Steals every scene

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

An announcer on Film 4 has just led into an obscure Jimmy Cagney film ("Love Me or Leave Me") with just this claim - Cagney steals every scene.

And even ten minutes into it, you know what, he does. You can't take your eyes off him.

Which other actors manage this? Bizarrely, given some of the crap stuff he's done, I'd say Samuel L Jackson? I can remember his scenes from films where I don't even remember the rest of the film. The one about the intelligent sharks, or Jurassic Park, for example.

[ian.64]

Steals every scene

Christopher Walken seems to do that simply because he exudes a persona that doesn't seem to fit into normal existence. When he's on screen, he doesn't so much as portray a character as a bizarre dimension. He keeps you watching, even if he's not giving it on all cylinders.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Steals every scene

Him, definitely - definitively? - yes. I even remember his stint in "Sleepy Hollow" where, basically, he was just a snarling zombie.

James Earl Jones, comes to mind, too. In Field of Dreams, it was almost as if Kevin Costner was one of the ghosts himself while he was talking to Jones. I think my most memorable line from that film is Jones going "Hmmph".

[ian.64]

Steals every scene

How's about Robert Shaw? He's the steely centre of The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, and he complements Walter Matthau's crumpled sardonics beautifully. In Jaws, he's as scary as the shark.

This may turn into a straightforward Good Actors/Actresses We Like thread, but what the heck.

[Guy Profumo]

Steals every scene

Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon in the "Batman" films.

(I'm assuming the unwritten coda in the thread title "he or she is in" btw.)

[Ginger Yellow]

Steals every scene

Peter Lorre.

[WOM]

Steals every scene

Jack Nicholson, for sure.

Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine.

[evilC]

Steals every scene

Harry Dean Stanton
Toshiro Mifune
Richard Farnsworth

[Amor de Cosmos]

Steals every scene

More ladies please:

Judy Holliday, particularly for Born Yesterday but pretty much everything she was in really.

Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Jane Fonda in The Chase.

Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday

Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity.

Ann Savage for Detour.

[Ginger Yellow]

Steals every scene

Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday

I don't think you can count screwball comedies, the good ones anyway. The leads steal every scene by design.

[dalliance]

Steals every scene

Alan Rickman in Die Hard, the Robin Hood one - actually pretty much every sizeable film he's been in. John Malkovich is another quite obvious answer.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Steals every scene

Ginger Yellow wrote:

Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday

I don't think you can count screwball comedies, the good ones anyway. The leads steal every scene by design.

Perhaps, but their success is maybe what separates the good ones from the others.

[Ginger Yellow]

Steals every scene

That and the quality of the dialogue, surely.

I'm not meaning to diminish Russell's performance at all, by the way. It's just more notable when screwball comedies don't have scene stealers than when they do: Intolerable Cruelty being an obvious example.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Steals every scene

I take your point, but I still think it diminishes the acting — and directing — unduly. For instance Ben Hecht wrote Some Like it Hot for the stage in the 30s. It failed. The first movie version in 1939 starred Bob Hope (no slouch when it comes to wiscracks), it too failed. It wasn't until the Curtis/Lemmon/Monroe version that it succeeded — big time. Surely that success was down to the cast, and direction of Billy wilder.

[Guy Profumo]

Steals every scene

dalliance wrote: Alan Rickman in Die Hard, the Robin Hood one - actually pretty much every sizeable film he's been in. John Malkovich is another quite obvious answer.

And in Truly, Madly, Deeply.

No mean feat considering his opposite number was Juliet Stevenson.

As for 'more women".

Frances McDormand.

[Efficient Baxter]

Steals every scene

I always found Juliet Lewis an oddly absorbing screen presence.

[matt j]

Steals every scene

Peter Dinklage (G.o.T. less than 2 weeks away! Woot!)

Steve Buscemi

and to complete the Casablanca trio, Sydney Greenstreet and Claude Rains.

William Demarest probably deserves a shout-out too.

[Bored Of Education]

Steals every scene

One of the reasons that "The Magnificent Seven" is a genius film is because Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen refused to give any ground to each other in scenes. Brynner had a mound of earth that he would stand on in any scenes with McQueen (who was taller). McQueen, for his part, would always kick away part of the dirt whenever he got the chance. McQueen also constantly twirls his hat or buggers around with his gun in the background.

Petty one-upmanship, sure, but it makes the scenes look interesting and realistic rather than one guy talking and everyone else staying still. I take the same view when I am on stage.

[Bored Of Education]

Steals every scene

Tom Selleck is another one. I am not sure whether he means it but everytime he comes into a scene, you instantly go "It's Tom Selleck"

[The Feverish Cheese]

Steals every scene

Amor de Cosmos wrote: For instance Ben Hecht wrote Some Like it Hot for the stage in the 30s. It failed. The first movie version in 1939 starred Bob Hope (no slouch when it comes to wiscracks), it too failed. It wasn't until the Curtis/Lemmon/Monroe version that it succeeded — big time. Surely that success was down to the cast, and direction of Billy wilder.

The Billy Wilder film has nothing to do with the Bob Hope film or the Ben Hecht play the Hope film was based on, other than the coincidence of sharing a title.

[Uncle Ethan]

Steals every scene

If it's steal every scene they appear in (as opposed to every scene in the movie) then Hank Worden in The Searchers is a nomination.

"I've been baptised reverend. I've been baptised."

[ooh aah]

Steals every scene

Geoffrey Rush in everything he does

[multipleman78]

Steals every scene

Paul Bettany - A Knight's Tale

Bill Murray - Kingpin

Kevin Spacey - Seven

Matt Dillon - There's Something About Mary

Gene Hackman - Mississippi Burning

Meryl Streep in every film she is in.

Oh and i second Alan Rickman in Robin Hood. By the end he is raping Maid Marion and he makes it feel like entertainment and i suppose to his character, it was.

[evilC]

Steals every scene

Ben Kingsley
John Mills

[Jimski]

Steals every scene

Judy Holliday, particularly for Born Yesterday but pretty much everything she was in really.

Good call. Why isn't she more feted than she is? One of the true greats.