Better Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis or Leonardo DiCaprio

Meryl Streep can do no wrong.

 

It's funny how much guys like to rank things. I like to tier things. Good actors, acceptable actors, bad actors. Beyond that, does it matter?

 

Leonardo solely because he played the Irish kid and Bill the Butcher was an ass.

(but in all honesty, I don't think is a real contest...Daniel Day-Lewis is an amazing actor)

 

I agree, DD is the best actor, plus he's a megaposter on ClutchFans...
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My vote for best actor.

But outside of j Edgar, complete garbage, Leo deserves credit for being the best at choosing roles. It's a safe bet whatever movie he is in is going to be great.

 

DDL hands down.

 

I would just say with someone like Waltz, he is so good that you don't really understand that he's acting. He simply IS the character he portrays, and you're drawn into the story.

With both DDL and LD, I constantly find myself watching their *performance*, their artistic acting choices, and that takes me slightly away from the movie itself and the story each time.

So they're fantastic, but my favorite actors (and what I really think of as excellent acting in general) don't hit you over the head with "I am such a great actor -- watch this."

 

DDL one of the greatest this generation!!!

I also really like Gary Oldman and Christoph Waltz.

 

I get that feeling with Spielberg and his directing. Nothing is left to chance, everything is staged just so for maximum cinematic effect, nothing can "just be"....although he's great.

I see what you mean by DDL, but that probably comes with the territory of "greatness" and the few roles he chooses.

 

Michael Fassbender IMO is a great actor.

 

DDL does a movie seemingly every 3 years, so when a new DDL movie comes out it is a true event.

Leo is good, but not on the level of DDL.

 

The best, and most under appreciated, character actor today is John Goodman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goodman

And, sadly, he won't be making films much longer if he doesn't drop his extra weight.

 

To me Leo is a great actor the way Denzel is. Always puts in a solid performance...

... in exactly the same way. His mannerisms, speech patterns, everything always feels the same, regardless of movie.

This is something the truly all-time greats don't do with nearly the same regularity. Which is what separates DDL from Leo

 

To me, the most elite category consists of:

DDL, Joaquin Phoenix, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, and Javier Bardem. Those guys have and are still churning out impressive roles.

Joaquin Phoenix in particular stands out as someone who is still young and has an incredible filmography already. He did that bizarre mockumentary about retiring from acting, but I'm so glad he's back in the film business. The Master was an INCREDIBLE performance (to be honest, while DDL as Lincoln was great, I wouldn't have been upset if Joaquin had won best actor for that performance).

 

Leo is a great movie star. DDL is a great actor.

 

I think John C. Reilly needs to be in the discussion of 'Greatest Actor Ever'. Dude kills every single role.

 

Spoiler

 

All Leo does is cry. DDL brings life to each role.

 

dont even know who daniel day lewis is

so Leo easily