A long time ago, it seems centuries, I left home to study to become an actor.

It was my goal to make it into the business, more as a director, but I knew I needed to start as an actor to understand the art and process. Quickly I learned that I was dreadful but also that I was a decent director.

Soaking up everything I could about the art of acting, I learned all I could to help actors find the truth in their characters. Nothing else mattered to me about the art but the truth. When I got "my calling" as a critic, which is what I always really wanted to do, I placed acting at the front and centre of each review because that is the connection we the audience have to a film and its characters. If we the audience do not believe the performance, if we do not believe the character, there is no film ... period.

Over the years I have watched more than 100,000 performances and still get excited about seeing a good one because I think I am aware of the challenges and difficulties in achieving that level of excellence.

The many actors I have interviewed -- Robert Duvall, Meryl Streep, Holly Hunter, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, George C. Scott and so many others -- agree that truth is everything.

I get asked all the time, "What are the best performances you have ever seen?"

Good question, but a tough one to answer because there are so many and so many categories. We have lead performances, supporting performances and cameo performances. There are performances in drama and comedy, both very different, as well as performances in musicals and silents, again very different. What merges them together to allow me to do this article is whether or not they achieved the truth in their performances.

Today I am writing about the great lead performances, with supporting to happen next week.

Thus the great lead performances of all time are:

THE MEN

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood ... as commanding and frightening a performance about the loss of humanity as you will ever see.

2. Robert Duvall in The Apostle ... Duvall is volcanic energy and fury as this preacher gone wrong.

3. Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris ... Brando lays naked his soul as the grieving widower in this powerful work.

4. Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ... Jack has never been better and he's always great. Just a breathtaking piece of acting.

5. Robert de Niro in Raging Bull ...searing and sad, the character never realizes the man he is fighting is himself. He tears the screen apart.

6. John Wayne in The Searchers ... incredible, full of hate and rage, and finally tenderness and compassion. Duke was never better.

7. George C. Scott in Patton ... simply astounding as a man who loved war.

8. James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life ... that moment when he weeps decorated in tinsel is overwhelming.

9. Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront ... achingly powerful; when he realizes the betrayal ... My God.

10. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie ... you lose the actor to find the woman ... genius. Hoffman was never better than as Dorothy Michaels.

THE WOMEN

1. Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice ... astounding work from the best ever. That silent scream, when her life unravels?? Heartbreaking.

2. Jane Fonda in Klute ... tough, angry and vulnerable, Fonda displayed to Hollywood that women could go deep as men in their acting.

3. Katherine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey into Night ... Never before was Hepburn so perfectly cast than as tragic Mary Tyrone.

4. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind ... Seventy years later her performance is still among the greatest; her rage, her survivor instinct? Remarkable.

5. Holly Hunter in The Piano ... nearly a silent performance, Hunter is breathtaking.

6. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard ... using her silent-screen style in a talkie as a woman gone insane, Swanson was never better, nor more frightening.

7. Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream ... an addict reduced to madness. Something every Grade 9 student should see.

8. Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ... loud, brash, disgusting and thoroughly brilliant.

9. Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment ... the mother from hell, sent with love.

10. Charlize Theron in Monster ...a complete transformation and descent into utter madness as a serial killer.

And I would love to hear yours at jhfoote@xplornet.com.

John Foote, director of the Toronto Film School, is a nationally known film historian/critic and a Port Perry resident. Get more reviews at www.footeonfilm.com. Contact him at jhfoote@xplornet.com.