60 Best Actors of ALL TIME

1. Leonardo DiCaprio

Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...

After his landmark role in Titanic, Leo not only became a teen sensation, but actually matured into the clear best actor of the first fifteen years of the 21st century with consistent power performances.

12 Best Performances: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Revolution Road (2008) Titanic (1997) The Aviator (2004) The Departed (2006) Blood Diamond (2006) Body of Lies (2008) Inception (2010) Django Unchained (2011) Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) The Revenant (2015) Don't Look Up (2021)

See Also: J. Edgar (2011) Romeo + Juliet (1996)

2. Denzel Washington

Actor | Fences

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...

Now also an accomplished director, Denzel is primarily an actor of the highest caliber who mesmerizes audiences with daring intensity, intellect and humour.

12 Best Performances: The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) Fences (2016) Flight (2012) Training Day (2001) The Hurricane (1999) Malcolm X (1992) Antwone Fisher (2002) The Great Debaters (2007) Philadelphia (1993) Crimson Tides (1995) American Gangster (2007) Cry Freedom (1987)

See Also: Glory (1989) John Q (2002) Man on Fire (2004) Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

3. Kevin Spacey

Actor | L.A. Confidential

Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in...

10 Best Performances: House of Cards (2013) [TV] American Beauty (1999) Se7en (1995) L.A. Confidential (1997) A Time to Kill (1995) Margin Call (2011) Baby Driver (2017) The Negotiator (1998) The Usual Suspects (1995) The Life of David Gale (2003)

4. Jake Gyllenhaal

Actor | Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal was born on December 19, 1980 in Los Angeles, California as Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, the son of producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the younger brother of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and Swedish, English, and ...

10 Best Performances: Brokeback Mountain (2005) Proof (2005) Nightcrawler (2014) Prisoners (2013) Enemy (2013) Source Code (2011) Southpaw (2015) Demolition (2015) October Sky (1999) Nocturnal Animals (2016)

See Also: Brothers (2009)

5. Ryan Gosling

Actor | Blue Valentine

Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, ...

8 Best Performances: The Notebook (2004) Half Nelson (2006) Blue Valentine (2010) Drive (2011) The Ides of March (2011) La La Land (2016) Blade Runner 2049 (2017) First Man (2018)

6. Tatsuya Nakadai

Actor | Seppuku

Japanese leading man, an important star and one of the handful of Japanese actors well known outside Japan. Nakadai was a tall handsome clerk in a Tokyo shop when director Masaki Kobayashi encountered him and cast him in The Thick-Walled Room (1956). Nakadai was subsequently cast in the lead role in...

8 Best Performances: The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959) The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959) The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1959) Harakiri (1962) Karami-ai (1962) Ran (1985) Yojimbo (1961) Kagemusha (1980)

7. Brad Pitt

Actor | Fight Club

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student ...

10 Best Performances: Twelve Monkeys (1995) Fight Club (1999) Babel (2006) Burn After Reading (2008) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Moneyball (2011) Fury (2014) Allied (2016) Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

See Also: Ad Astra (2019) True Romance (1993) Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

8. Benicio Del Toro

Actor | Sicario

Benicio Del Toro emerged in the mid-1990s as one of the most watchable and charismatic character actors to come along in years. A favorite of film buffs, Del Toro gained mainstream public attention as the conflicted but basically honest Mexican policeman in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000).

...

10 Best Performances: Traffic (2000) 21 Grams (2003) Sicario (2015) Snatch (2000) Everybody Knows (2018) Inherent Vice (2014) Che: Part One (2008) Che: Part Two (2008) The Usual Suspects (1995) No Sudden Move (2021) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

See also: Basquiat (1996) Sin City (2005)

9. Christian Bale

Actor | The Dark Knight

Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries ...

10 Best Performances: The Flowers of War (2011) The Fighter (2010) The Machinist (2004) 3:10 to Yuma (2007) American Psycho (2000) Swing Kids (1993) Rescue Dawn (2006) Empire of the Sun (1987) Ford v Ferrari (2019) Vice (2018)

10. Matt Damon

Actor | Good Will Hunting

Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother, Kyle, a sculptor. His father was of English and ...

10 Best Performances: Good Will Hunting (1997) Interstellar (2014) The Martian (2015) The Departed (2006) The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Saving Private Ryan (1998) We Bought A Zoo (2011) Margaret (2011) Downsizing (2017) Ford v Ferrari (2019)

See Also: Invictus (2009)

11. Javier Bardem

Actor | Skyfall

Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.

He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were...

10 Best Performances: Being the Ricardos (2021) Dune (2021) El buen patrón (2021) Everybody Knows (2018) Mother! (2017) Biutiful (2010) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) No Country for Old Men (2007) Goya's Ghosts (2006) The Sea Inside (2004)

See Also: Mondays in the Sun (2002)

12. Samuel L. Jackson

Actor | Pulp Fiction

Samuel L. Jackson is an American producer and highly prolific actor, having appeared in over 100 films, including Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Unbreakable (2000), Shaft (2000), Formula 51 (2001), Black Snake Moan (2006), Snakes on a Plane (2006), and the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005), ...

8 Best Performances: Pulp Fiction (1994) Django Unchained (2012) Changing Lanes (2002) Unbreakable (2000) The Red Violin (1998) Jackie Brown (1997) A Time to Kill (1996) I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

See Also: The Hateful Eight (2015) Chi-Raq (2015) Old Boy (2013) Jurassic Park (1993) The Negotiator (1998) The Avengers (2012) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) The Incredibles (2004) Shaft (2000) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

13. Sean Penn

Actor | Mystic River

Sean Penn is a 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.

Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...

8 Best Performances: 21 Grams (2003) I Am Sam (2001) The Game (1997) Fair Game (2010) Mystic River (2007) All the King's Men (2006) Dead Man Walking (1995) Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

See Also: Milk (2008) The First (2018) [TV]

14. Ricardo Darín

Actor | Nueve reinas

Ricardo Darín was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 16, 1957. He works since he was a little boy, and has obtained with the years a remarkable evolution from soap opera gallant and tv comedies to an excellent leading figure of the most importants Argentinian movies. At the age of 10 he ...

8 Best Performances: The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) Nine Queens (2000) Son of the Bride (2001) Chinese Take-Away (2011) Wild Tales (segment "Bombita") (2014) Truman (2015) Everybody Knows (2018) Heroic Losers (2019)

15. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actor | The Master

Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...

10 Best Performances: The Savages The Ides of March Charlie Wilson's War Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Synecdoche, New York Doubt 25th Hour Moneyball Magnolia The Talented Mr. Ripley

16. Mark Ruffalo

Actor | Spotlight

Award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of humble means to father Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, a construction painter and Marie Rose (Hebert), a stylist and hairdresser; his father's ancestry is Italian and his mother is of half French-Canadian and half ...

8 Best Performances: You Can Count on Me (2000) Kids Are All Right (2010) Margaret (2011) The Normal Heart (2014) Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) Spotlight (2015) Dark Waters (2019) I Know This Much Is True (2020) [TV]

17. Adam Driver

Actor | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

Adam Douglas Driver was born in San Diego, California. His mother, Nancy (Needham) Wright, is a paralegal from Mishawaka, Indiana, and his father, Joe Douglas Driver, who has deep roots in the American South, is from Little Rock, Arkansas. His stepfather is a Baptist minister. His ancestry includes...

8 Best Performances: Marriage Story (2019) The Report (2019) BlacKkKlansman (2018) The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017) Paterson (2016) While We're Young (2014) The F Word (2013) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

See Also: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2017) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2015) Lincoln (2012)

18. Choi Min-sik

Actor | Oldeuboi

Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han ...

Best Performances: Oldboy (2003) Strokes of Fire (2002) Failan (2001) Lady Vengeance (2005) New World (2013)

See Also: Crying Fist (2005) The Quiet Family (1998) I Saw the Devil (2010) Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004)

19. Edward Norton

Actor | Fight Club

American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.

His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer ...

Best Performances: American History X (1998) Fight Club (1999) Frida (2002) 25th Hour (2002) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

20. Michael Fassbender

Actor | Shame

Michael Fassbender is an Irish actor who was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to a German father, Josef, and an Irish mother, Adele (originally from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland). Michael was raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south-west Ireland, where his family moved to when ...

Best Performances: The Light Between Oceans (2016) Steve Jobs (2015) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Shame (2011) X-Men: First Class (2011) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Fish Tank (2009)

21. Russell Crowe

Actor | Les Misérables

Russell Ira Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to Jocelyn Yvonne (Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom catered movie sets. His maternal grandfather, Stanley Wemyss, was a cinematographer. Crowe's recent ancestry includes Welsh (where his paternal grandfather was born, in Wrexham),...

Best Performances: L.A. Confidential (1997) The Insider (1999) A Beautiful Mind (2001) 3:10 to Yuma (2007) Body of Lies (2008) The Next Three Days (2010)

See Also: American Gangster (2007) Gladiator (2000)

22. Matthew McConaughey

Actor | Interstellar

American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is ...

Best Performances: Contact (1997) Interstellar (2014) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) The Linkoln Lawyer ( Mud (2012) True Detective (2014) [TV]

See Also: Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

23. George Clooney

Actor | The Ides of March

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nina Bruce (née Warren), a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and television host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). He has Irish, English, and German ancestry. Clooney ...

Best Performances: The Descendants (2011) The Ides of March (2011) Michael Clayton (2007) Syriana (2005) Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

See Also: Up in the Air (2009) ER (1994) [TV]

24. Daniel Day-Lewis

Actor | There Will Be Blood

Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...

Winner of 3 Oscars

Best Performances: Phantom Thread (2017) Lincoln (2012) There Will Be Blood (2007) My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)

See Also: Gangs of New York (2002)

25. Tom Cruise

Actor | Top Gun

In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. ...

Nominated for 3 Oscars

Best Performances: Jerry Maguire (1996) Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Magnolia (1999) Mission: Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol (2011) Mission: Impossible (6) - Fallout (2018) See Also: Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Minority Report (2002) The Last Samurai (2003) War of the Worlds (2005) Valkyrie (2008) Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

26. Tom Hanks

Producer | Cast Away

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has ...

Best Performances: Forest Gump (1994) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Castaway (2000) Charlie Wilson's War (2007) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

See Also: Captain Phillips (2013) Philadelphia (1993)

27. Benedict Cumberbatch

Actor | The Imitation Game

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold ...

Best Performances: 1917 (2019) The Mauritanian (2021) The Imitation Game (2014) Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) August: Osage County (2013) 12 Years a Slave (2013) The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) Sherlock [TV]

See Also: Atonement (2007) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) The Power of the Dog (2021) The Courier (2020) War Horse (2011)

28. Ed Harris

Actor | Appaloosa

By transforming into his characters and pulling the audience in, Ed Harris has earned a reputation as one of the most talented actors of our time.

Ed Harris was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, to Margaret (Sholl), a travel agent, and Robert Lee Harris, a bookstore worker who also sang professionally. ...

Best Performances: A Beautiful Mind (2001) Enemy at the Gates (2001) Pollock (2000) The Rock (1996)

See Also: Apollo 13 (1995) Game Change (2012)

29. Fabrice Luchini

Actor | Dans la maison

Fabrice Luchini was born on November 1, 1951 in Paris, France. He is an actor and writer, known for In the House (2012), Molière (2007) and Beaumarchais the Scoundrel (1996).

Best Performances: Dans la maison (2012) Paris (2008) La fille de Monaco (2008)

See Also: Ma Loute (2016) L'hermine (2015) Alceste à bicyclette (2013) Molière (2007) Beaumarchais l'insolent (1996) Le colonel Chabert (1994) Tout ça... pour ça! (1993) Le retour de Casanova (1992) La discrète (1990) Les nuits de la pleine lune (1984)

30. Oscar Isaac

Actor | Ex Machina

Oscar Isaac was born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada in Guatemala, to a Guatemalan mother, María Eugenia, and a Cuban father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernández-Cano, a pulmonologist. Oscar was raised in Miami, Florida. Before he became an actor, he played lead guitar and sang vocals in his band the Blinking ...

Best Performances: Scenes from a Marriage (2021) [TV] Ex Machina (2014) A Most Violent Year (2014) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Body of Lies (2008) Dune (2021)

See Also: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2017) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2015) Annihilation (2018)

31. Jamie Foxx

Actor | Collateral

Jamie Foxx is an American actor, singer and comedian. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for his work in the biographical film Ray (2004). The same year, he was nominated for the Academy...

Best Performances: Ray (2004) Dreamgirls (2006) Django Unchained (2012) Baby Driver (2017)

See also: Collateral (2004)

32. Bradley Cooper

Actor | A Star Is Born

Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Gloria (Campano), is of Italian descent, and worked for a local NBC station. His father, Charles John Cooper, who was of Irish descent, was a stockbroker. Immediately after Bradley graduated from the ...

Best Performances: A Star is Born (2018) American Hustle (2013) Silver Linings Playbook (2012) Limitless (2011)

See Also: The Mule (2018) War Dogs (2016) American Sniper (2014)

33. Will Smith

Producer | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Willard Carroll "Will" Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden ...

Best Performances: King Richard (2021) Concussion (2015) The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) Ali (2001)

See also: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990) [TV]

34. Ben Affleck

Producer | Argo

Benjamin Géza "Ben" Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to mother Chris Anne (Boldt), a school teacher, and father Timothy Byers "Tim" Affleck, a social worker. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975...

Best Performances: Argo Gone Girl Gone Baby Gone Good Will Hunting

35. Stellan Skarsgård

Actor | Good Will Hunting

Stellan Skarsgård was born in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden, to Gudrun (Larsson) and Jan Skarsgård. He became a star in his teens through the title role in the TV-series Bombi Bitt och jag (1968). Between the years 1972-88 he was employed at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where...

Best Performances: Nymphomaniac: Vol. I & II Dogville Melancholia In Order of Disappearance The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Good Will Hunting

See also: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Avengers: Age of Ultron

36. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

Best Performances: Proof Bobby Silence of the Lamb Hannibal The Two Popes The Father

37. Ulrich Mühe

Actor | Das Leben der Anderen

Ulrich Mühe was born on June 20, 1953 in Grimma, East Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Lives of Others (2006), Funny Games (1997) and Der letzte Zeuge (1998). He was married to Susanne Lothar, Jenny Gröllmann and Annegret Hahn. He died on July 22, 2007 in Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt,...

Best Performances: The Lives of Other Funny Games The Castle

38. Tom Wilkinson

Actor | Michael Clayton

Popular British character actor Tom Wilkinson was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and came from a long line of urban farmers. He was the son of Marjorie (Percival) and Thomas Wilkinson. Economic hardships forced his family to move to Canada for a few years when Wilkinson was a child; then, ...

Best Performances: Michael Clayton In the Bedroom John Adams [TV]

39. James McAvoy

Actor | Filth

McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to James, a bus driver, and Elizabeth (née Johnstone), a nurse. He was raised on a housing estate in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his maternal grandparents (James, a butcher, and Mary), after his parents divorced when James was 11. He went to St ...

Best Performances: Split Atonement Trance The Last King of Scotland X-Men: First Class

40. Adrien Brody

Actor | The Pianist

Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the ...

Best Performances: The Pianist (2002) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Detachment (2011) Midnight in Paris (2011)

41. Joaquin Phoenix

Actor | Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Arlyn (Dunetz) and John Bottom, and is the middle child in a brood of five. His parents, from the continental United States, were then serving as Children of God missionaries. His mother is from a Jewish family from New ...

Best Performances: Joker (2019) Inherent Vice (2014) Her (2013) Two Lovers (2008) Walk the Line (2005)

42. Woody Harrelson

Actor | True Detective

Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning actor Woodrow Tracy Harrelson was born on July 23, 1961 in Midland, Texas, to Diane Lou (Oswald) and Charles Harrelson. He grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, where his mother was from. After receiving degrees in theater arts and English from Hanover College, he...

Best Performances: True Detective [TV] Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) Zombieland (2009)

See Also: Seven Pounds (2008) Game Change (2012) Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

43. Ewan McGregor

Actor | Moulin Rouge!

Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents ...

Best Performances: Fargo [TV] August: Osage County (2013) Big Fish (2003) Moulin Rouge! (2001)

See Also: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Cassandra's Dream (2007)

44. Sam Rockwell

Actor | Moon

Sam Rockwell was born on November 5, 1968, in San Mateo, California, the only child of two actors, Pete Rockwell and Penny Hess. The family moved to New York when he was two years old, living first in the Bronx and later in Manhattan. When Sam was five years old, his parents separated, at which ...

Best Performances: Frost/Nixon (2008) Choke (2008) Vice (2018) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

See Also: Moon (2009)

45. Rami Malek

Actor | Bohemian Rhapsody

Rami Said Malek (born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He won a Critics' Choice Award and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his lead role as Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot. He also received Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors ...

Best Performances: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Mr Robot [TV]

46. Wagner Moura

Actor | Tropa de Elite

Moura was born in Salvador, a city located in Northeast Region of Brazil, but grew up in the small town of Rodelas, Bahia. His mother, Alderiva, was a housewife, and his father, José Moura, was a Sergeant in the Brazilian Air Force. At the age of 13, he moved with his family to Salvador, Bahia.

...

Best Performances: Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora é Outro (2010) Tropa de Elite (2007) Narcos [TV]

47. Vladimir Vdovichenkov

Actor | Leviafan

His career Vladimir Vdovichencov began starring in two films that became cult in Russia. This is the "Boomer" (2003) by Petr Buslov and the TV series "Brigada" (2002). Participation in these projects have brought great popularity among the audience. At the moment, Vladimir appeared in more than ...

Best Performances: Salyut-7 (2017) Leviathan (2014)

See also: Loveless (voice)

48. Zachary Quinto

Actor | Star Trek

Zachary Quinto was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Margaret J. (McArdle), an Irish-American office worker, and Joseph John Quinto, an Italian-American barber. Zachary graduated from Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, with the class of 1995, where he won Pittsburgh's Gene Kelly Award ...

Best Performances: Star Trek Into Darkness Snowden Margin Call American Horror Story [TV]

49. Vincent Cassel

Actor | Black Swan

Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, ...

Best Performances: Black Swan Mesrine Part 2: Public Enemy #1 Mesrine Part 1: Killer Instinct It's Only the End of the World Irréversible Westworld [TV]

50. Jon Hamm

Actor | Mad Men

Jon Hamm is an American actor and producer from St. Louis, Missouri who is known for playing Don Draper in Mad Men. He also played Mister Sinister in a deleted scene of The New Mutants and Legion, Brogan from Shrek Forever After, and other films and shows including Sucker Punch, Million Dollar Arm,...

Best Performances: The Report Tag Marjorie Prime Baby Driver Mad Men [TV] Black Mirror [TV]

51. Jeremy Renner

Actor | The Hurt Locker

Jeremy Lee Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie (Tague) and Lee Renner, who managed a bowling alley. After a tumultuous yet happy childhood with his four younger siblings, Renner graduated from Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College. He explored several areas of...

Best Performances: Tag American Hustle The Hurt Locker

52. Mads Mikkelsen

Actor | Hannibal

Mads Mikkelsen's great successes parallel those achieved by the Danish film industry since the mid-1990s. He was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen, to Bente Christiansen, a nurse, and Henning Mikkelsen, a banker.

Starting out as a low-life pusher/junkie in the 1996 success Pusher (1996), he slowly grew ...

Best Performances: Another Round (2020) aka Druk A Royal Affair (2012) The Hunt (2013) Pusher II (2002)

See Also: Hannibal [TV] Rogue One

53. Lee Byung-hun

Actor | Dalkomhan insaeng

Lee Byung-hun was born in 1970 in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in a wealthy family, thanks to his father, who was a successful businessman. He never dreamed of pursuing acting until a friend of his mother's suggested it. He auditioned for the KBS television network in 1991 and was accepted. His ...

Best Performances: Mr Sunshine (2018) [TV] Masquerade (2012) I Saw the Devil (2010) The Good the Bad the Weird (2008) Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001) Joint Security Area (2000)

See Also: A Bittersweet Life Three... Extremes

54. Paul Giamatti

Actor | Sideways

Paul Giamatti is an American actor who has worked steadily and prominently for over thirty years, and is best known for leading roles in the films American Splendor (2003), Sideways (2004), and Barney's Version (2010) (for which he won a Golden Globe), and supporting roles in the films Cinderella ...

Best Performances: Billions (2016) [TV] John Adams (2008) [TV] The Ides of March (2011) Cinderella Man (2005) Sideways (2004)

See Also: 12 Years a Slave (2013) Straight Outta Compton (2015) Win Win (2011)

55. Marlon Brando

Actor | Apocalypse Now

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 ...

Best Performances: A Street Car Named Desire The Godfather On the Waterfront

56. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

Best Performances: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Verdict The Hustler Nobody's Fool Road to Perdition

57. Timothée Chalamet

Actor | Call Me by Your Name

Timothée Hal Chalamet was born in Manhattan, to Nicole Flender, a real estate broker and dancer, and Marc Chalamet, a UNICEF editor. His mother, who is from New York, is Jewish, of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent. His father, who is from Nîmes, France, is of French and English ancestry. ...

Best Performances: Call Me by Your Name Beautiful Boy Little Women Dune Dune: Part Two Don't Look Up

58. Bill Murray

Actor | Lost in Translation

Bill Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. The fifth of nine children, he was born William James Murray in Wilmette, Illinois, to Lucille (Collins), a mailroom clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II, who sold lumber. He is of Irish descent. Among his siblings are actors Brian Doyle-Murray, ...

Best Performances: Lost in Translation Broken Flowers St. Vincent The Grand Budapest Hotel

59. Chris Cooper

Actor | Adaptation.

Christopher Walton Cooper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Mary Ann (Walton), a homemaker, and Charles Sherwood Cooper, a cattleman and internist who served as a doctor in the US Air Force. His parents were from Texas, where Cooper was raised.

Educated at the University of Missouri school of ...

Best Performances: Adaptation August: Osage County American Beauty Demolition Seabiscuit

60. Don Cheadle

Actor | Crash

Donald Frank Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 29, 1964. His childhood found him moving from city to city with his family: mother Bettye (née North), a teacher; father Donald Frank Cheadle Sr., a clinical psychologist; sister Cindy; and brother Colin. After graduating from high...

Best Performances: Crash Boogie Nights Brooklyn's Finest ER [TV] Flight Swordfish Traffic No Sudden Move