Actors/actresses who nailed their role?

[Timeforanamechangey]

In contrast to the unconvincing role thread, are there any actors/actresses who you think did a brilliant job as their characters?

My first thoughts are Harry Potter related :/

Michel Gambon as Dumbledore - I know he wasn't the original choice but I thought he was such a good Dumbledore, really captured the fire and humour of book Dumbledore, especially in the later books (no offence to the first Dumbledore)

Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid - maybe not quite big enough but short of using CGI (which would have been a terrible idea) I'm not quite sure they could have done better. He really played that well.

Anyone think of any others?

What next, Mary-Lou Trelawney being put up there with Becky Sharp?

Tom Hardy as Bronson.
Vicky McClure is mesmerising in This is England.
Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley

There is nothing pleasant about literature snobs.

oh yes to only fools and horses cast.
Also dawn french and jim in the vicar of dibley
not films sorry.

'There is nothing pleasant about literature snobs.'

It's all subjective. You can plop Harry Potter vols 1-12 on the shelf in between Austen and Zola and I can thrown them off the shelf when you're not looking.

Ewan McGregar in Trainspotting
and also in Miss Potter.

Robert Carlyle in Trainspotting (also was Hamis Macbeth)

Everyone in The AFFair, on tV now, but when everyone is so convincing is it down to the directing/ writing or the casting as well as the acting.

I don't know. I'm reading Harry Potter (2nd book) for my kids at the moment.

They never stop banging on about Dumbledore. He makes it into all their games and they get so excited when he appears in a scene (which is not that often). He's an icon for them.

I haven't read the books before and have only seen the first few films, because I'm not that arsed about reading children's books.

I think the books are badly paced, derivative, and a bit boring. But they have some great characters and imagination about them.

But kids love them, and kids are not stupid. These books are not meant for me. I'm coming to love them because they are a shared family story. An epic in a way.

@ throwing Harry Potter books off the shelves between Austen and Zola - it reminds me of when Adrian Mole worked in the library and moved the Jane Austen novel from Classic Literature to Romantic Fiction

Sissy Spacek in Carrie
Anthony Perkins in Pscyho
F Murray Abraham in Amadeus
Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind
Leslie Nielson in Naked Gun
Sigourney Weaaver in Alien

Tom Hiddleston in anything.

He even made Shakespeare come alive for God's sake.

Oh yes, Hiddleston is a gift as Loki in the Thor/Avengers films.

Jeff Bridges, The big Lebowski
John Goodman, The big Lebowski
Whoopi Goldberg, The Colour Purple
Tobey Maguire, Spiderman
Tim Robbins, Arlington Rd

Robert Downey Junior as Tony Stark/Ironman. Loved the comics and RDJ just IS Tony Stark.

Robert Downey Junior as Chaplin too....he was absolutely brilliant in it.

Oh and Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow.....cannot imagine anyone doing that role any better.

"Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow.....cannot imagine anyone doing that role any better."

Ooh I dunno Alf, this woman might give JD a run for his money.

'Pretty much everyone in the western world knows who Dumbledore is, that's pretty iconic.'

Pretty much everyone in the Western world?!

Oh come on now. I know the books and films are wildly popular but they're not that popular. I had to pop Dumbledore into google. I thought that was the character Robbie Coltrane played.

The cast for Hitchcock's version of Rebecca. I've seen various other adaptations but they nailed it. The book came alive for me!

Dumbledore is as close to a literary icon as you can get.

I think needing to google him is pretty unusual even for a person who hasn't read or watched any Harry Potter.

It's like having to Google Elizabeth Bennett.

Except worse

Well, seeing as Lizzie B is over 200 years old and this Dumbledore fella is less than 20 years old I don't feel too ashamed.

He's got to put a few more decades in before he reaches true icon status.

Well, seeing as Lizzie B is over 200 years old and this Dumbledore fella is less than 20 years old I don't feel too ashamed.

Your man Dumbledore is even known to my phone's autocorrect.

He's an icon in an era where the word icon means a small picture on a screen.

Michael Sheen pretty much in anything. Blair in the Queen, Nixon in Frost/Nixon and Brian Clough in Dammed United. I even liked him as Aro in Twilight (I guess I've just lost most of your goodwill )

Heath ledger in batman and also broke back mountain.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the Master.
Linda Hamilton in terminator 2.
Renee Zellwegger in cold mountain.
Jennifer Lawrence in Winters bone.
Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.