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Top 5 Favorite British Actors from The Film Fatales

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Welcome to our first series of Brit Picks, wherein the Film Fatales list and discuss our favorite cinematic British luminaries.

This is no easy feat, as there are so many wonderful choices and narrowing them down seems a ridiculous concept. But, everyone has their favorites–and we hope that you, too, will share yours in the comment section.

So, without further ado, we present each of our Top 5 Favorite British Actors:

ELIZABETH’S BRIT PICKS

Colin Firth
Favorite Role:
Everything except for Hope Springs
Why?
I don’t mean to start on a downer, but Colin Firth has so much talent that it should never be used for evil or mind-blowing boring. Nobody brought Mr. Darcy to life like he did. And, the Bridget Jones movies make you want to take him home and tickle him under the chin. Oh, only I wanted to that? The King’s Speech is one of my all-time favorite flicks and Colin embodied a king and crafted him into an ordinary man who struggled daily with a stutter. He so deserved the Oscar.  Call me.

 

Peter O’Toole
Favorite Role:
Alan Swann (My Favorite Year)
Why?
Because I said so. After the world lost this fabulous actor in 2013, I went back to review the legacy he was kind enough to leave us mere mortals. There was My Favorite Year and I remembered how I watched it over and over again because it made me laugh out loud. No easy feat.  Movie roles like The Lion in Winter and Lawrence of Arabia proved O’Toole’s Alan Swann wrong when he said, “I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star!” I beg to differ.

 

Alastair Sim
Favorite Role
: Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)
Why?
This is a sentimental favorite of mine and I could not leave Mr. Sim out. The holidays do not really kick in until I have seen A Christmas Carol and watch the best Ebenezer Scrooge there ever was in the entire world. Dickens would have approved. My mother was nearly run out of town when she dared to say that Reginald Owens was her favorite Scrooge.  And, don’t anyone mention the Mr. Magoo version. Blasphemy!

 

Daniel Day-Lewis
Favorite Role
: Everything he has ever done and will do
Why?
Daniel Day-Lewis is one of those actors that cannot do a bad film. From Abraham Lincoln to Hawkeye (my personal favorite for obvious reasons…besides the acting) to Christy Brown in My Left Foot, you see the range that most actors only dream of achieving one day. He is a true artist and I wish he would do more films, but I appreciate the fact that he picks the ones that need to be made.

 

Michael Caine
Favorite Role:
Elliot (Hannah and her Sisters)
Why?
 I just loved how Caine played Elliot, a middle-aged financial advisor, who is falling in love with Barbara Hershey’s Lee. He was charming and so vulnerable and I loved this unforgettable line: “For all my education, accomplishments and so-called wisdom, I can’t fathom my own heart.”  Plus, people said   I reminded them on Dianne Wiest’s Holly. Still working through that.

 

NICOLE’S BRIT PICKS

Cary Grant
Favorite Role:
C.K. Dexter Haven (The Philadelphia Story)
Why? It’s self-explanatory, isn’t it? No one embodies the ideal British gentleman more than Cary Grant. He was such a well-rounded actor, able to play screwball comedy (My Favorite Wife), angst-ridden action (North by Northwest), and tear-jerking romance (An Affair to Remember) with ease and finesse. He’s incomparable.

 

Benedict Cumberbatch
Favorite Role: Sherlock Holmes (BBC’s Sherlock)
Why? Need you ask? He’s a scene stealer. Every single performance I’ve seen of his (from his small, but pivotal, role in August: Osage County to leading ones like Parade’s End) he absolutely transforms into the character he’s playing. He is a truly remarkably gifted actor whose range is limitless. I’d watch him read the phone book.

 

Kenneth Branagh
Favorite Role:
Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)
Why? I think I first saw him in Dead Again, playing opposite his then-wife Emma Thompson, but it was Much Ado About Nothing that sold me. Watching his Shakespearean productions, you can see how much he respects and loves the source material.

 

Ralph Fiennes
Favorite Role:
Maurice Bendrix (The End of the Affair)
Why? I love his willingness to portray tortured characters and reveal the depths of their souls – good or bad. I first encountered his work as Heathcliff in the 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, starring opposite Juliette Binoche. He drew me in like no other Heathcliff before or after.

 

Tom Hiddleston
Favorite Role:
Loki (Thor, Thor: The Dark World, The Avengers)
Why? Hiddleston already has an impressive body of work, but I predict that he will have a very long and respected career. His intensity and committal to every part is astounding. Only Hiddleston can take a Marvel villain like Loki, turn him into one of the most-beloved characters, and make people root for him instead of the hero. Now, that’s talent.

Who makes it into your Top 5? Share your list in the comments section.

The Film Fatales are two acid-tongued, sassy broads who rant and rave about the best and worst of modern and classic cinema. Elizabeth Cassidy is an artist, creativity coach for artists and writers, an award-winning blogger and the fifth Beatle. To know Elizabeth is to be slightly afraid of her. Avid blogger and smart-arse, Nicole Dauenhauer is an advertising copywriter by day and an aspiring fiction/non-fiction writer by night. She’s an incorrigible Anglophile whose inner voice speaks in a British accent and prefers her Earl Grey with milk and sugar – not lemon.


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