Best performances of 2016
by moviefilmdevotee | created - 09 Feb 2016 | updated - 02 Mar 2022 | Public
1. Mahershala Ali
Actor | Leave the World Behind
Mahershala Ali is fast becoming one of the freshest and most in-demand faces in Hollywood with his extraordinarily diverse skill set and wide-ranging background in film, television, and theater.
He can be seen in the independent feature film, Moonlight, as well as reprising his role in The Hunger ...
Moonlight
2. Colin Farrell
Actor | The Lobster
Colin Farrell is one of Ireland's biggest stars in Hollywood and abroad. His film presence has been filled with memorable roles that range from an inwardly tortured hit man, to an adventurous explorer, a determined-but-failing writer, and the greatest military leader in history.
Farrell was born on ...
3. Casey Affleck
Actor | Manchester by the Sea
An accomplished and striking performer, Academy Award® winner Casey Affleck has established himself as a powerful leading man with performances in multiple projects.
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. His mother, Chris Anne (née Boldt), is a school teacher, and ...
Manchester by the Sea
4. Rebecca Hall
Actress | Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rebecca Hall was born in London, England, the daughter of Peter Hall, a stage director and founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Maria Ewing, an opera singer. Her father was English. Her mother, who is American, is of Dutch and African-American origin. Her parents separated when she was ...
Christine
5. Isabelle Huppert
Actress | Elle
Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then...
6. Emma Stone
Actress | La La Land
Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born on November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker & Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish, German & British Isles descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the ...
6. 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 ...
Hell or High Water
8. John Goodman
Actor | 10 Cloverfield Lane
John Stephen Goodman's an American film, TV & stage actor. He was born in Affton, Missouri to Virginia Roos (Loosmore), a waitress and saleswoman & Leslie Francis Goodman, a postal worker who died when he was a small child. He's of English, Welsh & German ancestry. He's best known for his role as ...
8. Rachel Weisz
Actress | The Constant Gardener
Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...
The Lobster
10. Patrick Stewart
Actor | Logan
Sir Patrick Stewart was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, to Gladys (Barrowclough), a textile worker and weaver, and Alfred Stewart, who was in the army. He was a member of various local drama groups from about age 12. He left school at age 15 to work as a junior reporter on a local paper; he ...
Green Room
10. Trevante Rhodes
Actor | Moonlight
Trevante Nemour Rhodes is an American actor. He won several accolades and achieved recognition in 2016 for his performance as Chiron in the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight. In his youth, he was an accomplished track and field sprinter, winning a gold medal at the Pan American Junior Athletics ...
11. Lucas Hedges
Actor | Manchester by the Sea
Lucas Hedges is an American actor, known for playing Patrick Chandler in Manchester by the Sea (2016), which earned him an Academy Award nomination.
Hedges was born in Brooklyn Heights, New York, the second child of poet and actress Susan Bruce and Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Peter ...
12. Viola Davis
Actress | Fences
Viola Davis is a critically revered actress of film, television, and theater and has won rave reviews for her multitude of substantial and intriguingly diverse roles. Audiences across the United States and internationally have admired her for her work- including her celebrated, Oscar-nominated ...
13. Adam Driver
Actor | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Adam Douglas Driver was born in San Diego, California. His mother, Nancy (Needham) Wright, is a paralegal from Mishawaka, Indiana, and his father, Joe Douglas Driver, who has deep roots in the American South, is from Little Rock, Arkansas. His stepfather is a Baptist minister. His ancestry includes...
Paterson
15. Kate Beckinsale
Actress | Underworld: Evolution
Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in Hounslow, Middlesex, England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her ...
Love & Friendship
15. Denzel Washington
Actor | Fences
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...
17. Kiernan Shipka
Actress | Carriers
Kiernan Brennan Shipka is an American actress. She is known for playing Sally Draper on the AMC series Mad Men (2007), B. D. Hyman in the FX anthology series Feud (2017), and voicing Jinora in the Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) spin-off, The Legend of Korra (2012). She stars as Sabrina Spellman ...
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
17. Hailee Steinfeld
Actress | True Grit
Hailee Steinfeld was born on December 11, 1996 in Tarzana, California, to Cheri (Domasin), an interior designer, and Peter Steinfeld, a personal fitness trainer. She has a brother, Griffin. Her uncle is Jake Steinfeld, a fitness trainer, and her great-uncle is actor Larry Domasin. Her father is of ...
The Edge of Seventeen
18. Naomie Harris
Actress | Moonlight
British actress Naomie Harris was born in London, England, the only child of television scriptwriter Lisselle Kayla. Her father is from Trinidad and her mother is from Jamaica. They separated before she was born, and Harris was raised by her mother and has no relationship with her father. She ...
20. Ryan Gosling
Actor | Blue Valentine
Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, ...
21. Sandra Hüller
Actress | Anatomie d'une chute
Sandra Hüller was born in Suhl. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. For her performance of Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama Requiem she won The Silver Bear for Best Actress. She is internationally known for her starring role in Maren Ade's Toni...
21. Peter Simonischek
Actor | Toni Erdmann
Peter Simonischek was born on August 6, 1946 in Graz, Austria. He was an actor, known for Toni Erdmann (2016), The Interpreter (2018) and Sapphire Blue (2014). He was married to Brigitte Karner and Charlotte Schwab. He died on May 29, 2023 in Vienna, Austria.
22. Natalie Portman
Actress | Black Swan
Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an ...
24. Dave Johns
Actor | I, Daniel Blake
Dave Johns is an actor, stand up comedian and talented improviser who played the lead role in Ken Loach's feature film 'I, Daniel Blake' for which he won the 2016 BIFA for Best Actor. 'I, Daniel Blake' won the 2016 Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. He is a regular guest with the Comedy Store ...
25. Royalty Hightower
Actress | The Fits
Royalty Hightower is known for The Fits (2015), Ruby in Murdertown and And Then I Go (2017).
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