10 Actors Who Stole Movies In A Single Scene

10. Philip Seymour Hoffman - Hard Eight

In the case of Philip Seymour Hoffman in Hard Eight, he stole the movie so damn hard it effectively changed the entire trajectory of his tragically short career.

The crime film was Paul Thomas Anderson's directorial debut, and saw Hoffman make a brief cameo appearance as an obnoxious craps player who taunts protagonist Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) from across the table while playing.

He goads Sydney into placing a high bet alongside him, and when they both lose, the man desperately attempts to mask his crushing disappointment at losing his money.

In a span of just three minutes, Hoffman does a mesmerising job depicting a gambling addict's rollercoaster of emotions, lurching from overconfident exhilaration to scarcely suppressed heartbreak.

Hard Eight's a terrific movie any way you slice it, but Hoffman's performance feels more richly lived-in than any other in the film.

And it evidently impressed Anderson enough to kickstart a wider working relationship, with the duo collaborating on four subsequent features prior to Hoffman's untimely death in 2014.