9. Sam Mendes
Directed Memorable Performances In: Road to Perdition (2002), Jarhead (2005), Away We Go (2009) and
Skyfall (2012)Best of the Best: Kate Winslet in
Revolutionary Road (2008) Celebrated stage director Sam Mendes made his film directorial debut in 1999 with the sheering suburban drama
American Beauty, netting him both best Director and Picture honors at the Academy Awards. Continuing with the Tom Hanks and Paul Newman Crime Thriller
Road to Perdition, then doing the First Gulf-War parable
Jarhead with Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard. It was in 2008 though, that he directed his then wife Kate Winslet in what may well be her finest role as the nuanced and complex 1950's-era house wife April Wheeler. Bored, frustrated and unsatisfied with the American Dream, Mendes uses all of her considerable skills as a performer, basically doing acting "gymnastics" to bring April to tragic all-too-real life. It is perhaps no coincidence that he also cast Leonardo DiCaprio as her on-screen equally frustrated husband, a sort-of counterpoint to the overly romanticized love affair apparent in many films, like the previous film the two starred together in
Titanic.
In a career filled with great performances Winslet delivers on so many levels as a strong woman who strives for so much more than what her marriage and lifestyle is giving her. Mendes would go on the make an indie dramady about a married couple trying to find a home to raise their family, and continued given life into the James Bond reboot franchise last year.