1. Daniel Day-Lewis
He was always going to be the 'winner' of this list wasn't he? If it weren't for his speeches at award shows - where he consistently collects trophies for every unique performance - would anyone have ever seen the real Daniel Day-Lewis? Widely considered as the ultimate method actor, DDL is a meticulous, committed and enormously talented star who never adopts the same look twice. DDL's filmography is relatively short for a man who's been at work since 1971; with the Brit choosing to select specific roles that he can prepare for and utterly immerse himself in. The result is always ridiculously convincing, from his brave performance as Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" to his cunning viciousness as Bill the Butcher in "Gangs of New York". With DDL's roles, it only takes a few minutes to forget you're watching an actor, and not a real person. Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood" is completely convincing as an Old West oil prospector, and chain-smoking director Guido Contini in "Nine" doesn't seem fictitious in the slightest. Nobody living today ever met Abraham Lincoln, yet DDL convinces us in "Lincoln" that this was indeed exactly how the 16th President of the United States walked and talked. How the hell does he do that?