Greatest Film Performances of the 1960s (US/UK)

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Criteria: Film Performances of the 1960s are ranked based on initial and lasting acclaim, popular and cultural recognition, plus influence. In order to qualify for this list the performance has to come from a predominately English-language film produced or co-produced by American or British production companies.

List Begun: 2019-10-19
More:   2010s  |   2000s  |   1990s  |   1980s  |   1970s  |   1960s  |   1950s  |   1940s  |   1930s
  Actor - Film Title (Year of Release)
  1. Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove (1964)
  2. Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
  3. Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  4. Peter O'Toole - Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  5. Shirley MacLaine - The Apartment (1960)
  6. Peter O'Toole - The Lion in Winter (1968)
  7. Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons (1966)
  8. Richard Burton - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
  9. Dustin Hoffman - Midnight Cowboy (1969)
10. Anthony Quinn - Zorba the Greek (1964)
11. Paul Newman - Cool Hand Luke (1967)
12. Katharine Hepburn - The Lion In Winter (1968)
13. Paul Newman - The Hustler (1961)
14. Rod Steiger - In the Heat of the Night (1967)
15. Sidney Poitier - In the Heat of the Night (1967)
16. Glenda Jackson - Women in Love (1969)
17. Jon Voight - Midnight Cowboy (1969)
18. Sidney Poitier - Lilies of the Field (1963)
19. Paul Newman - Hud (1963)
20. Jack Lemmon - The Apartment (1960)
21. Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
22. Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry (1960)
23. Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl (1968)
24. Henry Fonda - Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
25. Anne Bancroft - The Miracle Worker (1962)
26. Kirk Douglas - Spartacus (1960)
27. Michael Caine - Alfie (1966)
28. Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
29. Julie Christie - Darling (1965)
30. Anthony Perkins - Psycho (1960)
31. Katharine Hepburn - Long Day's Journey into Night (1962)
32. Bette Davis - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
33. Robert Mitchum - Cape Fear (1962)
34. Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou (1965)
35. Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate (1967)
36. Jane Fonda - They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
37. Peter O'Toole - Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
38. Julie Andrews - The Sound of Music (1965)
39. Anne Bancroft - The Graduate (1967)
40. Peter O'Toole - Becket (1964)
41. Audrey Hepburn - My Fair Lady (1964)
42. Katharine Hepburn - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
43. Faye Dunaway - Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
44. Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins (1964)
45. Elizabeth Taylor - BUtterfield 8 (1960)
46. Albert Finney - Tom Jones (1963)
47. Spencer Tracy - Inherit the Wind (1960)
48. Burt Lancaster - Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
49. Jack Lemmon - Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
50. Omar Sharif - Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
51. Geneviève Bujold - Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
52. Paul Newman - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
53. Richard Burton - Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
54. Robert Redford - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
55. Samantha Eggar - The Collector (1965)
56. Edith Evans - The Whisperers (1967)
57. Warren Beatty - Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
58. Richard Harris - This Sporting Life (1963)
59. Laurence Olivier - Spartacus (1960)
60. Maximilian Schell - Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
61. Natalie Wood - Splendor in the Grass (1961)
62. Shirley MacLaine - Irma la Douce (1963)
63. Richard Burton - Becket (1964)
64. Cliff Robertson - Charly (1968)
65. John Wayne - True Grit (1969)
66. Simone Signoret - Ship of Fools (1965)
67. Omar Sharif - Doctor Zhivago (1965)
68. Richard Burton - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
69. Spencer Tracy - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
70. Julie Christie - Doctor Zhivago (1965)
71. Sidney Poitier - A Patch of Blue (1965)
72. George C. Scott - The Hustler (1961)
73. Greer Garson - Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
74. Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady (1964)
75. Anne Bancroft - The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
76. Sean Connery - Goldfinger (1964)
77. Gene Wilder - The Producers (1967)
78. Joanne Woodward - Rachel, Rachel (1968)
79. Alan Arkin - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
80. Alan Bates - The Fixer (1968)
81. Mia Farrow - Rosemary's Baby (1968)
82. Jack Nicholson - Easy Rider (1969)
83. Fredric March - Inherit the Wind (1960)
84. Melvin Douglas - Hud (1963)
85. Natalie Wood - Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)
86. Steve McQueen - The Great Escape (1963)
87. Kim Stanley - Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
88. Ava Gardner - The Night of the Iguana (1964)
89. Frank Sinatra - The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
90. Laurence Olivier - The Entertainer (1960)
91. Deborah Kerr - The Sundowners (1960)
92. Lynn Redgrave - Georgy Girl (1966)
93. Walter Matthau - The Fortune Cookie (1966)
94. Gene Hackman - Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
95. William Holden - The Wild Bunch (1969)
96. Patricia Neal - Hud (1963)
97. Spencer Tracy - Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
98. Geraldine Page - Summer and Smoke (1961)
99. Jackie Gleason - The Hustler (1961)
100. Leslie Caron - The L-Shaped Room (1962)

101. Lee Remick - Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
102. John Wayne - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
103. Sean Connery - From Russia with Love (1963)
104. Alan Arkin - The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966)
105. Vanessa Redgrave - Morgan! (1966)
106. George Kennedy - Cool Hand Luke (1967)
107. Patricia Neal - The Subject Was Roses (1968)
108. Vanessa Redgrave - Isadora (1968)
109. Ron Moody - Oliver! (1968)
110. Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby (1968)
111. George C. Scott - Dr. Strangelove (1964)
112. Rex Harrison - Cleopatra (1963)
113. Roddy McDowell - Planet of the Apes (1968)
114. Sandra Locke - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
115. Lynn Carley - Faces (1968)
116. Steve McQueen - Bullitt (1968)
117. Sandy Dennis - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
118. Jack Lemmon - The Fortune Cookie (1966)
119. Oskar Werner - Ship of Fools (1965)
120. Elizabeth Hartman - A Patch of Blue (1965)
121. Melina Mercouri - Never on Sunday (1960)
122. Trevor Howard - Sons and Lovers (1960)
123. George Chakiris - West Side Story (1961)
124. Rachel Roberts - This Sporting Life (1963)
125. Stathis Giallelis - America America (1963)
126. Hugh Griffith - Tom Jones (1963)
127. Cary Grant - Charade (1963)
128. Audrey Hepburn - Two for the Road (1967)
129. Zero Mostel - The Producers (1967)
130. Robert Shaw - A Man for All Seasons (1966)
131. Gig Young - They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
132. Goldie Hawn - Cactus Flower (1969)
133. Sidney Poitier - A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
134. Alec Guinness - Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
135. Peter Sellers - The Pink Panther (1963)
136. Geraldine Page - Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
137. Rita Moreno - West Side Story (1961)
138. Lila Kedrova - Zorba the Greek (1964)
139. Debbie Reynolds - The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
140. Warren Beatty - Splendor in the Grass (1961)
141. Rod Steiger - The Pawnbroker (1964)
142. Steve McQueen - The Sand Pebbles (1966)
143. Frank Finlay - Othello (1965)
144. Tom Courtenay - Doctor Zhivago (1965)
145. Natalie Wood - This Property Is Condemned (1966)
146. George Segal - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
147. Martin Balsam - A Thousand Clowns (1965)
148. Terence Stamp - The Collector (1965)
149. Peter Finch - Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
150. Lee Marvin - The Dirty Dozen (1967)
151. Alan Arkin - Popi (1969)
152. Peter Ustinov - Topkapi (1964)
153. Piper Laurie - The Hustler (1961)
154. Dirk Bogarde - Victim (1961)
155. Patty Duke - The Miracle Worker (1962)
156. Shirley Jones - Elmer Gantry (1960)
157. Sal Mineo - Exodus (1960)
158. Angela Lansbery - The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
159. Joan Crawford - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
160. Tony Curtis - The Boston Strangler (1968)
161. Dyan Cannon - Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
162. James Mason - Georgy Girl (1966)
163. Vivien Merchant - Alfie (1966)
164. Shelley Winters - A Patch of Blue (1965)
165. Celia Johnson - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
166. Douglas Rain - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
167. Jean Simmons - Elmer Gantry (1960)
168. Claudia McNeil - A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
169. Dirk Bogarde - The Servant (1963)
170. Margaret Rutherford - The V.I.P.s (1963)
171. John Huston - The Cardinal (1963)
172. Oskar Werner - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
173. Mako - The Sand Pebbles (1966)
174. Wendy Hiller - A Man for All Seasons (1966)
175. Carol Channing - Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
176. John Cassavetes - The Dirty Dozen (1967)
177. Vincent Price - Witchfinder General (1968)
178. Judy Garland - Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
179. Shirley MacLaine - The Children's Hour (1961)
180. Janet Leigh - Psycho (1960)
181. Peter Ustinov - Spartacus (1960)
182. Fred MacMurray - The Apartment (1960)
183. Jerry Lewis - The Nutty Professor (1963)
184. Montgomery Clift - Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
185. Ruth Gordon - Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
186. Sidney Poitier - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
187. Geraldine Page - You're a Big Boy Now (1966)
188. Catherine Deneuve - Repulsion (1965)
189. Leslie Caron - Fanny (1961)
190. Clark Gable - The Misfits (1961)
191. James Mason - Lolita (1962)
192. Tom Courtenay - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
193. Rod Steiger - Doctor Zhivago (1965)
194. Max von Sydow - Hawaii (1966)
195. Tony Randall - Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
196. Sterling Hayden - Dr. Strangelove (1964)
197. Melina Mercouri - Topkapi (1964)
198. Edith Evans - The Chalk Garden (1964)
199. Jean Simmons - The Happy Ending (1969)
200. Elliot Gould - Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

Greatest Film Performances of the 1960s






scene from Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers

scene from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Elizabeth Taylor

scene from To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck

scene from Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O'Toole

scene from The Apartment with Shirley MacLaine

scene from The Lion in Winter with Peter O'Toole











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