2. Henry Thomas. E.T the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Spielberg's greatest film of all time needed a great actor, and he found it in the at this point little known Henry Thomas (and still, little known to this day, except for this one role). In fact, remembering this young boys performance was enough for me to decide to make this list "of All Time" as opposed to "Of The Last 25 Years". I also considered including Drew Barrymore's performance in this film somewhere on this list, but I realized it wasn't so remembered because of it's greatness, mostly because it was Drew Barrymore. Henry Thomas makes this risky film work. His relationship with a chunk of plastic could have been seen as cold and distant (it is remarkable that it wasn't) but Henry made me (and the world) believe that E.T was a real living thing. Only a great actor could have done this. I even hear rumors that because the actors were so young and needed to give so much emotion to the roles, that many of them even (arguably) started to believe E.T was actually a real living thing. When Henry cries for E.T, I cry with him. His love for something that never existed is more convincingly portrayed in this film than in many (arguably ALL) romantic comedies played by A-List celebrities. This film is about this young boys journey. It is completely from his perspective and is so up and down emotionally, that even an actor who had trained their entire life would have struggled with the emotional depths (and even the maturity) this role needed. This performance was so strong that when I think back to the film ("think back"... I watch it every year) I feel like I am Elliot, because Henry Thomas made all of us feel that way. Adults and children alike are moved by his pain and love for this alien creature, and because of this, we all have love somewhere in our glowing red hearts for E.T.