Top 20 Performances of 1971
by Aunt-Peg | created - 31 Aug 2011 | updated - 9 months ago | PublicThese are my top 20 performances listed in order for each category (lead actor, lead actress, supporting actor & supporting actress)
1. Oliver Reed
Actor | Gladiator
Robert Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. His notable films include The Trap (1966), playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner Oliver! (1968), Women in Love (1969), Hannibal Brooks (1969), The Devils (1971), Revolver (1973), ...
in The Devils (best performance by an actor in lead role 1971)
2. Richard Chamberlain
Actor | The Towering Inferno
Richard Chamberlain became the leading heartthrob of early 1960s television. As the impeccably handsome Dr. James Kildare, the slim, butter-haired hunk with the near-perfect Ivy-League charm and smooth, intelligent demeanor, had the distaff fans fawning unwavering over him through the series' run. ...
in The Music Lovers (2nd choice)
3. Malcolm McDowell
Actor | A Clockwork Orange
Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...
in A Clockwork Orange (3rd choice)
4. Dirk Bogarde
Actor | The Servant
Sir Dirk Bogarde, distinguished film actor and writer, was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde on March 28, 1921, to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the art editor of "The Times" (London) newspaper, and actress Margaret Niven in the London suburb of Hampstead. He was one of three children...
in Death in Venice (4th choice)
5. Peter Finch
Actor | Network
Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womanizer as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ten. There, he ...
in Sunday Blood Sunday (5th choice)
6. Glenda Jackson
Actress | Women in Love
Few in modern British history have come as far or achieved as much from humble beginnings as Glenda Jackson did. From acclaimed actress to respected MP (Member of Parliament), she was known for her high intelligence and meticulous approach to her work. She was born to a working-class household in ...
in The Music Lovers (best performance by an actress in a leading role 1971)
7. Vanessa Redgrave
Actress | Coriolanus
On January 30, 1937, renowned theatre actor Michael Redgrave was performing in a production of Hamlet in London. During the curtain call, the show's lead, Laurence Olivier, announced to the audience: "tonight a great actress was born". This was in reference to his co-star's newborn daughter, ...
in The Devils (2nd choice)
8. Glenda Jackson
Actress | Women in Love
Few in modern British history have come as far or achieved as much from humble beginnings as Glenda Jackson did. From acclaimed actress to respected MP (Member of Parliament), she was known for her high intelligence and meticulous approach to her work. She was born to a working-class household in ...
in Sunday Blood Sunday (3rd choice)
9. Ruth Gordon
Actress | Rosemary's Baby
When Ruth Gordon convinced her father, a sea captain, to let her pursue acting she came to New York and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She acted in a few silents made at Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 1915. She made her Broadway debut in "Peter Pan" as Nibs the same year. The next 20 ...
in Harold and Maude (4th choice)
10. Jane Fonda
Actress | Klute
Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was ...
in Klute (5th choice)
11. Jeff Bridges
Actor | The Big Lebowski
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...
in The Last Picture Show (best performance by an actor in a supporting role 1971)
12. Ben Johnson
Actor | The Last Picture Show
Born in Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California. He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper ...
in The Last Picture Show (2nd choice)
13. Michael Gothard
Actor | Lifeforce
Best remembered in Britain for the television series Arthur of the Britons (1972), Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) and as the villain in For Your Eyes Only (1981). His break into films came with Don Levy's Herostratus (1967). His career was intermittently successful, interspersing notable ...
in The Devils (3rd choice)
14. Murray Melvin
Actor | The Phantom of the Opera
Murray Melvin was born on August 10, 1932 in St. Pancras, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Phantom of the Opera (2004), A Taste of Honey (1961) and Barry Lyndon (1975). He died on April 14, 2023 in Westminster, London, England, UK.
in The Devils (4th choice)
15. Vincent Gardenia
Actor | Moonstruck
He was honored twice off-Broadway with Distinguished Performance OBIE Award, first in 1960 for "Machinal" and again in 1969 for "Passing Through From Exotic Places." In 1972 he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a play for "Prisoner on 2nd Avenue." In 1979 he was nominated for Best Actor ...
in Little Murders (5th choice)
16. Cloris Leachman
Actress | The Last Picture Show
The legendary actress set a record when at age 82, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005). Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926 in Des Moines, Iowa to Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and the former Cloris Wallace. Her father's family owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. She ...
in The Last Picture Show (best performance by an actress in a supporting role 1971)
17. Diana Dors
Actress | The Long Haul
Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on October 23, 1931 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. She and her mother both nearly died from the traumatic birth. Because of the trauma, her mother lavished on Diana anything and everything she wanted--clothes, toys and dance lessons were the order of the day. ...
in Deep End (2nd choice)
18. Barbara Windsor
Actress | EastEnders
Legendary EastEnders actress and Carry On star Barbara Windsor was born Barbara Ann Deeks in Stepney, London, the daughter of Rose (Ellis), a dressmaker, and John Deeks, a costermonger. She was a bright pupil at school and her parents wanted her to go to university, but after her first taste of ...
in The Boy Friend (3th choice)
19. Elizabeth Wilson
Actress | The Graduate
Elizabeth Wilson was born April 4, 1921, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Marie Ethel and Dunning Wilson. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Elizabeth's film debut was in Notorious (1946) in an uncredited ...
in Little Murders (4th choice)
20. Gemma Jones
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Gemma Jones was born on December 4, 1942 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010).
in The Devils (5th choice)
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