Cary Grant
(1904-1986)

Grant's comic flair came through in The Awful Truth and His Girl Friday, and his dramatic gift was on display in North by Northwest.

Best Films: She Done Him Wrong (1933), Sylvia Scarlett (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Topper (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938), Gunga Din (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), My Favorite Wife (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Talk of the Town (1942), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), None But the Lonely Heart (1944), Notorious (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), To Catch a Thief (1955), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Charade (1963)

Gene Hackman
(1931- )

Hollywood's seventies detour into gritty, downbeat movies saved Hackman -- he shone in The French Connection and The Conversation.

Best Films: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang For My Father (1970), The French Connection (1971), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Conversation (1974), Night Moves (1975), Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (1980), Hoosiers (1986), No Way Out (1987), Mississippi Burning (1988), Unforgiven (1992), The Firm (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Get Shorty (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), The Replacements (2000), Under Suspicion (2000), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Heartbreakers (2001), Heist (2001), The Mexican (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Runaway Jury (2003), Welcome to Mooseport (2004)

Tom Hanks
(1956- )

He loved a mermaid (Splash) and crossed paths with history (Forrest Gump) but never lost his boy-next-door appeal.

Best Films: Splash (1984), Big (1988), Philadelphia (1993), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Toy Story (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), You've Got M@il (1998), The Green Mile (1999), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cast Away (2000), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Road to Perdition (2002), The Ladykillers (2004), The Terminal (2004), The Polar Express (2004), Cars (2006), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Angels & Demons (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012), Captain Phillips (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Bridge of Spies (2015), Sully (2016), The Post (2017), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), Greyhound (2020), News of the World (2020), Finch (2021), Elvis (2022), Pinocchio (2022), A Man Called Otto (2022), Asteroid City (2023)

Dustin Hoffman
(1937- )

Hoffman broke Hollywood's blond-macho-leading-man mold in the generation-defining The Graduate and (in a different way) Tootsie.

Best Films: The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Little Big Man (1970), Straw Dogs (1971), Papillon (1973), Lenny (1974), Marathon Man (1976), All The President's Men (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Tootsie (1982), Rain Man (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), Hook (1991), Hero (1992), Outbreak (1995), Sleepers (1996), Wag the Dog (1997), Sphere (1998), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), Moonlight Mile (2002), Confidence (2003), Finding Neverland (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Meet the Fockers (2004), Stranger Than Fiction (2006), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Last Chance Harvey (2008), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), Into the Labryinth (2019), Sam & Kate (2022)

William Holden
(1918-1981)

Holden parsed world-weariness as a screenwriter turned gigolo (Sunset Boulevard) and a cynical WWII POW (Stalag 17).

Best Films: Golden Boy (1939), Born Yesterday (1950), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969), Network (1976)

Anthony Hopkins
(1937- )

Hopkins's movie career has been a roller-coaster ride through TV, supporting roles, and cult favorites, like The Elephant Man.

Best Films: The Lion in Winter (1968), A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), 84 Charing Cross Road (1986), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993), Shadowlands (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Nixon (1995), Amistad (1997), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Meet Joe Black (1998), Instinct (1999), Titus (1999), Hannibal (2001), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Red Dragon (2002), The Human Stain (2003), Alexander (2004), Proof (2005), The World's Fastest Indian (2005), All the King's Men (2006), Bobby (2006), Beowulf (2007), Fracture (2007), Thor (2011), Hitchcock (2012), Noah (2014), The Two Popes (2019), The Father (2020), Elyse (2020), The Virtuoso (2021), Armageddon Time (2022), Zero Contact (2022), The Son (2022), One Life (2023), Freud's Last Session (2023)

Buster Keaton
(1895-1966)

The Great Stone Face was the main attraction in such innovative silent comedies as Sherlock Jr., Seven Chances, and The General.

Best Films: Our Hospitality (1923), The Navigator (1924), Sherlock, Jr. (1924), Seven Chances (1925), College (1927), The General (1927), The Cameraman (1928), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Spite Marriage (1929), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Limelight (1952), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

Gene Kelly
(1912-1996)

The virile Kelly made ballet safe for mainstream moviegoers in classic musicals like An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain.

Best Films: For Me and My Gal (1942), Cover Girl (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), The Pirate (1948), The Three Musketeers (1948), On The Town (1949), Summer Stock (1950), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Brigadoon (1954), It's Always Fair Weather (1955), Inherit the Wind (1960)

Burt Lancaster
(1913-1994)

The onetime circus acrobat brought physical grace to crime movies (The Killers) and swashbucklers (The Crimson Pirate).

Best Films: The Killers (1946), Criss Cross (1949), The Flame and the Arrow (1950), Jim Thorpe - All American (1951), Come Back Little Sheba (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Rainmaker (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Elmer Gantry (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Bird Man of Alcatraz (1962), The Leopard (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), The Train (1964), The Professionals (1966), The Swimmer (1968), Atlantic City (1981), Local Hero (1983), Field of Dreams (1989)

Jack Lemmon
(1925-2001)

Long before dramedy had a name, Lemmon perfected the art of wrapping laughter around emotional truth in Some Like It Hot.

Best Films: It Should Happen to You (1954), Mister Roberts (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Odd Couple (1968), Avanti! (1972), Save the Tiger (1973), Airport '77 (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), Missing (1982), JFK (1991), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Grumpy Old Men (1993), Grumpier Old Men (1995), My Fellow Americans (1996), Out to Sea (1997), The Odd Couple II (1998)