9. John Goodman
John Goodman is a guy who keeps himself busy year in and year out, but 2012 was a banner year for the actor, starring in a wide variety of films, from the animated hit Paranorman, to a number of films that are sure to court their fair share of Academy Award nominations. The first of those films is Argo, in which Goodman plays real-life Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers, and alongside Alan Arkin, he forms the film's chief source of comic relief, serving as a satire of the film industry while wrapping itself around a gripping political thriller narrative. In terms of other awards fare, he also played Harling Mays in Flight, which has been earning raves primarily for Denzel Washington's excellent performance. Goodman is outstanding in a few scenes which, again, provide apt comic relief, as the drug dealer friend of Washington's character, who has to level him out with cocaine after a heavy night of alcohol binging. In lesser terms, he's also played a supporting part in Clint Eastwood's Trouble with the Curve, and though the film has had mixed reviews, he is a thoroughly compelling presence throughout it, as reliable as he ever is. His 2013 looks just as packed; he's so far pencilled in for The Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, the Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn comedy The Internship, Monsters University and The Hangover Part III.