Best run of 5 great movies by an actor

[SportsJunky]

I'm stealing this topic from a podcast that I listened to today. Name 5 great movies done in a row by an actor. The podcast host offered the example of Robert Redford.

All the President's Men 1975
Three Days of the Condor 1975
The Great Waldo Pepper 1974
The Great Gatsby 1973
The Sting 1973

For me, the first one that came to mind was Tom Hanks.

Cast Away 2000
The Green Mile 1999
Toy Story 2 1999
You've Got Mail 1998
Saving Private Ryan 1998

Or

That Thing You Do! 1996
Toy Story 1995
Apollo 13 1995
Forrest Gump 1994
Philadelphia 1993

[trackercowe]

Jake Gyllenhaal had a really good run a few years back

Source Code (2011)
End of Watch (2012)
Prisoners (2013)
Enemy (2013)
Nightcrawler (2014)

[DownInFlames]

Obviously John Casale needs to be on this list.

The Godfather
The Conversation
The Godfather Pt II
Dog Day Afternoon
The Deer Hunter

I imagine the list would have continued if he hadn’t died.

[SportsJunky]

Yeah, John Casale is probably the winner. Amazing run he had.

[Fuzz]

Harrison Ford

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back 1980
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
Blade Runner 1982
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi 1983
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984

[Since1984]

Leo Dicaprio

Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood
Rick Dalton
2015

The Revenant
Hugh Glass
2015

The Wolf of Wall Street
Jordan Belfort
2013

The Great Gatsby
Jay Gatsby
2012

Django Unchained
Calvin Candie
2012

[Pizza]

Never the leading man in all of these but honorary mentions goes to

Bill Paxton

Terminator
Weird Science
Commando
Aliens

[SportsJunky]

Agreed, Paxton had a good run but where's the 5th movie? It's hard to get 5 in a row. I looked at a few actor's IMDB page and there is always one or two stinkers that #### it up.

[Fuzz]

Bill Murray

Where the Buffalo Roam 1980
Caddyshack 1980
Stripes 1981
Tootsie 1982
Ghostbusters 1984

[Pizza]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Agreed, Paxton had a good run but where's the 5th movie? It's hard to get 5 in a row. I looked at a few actor's IMDB page and there is always one or two stinkers that #### it up.

his 5th movie on either end of that streak sucked, so he doesnt quite make that straight hand. Felt he should get honorary mentions for almost getting there and being in other awesome movies

in lieu of that, here's the list for

Matt Damon

1997 Good Will Hunting Will Hunting
1998 Saving Private Ryan Private James Francis Ryan
1998 Rounders Mike McDermott
1999 Dogma Loki
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley Tom Ripley

[CliffFletcher]

Charlie Chaplin

The Gold Rush
The Circus
City Lights
Modern Times
The Great Dictator

Marlon Brando

A Streetcar Named Desire
Viva Zapata!
Julius Caesar
The Wild One
On the Waterfront

Looking over actor histories, one of the things I noticed is it’s especially hard to come up with a really good run for actors before the 70s. Back in the day they’d appear in four or five movies a year, understandably of varying quality.

For instance, Toshiro Mifune would seem like an actor who had a really good run in the late 50s, with Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, etc. But the guy was in 31 movies between 1954 and 1958!

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Pizza

his 5th movie on either end of that streak sucked, so he doesnt quite make that straight hand. Felt he should get honorary mentions for almost getting there and being in other awesome movies

in lieu of that, here's the list for

Matt Damon

1997 Good Will Hunting Will Hunting
1998 Saving Private Ryan Private James Francis Ryan
1998 Rounders Mike McDermott
1999 Dogma Loki
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley Tom Ripley

That's a strong winning streak.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Don’t forget good will hunting 2: hunting season.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

The problem with prolific actors is they act TOO much, so their streaks are always interrupted a little with insignificant or bad roles.

However,

I may have found a stretch for De Niro if you don't count films nobody's ever heard of.

The Deer Hunter
Raging Bull
The King of Comedy
Once Upon A Time in America
Brazil
The Mission
Angel Heart
The Untouchables

[Wormius]

I think this is in some ways more difficult task than the director's streak. While directors are rewarded by getting better projects, actors are rewarded with a lot of money to star in bad movies.

Even ones like Daniel Day-Lewis or Denzel Washington's have some less than stellar movies that break up their streaks. Not to say their acting wasn't great, just not enough to lift a ho-hum film into greatness.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

The problem with prolific actors is they act TOO much, so their streaks are always interrupted a little with insignificant or bad roles.

However,

I may have found a stretch for De Niro if you don't count films nobody's ever heard of.

The Deer Hunter
Raging Bull
The King of Comedy
Once Upon A Time in America
Brazil
The Mission
Angel Heart
The Untouchables

Dustin Hoffman is a bit like that, from 67-85 it's a pretty strong list (of quite diverse) films , but about every 5th film I haven't seen- so I'd be guessing

[djsFlames]

Sacha Baron Cohen

Ali G: Indahouse
Madagascar
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Madagascar 2
Bruno

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Harrison Ford

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back 1980
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
Blade Runner 1982
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi 1983
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984

I think depending on release dates, more or less Apocalypse now also could be considered to kick that run off, recognizing that it was mostly filmed well prior

[looooob]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Obviously John Casale needs to be on this list.

The Godfather
The Conversation
The Godfather Pt II
Dog Day Afternoon
The Deer Hunter

I imagine the list would have continued if he hadn’t died.

Pacino runs out an overlapping list with

Godfather
Scarecrow
Serpico
Godfather 2
Dog Day Afternoon


Scarecrow isn't on par with the rest but the other 4 are so high end

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by looooob

I think depending on release dates, more or less Apocalypse now also could be considered to kick that run off, recognizing that it was mostly filmed well prior

I think there needs to be a few rules about this. Harrison Ford had one very short scene in Apocalypse Now. The actor should have a big enough role to be listed on the official movie poster.