1. George Clooney
As much as it pained me to put up a picture of him in that thing (I wont call it the bat suit) I think it really helps illustrate my point. For an actor to be able to recover from a utterly atrocious film like that deserves praise in itself. Clooney's career has certainly taken longer than other entries on this list to really take off and show how good an actor he can be. Well known for having his big break in TV drama ER Clooney was the epitome of almost every woman's desire. Once ER had finished it took him a while to really shake off the clean cut pretty boy image. This finally began with the absurdly fun Tarrantino/Rodriguez collaboration From Dusk Till Dawn. Clooney really showed he can play a bad ass just as good as he can play a smoothie. This little spark of creativity was then well and truly dampened with the film above that shall not be named. This really put a hindrance on Clooney's progression as an actor, struggling to find the right roles which he desperately needed to show his range. Fortunately things started to turn around for him when he starred in the unexpected O Brother, Where Art Thou? The film was exactly what Clooney needed to make everyone take notice of his acting ability. It was a big change of pace for Clooney. He was neither the heart throb or the tough guy in that film, he was simply an idiotic and pretty smarmy sort of character. His career then began to slowly get better and better in terms of acting roles and showing his ability. He was still able to step into the more big budget efforts with films like the Ocean trilogy whilst still going for the more challenging roles like Syriana, The Good German and most recently the critically acclaimed The Descendants. Not only has his acting improved immensely it also led to him having a very promising directing career with his debut film Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind and other well received films like Good Night, And Good Luck and The Ides Of March. He can most recently be seen in the upcoming and intriguing Gravity which looks to be another interesting part for Clooney.