My Favorite Performances of the Decade (Actors)

I'm definitely not above taking great ideas just so long as the the proper credit is given. This past week I discovered THIS LIST over at Jeremy Richey's Moon in the Gutter blog and was inspired to compile my own photo tribute of my favorite acting performances over the past ten years (and help kill time while I continue to work on my best films of the decade list). I agreed with a lot of his picks, added some, and you'll find a few big surprises (though not as many as you'll see on the upcoming actress list) While naming thirty may seem excessive, it really isn't when you consider all the fine acting work done over the past decade. Whittling it down was tough and inevitably some of my favorites had to be cut.

I wasn't brave enough to even attempt ranking these in order of preference since my respect for all of these would just make that impossible. My only rule was to not include an actor twice. So if they gave more than one performance I felt was worthy, I picked the overlooked one to draw needed attention to it. But that's not to say some of these have already been showered with massive accolades and praise for good reason. Going in I told myself I wouldn't include anything from 2009 so, go figure, I put one on anyway and it's a real testament to his work that I didn't hesitate breaking my own rules to single him out. It'll be interesting to see whether I cave in again and deem '09 eligible when compiling the best films of the decade. You wouldn't be wrong to assume some clues to the contents of that could be found here. I'm sure this won't be the last mention of at least a few of these.

George Clooney (Michael Clayton)




Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)




Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)




Jeff Daniels (The Squid & the Whale)




Jeff Bridges (The Door in the Floor)




Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys)




Ben Foster (Alpha Dog)




Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood)




Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)




Emile Hirsch (Into The Wild)




Ed Norton (25th Hour)




Haley Joel Osment (A.I.)




Tobin Bell (Saw II)




Nicolas Cage (Adaptation)




Noah Emmerich (Little Children)




Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)




Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick)




Adam Sandler (Punch Drunk Love)




Gene Hackman (The Royal Tenenbaums)




Sean Penn (The Assassination of Richard Nixon)




Bill Murray (Lost in Translation)




Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy)




Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men)




Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)




Steve Carell (The 40-Year-Old Virgin)




Luke Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums)




Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl)




Paul Giamatti (Sideways)




Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)




Colin Farrell (In Bruges)