10 fav Brit actors/actresses best film performances

[ChiO]

Nobody has mentioned Ida Lupino. What is she, chopped liver...excuse me...chopped bangers?

[MichiganJ]

Some of my favorites that a quick scan, I didn't see already listed:
Actresses (in alphabetical order)

Saffron Burrows--The Guitar
Helena Bonham Carter--Alice in Wonderland/Lady Jane
Judi Dench--84 Charring Cross Road/Tea with Mussolini/As Time Goes By
Sally Hawkins--Vera Drake/Happy-Go-Lucky
Patsy Kensit--Absolute Beginners/Angels and Insects
Carey Mulligan--An Education
Thandie Newton--Besieged/Crash
Charlotte Rampling (Saw she was mentioned but bears repeating if only for her one-two punch of Stardust Memories and The Verdict among many others)
Tilda Swinton--Orlando/Adaptation/Benjamin Button (I hated this move but Swinton was great)
Kristin Scott Thomas--Four Weddings/Angels and Insects/English Patient/Gosford Park/I've Loved you So Long
Emily Watson--Breaking the Waves (broke my heart)/Hilary and Jackie/Gosford Park

Actors

David Bowie--Man Who Fell To Earth/Last Temptation of Christ/Labyrinth
Jim Broadbent--Enchanted April/Topsy-Turvy/Iris
Michael Caine--Get Carter/Hannah and Her Sisters/Jaws: The Revenge
Peter Cushing--entire filmography
Ralph Fiennes--Schindler's List/English Patient/Constant Gardner/In Bruges
Michael Gough--Hammer roles/Konga/Burton films
Hugh Grant--Four Weddings/Englishman Who Went Up the Hill.../About a Boy
Ian Holm--Alien/Naked Lunch/Lord of the Rings
Jeremy Irons--Dead Ringers/Kafka/Damage
Jude Law--eXistenZ/Talented Mr. Ripley/The Holiday
Christopher Lee--See Peter Cushing
Alfred Molina--Enchanted April/Boogie Nights/Frida/An Education
Bill Nighy--Love, Actually/Valkyrie
Gary Oldman--Sid and Nancy/Rosencrantz & Guildenstern/The Contender
Alan Rickman--I know he was mentioned but he's also one of my favorites. Truly, Madly, Deeply/Dogma/Galaxy Quest/Harry Potter(s)

[JackFavell]

Oh yes, fabulous list! I like them all.

Emily Watson is a fantastic actress, and Alfred Molina definitely bears repeating. Just the mention of Bill Nighy makes me laugh, thinking of him in Love, Actually.

[charliechaplinfan]

I just scanned this thread, but I didn't seem to see anyone mention the name of Alastair Sim. Am I the only Scroogephile here? (And don't say it's because he's Scottish. Scotland is a part of Great Britain - that makes him British in my book. If you want to limit it to England, then make it English actors/actresses.)

Scottish counts in my book although I have a tendency to like films with cut glass English accents in them.

[klondike]

Scotland, did ye say?

Fair Alba, high Caledonia, Scotia bydand . .

Here's some bonnie players, wi' a' Hieland truck tae dee . .
{all British, one Scots}

[youtube][/youtube]

[JackFavell]

I love a man in a kilt - I have to go find Bronxgirl - she does too!

I like your description, Alison - "cut glass English accent" - is that someone with a precise and perfectly intoned educated English accent?

[klondike]

I love a man in a kilt - I have to go find Bronxgirl - she does too!

Och, ye canna help it, Lass - there's nae cure for it - we're a force o' nature!

[CharlieT]

Are my eyes deceiving me? Did I just go through this thread again and not see Edmund Gwenn? I know some of you don't believe in Santa Claus anymore, but come on! Sometimes you have to believe even when common sense tells you not to. The range of characters he played in his movies makes him one of my favorites.

[stuart.uk]

Jack

The mention Alfred Molina reminds me of his older wife Jill Gascoine, who may not be known in America, but was a hot tv actress in the late 70s and 80s in the period drama series The Onedin Line with Peter Gilmore. Then as Inspector Maggie Forbes in cop show The Gentle Touch and it's sequal the tv thriller Cats Eyes with Lesley Ash. She was supposed to be in Eastenders last yr, as Glenda Mitchell, but couldn't handle the workload and was replaced by the younger 50 something Glynis Barber the wife of American actor Michael Brandon, who was once married to Lindsay Wagner

[stuart.uk]

Here's Andy Stewart in a kilt. His son Ewan played Murduch in Titanic

[JackFavell]

I know her name Stuart, but can't remember seeing her. I think they used to show the Onedin Line on TV when I was a kid, is it about boats or something? I always changed the channel because I thought it would be boring or operatic.

[stuart.uk]

The Onedin Line was great, but it's for The Gentle Touch she's best known

[Rita Hayworth]

Oh yes, fabulous list! I like them all.

Emily Watson is a fantastic actress, and Alfred Molina definitely bears repeating. Just the mention of Bill Nighy makes me laugh, thinking of him in Love, Actually.

Same Here ... My favorites is Judi Dench and Alfred Molina.

[JackFavell]

I finally saw a commercial for Law and Order LA the other day... and a quick glimpse of Alfred's face. I think it's on Wednesday's at 10:00 ET

[stuart.uk]

Wendy

Here's Alfred with Dawn French