9. Ralph Richardson - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes
Warner BrosRalph Richardson has the rare ability to elevate any material he's given, and is consistently the standout performance in whatever film he happens to be in. You know that when you're watching a movie with Ralph Richardson, he's going to be able to wring emotions out of a character they didn't even know existed. And his performance in Greystoke lives up to his remarkably high standards, where he plays the well-intentioned aristocratic grandfather of a newly "civilized" Tarzan. Out of all the Tarzan films, this is arguably the best, and the one that remains the truest to the original book. Richardson is a sympathetic figure, who tries to make his wild grandson feel at home and seems to be one of the only people who accepts him just as he is. Of course, by this point in Richardson's career, he was a very old man, and as it turns out, this would be his last film. In October 1983, Richardson suffered a series of strokes from which he died at the age of 80. Several months later, Greystoke came out, and he was nominated for a posthumous Academy Award for the film in 1984.