The Best Director-Actor Pairs In Movie History

Great directors and great actors don't (usually) become great after only one or two movies. They spend their entire careers honing their crafts, building on what worked in the past, learning from their mistakes, and trying to influence culture at least as much as they're influenced by it. Along the way, they meet countless other people in the world of filmmaking, ranging from producers and crew members to other directors and actors. They won't get along with everyone, but plenty of seasoned pros discover early on that they work brilliantly well with specific people. We're talking someone who's on the same page as them cinematically, who can contribute to and elevate their ideas, and who respects them enough to give them artistic freedom while still keeping them anchored to a shared creative vision.

Some of the greatest films ever made are the result of these iconic pairings, especially between directors and actors. These people are creatively attached at the hip and support and challenge each other in all the right ways. But which director-actor tag-teams are the best in history? When considering the possibilities, you have to look at factors like the quality of their films and the length of their partnerships. You also have to consider the number of movies they've released, whether the actor stars or merely supports the director's films, and the impact the team has had on the world of movies. We've done all that for you, so grab some popcorn as we look at the best director-actor pairs in film history.

Tim Burton is primarily known for two things. First, there's the strange and playfully dark tone and subject matter of his movies, which usually deal with the lightly supernatural and feature eccentric and mysterious characters. Secondly, he's famous for the eight films he's collaborated on with Johnny Depp, who plays eccentric and mysterious characters better than almost any actor alive. We think we're seeing a pattern here.

With Burton behind the camera, Depp has played an inept filmmaker in "Ed Wood" (based on the life of the man himself), a confused, ancient, and recently resurrected vampire in "Dark Shadows," and the titular character in "Edward Scissorhands," who's an unfinished artificial creation with knives and various other bladed tools in lieu of hands. Plus, he's starred as the science-loving Ichabod Crane in "Sleepy Hollow" and the brilliant (and criminally irresponsible) candy magnate Willy Wonka in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," as well as a murderous, vengeful barber in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," a nervous groom to be in stellar stop-motion movie "Corpse Bride," and "Mad Hatter" Tarrant Hightopp in "Alice in Wonderland."

Burton and Depp's movies, which also frequently feature actress and Burton's ex-wife Helena Bonham Carter (whose work with Burton nearly got its own entry on this list), are dependably watchable at the very least, occasionally excellent, and always unforgettably and wonderfully strange. "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood," in particular, are close to masterpieces.

Samuel L. Jackson is in pretty much everything. He's Nick Fury in the MCU. He's Jedi Master Mace Windu in the "Star Wars" prequels. He's in "Jurassic Park," "Unbreakable," "Die Hard: With a Vengeance," both "Incredibles" movies, "Kong: Skull Island," "Goodfellas," and more. Finding him in the movies is like finding the back of your own hand. But despite all the excellent performances he's given us over the years, his greatest and most memorable work has to be his collaborations with writer-director Quentin Tarantino.

Jackson makes a small appearance as the Narrator in "Inglourious Basterds," plays Rufus the poor piano player in "Kill Bill Vol. 2," and portrays ruthless and impulsive arms dealer Ordell in "Jackie Brown." But he gets even more room to play in a few other Tarantino movies. He makes an absolute meal out of the clever, gunslinging Major Marquis Warren in "The Hateful Eight." His character in "Django Unchained" is almost the opposite. Rather than being a racist-hating gunfighter, he plays Stephen –- Calvin Candie's loyal house slave who doesn't trust the movie's slave-freeing heroes.

Most notably, Jackson plays Jules in "Pulp Fiction," arguably Tarantino's masterpiece and one of the greatest films of the '90s. Jules, far too smart for his job as a gangster's hitman, delighted us all with his badass Bible verse quoting and reluctant existentialism. It was also a once in a lifetime role for Jackson and proof that Tarantino had found his man.

Michael Caine rarely stars in Christopher Nolan's movies, but he's almost always somewhere in them. He was Dom Cobb's former father-in-law in 2010's "Inception," about a team of thieves who steal secrets from dreaming targets. He played an aging NASA scientist in 2014's "Interstellar," who sends astronauts through a wormhole to search for a new home for mankind as the Earth becomes increasingly inhospitable. He also played the unseen but briefly heard Fortis Leader in 2017's "Dunkirk," a fighter pilot in the RAF who helps cover the evacuation of 400,000 British troops from a beach during the Nazi conquest of France in 1940.

Most notably, he played Alfred Pennyworth, the most famous fictional butler of all time, in the "Dark Knight" trilogy. Nolan, who abhors genre tropes and does his best to give depth and significance to every character in his movies, made sure that Caine's Pennyworth wasn't a flat, submissive, "more tea, sir?" type character. Instead, Alfred is a wise, indispensable, and fiercely loyal friend to Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne. He's a character who even makes mistakes and occasionally fights with his boss over the dangers of Batman's reckless vigilantism.

We have to knock this partnership a little bit for the simple fact that, again, Caine is never more than a (sometimes minor) supporting character in these movies. But still, when these movies include the likes of "Tenet" and "The Prestige," we definitely can't complain.

South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho and his favorite leading man, Song Kang-Ho, have teamed up four times, and each outing is excellent. The first was 2003's "Memories of Murder," inspired by true events, in which Song plays a detective trying to catch an elusive killer. The film, as tightly and brilliantly executed as any crime thriller out there, is tragically overlooked. Then there's 2006's "The Host," in which Song tries to rescue his daughter from a monster. According to Rotten Tomatoes, this is the worst of the Bong/Song team-ups ... with its 93% approval rating.

Bong finally received more worldwide attention for his excellent 2013 action-thriller "Snowpiercer." In this movie, Song joins Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer as imprisoned passengers leading a rebellion aboard the titular train, which carries the last remnants of humanity on a world-spanning track after a failed attempt to stop climate change turned the Earth into a ball of ice.

But Song Kang-Ho and Bong Joon-Ho's next film together, 2019's "Parasite," brought them whole new levels of international acclaim. The movie, in which Song plays the patriarch of a family of impoverished South Koreans who con their way to financial stability by taking advantage of a wealthy family, is filled with fantastic, layered social commentary, sharp jokes, excellent characterization, and unforgettable visuals. It's not only the best movie of 2019 -– thoroughly deserving its Best Picture win at the Academy Awards — but one of the greatest films ever made. We can't wait to see what this pair gets up to next.

It's hard to find two Golden Age titans more impactful than the "Master of Suspense," Alfred Hitchcock, and Cary Grant, one of the most prolific actors of the '40s and '50s. The two collaborated on a modest four films, but each project changed Hollywood forever.

There's "Suspicion," in which Grant plays a womanizer whose wife — after enduring years of his manipulation and anger — comes to believe he's planning to murder her. The movie nabbed Hitchcock his third Best Picture nomination and still holds up.

"To Catch a Thief" features Grant as John "The Cat" Robie, a retired burglar who's on a mission to prove his innocence after being framed for a series of robberies in the French Riviera. It also features one of the all-time kissing scenes between Grant and Grace Kelly. "Notorious," about a U.S. government spy who reluctantly pushes his love interest to seduce the leader of a Nazi group to further his investigation, has all the intrigue, romance, and thrilling twists that made Hitchcock a master.

And then there's 1959's "North by Northwest," one of both men's greatest films. This one stars Grant as an advertising executive on the run from both the government and nefarious agents after being mistaken for a spy. We won't spoil the specifics, but let's just say that "North by Northwest" is still a masterclass in the action-thriller genre that modern espionage movies are still trying to live up to. Some have come close. But very few, if any, are truly the equal of this influential masterpiece.