I thought this topic would be a good poll so here it is...

I'll go with Pacino, GF 1, 2, Serpico, Dog Day, And Justice for All, the role diversity is just mind boggling. Panic at Needle Park is great too, and then doing the romance Bobby Deerfield was like a 180 from the others.

Clint

Yep. All-time favorite.

Fredo?

Gene Hackman is my favorite off that list (French Connection, Conversation, even Superman), altho if Cazale had lived he would've been amazing -- every single movie he was in is a classic, and I think he would've actually been better than Pacino in the long-term.

Hey what these Actors:
George C Scott
Lee Marvin
Max Von Sydow
Lee J Cobb
Jason Robards
Robert Redford
Alec Guinness
William "Bill" Holden
And how could not forget this one Jack Lemmon?
this Poll should a lot more Actors on it the 70's was chock-full of great actor's!

I know that this was the decade of his decline but you still had some great performances from Marlon Brando.

The Nightcomers
The Godfather
Last Tango in Paris
The Missouri Breaks
Superman
Apocalypse Now

Warren Beatty

Cazale was a great actor and look at the five films he was in during his life:

The Godfather
The Conversation
The Godfather Part II
Dog Day Afternoon
The Deer Hunter

All pretty great movies.

Donald Sutherland had some good ones too :

MASH
Start the Revolution Without Me
Kelly's Heroes
Klute
Don't Look Now
The Day of the Locust
1900
Casanova
The Eagle Has Landed
Animal House
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Murder by Decree
The Great Train Robbery

I'll give a nod to Charles Bronson too. He made a lot of good movies in the 70s.

It's Jack for me:

Five Easy Pieces
Carnal Knowledge
Last Detail
Chinatown
The Passenger
One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest
The Missouri Breaks
The Shining

Robert De Niro

The 3 box-office stars of the 1970's are not on the poll.
CLINT EASTWOOD
BURT REYNOLDS
CHARLES BRONSON

Clint Eastwood is perhaps my favorite actor ever, but I voted Roy Scheider.

Jaws, Jaws 2, The French Connection, and Marathon Man make the '70s for me.

From the list I'll go with Roy Scheider because Jaws and The French Connection are such amazing films, Jaws being one of my top 5.

Not on the list is definitely Charles Bronson for me. My top actor of all-time.

Eastwood.

This was a fantastic decade both for actors and for films.

I'm going to go off the reservation here and say Elliott Gould.
He was all over the place, including in two of my top 10 favorite films, so it's an easy answer for me.

Select films:

The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Silent Partner (1978)
Capricorn One (1978)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
California Split (1974)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Little Murders (1971)
MASH (1970)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

(Bold = Personal favorites)

I gotta go with Pacino...but it's a hard choice between a lot of good actors.

Tough call between Pacino and DeNiro... but I went with Pacino because while Taxi Driver is one of my favorite movies, Pacino had more great performances that I enjoyed.

James Coburn
Steve McQueen

I guess they were stronger in the 60s.

Also :
Sorcerer
The Seven-Ups
Klute
Last Embrace
All That Jazz

Not my pick for best actor of the 70's, but my favorite is definitely Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood was undeniably great in the '70s, but I think he was even better in the '60s due to the Sergio Leone films.

.

I'm going to go with Richard Dreyfuss, and I'm not even that big of a Close Encounters fan. For the record, I am counting The Competition as a 70s film, even though it was officially released in '80.