 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Harrison Ford ... Karen Allen ... John Rhys-Davies ... Denholm Elliott ... Paul Freeman

0062 Being There (1979)

Peter Sellers ... Shirley MacLaine ... Melvyn Douglas ... Jack Warden ... Ruth Attaway

0063 The Addams Family (1991)

Raul Julia ... Anjelica Huston ... Christopher Lloyd ... Christina Ricci ... Jimmy Workman

0064 Holiday (1938)

Cary Grant ... Katharine Hepburn ... Lew Ayres ... Edward Everett Horton ... Jean Dixon

0065 The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Sean Connery ... Michael Caine ... Christopher Plummer ... Saeed Jaffrey ... Doghmi Larbi

0066 Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Paul Hogan ... Linda Kozlowski ... John Meillon ... David Gulpilil ... Irving Metzman

0067 Adam's Rib (1949)

Spencer Tracy ... Katharine Hepburn ... Judy Holliday ... Tom Ewell ... David Wayne

0068 Suspicion (1941)

Cary Grant ... Joan Fontaine ... Nigel Bruce ... Cedric Hardwicke ... Leo G. Carroll

0069 Born Yesterday (1950)

William Holden ... Judy Holliday ... Broderick Crawford ... Howard St. John ... Frank Otto

0070 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Graham Chapman ... John Cleese ... Michael Palin ... Eric Idle ... Terry Jones

0071 Auntie Mame (1958)

Rosalind Russell ... Forrest Tucker ... Coral Browne ... Fred Clark ... Peggy Cass

0072 My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Joe Pesci ... Marisa Tomei ... Ralph Macchio ... Fred Gwynne ... Lane Smith

0073 A Hard Day's Night (1964)

John Lennon ... Paul McCartney ... George Harrison ... Ringo Starr ... Wilfrid Brambell

0074 Broadcast News (1987)

Albert Brooks ... William Hurt ... Holly Hunter ... Joan Cusack ... Jack Nicholson

0075 The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Yul Brynner ... Steve McQueen ... Charles Bronson ... James Coburn ... Eli Wallach

0076 Barfly (1987)

Mickey Rourke ... Faye Dunaway ... Alice Krige ... Frank Stallone ... Joe Rice

0077 Apocalypse Now (1979)

Martin Sheen ... Robert Duvall ... Dennis Hopper ...Marlon Brando ... Laurence Fishburne

0078 Blow-Up (1966)

David Hemmings ... Vanessa Redgrave ... Jane Birkin ... Gillian Hills ... Veruschka von Lehndorff

0079 We're No Angels (1955)

Humphrey Bogart ... Peter Ustinov ... Aldo Ray ... Leo G. Carroll ... Basil Rathbone

0080 Some Like It Hot (1959)

Marilyn Monroe ... Jack Lemmon ... Tony Curtis ... Joe E. Brown ... George Raft

0081 Earth Girls Are Easy (1989)

Geena Davis ... Jeff Goldblum ... Jim Carrey ... Damon Wayans ... Julie Brown

0082 Bedazzled (1968)

Peter Cook ... Dudley Moore ... Raquel Welch ... Eleanor Bron ... Barry Humphries

0083 The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Judy Garland ... Frank Morgan ... Margaret Hamilton ... Ray Bolger ... Bert Lahr

0084 The Apartment (1960)

Jack Lemmon ... Shirley MacLaine ... Fred MacMurray ... Ray Walston ... Jack Kruschen

0085 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Peter O'Toole ... Alec Guinness ... Anthony Quinn ... Jack Hawkins ... Omar Sharif

0086 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Cary Grant ... Josephine Hull ... Peter Lorre ... Raymond Massey ... James Gleason

0087 Chances Are (1989)

Robert Downey Jr. ... Cybill Shepherd ... Ryan O'Neal ... Mary Stuart Masterson ... Christopher McDonald

0088 When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Meg Ryan ... Billy Crystal ... Carrie Fisher ... Bruno Kirby ... Lisa Jane Persky

0089 Switch (1991)

Ellen Barkin ... Jimmy Smits ... JoBeth Williams ... Lorraine Bracco ... Tony Roberts

0090 Tombstone (1993)

Val Kilmer ... Kurt Russell ... Sam Elliott ... Michael Biehn ... Powers Boothe

0091 Arthur (1981)

Dudley Moore ... John Gielgud ... Liza Minnelli ... Geraldine Fitzgerald ... Barney Martin

0092 Gosford Park (2001)

Kelly Macdonald ... Helen Mirren ... Alan Bates ... Clive Owen ... Stephen Fry

0093 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Humphrey Bogart ... Walter Huston ... Tim Holt ... Alfonso Bedoya ... John Huston

0094 Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Warren Beatty ... Faye Dunaway ... Michael J. Pollard ... Gene Hackman ... Gene Wilder

0095 Hair (1979)

Treat Williams ... John Savage ... Beverly D'Angelo ... Annie Golden ... Michael Jeter

0096 Down By Law (1986)

Tom Waits ... John Lurie ... Roberto Benigni ... Nicoletta Braschi ... Ellen Barkin

0097 Flashback (1990)

Dennis Hopper ... Carol Kane ... Kiefer Sutherland ... Richard Masur ... Michael McKean

0098 Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Dick Powell ... Claire Trevor ... Mike Mazurki ... Otto Kruger ... Douglas Walton

0099 Henry And June (1990)

Fred Ward ... Uma Thurman ... Maria de Medeiros ... Richard E. Grant ... Kevin Spacey

0100 The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)

John Lennon ... Yoko Ono ... Gore Vidal ... Angela Davis ... Mario Cuomo