The Most Convincing Drunk Performances In Movie History

There are countless stories of actors delivering memorable drunk performances by actually getting drunk in real life. For Robert Shaw's performance at Quint, the shark hunter, in Jaws, things turned out a little differently. According to Steven Spielberg, Shaw came up to him to ask if he could have a few drinks before shooting the now-legendary USS Indianapolis monologue, in which the three stars of the film (including Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss) drunkenly bond over sharing stories of how they got some of their scars.

According to Spielberg, Shaw got entirely plastered, couldn't get through even a few lines and then blacked out. Shaw later called Spielberg at 2 am, asking for forgiveness and for the chance to try again, sans booze. Shaw apparently was ready to go by 7:30 am the next day, stone sober, and knocked the scene out of the park, with Spielberg comparing him that day to incomparable stage and screen legend Laurence Olivier.

Quint's deeply haunted, traumatic retelling of the events of the USS Indianapolis is chilling, and his drunken bravado bleeds away as he reveals a true part of his soul, and the reason for his obsession with sharks. In Shaw's performance as a drunken, frightened Quint, he captures the power of alcohol to strip away pretense and allow people to expose deep truths, if even for a moment. The tale he tells perfectly encapsulates why Quint is the way he is – and the scene gave acting students a monologue they could use for theater auditions for decades to come.

For his performance as fatally alcoholic screenwriter Ben Sanderson in Leaving Las Vegas, Nicolas Cage dipped into a deep well of sorrow and pain that oozes out of every one of Sanderson's pores and radiates across the screen. Sanderson is a man of great self-importance who sees his life crumbling around him and escapes into the pain as his life falls apart around him.

Sanderson travels to Las Vegas, seemingly with the intent to drink himself into the grave, after his wife leaves him and takes their child and his work dries up, thanks to his self-destructive behavior. He's abrasive and unrelentingly unapologetic for his addiction, and Cage's natural charisma lends an unexpected sympathy to a character who is otherwise driven solely by his vices, to the detriment of everyone.

Cage has said in past interviews that he had no experience with alcoholism before playing the character, and once told GQ that he hired a "drinking coach" named Tony Dingman, who was a massive alcoholic and also a poet. Cage apparently studied Dingman's mannerisms, and even some of his poetic musings, and incorporated them into his performance to lend it authenticity and portray a man who is terminally inebriated.

When it comes to great instances of actors playing drunk, Dudley Moore's portrayal of wealthy, alcoholic man-child Arthur Bach is always among the first examples that are brought up, and for good reason. Moore was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the titular lush, and Arthur's alcoholism was a key aspect of the narrative and his character's existence.

While Moore's portrayal of a staggeringly intoxicated boozehound can be a bit broad for comedic effect, it's undeniably funny even when taking big swings. However, what makes it special is Moore's ability to find the humanity in Arthur, even at his most spoiled and inebriated, and Arthur's hidden desire to be a better person and live up to the man he wants to be.

One scene that stands out is when Arthur is having dinner with his soon-to-be father-in-law, who is stressing to him the importance of being a good husband to his daughter. Arthur is so drunk, unhappy, and scared of the man, his mind keeps drifting to a stuffed moose head trophy on the wall, leading to one of the funniest lines as Arthur asks the imposing figure, “Where's the rest of this moose?”

For being a character who goes by “The Dude, ”Jeff Bridges's Jeffrey Lebowski embodies the lackadaisical energy and vibe that the term "dude" has come to mean –  and it's largely because Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski is a perfect example of a high-functioning alcoholic, especially since he doesn't have to do much functioning as an unemployed bowling fan and music appreciator.

Bridges's performance as The Dude has become his biggest trademark, and the character is a slacker icon. While Lebowski also enjoys smoking pot, he's constantly drinking White Russians (a cocktail containing vodka, Kahlua and cream) or beer as he goes about his day-to-day business, which includes bowling, hanging out with bizarre new-age artists, and stumbling through a complex kidnapping conspiracy filled with a lotta ins, a lotta outs, and a lotta what-have-yous.

The booze and the drugs rarely affect The Dude, because he's nearly always the same level of laid back. However, Bridges plays one scene to utter perfection when The Dude wanders into a party at adult film producer Jackie Treehorn's mansion, and gets slipped a sedative in his drink that causes him to pass out. He wakes up singing and babbling in the Malibu Sheriff's office, dazed and confused, in a masterful bit of acting that shows how The Dude would likely behave if he hadn't built up such a tolerance.

In director Penny Marshall's 1992 sports comedy classic A League Of Their Own – which is set in 1943 – Tom Hanks plays a former baseball pro named Jimmy Dugan who has become a cynical and ill-tempered alcoholic. Dugan is hired to manage a Women's League baseball team during World War II, but treats the whole exercise as a farce.

Hanks's Dugan is a sloppy, unlikable lush when the film begins, who is bitter about the world and his new role. Dugan is introduced in a memorable scene in which the eager and excited female ball players on the Rockford Peaches are awaiting his arrival, and are looking forward to meeting a real-life baseball star. Dugan surprises them when he bursts into the locker room, drunkenly stumbles past all them without saying a word, and urinates in the bathroom for over a full minute while sweating profusely.

Hanks's portrayal of Dugan as a sweat-soaked, sleepy misanthrope not only serves as an incredible example of how to act drunk, but goes deeper into informing his entire character arc as he comes to respect both the women on the team and himself.

Cary Grant is widely considered to be one of the greatest movie stars in Hollywood history, and despite generally playing some variation of his Cary Grant persona in the majority of his films, he always found ways to show off his versatility. This is evident in his brilliant comedic timing and desperation in Alfred Hitchcock's conspiracy thriller North By Northwest, after his character, advertising exec Roger Thornhill, is taken to a police station on suspicion of drunk driving.

As part of a needlessly complex evil scheme that includes mistaken identity and double crosses, some thugs attempt to kill Thornhill by getting him blindly drunk and putting him behind the wheel of a car to stage a drunk driving accident. However, instead of driving off a cliff, he manages to barely stay on the road long enough to get arrested by cops and thrown in the drunk tank.

Grant's performance as a drunk Thornhill being booked by police is spectacular. His character is not an alcoholic, so the slurring, heavy breathing, and general sloppiness is in stark contrast to the cool and collected character presented throughout the film. Grant convincingly plays drunk by subverting every expectation of what is expected of the characters he plays, and he adds a litany of small touches to his nuanced act which all sell the scene – like running his words together and repeatedly trying to prove how "fine" he is while clearly not being able to walk or stand upright.