8. Klaus Kinski - Aguirre The Wrath Of God
Werner Herzog FilmproduktionIt's questionable whether or not famously (or should that be infamously) bonkers actor Klaus Kinski was ever actually acting in his movies - his volatility, unpredictability and tendency to slip suddenly into intense tantrums were as pronounced in his personal life as they were in the characters he portrayed. Playing the title role in Aguirre, The Wrath of God in his first collaboration with Werner Herzog, it often seems as if the tantrums he was renowned for during production were secretly filmed and used in the final cut. Aguirre, the conquistador who starts out on the expedition clearly a little big tapped in the head and ends up completely insane as people starve around him on a doomed raft, is a man for whom one delusion mounts on top of another until reality has been all but abandoned. It's perhaps the most fitting role for an actor who was frequently described as an "insane genius" - although how Werner Herzog found the energy and patience to work with him on several further occasions is anyone's guess.