25 Underrated Actors

By: Ally the Manic Listmaker

Ludivine Sagnier does not have the international stardom that Brigitte Bardot had, for example. She is an excellent actress and singer, yet hardly anyone knows her when I bring her up. I have to refer to her as the girl in Swimming Pool and suddenly a lot more people have a clue.

Sandra Majani was a former model that was brilliantly directed by Patrice Leconte in Yvonne’s Perfume. Why did she disappear or never make it as an actress? She had the talent and looks.

Corinne Marchand was in the wonderful film Cleo From 5 to 7 directed by Agnès Varda. She had basically a cameo appearance in the film, Lola, directed by Varda’s husband, Jacques Demy. Four decades later, she was also briefly in the film Innocence. However, despite her beautiful voice and her powerful performance in Cleo, we haven’t really seen that much from Corinne Marchand. She could have been a Jeanne Moreau or an Anouk Aimée!

Colleen Moore was a star in the silent era, yet she is mostly forgotten today. This may be due in part to her films not being widely available. She donated a print of her biggest film, Flaming Youth, to a museum. They did not store it properly and the print was damaged. There is no copy of the film known to exist. Recently, Her Wild Oat was found and restored. Perhaps proof of her obscurity is that none of her films are in the auteurs’ database.

Perhaps among cinephiles, Monica Vitti is a godess. However, I talked to an Italian guy one time and he said, “Monica Vitti is hot? Really?”

Dustin Hoffman – I went to a Q&A with Dustin Hoffman when he was promoting Last Chance Harvey. He said when he struggled as an actor for over ten years before he made it big and still felt like a failure to this day and that he still had a hard time getting work. This was very surprising, since he’s one of my favorites. And maybe I’m biased, but he is one of the most talented actors. Straight Time is one of his underrated films. And only about a third of the audience of die-hard Dustin Hoffman films had seen the film when he asked everyone who had seen the movie to raise their hands.

Tyrone Power – Due to his early death, Tyrone Power is not a household name, even though he made spectacular films such as Witness for the Prosecution and The Eddy Duchin Story.

Will write descriptions for these later:
Arsinée Khanjian
Maurice Bénichou
Janet Margolin
Melissa George
Isa Miranda
Mark Ruffalo
Suzy Delair
Teresa Wright
Eszter Balint
Marie-France Pisier
Susan Tyrrell
Carroll Baker
Rinko Kikuchi
Greg Kinnear
Fabrice Luchini
Leonor Watling
Toby Jones