2. Emil Jannings
Peak Years: 1916-1928
Best Film: Faust (1926) Let's get the biggest issue of his selection out of the way immediately: Emil Jannings was a Nazi. Not a secret Nazi, not a Nazi that distanced himself from fascism in public, an actor who appeared in Nazi propaganda films willingly and with pleasure. Normally even in these circumstances one would say that he wasn't necessarily a bad person, that it was just the time and place he was in, that his early work shouldn't be associated with his later Nazism. But he was a bad person, being a Nazi is one of the very few ways you can guarantee that you are not a good person. That being said, it almost plays to his advantage that he was such a bad person in real life considering his many depictions of evil in silent films. His best known silent films were with German filmmaker (and gay man) F.W. Murnau including: The Last Laugh, Faust, and Tartuff. In Faust he is literally playing a demon, and his performance is one of the great odes to the seductive powers of evil committed to film. Jannings is also the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. At a time where movies were known for refined actors doing splendid things, Jannings brought a signature snarl and slime that permeates his films. Although he is excellent and sympathetic in The Last Laugh as an old bell hop who loses his job, Jannings is at his best when he is being bad. Does his acting excuse his actions? Absolutely not. But he is one of the great film stars of all-time, and to not acknowledge his impact would be short-sighted.