4) Kathleen Turner In Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Voice performing is an underappreciated art. Bad voice acting can sink a movie, or sometimes make it. In the case of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Kathleen Turner and her sultry vocals help bring the part-animated film to life, and are a big reason why so many cite the film’s femme fatale Jessica Rabbit as their weird crush. If you’d checked the end credits, though, you wouldn’t even have known it was her.
Like Jack Nicholson in Broadcast News, Turner took the pivotal role in Roger Rabbit as a favor to the director, in this case Robert Zemeckis, whom Turner had worked with previously. In providing excellent vocal work, she helps make the most memorable character of the film into what has become a long lasting icon.
3) Ed Norton In Kingdom of Heaven
Kingdom of Heaven is chock full of great actors – Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, the list goes on and on – but best of all is one whom you might not even have known was in it. Edward Norton spends his whole time behind a mask in Ridley Scott’s Crusades epic, and as such the actor requested he not be credited (the credit was later restored on home video releases).
Norton filmed his role as the leper King Baldwin IV in just two weeks, and all we ever see of the actor in the film are his eyes. Despite the limitations he had, Norton delivers the standout performance of the movie, a soulful and uncharacteristically warm turn from an actor all too used to playing the cold fish.