EWB's Top Living Male Actor

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

103 actors received at least one vote in the competition but THIRTY FIVE received two or more and will make the final countdown list.*

* Actually 36 did but Christopher Walken's 2 votes gave him six total points which wasn't enough to beat a lot of actors who received only one vote.

There is no room in the list for great men such as John Hurt, Patrick Stewart, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen (who scored ONE point), Peter O'Toole or......Jason Statham. So surely that means the top 35 are going to be true monuments of acting. Giants among men.

The first two of these giants are tied in thirty fourth place.....

THIRTY FOUR=

Jon Hamm

(born March 10, 1971)

"Jonathan Daniel "Jon" Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor most noted for playing advertising executive Don Draper in the AMC drama series Mad Men, which premiered in July 2007. His performance on the show earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2008."

2 votes - 12 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

THIRTY FOUR=

Ryan Gosling

(born November 12, 1980)

"Ryan Gosling was born on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, to Thomas and Donna Gosling, and was the second of their two children. The Gosling family, moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where Ryan grew up and was home-schooled by his mother. Ryan attended Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational High School in Cornwall, where he excelled in Drama and Fine Arts. The family then relocated to Burlington, Ontario, where Ryan attended Lester B. Pearson High School in Burlington, Ontario.

Ryan first performed as a singer at talent contests with his older sister Mandi. He attended an open audition in Montreal for the TV series "The Mickey Mouse Club" ("The All New Mickey Mouse Club" (1989)) in January 1993 and beat out 17,000 other aspiring actors for a a spot on the show. While appearing on "MMC" for two years, he lived with co-star Justin Timberlake's family.

Though he received no formal acting training, after "MMC," Gosling segued into an acting career, appearing on the TV series "Young Hercules" (1998) and "Breaker High" (1997), as well as the films The Slaughter Rule (2002), Murder by Numbers (2002), and Remember the Titans (2000). He first attracted serious critical attention with his performance as the Jewish neo-Nazi in the controversial film The Believer (2001), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. He was cast in the part by writer-director Henry Bean, who believed that Gosling's strict upbringing gave him the insight to understand the character Danny, whose obsessiveness with the Judaism he was born into turns to hatred. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead in 2002 for the role and won the Golden Aries award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics.

After appearing in the sleeper The Notebook (2004) in 2004, Gosling won the dubious honor of being named one of the 50 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine. More significantly, he was named the Male Star of Tomorrow at the 2004 Show West convention of movie exhibitors.

Gosling reached the summit of his profession with his performance in Half Nelson (2006), which garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. In a short time, he has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation."

2 votes - 12 total points

[Skummy]

Christopher Lee and Peter O'Toole not making the list makes me sad

Almost counteracted by Statham not making it, though.

[GoGo Yubari]

Fuck, I can't believe I didn't put Ryan Gosling on my list.

[Jimmy]

Oh yeah, same. He's really impressed me this year - still need to see Lars and The Real Girl. Good two to start off the list, glad Hamm made it.

[Gazz]

Who voted for Jason Statham?

He just plays Jason Statham over and over again.

[Jimmy]

And there's nothing wrong with that!

(Wasn't me who voted him, though.)

[Josh]

I fucking love how CSAMH's first post is just driiiiipping with sarcasm.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

THIRTY THREE

Michael Fassbender

(born 2 April 1977)

"The actor Michael Fassbender was born in Heidelberg, Germany. He is of German and Irish parentage. His father is from Germany and his mother is from Northern Ireland. Michael was raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south west Ireland. At the moment he is based in London, England.

He is known for playing Lt. Archie Hicox in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Magneto in the superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class (2011). His other credits include the 2007 film 300, the 2009 film Fish Tank, the 2011 Jane Eyre adaptation, the 2011 David Cronenberg film A Dangerous Method, in which he plays psychologist Carl Jung, as well as the acclaimed Steve McQueen-directed movies Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011), the most recent of which won him the Best Actor award at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. He will star in the upcoming Ridley Scott film, Prometheus (2012)."

2 votes - 16 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

THIRTY TWO

Matthew Smith

(born 28 October 1982)

"Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982)[1] is an English stage and television actor. He is known for his role as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor in the British television series Doctor Who, for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination in 2011.[2]

He initially aspired to be a professional footballer, but a back injury forced him out of the sport. After joining the National Youth Theatre and studying Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Smith became an actor in 2003, performing in plays like Murder in the Cathedral, Fresh Kills, The History Boys and On the Shore of the Wide World in London theatres. Extending his repertoire into West End theatre, he has since performed in the stage adaptation of Swimming with Sharks with Christian Slater,[3] followed a year later by a critically acclaimed performance as Henry in That Face.[4]

Before his role in Doctor Who, Smith's first television role came in 2006 as Jim Taylor in the BBC adaptations of Phillip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North while his first major role in television came as Danny in the 2007 BBC series Party Animals. Smith, who was announced as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor in January 2009, is the youngest person to play the character in the British television series."

2 votes - 18 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

THIRTY ONE

Sir Ben Kingsley

(born 31 December 1943)

"Ben Kingsley was born in England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was of Gujrati descent. Ben began to act in stage plays during the 1960s. He soon became a successful stage actor, and also began to have roles in films and TV. His birth name was Krishna Bhanji - but he changed his name to "Ben Kingsley" soon after gaining fame as a stage actor, fearing that a foreign name could hamper his acting career.

Ben Kingsley first earned international fame for his performance in the 1982 movie, Gandhi (1982). His performance as "Mohandas Gandhi" earned him international fame. He won many awards - including an Oscar for Best Actor. He also won Golden Globe, BAFTA and London Film Critics' Circle Awards. After acting in Gandhi (1982), Ben was recognized as one of the finest British actors.

After his international fame for appearing in Gandhi (1982), Kingsley appeared in many other famous movies. His success as an actor continued. In 1993, his performance as "Itzhak Stern" in the movie, Schindler's List (1993) earned him a BAFTA nomination. Schindler's List (1993) won seven Oscars, including Best Picture. During the late 1990s, Kingsley acted in many successful movies. He played "Sweeney Todd" in the 1998 TV movie, The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1997) (TV). For his performance in this movie, he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award. His other notable role was as "Otto Frank" in the TV movie "Anne Frank: The Whole Story" (2001), for which he won a Screen Actors' Guild Award.

He is also known for his performances in the films Schindler's List (1993), Sexy Beast (2000) and House of Sand and Fog (2003).

Ben Kingsley lives in Spelsbury, Oxfordshire, in England."

...He gets a bonus video because I voted for him.

2 votes - 22 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Blahdy 'ell it's Tony Blair!

THIRTY

Michael Sheen

(born 5 February 1969)

"Even though he had burned up the London stage for nearly a decade--and appeared in several films--Michael Sheen was not really "discovered" by American audiences until his critically acclaimed turn as 'Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart' in the 1999 Broadway revival of "Amadeus".

The only son of Meyrick and Irene Sheen, the charming, curly-haired actor grew up a middle-class boy in the working-class town of Port Talbot, Wales. Although his parents worked in personnel, they shared with their son a deep appreciation for acting, with Meyrick Sheen enjoying some success later in life as a Jack Nicholson impersonator.

As a young man, Michael Sheen turned down the opportunity to pursue a possible professional football career, opting to follow in the footsteps of Daniel Day-Lewis and Patrick Stewart by attending the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School instead of university. In his second year, he won the coveted Laurence Olivier Bursary for consistently outstanding performances. While Sheen was still studying, he landed a pivotal role opposite stage legend Vanessa Redgrave in Martin Sherman's "When She Danced" (1991). He left school early to make his West End debut and has been dazzling audiences and critics with his intense and passionate performances ever since. Among his most memorable roles were "Romeo" in "Romeo and Juliet", the title role in Yukio Ninagawa's 1994 Royal Shakespeare Company's staging of "Peer Gynt" and "Jimmy Porter" both in a 1994 regional staging in a 1999 London revival of "Look Back in Anger". A critic from the London Times panned the multimedia production of "Peer Gynt", but praised Sheen for his ability to express "astonishing vitality despite lifeless direction". Referring to Sheen's performance in "Look Back in Anger", Susannah Clapp of The Observer hailed him for his "luminous quality" and ability to be goaded and fiery and defensive all at the same time. Sheen also managed to set critics' tongues wagging with a deft performance in the role of "Henry V", not a part traditionally given to a slight, boyish-looking actor. One writer raved: "Sheen, volatile and responsive in an excellent performance, showed us the exhilaration of power and conquest".

In 1993, Sheen joined the troupe "Cheek By Jowl" and was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for his performance in "Don't Fool with Love". That same year, he excelled as a mentally unstable man who becomes enmeshed in a kidnapping plot in "Gallowglass" (1993), a three-part BBC serial that aired in the USA on PBS' "Mystery!" in 1995. The actor nabbed his first feature film role in 1994, playing Dr. Jekyll's footman in Mary Reilly (1996) opposite John Malkovich and Julia Roberts, but that film did not make it into theaters until 1996, a year after Sheen's second movie, Othello (1995), was filmed and released. Perhaps his most memorable big screen role at that point, however, was "Robert Ross", Oscar Wilde's erstwhile lover, in the 1997 biopic Wilde (1997). He would also be seen in the Brit road film Heartlands (2002) opposite Mark Addy.

Hot off the success of "Amadeus", Sheen began racking up even more notable big screen credits, starring opposite Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley and Kate Hudson in The Four Feathers (2002) and landing a major role opposite Kate Beckinsale in the action-horror blockbuster Underworld (2003), along with supporting turns in Bright Young Things (2003), Timeline (2003) and as British Prime Minister Tony Blair in director Stephen Frears' film The Queen (2006). Next, Sheen grabbed good notices played a divorce-embattled rock star, stealing scenes from Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore in the romantic comedy Laws of Attraction (2004).

Back on the stage, the actor earned raves for his performance as "Caligula" in London, for which he won the Evening Standard Award and Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, along with a nomination for the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award."

3 votes - 24 total points

[Jimmy]

Those clips of Kingsley as Don Logan are just fantastic scenes. He's class in that film - if we ranked individual performances, that'd be very high on my list.

[GoGo Yubari]

I am quite interested at the thought of trying to rank individual film performances. I wouldn't bother to do a list about it, but it's fun to think about. Off the top of my head, Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai, Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network, and Henry Fonda as whichever juror he was in 12 Angry Men would both be on there. Interestingly I think I'd have more people who weren't on my lists for these than I would have people who actually made it; I absolutely adore Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve Buscemi but I don't know if I could reduce either into singular performances (if I had to it would maybe be Caden Cotard and Mr. Pink respectively).

EDIT: Also Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa.

[Quom]

I'd like to see best performances: Nicholas Cage (Adaptation), Bruce Willis (12 Monkeys), John Travolta (Pulp Fiction), Brad Pitt (Fight Club), Christian Bale (The Machinist), Johnny Depp (Edward Scissor Hands), Leonardo DiCaprio (What's Eating Gilbert Grape).

Yet I'm not sure any of them would have made my top ten actors list if I voted. Hell I could probably name another 10-15 career defining/making roles (or roles that justify the actors place in Hollywood).

It could also be fun to do the worst mistakes by an actor, where typically they are held in high regard but were either connected to a movie that was a stinker or had a terrible performance in which they were outshone.

Sorry for ruining the thread. I'll shut up now. I'll just add that I don't think I've seen a movie with Ben Kingsley in it that I've liked.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Here's a couple of fellas who were both in the top 5 five years ago when I last did this...

TWENTY EIGHT=

Alfredo Pacino

(born April 25, 1940)

"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. His mother moved them into his grandparents' house. Pacino found himself often repeating the plots and voices of characters he had seen in the movies, one of his favorite activities. Bored and unmotivated in school, the young Al Pacino found a haven in school plays, and his interest soon blossomed into a full-time career. Starting on the stage, he went through a lengthy period of depression and poverty, sometimes having to borrow bus fare to make it to auditions. He made it into the prestigious Actors Studio in 1966, studying under legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg, creator of the Method Approach that would become the trademark of many '70s-era actors. After appearing in a string of plays in supporting roles, he finally hit it big with "The Indian Wants the Bronx", winning an Obie award for the 1966-67 season. That was followed by a Tony Award for "Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?". His first feature films made little departure from the gritty realistic stage performances that earned him respect: he played a junkie in The Panic in Needle Park (1971) after his film debut in Me, Natalie (1969). What came next would change his life forever. The role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) was one of the most sought-after of the time: Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Ryan O'Neal, Robert De Niro and a host of others either wanted it or were mentioned for it, but director Francis Ford Coppola had his heart set on the unknown Italian Pacino for the role, although pretty much everyone else--from the studio to the producers to some of the cast members--didn't want him. Though Coppola won out through slick persuasion, Pacino was in constant fear of being fired during the hellish shoot. Much to his (and Coppola's) relief, the film was a monster hit that did wonders for everyone's career, including Pacino's, and earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Instead of taking on easier projects for the big money he could now command, however, Pacino threw his support behind what he considered tough but important films, such as the true-life crime drama Serpico (1973) and the tragic real-life bank robbery film Dog Day Afternoon (1975). He opened eyes around the film world for his brave choice of roles, and he was nominated three consecutive years for the "Best Actor" Academy Award. He faltered slightly with Bobby Deerfield (1977), but regained his stride with ...And Justice for All. (1979), for which he received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This would, unfortunately, signal the beginning of a decline in his career, which produced such critical and commercial flops as Cruising (1980) and Author! Author! (1982). He took on another vicious gangster role and cemented his legendary status in the ultra-violent cult hit Scarface (1983), but a monumental mistake was about to follow. Revolution (1985) endured an endless and seemingly cursed shoot in which equipment was destroyed, weather was terrible, and Pacino became terribly ill with pneumonia. Constant changes in the script also further derailed a project that seemed doomed from the start anyway. The Revolutionary War film is considered one of the worst films ever, not to mention one of the worst of his career, resulted in his first truly awful reviews and kept him off the screen for the next four years. Returning to the stage, Pacino has done much to give back and contribute to the theatre, which he considers his first love. He directed a film, The Local Stigmatic (1990), but it remains unreleased. He lifted his self-imposed exile with the striking Sea of Love (1989) as a hard-drinking cop. It marked the second phase of Pacino's career, being the first to feature his now famous dark, owl eyes and hoarse, gravelly voice. Returning to the Corleones, he made The Godfather: Part III (1990) and earned raves for his first comedic role in the colorful Dick Tracy (1990). This earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and two years later he was nominated for Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). He went into romantic mode for Frankie and Johnny (1991). In 1992 he finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his amazing performance in Scent of a Woman (1992). A mixture of technical perfection (he plays a blind man) and charisma, the role was tailor-made for him, and remains a classic. The next few years would see Pacino becoming more comfortable with acting and movies as a business, turning out great roles in great films with more frequency and less of the demanding personal involvement of his wilder days. Carlito's Way (1993) proved another gangster classic, as did the epic crime drama Heat (1995) directed by Michael Mann and co-starring Robert De Niro, although they only had a few scenes together. He returned to the director's chair for the highly acclaimed and quirky Shakespeare adaptation Looking for Richard (1996). City Hall (1996), Donnie Brasco (1997) and The Devil's Advocate (1997) all came out in this period. Reteaming with Mann and then Oliver Stone, he gave two commanding performances in The Insider (1999) and Any Given Sunday (1999). In his personal life, Pacino is one of Hollywood's most enduring and notorious bachelors, having never been married. He has a daughter, Julie Marie, with acting teacher Jan Tarrant, and a new set of twins with longtime girlfriend Beverly D'Angelo. His romantic history includes a long-time romance with "Godfather" co-star Diane Keaton. With his intense and gritty performances, Pacino was an original in the acting profession. His Method approach would become the process of many actors throughout time, and his unbeatable number of classic roles has already made him a legend among film buffs and all aspiring actors and directors. His commitment to acting as a profession and his constant screen dominance has established him as one of the movies' true legends."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBHhSVJ_S6A

2 votes - 30 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

TWENTY EIGHT=

Samuel Leroy Jackson

(born December 21, 1948)

"Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee. After gaining critical acclaim for his role in Jungle Fever in 1991, he appeared in films such as Patriot Games, Amos & Andrew, True Romance and Jurassic Park. In 1994, he was cast as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, and his performance received several award nominations and critical acclaim.

Jackson has since appeared in over 100 films including Die Hard with a Vengeance, The 51st State, Jackie Brown, Unbreakable, The Incredibles, Black Snake Moan, Shaft, Snakes on a Plane, as well as the Star Wars prequel trilogy and small roles in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Inglourious Basterds.

He played Nick Fury in Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the first two of a nine-film commitment as the character for the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Jackson's many roles have made him one of the highest grossing actors at the box office. Jackson has won multiple awards throughout his career and has been portrayed in various forms of media including films, television series, and songs. In 1980, Jackson married LaTanya Richardson, with whom he has one daughter, Zoe.

In October 2011, Jackson finally beat Frank Welker as the highest grossing film actor of all-time."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6csp2fZt2E

3 votes - 30 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

TWENTY SEVEN

Bryan Cranston

(born March 7, 1956)

"Bryan Lee Cranston is an American actor, voice actor, writer and director. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Walter White in the AMC drama series Breaking Bad, for which he has won three consecutive Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy Awards, and as Hal, the father in the Fox situation comedy Malcolm in the Middle. Other notable roles include Dr. Tim Whatley on Seinfeld, Doug Heffernan's neighbor in The King of Queens, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin in From the Earth to the Moon, and Ted Mosby's boss on How I Met Your Mother."

2 votes - 36 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

TWENTY SIX

Liam Neeson

(born 7 June 1952)

"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". After two years, Neeson moved to Dublin's Abbey Theater where he performed the classics. It was here that he was spotted by director John Boorman and was cast in the film Excalibur (1981), which dealt with the Arthurian legend. From there, he acted in a number of average films and television mini-series until he gained notice for his role as the mute in Suspect (1987). Neeson did not play the lead in a movie until he appeared in Darkman (1990). Good performances in Leap of Faith (1992) and Husbands and Wives (1992) led to Neeson being picked for the role of Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). For this role, Neeson was nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. In 1993, he made his Broadway debut in "Anna Christie" in which he co-starred with Natasha Richardson. For his role in this play, Neeson was nominated for a Tony. When he returned to the big screen, Neeson again co-starred with Richardson in the Jodie Foster movie Nell (1994). In the next two years, Neeson played characters close to his roots when he was the eighteenth century Scottish Highlander Rob Roy (1995) and the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins (1996). He was named an O.B.E by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year's Honours List."

3 votes - 39 total points

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

TWENTY FIVE

Clint Eastwood

(born May 31, 1930)

"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. and Ruth Wood (née Runner). The family frequently moved around Northern California when Clint was growing up before settling in Oregon. He moved to Seattle in 1951 and worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor for the military for two years, before returning to California.

In 1955 Clint began working as an actor with uncredited bit parts in B-movies. He almost gave up acting before getting his big break on the TV series "Rawhide" (1959), where he was a supporting cast member for six years. While still on the show, Eastwood was cast in his first substantial role, as "The Man with No Name" in the low-budget Italian western A Fistful of Dollars (1964). This was followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966); none of the three films were released in America until 1968. His next film was Hang 'Em High (1968). He took a co-starring role in the unconventional musical Paint Your Wagon (1969), then combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor in Kelly's Heroes (1970) and Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970).

1971 proved to be a turning point in his career. He directed his first movie, the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), in which he played a man being stalked by a crazed female admirer whose obsession with him turns from sexual to violent. That same year, he played the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971), which invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day, and made Eastwood a superstar at last. He subsequently found work in American revisionist westerns like High Plains Drifter (1973), which he also directed. Eastwood had a constant stream of quality films over the next few years, teaming up with Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), starring in the "Dirty Harry" sequels Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976/I), the quintessential western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), the road adventure The Gauntlet (1977), the hugely successful comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978) with Clyde the orangutan, and the fact-based thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979).

Clint kicked off the eighties with Any Which Way You Can (1980), the blockbuster sequel to "Every Which Way but Loose". The fourth 'Dirty Harry' film, Sudden Impact (1983), became the highest grossing film of the series. Clint also starred in Firefox (1982), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), which were all big hits at the box office and got good reviews. His fifth and final "Dirty Harry" movie, The Dead Pool (1988), was only a minor commercial success and panned by critics. Shortly after his career declined with the outright bomb comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) and the disappointing cop film The Rookie (1990). It was fairly obvious that Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before.

But Eastwood quickly bounced back, first with his western Unforgiven (1992), which garnered him his first Oscar nomination as Best Actor, and wins fo Best Director and producer of the Best Picture. Then he took on the secret service in In the Line of Fire (1993), another huge hit. The Bridges of Madison County (1995), a love story with Meryl Streep, was a surprise hit at the box office and was hailed as one of his best performances. The quality of his next four films varied: Absolute Power (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000) were well-received, while True Crime (1999) and Blood Work (2002) were badly received.

In what is arguably the finest film of his career, Eastwood directed and starred opposite Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (2004). A critical and commercial triumph, the movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as earning Eastwood a second nomination for Best Actor and win for Best Director. After this he starred in Gran Torino (2008), and the film's $30 million opening weekend in January 2009 made Eastwood the oldest leading man to reach #1 at the box office.

After starring in iconic movies for four decades, Clint Eastwood has proved himself to be the longest-running movie star. Although he is aging now and focusing more on directing, his career as a director continues to thrive with the award-winning films Mystic River (2003), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and Changeling (2008) which starred Angelina Jolie.

Eastwood has managed to keep his scandalous personal life private and has rarely been featured in the tabloid press. He had a fourteen-year relationship with actress Sondra Locke and has seven children by five other women."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnMLGkj91Og http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeFpM2OEWPs

3 votes - 39 total points