Directed by Carl Franklin, this was Don's breakthrough in 1995. Cheadle plays Mouse Alexander, a cold-blooded but smiling killer, and, at virtually every opportunity, steals the show from the film's leading actor, Denzel Washington.

The film is an affectionate, underrated adaptation of Walter Mosley's classic detective novel, the darkly hilarious story of a detective with bad luck. The film also accurately portrays the racial climate in the late 1940s.

Mouse has been called black America's answer to A Clockwork Orange's Alex – hence the last name – just that he is much more disturbingly self aware.

Cheadle holds nothing back, and exposes us to the complete Mouse – the eerie calm, the dreadful laughter, unpredictable rage, and supreme self confidence of a grim man who does not know fear.

And he's very funny. Fabulous.