Who are the most underrated actors?

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Don Cheadle is one of my favorite supporting actors. He's one of the actors who seems very different from one role to another, so he doesn't get remembered as well as he should.

I first enjoyed his performance in "Devil in a Blue Dress." I also liked him in "Swordfish" and "Volcano".

Vincent D'Onofrio is another actor who blends in with his roles really well. He gets more recognition now because he stars in L&O:CI. But try to see any trace of Goren in Stuart's wastoid brother Donnie in "Stuart Saves His Family." He was also really funny in his tiny role as Orson Welles in "Ed Wood."
 
I agree! What kills me though still is that Forest wasn't the lead, James was! James was robbed out of that nomination. :no:
 
Ewan McGregor - He's the one of the few male actors that can get me teary by watching him bawl.

Katherine Heigl - She's beautiful and talented but she never gets any credit for what she does.
 
Oh, god, yes. I really don't know what happened to him after so many great performances. My personal favorite of his would have to be as Patrick Batemen. I fell inlove with the psycho. :lol:

Er...
Steve Buscemi
Bruce Willis
Thora Birch
 
I saw "Kinsey" on tape last week, and was reminded again how much I enjoy watching Oliver Platt. I first saw him in "Flatliners", and later in "Diggstown" with James Woods.
 
Ghost World is one of my favorite roles for him - but I didn't know he was in The Island! Yet another reason for me to see that film.
 
Emilie de Ravin, Harold Perrineau, Naveen Andrews, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Maggie Grace, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Mekhi Phifer, Don Cheadle, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Terrence Howard (although he is starting to get more recognition),
Eliza Dushku, Amy Acker, Ming-Na, Erik Palladino...I could go on and on.
 
Good stuff. Not to mention how he totally killed his role in "The Island"! He was the best part of the movie. And "Ghost World" was quite the goody!
 
Thanks God for BBM - I felt Michelle Williams was Underrated. Sometimes she didn't even have as many lines on Dawson's Creek as some of the new characters and was mainly over looked. The girl can seriously act. In the Dawson's Creek Series Finale, she went out with a Dramatic, Gut Wrenching Exit IMHO. When she was filming her good-bye to her daughter.. OMG.. anyways, this is about movies. I thought she was great in If These Walls Could Talk 2. She may have some small on-screen roles, but you never forget her.

Giovanni Ribisi - Talk about versatile... He was great in "The Gift" and pretty much everything he plays in. I think he is one of the most overlooked actors out there.
 
Dug him in Renaissance Man and thought he did very well in a non-comidic role as Judge in Panther.

Edited to add:
Courtney B. Vance
Andre Braugher
 
Yes, and Christian Bale, too. Both totally transform themselves physically to become their characters, and that deserves recognition!
 
I definitely agree on the Jim Carrey one. People think he's overrated because he's a household name, but he doesn't get enough credit as a serious actor. He is very versatile.

I think Renee Zelleweger is underrated. That girl goes the extra mile to play a part and that's what I call an actress.

The big one for me is Milla Jovovich. People only know her for her kick ass female roles but when it comes to drama, that girl can act her zombie kicking butt off.
 
I think that there are a lot of actors and actresses out there who have really great potential, but have a habit of choosing the wrong roles for themselves, and, consequently, don't get the proper credit due. I thought it would be interesting to discuss who we think should get more recognition in their acting careers.

That said, please don't bash any other's opinions, or say inappropriate things about the actors mentioned. Apparantly there have been similiar threads that caused a problem because people couldn't disagree respectfully, so I just want to make sure no one gets upset about it :) Thanks.

So, proceed! :D

One that comes to mind is Tim Roth. I've only seen a few films with him in it, but I think he's a really wonderful actor. I wish I got to see him in more roles! I really enjoyed his performance in Reservoir Dogs :)

Also, someone had mentioned Charlize Theron and her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in Monster, which I think finally changed things for her. She was truly wonderful in that, and since she never really had any outstanding roles offered to her, I don't think people ever really got to see how much of a powerful performance she can give (I forget who said this, please let me know!)

Matthew McConaughey is another; I LOVED him in Contact, I thought he was great. But again, he does a lot of not-so-good movies that people would probably dismiss, and then not get to see how much he is capable of.

I also think that in a lot of cases, Jim Carrey (as popular as he is) is completely underrated as anything outside of a comedic actor. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Truman Show are just a few that totally changed my view of him, and he's been snubbed an Oscar too many times (well, we don't about ESOTSM yet). He deserves acknowledgement for his serious work too.

Who would you say is underrated?
 
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