POLL SUGGESTION: All time Greatest 'Famous Characters' Actor?

It is totally a mistake of mine, I meant to write- All time Greatest 'Characters' Actor?
and as above- burgess meredith could be on it, as he played- Penguin x multiple and Mickey x3.
the idea was originally superhero characters, but I expanded that to famous pulp fictional characters. I appreciate your reply and all the others below, and sorry for the confusion. 

Anthony Hopkins is probably the number one actor in that regard. He is Zorro, Odin, Methuselah, Van Helsing, Lecter, Titus, Bligh, Picasso, Kellogg, Heineken, JQA and other legendary (or infamous) characters, fictional or biopic.

...and...

Ian McKellen is of course Magneto, Gandalf, Holmes, Copperfield, the Grim Reaper and other legendary (or infamous) characters, fictional or biopic. Never mind the Shakespearean parts, because anybody who happens to have skill and a passion for William Shakespeare's work, will play every leading part adopted/created by the playwright. Tons of actors do it, and often do it fairly decently.

(I feel myself dancing around the fact that Hopkins and McKellen portrayed Hitler.)

Patrick Steward is of course Ahab, Scrooge, Xavier, Halleck, Leondegrance, Sejanus, Seti, the Lionheart and other legendary (or infamous) characters, fictional or biopic. He is Picard too notably, but that is a role that is, so to speak, original to him rather than derivative. He is not only the first actor to portray Picard, but also the first published rendition of the character and thus far the only actor to officially regularly portray adult Picard. That counts for more, but the idea is askew from the idea of playing the other grand characters.

(In addition, Steward portrayed Lenin: not quite the same as portraying Hitler but nigh. Notably, Hopkins is Nixon, and McKellen is Tzar Nicholas II.)

Gary Oldman is of course Gordon, Black, Smith, Dracula, Pilate, Beethoven, Churchill, "Sid Vicious" and other legendary (or mostly infamous) characters, fictional or biopic. (LHO was an infamous one.) His many "non-derivative" characters, however, stand out incredibly: Stansfield, Zorg and Verger! Some of the most disgustingly evil characters the world has ever known. "Carnegie" and Korshunov perhaps deserve honorable mentions.

I intend to continue this exploration of characters, which would invariably involve mentioning actors who aren't on the PS list.

Come to think of it, Verger is a derivative character, since he was in the novel before Oldman portrayed him in the film adaptation.

...Rather: Oldman's portrayal of Verger is a derivative, since the screen debut of the character is in a film adaptation of the novel. (The post received a star before I had a chance to correct it.)

strother martin...definitely yes

Jeorj, all of that is is fundamentally wrong. Major supporting parts are often played by character actors, and those parts are characters with a rich background and inner life. It is ludicrous to assert that character actors play only "generic," stereotypical characters. Think of the characters that Claude Rains played in Errol Flynn's great swashbuckling adventures like "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Sea Hawk." He most definitely would be accurately described as a "character actor" in those roles, yet they are hardly "generic," two-dimensional characters. as you describe "character actor" parts.

O? Well, I don't know what you mean, don0don. The subject material I have in mind is covered in the documentaries Starz Inside: The Face Is Familiar, That Guy ... Who Was in That Thing and That Guy Dick Miller, for examples.

Come to think of it, I see what you mean.

From the IMDb Movie Terminology Glossary - C:

An actor who specializes in playing a particular style of character, often stereotypical, offbeat, or humorous.

On the web: Search IMDb for Character Actors.

3. As rocky-o, don0don and Jeorj Euler point out, the people on your list are leading actors who play multiple characters. They are not character actors. Please see this Wikipedia article for additional clarification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_actor

That's true, of course, but I think Nathan's intent was not to make a list of character actors but a list of actors who have played several famous characters. His title on his list clarifies that, I think, so could you or Peter edit the title and intro on this discussion thread so that the confusion doesn't continue? 

Thank you! :)

(Nathan, do I have this right?)

I'm guessing PS would want to change the description to something like "All-time Greatest Actors of Great Characters". I'm still trying to wrap my head around the emphasis the PS places on how many times an actor has played a "great" character. I find more interesting to look at how many "great" characters have been played or how high the quality or "greatness" levels of a few "great" characters played are. Naturally I gravitate toward Anthony Hopkins' characters. It is as though he always gets the best parts.

Not one of these guys is a character actor. They are all leading actors.

Actors who have never played the same character more than once are at least germane to this notion.

Breumaster: With very few exceptions, this is NOT a list of character actors. It is 98% leading actors.

Jeorj: Not playing the same character twice has nothing whatever to do with whether one is a character actor or not.

Neither of you really seem to grasp what the term "character actor" means. Granted, it is a term that can't be pinned down exactly, but neither of you is even within 10 miles of the concept. Please read the Wikipedia article that Dan linked to.

Sorry, but all german explanations I found do not exclude my list. There are obviously different perceptions of the character-acting-thing  in different countrys. To my defense: I'm no pro and will try to understand the english definition. But not today. ;)  98% might not be a proper number. There are many people in my text, that often took supporting charaters:

Michael Caine, Laurence Fishburn, Heath Ledger, Robert Duval, Eli Wallach, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Dan O'Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Kathy Bates, Max von Sydow, F. Murray Abraham, J.K. Simmons, etc.

Maybe Pete Postlethwaite would have been a better pick.

You're helping, don0don, but only just a minuscule amount.

don0don, I believe Nathan explained (and the title of his list on the actual list page clarifies) that his intent was not to make a poll about character actors but actors who have played several famous characters. 

HI, rubyfruit76. That explanation was provided way after we were evaluating what it means to be a character actor.

Schwarzenegger 5xTerminator (including additional planed movie), Hauser/Quaid in 'Total Recall' and Trench in 'The Expendables' Part I, II & III - Not to forget Harry Tasker in 'True Lies', directed by James Cameron. And Ben Richards from Richard Bachman's aka Stephen King's 'Running Man'.

Sean Connery - 7x James Bond, 1x Marko Ramius, 1x William of Baskerville, 1x Forrester, 1x Dr. John connor, 1x Paul Armstrong, 1x Barley 1x Marshall William T. O'Niel, 1x Mark Rutland, 1x Dr. Robert Campbell.

Please don't forget: Deadpool apeared first time in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'.
Wade Wilson = Wade Wilson = Deadpool. :D

By the way: 'Green Lantern' really was a poor movie. With $200,000,000.00 plus 30 Millions to correct the CGI scenes. (Easy to speak:) I guess I would have made a better movie on this ammount. And I have no experience in filmbiz. 'Green Lantern' was ridicuosly overpayed. It was a boxoffice bomb. And that's not Ryan Reynolds fault as we see on the 'Deadpool'-movies. Reynolds can do a wide amount of characters in other movies, too. 'Green Lantern' was a tremendous missmanagement on Warner's side.

In deadpool 2 post credit scenes deadpool goes back in time to kill that old deadpool in X-Men Origins. :/

Similar, but not exactly the same.

So, I've covered Hopkins, McKellen, Stewart, Oldman and Neeson. Who is next? Samuel L. Jackson perhaps? He has played tons of great non-derivative characters (ones whose original rendition was a portrayal by him), so it would be hard to express an outline of his work in the same way as the others. Nevertheless, he is Fury, Octopus, Harris, Hailey, Council, Cox and maybe a few others, many of who are not exactly legendary (or infamous) characters, fictional or biopic. The aforementioned characters respectively come from the print materials Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Spirit, Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Time to Kill, Freedomland and Jumper.

he played Satan and Elvis in pretty small forgettable roles? Val Kilmers- 'Elvis' in True Romance was better!

Yes, and biopic-wise, Cate Blanchett also played middle age Queen Elizabeth I, one of the most well-remembered monarchs of England.

great suggestion! I added her yesterday for Elizabeth x2, Galadriel x6 and Hela