1. Peter Finch - Network
United ArtistsPeter Finch's last film was a clarion call to the middle and working class, a searing indictment of everything wrong with our culture that's as true today as it was back in the 1970s when this film was made. He plays a television anchorman who very matter-of-factly tells his viewers that he's going to commit suicide on the air the following Tuesday. He then convinces his producers that he wil make a formal apology on the air, but instead launches in to a rousing speech where he utters the famous lines, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" His dramatic outburst makes him into an overnight phenomenon, and the network chooses to exploit this new mad prophet of theirs. Peter Finch won an Academy Award for his work in Network, but it was awarded posthumously (only the first time that had ever happened -- the second is also on this list). He died two months after the film was released, suffering a fatal heart attack at the age of 60.