7. Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, like Hugo Weaving, is another actor who isnt continuously in the media spotlight but hes turned in some damned fine performances in his career and has played a few very well-known characters. The first of these was in The Usual Suspects where he played the dual role of Verbal Kint/Keyser Soze, gaining him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Spaceys character starts out as one of five criminals hired to do a job, via a third party, by the legendary and infamous crime lord Keyser Soze. He narrates the story to the audience through a police interview. Of the five crooks, he appears to be the most ineffective. However the film ends on an amazing twist and Verbal turns out to be far more than he appeared, making you look again at the film with new eyes and immediately want to watch it a second time. In the same year, Spacey played a serial killer obsessed with the seven deadly sins in the movie Seven. Starring alongside Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, Spacey doesnt appear until near the end of the film when his character, John Doe, hands himself into the police. In order to keep the identity of the killer a secret for audiences, Spacey didnt appear in the films credits or promotional material. Again, the film ends with a shocking and brilliant twist. Also worthy of mention is Spaceys turn as Lex Luthor in the highly underrated Superman Returns.