Actress Samantha Morton is perhaps one of our most versatile actresses moving from television to independent movies to sci-fi blockbuster with relative ease.Beginning her career in television and the theatre the thirty year old actress has gone on to become a double Oscar nominee and work with some of the biggest names in film including Woody Allen, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett and Sean Penn.FemaleFirst looks back on her successful career and picks out her top five performances.

1. Longford

Longford is perhaps the most controversial of Samantha Morton's projects as she took on the role of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.Longford spans 32 years in the life of Lord Longford, a religious man who treats everyone he meets with a childlike goodness and innocence. His life changes when he is summoned to a routine prison visit by Myra Henley, the notorious accomplice in the "children murders," one of the most horrific and infamous crimes in British history.

He embarks on a personal and philosophical journey that will test all his basic convictions. The problem is that Longford believes every human being can be forgiven; in fact, that credo is the foundation of his long career as a scholar and philanthropist.

When he meets Myra, with her intriguing history as the lover of convicted psychopath Ian Brady, her composed demeanour and plaintive plea for help, as she sits vulnerably in a prison guest hall, is more than he can resist.

The television film, which also starred Jim Broadbent and Andy Serkis, went on to win Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for Jim Broadbent and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television at the Golden Globes, as well as a nomination for Andy Serkis.

In America

In America was released in 2003 and follows an Irish family who move to America as they try to come to terms with the loss of their son/brother.

To begin all over again is a classic American dream. But it's remarkably hard to do, as Irish émigrés Johnny and Sarah (Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton) discover when they hit the streets of modern-day Manhattan, their two spunky young daughters in tow, and emerge into a realm as comical and adventure-filled as it is strange and terrifying.

The family faces a dizzying new future- but first they must face down a past that haunts every single one of them.

With no cash to spare, Johnny and Sarah settle into a chaotic New York tenement populated by a colourful assortment of characters and attempt to turn a Gothic horror-movie setting into a true home.

From dragging an iffy-looking air conditioner across Manhattan to finding make-do jobs, nothing comes without a fight for the couple.

And yet, while they see America as rife with challenges, dangers and weirdness, their daughters see it as a magical place where anything can happen, a place that might release them all from the anguish of what has come before.

Then, on Halloween, Christy and Ariel (sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger) dare to knock on the door of "the screaming man," a mysterious neighbour named Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), and everything changes. A

s the family heads for a crisis, Mateo becomes their unlikely ally in the territory where hope, faith and even magic hold sway.

The film was received well critically and Samantha Morton received her second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress.

3.Control

2007's Control, a biopic of Joy Division front man Ian Curtis, was one of the most successful British movies of the year.

Based on Deborah Curtis' memoir Touching From A Distance Anton Corbijn's Control follows the short life of Joy Division's front man Ian Curtis.

Ian Curtis has dreams and aspirations beyond the trappings of his life in Macclesfield in the 1970s, he wants to emulate his heroes David Bowie and Iggy Pop.

When band Joy Division kick off his musical ambitions begin to thrive but even as the band begins to rise Curtis begins to fall apart.

Diagnosed with epilepsy he is prescribed a cocktail of drugs that make him ill-equipped to deal with fame and fatherhood.

An affair with Belgian fanzine writer Annik Honore signals the end of Curtis' marriage to loyal wife Debbie.

With increasing problems with his epilepsy adding to his guilt and depression, desperation takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on his shoulders, Ian's tortured soul consumes him.

Control was the talk of the festival circuit and was a critical hit and went on to win five awards in the British Independent Film Awards.

4. The Sweet and Lowdown

The Sweet and the Lowdown was released in 1999 and was directed by Woody Allen. The film would prove to be Morton's breakthrough role that thrust her into the Hollywood limelight.

Allen's pseudo-biopic about 1930's jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (Penn) is a personal tribute by the director to a period of musical history that has inspired and influenced him greatly.

Penn immerses himself into the role of the boozing, womanising Ray with his usual intensity (this time, with a comic slant).

For her performance Morton received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

5. Morvern Callar

Momentarily frozen by the suicide of her boyfriend, Morvern mines two words from his brief suicide note: be brave.

Finally removing his body from the apartment floor, she buries her boyfriend, pocketing the funeral money he left.

She also courts publishers, claiming authorship of the novel he left behind as his legacy. Her new financial freedom and sense of mortality brings Morvern, joined by her coworker Lana (Kathleen McDermott), out of her bleak surroundings to a Spanish resort where the two are surrounded by fellow clubbers.

Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) evokes emotion through landscape as Morvern and Lana flee the dreary Scottish winter for a Spanish coastal town bathed in sunlight.

Her 2002 performance in Morvern Callar backed up her breakthrough performance in the Sweet and Lowdown as she son the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

View the Samantha Morton Movies gallery.