Premiere Magazine
100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time
by Premiere Magazine

Part 2


Part 1
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Premiere Magazine
100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time

by Premiere Magazine

(part 2, by reverse ranking)

#
Character Name Played By Film Title The Performance
75
Diana Scott Julie Christie Darling (1965) A mercurial, spoiled, manipulative model/actress anti-heroine.
74
Lili Von Shtupp Madeline Kahn Blazing Saddles (1974) A slatternly, speech-impaired Germanic bar performer, billed as the "Teutonic Titwillow".
73
Tony Manero John Travolta Saturday Night Fever (1977) A strutting, cocky, narcissistic, intoxicating disco dancer.
72
Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester Judy Garland A Star Is Born (1954) A vulnerable club singer with a fabulous voice and twitchy lips.
71
Karen Silkwood Meryl Streep Silkwood (1983) A suffering Texan whistle-blower at an unsafe nuclear plant.
70
Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins The Silence of the Lambs (1991) A brilliant psychiatrist/serial killer with a taste for human flesh.
69
Norma Desmond Gloria Swanson Sunset Boulevard (1950) A washed-up, monomaniacal silent-film diva.
68
Dr. David Huxley Cary Grant Bringing Up Baby (1938) A strait-laced, bumbling paleontologist who stammers, cringes, walks into doors, bumps heads, sings with a dog, slips on an olive, dons a negligee, etc.
67
Henry Drummond Spencer Tracy Inherit the Wind (1960) A gruff, persuasive lawyer with leonine scowls who exposes the inanity and hatred behind a new law forbidding the teaching of evolution.
66
Jane Craig Holly Hunter Broadcast News (1987) An effervescent, complicated, and neurotic TV news producer.
65
Jerry/Daphne Jack Lemmon Some Like It Hot (1959) A grouchy Chicago bass player transformed into a Miami party girl dressed in comical drag.
64
'Fast' Eddie Felson Paul Newman The Hustler (1961) A cocky, perennially-losing pool shark.
63
Mabel Longhetti Gena Rowlands A Woman Under the Influence (1974) A eager-to-please housewife slowly going crazy.
62
Sid Vicious Gary Oldman Sid & Nancy (1986) A desperate, overdosing punk rock band member.
61
Amon Goeth Ralph Fiennes Schindler's List (1993) A depraved, driven and restless Nazi concentration camp commandant.
60
Annie Hall Diane Keaton Annie Hall (1977) A ditzy, loopy, nervous, complicated and intelligent woman.
59
Severine Serizy Catherine Deneuve Belle de Jour (1967, Fr.) An icily timid, haute-bourgeois wife with bizarre masochistic dreams who works afternoons at a brothel.
58
Ellen Ripley Sigourney Weaver Aliens (1986) A tough, buffed, bad-ass mama facing the otherworldly alien with assertive girl power.
57
Lasse Karlsson Max Von Sydow Pelle the Conqueror (1987) A Swedish widower who emigrated to Denmark with his beloved young son.
56
Sarah Tobias Jodie Foster The Accused (1988) A multi-faceted gang-rape victim with a sharp tongue and shady reputation.
55
Virgil Tibbs Sidney Poitier In the Heat of the Night (1967) A Philadelphia homicide detective embroiled in a murder case in the Deep South with a redneck police chief.
54
Tracy Lord Katharine Hepburn The Philadelphia Story (1940) A regal rich girl with a radiant, mischievous, sexy, and ebullient spirit.
53
Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting Daniel Day-Lewis Gangs of New York (2002) A murderous, boisterous, angry-eyed, passionate, and self-rightous overlord.
52
Miss Kenton Emma Thompson Remains of the Day (1993) A dutiful and gracefully-defiant head housekeeper of a 1930s English manor, involved with an emotion-smothering model butler.
51
Tom Joad Henry Fonda The Grapes of Wrath (1940) An ex-con Everyman forced on the Okie migration to California during the Great Depression.

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