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.

[Allen]

PERSONALLY I never liked Bruce Willis in action movies and I believe Tom Hanks is a known liberal. The rest I would agree with but here comes the $64 question:

Is a good actor always a good actor or just someone who can act that was given a good part? Could other actors (or non actors) have played some of these scripts as well or better?

I would add Leslie Nielsen and Charlie Sheen to comedy movies but that's just me.

[Doc Sharptail]

Some of these are a bit past the age limit edge-

Anthony Hopkins, especially in a couple of non-caricature roles: Hearts in Atlantis, and The World's Fastest Indian. The Edge is another good one of his, but it's heavily type-cast.

Have to mention Clint here- did a real good character with Un-forgiven, especially with the age and health problems of the character.

Craig's Bond in Skyfall~ he passes Bond off as actually human. Not sure the movie deserved all the negative reviews it got. It was a worth-while watch for me.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Art]

PERSONALLY I never liked Bruce Willis in action movies and I believe Tom Hanks is a known liberal. The rest I would agree with but here comes the $64 question:

Is a good actor always a good actor or just someone who can act that was given a good part? Could other actors (or non actors) have played some of these scripts as well or better?

I would add Leslie Nielsen and Charlie Sheen to comedy movies but that's just me.

Part of being a good actor is being able to get good parts. Meryl Streep was famous for holding out for good parts but she once said that if you turn down one too many you may stop getting called. These days they do have options on the parts they accept or reject. If you get a good part and don't execute it well...the results speak for themselves often times.

Leslie Nielsen was a "greatest Generation" guy who would turn 100 next year were he still alive. He was a WWII veteran who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1943-45 where despite being legally deaf he became an air gunner. Charlie Sheen on the other hand falls right in the right age slot.

Hanks is a known liberal, as are most actors. The farther down the age list you go the more liberal they tend to be. This list is of course a list based on acting ability fame and longevity, not necessarily in that order. Hanks gets props from me for two unrelated things (1) his dedication to preserving in popular culture the accomplishments of the men who saved civilization in WWII (he was inducted into the Army Ranger Hall of Fame for his work in 2006) and (2) he's been married to the same woman for over 30 years. The most liberal of the lot is probably Brad Pitt. As far as people on this list who would be politically compatible with this forum, from left to right, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Elliott, and Russell. Hey, that's 50% not too bad. Denzel Washington like more blacks than you would think has views that actually lean conservative (evangelical Christian, pro monogamous same sex marriage, heavy on personal responsibility and on and on, but still votes Democrat). The Dems biggest nightmare is significant erosion in the black vote. In the last election 25% of young black male voters went for Trump. If 25% of the total black vote ever goes Republican the Dems are done.

Speaking of Washington this is a commencement speech he gave at Dillard University, a private black university in New Orleans. There is about nothing in it a current Democrat operative would agree with. At Harvard or Princeton these comments would get an old boy booed off the stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROiNPUwg9bQ

Doc Sharptail:

Daniel Craig is a good choice. When asked about politics he replied "all politicians are sh**t heads." I don't know what his personal politics are but he is certainly on the right track with that comment.

[lyman]

I rarely like or watch an actor based on politics,

most are D's, most R's are in the cloest,

and while I get the argument about my ticket money going to support causes I don't like, sometimes I justa want to see a movie,

and honestly, the times I get in a theater are few and far between,

(last 2 movies were 007, Dune and Bladerunner, for new releases


from the mentioned,

Denzel does a great job being Denzel, then he will pull that back and make a movie like Training Day (or the Equalizer series) , either way, he does good work

Willis, best movie he did was The 5th Element, prove me wrong,


never cared for Stallone, nor his many series (not a Rocky fan)

Pitt has gotten better with age, much much better,



I thought Elliot played a caricature in Roadhouse, however with his big list of credits, the one that always makes me smile is his role in The Big Lebowski


and agreed on Craig, but think you cannot judge him on one of the Bond movies, you have to see them all, in order, to get the underlying themes and backstories, (some, including myself, will argue that the last one was not a Bond Movie, but a movie that had Bond as a character, some may not get that)

he was also fantastic in Layer Cake,


other notables, that may be too young


Tom Hardy
Christian Bale,
James McAcoy
Michael Fassbender


Charlize Theron

and Mel Gibson

[dryheat]

Tom Selleck, maybe not a "great" actor. Matt Damon, I get misty every time I watch The Adjustment Bureau. He kind of adlibbed the scene about his brother setting the barn on fire in Ryan. If true that was pretty good.

[Art]

Lyman:

I agree with just about everything you say. In particular the politics stuff. Like you I watch movies for entertainment and if I was hard core on not watching films with people in the cast or crew I don't agree with I wouldn't watch very much, even the classics. Even if you watch John Wayne movies you'll have people in his flicks you don't like politically. Kirk Douglas, Ed Asner, Henry Fonda and Angie Dickenson come to mind right off the top of my head. You are right about conservative or libertarian actors being in the closet. Kurt Russell once came up with the idea of a charity big game hunt. He said he paid the social price for that idea instantly.

[S.A. Boggs]

For me there are only two and that distinction goes to General James Stewart and Major Audey L. Murphy. Harvey and SAC are two of Stewarts best. For Murphy is The Red Badge of Courage (hard for him to play a coward), To Hell and Back. Lastly is the No Name on the Bullet.
Sam

[PWC]

First saw Sam Elliot in Once An Eagle mini series in 70s, liked him since. I don't remember all the facts now, but Denzel once visited a housing unit for vets admin'd by the Army and he ashed how much each unit cost. He was told and then he wrote a check for 5 more units.

[Doc Sharptail]

and agreed on Craig, but think you cannot judge him on one of the Bond movies, you have to see them all, in order, to get the underlying themes and backstories, (some, including myself, will argue that the last one was not a Bond Movie, but a movie that had Bond as a character, some may not get that)
he was also fantastic in Layer Cake,

I have seen all of the Craig Bond movies (I think) with No Time To Die the last.
The last movie I saw in the theater was Craig's Casino Royale. I can't do theater movies anymore unless there's subtitles. It's a waste of time without C/C.
I haven't seen much in the entire series to equal the scene in Skyfall where Judi Dench's "M" dies in Bond's arms. It is a scene worthy of heavy scrutiny. Plenty of visual cues in there for a scene with minimal dialogue.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail