Movies - TV
The 15 Best Gary Oldman Performances Ranked
By NICK BARTLETT
15. Sid Vicious
Gary Oldman has the ability to make characters memorable, even if the movie isn’t the best, as is the case in “Sid and Nancy.” The role put Oldman on the map, and the chemistry with his co-star, Chloe Webb, is what makes this movie stick with audiences long after it’s over.
14. Rosencrantz
“Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” is a film adaptation of the play by Tom Stoppard. Oldman and Tim Roth do an endearing double act, with Oldman playing the mild-mannered idiot, and the success of the film depends entirely on their central performances, which worked perfectly as both are adept comic performers.
13. Beethoven
It might have taken Oldman’s character 20 minutes to utter a single word in “Immortal Beloved,” but that didn’t take away from his acting in the slightest. Oldman absolutely nails the broader aspects of Beethoven's character — the fits of pique, the bombastic Austrian pomposity — and even captures the composer’s quieter moments.
12. Sirius Black
Cast in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” as Sirius Black, Oldman plays a complex character. Even with limited screen time, the character is remarkably lived-in and the performance is intense; the actor perfectly captures Black’s frantic restlessness.
11. Mankiewicz
Oldman’s take on Herman Mankiewicz, the acerbic screenwriter, in “Mank” is far from what the real man looked like. The result of playing this character without prosthetics made it one of Oldman’s more natural, authentic, playful performances, which would earn him his third Oscar nomination.