Which Actor Has the Best Resume?

Quick, name the actor who had the best resume in Hollywood. Here's a hint: Just five movies, and all earned Oscar nods for Best Picture.

Many film fanatics remember John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather and its sequel, and for his relationship with Meryl Streep. Sadly, he died at 42 of terminal bone cancer, just after wrapping his scenes for The Deer Hunter. Before that, he also portrayed Gene Hackman's right-hand man in The Conversation; starring in three of Francis Ford Coppola's greatest four ain't bad. An agitated, destructive web of paranoia, The Conversation fit Cazale's on-screen persona well: the doltish sidekick, the anxious kid caught in matters beyond his control. Sad that the rest of his career was so suddenly wrenched from his hands--but what great support he gave to five classics of the seventies (IMDB scale: from 8.1 to 9.2).

Perhaps his strongest, most poignant performance comes in Sal from Dog Day Afternoon, the Little John to Al Pacino's bank-heist Robin Hood. Cazale never appears to be acting; there's no conscious shift between humor and moroseness. His sad-sack robber is asked "Is there any country you want to go to?" and responds, "Wyoming."

No other actor can topple that consistency. A heap of first-timers won Oscars for their first performances, sure, but for every Mary Poppins, there's a Tooth Fairy on its way. But a few others come close.

Cate Blanchett has managed to secure many successful films since her 1998 breakout in Elizabeth. A partial list: An Ideal Husband, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Gift, The Lord of the Rings, The Shipping News, Veronica Guerin, Coffee and Cigarettes, The Life Aquatic, The Aviator (Oscar win), Babel, Notes on a Scandal, I'm Not There., Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Oscar noms for the last three), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Even her most successful ventures have artistic merit. Blanchett has never descended from the pedestal of Serious Actress, and unlike other acting peers--hey there, Meryl Streep--has chosen few films (beyond Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) simply for the unfathomable amounts of money they would make.

As a leading lady, finding the right projects can be tough. So maybe it's better to do a John Cazale and latch on to surefire successes in smaller, but still pivotal, roles? Ask character actress Thelma Ritter, honored with six Oscar nods and no wins. The Academy's loss: her resume only includes one complete dud (The Farmer Takes a Wife), flanked with classics of the 1950s. Her six times at the Oscars: The Mating Season, With a Song in My Heart, Pickup on South Street, Pillow Talk, Birdman of Alcatraz, and the eternal backstage comedy All About Eve. We don't remember them all today, but in their time this was a stellar line-up.

I will always remember her for her no-nonsense maid in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Has anyone ever seemed so gleeful at the scene of a crime? "Nobody ever invented a polite word for killin' yet." Don't forget her relationship advice: "When two people love each together, they come together--Wham!--like two taxis on Broadway." Though rare, some actors just seem destined to collide like that with one great film after another.

Any other actors with stellar credits top to bottom?