Born for the roles

While I have so many great memories of actors perfectly embodying their well-written characters, I'm particularly fond of the following two, because they moved in a very profound manner:

Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001): When Ethan Hawke said that if he played his own character well, then Denzel might have a chance of winning the Oscars as the Best Actor. Well, he was not wrong. Denzel absolutely killed it and the performance is such a memorable one, that it felt like he was playing his own self in the movie. Absolutely, one of my all-time favorites.

Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (1989): The one thing that I loved so much about Robin Williams, apart from being a comedian, is his ability to be a brilliant reel-life teacher, a role that he again reclaimed in Good Will Hunting. Both are phenomenal films, but his screen presence in Dead Poets Society just oozes so much charm and charisma. In fact, his persona only introduced me to Walt Whitman's infamous, 'O Captain My Captain'.
 
Beautiful answers. Here are some of mine. Btw all the answers are also a wonderful repository of amazing shows & movies.

Viggo Mortensen - Aragorn son of Arathorn - LOTR

Ralph Fiennes - Amon Goeth - Schindler's List

Nathan Lane - Albert - The Birdcage (Probably my most favourite movie ever)
Robin Williams and Gene Hackman did great by giving him space or else this magical movie would have never been made.

Naseeruddin Shah - Gulfam Hasan - Sarfarosh

Joe Pesci - He simply turns every mafia movie into art. Amazing screen presence.

Some low hanging fruits:

Lance Reddick - Stern law enforcement officer
Matthew Mcconaughey - True Detective
Tony Sirico - Paulie - Sopranos
Clint Eastwood - Westerners
 
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Danny Ocean - George Clooney
Monk - Tony Shalhoub
House - Hugh Laurie
Byomkesh Bakshi - Rajit Kapur
Lalmohan Ganguly aka Jatayu - Santosh Dutta (for Feluda fans)
Ekendra Sen - Anirban Chakrabarti
 
Danny Ocean - George Clooney
Monk - Tony Shalhoub
House - Hugh Laurie
Byomkesh Bakshi - Rajit Kapur
Lalmohan Ganguly aka Jatayu - Santosh Dutta (for Feluda fans)
Ekendra Sen - Anirban Chakrabarti
That scene were Daniel is reminiscing about angles and architecture and Rusty's brain hits gold is one for the record books...:p
 
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