My 100 Worst Movie Performances

40.

Bette Davis as Edith Phillips/Margaret De Lorca

Dead Ringer (1964)



Davis is undeniable hammy in a dual role as a working class woman who murders her wealthy twin sister and tries to resume her life. Davis fared much better playing twin sisters in the 1941 film A Stolen Life.

39.

Carol Channing as Muzzy Van Hossmere

Thoroughly Modern Miller (1967)



The legendary Broadway Diva inexplicably received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her cringe-worthy performance as an eccentric millionairess who tries to help our heroine Millie Dumont (Julie Andrews) with her various escapades. I don't get the love for this performance at all...Channing is a Broadway icon but I've never felt her stage personna has transferred to a movie screen very well and I found every moment she was onscreen in this movie akin with nails on a chalkboard.

38.

Steve Forrest as Gregory Savitz

Mommie Dearest (1981)



Forrest'as hammy and overblown performance as the attorney and lover of Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) is laughably bad, though it was probably hard for Forrest to invest in a character who was probably fictional.

I foresee another nomination from this movie coming up...

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37.

Rex Harrison as Anthony Preston

Midnight Lace (1960)



Harrison phones it in as a millionaire who may or may not be trying to murder his new bride (Doris Day). Harrison has rarely been less convincing onscreen.

36.

Adrian Zmed as Jay O'Neill

Bachelor Party (1984)



Though this movie is proudly on my list of guilty pleasures, it is filled with bad performances and Zmed's is probably the worst of the bunch as the best friend of party honoree Rick (Tom Hanks).

35.

Robby Benson as Billy Joe McAllister

Ode To Billy Joe (1976)



Robby Benson did a lot of bad work over the years on the big and small screens, but was rarely as cringe-worthy as he was in this strained melodrama about a young man pushing a romance with Bobbie Lee (Glynnis O'Connor) to cover his growing fear that he might be gay. Benson is so whiny in this movie you just want to punch him in the face.

Aw, man, he was probably my favorite part of that movie. A huge laugh right out of the gate. My friends even do imitations of his character, he's so memorable.

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34.

Maxwell Caulfield as Michael Carrington

Grease 2 (1982)



His pretty face could not disguise the ineffectiveness of Caulfield's performance in this role reversal romance from the first Grease film. Caulfield's career went nowhere as a result of this film but his co-star Michelle Pfeiffer did manage to carve out a career despite this film.

If I were to include CGI characters on this list, Jar Jar Binks would definitely be at the top of the list.

33.

Jacqueline Bissett as Ellen

Class (1983)



Though she looked absolutely amazing, Bissett's performance as a wealthy, pampered wife and mother who has an affair with her son's prep school roommate didn't work for me. I love Bissett but I just didn't buy this performance as an alcoholic tramp.

32.

Ethan Stiefel as Cooper Nielsen

Center Stage (2000)



Stiefel plays an arrogant ballet dancer who feigns interest in a new member of his ballet company (Amanda Schull) even though he is really still in love with his ex, the lead ballerina in the company who is now involved with the director of the company (Peter Gallagher). Stiefel is an incredible dancer and It's great that his talent as a dancer has been preserved on celluloid, but this guy is one terrible actor.

It's been a long, long times since I saw Class, but I really don't remember Jacqueline Bissett being poor in Class at all. But maybe that's just my lust for her blocking everything else?

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

31.

Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates

Psycho (1998)



Gus Van Sant's scene-for-scene remake of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic has a myriad of problems, the biggest being Vaughn's performance as Norman Bates. I still waffle as to whether this was a matter of miscasting or just bad acting, but this performance just didn't work for me.

And that's another rep I've given despite not having seen the performance. At no point do I want to find out just how bad that film is.

30.

Doris Day as Kit Preston

Midnight Lace (1960)



I love Doris Day and this movie was actually one of her biggest box office hits, but for me, her performance was shrill and overwrought.

29.

Nicolas Cage as Charlie Bodell

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)



Cage has never been as obnoxious onscreen as Kathleen Turner's loser ex-husband who she gets a second chance to fix what went wrong when a bump on the head sends Turner back to high school and the beginning of their romance. God, I hated Cage in this movie...for some reason, Uncle Francis Ford Coppola allowed Cage to give the character this very high and very nasal voice that drove me crazy from the minute the character first spoke and made it impossible for me to invest in anything else he did in this movie.

28.

Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano

Saturday Night Fever (1977)



Gorney's wooden acting and questionable Brooklyn accent were really my only problems with this instant classic.

27.

Clint Eastwood as Partner

Paint Your Wagon (1971)



It just feels like Eastwood walked onto the set of the wrong movie here and no one got him off the set...Eastwood just looks embarrassed as a prospector who decides to share a wife (Jean Seberg) with his business partner (Lee Marvin) in this film version of the Lerner and Lowe musical . Clint's rendition of "I Talk to the Trees" is no chart buster either.

Eastwood is a fantastic director and an excellent actor, but oh vey did he suck in this movie! Dude cannot sing at all!