53. GENE WILDER
Young Frankenstein (1974)

In action, Wilder always looks more like a crazed, off-the-reservation Muppet than an actor of flesh and blood. And nowhere are his unique gifts better showcased than in Mel Brooks' loving monster-flick spoof: Leaping from silky-voiced humility to strident megalomania before you can say ''Frahnk-uhn-shteen,'' Wilder's mad doctor helped invent a kind of bipolar comic acting that's been pilfered by everyone from Adam Sandler to Mel Gibson.