Best drama actors (all time)

John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. Early in his career, he was best known for playing Dan Conner on the ABC TV series Roseanne (1988–1997), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1993...

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer, and artist. He attended the Actors Studio, making his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in two films with J...

Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is well known for his portrayal of Andy Dufresne in the prison drama film The Shawshank Redemp...

Lucy Alexis Liu (born Lucy Liu; December 2, 1968) is an American actress, model and artist. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), for which...

Jennifer Jason Leigh (born February 5, 1962) is an American actress. She has appeared in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Easy Money, Flesh + Blood, The Hitcher, The Hudsucker Proxy, Single White Female, Dolores Claiborne, Last Exit...

Josh James Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. His first role was in the 1985 film The Goonies. Since then he has appeared in a wide number of films, and is best known for his work as Llewellyn Moss in No Country...

Emilia Clarke (born 26 October 1986) is an English actress, best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Clarke made her Broadway debut in Breakfast at Tiffany's as Holly Golightly in March 2013...

Marilyn Monroe ( Norma Jeane Mortenson, June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer.

Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and performance artist. She was best known for her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy a...

Jared Leto (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and director.

Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a four-year theatre program at York University in 2001, she initially worked in Canadian television and film productions such as the drama f...

Bridget Jane Fonda (born January 27, 1964) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in such films as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown. She also pro...

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker.

Helena Bonham Carter (born 26 May 1966) is an English actress. She made her name as an actress in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses, before her film debut as the titular character in Lady Jane. She is kn...

Angelina Jolie Pitt (née Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and has been cited as Hollywood'...

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-born American actor, producer, activist, businessman, investor, writer, philanthropist, former professional bodybuilder, and politician. Schwarzenegger served two ter...

Steven John "Steve" Carell (born August 16, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director, producer and writer. After a five-year stint on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Carell found greater fame for playing Michael Scott on th...

Frances Louise McDormand (born June 23, 1957) is an American actress. She has been married to director and writer Joel Coen since 1984 and has starred in several of the Coen brothers' films, including Blood Simple (1984), Raising...

Keira Christina Knightley (born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child on television and made her film debut in 1995. She had a supporting role as Sabé in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menac...

Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress and singer. Adams began her career on stage performing in dinner theatre and later made her feature film debut in Drop Dead Gorgeous. After moving to Los Angeles and appe...

William James "Bill" Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He first gained exposure on Saturday Night Live, for which he earned his first Emmy Award and later went on to star in comedy films,...

Eric Bana (born Eric Banadinović; 9 August 1968) is an Australian actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before appearing in the biographical crime film Chopper (2000). After a decade of...

Akira Kurosawa ( March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker. Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years.

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. He has worked as a composer for movies and musicals and has acted in supporting roles in films, including Paradise Alley and Br...

David Bowie (born David Robert Jones, 8 January 1947) was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor.

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and (briefly) Makaveli, was an American rapper, author, actor, and poet. As of 2007, Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide, ma...

Yasiin Bey ( born Dante Terrell Smith; December 11, 1973), better known by his former stage name Mos Def ), is an American hip hop recording artist, actor, comedian, and activist from Brooklyn, New York City, New York...

Walton Sanders Goggins, Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He played Shane Vendrell on The Shield and Boyd Crowder on Justified. He also appeared in films, such as Django Unchained, Machete Kills, Lincoln, The Apos...

Patrick Wayne Swayze (August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter. Having gained fame with appearances in films during the 1980s, Swayze became popular for playing tough guys and roma...

Kerry Marisa Washington (born January 31, 1977) is an American actress. Since 2012, Washington has gained wide public recognition for starring in the ABC drama Scandal, a Shonda Rhimes series in which she plays Olivia Pope, a cris...

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and director. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records...

Chen Daoming (born 26 April 1955) is a Chinese actor who has starred in various genres of film and television series.

Xu Jinglei (born April 16, 1974) is a Chinese actress and film director. She graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1997. She has also spanned an acting career with directing since 2003. Although not well known outside of China, X...

Zhou Xun (born October 18, 1974) is a Chinese actress and singer who has won "Best Actress" at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Golden Bauhinia Awards, Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards, Golden Horse Awards, Golden Rooster Awards, H...

Anita Mui Yim-fong (10 October 1963 – 30 December 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actress. Mui once held a sold-out concert in Hammersmith, London, England, where she was dubbed the "Madonna of Asia (東方麥當娜)" and brought her to fu...

Huang Shengyi (born February 11, 1983), also known as Eva Huang, is a Chinese actress and singer.

Andy Lau Tak-wah (born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer-songwriter, actor, presenter, and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in...

Zhang Yimou (born 14 November 1951) is a Chinese film director, producer, screenwriter and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1...

Felix Wong Yat-wah (born September 4, 1961) is a Hong Kong actor best known for his performances in many wuxia television series produced by TVB, such as The Legend of the Condor Heroes (1983), in which he played the protagonist K...

Gong Li (born 31 December 1965) is a Chinese born Naturalised Singaporean Chinese actress. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou. She has twice been awarded the...

Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian actor and producer. He portrayed Michael Bergen on the ABC sitcom Two Guys and a Girl (1998–2001), Billy Simpson in the YTV Canadian teen soap opera Hillside (1991–93), as...

Oscar Isaac (born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada; March 9, 1979) is a Guatemalan-American actor and singer. He is known for his lead film roles in the comedy-drama Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), for which he received a Golden Globe Aw...

Roman Polanski (born Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański, 18 August 1933) is a Paris-born Pole and, since 1976, naturalized French-Polish film director, producer, writer, and actor. Born in Paris to Polish parents, he moved with his fa...

Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an American actor and producer. An Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee, he has appeared in films such as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma...

Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. His 19...

Michael Søren Madsen (born September 25, 1958) is an American actor, poet and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, including Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise, Wyatt Earp, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, Species, Kill Bi...

Peter Henry Fonda (born February 23, 1940) is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda (by first wife Susan Brewer, stepdaughter of Noah Dietrich). Fonda is an...

Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Following early r...

John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) and starring in the box of...

Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films like The Big Bird Cage (1972)...