The 10 Best Performances of Ebenezer Scrooge Ranked
The 10 Best Performances of Ebenezer Scrooge, Ranked
Contents
A Christmas Carol’s Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the most iconic characters ever, and here are the best performances of that character, ranked.
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A Christmas Carol is the quintessential story of Christmas. Charles Dickens’ immortal tale of charity and redemption made Christmas what it is today, serving as a blockbuster hit for Victorian readers and contemporary readers alike. It has grown to be one of the most popular stories ever written.
Since its publication and with the advent of filmmaking, directors have been bringing Dickens’ work to life for worldwide audiences, creating films and television specials adapting the novel. And perhaps the most crucial part of these adaptations is the casting of the lead miser, Ebenezer Scrooge.
10 Albert Finney
The passing of Albert Finney was a blow for any fan of character actors. The British born performer made a name for himself as a commanding presence, with a voice unlike any other. Sadly, his performance as Scrooge doesn’t meet the mark compared to his many other exemplary roles.
Finney’s choice to make Scrooge a jabbering, slack-jawed monster is certainly an odd one. His mumbling and slobbering make Scrooge out to be more like an English Bulldog than the iconic penny scraper. In moments his extreme physicality works, especially seeing as the whole production of Scrooge was so theatrical, but for the most part, it just gets to be too much.
9 Reginald Owen
Reginald Owen is probably known by most audiences as the bombastic Admiral Boom from Mary Poppins. But, this British actor played many roles, especially a good deal of classic characters such as Scrooge. Owen appeared in the 1938 adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
Owen is fine in the part, but once again this version of the character has a strange physicality to him. Owen seems to be bouncing about, huffing and puffing his way through the role. What certainly doesn’t help is the makeup, which poorly ages the actor into a facsimile of an old man.
8 Tim Curry
Who doesn’t love Tim Curry? His roles have spanned genre, mediums, and generations to become one of the most beloved actors of all time. If you’re a fan of animation, you’ll recognize his voice immediately. And who could discount his live-action roles in films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
Curry played Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1997 straight to home video release of A Christmas Carol. Visually it is a solid interpretation of the character, with the classic sharp features described in the novel. Curry’s villainous interpretation works great as well, but doesn’t fully fit the emotional turn near the end of the film.
7 Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey seems to have a thing for playing holiday grouches. The comedian is known for his outrageous performance style also brought the Grinch to life in Ron Howard’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas. This time, Carrey played the original Christmas grouch in Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol.
Carrey is still a heightened performer in this piece, but apart from a few too many yells and screams, he gives a really great and earnest performance. The design as well is maybe the best version of Ebenezer. Sadly, the CGI rendering is a bit too uncanny for many viewers, feeling far faker than Zemeckis probably hoped.
6 Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer’s version of the character came in a far different film than most. The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the story of Charles Dickens writing the original tale, with the characters appearing before him through his imagination.
Seeing Plummer as Scrooge feels like less of a living character, and more like a living embodiment of the fears, anxieties, and trauma of Dickens himself. It is a great performance in an undervalued film, but you can’t help but wish you had seen Plummer take the role in an actual adaptation of A Christmas Carol instead of a biopic about its author.
5 Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Stewart is beloved the world over for his iconic talents as an actor and varied contribution to the genre. Many know him as both Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, while others know him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek. Still then, many others know him as a classically trained actor, known for his Shakespearean and theatrical roles.
His take on Scrooge is very independent of the standard take. Stewart embraces a far more blunt, bitter, and straight forward version of the miser. He can identify insecurities and prod at them without feeling outright maniacal. His eventual turn at the end of the film is also fascinating, exhibiting an awkwardness that feels far more natural than many takes.
4 Michael Caine
A Christmas Carol often loses something when it is adapted for younger audiences. Usually, the scarier themes are far more toned down, and a lot of the tragic nuances of Scrooge and others are replaced with caricatures. Not here though.
Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol gives a full performance in this adaptation. While it is still lighthearted and silly, it carries all of the essential parts of this story. Caine makes Scrooge a far more sympathetic character, and his turn comes far sooner in this version. Not to mention, it is one of the rare quality musical versions of Scrooge and this story.
3 Seymour Hicks
Seymour Hicks’ performance in the 1935 version Scrooge is a whole different take on the character. The negativity and hate for Christmas are there, but you can feel a deeper anxiety throughout his performance. This is someone who knows what he’s doing is wrong, but is too afraid to admit it.
The ignorance that this version of Scrooge walks through life with is his real villainy, and the minute it breaks, this Scrooge crumbles into a sad little man. His interaction with the ghost of Marley is fantastic, with Hicks performing the scene alone with no other performer. An additional scene later on, featuring a Christmas tree in Scrooge’s nephew’s home, is one of the most poignant moments you can find in one of these adaptations.
2 George C. Scott
It’s hard to beat as powerful of an actor as George C. Scott. This version of Scrooge is not a loud bombastic monster, but an apathetic realist who despises sentiment. Through the pain and loss that he has felt in his life, any form of sentiment is seen as contrary to a decent life.
Unlike many of these versions of the character, Scott rarely flies off the handle at the sight of a ghost or spirit. But, when he does fall apart, it is far more believable. His tendency to try and reason with these otherworldly beings and the desperateness in his voice is far more believable than someone crippled with fear.
1 Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim is the quintessential Scrooge. His age alone feels more appropriate than most of the selections on this list. He is someone who has lived a longer life, but also someone who has time to fix it. Sim’s choices as an actor though really make this the best version of the character.
With such an expressive face, his reactions in the film are superb. Both his terror of the spirits along with his balking surprise at others’ charity is equally compelling. His performance is full of humor, bluntness, tragedy, sympathy, and everything that makes Scrooge the character he is. The performance is so iconic, Sim played the role multiple times outside his 1951 performance.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-performances-ebenezer-scrooge/
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