Not saying he's the greatest, but Bill Murray at least deserves some consideration. For 20 years he's been one of the funniest. Now, in the twilight, he's showing astonishing dramatic range. Any man who can do both Ghostbusters and Lost in Translation should get some kind of award.
Norton or Hanks would get my vote. Norton played a nazi, a psychopath, and smoochie and pulled it off wonderfully.
but how many movies does he play Tom Hanks? Splash, Bachelor Party, The Man with One Red Shoe, The Money Pit, Nothing in Common, Dragnet, Big, Turner & Hooch, Joe Versus the Volcano, The Bonfire of the Vanities, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13, That Thing You Do!, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can. Movies where he stretched: Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, The Ladykillers. I can not think of a single TH movie of where I went "I can't believe that that is Tom Hanks". Another actor who I like and who plays himself in every role is Burt Reynolds.
Tie for Robert Duval and Gene Hackman in my opinion. For women actresses I would say Judy Davis, or Frances McDormand . I think Phillip Seymore Hoffman and Billy Bob Thorthon are the best actors working right now.
Russell Crowe can't get any love? I know he's got a reputation as an ass, and he's only been big-time for about 10 years, but this guy is the best in the business right now. You want range? Gladiator, Insider, Beautiful Mind, and Cinderella Man. That's four totally distinct characters, and he nailed each of them. His sincere un-ironic turn in Cinderella Man was most impressive to me. You rarely see characters like that in the first place, let alone actors that can pull it off.
I thought Deniro played the same character in every movie until I saw Awakenings and was blown away. That was a great performance. Also, Billy Bob Thornton deserves some love just for Slingblade. I had to watch that one more than once before I finally figured out it was him playing Carl Childers.
You want RANGE??? C'mon... that's a no-brainer: A sailor, a robot, a Genie, an old woman, a teacher (twice), Peter Pan, AI's voice, Osric, a funny doctor, a Russian doctor, a Psychiatric Doctor, a toymaker, an absent-minded professor, a radio announcer, an Alien... [there's more!] Who am I? And BTW, to anyone who has "washington" anywhere in their answer: Denzel sucks.
Swoly just mentioned him but by that same token Robin Williams should get some respect. he's done both comedy and serious stuff very well. my own personal pick is hanks. he's just made so many good movies and been so good in all of them. and i don't care if he was tom hanks in A League of Their Own (was he really?), but he was hilarious. just perfect. and of course philadelphi and forrest gump were great and deservedly got him oscars (as in multiple). for lighter stuff, tom cruise. he's made a ton of good movies for 20+ years and while he may not be a great "actor", his charisma/cockiness/smartass-ness has been the energy that carried a lot of them.
Don Cheadle Phillip Seymore Hoffman Terrence Howard Those are three people that put out great performance after great performance.
Cruise takes a lot of heat, and rightfully so, but I thought he was great in Born on the Fourth of July. That was the first time I actually respected him as an actor. Great performance.
I'll give you Robin Williams, he's good. how can you say Denzel sucks though? Man on Fire, Training Day, The Hurricane, He Got Game, Malcolm X, Glory, John Q, The Siege. those are just the good ones i can think of off the top of my head.