Top Leading Man Actors of Our Generation

[Art]

Ok, ok, lets talk about criteria here. I'm not talking about stars of our parents generation like John Wayne, Eroll Flynn or Tyrone Power. These are men who rose to prominence during our youth or adulthood. These people were born (with the notable exception of Dwayne Johnson) during the end period of "The Silent Generation (1926 - 1945) or "Boomers" (1946 - 1965.} I have an arbitrary cut off of 80 years of age, some right up against it but none over the line.

I've picked 10 ranked by age.

Dwayne Johnson (51): Youngest of the lot (a Gen X guy) and not my favorite but this former wrestler has an undisputed following and has made a caboodle of sucessfull movies.

Brad Pitt (59): More versatile than his pretty boy image would lead one to believe. Two of my favorite Pitt movies are the classic "A river runs through it," and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." Other notable work includes "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" which I haven't seen but want to and "Fury."

Tom Hanks (67): Where to start, multiple Academy Award winner and a big fan of "The Greatest Generation" as shown by his acting work in "Saving Private Ryan" and as one of the producers in "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific." Extremely versatile with roles including "Forrest Gump," "The Green Mile," The Road to Perdition." and "Philadelphia." When once asked why he had transitioned to heavier roles from light comedies he said "I was tired of paying pu$$ies, I wanted to play real men," or words to that effect.

Denzel Washington (68): Again, an extremely talented and well rounded actor. Major roles include "Glory," the above mentioned "Philadelphia" and "American Gangster."

Bruce Willis (68): Mostly an action star with movies like the "Die Hard" and the "Red Series." I liked him a lot in the comedy/mystery/western "Sunset in which he played Tom Mix alongside James Garner as Wyatt Earp. He was very good in the TV comedy/mystery series "Moonlighting" opposite Sibyl Shepherd.

Kurt Russell (72): Again, a Versatile and talented fellow, everything from "Tombstone" to "Overboard." Most here think of his westerns but he's done a lot more.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (76) A pure action star starting with "Conan the Barbarian." Even his comedy work, like the excellent "True Lies" is action adventure. A bit of a better actor, IMHO than he's given credit for.

Sylvester Stallone (77) King of the franchise action movies. The "Rocky" series rocked on for decades and them morphed into the "Creed" movies. Add to that the "Rambo" movies and the more recent "Expendables" series (a refuge for old action stars) his franchise movies alone comprise more work than the entire career of many actors.

Tom Selleck (78): He's done a lot of Westerns (loved "Quigley Down Under" and "The Quick and the Dead;") but my favorite work of his is "Ike, Countdown to 'D-Day'" and his current work as the patriarch of the Reagan family in the long running TV series "Blue Bloods."

Sam Elliott (79): He's done a lot of work. He's mostly thought of as a Western actor but his work in "Mask" and "Road House" is impressive. I think I liked him best as John Buford in "Gettysburg."

A selling point of some of these guys is they're bent either Libertarian or Conservative (Washington, Russell, Selieck, Schwarzennegger) and in some cases (Russell and Selleck) gun guys.

So lets hear about some of yours.