2007'S VALEDICTORIANS: TOMMY LEE JONES

Not many actors do more by doing less than Tommy Lee Jones. And 2007 might mark a career high for the 61-year-old actor, who delivered extraordinarily restrained performances in two of the year's most lauded films, In the Valley of Elah and No Country for Old Men. In both, he plays typical Tommy Lee Jones characters — a bottled-up ex–Army guy chasing down his soldier son's murderers in Elah; a seen-it-all sheriff on the trail of a cowboy thief in No Country — but this time, his material is richer than usual. Jones' uniquely taciturn way of cutting open his grizzled characters has connected on screen as it rarely has before — not just once, but twice.

''I had a feeling that the potential for these movies to be good existed, but that's only because I've made so many bad movies,'' Jones says, chuckling. ''But every job you just try to do as well as you can, whether it's a comedy or a tragedy or a soft-drink commercial in Japan.'' The actor, whose scary but droll gruffness on screen is exactly what you'll encounter in person, is pleased that people like his work this year, but not too pleased. ''Well, it's better than being excoriated, or being dragged behind the pickup with a rope around your neck,'' he says. ''It's been a fine, good year.'' That would be an understatement, and it would be totally in character. —Gregory Kirschling

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