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?

This is England cast, especially Lol and Woody!

Leonardo di caprio in wolf of wall st

Jeff bridges in big lebowski

Martin Freeman in Fargo

Martin Freeman in The Office.

Christopher Waltz in Inglorious Basterds - he's mesmerising, so chilling! He's great in spectre as well, he makes my blood run cold. Brilliant actor.

Stephen Graham as Al Capone in Boardwalk Empir

Kevin Spacey in anything ever The Usual Suspects. Absolutely masterful.

Michael Fassbender in anything ever Shame and 12 Years A Slave - he is terrifying in that last one, and wonderful.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years A Slave too, though I'm not sure I will ever be able to stomach watching it again, it's so emotionally draining.

Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds.

Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L Jackson in Django Unchained.

Sigourney Weaver in Alien and Aliens.

So many brilliant films out there :)

Oh and agree with a pp re Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight - that is a wonderful performance.

And Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 - she's good in the first one, but the second is superb.

This is very low brow indeed but I was astonished by Matthew Maconaughy (sp?) in Magic Mike! I thought he was brilliant.

And Jared leto in dallas buyers club- amazing performance.

Russell Crowe in Gladiator
Sigourney Weaver in Alien
Terence Stamp in Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss

This is very low brow indeed but I was astonished by Matthew Maconaughy (sp?) in Magic Mike! I thought he was brilliant.

He was.

So was Channing Tatum.

And take that back about it being low brow!

Another vote for Bryan Cranston - I don't know if I have ever been more convinced by or invested in another character.

I watched 'About Time' last night and whilst the film was a bit shite, I loved Bill Nighy's character in it.

YY Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything. Shortly after it was released I saw an interview with Stephen Hawking in which he said he had trouble telling which parts were Eddie and which parts were of footage of himself.

Daniel Day Lewis in In the Name of the Father.

Stacey's mum in Gavin and Stacey reminds me of so many mums...

Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption
John Thaw in Goodnight Mr Tom
Pete Postlethwaite in everything he ever did, but especially In the Name of the Father, and Brassed Off (v similar roles).

I'm nodding at all of these, except any Harry Potter references, HP frenzy has passed me by.
I'll add Mark Rylance in Wolf Hall and Renee Zellwegger in Jerry Maguire.

Bloody muggles!
I thought the man who plays bane was good in batman.

Haha thank you Bathtime! I needed some back up

Lots already mentioned, but agree that Gambon was awful. Neville is excellent, as is Bellatrix.

Robert de Niro and Al Pacino in the Godfather. The entire cast of the Untouchables, and all of the cast in Once Upon a Time in America. Benigni in la Vita e' bella.

Yes to Rylance. And Thompson in Love Actually.

Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia.

HP is really not iconic literature. Readable, yes. Not iconic.

And I can totally see why Mermaid!

The Guardian has the Da Vinci Code as the world's bestselling book. Totally Not An Icon.

Yes to David Suchet as Poirot and Colin Firth as Darcy.

Alan Rickman in Harry Potter and Kevin Spacey in Usual Suspects

I thought Richard Harris was perfect for Dumbledore - perfect. I couldn't come around to Michael Gambon after seeing what could have been personally.