5. Richard Jenkins
Films of 2012: Killing Them Softly, Liberal Arts, Cabin in the Woods, Jack Reacher, Darling Companion Academy Award-nominated Richard Jenkins is among the best character actors working today. That is why he is able to get work in various films in which he is able to show his range in comedies and dramas. There is no single person better at playing the down trodden close to retirement age man than Richard Jenkins. In "Killing Them Softly" he was able to combat with Brad Pitt's showier performance and in Josh Radnor's "Liberal Arts" Jenkins was able to gain sympathy as a college professor not quite read to retire. But it was his chemistry with Bradley Whitford in the inventive "The Cabin in the Woods" in which he brought great joy in just watching those two interact. For the year of 2013, he is slated to be in the next Robert Redford thriller, "The Company You Keep," and a Roland Emmerich film, "White House Down."