These kids today!

The obvious answers are Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant.

Punch Drunk Love, rent that asap

Few people know that Charles Laughton was one of the original Three Stooges ("Stodgy") before becoming a serious actor.

Tom Hanks

Robin Williams' serious roles are too creepy.
Bill Murray... a great actor but even his serious roles aren't really serious.
Jim Carrey... I like the serious version better but even then he doesn't have much range.
Jamie Foxx... would've voted for him if Tom Hanks wasn't on the list. He can be really good and hopefully he'll keep take challenging roles.
Adam Sandler... showed potential in Punch Drunk Love but hasn't done anything since.

And yeah I agree with Jimmy Stewart.

I still would have voted for Tom Hanks, but why wasn't Will Smith included?

Odd bump. Since apparently I didn't vote the first time around, I'm throwing my vote on the pile with Tom Hanks for the reasons Michael Corvin listed in his 1st paragraph. I would never have predicted the way Hanks' career has turned out.

Oops, didn't notice this was bumped from 2005! I guess I know why Will Smith wasn't included.

:lol: Never noticed the bump either.

I wanted to vote for Adam Sandler because if you look at his earlier work (Waterboy, Billy Madison, etc.) and then look at Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish, and Reign Over Me...that is one hell of a transformation. But, since Sandler has only done three such roles, I didn't vote for him.

Instead, I voted for Bill Murray since he has been around a lot longer and has done more diverse and recently dramatic roles.

This thread was actually tough to choose though, because Hanks (Big to Road To Perdition), Carrey (Ace Ventura to Eternal Sunshine), and Foxx (Held Up to Collateral, Ray, and that new one with RDJ) all have done some very dramatic work which is much different from their earlier days in movies and television.

Anthony Michael Hall.

I think you mean most unfortunate. What an absolute waste of talent. I voted for Bill Murray. I'm more like to watch Lost in Translation, Rushmore or Broken Flowers than any Tom Hanks film.

Kevin Pollack

Tom Hanks

<img src="http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/mepics.nsf/view/ry3a/$File/ry3a.jpg">

<img src="http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/columbia_pictures/reign_over_me/_group_photos/adam_sandler8.jpg">

Both pretty good performances although he was just playing the "serious" side of the characters he usually plays.

I voted Williams, since he handled Dead Poets Society so very well.

Great choice; although if it hadn't had been for his near fatal car crash, I don't think he'd be able to pull off the stone-faced psycho role as well.

Have really just started to get into House, I'd have to put Hugh Laurie up there.

I voted for Bill Murray and then noticed Tom Hanks is in the poll. I never thought of Hanks as a comedic actor, but rather a good actor in comedic films. Meanwhile, Murray is a comedian who's been in both comedic and dramatic films.