So I stumbled onto an list of the best male actors o/a/t the other day and a subsequent google of the same topic revealed wildly divergent opinions on such a chronicle..
My question is, what would your top 20 list look like...
I'll give mine and post the complete list from IMDB.
.
Mine.
1 Paul Newman
2 Marlon Brando
3 Jack Nicholson
4 Robert De Niro
5 Al Pacino
6 Robert Redford
7 Gene Hackman
8 Anthony Hopkins
9 Daniel Day-Lewis
10 Tom Hanks
11 Russell Crowe
12 Denzel Washington
13 Dustin Hoffman
14 Henry Fonda
15 Morgan Freeman
16 Michael Caine
17 Gregory Peck
18 James Stewart
19 Robert Duvall
20 Cary Grant
IMDB:
1. Al Pacino Actor, The Godfather
One of the greatest actors in all of film history, Al Pacino established himself during one of film's greatest decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies. Born on April 25, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, Pacino's parents (Salvatore and Rose) divorced when he was young...
2. Robert De Niro Actor, Goodfellas Robert De Niro, who is thought of as one of the greatest actors of his time, was born in New York City in 1943 to two artists. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. He first gained fame for his role in Bang the Drum Slowly, but he gained his reputation as a volatile actor in Mean Streets...
3. Dustin Hoffman Actor, Kramer vs. Kramer
Graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1954. Went to Santa Monica City College where he dropped out after a year due to bad grades. But before he did, he took an acting course because he was told that "nobody flunks acting." Also received some training at Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Decided to go into acting because he did not want to work or go into the service...
4. Anthony Hopkins Actor, The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins was born on 31 December 1937, in Margam, Wales. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he moved to London and joined the National Theatre, invited by Laurence Olivier, who could see the talent in Hopkins. In 1967, he made his first film for television, A Flea in Her Ear...
5. Jack Nicholson Actor, The Shining
Abandoned by his father in his childhood, he was raised believing his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his older sister. The truth was revealed to him years later when a Time magazine journalist uncovered the truth while preparing a story on the star. Jack had an on-and-off relationship with actress Anjelica Huston...
6. Joe Pesci Actor, Goodfellas
Compact Italian-American actor born February 9, 1943, in Newark, NJ, who first broke into entertainment as a child actor and by the mid-50s was starring on the series "Star Time Kids". In the mid-'60s he released a record under the stage name of "Joe Ritchie" titled "Little Joe Sure Can Sing", and was also playing guitar with several bands...
7. Marlon Brando Actor, The Godfather
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in 1949...
8. Spencer Tracy Actor, Judgment at Nuremberg
Spencer Tracy was born four years after his brother Carroll to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy. He attended Marquette Academy along with Pat O'Brien and the two left school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. He was still at Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia at the end of the war...
9. Steve McQueen Actor, The Great Escape
He was the ultra-cool male film star of the 1960s, and rose from a troubled youth spent in reform schools to being the world's most popular actor. Over 25 years after his untimely death from mesothelioma in 1980, Steve McQueen is still considered hip and cool, and he endures as an icon of popular culture...
10. Clint Eastwood Actor, Million Dollar Baby
Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born in San Francisco, he is the son of Clinton Eastwood Sr. (1906-1970) and Ruth Wood (née Runner, 1909-2006). When Clint was growing up, the family frequently moved around Northern California before settling in Oregon...
11. John Malkovich Actor, Dangerous Liaisons
In 1976, John Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman"...
12. Anthony Quinn Actor, Lawrence of Arabia
Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to an ethnic Irish-Mexican father and an ethnic Mexican mother. After starting life in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he grew up in the Boyle Heights and the Echo Park neighborhoods...
13. Paul Newman Actor, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Newman was born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a successful sporting goods store owner. He acted in grade school and high school plays and after being discharged from the navy in 1946 enrolled at Kenyon College...
14. Danny DeVito Actor, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born on November 17, 1944, in Neptune, New Jersey. His father, Daniel, Sr., was a small business owner whose ventures included a dry cleaning shop, a dairy outlet, a diner, and a pool hall. His mother, Julia, was a homemaker. While growing up in Asbury Park, his parents sent him to private schools...
15. Jack Lemmon Actor, The Apartment
Jack Lemmon's father was the president of a doughnut company. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers Country Day School, then located in nearby Brookline. After RCDS, he went to high school at Phillips Andover Academy. Jack was a member of the Harvard class of 1947...
16. Walter Matthau Actor, Charade
Born Walter Matthow on October 1, 1920, to a pair of Russian-Jewish immigrants in New York City, Matthau grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side and started out selling soft drinks and playing bit parts at a Yiddish theater troupe at age 11. He was paid 50 cents for each of his occasional on-stage appearances...
17. Morgan Freeman Actor, The Shawshank Redemption
With an authoritative voice and calm demeanour, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Born in June 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, the young Freeman attended Los Angeles Community College before serving several years in the US Air Force as a mechanic between 1955 and 1959...
18. Michael Clarke Duncan Actor, The Green Mile
Raised by his single mother on Chicago's South Side, Michael grew up resisting drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let him, fearing he would get hurt. He then turned to acting, dreaming of becoming a famous actor. After graduating from high school and attending community college...
19. Brian Cox Actor, Troy
Brian Cox is an Emmy Award-winning actor, first coming to attention in the early 1970s with performances in numerous television films. His first big break was as "Dr. Hannibal Lecter (/Lecktor)" in Manhunter. The film was not overly successful at the box office, although Cox's career prospects and popularity continued to develop...
20. Gary Oldman Actor, Leon: The Professional Gary Oldman, the son of a welder and a homemaker, won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including...
21. Jeremy Irons Actor, The Lion King
Although the son of a tax consultant, young Jeremy didn't prove very fond of figures. A typical islander, he used to go to England only once a year. He wound up being grounded when his family settled down in Hertfordshire. At the age of 13 he enrolled in Sherborne School, Dorset, where he was very happy as he could practise his favorite sport...
22. Jason Isaacs Actor, The Patriot
Jason Isaacs is the 3rd of 4 children. He studied Law at Bristol University and graduated in 1985 with a degree in law but decided to study acting. Whilst at Bristol University he directed and/or appeared in over 20 productions. Whilst at the Central School of Speech and Drama he met his wife Emma and graduated from there in 1989.
23. Geoffrey Rush Actor, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, but raised in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia after his parents (he an accountant, she a sales clerk) split up, actor Geoffrey Rush attended Everton Park State High School during his formative years. His early interest in the theatre led to his 1971 stage debut at age 20 in "Wrong Side of the Moon" with the Queensland Theatre Company...
24. Vincent D'Onofrio Actor, Full Metal Jacket
Vincent D'Onofrio is known as an "actor's actor". The wide variety of roles he has played and the quality of his work have earned him a reputation as a versatile talent. He studied at the Actors Studio and the American Stanislavski Theatre. His debut on stage was in 1984 in the Broadway play "Open Admissions"...
25. Tom Hanks Actor, The Da Vinci Code
Born in California, Tom Hanks grew up in what he calls a "fractured" family. His parents were pioneers in the development of marriage dissolution law in that state, and Tom moved around a lot, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no abuse, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood...
26. Sean Penn Actor, Mystic River
Powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints, California-born Sean Penn is the second son of actress Eileen Ryan & director Leo Penn...
27. Sidney Poitier Actor, In the Heat of the Night
A native of Cat Island, The Bahamas, (though born in Miami during a mainland visit by his parents), Poitier grew up in poverty as the son of a dirt farmer. He had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency...
28. Forest Whitaker Actor, Platoon
Forest Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb. frame. The athletically-inclined Whitaker initially found his way into college via a football scholarship. Later, however, he transferred to USC where he set his concentration on music and earned two more scholarships training as an operatic tenor...
29. Alan Rickman Actor, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London to Margaret (Welsh) and Bernard (Irish) Rickman. Alan has an older brother David, a younger brother Michael and a younger sister Sheila. When Alan was 8 years old, his father died. He attended Latymer Upper School on a scholarship. He studied Graphic Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design...
30. James Woods Actor, Once Upon a Time in America
Leanly built, strangely handsome actor-producer-director with intense eyes, swarthy complexion, and a sometimes untrustworthy grin has been impressing audiences for over three decades with his compelling performances. The son of a US Intelligence officer, he earned a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; dropping out of MIT during his sophomore year...
31. Robert Downey Jr. Actor, Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr. has evolved into one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. With an amazing list of credits to his name, he has managed to stay new and fresh even after three decades in the business. In 1992, Downey received an Academy Award nomination and won the BAFTA (British Academy Award) for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of Chaplin...
32. Tommy Lee Jones Actor, No Country for Old Men
Born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Clyde C. and Lucille Marie (Scott) Jones, Tommy Lee Jones worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship, and went to Harvard on another scholarship.He roomed...
33. Russell Crowe Actor, Gladiator
Born in New Zealand, Russell has made his home in Australia since he was a small child. The son of movie set caterers, Russell got the acting bug early in life. Beginning as a child star on a local Australian TV show, Russell's first big break came with two films ... the first, Romper Stomper, gained him a name throughout the film community in Australia and the neighboring countries...
34. Denzel Washington Actor, American Gangster
Tall, strikingly handsome leading man of films and television in the 1980s and 1990s, Denzel Washington was born in 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the middle child of the 3 children of a Pentecostal minister father and a beautician mother. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University intent on a career in journalism...
35. Alec Baldwin Actor, The Departed
Raven haired, suavely handsome and prolific New York-born actor Alec Baldwin is easily the best known of the four Baldwin brothers appearing in the cinema (for the record, the others are Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin). Alec burst onto the TV scene in the early 1980s with appearances in several series...
36. Mel Gibson Actor, Braveheart
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born on January 3, 1956, in Peekskill, New York, USA as the sixth of eleven children to parents Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Ann Gibson, who was born in Australia and died in December of 1990. Though born in the US, Mel and his family moved to New South Wales...
37. Liam Neeson Actor, Schindler's List
Born in Northern Ireland, UK, Neeson worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, truck driver, assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St. Mary's Teaching College in Belfast. However, in 1976, Neeson joined the Belfast Lyric Players' Theater and made his professional acting debut in the play "The Risen People"...
38. Michael Caine Actor, The Dark Knight
Born Maurice Micklewhite in London, Michael Caine was the son of a fish-market porter and a charlady. He left school at 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager...
39. Gene Hackman Actor, Unforgiven
The son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Lydia (nee Gray), Hackman grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of 16 for a hitch with the Marines. Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois...
41. Joaquin Phoenix Actor, Gladiator
Born in Puerto Rico to Children of God missionaries John Bottom Amram and Arlyn Dunetz Jochebed (a.k.a. Heart), Joaquin was the middle child in a brood of five. As a youngster he took his cues from older siblings River Phoenix and Rain Phoenix, changing his name to Leaf to match their earthier monikers...
42. Rod Steiger Actor, In the Heat of the Night
Rod Steiger received his first film roles in the early 1950s. His first major one was in Teresa, but his first lead role was in the TV version of Marty. The movie version, however, had Ernest Borgnine in the lead and won him an Academy Award. Steiger's breakthrough role came in 1954...
43. Frank Sinatra Soundtrack, Scarface
Growing up on the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, made Frank Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he got his first major break in 1935 as part of The Hoboken Four on popular radio show Major Bowes Amateur Hour...
44. Christopher Walken Actor, Catch Me If You Can
Nervous-looking lead and supporting actor of the American stage and films. He won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter. Seen in mostly supporting roles throughout the 80s and early 90s, often portraying psychologically unstable characters.
45. Charles Bronson Actor, Once Upon a Time in the West
The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features - one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long" - Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinski, one of 14 children of struggling Lithuanian immigrant parents in Pennsylvania (his father was a coal miner)...
46. Robert Redford Actor, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Charles Robert Redford, an accountant for Standard Oil, and Martha Hart. His mother died in 1955, the year after he graduated from high school. Charles Robert Redford Jr. was a scrappy kid who stole hubcaps in high school and lost his college baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado because of drunkenness...
48. Peter Cushing Actor, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Peter Cushing was born in 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey by his mother Nellie Marie and father George Edward, who was a quantity surveyor. At an early age Cushing was attracted to acting...
49. Richard Attenborough Actor, Jurassic Park
Lord Richard Attenborough was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. Attenborough...
50. Donald Pleasence Actor, Halloween Donald Pleasence started acting on the London stage in 1939. He served in the RAF, was shot down and held in a POW camp. His balding, bland face and memorable voice made him the most popular actor on British TV He specialised in strange or menacing characters from Ernst Blofeld in You Only Live Twice to Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series.
51. Patrick Swayze Actor, Ghost
His mother is choreographer Patsy Swayze, owner of a dance school in Houston, where Patrick was also a student. His father was Jesse Wayne Swayze, who passed away in 1982. He graduated from Waltrip High School in Houston, and attended San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas. He married actress/dancer Lisa Niemi on June 12...
52. Kevin Spacey Actor, American Beauty
As enigmatic as he is talented, Kevin Spacey has always kept the details of his private life closely guarded. As he explained in a 1998 interview with the London Evening Standard, "It's not that I want to create some ******** mystique by maintaining a silence about my personal life, it is just that the less you know about me...
53. Bruce Willis Actor, The Sixth Sense
Bruce Willis grew up mainly in Penns Grove, New Jersey, and graduated from high school there before going to New York to become an actor. He waited tables and tended bar for a living until he began to get roles in plays. While tending bar one night he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.
54. Ed Harris Actor, A Beautiful Mind
By transforming into his characters and pulling the audience in, Ed Harris has earned the reputation as one of the most talented actors of our time. Born in Tenafly, New Jersey, Harris grew up as the middle child. After graduating high school, he attended New York's Columbia University, where he played football...
55. Samuel L. Jackson Actor, Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson usually played bad guys and drug addicts before becoming an action hero, as the character Mitch Henessey, in The Long Kiss Goodnight and in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. From character player to leading man. His performance in Pulp Fiction gave him an Oscar nomination for his character Jules Winnfield...
56. Cuba Gooding Jr. Actor, Jerry Maguire
Cuba Gooding Jr. was born on January 2, 1968, in The Bronx, New York. His father, Cuba Gooding, was the lead vocalist for the R&B group The Main Ingredient, which had a hit with the song "Everybody Plays The Fool". His mother, Shirley, was a backup singer for The Sweethearts. His father moved the family to Los Angeles in 1972...
57. Christopher Lee Actor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Christopher Lee is perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he has portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film...
58. Tom Wilkinson Actor, Michael Clayton
A popular British character actor, Tom Wilkinson was born on December 12, 1948, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in a long line of urban farmers. Economic hardships had forced his family to move to Canada for a few years when Tom was a child. After he had returned to England, Tom attended and graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury with a degree in English and American Literature...
59. Robin Williams Actor, Good Will Hunting
Williams briefly studied political science before enrolling at Juilliard to study theatre. After graduation, he performed in night clubs where he was discovered for the role of Mork on an episode of Happy Days and the subsequent Mork & Mindy TV series. Williams' wild comic talent involves a great deal of improvisation...
60. Carl Weathers Actor, Predator
Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A famous and successful football star at San Diego State, he played with the Oakland Raiders and retired from the sport in 1974, in order to give full attention to his goal: to be a real actor. Weathers first played small parts in two blaxploitation flicks...
61. Sean Connery Actor, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Thomas Sean Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphamia C. Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also has a brother named Neil Connery, who works as a plasterer in Edinburgh. Before going into acting...
62. Gary Sinise Actor, Apollo 13
Gary Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois. His family later moved to Highland Park, where he attended high school. He was something of a rebel, playing in bands but paying little attention to school. Gary and some friends tried out for "West Side Story" as a lark, but Gary was hooked on acting for life by closing night...
63. Harvey Keitel Actor, Reservoir Dogs
Came to prominence in the early films of Martin Scorsese after working in theatre for around ten years, particularly Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Faded into anonymity in the eighties even though he turned in some impressive performances in films by some of America's leading directors. He re-emergered into star status with his role as Mr...
64. Gérard Depardieu Actor, Cyrano de Bergerac
Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Gérard Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Cafe de la Gare", along with Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. After minor roles in cinema, at last, he got his chance in Bertrand Blier's Going Places. That film established a new type of hero in the French cinema and the actor's popularity grew enormously...
65. Ian McKellen Actor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
On May 25th, 1939, in the town of Burnley in northern England, Ian Murray McKellen was born. His parents, Denis and Margery, soon moved with Ian and his sister Jean to the coal mining town of Wigan. It was in this small town that young Ian rode out World War II. He soon developed a fascination with acting and the theater...
66. Ian McDiarmid Actor, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Ian McDiarmid was born in Tayside, Scotland, in 1944. He studied for an M.A. in Clinical Psychology at The University of St Andrews, but eventually found that his calling was in theatre. He went to the Royal Academy in Glasgow, where he received the prestigious gold medal for his work. He now has a highly successful career as a theatre director...
67. Dennis Hopper Actor, Speed
Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who has led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows...
69. Edward James Olmos Actor, Blade Runner
If Edward James Olmos had followed the first love of his life, he'd have been a professional baseball player. But by age 13, another love entered his life: rock music. By age 15 he was already an experienced rock singer, forming and reforming several "garage bands" along the way. During the late '60s and early '70s he played the most famous clubs on Sunset Strip...
71. Woody Harrelson Actor, No Country for Old Men
Woody Harrelson grew up in Lebanon, Ohio. He received degrees in theatre arts and English from Hanover College, Indiana. His career began in New York theatre as an understudy in Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues". Within months, he was cast as Woody on the hit TV series, Cheers. Due to conflicts with his TV schedule...
72. Wesley Snipes Actor, Blade Wesley Snipes grew up on the streets of the South Bronx in New York City, where he very early decided that the theater was to be his career. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts (popularized in Fame). But dreams of the musical theater (and maybe a few commercials) faded when his mother moved to Orlando...
73. Martin Sheen Actor, Apocalypse Now
Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Martin Sheen is one of America's most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen's acting range is breathtaking. On the big screen, the Ohio native has appeared in more than 65 feature films including a star turn as Army Captain Benjamin L...
74. Laurence Fishburne Actor, The Matrix
Critically hailed for his forceful, militant, authoritarian roles, Laurence Fishburne, who is sometimes mistaken for another tall, gap-toothed, mercurial, immensely talented African-American actor, Samuel L. Jackson, came out of the black theater in New York. Born in Augusta, Georgia, on July 30, 1961...
75. Richard Gere Actor, Pretty Woman
Humanitarian and actor, Richard Gere was born on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia. The second of five children, his father, Homer, was an insurance salesman, and his mother was Doris. Richard started early as a musician, playing a number of instruments in high school and writing music for high school productions...
76. Lee Van Cleef Actor, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
One of the great movie villains, Lee Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and subchasers during World War II. After the war he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr...
77. Chazz Palminteri Actor, The Usual Suspects
New York-born and raised Chazz Palminteri was a natural choice to continue the Italianate torch in film. In the tradition set forth in the 1970s by such icons as director Martin Scorsese and
100. Eddie Murphy Actor, Norbit
Eddie Murphy's father died when Eddie was quite young, and he, his brother, and step-brother were raised by his mother, a telephone-company employee, and his stepfather, a foreman at a Breyer's Ice Cream plant. His comic talent was evident from an early age, and by 15 he was writing and performing his own routines at youth centers and local bars...
Really, really.
Posted
Yea, the list is 'clearly' not an official take on that topic, but it offers debate material.
The biggest problem with a list like this, whether done by an aggregate vote or done by an individual, is it is almost always going to be weighted towards actors with whom the list author has experience and that means weighted towards those that have done more recent work. For example, I would always put Cary Grant in a top 100 and probably in a top 20, just like Acemace did - but I don't see him on the Times list. Alternately, while I do like Joe Pesci, he does NOT belong at #6. Mind you, they did get some very old school actors - Spencer Tracy for example.
One amusing thing I noticed - the IMDB list has a weird bias towards gangster movies.
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
Posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Durakken
Will Smith and Keanu Reeves and Christopher Reeve should all be on that list before a number of the people on that list...
LOL! This made me giggle. Keanu!!?? Really??!!, Christopher Reeve MAYBE, but Keanu!!?!? Thanks for the laugh!
Le Blanc 50 Dark/Dark Scrap
High Huntress 50 Archery/NRG Blast
And a goatload of others. On a goatload of servers.
Official Rickroller of Hero Con 1
Posted
So, the movie right next to the actor's name is just one of their movies, right? It's not supposed to exemplify their best work?
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers* Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
Posted
Carl Weathers?
...uh.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
Posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Le Blanc
LOL! This made me giggle. Keanu!!?? Really??!!, Christopher Reeve MAYBE, but Keanu!!?!? Thanks for the laugh!
Keanu is as good as or better an actor as a number of the "top people" on that list. The difference between them is that Keanu picks the stoic non-emotive role all the time while those "great" actors pick the same expressive role all the time. Micheal Clark Duncan hardly ever plays the same role and shows massive acting chops yet you think he doesn't deserve to be on a list where the majority don't act but rather play themselves and the character in the script just match up. If that's how you are going to judge then Keanu belong on that list as much if not more than a number of those guys.
Posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Durakken
Keanu is as good as or better an actor as a number of the "top people" on that list. The difference between them is that Keanu picks the stoic non-emotive role all the time while those "great" actors pick the same expressive role all the time. Micheal Clark Duncan hardly ever plays the same role and shows massive acting chops yet you think he doesn't deserve to be on a list where the majority don't act but rather play themselves and the character in the script just match up. If that's how you are going to judge then Keanu belong on that list as much if not more than a number of those guys.
That's not entirely true - Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro used to actually act, to show some range. It's just that, since the early 90s, Al Pacino has resorted to playing only Al Pacino, and studios have hired him to play Al Pacino.
Jack Nicholson has always only played Jack Nicholson, though.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
Posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricHough
The biggest problem with a list like this, whether done by an aggregate vote or done by an individual, is it is almost always going to be weighted towards actors with whom the list author has experience and that means weighted towards those that have done more recent work.
So Tom Cruise isn't really a better actor then, um, Humphrey Bogart...?! lol
Some of the user created lists on imdbs site contain hilarious omissions (sylvester stallone -yes paul newman -no).
Also, the list seems to be missing Leonardo Dicaprio.
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers* Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
Posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Durakken
Keanu is as good as or better an actor as a number of the "top people" on that list. The difference between them is that Keanu picks the stoic non-emotive role all the time while those "great" actors pick the same expressive role all the time. Micheal Clark Duncan hardly ever plays the same role and shows massive acting chops yet you think he doesn't deserve to be on a list where the majority don't act but rather play themselves and the character in the script just match up. If that's how you are going to judge then Keanu belong on that list as much if not more than a number of those guys.
I'm not sure what made me giggle more. This post or your first one. I thought you were half joking at first. Like listing, I don't know, Hayden Christianson (sp) or something! But that you are serious is HI-LARIOUS!
Le Blanc 50 Dark/Dark Scrap
High Huntress 50 Archery/NRG Blast
And a goatload of others. On a goatload of servers.
Official Rickroller of Hero Con 1
Posted
Edward Norton?
Posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Durakken
Keanu is as good as or better an actor as a number of the "top people" on that list. The difference between them is that Keanu picks the stoic non-emotive role all the time while those "great" actors pick the same expressive role all the time. Micheal Clark Duncan hardly ever plays the same role and shows massive acting chops yet you think he doesn't deserve to be on a list where the majority don't act but rather play themselves and the character in the script just match up. If that's how you are going to judge then Keanu belong on that list as much if not more than a number of those guys.
So I stumbled onto an
list of the best male actors o/a/t the other day and a subsequent google of the same topic revealed wildly divergent opinions on such a chronicle..
My question is, what would your top 20 list look like...
I'll give mine and post the complete list from IMDB.
IMDB:
1.
Al Pacino Actor, The Godfather
One of the greatest actors in all of film history, Al Pacino established himself during one of film's greatest decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies. Born on April 25, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, Pacino's parents (Salvatore and Rose) divorced when he was young...
2.
Robert De Niro Actor, Goodfellas
Robert De Niro, who is thought of as one of the greatest actors of his time, was born in New York City in 1943 to two artists. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. He first gained fame for his role in Bang the Drum Slowly, but he gained his reputation as a volatile actor in Mean Streets...
3.
Dustin Hoffman Actor, Kramer vs. Kramer
Graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1954. Went to Santa Monica City College where he dropped out after a year due to bad grades. But before he did, he took an acting course because he was told that "nobody flunks acting." Also received some training at Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Decided to go into acting because he did not want to work or go into the service...
4.
Anthony Hopkins Actor, The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins was born on 31 December 1937, in Margam, Wales. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he moved to London and joined the National Theatre, invited by Laurence Olivier, who could see the talent in Hopkins. In 1967, he made his first film for television, A Flea in Her Ear...
5.
Jack Nicholson Actor, The Shining
Abandoned by his father in his childhood, he was raised believing his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his older sister. The truth was revealed to him years later when a Time magazine journalist uncovered the truth while preparing a story on the star. Jack had an on-and-off relationship with actress Anjelica Huston...
6.
Joe Pesci Actor, Goodfellas
Compact Italian-American actor born February 9, 1943, in Newark, NJ, who first broke into entertainment as a child actor and by the mid-50s was starring on the series "Star Time Kids". In the mid-'60s he released a record under the stage name of "Joe Ritchie" titled "Little Joe Sure Can Sing", and was also playing guitar with several bands...
7.
Marlon Brando Actor, The Godfather
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in 1949...
8.
Spencer Tracy Actor, Judgment at Nuremberg
Spencer Tracy was born four years after his brother Carroll to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy. He attended Marquette Academy along with Pat O'Brien and the two left school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. He was still at Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia at the end of the war...
9.
Steve McQueen Actor, The Great Escape
He was the ultra-cool male film star of the 1960s, and rose from a troubled youth spent in reform schools to being the world's most popular actor. Over 25 years after his untimely death from mesothelioma in 1980, Steve McQueen is still considered hip and cool, and he endures as an icon of popular culture...
10.
Clint Eastwood Actor, Million Dollar Baby
Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born in San Francisco, he is the son of Clinton Eastwood Sr. (1906-1970) and Ruth Wood (née Runner, 1909-2006). When Clint was growing up, the family frequently moved around Northern California before settling in Oregon...
11.
John Malkovich Actor, Dangerous Liaisons
In 1976, John Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman"...
12.
Anthony Quinn Actor, Lawrence of Arabia
Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to an ethnic Irish-Mexican father and an ethnic Mexican mother. After starting life in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he grew up in the Boyle Heights and the Echo Park neighborhoods...
13.
Paul Newman Actor, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Newman was born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a successful sporting goods store owner. He acted in grade school and high school plays and after being discharged from the navy in 1946 enrolled at Kenyon College...
14.
Danny DeVito Actor, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born on November 17, 1944, in Neptune, New Jersey. His father, Daniel, Sr., was a small business owner whose ventures included a dry cleaning shop, a dairy outlet, a diner, and a pool hall. His mother, Julia, was a homemaker. While growing up in Asbury Park, his parents sent him to private schools...
15.
Jack Lemmon Actor, The Apartment
Jack Lemmon's father was the president of a doughnut company. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers Country Day School, then located in nearby Brookline. After RCDS, he went to high school at Phillips Andover Academy. Jack was a member of the Harvard class of 1947...
16.
Walter Matthau Actor, Charade
Born Walter Matthow on October 1, 1920, to a pair of Russian-Jewish immigrants in New York City, Matthau grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side and started out selling soft drinks and playing bit parts at a Yiddish theater troupe at age 11. He was paid 50 cents for each of his occasional on-stage appearances...
17.
Morgan Freeman Actor, The Shawshank Redemption
With an authoritative voice and calm demeanour, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Born in June 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, the young Freeman attended Los Angeles Community College before serving several years in the US Air Force as a mechanic between 1955 and 1959...
18.
Michael Clarke Duncan Actor, The Green Mile
Raised by his single mother on Chicago's South Side, Michael grew up resisting drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let him, fearing he would get hurt. He then turned to acting, dreaming of becoming a famous actor. After graduating from high school and attending community college...
19.
Brian Cox Actor, Troy
Brian Cox is an Emmy Award-winning actor, first coming to attention in the early 1970s with performances in numerous television films. His first big break was as "Dr. Hannibal Lecter (/Lecktor)" in Manhunter. The film was not overly successful at the box office, although Cox's career prospects and popularity continued to develop...
20.
Gary Oldman Actor, Leon: The Professional
Gary Oldman, the son of a welder and a homemaker, won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including...
21.
Jeremy Irons Actor, The Lion King
Although the son of a tax consultant, young Jeremy didn't prove very fond of figures. A typical islander, he used to go to England only once a year. He wound up being grounded when his family settled down in Hertfordshire. At the age of 13 he enrolled in Sherborne School, Dorset, where he was very happy as he could practise his favorite sport...
22.
Jason Isaacs Actor, The Patriot
Jason Isaacs is the 3rd of 4 children. He studied Law at Bristol University and graduated in 1985 with a degree in law but decided to study acting. Whilst at Bristol University he directed and/or appeared in over 20 productions. Whilst at the Central School of Speech and Drama he met his wife Emma and graduated from there in 1989.
23.
Geoffrey Rush Actor, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, but raised in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia after his parents (he an accountant, she a sales clerk) split up, actor Geoffrey Rush attended Everton Park State High School during his formative years. His early interest in the theatre led to his 1971 stage debut at age 20 in "Wrong Side of the Moon" with the Queensland Theatre Company...
24.
Vincent D'Onofrio Actor, Full Metal Jacket
Vincent D'Onofrio is known as an "actor's actor". The wide variety of roles he has played and the quality of his work have earned him a reputation as a versatile talent. He studied at the Actors Studio and the American Stanislavski Theatre. His debut on stage was in 1984 in the Broadway play "Open Admissions"...
25.
Tom Hanks Actor, The Da Vinci Code
Born in California, Tom Hanks grew up in what he calls a "fractured" family. His parents were pioneers in the development of marriage dissolution law in that state, and Tom moved around a lot, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no abuse, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood...
26.
Sean Penn Actor, Mystic River
Powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints, California-born Sean Penn is the second son of actress Eileen Ryan & director Leo Penn...
27.
Sidney Poitier Actor, In the Heat of the Night
A native of Cat Island, The Bahamas, (though born in Miami during a mainland visit by his parents), Poitier grew up in poverty as the son of a dirt farmer. He had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency...
28.
Forest Whitaker Actor, Platoon
Forest Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb. frame. The athletically-inclined Whitaker initially found his way into college via a football scholarship. Later, however, he transferred to USC where he set his concentration on music and earned two more scholarships training as an operatic tenor...
29.
Alan Rickman Actor, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London to Margaret (Welsh) and Bernard (Irish) Rickman. Alan has an older brother David, a younger brother Michael and a younger sister Sheila. When Alan was 8 years old, his father died. He attended Latymer Upper School on a scholarship. He studied Graphic Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design...
30.
James Woods Actor, Once Upon a Time in America
Leanly built, strangely handsome actor-producer-director with intense eyes, swarthy complexion, and a sometimes untrustworthy grin has been impressing audiences for over three decades with his compelling performances. The son of a US Intelligence officer, he earned a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; dropping out of MIT during his sophomore year...
31.
Robert Downey Jr. Actor, Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr. has evolved into one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. With an amazing list of credits to his name, he has managed to stay new and fresh even after three decades in the business. In 1992, Downey received an Academy Award nomination and won the BAFTA (British Academy Award) for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of Chaplin...
32.
Tommy Lee Jones Actor, No Country for Old Men
Born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Clyde C. and Lucille Marie (Scott) Jones, Tommy Lee Jones worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship, and went to Harvard on another scholarship.He roomed...
33.
Russell Crowe Actor, Gladiator
Born in New Zealand, Russell has made his home in Australia since he was a small child. The son of movie set caterers, Russell got the acting bug early in life. Beginning as a child star on a local Australian TV show, Russell's first big break came with two films ... the first, Romper Stomper, gained him a name throughout the film community in Australia and the neighboring countries...
34.
Denzel Washington Actor, American Gangster
Tall, strikingly handsome leading man of films and television in the 1980s and 1990s, Denzel Washington was born in 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the middle child of the 3 children of a Pentecostal minister father and a beautician mother. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University intent on a career in journalism...
35.
Alec Baldwin Actor, The Departed
Raven haired, suavely handsome and prolific New York-born actor Alec Baldwin is easily the best known of the four Baldwin brothers appearing in the cinema (for the record, the others are Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin). Alec burst onto the TV scene in the early 1980s with appearances in several series...
36.
Mel Gibson Actor, Braveheart
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born on January 3, 1956, in Peekskill, New York, USA as the sixth of eleven children to parents Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Ann Gibson, who was born in Australia and died in December of 1990. Though born in the US, Mel and his family moved to New South Wales...
37.
Liam Neeson Actor, Schindler's List
Born in Northern Ireland, UK, Neeson worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, truck driver, assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St. Mary's Teaching College in Belfast. However, in 1976, Neeson joined the Belfast Lyric Players' Theater and made his professional acting debut in the play "The Risen People"...
38.
Michael Caine Actor, The Dark Knight
Born Maurice Micklewhite in London, Michael Caine was the son of a fish-market porter and a charlady. He left school at 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager...
39.
Gene Hackman Actor, Unforgiven
The son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Lydia (nee Gray), Hackman grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of 16 for a hitch with the Marines. Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois...
40.
Jon Voight Actor, Heat
41.
Joaquin Phoenix Actor, Gladiator
Born in Puerto Rico to Children of God missionaries John Bottom Amram and Arlyn Dunetz Jochebed (a.k.a. Heart), Joaquin was the middle child in a brood of five. As a youngster he took his cues from older siblings River Phoenix and Rain Phoenix, changing his name to Leaf to match their earthier monikers...
42.
Rod Steiger Actor, In the Heat of the Night
Rod Steiger received his first film roles in the early 1950s. His first major one was in Teresa, but his first lead role was in the TV version of Marty. The movie version, however, had Ernest Borgnine in the lead and won him an Academy Award. Steiger's breakthrough role came in 1954...
43.
Frank Sinatra Soundtrack, Scarface
Growing up on the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, made Frank Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he got his first major break in 1935 as part of The Hoboken Four on popular radio show Major Bowes Amateur Hour...
44.
Christopher Walken Actor, Catch Me If You Can
Nervous-looking lead and supporting actor of the American stage and films. He won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter. Seen in mostly supporting roles throughout the 80s and early 90s, often portraying psychologically unstable characters.
45.
Charles Bronson Actor, Once Upon a Time in the West
The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features - one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long" - Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinski, one of 14 children of struggling Lithuanian immigrant parents in Pennsylvania (his father was a coal miner)...
46.
Robert Redford Actor, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Charles Robert Redford, an accountant for Standard Oil, and Martha Hart. His mother died in 1955, the year after he graduated from high school. Charles Robert Redford Jr. was a scrappy kid who stole hubcaps in high school and lost his college baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado because of drunkenness...
47.
James Earl Jones Actor, The Lion King
James Earl Jones was born in 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi, USA. At an early age he started to take dramatic lessons to calm himself down. It appeared to work as he has since starred in many films over a 40-year period, beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Probably best known for his role as Darth Vader (for the voice only...
48.
Peter Cushing Actor, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Peter Cushing was born in 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey by his mother Nellie Marie and father George Edward, who was a quantity surveyor. At an early age Cushing was attracted to acting...
49.
Richard Attenborough Actor, Jurassic Park
Lord Richard Attenborough was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. Attenborough...
50.
Donald Pleasence Actor, Halloween
Donald Pleasence started acting on the London stage in 1939. He served in the RAF, was shot down and held in a POW camp. His balding, bland face and memorable voice made him the most popular actor on British TV He specialised in strange or menacing characters from Ernst Blofeld in You Only Live Twice to Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series.
51.
Patrick Swayze Actor, Ghost
His mother is choreographer Patsy Swayze, owner of a dance school in Houston, where Patrick was also a student. His father was Jesse Wayne Swayze, who passed away in 1982. He graduated from Waltrip High School in Houston, and attended San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas. He married actress/dancer Lisa Niemi on June 12...
52.
Kevin Spacey Actor, American Beauty
As enigmatic as he is talented, Kevin Spacey has always kept the details of his private life closely guarded. As he explained in a 1998 interview with the London Evening Standard, "It's not that I want to create some ******** mystique by maintaining a silence about my personal life, it is just that the less you know about me...
53.
Bruce Willis Actor, The Sixth Sense
Bruce Willis grew up mainly in Penns Grove, New Jersey, and graduated from high school there before going to New York to become an actor. He waited tables and tended bar for a living until he began to get roles in plays. While tending bar one night he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.
54.
Ed Harris Actor, A Beautiful Mind
By transforming into his characters and pulling the audience in, Ed Harris has earned the reputation as one of the most talented actors of our time. Born in Tenafly, New Jersey, Harris grew up as the middle child. After graduating high school, he attended New York's Columbia University, where he played football...
55.
Samuel L. Jackson Actor, Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson usually played bad guys and drug addicts before becoming an action hero, as the character Mitch Henessey, in The Long Kiss Goodnight and in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. From character player to leading man. His performance in Pulp Fiction gave him an Oscar nomination for his character Jules Winnfield...
56.
Cuba Gooding Jr. Actor, Jerry Maguire
Cuba Gooding Jr. was born on January 2, 1968, in The Bronx, New York. His father, Cuba Gooding, was the lead vocalist for the R&B group The Main Ingredient, which had a hit with the song "Everybody Plays The Fool". His mother, Shirley, was a backup singer for The Sweethearts. His father moved the family to Los Angeles in 1972...
57.
Christopher Lee Actor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Christopher Lee is perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he has portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film...
58.
Tom Wilkinson Actor, Michael Clayton
A popular British character actor, Tom Wilkinson was born on December 12, 1948, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in a long line of urban farmers. Economic hardships had forced his family to move to Canada for a few years when Tom was a child. After he had returned to England, Tom attended and graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury with a degree in English and American Literature...
59.
Robin Williams Actor, Good Will Hunting
Williams briefly studied political science before enrolling at Juilliard to study theatre. After graduation, he performed in night clubs where he was discovered for the role of Mork on an episode of Happy Days and the subsequent Mork & Mindy TV series. Williams' wild comic talent involves a great deal of improvisation...
60.
Carl Weathers Actor, Predator
Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A famous and successful football star at San Diego State, he played with the Oakland Raiders and retired from the sport in 1974, in order to give full attention to his goal: to be a real actor. Weathers first played small parts in two blaxploitation flicks...
61.
Sean Connery Actor, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Thomas Sean Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphamia C. Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also has a brother named Neil Connery, who works as a plasterer in Edinburgh. Before going into acting...
62.
Gary Sinise Actor, Apollo 13
Gary Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois. His family later moved to Highland Park, where he attended high school. He was something of a rebel, playing in bands but paying little attention to school. Gary and some friends tried out for "West Side Story" as a lark, but Gary was hooked on acting for life by closing night...
63.
Harvey Keitel Actor, Reservoir Dogs
Came to prominence in the early films of Martin Scorsese after working in theatre for around ten years, particularly Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Faded into anonymity in the eighties even though he turned in some impressive performances in films by some of America's leading directors. He re-emergered into star status with his role as Mr...
64.
Gérard Depardieu Actor, Cyrano de Bergerac
Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Gérard Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Cafe de la Gare", along with Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. After minor roles in cinema, at last, he got his chance in Bertrand Blier's Going Places. That film established a new type of hero in the French cinema and the actor's popularity grew enormously...
65.
Ian McKellen Actor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
On May 25th, 1939, in the town of Burnley in northern England, Ian Murray McKellen was born. His parents, Denis and Margery, soon moved with Ian and his sister Jean to the coal mining town of Wigan. It was in this small town that young Ian rode out World War II. He soon developed a fascination with acting and the theater...
66.
Ian McDiarmid Actor, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Ian McDiarmid was born in Tayside, Scotland, in 1944. He studied for an M.A. in Clinical Psychology at The University of St Andrews, but eventually found that his calling was in theatre. He went to the Royal Academy in Glasgow, where he received the prestigious gold medal for his work. He now has a highly successful career as a theatre director...
67.
Dennis Hopper Actor, Speed
Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who has led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows...
68.
Willem Dafoe Actor, Spider-Man
In 1979, Willem Dafoe was given a small role in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate from which he was fired. His first feature role came shortly after in Kathryn Bigelow's The Loveless. From there, he went on to perform in over 70 films - in Hollywood (Spider-Man, The English Patient, Finding Nemo...
69.
Edward James Olmos Actor, Blade Runner
If Edward James Olmos had followed the first love of his life, he'd have been a professional baseball player. But by age 13, another love entered his life: rock music. By age 15 he was already an experienced rock singer, forming and reforming several "garage bands" along the way. During the late '60s and early '70s he played the most famous clubs on Sunset Strip...
70.
Joe Mantegna Actor, The Godfather: Part III
Joseph Anthony Mantegna Jr., born in Chicago Illinois, is an American actor who has made over 200 Film and TV appearances. He is also a producer, writer, and director, and is probably best known for his role as Joey Zasa in the Francis Ford Coppola epic The Godfather: Part III, in which he stars alongside Al Pacino and Andy Garcia...
71.
Woody Harrelson Actor, No Country for Old Men
Woody Harrelson grew up in Lebanon, Ohio. He received degrees in theatre arts and English from Hanover College, Indiana. His career began in New York theatre as an understudy in Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues". Within months, he was cast as Woody on the hit TV series, Cheers. Due to conflicts with his TV schedule...
72.
Wesley Snipes Actor, Blade
Wesley Snipes grew up on the streets of the South Bronx in New York City, where he very early decided that the theater was to be his career. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts (popularized in Fame). But dreams of the musical theater (and maybe a few commercials) faded when his mother moved to Orlando...
73.
Martin Sheen Actor, Apocalypse Now
Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Martin Sheen is one of America's most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen's acting range is breathtaking. On the big screen, the Ohio native has appeared in more than 65 feature films including a star turn as Army Captain Benjamin L...
74.
Laurence Fishburne Actor, The Matrix
Critically hailed for his forceful, militant, authoritarian roles, Laurence Fishburne, who is sometimes mistaken for another tall, gap-toothed, mercurial, immensely talented African-American actor, Samuel L. Jackson, came out of the black theater in New York. Born in Augusta, Georgia, on July 30, 1961...
75.
Richard Gere Actor, Pretty Woman
Humanitarian and actor, Richard Gere was born on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia. The second of five children, his father, Homer, was an insurance salesman, and his mother was Doris. Richard started early as a musician, playing a number of instruments in high school and writing music for high school productions...
76.
Lee Van Cleef Actor, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
One of the great movie villains, Lee Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and subchasers during World War II. After the war he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr...
77.
Chazz Palminteri Actor, The Usual Suspects
New York-born and raised Chazz Palminteri was a natural choice to continue the Italianate torch in film. In the tradition set forth in the 1970s by such icons as director Martin Scorsese and
Eddie Murphy Actor, Norbit
Eddie Murphy's father died when Eddie was quite young, and he, his brother, and step-brother were raised by his mother, a telephone-company employee, and his stepfather, a foreman at a Breyer's Ice Cream plant. His comic talent was evident from an early age, and by 15 he was writing and performing his own routines at youth centers and local bars...
Really, really.
Yea, the list is 'clearly' not an official take on that topic, but it offers debate material.
Michael Clarke Duncan at 18? Nice enough guy, decent actor, but I probably wouldn't put him on the list. And not one spot behind Morgan Freeman.
Will Smith and Keanu Reeves and Christopher Reeve should all be on that list before a number of the people on that list...
Patrick Stewart at 93? He deserves to be waaaay higher up the list than that.
Goodbye, I guess.
@Lord_Nightblade in Champions/Star Trek Online
nightblade7295@gmail.com if you want to stay in touch
The biggest problem with a list like this, whether done by an aggregate vote or done by an individual, is it is almost always going to be weighted towards actors with whom the list author has experience and that means weighted towards those that have done more recent work. For example, I would always put Cary Grant in a top 100 and probably in a top 20, just like Acemace did - but I don't see him on the Times list. Alternately, while I do like Joe Pesci, he does NOT belong at #6. Mind you, they did get some very old school actors - Spencer Tracy for example.
One amusing thing I noticed - the IMDB list has a weird bias towards gangster movies.
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
LOL! This made me giggle. Keanu!!?? Really??!!, Christopher Reeve MAYBE, but Keanu!!?!? Thanks for the laugh!
Le Blanc 50 Dark/Dark Scrap
High Huntress 50 Archery/NRG Blast
And a goatload of others. On a goatload of servers.
Official Rickroller of Hero Con 1
So, the movie right next to the actor's name is just one of their movies, right? It's not supposed to exemplify their best work?
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
Carl Weathers?
...uh.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
Jack Nicholson has always only played Jack Nicholson, though.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
Some of the user created lists on imdbs site contain hilarious omissions (sylvester stallone -yes paul newman -no).
...uh.
Also, the list seems to be missing Leonardo Dicaprio.
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
Le Blanc 50 Dark/Dark Scrap
High Huntress 50 Archery/NRG Blast
And a goatload of others. On a goatload of servers.
Official Rickroller of Hero Con 1
Edward Norton?
Ewan Mcgregor?
My Pre-Order Coh box.
My character in coh beta.
My character in a coh beta mission.
This list offends me and I will no longer patronize their website.
It does at least include Rickman, Depp, Lee Jones and Stewart...
...but no HARRISON FORD??? SERIOUSLY?
Is it time for the dance of joy yet?
The lack of Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck on the IMDb list is inexcusable.
@Demobot
Also on Steam
Global name: @k26dp
I probably would have placed Sean Connery, Christopher Lee, and Patrick Stewart up higher.. Especially Patrick Stewart..
Woody Harrelson is rated higher than Tim Curry. What the crap.