Every week through the remainder of 2014, Yahoo Movies is counting down Hollywood's 50 very best working actors and actresses. Come back to Yahoo Movies every Thursday to see who makes the cut.

Greatest Actor Alive (No. 37): Jennifer Lawrence

Age: 23

Stating the Case: True, the artist known as J.Law may not have the most expansive body of work, but show us another actor with such consistently bravura performances over the past five years.

It was her rough-and-tumble performance in "Winter's Bone" (2010) that first got everyone wondering who this remarkable young actress was — and where she was going. In no time she was playing a superhero (2011's "X-Men: First Class") and, in 2012, Lawrence become an international superstar — and the highest-grossing action heroine of all time — as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games." That year also had Lawrence proving she could still impress the Academy while also being a bona fide movie star with her Oscar-winning performance in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Following last year's double header of "American Hustle" (which earned her a Golden Globe and another Oscar nom) and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (which earned roughly a bajillion dollars), there's just no stopping this ultra-talented beauty who's known as much for her charming (and admirably oddball) off-screen persona as she is for her brilliant on-screen characterizations.

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Breakthrough Role: 2008 was a triple threat for Lawrence as she made her big-screen debut in three feature films: "Garden Party," "The Poker House," and "The Burning Plain." But a collective "Who is that?" could be heard across Park City, Utah, when "Winter's Bone" had its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Retroactively referred to as a grittier, more realistic "The Hunger Games," Debra Granik's hard-hitting drama-mystery had Lawrence tearing up the screen as Ree, a dirt-poor Ozark Mountains girl fighting for her supper and trying to keep her family together while searching for her missing ne'er-do-well father.

The Best of the Best:

5. "X-Men: First Class" (2011): One of J.Law's most underrated performances has her bringing a simmering anger and not-so-innocent sexuality to the role of Raven, a shape-shifting mutant later known as one of Magneto's most trusted comrades, Mystique.

4. "Winter's Bone" (2010): What Lawrence's early performance perhaps lacks (a little bit) in polish and nuance is more than made up for in raw emotion and physicality — and that was more than enough for the Academy, which bestowed her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

3. "The Hunger Games" (2012) and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013): J.Law brings the compassion and the kick-ass (a lot of it) to her role as Katniss Everdeen, the rural District 12 "girl on fire" whose victory in the nefarious annual death match sparks a nation-wide revolution against the corrupt Capitol.

2. "American Hustle" (2013): Lawrence won a Golden Globe and earned her third Oscar nomination for her jaw-dropping portrayal of Rosalyn Rosenfeld, the "Picasso of passive-aggressive karate," a '70s Long Island housewife who falls asleep under the tanning bed, puts metal in "the science oven" even though she (sort of) knows better and belts out "Live and Let Die" better than Paul McCartney could ever dream.

1. "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012): Arguably Lawrence's greatest performance to date, an energetic, unpredictable, and passionate turn as Tiffany, a young widow and live wire who dances her way to romance and redemption with a recently released mental hospital patient (Bradley Cooper).

The BIGGEST Hit: "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" set fire to the box office as the No. 1 domestic earner of 2013, raking in $424 million. Its worldwide total came in north of $864 million. Close behind is its 2012 predecessor, "The Hunger Games," which earned $408 million domestic and $691 million worldwide.