37. Gene Hackman as Harry Caul
      The Conversation (1974)

Having made his rep embodying larger-than-life types (see Popeye Doyle in The French Connection), Hackman here went in the opposite direction, playing a quiet, repressed, intensely private man who happens to be one of the country’s best wiretappers. Caul also has a hell of a guilty conscience, and when his latest job threatens to get someone hurt, or worse, he slowly starts to unravel. In the most controlled and meticulous performance of his career, the actor communicates all of this wordlessly: All slumped shoulders, downward glances, and shuffling feet, Hackman, a robust man, seems to physically shrink into the role.

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