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Top 10 Actors turned Directors

Ben Affleck is the latest in a long and venerable line: international film industry professionals who made their name in front of the camera, but who have then slipped into the director's chair. And done so with some considerable success, too. You probably already know who's at number 1, but here - in reverse order - are our Top 10 Actors turned Directors...

Ben Affleck

Lest we forget, Ben Affleck has an Oscar statuette on his mantelpiece for Good Will Hunting. And since that award recognised the meticulous art of screen-writing (a joint effort with Matt Damon), Affleck’s transition to director is perhaps unsurprising. He continues to wield the pen alongside helming duties: Gone Baby Gone was an explosive debut, and The Town – while more mainstream – looks set to be similarly well received.

Jon Favreau

Favreau's acting is more solid than stellar, but he's an integral part of Swingers, and his feature debut, Made, featuring friend and Swingers co-star Vince Vaughn, was pretty good. Then Elf put Favreau on the map, and while Zathura (Jumanji in space) was workmanlike, Iron Man shot him into the sky (and onto this list), with skilful handling of special effects, action sequences, and drawing the best out of a resurgent Robert Downey Jr.

George Clooney

Gorgeous George has directed fewer movies than Favreau, but they show perhaps more promise of greatness, and he's a better actor too. An Oscar-winner for Syriana, George has also been nominated twice in front of the lens (Michael Clayton, Up in the Air), and has a brace of nominations (Director and co-Screenwriter) for Good Night, and Good Luck - only his second directorial effort after his impressive 2002 debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Sean Penn

Little doubting Sean Penn's acting credentials: a two-time Academy Award-winner (Mystic River, Milk), he's also got a further hat-trick of nominations (Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown, I Am Sam), and clearly likes to direct performers as driven, intense and gifted as himself: David Morse and Viggo Mortensen in The Indian Runner, Jack Nicholson in The Pledge and The Crossing Guard, and Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild, all of them excellent.

Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner: great actor, great director. Simple as that. Granted, you have to forget the post-apocalyptic, post-catastrophic Postman, and remember that he only directed bits of Waterworld in a last-ditch rescue attempt. But Dances With Wolves is a soaring, majestic epic that netted Kev Best Picture and Director Oscars, won five others, and was nominated for five more. And Open Range (Costner's Unforgiven) is a superb, slow-burning western with a cracking finale.

Kenneth Branagh

Bard-loving Brit Kenny Branagh has three Oscar nominations to his name, for acting and directing Henry V, and for adapting Shakespeare's mammoth tragedy Hamlet (with a mighty cast of thespians) in 1996. His lengthy, lavish version of the Prince of Denmark is impressive; his mud-spattered, battle epic Henry V is bloody brilliant (quite literally); but he's good away from full-on Folio work too - see In the Bleak Midwinter and, hopefully, 2011's Thor.

Mel Gibson

Exploding onto the scene in 1979's Mad Max, Mel Gibson became one of moviedom's most bankable stars by playing action-thriller-sexy throughout the 80s. Then, after a decent debut (The Man Without a Face), he did a Dances With Wolves - Braveheart landing him Best Picture and Director Oscars, and winning three more. And although dogged since by personal trials, 2006's Passion of the Christ and 2008's Apocalypto are unflinching, awe-inspiring pieces of work.

Robert Redford

A great actor with an Academy Award nomination, Robert Redford always harboured dreams of directing and, with two Oscar wins for the discipline, is arguably more successful at it. Ordinary People was his debut at the helm, and other notable credits include A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, and he Legend of Bagger Vance. He continued acting, doing both jobs in The Horse Whisperer, and frequently finding a political spin in movies like Havana, Sneakers, Spy Game, and Lions for Lambs.

Ron Howard

Having come to prominence in the 60s on The Andy Griffith Show, and in the 70s as Richie Cunningham in Happy Days, Ron Howard then moved (with the odd cameo) almost entirely into directing, and with some considerable success. Check out this roster: Splash, Cocoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, and Angels & Demons.

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood became an icon (and an anagram) of Old West action in the 60s, exchanged six-guns for Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum in the 70s, and began double duties as director/lead in revisionist westerns High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and the thriller Play Misty For Me. He continued this throughout the 80s (Pale Rider, Heartbreak Ridge and Bird), finally getting Oscar recognition – Best Picture and Best Director - for anti-Western Unforgiven. Mystic River got nominations for those two awards and, a year later, 2005's Million Dollar Baby saw him win them both again. He's 80 years old, he's recently directed Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in Invictus, and Matt Damon in the upcoming Hereafter, and is already in pre-production with Leonardo DiCaprio on a biopic of FBI founder J Edgar Hoover. Living legend just doesn't seem enough. Mr Eastwood, we salute you - the ultimate Actor turned Director.

Darren Bignell