Top 10 Bald Performances

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Baldness signifies a character eviscerated, or one who has given over to a spartan existance. It can be the mark of experience, and it can be the mark, of course, of evil.

In no particular order.

The Virgin Queen (Henry Koster, 1955)
Suggested by @jhpcine
Bravura from Bette Davis as the alopecia-suffering monarch. She’s formidable, mocking & bitchy in an otherwise run-of-the-mill period piece.

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
Epic and endearing from Roger Livesey, playing the Army officer fighting for blighty through the decades. Another masterpiece from The Archers.

Nosferatu (FW Murnau, 1922)
Nominated by @MikaelWhite10.
“Your wife has a lovely kneck…”
An eye-popping performance by Max Schreck, giving us a ratty, spindly vampire, in Murnau’s beautiful and seminal horror film.

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
@ellie_st and @RRakoto42 suggested this one.
“…it’s the judgement that defeats us!”
Marlon Brando brilliant as the bonkers Colonel Kurtz, gone native in the Cambodian jungle.

The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)
Nominated by @SkotArmstrong
Classic Olivier Reed as Father Urbain Grandier, an independent mind accused of witchcraft amid general hysteria. A searing, uncompromising, mindblowing examination of biogtry by Ken Russell.

Cul-De-Sac (Roman Polanski, 1966)
Classic Pleasance whackiness in the film Polanski considers his ‘most cinematic’. A gangster takes refuge in a married couple’s isolated castle.

Meantime (Mike Leigh, 1984)
Oldman, in his second screen performance, is wonderfully idiosyncratic & typically intense as the aimless, unemployed, skinhead youth, Coxy.

The Naked Kiss (Sam Fuller, 1964)
@film_vulture suggested this one.
Constance Towers’ hooker wears a whig because her pimp shaved her hair off. She smashes him up in a dispute over money, then skips town to start a new life, but gets entangled with another man. Brilliant melodrama-noir from Fuller.

Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992)
Nominated by @cnrjoe & @realarsenalism
Pre-Hollywood Russell Crowe is deeply creepy as the leader of a gang of neo-Nazi bullies in early-1990s Melbourne. Decent, honest performance from Crowe, back when he was still hungry.

Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935)
@realarsenalism suggested this one.
“I, a poor peasant, have conquered science, why can’t I conquer love?” Effortless brilliance from Lorre as the mad doctor whose obsession with a married actress drives him to replace her husband’s hands with those of a murderer.

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