Greatest Film Performances of the 1970s (US/UK)

Movie images collage
Criteria: Film Performances of the 1970s 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. Marlon Brando - The Godfather (1972)
  2. Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver (1976)
  3. Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
  4. Al Pacino - The Godfather Part II (1974)
  5. George C. Scott - Patton (1970)
  6. Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
  7. Gene Hackman - The French Connection (1971)
  8. Diane Keaton - Annie Hall (1977)
  9. Jack Nicholson - Chinatown (1974)
10. Ellen Burstyn - Alice Don't Live Here Anymore (1974)
11. Gena Rowland - A Woman Under Influence (1974)
12. Al Pacino - Serpico (1973)
13. Jane Fonda - Klute (1971)
14. Dustin Hoffman - Kramer vs Kramer (1979)
15. Peter Finch - Network (1976)
16. Al Pacino - The Godfather (1972)
17. Marlon Brando - Last Tango in Paris (1972)
18. Malcolm McDowell - A Clockwork Orange (1971)
19. Peter Sellers - Being There (1979)
20. Robert De Niro - The Deer Hunter (1978)
21. Jack Nicholson - The Last Detail (1973)
22. Jon Voight - Coming Home (1978)
23. Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
24. Sylvester Stallone - Rocky (1976)
25. Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter (1978)
26. Jane Fonda - Coming Home (1978)
27. Jack Lemmon - Save the Tiger (1973)
28. Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part II (1974)
29. Robert De Niro - Mean Streets (1973)
30. Gene Hackman - The Conversation (1974)
31. Dustin Hoffman - Lenny (1974)
32. Sally Field - Norma Rae (1979)
33. Robert Duvall - Apocalypse Now (1979)
34. Al Pacino - ...And Justice for All (1979)
35. Robert Duvall - The Great Santini (1979)
36. Laurence Olivier - Sleuth (1972)
37. Jack Nicholson - Five Easy Pieces (1970)
38. Gene Hackman - I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
39. Topol - Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
40. Art Carney - Harry & Tonto (1974)
41. Richard Dreyfuss - The Goodbye Girl (1977)
42. Faye Dunaway - Network (1976)
43. Sissy Spacek - Carrie (1976)
44. Faye Dunaway - Chinatown (1974)
45. Melvin Douglas - I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
46. Gene Wilder - Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
47. Peter O'Toole - The Ruling Class (1972)
48. Liza Minneli - Cabaret (1972)
49. Michael Caine - Sleuth (1972)
50. James Caan - The Godfather (1972)
51. Joel Grey - Cabaret (1972)
52. Robert Duvall - The Godfather (1972)
53. James Earl Jones - The Great White Hope (1970)
54. Alec Guinness - Star Wars (1977)
55. Meryl Streep - Kramer vs Kramer (1979)
56. Jason Robards - All the President's Men (1976)
57. Laurence Olivier - Marathon Man (1976)
58. Peter Finch - Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
59. Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class (1973)
60. Harvey Keitel - Mean Streets (1973)
61. Julie Christie - McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
62. Gene Wilder - Young Frankenstein (1974)
63. Jill Clayburgh - An Unmarried Woman (1978)
64. Gary Busey - The Buddy Holly Story (1978)
65. Tatum O'Neal - Paper Moon (1973)
66. Robert Redford - The Sting (1973)
67. Linda Blair - The Exorcist (1973)
68. Paul Newman - The Sting (1973)
69. Laurence Olivier - The Boys from Brazil (1978)
70. Jane Fonda - Julia (1977)
71. Richard Burton - Equus (1977)
72. Woody Allen - Annie Hall (1977)
73. John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever (1977)
74. Jack Lemmon - The China Syndrome (1979)
75. Melvyn Douglas - Being There (1979)
76. Martin Sheen - Apocalypse Now (1979)
77. Vanessa Redgrave - Mary, Queen of Scotts (1971)
78. Maggie Smith - California Suite (1978)
79. Meryl Streep - The Deer Hunter (1978)
80. Diana Ross - The Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
81. Cicely Tyson - Sounder (1972)
82. Warren Beatty - Heaven Can Wait (1978)
83. Dustin Hoffman - Marathon Man (1976)
84. William Holden - Network (1976)
85. George Burns - The Sunshine Boys (1975)
86. George C. Scott - Hospital (1971)
87. Glenda Jackson - Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
88. Valerie Perrine - Lenny (1974)
89. Diane Ladd - Alice Don't Live Here Anymore (1974)
90. John Cazale - The Godfather Part II (1974)
91. Barbra Streisand - The Way We Were (1973)
92. Ben Johnson - The Last Picture Show (1971)
93. Roy Scheider - The French Connection (1971)
94. Clint Eastwood - Dirty Harry (1971)
95. Jon Voight - Deliverance (1972)
96. Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist (1973)
97. Gene Hackman - Scarecrow (1973)
98. John Huston - Chinatown (1974)
99. Carrie Snodgress - Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
100. Albert Finney - Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

101. Faye Dunaway - The Flight of Condor (1975)
102. Robert Shaw - Jaws (1975)
103. Lily Tomlin - Nashville (1975)
104. Jodie Foster - Taxi Driver (1976)
105. Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl (1977)
106. Albert Finney - Scrooge (1970)
107. Caren Black - Five Easy Pieces (1970)
108. Karl Malden - Patton (1970)
109. Joanne Woodward - The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
110. Marsha Mason - Cinderella Liberty (1973)
111. Joanne Woodward - Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973)
112. Marisa Berenson - Cabaret (1972)
113. Jane Alexander - The Great White Hope (1970)
114. Paul Winfield - Sounder (1972)
115. Glenda Jackson - Stevie (1978)
116. Geraldine Page - Interiors (1978)
117. Anne Bancroft - The Turning Point (1977)
118. Jason Robards - Julia (1977)
119. Vanessa Redgrave - Julia (1977)
120. Glenda Jackson - Hedda (1975)
121. Bettle Midler - The Rose (1979)
122. Roone Blakley - Nashville (1975)
123. David Carradine - Bound for Glory (1976)
124. Dustin Hoffman - All the President's Men (1976)
125. Jill Clayburgh - Starting Over (1979)
126. Ruth Gordon - Harold & Maude (1971)
127. Lee Strasberg - The Godfather Part II (1974)
128. Michael V. Gazzo - The Godfather Part II (1974)
129. Roy Scheider - All That Jazz (1979)
130. Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth (1975)
131. Walter Matthau - The Sunshine Boys (1975)
132. Henry Gibson - Nashville (1975)
133. Frederic Forrest - The Rose (1979)
134. Jill Clayburgh - La Luna (1979)
135. Lily Tomlin - The Late Show (1977)
136. Robert De Niro - New York, New York (1977)
137. James Woods - The Onion Field (1979)
138. Diane Keaton - Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977)
139. Jane Fonda - The China Syndrome (1979)
140. Sigourney Weaver - Alien (1979)
141. Brad Davis - The Midnight Express (1978)
142. Ali MacGraw - Love Story (1970)
143. Ryan O'Neal - Love Story (1970)
144. Piper Laurie - Carrie (1976)
145. Burgess Meredith - Rocky (1976)
146. James Whitmore - Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975)
147. Ann-Margaret - Tommy (1975)
148. Richard Dreyfuss - Jaws (1975)
149. Jeff Bridges - The Last Picture Show (1971)
150. John Mills - Ryan's Daughter (1970)
151. John Houseman - The Paper Chase (1973)
152. Julie Christie - Don't Look Now (1973)
153. Sissy Spacek - Badlands (1973)
154. Sally Kellerman - M*A*S*H (1970)
155. Ellen Burstyn - Same Time, Next Year (1978)
156. Maureen Stapleton - Interiors (1978)
157. Maximilian Schell - Julia (1977)
158. Peter Firth - Equus (1977)
159. Tim Curry - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
160. Burgess Meredith - The Day of the Locust (1975)
161. Richard Farnsworth - Comes a Horseman (1978)
162. John Hurt - The Midnight Express (1978)
163. Robert Redford - All the President's Men (1976)
164. Barbra Streisand - An Owl and Pussycat (1970)
165. Elliott Gould - M*A*S*H (1970)
166. Maggie Smith - Travels with My Aunt (1972)
167. Robert Redford - The Candidate (1972)
168. Max von Sydow - The Exorcist (1973)
169. Christopher Lee - The Wicker Man (1973)
170. Talia Shire - Rocky (1976)
171. John Savage - The Deer Hunter (1978)
172. Anthony Hopkins - Magic (1978)
173. John Cazale - The Deer Hunter (1978)
174. Rita Moreno - The Ritz (1976)
175. Michael Caine - The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
176. Sean Connery - The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
177. Donald Sutherland - Klute (1971)
178. Walter Matthau - Kotch (1971)
179. Dustin Hoffman - Little Big Man (1970)
180. Gene Hackman - Superman (1978)
181. Donald Sutherland - M*A*S*H (1970)
182. Ellen Burstyn - The Last Picture Show (1971)
183. Ann-Margret - Carnal Knowledge (1971)
184. Shirley MacLaine - The Turning Point (1977)
185. Mariel Hemingway - Manhattan (1979)
186. Richard Dreyfuss - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
187. Diahann Carroll - Claudine (1974)
188. Ingrid Bergman - Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
189. James Caan - The Gambler (1974)
190. Helen Hayes - The Airport (1970)
191. Leonard Frey - Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
192. Robert Duvall - Network (1976)
193. Art Carney - The Late Show (1977)
194. Justin Henry - Kramer vs Kramer (1979)
195. Kris Kristofferson - A Star Is Born (1976)
196. John Wayne - The Shootist (1976)
197. Paul Newman - Slap Shot (1977)
198. Brad Dourif - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
199. Jeanne Berlin - The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
200. Goldie Hawn - Butterflies Are Free (1972)

Greatest Film Performances of the 1970s






scene from The Godfather with Marlon Brando

scene from Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro

scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

scene from The Godfather Part II with Al Pacino

scene from Patton with George C. Scott

scene from Dog Day Afternoon with Al Pacino












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