62. Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious
      Sid & Nancy (1986)

The then-unknown London stage actor Gary Oldman embodied Sex Pistol Sid Vicious—punkest of the punks—eerily onscreen, mumbling, nodding out, and deranged. Daniel Day-Lewis wanted the role, but director Alex Cox went with the 27-year-old Oldman because he was “from the same part of London, the same world as Sid, and he really understood . . . the desperate need to get out.” That desperation haunts Oldman’s every empty stare and outburst as he stumbles bandy-legged and half-conscious through fame, love, and, eventually, overdose, unpretty and vacant. Punk has long been co-opted and sanitized by wannabes, but Oldman’s work is as raw as a Pistols power chord.

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