Top 10 Acting Oscar Wins of ALL TIME

well after more than a year and multiple videos counting down my favorite acting Oscar wins of each decade starting from the 2010s and working our way back it's time for the final video in this series my picks for the best acting Oscar wins of all time I didn't make videos about my favorites from the 1930s or the 1940s if you're interested in my full top tens there check the description below but for now let's explore my 10 absolute favorite acting Oscar wins in 95 years of the Academy Awards here we go number 10 Marlon Brando on the waterfront he wanted my philosophy of life foreign does it to you some people might say that his best acting Oscar win is for The Godfather I understand that thinking it is probably the most iconic role in the history of Cinema but there's something that's just So Fresh So fascinating about his role in on the waterfronts it's also kind of neat that he actually wanted that Oscar he's there he accepted the prize he gave a beautiful speech there's something that's always been kind of Tainted about the way he dismissed his second Oscar win for The Godfather so they're both of course amazing performances it's really hard to compare the two but in thinking of my favorite acting Oscar wins of all time making the list at number 10 has to be Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront it's much heavier than Legend gosh I had a something to say and I can't remember what I was going to say to the life of me number nine Vivian Lee Gone With the Wind and you were here in this horrid game and not even a human jail read a horse jail oh listen to me trying to make jokes man and I really want to cry I didn't make a top 10 acting Oscar wins video for the 1930s but I am telling you now my favorite acting win of that decade easily is Vivian Lee's Pitch Perfect turn as Scarlett O'Hara in the dazzling epic Gone With the Wind if there was ever a star making film performance it's this one she gets to play every kind of dramatic shade she can be funny she can be brutal she can be heavily damaged it's just one of those all-timer great characters in the movies paired with the perfect actor Vivian Lee a lot of great women tested for that role but I cannot imagine anyone other than Vivian Lee as Scarlett O'Hara if I were to mentioned all those who've shown me such wonderful generosity through Gone with the Wind I should have to entertain you with a narration as long as Gone With the Wind itself number eight Joan Crawford Mildred Pierce get your things out of this house right now before I throw them into the street and you're with him get out before I kill you I also didn't make a video about my favorite acting Oscar wins from the 1940s but if you want to know my favorite from that decade here it is one of my favorite actors of all time is the great Joan Crawford I adore her work I spent all of 2020 watching every Joan Crawford movie in chronological order she is a Sublime actor who tried out pretty much every genre known to man she was always taking risks in her career and there's no time in it more exciting than in the mid to late 1940s just amazing films Great Performances and of course the very best Crawford performance is in Mildred Pierce she is on another level in this movie at the time she completely rejuvenated her career with this part it is just absolutely fantastic work and I love that Joan Crawford accepted her Oscar win in the best actors category from her bed I don't think the public knows what that Oscar means to us it is one of the most emotional things that can ever happen to a human being number seven Natalie Portman Black Swan it's my turn boy do I have lots to say about this Oscar win about this Oscar race her best actress between Natalie Portman and Annette Benning I'll probably do an Annette Benning in The elusive Oscar video in the months to come I also might do a Portman versus Benning video down the road I just love this race I love this year in film and Black Swan is one of my favorites I love what Natalie Portman is doing in this movie and it's just her finest hour it's a very physical role she has to play all kinds of emotions it's kind of a horror film and it's also like a lyrical lovely weird drama I mean Black Swan has everything great supporting performances from Mila Kunis Barbara Hershey Winona Ryder get ready for my Winona Ryder and the elusive Oscar video by the way Natalie Portman is one of the finest actresses of over generation I also really love her work in Jackie a few years later but nothing has come close to the mind-boggling incredible turn she gives in Black Swan I am so grateful to get to do the job that I do I love it so much I want to thank my parents um who right there first and foremost for giving me my life and for giving me the opportunity to work number six Jack Nicholson One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I think I'm gonna put it through the window and meet my buddy cheswood are going to go out through the hall downtown sit down in a bar wet our whistles and watch the ball game and that's the bet now does anybody want any of it I know this final list leans very female what can I say I'm a gay dude I like my actresses and I love my Best Actress Oscar wins but I do have to say one of my favorite acting Oscar wins of all time is Jack Nicholson for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the work that Nicholson did in the 70s is astonishing starting with his wonderful performance in Five Easy Pieces and then moving on to the Last Detail in Chinatown and then wrapping up a remarkable run with 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I think this is his finest performance in the history of film although I love his later performances in films like About Schmidt but there's just something about this time in history that complicated funny bizarre confident and memorable performance from Nicholson in this most extraordinary film I'd like to thank Miss Pickford who incidentally uh I believe was the first actor to get a percentage of her pictures [Music] number five Charlize Theron Monster give me a week you want to go later I'll buy you ticket okay I'll take you there myself just give me a week this performance and this Oscar win continue to dazzle me nearly 20 years later because I still remember at the time that we all kind of thought of Charlize Theron in a certain way as an actor we never thought she could deliver a dramatic performance on this level like at the time I liked her in movies like The Italian Job but this was the movie that made us all go holy like this is a stunning transformation that I believe if I remember correctly Roger Ebert watched the entire movie not even realizing it was Charlize Theron as the character and I could see at the time if you didn't know any of the buzz around the movie monster if you hadn't read up on it and you just walked into a theater you wouldn't necessarily assume that's Charlize Theron she looks so different difference and her chemistry with Christina Ricci is great she gets to play every kind of emotion in Monster and she delivers in every scene this is one of those all-timer performances that unfortunately Charlize Theron will never be able to top although she's of course been great since especially as furiosa and Mad Max Fury Road but there's nothing like what she accomplished what she was able to do for her career and what she brought to this complex character in Monster and I know everybody in New Zealand's been thanked so I'm gonna thank everybody in South Africa my home country they're all watching tonight and I'm bringing this home next week number four Vivian Lee A Streetcar Named Desire I don't want realism I want magic yes yes Magic I try to give that to people I do present things I don't tell truth I don't want all to be true than if that is simple then let me be punished for it don't turn the light on it's funny that Vivian Lee actually has a very slim filmography she didn't make very many movies and she is the only person to show up on this list twice I couldn't leave off her amazing performance and Gone With the Wind but I think her turn in A Streetcar Named Desire is even better you cannot take your eyes off of Vivian Lee in this movie it is totally different from what she did in Gone With the Wind this is a much more wounded character someone who is spiraling out of control there's no vanity in her performance she lets just everything hang out and the black and white really gives the movie and her character kind of a Sinister quality at times but also a vulnerability to her character that I really love every time I watch the movie she goes through such a fascinating Arc and I know that Jessica Tandy played the role on stage but I cannot imagine this movie with anyone but Vivian Lee in that role it is a showstopper [Music] number three Elizabeth Taylor who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf I'm loud and I'm vulgar and I wear the pants I am not a monster I'm not I'm not sure if everybody remembers Elizabeth Taylor as a great actress I feel like a lot of people nowadays think of her as a cinema icon of a great Hollywood star but she was a damn good actress I mean some of the films she made in the 1950s like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Place in the Sun show her talent in a myriad of ways but nothing she ever did on film captured just how much talent she truly had than who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf this is her master class this is the best she ever was and as much as I love the entire cast of this movie the performance that brings me back into wanting to watch it every few years is that turn by Taylor she is so fiery she is so unpredictable she just chews the scenery every second with this character and relishes it and you can feel that relationship when you watch it she is loving this role kind of like Vivian Lee in A Streetcar Named Desire also not having vanity showing her flaws Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most beautiful women to have ever lived and in this movie you see a different side to her she's not always glamorous and the director Mike Nichols sometimes points the camera at Taylor in ways that no other director would have pointed them at her but it works for this movie it works for this character I love Elizabeth Taylor and who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Miss Taylor regrets very much that she can't be here tonight uh I'm sure she must be very very proud number two Kathy Bates misery you dirty bird how could you she can't be dead misery chest pain cannot be dead all right so you might not agree with this one you might think it's a little bit too high on the list the best acting Oscar wins of all time and Kathy Bates and misery gets number two again this is a personal preference you might have a completely different list I love the horror genre it's my favorite genre and those performances are almost always overlooked they rarely get nominations of the Academy Awards and they almost never win so when a performance like this which I love it's one of my favorite performances in film of all time actually gets the nomination and the win I celebrate I adore what Kathy Bates does in this movie it was a groundbreaking performance that really brought her to our attention in 1990 she's playing so much more than a crazed stalker she gets to show us every staged of this very damaged woman who is clinging on to this love she has for this book series and this author many movies for me I get tired of watching more than two or three times I can watch Misery every few months and still be as entertained as I was the first time I saw it in high school and most of that has to do with the Kathy Bates performance I think it's one of the great movie performances of all time and I am so very happy that Kathy Bates won an Oscar for it I would like to thank Jimmy Khan and apologize publicly for the ankles and I would like to say that I really am your number one fan Jimmy before we get to my Top Choice here are the five runners-up Liza Minnelli Cabaret another performance I love that is still as fresh and as fascinating as it was upon its release in 1972 and what Liza Minnelli Does in this movie not just with her singing and dancing but also with her dramatic scenes is Sensational Robert De Niro Raging Bull it's easily this great actor's finest hour and some of the best work that Martin Scorsese ever put on film this movie is so haunting every time I look at it I am always amazed by what Robert De Niro does in the movie it's not just the physical transformation although that is really impressive it's also the way he gets in touch with the humanity of this very wounded Soul Anthony Hopkins The Silence of the Lambs I think with any other film performance I would say it's kind of ridiculous that he won best actor given that he's only in the movie for a few select minutes but when Hannibal Lecter is not in the movie you still feel his presence it's like he's lingering in the shadows waiting for his next big moments the scenes between Clarice and Lecter are just some of the greatest in movie history and Anthony Hopkins so terrifying so iconic has never been better than he was in The Silence of the Lambs Heath Ledger The Dark Knight similar to Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs you feel the presence of the Joker all throughout those two and a half hours of The Dark Night even when he's been absent from the screen for 15 20 25 minutes you're thinking of that character you're wondering what he's up to and the power that Heath Ledger holds over the audience cannot ever be taken for granted I always feel grateful that ledger lived just long enough to play this role because he got to show so much of what he was capable as an actor in both Brokeback Mountain from 2005 and the dark knight from 2008. these are two extraordinary performances for the ages and I especially love what he does as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and Michelle yo everything everywhere all at once I think this Best Actress Oscar Nguyen is going to age like fine wine the more I think about it the happier I get I mean just a spectacular performance by Michelle yo who'd never gotten to play a character like this where she gets to show every facet of her Talent she's funny she's sad she's a total badass she gets to play so many versions of her character and the emotion she brings to that character in that final half hour I will never forget I know that Cate Blanchett was also amazing in tar and that's another fantastic performance for the ages but after 95 years I think it was time to reward an Asian person in the best actress category and for such an amazing performance that marked the role of a lifetime for the one and only Michelle yo alright so that brings us to the number one choice who is my pick for the greatest acting Oscar win of all time this probably won't surprise you in the least it's Meryl Streep of course for Sophie's Choice I'm sorry no that is I American port I need tickets I just think this is the Apex this is the very best anybody has ever been in a movie I don't necessarily think Sophie's Choice is a great film we'll be talking about her win for this movie in a few weeks in part 4 of Meryl Streep and the Oscars I'm gonna talk about how my feelings towards the film itself has fluctuated throughout the years I definitely appreciate it I like the Kevin Klein performance the Peter McNichol performance but I just think Meryl Streep is on another level in every scene of this movie she's always been amazing I've loved her work in 50 other films but when I think of Meryl Streep I always go back to what she did in Sophie's Choice she plays all kinds of emotional Shades what she does with her voice with her accent that heart-wrenching scene where she has to make the choice is unlike any scene that's ever been put on film Meryl Streep is one of my favorite actresses I love her I love her career I love the person she is and I love love love love love love Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice my choice for the greatest acting Oscar win of all time okay no matter how much you try to um imagine what this is like it's just so incredibly thrilling right down to your toes thanks so much for watching if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe let me know in the comments below what's another Oscar top 10 series you'd like me to explore how about my favorite Oscar wins and categories other than acting or how about the most agreed to snubs we'll see you next time

Channel: The Awards Contender

Views: 291,296

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Id: zK5YykJhHTw

Length: 21min 2sec (1262 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023