3. Vito Corleone - The Godfather Part II
Following his enigmatic breakthrough in Mean Streets and his failed, but impressive audition as Michael for the first Godfather movie, Francis Ford Coppola decided to cast De Niro as the young Vito Corleone in his sequel. De Niro was a star from here on in, and his run from 1973 to 1983 is as close to perfection as any actor can get. De Niro had the hardest task of all in The Godfather Part II - he had to portray a youthful, but maturing version of the character Marlon Brando made so iconic just two years previously. The Vito of De Niro had to be different but fundamentally similar to the Vito Brando created, which is no mean feat. The young Vito is humble, calculated and distinctly more vulnerable than the Vito we came to know in the first movie. With most of his dialogue in Italian, it's even more surprising that the Academy awarded De Niro the Best Supporting Actor award, but he thoroughly deserved it, and he would win again six years later, whilst being robbed a couple of times in between. Coppola's masterpiece (and my favourite film) is perfect, with much credit going to the performance of De Niro, who achieved the impossible in creating a Vito that was his own, yet obviously from the same DNA as the elder man played by Brando.