In Your Opinion Which Actors Are True Chameleons?

Which actor(s) do you feel can portray any roll in a believable manner without interjecting any detectable remnants of their own real personalities?

Two that come to mind are Daniel Day-Lewis and Tom Hanks.

 

Robert DeNiro

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman
Meryl Streep

 

Sean Penn has surprised me a couple times, in that I didn't recognize him. His turn as the lawyer in CARLITO'S WAY had me fooled well into the film.

I'll also second the vote for Philip Seymour Hoffman. Terrible loss of talent.

 

Tom Hanks is not a chameleon ... he's the kind of movie star who has a particular persona (likable everyman and/or morally upright hero) that most of his roles fit with in one way or another. There has been an exception or two but in general he is a "Tom Hanks character" in whatever he does.

 

Jimmy Stewart.

 

Dan Aykroyd: Beginning with his time on Saturday Night Live (SNL) he always disappears into his characters to the point where you don't see him but you see the character instead. I remember reading somewhere that the one thing he didn't want to do on SNL was appear as "Dan Aykroyd" (he did that on "Weekend Update" but got out of it as soon as possible).

 

Jimmy Stewart
Ann Bancroft

 

Charles Laughton
Lon Chaney

 

One of my favorite actors, Gary Oldman.

 

Seconded.

 

gary cooper
Anthony hopkins

 

Richard Attenborough.

 

Daniel Day Lewis and Christopher Walken

 

Love him or hate him, Johnny Depp is a fantastic character actor, imho.

 

The lizard from the Geico commercials. Or is that a gekko? I always get them mixed up...

 

Charles Bronson

 

Yes, let’s not forget his longest serving role yet: expensive vodka in an elaborate bottle huckster.

 

Matthew McConnaughey (sp?), from rom coms to True Detective, quite a transformation.

 

For once, I completely agree with you here. Jimmy Stewart was very much the Tom Hanks of his day.

 

I guess he got me in Saving Private Ryan.

I liked Johnny Depp in earlier stuff. My fave of his is Dead Man.

 

Bingo!

 

Ditto - I especially loved Gary during his Villain period playing bad guys for Luc Besson, etc.