A career-making performance at Colne Blues Festival in 2002 established Kyla's reputation as the first lady of the British blues.

Scott Andrew, a New York makeup artist who has worked with Hilary Swank about 20 times since her 1999 career-making performance in "Boys Don't Cry," captured the attention of beauty editors at last year's Academy Awards by using the minimal effects.

Ms. Kirkland, a 25-year veteran of the Actor's Studio, saw the film's title role as the chance of a lifetime to put all her training and gifts into a career-making performance, and she campaigned intensively to win it.

Judging from a 40-minute teaser for the movie, one gets the impression that screen evil may not have reached quite such well-spoken proportions since Ralph Fiennes delivered his career-making performance in the 1993 film "Schindler's List."

Wilde himself (Michael Emerson, in a career-making performance) effectively loses his case when the artistic frame through which he sees and presents life slips.

Alan Rickman's portrayal of villain Hans Gruber was described as "marvelous" and "a career-making performance."

The film featured a career-making performance by George C. Scott as the prosecutor.

It won four Oscars that year - for best picture, for Mr. Redford's direction, for Mr. Sargent's script and for Timothy Hutton's career-making performance as the troubled central character.

The British director, who is known for eliciting career-making performances from little-known actors in quirky, low-budget movies, shuns the Hollywood-approved method of mollycoddling the talent.

His portrayal of the character has been described as a career-making performance, proving that Pitt could be more than a "cowboy-hatted hunk."