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?

Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen in Out of Africa. Best performance of all time contender (IMO)

I thought Tom Hanks was perfect in Big - he got that innocence of childhood just right and his confusion of the adult world was perfectly pitched

Juliet Stevenson in Truly, Madly, Deeply

Jeremy Irons and his son Sam in Danny, Champion of the World

Viola Davis is amazing in How To Get Away With Murder.

Ria I just finished watching that! It's fantastic isn't it? So well-cast.

Have you seen season 2 as well Faith? The mid-season finale was so intense!

Cannot believe no one has mentioned Joan Hickman as Miss Marple. And this one is proven because loads of other people have tried and they just aren't right

Oh yes, Joan Hickman was amazing. Nobody did that role better imho.

I've only seen what's on Netflix!

I maybe sometimes lie to the internet that I'm definitely in America and allowed to watch this video...

Heath Ledger is Brokeback Mountain. He IS Ennis Del Mar

Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad

Bob Odenkirk in Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul

Kathy Bates in Misery

Eleanor Parker who played The Baroness in The Sound of Music

I'll buy that HP is modern icon. But I do think a book has to be around more than 20 years for one of its characters to warrant being described as 'one of the most iconic characters in the history of literature'.

YY to Joan Hickson's Marple, love when those appear on TV. And another YY to Rylance's Cromwell, even though he's not all that like Cromwell physically.

Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List as the concentration camp commandant was so terrifyingly believable.

It's been ages since a film has lured me to the cinema but I'm SO looking forward to Bridge of Spies. Right up my street.

The last film I saw at the cinema that I thought was really great was 2001 Space Odyssey when my local cinema was re-showing a load of classics!

Third vote for Joan Hickson as Marple.

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes (original version)

Would you find me frightfully greedy if I helped myself to another

There is no other Marple.

Ooh yes Ralph Fiennes was terrifying as the Nazi Commandent in Schindlers List. Horrific film, I had nightmares after seeing it.

Just come on to say Renee Zellwegger as Bridget Jones. Especially as she's Amerucan, I thought she captured the character's sweetness and vulnerability so well and made her very endearing ( don't know how the 3rd film is going to turn out tho, with all the work she's had done on her face...) :(