Is Sean Penn the greatest actor ever?

OP, I think it is up to you to prove why he is the greatest actor ever.

Not even close.

acting isn't a sport

Have you been drinking - or smoking something - OP?

He was dead weight on the set!

Was awesome in Bad Boys

No

Of course not.

No. Brandon, Gregory Peck, Olivier, Burton, Nicholson, DDL, or Denzel Washington have all eclipsed him by a country mile.

He’s good in a role that suits him. Even great —Dead Man Walking.

He deserved his Oscar for Milk over Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. Penn’s performance was transformative and Rourke basically played a version of himself..

His performance in I Am Sam disqualifies him being the greatest. But he’s usually quite good and has been great several times. Becoming part of Paul Thomas Anderson’s stable was probably a wise choice at this point in his career.

From what I’ve heard, he’s actually really funny in person. That surprised me.

Robert Walker was an actor with great range and sensitivity, certainly much better than Penn, but he died too young to get the recognition he deserved.

Albert Finney is better than Penn, because he can play anyone and make it look easy.

[quote]Albert Finney is better than Penn, because he can play anyone and make it look easy.

Not anymore.

Both Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton did some very, VERY fine acting in The Falcon and the Snowman.

At Close Range he should have won awards for

Uh, no. Not even close.

I think Sean Penn can be brilliant. But OP's question is very subjective. A lot of actors can have moments of brilliance. IMO it's the accumulation of those moments, and the consistency that makes an actor great. I thought he was brilliant in Mystic River. It was a terribly difficult movie to watch.

No Deniro, Pacino, and Boseman are better.

R18, who's Boseman?

Chadwick Boseman.

Yes, but of course I’m biased speaking from my artistic viewpoint and thespian experience.

For his generation in America, he is one of the very best.

He sometimes chooses bad movies and as he gets older great projects are few and farther between but otherwise I like him a lot.

He always has a lot of soulfulness.

You must be dreaming, or Sean posting on here.

I remember having a crush on Tim Hutton and he was in this movie, The Falcon and the Snowman? Sean Penn played a wacko young man, maybe college age, who wanted to be a spy and he kept trying to get in to the Russian Embassy in Mexico and they thought he was nuts. Which he was. I don't recall important details except that I was impressed with Penn's acting.

Noever understood why the fuck both him for "I Am Sam" and Will Smith for "Ali" got nominatons for Best Actor at the 2001 Oscars.

Those 2 sports could've been filled by either Billy Bob Thornton (Monster's Ball), Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!), Gene Hackman (The Royal Tenenbaums) or John Cameron Mithcell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch).

He’s up there, and one of my favorites. Jeff Spicoli is one of my favorite performances of all time.

R25, that was a very strong year for movies, but that Best Actor lineup was dire. Even the performances by Crowe and Washington feel tremendously overrated to me. Tom Wilkinson was the best of that lineup by far.

I’d add Guy Pearce to your list, and he’d probably be my winner.

He’s a good actor at times but insufferable as a human. He’s done some shit work too- Spicoli.

He completely stole Carlito's Way from Al Pacino. I think he's the Brando of his generation--or, at least, the Dustin Hoffman of his generation.

R29, OMG his slimy lawyer in Carlito's Way was amazing. I think I want to watch that again, thanks! Falcon and the Snowman was based on a true story as I recall. Sean Penn is a great actor. But not "the greatest."

Was he good in Shanghai Surprise?

I actually believe he is the greatest of his generation, whether or not he's gotten a chance to show it that much. Years ago, I went to see a play off broadway. I sat down right before it started, so didn't have a chance to look at my program. A lot of actors were on stage, including Kevin Bacon, all playing Scottish folk, with ok to not so ok accents. Downstage, near me, was some Scottish kid I presumed they shipped in from the mother country. At intermission, I checked my program to find out that kid had played Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgmont High. Unbelievably brilliant. So, yes, I believe it...

No.

R19 see below you feeble minded cunt.