An actor is a person who acts, or plays a role, in an artistic production. The term commonly refers to someone working in movies, television, live theatre, or radio, and can occasionally denote a street entertainer. Besides playing dramatic roles, actors may also sing or dance or work only on radio or as a voice artist. A female actor is known as an actress.

An actor usually plays a fictional character. In the case of a true story (or a fictional story that portrays real people) an actor may play a real person (or a fictional version of the same). Occasionally, actors appear as themselves. One notable example of this is John Malkovich's performance in Being John Malkovich.

Etymology

---

"Actor" is directly from the masculine Latin noun actor (feminine, actrix) from the verb agere "to do, to drive, to pass time" + the suffix -or "so./st. who performs the action indicated by the stem". Alternatively from Greek (aktor), leader, from the verb (agō), to lead or carry, to convey, to bring. ^*

More on [ Actor ]

Movies Reviews

Review for The Dark Knight - Must Go! - Better then Begins!
Action and storyline was superb. Heath should get nominated for an oscar for his brilliant acting ( I thought he was gonna suck being Joker, but he proved me wrong). Hans Zimmer did great with the music as usual. Best movie of the summer hands down.
Review for The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience - Must Go! - Just go see it...now preferably
I'm still stunned and I'm still excited...This is the best Batman ever made. Heath Ledger's performance is one of the best I've ever seen in my life. Very eerie, at that. I saw Batman Begins on IMAX 4 times and I'll probably go see this one 6 times...Don't read about it, don't watch any trailers, just go see it. I swear there is not one ounce of disappointment in the whole 2 1/2 hours of cinematic glory. Also, if there is an IMAX near you do NOT see it on a regular 35mm format! Nolan meant this to be a IMAX powerhouse. I will not go see it on the regular screen. Christian Bale is as suave as ever and the twist will keep you on the edge of your seat the WHOLE time. There isn't many words possible to describe this none other than, THIS FILM IS THE WHOLE REASON WE ARE IN LOVE WITH THE THEATER EXPERIENCE!
Review for Mamma Mia! - Must Go! - MAMMA MIA What Fun!
Great fun , a must see. If you love ABBA and love the play you will love this movie. Filmed on location in the Greek Islands the scenery is beautiful. Meryl Streep CAN sing and so can most all of the cast. (Pierce cant sing but he does his best). We saw this July 16 at a sneak peek and plan to see it again this Sunday. MAMMA MIA you will have fun.

L.A. Times - Movie Reviews

'The Grocer's Son,' 'Kenny,' 'Lou Reed's Berlin,' 'A Very British Gangster'
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Eric Guirado's beguiling "The Grocer's Son" is deceptively simple. Antoine (Nicolas Cazal�), a 30-year-old Paris waiter, suddenly finds himself back home in the village in Provence he fled a decade earlier. His gruff, demeaning father (Daniel Duval) has suffered a heart attack, and Antoine, at least temporarily, must drive a van every day through the countryside, selling food and goods to isolated, mainly elderly customers while his good-natured mother (Jeanne Goupil) runs their small store in the village.
'Mamma Mia'
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700
More like: Oh, no! The stage-to-screen adaptation is loaded with excess. But, hey, Meryl Streep comes off well. Couldn't they have just let "Mamma Mia!" be "Mamma Mia!"?
'Felon'
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700
In this intermittently satisfying prison drama, Stephen Dorff stars as a family man convicted of killing a burglar, with Val Kilmer as the inmate-guru who helps him survive. A hard-working, clean-living family man (Stephen Dorff) is sent to prison after he accidentally kills a burglar. Thrown into the violent world of life behind bars, with its indecipherable codes of behavior, racial disharmony and dehumanizing violence, he struggles to get by. That is until he is made cellmates with a philosopher/poet/mass-murderer (a girthy Val Kilmer) who shows him the ropes.

Movies

The Wackness
Richard Brody Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The Film File
Tell No One
David Denby Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The Film File
Past Shock
David Denby Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In the new Batman film, “The Dark Knight,” many things go boom. Cars explode, jails and hospitals are blown up, bombs are put in people’s mouths and sewn into their stomachs. There’s a chase scene in which cars pile up and climb over other cars, and a truck gets lassoed . . .

Rolling Stone Movie Reviews

Dark Knight
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:50:04 -0700
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron E... Review: Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle —... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Mamma Mia!
Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:44:55 -0700
Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Jul... Review: Meryl Streep can do anything: sing, dance, do splits, act her heart out. She (almost) saves this clumsy, overwrought film version of the Abba musical that's been running on stages from Broadway to Barcelona since 1999, grossing over $2 billion and luring more than 30 million ticketbuyers to hear Abba songs by Sweden's Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson shoehorned into a plot where they don't really fit. Who can argue with that kind of "money, money/Always sunny/In a rich man's world success?" I can, at least where the movie is concerned, because the three formidable women responsible for the show — producer Judy Craymer, writer Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd — let the magic slip through their fingers on the treacherous trip from stage to screen. The ... Rating: 2 Stars
Meet Dave
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:44:15 -0700
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Judah Friedlander... Review: Eddie Murphy — was that Oscar nominated performance in Dreamgirls just something I imagined? — continues to trash his very real talent with bottomfeeding material. In Meet Dave, Murphy limits himself to two roles (none human). He plays a pint-sized alien from outer space and the spacecraft he rode in on. If you think I'm going to explain that lame premise, think again. But know this: Murphy, teaming again with his Norbit director Brian Robbins, is assuming we'll all line up for lazyass toilet jokes and pay for the privilege. Prove him wrong, people, please. Rating: 1 Star

Rotten Tomatoes: Top Movies

87% Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:05:02 -0700
Del Toro crafts a stellar comic book sequel, boasting visuals that are as imaginative as the characters are endearing.
37% Hancock
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:05:02 -0700
Though it begins with promise, Hancock suffers from a flimsy narrative and poor execution.
60% Journey to the Center of the Earth
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:05:02 -0700
Modern visuals and an old fasioned storyline make this family adventure/comedy a fast-paced, kitschy ride.

NPR Topics: Movies

'Mamma Mia!' Revisits The Greek Wedding
Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 -0400
The folks directing, scripting and producing Mamma Mia! are the same ones who did the show on Broadway. They are not movie people, and it shows at times: The performers have been encouraged to overdo, play to the back row, and belt songs into each other's faces.
Summary Judgment: 'Mama' Or 'Knight'?
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:00:00 -0400
Writer Mark Jordan Legan breaks down reviews of the long-awaited Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Animated feature Space Chimps is up next. And finally, Legan looks at Mama Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan. It's as divisive as ABBA itself, he says.
A Portrait Of The Great 'Gonzo'
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:32:00 -0400
The documentary Gonzo remembers the strange and wild life of writer Hunter S. Thompson. Critic John Powers reviews the film.

NYT > Red Carpet

The Lawsuit Over Producer Credit for 'Crash' Gets Personal
SHARON WAXMAN Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
A top executive of the movie academy described one of the producing team behind the best-picture winner, "Crash," as throwing a tantrum in suing over credit for the film.
News Analysis: Los Angeles Retains Custody of Oscar
DAVID CARR Tue, 07 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
Los Angeles, a place where race is discussed rarely, saw itself in "Crash," a film where encounter and understanding are just a random fender-bender away.
'Crash' Walks Away With the Top Prize at the Oscars
DAVID M. HALBFINGER and DAVID CARR Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
In a stunning twist, the motion picture academy turned its back on "Brokeback Mountain," awarding the Oscar for best picture to "Crash."

Village Voice | Films

Heath Ledger Peers Into The Abyss in The Dark Knight
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500
What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Christopher Nolan's Gotham City—if "pleasure" is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply and sometimes despairingly into the souls of restless men. In The Dark Knight, the continuation of Nolan's superb 2005 reboot of the Batman fra...
Jacques Nolot Approaches His End in Before I Forget
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The man awakes from a restless sleep and makes himself a pot of coffee. The kitchen light falls down on his wavy hair, more salt than pepper, and his once-youthful body, now a strange topography of sags and folds. He shuffles into the living room, sits down at his desk, and attempts to write. Tha...
Lou Reed's Berlin is All New York
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The most epic musical moment at this year's South by Southwest Festival was a Lou Reed tribute extravaganza, a tented Texan sweatfest that saw the guest of honor publicly kissing Moby on the cheek (!) and a string of cover- song mini-sets from rock stalwarts Yo La Tengo, Thurston Moore, and My Mo...

Film News from Times Online

Welcome to hell again in follow-up to surprise horror-smash Descent
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:01:09 -0000
We are peering through a thicket of stalagmites into a cavern full of carnage. In front of us are the ravaged corpses of a stag and a large dog. The ground is strewn with blood, viscera and what appears to be a spinal cord, species undetermined. And in the centre of the cavern three battered-looking women are preparing to fight for their lives against a pack of naked white humanoid creatures with bat-like ears. “Nick, can you get into your throttling position on Natalie?” says the stunt co-ordinator to one of the creatures. “Lots of gnashing and screeching please,” reminds the first assistant director.
Donkey Punch
Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000

WALL-E
Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000


Subscribe to Movies RSS feed