Actor: Joe Pesci

Joe Pesci was working in a restaurant and had effectively quit acting when De Niro and Scorsese found him for Raging Bull. He was nominated for it and won Best Supporting Actor for Goodfellas ten years later.

The Goodfellas performance is built on unpredictability. The funny how am I funny scene is terrifying because the audience cannot tell where it is going, and neither can the other characters.

Then he did Home Alone and My Cousin Vinny in consecutive years and turned out to be an outstanding comic actor, which almost nobody had suspected.

He retired repeatedly and returned for The Irishman, giving a performance of such quietness that it inverts everything he was known for. It earned him a nomination thirty years after the first.