1. Phillip Seymour Hoffman
One of the best actors working today, Phillip Seymour Hoffman has put together a string of performances over the last 15 years that few actors could ever match. He broke out in 1992's Scent of a Woman, but it wasn't until he partnered with director Paul Thomas Anderson that his career took off. Their teaming up resulted in excellent roles in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and The Master. In between he turned in a ridiculous number of great performances that would take forever to list, but a few highlights include Almost Famous, 25th Hour, Capote, Synecdoche, New York, and Moneyball. Owner of a bewildering array of talents, Hoffman's abilities, best exemplified by few of his characters ever being similar in terms of mannerisms or demeanor, have enabled him to become more of a leading actor than a character actor in recent years, but he still has done enough to cement his status as the greatest modern character actor.