The 10 Best Actor and Director Combinations
5. Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon
It has been over 10 years since the world sadly lost the pair of Wilder and Lemmon, but their relationship and legacy is still as strong as ever. Inspired comedies Some Like it Hot and The Apartment perhaps stand out more than others, but the pair produced several charming and successfully films together Irma La Douce and Avanti. Their talents complement each other perfectly, with Lemmon filling the role of the charming and likable onscreen presence, and Wilder being able to give Lemmon the direction and scope to not only fulfil these roles but to grow as an actor.
Best film: Some Like it Hot (1959)
4. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell
The picture says it all really. Who else could pose in such a manner armed with a sword and axe and get away with it? Given it was the 70s/80s and this kind of stuff was acceptable, but Carpenter and Russell shared a very special bond, both on and off-screen. Their friendship is apparent from the cult success of their films, with the pair singlehandedly redefining the thriller and what it is to be cool. They had a total of 5 outing together, which are all more memorable than the next, and have since solidified themselves in the B-movie hall of fame.
Best film: The Thing (1984)
3. Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant
At the time, Hitchcock and Grant were arguably the best at what they did. Hitchcock was an auteur, filmmaker, and creative genius extraordinaire, and Grant was one of the finest (and well-dressed) actors to have graced the silver screen. What has changed since then? Not much. Compared to some of the other entries on the list, 4 films may not seem like an awful lot, but when these films include North by Northwest, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, and Suspicion, you can’t really argue about how well these two worked together.
Best film: North by Northwest (1959)
2. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
The certifiable kings of the crime movie (and comedy – aha, see what I did there!). The partnership of Scorsese and De Niro really needs no introduction, and since their first joint outing in Mean Streets (1973), they’ve been driving taxis, in the ring, running casinos, and stealing from the airport. Many people including myself will argue that De Niro is the greatest method actor of all time, and every time he links up with Scorsese, who is also widely considered to be one of the greatest directors alive, the outcome has always been tremendous.
Best film: Goodfellas (1990)
1. Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune
Rumor has it that Kurosawa and Mifune did so many films together, they were actually Siamese twins, and Kurosawa would just edit himself out of shot. This is of course untrue, but isn’t far from a plausible explanation as to the wonderful relationship Kurosawa and Mifune shared. Over the course of their careers they completed a stunning 16 films together, all of which are not only landmarks in their respective filmographies, or even Japanese cinema, but for film as a whole. They might not be as well known to the general public as some of the other aforementioned candidates, but they top this list by a country mile.
Best film: Seven Samurai (1954)
Agree that the masters of the samurai film are the ichiban? Think quantity or quality is the key to a successful collaboration? Leave a comment below and let me know!
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75 Comments
My unofficial honorable mention: Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks
It was tough for me to leave them out, but if I was to add a fourth honourable mention, they would be it. Thanks for reading! :]
I think Univarn will love the #1 choice.
Haha – sounds like a person with taste
Great article Jim, totally agree w/ a lot of these on your list, esp. Cary Grant & Hitchcock.
Thanks very much :] Hitch was brilliant with Stewart too, but I prefer him with Grant.
These are always fun lists.
Interesting call on Grant/Hitchcock over Stewart/Hitchcock – of course you could include both on this list and nobody would be likely to complain too loudly.
There’s no denying that I fully endorse any list featuring Kurosawa. But perhaps it’s because I read so much about Mifune/Kurosawa I’ve always gravitated a bit of love towards Shimura/Kurosawa as sort of the devious affair that happened while everyone was busy watching Mifune in front and center.
Few things tickle my funny bone quite like a Wilder-Lemmon pairing. Something about Wilder’s subtle comic cyncism with Lemmon’s overt charming optimism just made them click.
One of the commonalties of a lot of the directors on this list (and lists like it) is that they tend to use the same actors over and over again on the whole. Kurosawa was notorious for it (especially during the height of his fame during the ’50s to mid ’60s).
Thanks for reading :]
Yeah I prefer Grant/Hitchcock, but Stewart/Hitchcock are also excellent. I didn’t want to duplicate but in retrospect I probably should have done. Grant always has that wit and charm, but Hitchcock is brilliant at extracting that darker side from him.
I’m quite the same with Kurosawa – any chance I can get to throw his name around. Again the lack of Shimura was to avoid repetition, but I loved him in Ikiru. If I was being selfish Kurosawa would probably occupy #1 and #2.
I’d preferred James Stewart and Hitchcock before Cary Grant on the list or why not both?
really great list. but what about denzel washington and spike lee? leonardo dicaprio and scorsese?
Leo with Scorsese doesn’t have the same depth as the De Niro pairings. The Aviator is such a poor film and I have my issues with the Departed, Gangs of New York and Shutter Island too maybe I just dont like Scorseses most recent films.
Thanks very much :] Washington and Lee were two I considered for the list, but I don’t believe them to be as prolific as the others mentioned. Great pairing though – I’m glad someone brought it up
same for Leo and Scorsese. Didn’t want to repeat entrants as well – but they would definitely feature in the 20 – 10.
This is a fine list so I don’t know who I’d bump, but I feel like Tod Browning and Lon Chaney really ought to be on there somewhere.
Agree 100% with your number one. Honorable mentions should go to two other Kurosawa/actor partnerships, with Takashi Shimura (best film: Ikiru/Seven Samurai) and Tatsuya Nakadai (best film: Ran).
Another good pick :] this is something I’d love to expand in the future, so keep posted!
I didn’t want to be repetitive, but in all honesty, I think I would have got away with it. Both Shimura and Nakadai were excellent with Kurosawa though – he excelled at bringing the best out of people.
Clint Eastwood and Clint Eastwood. Nuff said.
Haha! Thats actually a really interesting one – I never thought of that. And you’d have Gran Torino, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby. Great pick Markus!
Yay! Spot on! When you mention it could have been on the list!
David Yates and Daniel Radcliffe/Emma Watson/Rupert Grint/Alan Rickman/Michael Gambon. X)
Hard to argue with #1. Love the inclusion of Wilder/Lemmon. Would have made room for the Fellini/Mastroianni pairing, though.
Also deserving would be Almodovar and Cruz, which is probably the best when mentioning just modern combinations.
Thanks for reading :] Yeah it was hard to just give Fellini and Mastroianni an honourable mention. And Almodavar and Cruz is another good pick! Definitely overlooked, but quickly establishing themselves as a great modern partnership as you said.
Herzog and Kinski would be my #1, but you’ve got a lot of great ones above it. Grant and Hitchcock, De Niro and Scorsese and Kurosawa and Mifune would all be in my top 10. Surprised you didn’t do Scorsese and DiCaprio as that seems to be the actor director duo right now.
And if people want to be smart with directors also acting in their films. Tati and Tati is my favorite.
Thanks for reading! The list was surprisingly difficult to order. I wanted them higher but I couldn’t bring myself to lower the position of those above them.
Leo/Scorsese appears to be biggest complaint. The Departed was excellent, as was Shutter Island, but I felt Daniel Day-Lewis Stole the show in Gangs of NY, and although the Aviator was good, I didn’t think it was that memorable. They’ve got more left in them yet though so hopefully they’ll enter the ranks soon :]
Russell and Carpenter! Nice! Their commentary on the Big Trouble in Little China DVDs is one of my favorite of all time. They go off on so many tangents, and it’s obvious that they’re friends.
You can’t really go wrong with this list.
Thanks for reading :] yeah I’m a massive fan, but objectively their work together is revolutionary. I’ll make sure to check that commentary out!
If I had any quibbles, It would be for your #10 pick. I’m sorry to say it, but both Burton and Depp have made some good movies in the past, but their once idiosyncratic collaboration has really felt cheap and predictable in the last couple of years. Ed Wood is the last great movie they made together (sorry Sweeney Todd lovers).
Also, I really think you are overlooking a lot of great collaborations involving female performers (you only have Frances McDormand).
Of course, your #1 pick is spot-on!
Here are some “honorable mentions” for me:
-George Cuckor and Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy
-Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman or Max von Sydow
-Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina
-David Lynch and Jack Nance
-Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman
-Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz
-John Ratzenberger and Pixar (though this one probably shouldn’t qualify)
Thanks for reading! I knew #10 was going to divide people, but yes they have been flagging recently – Alice in Wonderland was awful! Their ‘golden days’ are what swayed it for me though – such a wonderfully surreal set of films.
Yeah that was unintentional – I didn’t mean to leave out so many but I struggled to put them in for the same reasons other didn’t make it. All those honourable mentions are brilliant though. Definitely the best of the bunch there. Bergman and Ullman is my person favourite :]
I was gonna mention Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman, good thing I read the other comments, first. Great rationale, Jim.
Cool list, I’d also add Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah & Chris Nolan and Christiane Bale.
Thanks :] good picks as well! I’d love to see Nolan and Bale do more – can’t wait for The Dark Knight rises.
I’m not a fan of the first pair (but you already knew that, Ted), but yes on Nolan/Bale, the Batman films AND The Prestige are all great work.
My top 5 so far are:
1. Herzog-Kinski
2. Scorsese-De Niro
3. Kurosawa-Mifune
4. Almodovar-Cruz
5. Leone-Eastwood
Great picks! Thanks for reading. Leone and Eastwood were brilliant. Despite being centralized, we have three of the best westerns of all time thanks to them! :]
Really interesting list but I do think you are leaving out some females. Hitchcock and Grace Kelly comes to mind and of course Woody Allen with any of his muses.
As mentioned earlier I would have replaced Cary Grant with James Stewart and I do think that John Wayne and John Ford should have made the list.
Also Richard Dreyfuss and Steven Spielberg might have made my list.
Yeah I did feel guilty about that, but I was struggling to put them above those I already had in the list. Bergman/Ullman and Allen/Keaton were both in contention.
I think Hitchcock brought the best out of Grant. Not to mention they were both responsible for North by Northwest, which I consider to be one of the best movies ever made. Personally I’d put Ford/Fonda before Ford/Wayne, but both were excellent. It was always going to be impossible to get everyone in though.
Dreyfuss and Spielberg is also an interesting choice, but Always was mediocre. As good as Jaws and Close Encounters are, I struggled to include them with only 2 brilliant films to their name.
This is a great list (especially Wilder and Lemmon, I thought I was the only one who picked up on that!). I will add Ingmar Bergman and every actor he’s ever worked with, Paul Thomas Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Lynch and Laura Dern, The Coens and John Turturro, David Fincher and Brad Pitt, Robert Altman and Tim Robbins, Danny Boyle and Ewen MacGregor, Francis Ford Coppola and Marlon Brando, and that’s about all I can think of at the moment.
Thanks very much
I don’t see how anyone could possible ignore Wilder and Lemmon. They did originally feature at #3, but slipped down in the drafting process.
All brilliant picks again though! Ever reader here has impeccable taste
PTA and Hoffman is a great one!
OOOO. I was presently surprised. I thought for sure De Nero and Scorsese would be number one, but I love the choice that was the victor. Fun read.
I did briefly consider it as De Niro is my favourite actor, but there was only going to be one winner really. Thanks for reading :]
Masaki Kobayasho got some amazing performances out of Tatsuya Nakadai as well, and Todd Haynes out of Julianne Moorre
Good picks Max! Harakiri is excellent – a great partership that is perhaps overlooked. Same for Haynes and Moore.
A Very cool list indeed. Nice to see the Kinski getting so much love around the blogs lately!!
Thanks for putting it together
Thanks for reading – glad you enjoyed it! Kinski and Herzog definitely deserve it!
I would second the pairing of Leone/Eastwood, but I would also like to nominate Altman/Elliot Gould, thought they only actually did 2 films together (Gould did have a bit part in “The Player”.
Otherwise, great list and great website! Keep it up!
Thanks for reading :] Good picks again! The Long Goodbye is a brilliant film. Great to see so much diversity with other people’s choices.
Altman and Gould made three actually
M.A.S.H, The Long Goodbye and California Split (it’s not well known but it’s a very good one…well, i’ve seen about 20 movies from Altman, and never found one bad!
i didn’t read all the comments since i stopped to reply here, but if it ain’t there i’d like to add Fellini/Mastroianni
and for some reason i would have rather paired
and Browning/Chaney. 
Peckinpah with James Coburn. one of my other favs has to be Cassavetes/Gazzara
and as far as the “single that makes a pair” goes, Kitano/Kitano and Welles/Welles would work well too imo
very nice list anyway! much love for Kinski/Herzog from France!
Sonatine,
How could have I forgotten MASH?? Silly me!
Another you reminded me of is Cassavetes/Gena Rowland, also Cassavetes/Peter Falk too!
Though he only really directed one of these, I’d put George Lucas and Harrison Ford an honarable mention. Harrison ford was in eight of Lucas’s pictures and there are all great, and ford is great in them. The three Star Wars, the four indiana jones (though really only the first three are good and in those the first and the third are really the best), and American Graffiti. Lucas basically made Ford the actor and icon he is today.
Good pick Amichai. They weren’t included on the basis which you highlighted, in that Lucas only directed the one picture. But nobody can deny how well they worked together, and how Lucas crafted Ford’s career. I loved Ford’s role in American Graffiti as well – minimal but important.
Actually Lucas directed two of these (Star Wars and American Graffiti).
A few comments over here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/j1btd/the_10_best_actordirector_combos/
People complaining about Burton/Depp can take a hike. Their earlier films were excellent :] great to see the love for Kurosawa and Mifune though :]
Good list. I do think that Kyle MacLachlan and David Lynch deserve to be here though. They basically made surreal film popular with Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks!
Yeah in hind-sight I perhaps overlooked them, and am a massive fan of Lynch. He’s easily one of the best directors around today, and as you pointed out, he’s massively responsible for the popularity of surreal films. Great pick GoodList!
What about John Candy & John Hughes…they were pretty great together!
Oh yeah – another good pick! I loved Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Hughes was definitely one of the greatest comedy directors of the 80s.
No one in the right cinematic mind can argue these top two. And great to see some love for the oft-overlooked Wilder/Lemmon duo.
Thanks for reading :] the top 2 were very easy to place! And yeah they definitely need more love than they get.
Ingmar Bergman – Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von sydow, Erland Josephson Liv Ullman etc
Another popular choice that didn’t make the cut. Bergman was generally brilliant with everyone he worked with – glad he’s getting some love :]
Nice list, very thought provoking and well done.
Total beef with number 4 though. Russell and Carpenter? Really? I don’t thnk they belong, really… just because they have 5 movies together? You say yourself the movies they did were more B movies. (I’ll grant you the Thing is a classic, and there’s a couple of cult films there, but…)
I’m not even proposing an alternate, even though a couple come to mind. I just find their inclusion… jarring.
Nice list otherwise though. Nice to see the love for Francis McDormand.
Thanks very much :] hope you enjoyed it.
Its not necessarily the quantity of films for which they are included so highly. One of the aspects I focussed on with the list was the partnership itself. Carpenter and Russell were like brothers – they shared a very special bond which was stronger than almost everyone on the list. As well as that I think just after Hitch (hence the placement) they were possibly the most important people for revolutionizing the thriller and had an astronomically massive fanbase. Taking into account what they produced were B-movies, they managed to create one of the greatest horror of all time, and popularize Post-Apocalyptic films. But again its a matter of taste – so your view is equally as valid :]
And yeah I definitely think McDormand is overlooked. She’s brilliant!
I did enjoy it Jim, yeah.
Gonna have to agree to disagree on #4 thats all.
Good list though.
That’s cool :] I am a massive fanboy though so maybe I’m a bit biased
jeez, people need to stop saying that B movies are under “real cinema”. B movies have as many things to say than the others, and since they’re often independant or law-budget they can allow themselves to be really subversive, and big John did just that, as well as Romero for example.
wow what a great list! love it. especially the lemmon/wilder. ugh! the best! and i agree with you on the whole grant/hitchcock. I love james stewart in his work too, but the relationship between actor and director felt strongest with grant. on my personal list i’d definitely add Wes Anderson/Owen Wilson for sure. or Wes Anderson/Wilson brothers since all three of them are always in his films. haha. i seriously think people would respect the wilson brothers more if they saw the great work they do with Wes. not just acting but also writing and producing. Owen has written a lot with Wes. and on the commentaries you can tell how close they are. but anyways, yeah i love the list. even the whole burton/depp debate. yeah they make awful movies now, but that doesn’t in any way dilute the great stuff they made before.
Thanks very much :] a lot of people pick Stewart/Hitch but glad to see some more love for Grant/Hitch!
Aha! Another good pick! Indeed the Wilsons have got a reputation for being quite tiresome in their more recent comedies, but as you said their writing, acting, and everything they did with Wes was comic genius! Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favourite movies!
I’d have put Herzog/Kinski higher,
and what about Kurosawa/Nakadai?
And Leone/Eastwood would have been cool. But great list, I like your choices, especially the Carpenter/Russell one, I wasn’t expecting to see that!
Cheers – glad the Carpenter/Russell pick pleased!
For Kurosawa/Nakadai, I was trying to avoid repetition as I wanted a broad list, and if I was to feature Kurosawa again, it would have to be with Shimura. Good pick though – Kuro was excellent with everyone he worked with.
All great picks.
RE: Hitchcock I definitely agree with others here – Hitch/Grant could have easily been Hitch/Stewart
I also second Spike Lee/Denzel Washington
Ooh and one more (they only did two films but): George Roy Hill and Robert Redford/Paul Newman. More of a trifecta.
Cheers :] a highly debated issue. Might lead this in to a discussion post – Stewart or Grant. Hill and Redford/Newman is a great one. Nobody mentioned that yet!
I’d have preferred Wes Anderson/Bill Murray in place of Burton/Depp, who haven’t had a fruitful pairing since Sleepy Hollow but certainly deserve a spot on how intriguing they were together to that point. And will there be a director/actress post coming? Almodovar/Cruz and Allen/Keaton flew to mind as fast as Scorsese/De Niro, Kurosawa/Mifune and Herzog/Kinski when I saw the post title.
EDIT: I accidentally clicked the post button before I could add another line about Frances McDormand’s pick pretty much answering my question. But I think there are enough director/actress pairings to warrant their own post. Bergman/Ullmann alone is a cornerstone of cinema.
All of those choices are indeed excellent. I think if I’m faced with cutting so many excellent pairings in future I’ll go for a top 20.
Excellent list! One minor correction: that Herzog/Kinski documentary is, appropriate to their relationship, called My Best “Fiend”, not “Friend”.
Aha! Thanks Ian – missed that one. Clever title!
You forgot JOHN FORD & JOHN WAYNE!!! The kings of Westerns!
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