Top Five: Dead Actors.

So begins a four part series of top fives of actors and actresses, dead and alive. Here is the top five dead actors according to me. I warn you of course, as always, these are my own personal five and it should not detract from your own favorites. Here we go!

5. Orson Welles
Quite possibly the smartest man that ever went to Hollywood and made it big. Let me put it this way, he had memorized three Shakespeare plays at the age where I first discovered the girl sitting next to me in class was "budding." Most people know him from the original radio play, "War of the Worlds" and "Citizen Kane." Which he also wrote. My favorites are a little more, off the path. Movies like "The Third Man," "Macbeth" and "The Magnificent Ambersons." I highly suggest "The Third Man" I watched it when I was 15 and I've seen it around 12 times and I never tire of it. A brilliant actor, writer and director who was a creative victim of the studio system in the golden age.

4. Buster Keaton
The Great Stone Face, while Charlie Chapman had the Tramp, Buster Keaton had The Great Stone Face, because he never smiled in his early silent movies. Often in the great shadow of Charlie Chaplin, Keaton I always thought was the greater of the two. His physical comedy was more daring and often get more laughs out of me than Chaplin's. Watch "The General" and tell me I'm wrong. I DARE YOU. His shorts and feature length movies astound and amaze. One of the most amazing silent era actors to ever act.

3. Alec Guinness
One of the great questions I pose to film enthusiasts is, "Did Star Wars plague Alec Guinness' career?" I always get different answers, but my answer is, that it was just the cherry on top of the sundae. Just look at the movies he did before Star Wars, "The Lavender Hill Mob," "The Ladykillers," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," and Lawrence of Arabia." My favorite is "Kind Hearts and Coronets," where he plays eight roles, including a woman. He was unquestionably one of the best British actors ever.

2. Cary Grant
That smile always makes me dizzy *swoon*. Where was I? Just look at him! LOOK AT HIM! There are just so many movies that he is in that I adore, most of you know him from all the Alfred Hitchcock movies he did in his career. "Notorious" was always my favorite, just because... *swoon*. Where was I?

1. Toshirō Mifune
No one on the planet Earth will tell you that Mifune wasn't the greatest Japanese actor of all time. Kurosawa's go-to actor, in a sense you could say that Kurosawa wouldn't have been the greatest Japanese director of all-time without Mifune and that is saying something. He could go from animalistic and wild, to regal and kingly in a matter of seconds and never leave us doubting him. The man was an insperation to all future Japanese actors and many non-Japanese actors. One of my favorite movies is "Yojimbo" where Mifune was funny, clever and sold the movie. I first saw "Yojimbo" when I was in 8th grade and I grew addicted to Mifune. Within a year I had made my way through all of his Kurosawa movies. I can honestly say, I have seen about 90% of all of the movies he has ever been in. That is how much I love him. No I need a better example of my love... When I showed "Yojimbo" to Ashley the first time (we had been dating for about 4 months) she asked me how much I loved him. My answer, "I would totally make out with his rotting corpse."

It's a miracle that she married me, what with the necrophilia. What? Don't look at me like that!

As a side note, Rachel won the contest, so she can keep the award up. You can see the winning submission above.