Ryan Gosling is currently in the process of adding writer/director to his list of skills after announcing a break from acting to concentrate on his film-making debut, How to Catch a Monster. With that in mind, here's a look back at five of the actor's finest moments. What scenes would you add to the list?

Gosling plays a young neo-Nazi in Henry Bean's movie, brutally growling out his dialogue with lips permanently curled in a sickening snarl.

Reading on mobile? Watch the clip on YouTube

Here he plays a schoolteacher quietly declining into drug dependency. His numbed lethargy and increasing lack of control offer no romantic notions about addiction.

Reading on mobile? Watch the clip on YouTube

While Crazy, Stupid, Love showed off his comic timing, there's something charming about Gosling's introverted turn in Lars and the Real Girl. His cripplingly shy Lars Lindstrom is amazingly loveable, even when taking a sex doll as a girlfriend.

Reading on mobile? Watch the clip on YouTube

4. All Good Things

This fact-based movie isn't entirely successful, but Gosling gives a stand-out performance as troubled real estate heir David Marks. The character is a frighteningly hollow enigma, portrayed with a disturbing normality.

Reading on mobile? Watch the clip on YouTube

Nicolas Winding Refn's pop noir is as achingly cool as its star; Gosling's Driver is a conflation of generations of movie tough guys into one super-heroic wheels-man.

Reading on mobile? Watch the clip on YouTube