I always admired good portrayals of the mentally handicapped, though I've heard people in the biz say its one of the easiest roles to do. Who are some of your favorites?


Hoffman was pretty good in Rain man, though Malkovich made of Mice and Men watchable.

Sean Penn
Billy Bob Thornton

That guy in There's Something About Mary. Very convincing.

I’ve never done any acting so I have no idea how easy or difficult playing someone with a low IQ is compared to other roles. That said, there have been a number of very moving performances. One I’ve always enjoyed is Cliff Robertson in Charlie.

Leo DiCaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape".

Leonardo DiCaprio does a STUNNING performance in 'whats eating gilbert grape' and Billy Bob Thornton is equally amazing in Sling Blade. Nothing else comes close to these 2 IMHO

Ben Affleck does a consistently good job.

GAH, beat me to it! Well played!

Leo and Billy Bob were the two that came to mind.

Edward Norton was pretty good at playing a guy pretending to be retarded in that heist move with Robert Deniro. I'm drawing a blank on the films name at the moment though.

Leonardo in WEGG.

Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. Hands down.
I also loved Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and recently Sam Jones III in Zigzag.

Hoffman's character was Autistic, not retarded.

I don't mean to be an ass, but having a low IQ has nothing to do with being retarded.

RoQuEr, I'll assume you asked this as serious question, though you could have phrased "What actor does the best retarded person?" a little better.

I personaly think Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in What's Eating Gilbert Grape was incredible.

Followed closely by any role by Ben Affleck.

The Edward Norton movie was The Score. I thought the most impressive thing about him was his ability to switch back and forth.

Giovini Ribisi in The Other Sister. He did a very good job, imo. So did Juliette Lewis.

Well not to be a bigger ass, IQ score is what determines when someone is Mentally retarded and at what level. I could go into the numbers, but it doesnt matter. To me, the Affleck comment is pretty funny and is right on because the rest of the people mentioned have never portrayed closely what I have seen of Developmentally Delayed individuals. Thats not to say they werent good performances, just for the most part, they are not closely related to anything I have seen from being in the field for the last 10 years. Now Affleck on the other hand....

Not that it really matters for the discussion at hand, but what then is the definition of mentally retarded? Unless I'm mistaken many states use a specified IQ threshold (usually < 70) as the primary indicator in defining retardation.

No question about it, Ian McKellen in Steven Frears's TV movie Walter (1983).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Autism a mental handicap as well? Maybe I didn't use the most PC term, but I think everyone knew what I meant.

i'll second, or third, or fourth this! how tommy lee jones beat him out for the oscar is beyond me...

Roseanne did Tom Arnold for years.

Jason Biggs in American Pie 2. I completely bought him as Petey.

Leo in Gilbert Grape
Hanks in Gump
Norton in the Score
Thorton in Sling Blade (yup yup umm hmm)

Leonardo DiCaprio by a country mile.

Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump was moving. Another one of my favorites was Sean Penn in I Am Sam.

Spoiler alert for The Score:




























If you want to get technical, Norton did not portray a mentally challenged person in The Score. He portrayed a person portraying a mentally challenged person.

DiCaprio's amazed me. Penn's,IMO,was embarassing - he did it much better in Fast Times.
and Keanu Reeves in...the title escapes me.