Favorite actors & actresses?

Since I love movies more than anything except family and friends, and am somewhat of an "all-eater" when it comes to movie taste, I have a lot of actors I admire a great deal. I like the action genre a lot (the classic kind of action from the 70's-90's, not the CGI-infested crap that has all but killed the genre over the past decade or so), so a lot of my favorite actors are action heroes, most of who I've carried with me from my childhood.

However, my all-time favorite actor is someone who doesn't quite fit into that category - Charlton Heston, I don't think that place he has will ever change. He commands the screen like no one else I've ever seen. He was made to be a movie star and have done so, so many good movies. Ben-Hur, Planet of the Apes, The Ten Commandments, Soylent Green, El Cid, Will Penny. Just an amazing body of work he left behind.

My second favorite is Charles Bronson. The last couple of years have been insane, I've bought so many movies and other stuff of his that it looks like he's my #1 favorite actor ahead of Heston. Along with Clint, he's like the father of the action hero type which served the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Seagal etc very well. I just really love his on-screen persona, it feels real because he really was the strong, silent type in real life. He was very private, so I find it very interesting to read about him outside of the movies.

Another favorite of mine is someone totally different - James Stewart. Oh, how I love this man. He's the ONE actor where you can't ask a friend "Do you like James Stewart?", because it's literally impossible NOT to like James Stewart. He's the most lovable actor of all-time, the Everyday All-American. I don't think there's any other actor with a more impressive resumé than James Stewart. Just think about it:

You Can't Win 'Em All
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Philadelphia Story
It's a Wonderful Life
Rope
Harvey
The Greatest Show on Earth
Rear Window
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Rear Window
Anatomy of a Murder
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

And that's just some of the best he's done. From all accounts, he seems to have been just as nice and lovable in real life as he's portrayed in many of his movies.

Those are three of them, more to come at a later time!

Julianne Moore
Bette Davis (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is a masterpiece)
Marilyn Monroe
Meryl Streep
Nicole Kidman (as Virginia Woolf in The Hours)
Jaye Davidson (in The Crying Game)
Colin Firth (in A Single Man)
David Suchet (as Hercule Poirot)
Jennifer Saunders
Anthony Andrews (in Brideshead Revisited - a TV-series that changed my life when I was 11 years old)

Meryl Streep
Robert Downey Jnr
Samuel L Jackson
Conrad Bain
Betty White
Bea Arthur
David Suchet (was brilliant in Poirot, I read somewhere that he grew so attached to his character that he wanted to film his death scene first..)
John Amos
Alan Fletcher
Ange Lansbury
Margot Robbie
Dixie carter
Jean Smart

adding on Hal Holbrook as well.

His grey's anatomy appearance was so random but he did a great job in the episode he was in

Speaking of Hal Holbrook, its makes me miss Dixie Carter so much. Both of them fantastic in their craft. Dixie had that flair for taking everything for her character even if it was for one episode (e.g. her episode on Diagnosis Murder. Flair for the dramatic. Her 7 episode stint on Desperate Housewives even better). She left nothing to chance and she stole every scene.

Hal has been amazing for years. And I bet you every movie, tv show or broadway work he's thinking of Dixie, because in every photo you see of those two together, smiling, in love and loving each other, not like many Hollywood relationships you know the whole "gotta keep up this for the fans." nah those two were special.

I think I can add Charlotte Rae to my list as well. A special lady. wonderful in everything she did.