A premier selection of facial foliage. To get in this list the protagonists pelage must not only hang from his face like a statement of machismo, like ice from a rappers neck, it must also aid his character’s storyline – Best Beard In A Supporting Role, if you will…
1. Tom Hanks – Cast Away (2000)
The tangled chin growth gives clues to the time scale Hanks experiences maroonhood like age rings on tree trunk. *Spoiler: Bleached by the sun, the knotted bush takes a life of its own and eventually passes silently to the afterlife of the barber shop floor when he is rescued.
2. Edmund Gwenn – Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Many men have hoisted their sacks and donned the red bonnet of Kris Kringle but that list is for another time. The moment little Susan (Natalie Wood) pulls on his snowflake whiskers and discovers it is real maintains her belief in the jolly old man and with it, the innocence of childhood.
3. Martin Starr – Knocked Up (2007)
The loveable stoner undertakes a one man beard growing competition and appears at the opportune moments to be labelled ‘late John Lennon’, ‘Martin Scorsese on coke’ and ‘Chewbacca’. You can see Rogen and friends sitting on beanbags in the brainstorm.
4. Terence Stamp – Superman The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1980)
A rare sequel that betters the first. The beard stays constantly excellent throughout. Being supremely evil didn’t deter him from keeping his face blanket neatly trimmed, establishing his sophisticated and educated background and showed why someone so completely wicked still made General.
5. Chuck Norris – The Delta Force (1986)
Chuck Norris is so tough he puts the ‘laughter’ in to ‘manslaughter’. I’ve heard he doesn’t wear a watch because HE decides what time it is and he can win a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves. And when reading this site he doesn’t use a mouse, he uses a lion. All this and he has a beard.
Missed by a whisker:
Russel Crowe, serial bearder in Gladiator, Robin Hood and State of Play.
Zach Galifianakis – The Hangover. It’s massive. The beard and the hangover.
