41. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield
      Pulp Fiction (1994)

Jules’s rat-a-tat-tat chatter (“ ‘What’ ain’t no country I ever heard of. Do they speak English in ‘What’?”) and biblical gunplay are the hilarious and bloody core of Pulp Fiction, and Jackson carries it off with such slick verve that we yearn for him to return every time the story swivels away from Jules. And it’s just as much about style as substance: Director Quentin Tarantino wanted him to sport a retro look with a huge afro, but Jackson knew his character, and realized that Jules wouldn’t be caught dead—literally—in anything but the modern-gangster–Jheri curl–N.W.A. look.

Next Entry