Top 10 Actors of the Decade

With the decade coming to a close, I have decided to compile a list of the top 10 actors of the decade. Factors that went into my decisions to include actors were nominations and wins for the major three awards (Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild), how memorable/iconic their roles were, and my personal opinion. Note that for SAG awards I only included nominations and wins for acting, not best cast. Also, nominations are to date, which means there are no Academy Award nominations included for this year. I have also included notable movies these actors were in during the decade.

10. Viggo Mortensen - ( Lord of the Rings Trilogy, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, Appaloosa, The Road)
Academy Awards:1 nomination/ 0 wins
Golden Globes: 1 nomination/ 0 wins
Screen Actor Guild:1 nomination/ 0 wins

Hear me out on this one. He was the key player in the most successful trilogy ever, both commercially and critically. He was snubbed of awards for a father and husband hiding his past in A History of Violence, where he gave us a thrill ride. His best and most liberal performance was in Eastern Promises. He was a freakin' badass, nails the accent, and for pete sake he set a benchmark by being naked for 7 consecutive minutes while having a knife fight. His most recent film, The Road, while not that big commercial has won him some precursors and people are saying this could be the most underrated performance of the year.

9. George Clooney -(O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ocean Trilogy, Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana, Michael Clayton, Up in the Air)
Academy Awards: 2 nominations/ 1 win
Golden Globes: 4 nominations/ 1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 3 nominations/ 0 wins

The quintessential suave actor, Clooney has had a good decade. That's just it, good. Even though he won an Oscar, I don't really see any his performances as memorable. Most of the time he was just playing himself (Danny Ocean, Michael Clayton, Ryan Bingham). Syriana was a good performance in a weak year for Supporting Actors ( I would have gone Matt Dillon for Crash) However, put all of the good performances together, and it places him 9th on my list.

8. Denzel Washington - (Remember the Titans, Training Day, Man on Fire, Inside Man, America Gangster, The Great Debaters)
Academy Awards: 1 nomination/ 1 win
Golden Globes: 2 nominations/ 0 wins
Screen Actors Guild: 1 nomination/ 0 wins

Perhaps the best actor of the last 25 years (maybe only to Tom Hanks) only places 8th on my list. Any sports fan will always remember Coach Herman Boone and the Titans in perhaps his most family friendly performance. Then, there was Alonzo Harris, the role that made him only the second African American actor to win the Best Actor Oscar. Every guy I know loves Man on Fire, and rightfully so, as Washington shows us what I consider to be one of the most emotionally vulnerable characters of the decade. American Gangster was lackluster for me, but he plays the confident gangster Frank Harris well. The Great Debators was one of the more surprisingly good movies I saw over the past few years, much in part due to his performance.

7. Benicio Del Toro - (Traffic, Snatch, 21 Grams, Sin City, Che)
Academy Awards: 2 nominations/ 1 win
Golden Globes: 1 nomination/ 1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 2 nominations/ 1 win

One of the most underrated actors of our time, Del Toro has done a lot albeit quietly in this decade. He started off in 2000 with probably the best role of his career in Traffic as Javier Rodriguez, where he played the last straight cop in Mexico. He was the best part of Sin City ( except for Mickey Rourke) and gave a virtually unknown Cannes winning performance in Che, which if you get a chance you should definitely see.

6. Leonardo DiCaprio - (Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Departed, Revolutionary Road)
Academy Awards: 2 nominations/0 wins
Golden Globes: 5 nominations/ 1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 3 nominations/ 0 wins

DiCaprio may not be the best actor of the decade, but he is certainly the "Golden Boy". Every movie he has been in this decade has garnered critical acclaim, and that is no mistake. He also seems to have an affinity for accents, as his best three roles this decade, Gangs of New York, Blood Diamond, and The Departed, all required him to use a different tongue. He has grown tremendously since 1997's Titanic and will most likely continue to grow. Looking forward to Shutter Island in February.

5. Johnny Depp - (Blow, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Public Enemies)
Academy Awards: 3 nominations/ 0 wins
Golden Globes: 5 nominations/ 0 wins
Screen Actors Guild: 2 nominations/ 1 win

Depp gave us one of the most charismatic characters ever in Jack Sparrow in one of the most successful franchises of all time. The quirks that Depp gave his character was something that only he could provide, and for that we loved him. His frequent collaborations with Tim Burton seem to bring out he best in him, perhaps because like Burton, he is a bit eccentric. Sweeney Todd may have been his best Burton performance to date, and he even did his own singing in that role.

4. Daniel Day-Lewis - (Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood, Nine)
Academy Awards: 3 nominations/ 1 win
Golden Globes: 3 nominations/1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 2 nominations/ 2 wins

Day-Lewis was not very active in this decade, but the work he did more then made up for it. It seems Day-Lewis gets off on playing a badass as Bill the Butcher and Daniel Plainview are two of the scariest non-horror characters in movie history. He is loathsome in his roles, but if you love to hate anyone, it's the characters he plays.

3. Phillip Seymour Hoffman - ( Almost Famous, 25th Hour, Capote, The Savages, Charlie Wilson's War, Doubt)
Academy Awards: 3 nominations/ 1 win
Golden Globes: 4 nominations/ 1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 2 nominations/ 1 win

Hoffman is without question one of the most talented actors I have ever seen. The way he played Truman Capote was so vivid and meticulous, simply put I think it is the performance of the decade. It seems that every year he does a film and every year he gets nominated for awards. His Oscar nominations were in 2005,2007, and 2008. Such consistency nowadays only lies with two other actors/actresses, Meryl Streep (her whole career) and Russell Crowe (1999-2001)

2. Sean Penn - ( I Am Sam, Mystic River, 21 Grams, Milk)
Academy Awards: 3 nominations/ 2 wins
Golden Globes: 2 nominations/ 1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 3 nominations/ 0 wins

Penn is the only actor this decade to win two Oscars for Best Actor and only 1 of 9 ever. He is very versatile in his portrayals whether it be a mentally handicapped father ( I am Sam) or a real life gay activist (Milk). While he hasn't done many pictures this decade he is memorable and dynamic in what he's done. If he wasn't a household name for being Spicoli, he certainly is one after this decade.

1. Russell Crowe - (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Cinderella Man, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster)
Academy Awards: 2 nominations/ 1 win
Golden Globes: 4 nominations/ 1 win
Screen Actors Guild: 3 nominations/ 1 win

Russell Crowe in my opinion is the best actor of the decade. Crowe started out the decade strong by winning the Academy Award for his work in Gladiator. His portrayal of Maximus Decimus Meridius may be one of the top three performances of the decade (behind Ledger's Joker, and Hoffman's Capote). He would have most likely won the Academy Award the very next year for his depiction of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (top 5 performance of the decade), but his tirade against television producer Malcolm Gerrie for cutting short his acceptance speech at another award show may have turned voters against him. It's important to note that he won the Golden Globe and the SAG that year. Crowe collected many other big nominations throughout the decade for movies listed above. Recently, I believe he outacted Christian Bale in a very good movie, 3:10 to Yuma. He also outperformed the great Denzel Washington in the solid American Gangster.


Honorable Mention (in no order): Joaquin Phoenix, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Paul Giamatti, Jamie Foxx, Heath Ledger, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr.