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50 Greatest Movie Performances of All-Time
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50 Greatest Movie Performances of All-Time

NOTE: This list may contain spoilers!!!

 

 

this is a combination of character as written by the screen writer and performance as given by the actor/actress

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#1. Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Actor: Anthony Hopkins
Film: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

#2. Reverend Harry Powell
Actor: Robert Mitchum
Film: The Night of the Hunter (1955)

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#3. Butch Cassidy
Actor: Paul Newman
Film: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)
 

#4. Travis Bickle
Actor: Robert De Niro
Film: Taxi Driver

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#5. Norman Bates
Actor: Anthony Perkins
Film: Psycho (1960)

#6. Ethan Edwards
Actor: John Wayne
Film: The Searchers (1956)

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#7. Charles Foster Kane
Actor: Orson Welles
Film: Citizen Kane (1941)
 

#8. Harry Lime
Actor: Orson Welles
Film: The Third Man (1949)

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#9. TE Lawrence
Actor: Peter O'Toole
Film: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

#10. Tom Joad
Actor: Henry Fonda
Film: The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

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#11. Holly Golightly
Actress: Audrey Hepburn
Film: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

#12. George M. Cohan
Actor: James Cagney
Film: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
 

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#13. Sam Spade
Actor: Humphrey Bogart
Film: The Maltese Falcon (1941)

#14. Arthur "Cody" Jarrett
Actor: James Cagney
Film: White Heat (1949)

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#15. Rufus T. Firefly
Actor: Groucho Marx
Film: Duck Soup (1933)

#16. Jefferson Smith
Actor: James Stewart
Film: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

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#17. Jake Gittes
Actor: Jack Nicholson
Film: Chinatown

#18. Paul
Actor: Marlon Brando
Film: Last Tango in Paris (1973)

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#19. Will Kane
Actor: Gary Cooper
Film: High Noon (1952)

#20. Sgt. Elias Grodin
Actor: Willem Dafoe
Film: Platoon (1986)

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#21. Mort Rainey
Actor: Johnny Depp
Film: Secret Window (2004)

#22. Col. Nathan Jessup
Actor: Jack Nicholson
Film: A Few Good Men (1992)

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#23. George Hanson
Actor: Jack Nicholson
Film: Easy Rider (1969)

#24. Captain Quint
Actor: Robert Shaw
Film: Jaws (1975)

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#25. Randle Patrick McMurphy
Actor: Jack Nicholson
Film: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

#26. Rick Blaine
Actor: Humphrey Bogart
Film: Casablanca (1942)

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#27. Phil Connors
Actor: Bill Murray
Film: Groundhog Day (1993)

#28. Detective Virgil Tibbs
Actor: Sidney Poitier
Film: In the Heat of the Night (1967) 

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#29. Roy McAvoy
Actor: Kevin Costner
Film: Tin Cup (1996)

#30. Terry Malloy
Actor: Marlon Brando
Film: On the Waterfront (1954)

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#31. Jim Stark
Actor: James Dean
Film: Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

#32. Hal 9000
Voiced by: Douglas Rain
Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

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#33. Fred C. Dobbs
Actor: Humphrey Bogart
Film: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

#34. Forrest Gump
Actor: Tom Hanks
Film: Forrest Gump (1994)

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#35. Andy Dufresne
Actor: Tim Robbins
Film: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

#36. Roy Batty
Actor: Rutger Hauer
Film: Blade Runner (1982)

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#37. Lonesome Rhodes
Actor: Andy Griffith
Film: A Face in the Crowd (1957)

#38. Inigo Montoya
Actor: Mandy Patinkin
Film: The Princess Bride (1987)

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#39. JB Books
Actor: John Wayne
Film: The Shootist (1976)

#40. Bob Harris
Actor: Bill Murray
Film: Lost in Translation (2003)

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#41. Mrs. Iselin
Actress: Angela Lansbury
Film: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

#42. Mac Sledge
Actor: Robert Duvall
Film: Tender Mercies (1983)

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#43. Col. Nicholson
Actor: Alec Guinness
Film: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

#44. LB Jeffries
Actor: James Stewart
Film: Rear Window (1954)

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#45. Ed Gentry
Actor: Jon Voight
Film: Deliverance (1972)

#46. Jack Byrnes
Actor: Robert De Niro
Film: Meet the Parents (2000)

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#47. John "Scottie" Ferguson
Actor: James Stewart
Film: Vertigo (1958)

#48. John Doe
Actor: Kevin Spacey
Film: Seven (1995)

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#49. Luke
Actor: Paul Newman
Film: Cool Hand Luke (1967)

#50. Rhett Butler
Actor: Clark Gable
Film: Gone with the Wind (1939)