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There's three that really stick out as being roughly on the same level, with Setsuko Hara and Irène Jacob both being fantastic actresses, at times putting in performances that are beyond words (I'd say see The Double Life of Veronique and Three Colours: Red for Jacob and Late Spring and Tokyo Story for Hara) and with those you've got Martin Sheen (I've never seen a better single (well, male) performance than in Badlands, and if anyone could point me to something better I'd be quite surprised).

After that Jean-Pierre Léaud pretty much goes without saying (see his work with Godard), Toshirō Mifune has put in performances that are basically indescribable, and Chishu Ryu is always a stand out. Also the central performances in Bergman's Persona from Ullmann and Andersson are also unforgettable, so those two even if that was the only film either had made. And you've also got the Hollywood standards like Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum (especially Night of the Hunter, which is among the best films to come out of America and Mitchum is absolutely central to that achievement, creating probably the most effective and terrifying Villains of the medium, and one you genuinely fear for who he is, rather than what, which is fairly rare really). Sally Hawkins is one of the best things that the British film industry has going for it at the moment as well.

There's also Kenneth Branagh, though he's nowhere near as consistent as most of the others mentioned, but when he's on form (like in Hamlet) he's approaching phenomenal. Jack Lemmon is another, occasionally putting out fantastic performances (The Apartment) and at other times really not.