As Alec Leamas, a weary British agent sent on one last mission into East Germany, Burton gave the Cold War its most human face.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), from John le Carre’s novel, is a bleak, brilliant thriller, and Burton plays Leamas as a man exhausted by deception. His performance, nominated for Best Actor, is all restraint: a spy who no longer believes in the game.
It remains one of the finest spy films ever made, and Burton is its conscience.
Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.