Paul Giamatti Greatest Actor
Every week through the remainder of 2014, Yahoo Movies is counting down Hollywood's 50 very best working actors and actresses. Come back to Yahoo Movies every Thursday to see who makes the cut.
The 50 Greatest Actors Alive: No. 47 Paul Giamatti
Greatest Actor Alive (No. 47): Paul Giamatti
Age: 46
Stating the Case: Like the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti is one of those extremely gifted character actors for whom there can be no substitute. If you have Paul Giamatti in mind for a role, only Paul Giamatti will do.
Giamatti's distinct physical traits make all of his characters memorable (even when they're covered in ape makeup), but it's the particular kind of energy he brings to his work that really makes him stand out. Giamatti brings a simmering intensity to all of his roles, whether they're tender or terrifying (or both), creating a kind of nervous yet fiercely focused aura that makes him fascinating to watch. Really, you never know whether he's going to suddenly burst out crying or take a swing at the guy next to him; he's the kind of actor who always keeps the audience on their toes — or, rather, on the edge of their seats.
[Related: The 50 Greatest Actors Alive: Complete List]
Breakthrough Role: Giamatti made his film debut in "Past Midnight" (1991), a little-seen neo-noir thriller penned by a pre-"Reservoir Dogs" Quentin Tarantino and co-starring Rutger Hauer, Natasha Richardson and Clancy Brown (curious, now, aren't you?).
Giamatti would go on to do supporting work in high-profile flicks such as "The Truman Show" (1998), "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), "The Negotiator" (1998), and "Man on the Moon" (1999), but his true breakthrough role was arguably his punching bag to Howard Stern as "Pig Vomit" in 1997's "Private Parts."
The Best of the Best:
5. "Win Win" (2011): One of Paul Giamatti's great recent performances is his turn as Mike Flaherty, a struggling New Jersey attorney who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach. Personal redemption comes in the form of young Kyle (Alex Shaffer), the troubled grandson of one of Mike's clients. Written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, who gave "Game of Thrones" star Peter Dinklage his breakthrough role in the highly acclaimed "The Station Agent" (2003).
4. "American Splendor" (2003): This terrific biopic chronicles the life and times of Harvey Pekar, author of the "American Splendor" comic book series and the 'poet laureate of Cleveland.' The late Pekar himself described his work as "autobiography written as it's happening." Giamatti does great work as this celebrated underground artist and received the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor.
3. "Private Parts" (1997): The '97 sleeper hit was an adaptation of Howard Stern's bestselling first book, which follows his life from boyhood to becoming one of the most popular (and controversial) radio personalities of all time. Giamatti plays one of Stern's arch-nemeses, Kenny Rushton, an uptight radio executive and composite character of various Stern program directors from over the years, most notably WNBC's Kevin Metheny, whom Stern famously nicknamed 'Pig Vomit.' Stern himself is a huge fan of Giamatti's performance, often singing the actor's praises on his own radio show.
2. "Cinderella Man" (2005): Ron Howard's biopic about Depression-era heavyweight boxing champ James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) features a TKO performance by Paul Giamatti as Joe Gould, Braddock's longtime friend and manager. Gould helps Braddock go all the way to the Madison Square Garden Bowl, where the 'Cinderella Man' takes on the vicious heavyweight champion, Max Baer (Craig Bierko). Braddock's victory is considered one of the biggest achievements in boxing history.
1. "Sideways" (2004): "I am NOT drinking any f**king Merlot!" Perhaps Paul Giamatti's most iconic performance to date is his portrayal of Miles Raymond, a troubled wine enthusiast whose road trip through wine country with his soon-to-be-married longtime friend Jack Cole (future fellow "Spider-Man" villain Thomas Haden Church) turns into an epic journey of harsh and sometimes downright embarrassing self-discovery. Giamatti's rambling drunken monologues of bitter self-loathing are sometimes hard to take, though they make for some of the funniest and most insightful moments of Alexander Payne's dark character comedy.
The BIGGEST Hit: Giamatti brought some fun antagonism to an already nightmarish situation in "The Hangover Part II" (2011), which scored over $254 million in domestic box office for a total of over $586 million worldwide.
With Honors: Giamatti received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in "Cinderella Man" (2005), which was also honored with a Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has also received five Golden Globe nominations and won two: Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for "John Adams" (2008) and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical for "Barney's Version" (2010).
Trademark: Exasperated and perhaps dangerous neurotica.
Best Fan Tribute: He's sexy and he knows it. You know it, too.
Most Underappreciated Achievement: There's so much great Giamatti out there that not many people have seen or acknowledged, from his spewing near-impossible Don DeLillo dialogue whilst wearing a towel on his head in "Cosmopolis" (2012) to trying to invent a rocket pack in "Pretty Bird" (2008) to engaging in slo-mo fisticuffs with Tom Wilkinson in "Duplicity" (2009).
But if we had to choose the Most Underappreciated Giamatti flick, it might have to be "Cold Souls" (2009), aka "Being Paul Giamatti," a dark fantasy in which the actor plays a funhouse-mirror version of himself. Disillusioned with his life and career, Giamatti opts to deep-freeze his soul, only to have it get lost in a soul trafficking scheme. Good, weird stuff, man.
Catchphrase:
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Nobody's Perfect: Paul Giamatti can at least rest easy with the knowledge that he's one of the few good things about Tim Burton's woefully misguided "Planet of the Apes" (2001), a would-be reboot for which Tim Roth turned down the role of Severus Snape in the "Harry Potter" series (d'oh!). Giamatti also manages to keep his dignity as a stuttering landlord in M. Night Shyamalan's well-intentioned but tedious and often laughable 'bedtime story,' "Lady in the Water" (2006).
Moonlighting: Paul Giamatti took a break from the movies to rock the small screen in the title role of "John Adams" (2008), HBO's seven-part biopic of one of our most prominent Founding Fathers and a chronicle of the first 50 years of the United States. The show won four Golden Globe awards and 13 Emmy awards, which is currently more than any other mini-series in history.
And For His Next Acts: Paul Giamatti will be donning a mech suit and taking a much more literal approach to the term 'using your head' for his role as Aleksei Sytsevich, aka the Rhino, in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" (May 2).
Giamatti will also be playing Dr. Eugene Landy in "Love and Mercy," the biopic of Beach Boys singer/songwriter Brian Wilson (to be played by both Paul Dano and John Cusack at different stages of his life), and will be reuniting with "Cold Souls" director Sophie Barthes for a new screen adaptation of "Madame Bovary."
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What qualifies actors for a slot on Yahoo Movies' running list of the 50 Greatest Actors Alive? First, we limited the pool to actors who are still currently working. Other factors taken into consideration: Pure skill in the craft; their ability to disappear underneath the skin of the characters they portray; versatility and the range of their roles; ratio of strong performances to weak ones; quality of films acted in; strength of recent work; awards and accolades from peers.
