Eddie Redmayne managed to do the impossible — at least given the buzz surrounding him — when he won the SAG Award for Best Actor last week. He had already bagged the Golden Globe and the Critic's Choice Award in the same category. In other words, his chances of bagging an Oscar have skyrocketed.

His meticulous portrayal of Stephen Hawking has earned awe as well as accolades. If not, it'd be interesting to see whether Benedict Cumberbatch manages to upstage him on the big night thanks to his spectacular performance in The Imitation Game. Both play troubled geniuses in their respective films and cinema is laced with instances where actors have tested their threshold. hitlist points out a few of them:

Pollock (2000)

Character: Jackson Pollock
Actor: Ed Harris
Lowdown: From the moment he took out his dripping brush to the moment he died in a horrible car crash, one aspect was unwavering about Pollock: he was an artist par excellence. And this biopic makes that doubly clear. At the same time, moreover, he is shown to be a conflicted personality whose artistic endeavours took a toll on his personal life.