1. Sgt. Dignam - The Departed
And yet, none of his performances have been as unflappably brilliant and unexpected as his turn in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, which also earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Playing the loud-mouthed cranky cop Dignam, his various dialogue exchanges with the characters - specifically his colleague, played by Alec Baldwin - are uproariously funny, melding the actor's tough-guy image with the (at the time) assumption that he couldn't do comedy. He steals the vast majority of the scenes he's in ("I'm the guy who does his job, you must be the other guy!"), and what's great is how his delivery of the film's countless obscene one-liners and gags feels so naturalistic, just rattled off-the-cuff as though improvised. Still, Wahlberg ensures he's not a one-note hothead cop cliché, and at the film's climax, we get to see that his character also has a heart and sense of duty as well. Let's face facts; if you can survive in the ring in a Scorsese film, then you've got it made. But now let's look at the less-savoury films of the actor's career.