Tobey Maguire has enjoyed some incredible roles throughout his career / Picture Credits: Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures
Tobey Maguire has enjoyed some incredible roles throughout his career / Picture Credits: Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures

Tobey Maguire's acting career started when he picked up a role in 1989 feature film The Wizard but, spoiler alert, that release won't be making an appearance here!

Instead, we’ll be looking back at the actor’s seven best roles to-date, revisiting Spider-Man, Pleasantville and everything else that left a lasting impression…

7. Seabiscuit

In perhaps one of the most surprising roles of his career, Maguire stepped into the lead role of jokey John M. 'Red' Pollard in Seabiscuit, in a feature that of course focused on the titular famous racehorse.

Maguire was praised for a variety of different skills he showed on screen but, none more so than his riding. Though he worked out and lost a lot of weight to ensure he could do his own scenes, he admitted that when he got on the horse for the first time, getting off left his legs like 'completely overcooked noodles'.

6. The Great Gatsby

Though it's a strange role to point out as one of Maguire's best, seeing as though he serves as the film's narrator and isn't seen on screen nearly close to as much as we hear his voice, it'd be fair to say that The Great Gatsby wouldn't be as fabulous of a film as it is, without Maguire's narration.

5. The Good German

Steven Soderbergh sat in the director's chair for this flick, based on the Joseph Kanon novel of the same name. Fans watched as Maguire took on the first villainous role of his career, playing Corporal Patrick Tully and starring alongside the likes of George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.

Though the movie didn’t do too well with critics and audiences alike, Maguire was consistently praised for his take on the violent and sadistic member of the armed forces, unsettling viewers with his hyper-realistic performance.

4. Pleasantville

Starring alongside the likes of Jeff Daniels, Reese Witherspoon and William H. Macy, Maguire would have to work harder than ever before to ensure his performance was one that stood out from the ensemble in this comedy-drama, written, co-produced and directed by Gary Ross.

Pleasantville sees Maguire play David, aka Bud Parker; a man who is forced to act as the show he's obsessed with's lead character alongside his sister. This leads to some hilarious scenes and situations that Maguire absolutely excels in.

3. Pawn Sacrifice

One of Maguire's most transfixing performances comes in Pawn Sacrifice, where he steps into the shoes of chess master Bobby Fischer, transforming his usual shtick into one more charismatic than any (except the one we have coming up next) we've seen from him before.

The Cold War thriller also saw Liev Schreiber star as Russian chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, who provided the perfect adversary for Maguire's Fischer to go up against.

2. Brothers

One of Maguire's finest roles was alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman in the Jim Sheridan-directed war drama Brothers, where he played prisoner of war Sam Cahill. Upon returning home from Afghanistan, he becomes convinced that his wife has been having an affair with his brother.

So great was his performance, that Maguire found himself nominated for a Golden Globe, of which he said he was "sort of surprised". He would just fall short of the win, losing out to Jeff Bridges for his role in Crazy Heart.

1. Spider-Man

For 90s kids, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is still their favourite, despite all of the incredible work that’s gone into making more recent entires into the Marvel Cinematic Universe an outstanding experience. Maguire was the man who audiences fell in love with; for all intents and purposes, he was Peter Parker.

Whether it was his wide-eyed surprise at his athletic body following his spider bite, or him coming to the realisation that he could shoot webs out of his wrist, every moment o

RELATED: Andrew Garfield snuck into a Spider-Man screening with Tobey Maguire


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