'The Notebook': Ryan Gosling's Best Movies

Born November 12, 1980 in Ontario, Canada, Ryan Gosling became inspired to pursue a career in acting after watching 1990’s Dick Tracy. Not long after, Gosling would get his start on Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club staying with the show from 1993 to 1995 and dropping out of high school at 17 to pursue acting fulltime. Other early roles included Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) as well as 1996’s Goosebumps. Ryan Gosling’s big break would come in this next film…

Ryan Gosling’s big break into the film world would come in 2001 with The Believer. Despite playing the part of a young Jewish neo-Nazi, Gosling’s performance was warmly received, and the film would become the push he needed to jumpstart his career!

Perhaps the most widely celebrated Ryan Gosling film, and one of our personal favorites, is 2004’s The Notebook. Starring alongside the beautiful Rachel McAdams, Gosling and McAdams’ chemistry on screen has since made the film a staple of the romantic drama genre. Ironically, while Gosling and McAdams would start dating in 2005, the pair did not have the best relationship off-screen while filming the movie!

Ryan Gosling would follow up his mainstream breakthrough with two more outstanding movies, 2005’s Stay and 2006’s Half Nelson. The latter starred Gosling in the role of a drug-addicted teacher who begins to bond with a student. His performance would lead to his nomination for an Academy Award that year!

While Ryan Gosling would then take a three-year acting break, he came back in 2010 with more vigor than ever before! 2010 and 2011 would prove to be some of the best film years of Gosling’s career starting with marital drama Blue Valentine. While the film had a low budget, Gosling blew critics away with his performance and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor!

Ryan Gosling would follow up Blue Valentine with two successful romantic films, mystery drama All Good Things and comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love. Crazy, Stupid, Love would mark Gosling’s first comedy role, and, playing the part of a ladies’ man, he proved himself capable of bringing the laughs!

Ryan Gosling would follow his first comedy role with his first action role in 2011’s Drive. Based on James Sallis’s novel, the film did not cut short on the action! Gosling starred in the main role as a Hollywood stunt performer and critics could not get enough of him, even comparing Gosling to his childhood icon, Marlon Brando!

To close out an already impressive 2011, Ryan Gosling would co-star with Philip Seymour Hoffman in George Clooney’s The Ides of March. While Canadian born and raised, Gosling took on the role wanting to become more attuned to American politics. His performance sure had us fooled and he was a political natural!

While Ryan Gosling slowed down a bit with the number of films he took on, he has still starred in a number of successful films in the latter half of the 2010s. One of his best-received films has been 2015’s The Big Short. Gosling managed to capture the sleazy essence of his character perfectly while still making us laugh!

One of the most talked-about Ryan Gosling films of late is 2016’s musical drama La La Land. Starring opposite the talented Emma Stone, not only can Gosling act but he also has one of the most endearing voices we have ever heard! Critics also agreed and Gosling went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Actor that year and also received his second Academy Award nomination!