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(#3) Dexter Fletcher
- 53
Notable Acting Roles: Soap in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Cody in Kick-Ass, Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski in Doom
Notable Films Directed: Rocketman, Eddie the Eagle
Fletcher began his directing career by taking over for Bryan Singer when he exited the Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and directing the Elton John movie Rocketman. Prior to that, he was most well known for his memorable turn as low-level British hoodlum Soap in Guy Ritchie's debut film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
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(#1) Sarah Polley
- 40
Notable Acting Roles: Ronna Martin in Go, Merle in Existenz, Sally Salt in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Notable Films Directed: Away from Her
After an acting career that started when she was a child in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Canadian-born actor Sarah Polley turned heads with the critically acclaimed arthouse film Away from Her, about a couple struggling with the ramifications of Alzheimer's disease. The film, based on a short story by Alice Munro, earned Polley an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. It would be another four years before Polley would direct again: 2011's Take This Waltz, starring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen, and 2012's documentary Stories We Tell, which centers around her own family life and questions about her parentage.
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(#2) Bobcat Goldthwait
- 56
Notable Acting Roles: Zed in Police Academy 2-4, Fred P. Chaney in Hot to Trot, Eliot Loudermilk in Scrooged
Notable Films Directed: Shakes the Clown, World's Greatest Dad
Stand-up comedian and actor Bobcat Goldthwait was one of the biggest comedy stars of the '80s, taking his well-established stage persona onto the big screen in the recurring role of Zed in three films in the long-running Police Academy franchise, plus the lead role in the talking horse movie Hot to Trot. Goldthwait became infamous for bizarre appearances on late-night talk shows. As his acting career slowed down, Goldthwait reinvented himself as a director of fiercely unique, uncompromising independent cinema, starting with 1992's black comedy Shakes the Clown, in which Bobcat also acts as the titular alcoholic birthday clown who gets framed for a crime he did not commit. He wouldn't return to the director's chair until 2006's controversial Sleeping Dogs Lie. He then directed his good friend Robin Williams in World's Greatest Dad in 2009. He continues to make well-regarded indie movies, direct TV shows like RuPaul's Netflix sitcom AJ and the Queen, and release new stand-up material.
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(#11) Paul Michael Glaser
- 75
Notable Acting Roles: Detective David Starsky in Starsky & Hutch, Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof, Captain Jack Steeper in Third Watch
Notable Films Directed: The Running Man, The Cutting Edge, The Air Up There, Kazaam
It's one thing to be an actor turned director, which is a hard enough transition to make on its own, but it's even more difficult when you're so closely associated with a well-known television role. Such is the case with Paul Michael Glaser, who rose to fame as Starsky on the popular TV cop adventure Starsky & Hutch. While Glaser has never had a box office-dominating mega-hit on his resume, he did direct some very memorable films for movie fans of the 1980s and 90s, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's dystopian sci-fi action film The Running Man and the Shaquille O'Neal genie movie, Kazaam.
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(#10) Nick Cassavetes
- 59
Notable Acting Roles: Lyle Pike in Blind Fury, Dietrich Hassler in Face/Off, Captain Alex Streck in The Astronaut's Wife
Notable Films Directed: The Notebook, John Q., Alpha Dog, The Other Woman
Being the son of Hollywood royalty John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands gave Nick a huge leg up when entering show business. He followed in his father's footsteps as a multi-hyphenate actor/writer/director triple threat. He was able to transition from playing evil sidekick to Nick Cage in Face/Off to directing one of the most beloved romances in cinema history, The Notebook. Cassavetes became in-demand enough after that film that he was initially attached to direct Iron Man for Marvel Studios. In a nod to his lineage in Hollywood, Cassavetes cast his mother, Rowlands, as the elderly Allie in the present-day scenes of The Notebook.
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(#8) Todd Field
- 55
Notable Acting Roles: Nick Nightingale in Eyes Wide Shut, Tim "Beltzer" Lewis in Twister
Notable Films Directed: In the Bedroom, Little Children
Todd Field's career hasn't been particularly prolific, but it has been incredibly impactful. After popping up in small roles in big movies like Twister and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut - as the haunted piano player - Field took the movie industry by storm with the one-two punch of grim family dramas In the Bedroom and Little Children. Field received Academy Award nominations for both movies, but has been absent from the cinema since. He attempted to mount a drama about the Mexican Revolution starring Daniel Craig, a TV miniseries adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's novel Purity for Showtime, and numerous other projects without success thus far. Rumor has it that Field has become something of a recluse, much like the man who directed him in Eyes Wide Shut.
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About This Tool
The actor is a very passive profession. It is impossible for the actors to act in a movie as they want. Some successful actors are very ambitious and talented in acting. They are good at seizing opportunities to learn and eventually become excellent directors. The director is the soul of the whole movie. If you want to clearly define the director's work, no one can give a definite answer. A good director must have the characteristics of his own work, and then turn it into a unique movie.
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