We’ve compiled our picks for the year’s 10 Best TV Actors, who lit up the screen in their respective shows — in many cases overshadowing that show’s star.
You may have forgotten some of these acting gems, particularly regarding TV shows that aired nearly a year ago — so we’re here to remind you just how good these actors and actresses were in 2013.
Dean Norris (Hank Schrader, “Breaking Bad”)
Hank evolved from an overbearing blowhard in Season 1 to the show’s most intense character, particularly in the final eight episodes as he played cat-and-mouse with his brother-in-law, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) — aka the elusive “Heisenberg.” Hank’s final scene (“My name is ASAC Schrader. And you can go f- -k yourself”) was extremely tragic and powerful.
Margo Martindale (Claudia, “The Americans”)
This FX drama cast Martindale as a senior KGB agent and handler for undercover spies Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys). Her impressive performance as the ruthless Claudia, who has a difficult relationship with her charges, earned Martindale her second Emmy nod (following a 2011 win for FX’s “Justified”), and she’ll be back for at least one episode in Season Two.
James Spader (Red Reddington, “The Blacklist”)
Spader, with his quirky tics, is the biggest reason to watch this NBC drama. His magnetic hold over whatever scene he’s in is unmatched elsewhere on series TV.
Jonny Lee Miller (Sherlock Holmes, “Elementary”)
Miller manages to make Sherlock Holmes extremely likable and occasionally vulnerable — no mean feat given the character’s obnoxiousness quotient (he’s a brusque, rude know-it-all egotist).
Tatiana Maslany (Sarah Manning, “Orphan Black”)
The young Canadian actress had perhaps the biggest breakout TV performance of 2013 for her masterful portrayal of seven different clones, all with different personalities (and often accents) in this BBC America sci-fi drama.
Allison Janney (Margaret Scully, “Masters of Sex”)
As Margaret Scully, the wife of the provost of the university where Dr. Masters (Michael Sheen) conducted his research, Janney’s portrayal of this lonely woman’s awakening of her husband’s (Beau Bridges) double life registered a wide range of emotions with infinite delicacy and clarity.
Corey Stoll (Peter Russo, “House of Cards”)
Emmy voters shockingly didn’t even nominate Stoll for his performance as a young Congressman who unwittingly becomes a pawn in Francis Underwood’s (Kevin Spacey) cutthroat political chess game. In the completely heartless world of DC politics, Russo (and Stoll) was the heart of the show, a guy in way over his head who ultimately loses everything.
Jon Voight (Mickey Donovan, “Ray Donovan”)
Nobody in the cast captured the mentality of the career criminal better than Oscar winner Voight. His Mickey Donovan, sprung early from a 20-year jail sentence, tried unsuccessfully to become a father figure again to his three damaged sons and, failing that, embraced the life he missed out on with gusto.
Angela Bassett (Marie Laveau, “American Horror Story: Coven”)
Bassett excels at playing noble, heroic and sexy women, and she ventured into new territory in waging war with real-life serial killer Madame LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) and the fictitious witch Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). “American Horror Story” has become the refuge for every scenery-chewing Hollywood star of a certain age and Bassett showed that she still has the edge to steal scenes from Bates and Lange — without getting a mouthful of splinters.
Bellamy Young (Melly Grant, “Scandal”)
The Shonda Rhimes water-cooler sensation will never be known for its subtlety, and the only character who anchors this show to planet Earth is First Lady Mellie Grant, who was generally portrayed as a schemer trying to hold onto to her man (Tony Goldwyn) while he amused himself Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). In an amazing flashback, viewers learned that Mellie kept a secret from her husband for years — that she was raped by her father-in-law in the very early days of Fitz’s political career. In that one episode, Young conveyed a young wife’s sense of betrayal and shame and her sense of sacrifice and duty.