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These aren't necessarily "starring" roles, but the are some of my favorites.  In no particular order:

George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke - Despite some bad decisions and bad performances later in his career, Kennedy is a talented actor.  Honorable mentions go to his performances in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and the original Airport.

Robert Shaw in Jaws and The Sting - Damn, if you can't almost smell the salt water and sweat every time he appears on screen as Quint.  His performance as Doyle Lonnegan doesn't get mentioned enough, probably because Newman and Redford were in the same movie.

Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver - Playing opposite DeNiro must be tough, but she pulled it off with great results.

Oliver Reed in Oliver! - The ultimate Bill Sykes.  No other actor has or ever will be better in this role.

Eric Roberts in The Pope of Greenwich Village - Roberts is a talented actor whose career has gone astray.  Honorable mention goes to his wacko performance in Star 80.

Sam Elliott in Mask - Elliott has turned in many good performances, but his performance as Gar is his most memorable for me.

Harvey Keitel in Mean Streets - Still one of my favorite Scorsese films and Keitel turns in a great performance.

EDIT:  How could I forget Lee J. Cobb in The Exorcist?  Kinderman is one of the most memorable supporting characters of all time.



I may add a few more later.  Feel free to post your own!


 

Mel Gibson in THE PATRIOT
Kenneth Branagh in HENRY V
Joseph Fiennes in LUTHER
The entire cast in SUCKER PUNCH

Edward Norton in MOONRISE KINGDOM - I love everything about MK so much, and seeing the always-great Norton in a rare comedic/dorky performance and totally nailing it never gets old. The Oscar voters are morons for not at least giving him a nomination for this.

Joseph Cotten in CITIZEN KANE - His performance doesn't get talked about much when people discuss KANE, but this was the movie that made me totally infatuated with Cotten. He holds his own against a powerhouse like Orson Welles, and I suppose it helps that he's playing the one sympathetic character.

Alan Rickman in GALAXY QUEST - The whole cast was great, but Rickman stole the show.
What a Savings (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgv7U3GYlDY#ws)
 :teddyr: :teddyr: :teddyr:

Val Kilmer in TOMBSTONE - Is anyone better qualified to play a slick bastard than Val Kilmer?

Sam Rockwell in MOON - Rockwell is always wonderful but he's the centerpiece here, with material that - for once - is worthy of him.

Richard Dreyfus in WHAT ABOUT BOB?
What About Bob - GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!!!!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nWycdXHmPk#)
Best. Line. Delivery. EVER.

Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie in Of Mice and Men.  He was BORN to play that role.

By Gravthar's hammer, I agree

YES!   :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka
Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name/Blondie
Boris Karloff's Cabman Gray
Orson Welles' Capt. Quinlan
James Stewart's Scottie Ferguson
Robert DeNiro's Travis Bickle
Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth
Malcolm McDowell's Alex de Large
Tom Hardy's Bronson

Anything Nic Cage does where he gets that look in his eye and starts going off script

Robert Mitchum's Rev. Powell (duh)

yep, yep. So much yep, I forgot about this flick I'll have to get it.

Ray Liotta in Goodfellas (for the voice overs as much as the on-screen stuff)

Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman in Nuts In May

Paul Reub...erm, I mean Pee Wee Herman in Pee Wee's Big Adventure

William Thomas in Twin Town

Randy Quaid in Parents

Gregory Peck in The Omen

Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun (all 3 to be honest)

.Lugosi as DRACULA-I mean-hes Hungarian,hes creepy-he IS Dracula!
.Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster-he had pathos as well as the look-something no other actor gave to the role as well as he did.
.Gotta agree with Rev about DeNiro and Travis...you feel DeNiro IS Travis!
.Tony Perkins in PSYCHO.
.Lon Chaney as the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Many actors have tried to top his performance. Are you kiddin? Not even the fantastic Claude Rains could do it!
.Bogie as Sam Spade-I mean-cmon!
.Robert Blossums in DERANGED-an Ed Gein kinda guy-he IS Ed Gein!

http://youtu.be/fYhceVkQGUk (http://youtu.be/fYhceVkQGUk)

The entire cast of Pulp Fiction
The entire cast of Ben-Hur
The entire cast of the Star Wars original trilogy

Bela Lugosi as Dracula
Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name
Peter O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia
Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley
Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne
Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance
Jeff Bridges as The Dude

Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby
Christopher Walken in The Dead Zone
Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill
Zoe Saldana in The Skeptic
Jack Nicholson in The Shining
Kathy Bates in Misery
Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice
Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire

One of my favorite performances is Bobby Deniro in the Cape Fear remake as Max Cady.

I also have to add Denzel's performance as Malcolm X.

Yes.  I also really like Ralph Bellamy's performance in this movie.

Al Pacino as Walter Burke in The Recruit: an amazing performance as you like, hate, like, hate and then fully understand the character. Brilliant.  :thumbup:

(http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z349/the110/screenshots/therecruit2.jpg)

Virtual karma RC! Blossum's performance in Deranged is more effective and creepy than any other Ed Gein movie I've seen.  :thumbup:
I REALLY like Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane. At such a young age you could tell she was quite talented.

Robert Shaw in Jaws

(http://socialpsychol.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/robert-shaw-jaws.jpg?w=545)

I agree! Awesome role. He played it very well. We'll always remember Quint.  :thumbup:

I could probably spend hours on this, but here are the first 2 that come to mind.

Captain Kirk in Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home                                             
 http://youtu.be/b9dEI-Ru1CI (http://youtu.be/b9dEI-Ru1CI)

Cyrano De Bergerac, the 1950 film version.
http://youtu.be/YpHwm5EFVbY (http://youtu.be/YpHwm5EFVbY)

Christopher Lee in HORROR OF DRACULA (1957)
yeah-Lugosi was dead-and Lee brought Dracula into the 60's and 70's-even though many of those films-well -sucked.BUT Lee was the only shining light.
Cmon! DRACULA AD 1972 and the SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA-awful!!!

Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, and The Omega Man

William Shatner in Star Trek

Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys

Richard Carlson in It Came From Outer Space and The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Bela Lugosi in White Zombie and Dracula

Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein in the Hammer Frankenstein films

Michael Rennie in The Day the Earth Stood Still

Christopher Lee as Count Dracula

Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, The Philadelphia Story, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Rear Window and Harvey

Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace, The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, The Bishop's Wife, North by Northwest

Humphrey Bogart in pretty much everything he did.

Boris Karloff in his Frankenstein monster roles, as the Mummy, and in The Body Snatcher and The Black Cat

Vincent Price in The Abominable Dr. Phibes

It is all in the reflexes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl-pr5iqKb4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl-pr5iqKb4)

Kurt Russell as Jack Burton. Watched it again the other day.

Harmon Stevens as Dr. Leland J. Masterson in Mesa Of Lost Women.

He's charming, brainless, funny, and a snappy dresser for a looney bin escapee. I could watch this turkey over and over just to enjoy this guy's performance.

Most of the cast of MANIAC, but especially this guy...

Maniac (1934) - Best worst transformation ever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfa9XetyzIE#)

"Darts of fire in my brain! Stabbing me! Agony!"

George Barrows and John Brown as Ro-Man the Robot Monster and the Great Guidance.

Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). Even if he were still alive, Ledger would never have been able to top this performance. The stars were aligned perfectly for him in this movie, to the point where he stole the show from every other actor in the film and made Batman look very boring by comparison. This segment is the best of all of The Joker's appearances in the movie because it showcases all of his lunatic emotions as well as the epic battle of wits between The Joker and Batman.

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictactor (and also in his roles as the Tramp)

Charlie Chaplin final speech in The Great Dictator (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvjoWOwnn4#)

Buster Keaton in The General

The General A tribute to Buster Keaton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPxpdgMjXq8#ws)

Ian Holm has been one of my favorite actors for a long while.

He was in a movie called The Sweet Hereafter, which is not an easy movie to watch at all. It is literally the saddest movie I have ever seen.

Ian Holm's character is basically a bottomless well of sadness. It's one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wjy1mpt_Gg

That's not even the worst part of the movie. His performance in that movie should be my never tired of watching, but I can't really watch it. Basically my favorite piece of acting I really don't want to see again.

Club Paradise with Peter O'Toole and Robin Williams is another one I never get tired of.                             
http://youtu.be/IVuA7qgxo1A?list=PLGg5eSx5RISyjlRLBGaltKNz8it8GziuU (http://youtu.be/IVuA7qgxo1A?list=PLGg5eSx5RISyjlRLBGaltKNz8it8GziuU)

I did some more thinking and here are a few others:

* Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in The Odd Couple.  Great chemistry.  The movie and play are so much better than the TV series.

* Sissy Spacek in Carrie and Coal Miner's Daughter

* Piper Laurie in Carrie

* Alastair Sim in A Christmas Carol

* Michael V. Gazzo in The Godfather, Part II

* George C. Scott in The Hustler and Anatomy of a Murder

Nathan Lane / The Birdcage

(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwm5zz4NND1qlvwnco1_400.gif)

I just watched PATHS OF GLORY-it starred Kirk Douglas-but Timothy Carey stole the show!
Here he is in POOR WHITE TRASH (1962)

http://youtu.be/o2IJ6KuC4gI (http://youtu.be/o2IJ6KuC4gI)

Amazing!  :buggedout:

Geez.  Just watching that clip from The Dark Knight.  It's the finest performance of its kind I've ever seen, and honestly that I think I'll ever see.  

As another, not of the same kind, but Liam Neeson in Taken.  It's not a fantastic film, though it's good, but he carries the film.  The trailer monologue will never get old.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ02_Uzf7So (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ02_Uzf7So#ws)