So who was one of the greatest actors of all time while also being on the greatest directors of all time???

I can only think of Charlie Champlain or Clint Eastwood or prehaps Alfred Hitchcock for his great cameos...

And also Charlie Champlain's exact double (literally) in India called Raj Kapoor...

1.Chaplin
2.Welles
3.Eastwood


Worst:(good directors but bad actors)
1.Tarantino
2.Shyamalan
3.Spike Lee

Zach Braff.

I win.

You would have to give Clint Eastwood the crown. He's the only one who was nominated for both Best Director and for Best Actor, and has won one of them (Twice)

There are great actors that were directors such as Welles, and Olivier, but there acting very rarely find big success as well.

My honorable mention would be Mel Gibson. He's proven to be a very charismatic actor, a big box office earner, and has proven himself as a director of films not starring him as well. Apocolypto and Passion of the Christ may not be as great as Braveheart, but Gibson has made his last two films look beautiful and are great stories.

Charlie Chaplin was a great comedian, but he was hardly a great actor or director. Though he was a great score writer though. I would certainly put him as the best of old Hollywood though.

Raj Kapoor was amazing. No one came close to him. Amitabh is great too but his recent movies have sucked donkey balls.

George Clooney is solid in both fields. Far from the best in either one.

Not the greatest, but not bad in both areas given the right films:

Kenneth Brannagh

Mel Gibson

Laurence Olivier had little acting success? Really? You think this?



Ummm...ok...

Charles Laughton only directed one film, but its one of cinema's most perfect achievements, Night of the Hunter. As an actor, he was a ham, but my god what a magnificent one.

Chaplin was a great actor... and a very good director.

Actors who also direct seems to be more of a recent thing though. Off the top of my head, I'd include:

Kenneth Branaugh
George Clooney
Warren Beatty
Robert Redford
Clint Eastwood

I never said he didn't find acting success. He's probably one of top five greatest actors of all time. But he did certainly spend the majority of his career in the "acting as a artform" category. If we're talking merely as acting in that sense, Olivier is certainly up there. I refer to Eastwood as Gibson as the masters as they may have not been as great of actors as Olivier. But they have tackled acting in almost all forms, found huge success as merely "action stars" to start, and have both won the Oscar for Best Director.

And please at Charlie Chaplin, he played the same character in 70 films. His films didn't require acting though or strong directing, though Modern Times and Limelight were both very well done films on his part. He was a master entertainer that probably will never be duplicated.

Well Gun, i have to really disagree with you on Chaplin, he is IMO one of the top 10 directors ever.

Well if you count him doing his own choreography as directing I could go with your thoughts, but I consider that again more as him being a genius entertainer then a director.

Orson.

Erich von Stroheim possibly.

Its sad thats how you see him, he was not just a great Physical actor, he was also a great storyteller.

I don't think I see him badly. He was a great influence on me and my favorite actor of the Silent Era, even ahead of Lon Chaney. I have seen almost all of his movies now, The question was the greatest director/actor combination. Theres been better. Doesn't mean he isn't a pivitol person in film history for society or myself.

mel gibson

and

denzel washington

You are ignoring his greatness because of the genre he worked in.

Chaplin is the BEST actor of physical comedy in the history of cinema. His body language is un-paralled. And body language is acting.

Chaplin is also the BEST director of non-diaogue comedic set pieces in the history of cinema. It's hard to compare his style to modern filmmaking, since his triumphs are generally simple in terms of cinematography and editing. But it's all about the staging and the coreography, and nobody did it better than Chaplin.

...If Chaplin was and still is the best there is in what he did, both as an actor and as a director, it certainly qualifies for greatness.

Mel did a good job with Braveheart, but other than that..I dunno. I like him as an actor, but he needs to prove himself more as a director. I haven't seen Apocalypto yet, though.

Not yet mentioned:
Spike Lee (I find him to be a good actor)
Richard Attenborough
Sydney Pollack
Steve Buscemi (based on direction in Oz and Sopranos)

Also:
Tim Roth
Sarah Polley

But they both only directed just one film, possibly very personal to them, so would probably need to demonstrate a great track record of films before being considered.

he was very successful, 5 of his films in which he directed and acted in were top 50 hits and 2 were were top ten hits of all time. Bobby and Sangam and of course He was also in the only black and white hindi film I ever liked Shree 420.

I'll throw Stanley Tucci into the mix. Not only is a great character actor, but Big Night and The Imposters are two of my favourite films from the 90s.

I guess that makes Jim Carrey one of the best actors ever.