50 Comments

It is an interesting exercise, but any best male actor list that does not include Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando is certifiable. I am not sure what you do to give equal balance to women, but can an acting list without the presence of Kathryn Hepburn or Barbra Stanwyck be taken seriously? No, it cannot. I saw in the comments that the box office figures were adjusted for inflation - I am genuinely surprised that significant Golden Age stars did not fare better.

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I think that's probably because of cinematic advancements. Movies today have more challenges then they did back then, roles are more complex, actors can take more chances in terms of what's accepted by the FCC and the Motion Picture Association, which are much more lenient today.

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Thank you for including that pic of Philip Seymour Hoffman. What an incredible talent whose career was cut way too short. Makes me wonder how high he might have climbed this list if he had been alive the last 10 years. Yes, he died in 2014!

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Aug 21·edited Aug 21

Mark Ruffalo?

What a joke.

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Online Rating and Box Office $ are both going to be slanted towards more recent actors. So older actors from the 1940's thru the 1970's will not get as many ratings (so not as many higher ratings) and their box office $ will be lower. Even the omission of Tom Hanks I think shows the obvious flaw in this process....

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This was so interesting! Would it work if you made this same ranking system but focused it solely on women?

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A shame that Gary Oldman didn't make the cut. That guy is a chameleon.

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I think this article verifies that we are all ready for some change. Let’s see some women at the top of these list and more people of color.

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Hahahaha! OMG. Stop.

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Katharine Hepburn.

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Leaving Gregory Peck off this list speaks volumes of the insignificance of the authors.

Good God he was selected as the Greatest Hero in cinema for his role as Atticus Finch.

And he NAILED the NINE minute Courtroom Monologue in ONE take. CUT Print That’s lunch. See you all tomorrow. Up yours ‘Nard

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How would the rankings change if time-dependent items like Box Office revenues were updated to put them in constant dollars?

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Daniel Day Lewis gets no mention on any of these criteria ?

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Two bookends that seems oddly missing from the box office are John Wayne and Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Two actors who could be counted on to fill seats. The other perhaps unquantifiable (which is all this exercise was) quality is versatility. Pacino is a one dimensional actor, while De Niro, is shamefully not on the final top 10 despite his range.

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I think what works best about this analysis is the full list of top actors, rather than the specific rankings. Like a hall of fame.

The list includes most of the top actors in my mind, though probably could include a few more. I feel like there should be at least one more dimension, something that captures the subjective popularity (or fan-adoration) of an actor. Perhaps something like number of times an actor is included on a fan-made IMDB list, or number of times an actor is referenced in an essay or article (such as this, or an opinion piece in a newspaper).

Regardless, very thorough analysis, and I appreciate the work you did.

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"Who won the Movie" is definitely a thing. Paul Newman won over Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy, and Redford lost again, though more narrowly, to Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men. Angelina Jolie won over Winona Ryder in Girl Interrupted and again over Brad Pitt in Mr & Mrs Smith.

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I didn't have a problem with the rankings or the list until you included Mark Ruffalo. Is he a relative? Putting Ruffalo over Daniel Day-Lewis and even Matthew McConaughey (who didn’t even make the “just missed” list) is laughable. I believe I could name 20 actors that are greater than Ruffalo.

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Unsure how agreeable my opinion will be but if I someone said name me the most versatile whilst maintaining quality actor, it would be without a doubt Paul Rudd.

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