5. Denzel Washington
Having played the Shakespearean prince Don Pedro of Aragon in Much Ado About Nothing, the outspoken criminal-turned-minister titular character in the excellent Malcolm X, the wrongly-convicted boxer Rubin Carter in The Hurricane and limo driver-turned-gangster in American Gangster, it's pretty clear that Denzel Washington can turn his acting hand to absolutely anything. A truly talented man, Washington most recently played pilot-by-day, drug taker-by-night William 'Whip' Whitaker in Flight.