After taking his punches as a skinhead thug in American History X<\/i> and the narrator of Fight Club<\/i>, Norton dishes a few out as Dr Bruce Banner, aka The Incredible Hulk. Or rather his big, green, CG alter-ego does. But given Ed's 'lighter' movies (Keeping the Faith<\/i>; Death To Smoochy<\/i>), we prefer him when he's angry.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/the-incredible-hulk-edward-norton-2008.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"the-incredible-hulk-edward-norton-2008"},{"captionHeading":"Ian McKellen in the X-Men trilogy","caption":"
Believe it or not kids, Gandalf - that's Sir Ian to you - was once more famous for playing Macbeth, Richard III and King Lear. But when he won a Tony award as the villainous Salieri in the Broadway production of Amadeus, he was probably just practising for his proper bad-guy role as Magneto, the metal-bending nemesis of the X-Men<\/i>. They'll be telling you he's gay next.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/Xmen-3-ian-mckellen.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk","caption":"
After setting his stall out in the arthouse for the likes of Alan Clarke, Peter Greenaway and Tom Stoppard, Roth came to Hollywood's attention as Reservoir Dogs<\/i>'s doomed Mr Orange before snagging an Oscar nom for his villainous turn in 1995's Rob Roy<\/i>. But his latest role is, quite literally, an Abomination.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/the-incredible-hulk-tim-roth-2008.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"the-incredible-hulk-tim-roth-2008"},{"captionHeading":"Liam Neeson in Batman Begins","caption":"
From his Oscar-nominated list-maker Oskar Schindler to the great Scot Rob Roy<\/i> and Irish revolutionary Michael Collins<\/i>, Liam Neeson tends to play heroes who are grounded in reality. But the imposing Ulsterman was also a force to be reckoned with in The Phantom Menace<\/i> and made his presence felt in movies based on comic books (Batman Begins<\/i>), and movies that many people think are based on comic books but aren't (Darkman<\/i>).<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/batman-begins.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Jack Nicholson in Batman","caption":"
Jack Nicholson jumped on the Oscar bandwagon in 1969 with Easy Rider<\/i> and never got off. And after his towering performances in the likes of Five Easy Pieces<\/i>, Chinatown<\/i>, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest<\/i>, Reds<\/i> and A Few Good Men<\/i>, the LA Lakers' biggest fan can truly lay claim to the title of Hollywood's rogue laureate. So - iconic, charismatic, and a bit of a villain - there was only one real candidate to play The Joker in Tim Burton's twisted franchise-starter Batman<\/i>. Jack's no fool, though - his decision to take a percentage of the profits earned him almost double what it cost to make the movie.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/batman-jack-nicholson.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Batman - Jack Nicholson"},{"captionHeading":"Terence Stamp in Superman II","caption":"
Since he was immortalised along with Julie Christie in the Kinks' song Waterloo Sunset (\"Terry meets Julie...\"), it was with some aptness that Terence Stamp was cast as Zod, the near-immortal nemesis of the Man of Steel in Superman II<\/i>. The role literally flew in the face of his previous characters in impressive but largely fun-free films like Billy Budd<\/i>, The Butterfly Collector<\/i> and Far From the Madding Crowd<\/i>. He's evidently warming to the comic stuff though, with outings in Elektra<\/i> and hitman frenzy Wanted<\/i>.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/superman-2.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Marlon Brando in Superman","caption":"
He said he coulda been a contender and duly was. In the mid-70s, Brando was universally lauded as the greatest actor of all time, so it was a surprise when the Method king agreed to play big daddy Jor-El in Richard Donner's Superman<\/i>. Many thought it was beneath him. Maybe so, but a record-breaking fee of $3.7m for two weeks' work is probably enough to balance anyone's loss of artistic integrity.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/superman-marlon-brando.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Jeff Bridges in Iron Man","caption":"
Such is the understated genius of Jeff Bridges that we'll take him seriously in absolutely anything. Odd, because it's difficult to look at his dad - Airplane!<\/i> legend Lloyd - without laughing. Despite the 1976 remake of King Kong<\/i> and proto-CG baloney Tron<\/i>, Bridges is as reliable a stamp of quality as Hollywood has to offer. His Academy Award nominations for The Last Picture Show<\/i>, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot<\/i>, Starman and The Contender<\/i> speak for themselves. And though his turn as the devious Obadiah Stone in Iron Man is unlikely to bring him his first Oscar win, you can be sure - as The Big Lebowski would have it - that the dude abides.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/iron-man.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Iron man"},{"captionHeading":"Alec Baldwin in The Shadow","caption":"
Alec Baldwin often grabs the headlines for the wrong reasons, but that's no reason to dismiss him as an actor. A seriously good one at that. Anyone who disagrees might want to see how he tears into dumbstruck salesmen like Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon and Ed Harris in Glengarry Glen Ross<\/i>. Go on, it's on Youtube. Trouble is, he immediately went and fluffed it with a bored-looking turn as Lamont Cranston aka The Shadow<\/i>. Thankfully, TV show 30 Rock has made him brilliant again.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/the-shadow.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Alfred Molina in Spider-Man 2","caption":"
Like Gene Hackman, Alfred Molina is one of those actors who's mere presence can put a stamp of quality on items otherwise unfit for human consumption. He is particularly strong in ambiguous roles, often playing the shifty guy who turns out to be okay or the apparently nice chap who's a total villain. Or people who are a bit of both. So his Dr Octopus in Spider-Man 2<\/i> was a perfect piece of casting. (And remember the rogue who comes a cropper after leaving Indy in the Aztec temple at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i>? That was him.)<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/spider-man-2.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Patrick Stewart in X-Men Trilogy","caption":"
Despite proving his acting mettle for the Royal Shakespeare Company and in some of the BBC's weightiest dramas (I, Claudius; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Hamlet), Patrick Stewart needed a different kind of vehicle to take him to the stars. Namely, the USS Enterprise. And after taking Star Trek's Next Generation to the big-screen, Stewart showed more leadership qualities as Professor X, founding father of the X-Men<\/i>. Not that his sense of humour was ever in doubt: Stewart is a lifelong supporter of Huddersfield Town.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/x-men-3-patrick-stuart.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Eric Bana in Hulk","caption":"
Not that you'd know it from his poker-faced performances in Black Hawk Down, Munich and Troy, but Eric Bana was a renowned stand-up comedian in his native Australia. His big-screen breakthrough came as the larger-than-life Aussie criminal Chopper<\/i>, but he was still a surprising choice to play the even-larger-than-life other half of Bruce Banner in the 2003 version of Hulk. Despite all that tank-throwing, it tanked.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/the-hulk.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Willem Defoe in Spider-Man","caption":"
Frivolity is not something you'd expect from a man who changed his named from William so that he wouldn't be called 'Billy'. Especially one whose gunned-down soldier was immortalised on the poster for Platoon<\/i> and whose other film roles range from psychotic rapists (Wild At Heart<\/i>) to Jesus Christ (Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ<\/i>). So the makers of Spider-Man<\/i> showed some pretty left-field thinking to stick Willem Dafoe on a floating surfboard as Spidey's cackling adversary the Green Goblin.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/Spider-man.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Peter Fonda in Ghost Rider","caption":"
Brought up in the shadow of their notoriously distant father Henry, neither Peter Fonda nor his big sister Jane were prepared to toe the Hollywood line. But while Jane railed against the establishment more vociferously, Peter became something of a peacenik icon, specialising in dropouts, bikers and cowboys. It made perfect sense that the original Easy Rider<\/i> should continue to make mischief as the Devil who makes a deal with Nic Cage's Ghost Rider<\/i>.<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/gohst-rider.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"}];