Most eccentric performance by an actor?

Tell us all what you believe to be the most eccentric performance by an actor/actress.

I'm not sure if it should be labeled the most eccentric in the true superlative sense, but Rip Torn's performance in Freddy Got Fingered (2001) comes pretty damn close. Or better yet, Tom Green's performance in his own movie.



That whole scene is so full of WTF that I'm always left speechless.

Ohhhhh, look honey, our boy's a genius! He's rigged a pulley system so he can eat sausage and work on his stupid drawings.

If this were Pakistan you would have been sewing soccer balls when you were four years old.

Well...

As you noted, "eccentric" has a number of meanings, and (in my view) the sequence you posted is rather more in the over-acting-for-comedic-effect type of things? :O

As for another meaning of that term, one closer to "peculiar" or "strange", maybe Ralph Fiennes in the (excellent) 2005 "Spider" movie:



I don't know why Fiennes can be such crap in the often lowly roles he accepts, but a couple of his films (and surely not that holocaust one) show him as a major actor

William Dafoe in just about everything he does. In Boondock Saints he (over)plays an eccentric, genius, gay detective:



Yes that's Norman Reedus, by the way.

LOL. That scene earlier in the movie too, when he's dancing at the crime scene to what was it...opera music? Fantastic. He was also pretty badass in Platoon (1986).

Michael Richards as the highly eccentric Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld. Simply one of the best characters ever created.




Sacha Baron Cohen as the equally eccentric Borat Sagdyiev. There are so many clips that deserve to be mentioned here but I don't want to break the ToS.

All of Chris Walken's performances.

Originally Posted by Sir Adrian

All of Chris Walken's performances.

And Nicholas Cage , I mean if talk here about consistent eccentrics nothing can top those two. At least in mainstream Hollywood .

Originally Posted by Sir Adrian

All of Chris Walken's performances.

This. That man is deeply weird

@Sir Adrian: good answer.

@Maximinus Thrax: Lol. You honestly couldn't have picked a better Cosmo Kramer moment; that was Michael Richards at his best. Now he's just an unfortunate has-been.

Oh Nicholas Cage...

I'd say the best part of wicker man is still when he punches a woman while dressed in a bear suit.


Regarding eccentric, nothing tops the marx brothers though.

That scene from Wickerman has definitely come up in another thread I've started here in Thema Devia...I believe it was in the world's worst movie quotes thread.

I maintain that "eccentric" does not really mean "over-acting as something you are not at all like".

Came here to post Nic Cage's performance in the Wicker Man, which I admit I've only ever seen bits of. Still, everything he does is pretty great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S73swRzxs8Y

Pretty much all of The Big Lebowski is eccentric. I have a particular soft spot for Walter Sobchak.

Needless to say, but harsh language involved.

Mickey Rooney, Breakfast at Tiffany's


Any performances of drag queens is apt to be completely campy and so overboard that it's radically eccentric.
Say Priscilla Queen of the Desert

What was Hugo Weaving thinking (Elrond)?

Ahh the Big Lebowski. Thanks for the laughs Visna.

Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, also Peter Seller's in Dr Strangelove: Or How I learned to love the bomb.

@Visna: about the Big Lebowski, well that's just like...your opinion...man. An opinion that I agree with, because the Dude abides.

@Himster: Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing is a perfect answer!



As for Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, his multiple performances in that movie should have earned him a place in the OP instead of ing Tom Green, so I apologize immediately.

We can't stop here :{i