...not including the man himself. What would your picks be? There are so many that it is difficult to leave out, and the top four or five on my list I consider to be all-time world class work, any of which would be a fitting pick for the top spot...
- Martin Landau in Crimes and Misdemeanours - Makes my no. 1 as the most complex, fascinating character Allen ever scripted. Landau, who was on a sensational career roll at the time, knocks it out of the park. A performance of delicate shades, light and dark, which improves with each viewing.
- Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway - She is super in Hannah too, but here she grabs what could have been a one-note, if amusing, caricature and transforms it into one of the funniest things I have ever seen on film.
- Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives - Sensational - my favourite of Allen's many neurotic women. She has most of the best lines in one of his strongest scripts, and runs with it - but she also achieves so much with her eyes and body language.
- Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine - Finally I got what everybody saw in Blanchett with this brilliant piece of controlled overacting. A fine character study.
- Diane Keaton in Annie Hall - Probably should be higher, and I possibly placed her 'down' the list because it seems such a quintessential Keaton role that it's difficult to separate Diane from Annie. Much more difficult to pull off than she makes it look.
- Barbara Hershey in Hannah and Her Sisters
- Elaine May in Small Time Crooks
- Alan Alda in Crimes and Misdemeanours
- Sydney Pollack in Husbands and Wives
- Mia Farrow in The Purple Rose of Cairo