Top 10 Living Film Actors
I am using the following criteria in this list. 1st, Academy Award nominations (either for acting or supporting acting); 2nd, career longevity; 3rd, box office success; and 4th, special recognition for any significant contribution to the acting craft.
(1) MERYL STREEP (age 64) - Not the most successful commercial actor or actress ever, but certainly the most prolific actor ever in terms of Academy Award nominations with 18 and counting after a Best Actress nod in 2014 for August: Osage County. She has appeared in more than 50 major films since her film debut in 1977 (Julia). She has won three Academy Awards - two for Best Actress (Sophie's Choice in 1982 and The Iron Lady in 2011), and won for Best Supporting Actress (Kramer vs. Kramer in 1979). Another reason she gets the #1 nod on this list? - her ability to master various dialects for her characters such as Dutch, German, Polish, English and numerous American accents. The only knock on her amazing film career might be that her films don't tend to be commercial successes (outside of Kramer vs. Kramer, one of the top grossing films of 1979).
(2) JACK NICHOLSON (age 76) - With 12 Academy Award nominations in his long film career, Jack Nicholson is tied for 2nd on that particular list (with Katherine Hepburn), but he's 2nd all alone on my list of top living actors. Nicholson's film career dates all the way back to 1958 when he appeared in a cult film by Roger Corman entitled The Cry Baby Killer. But it was a decade later when he appeared in the counterculture landmark film Easy Rider that Nicholson became a true Hollywood star. He was arguably the biggest film star of the 1970's and early 1980's, appearing in such major films as Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975 - earning a Best Actor award), The Shining (1980), and Terms of Endearment (1983 - earning a Best Supporting Actor award). As he grew older, he transitioned into more villainous or curmudgeonly roles such as Batman (1989), A Few Good Men (1992), As Good As It Gets (1997 - earning his second Best Actor award), and The Bucket List (2007).
(3) DUSTIN HOFFMAN (age 76) - Another veteran actor who dominated the box office with a series of hits beginning in the late 1960's and lasting well into the 1990's and 2000's, Hoffman is my choice for #3 on this list. He has been nominated for 7 Academy Award acting nods, winning the Best Actor award in 1979 for Kramer vs. Kramer, and in 1989 for Rain Man. He burst into stardom with his leading role in the groundbreaking 1967 film, The Graduate. Other prominent roles through the years including starring roles in such varied films as All The President's Men (1976), Tootsie (1982) and Meet the Fockers (2004). While his roles through the years have tended to be a little more comedic than some of the other actors on this list, his sheer number of box office hits give him a slight edge in my eyes over the next two actors in the top 10.
(4) AL PACINO (age 73) - Pacino starred in one of the most successful films of all-time, as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (earning a best supporting actor nod). Two years later, he was nominated for best actor for the same character in The Godfather Part II. He continued to portray a series of very intense characters in such 1970 and 1980 movies as Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and ...And Justice For All (1979) and Scarface (1982), before winning his one and only Academy Award for best actor in 1992's Scent of a Woman after seven previous nominations without a victory.
(5) ROBERT De NIRO (age 70) - Another intense Italian-American actor, De Niro also burst into the public through his role as the young Vito Corleone in 1974's The Godfather Part II (winning a best supporting actor - ironically he was almost cast as Michael Corleone but ended up losing that role to Pacino). He has appeared in many Martin Scorcese films through the years, earning Best Actor for 1980's Raging Bull, and such other well-known films as Taxi Driver (1976) and Goodfellas (1990). All told, he has been nominated for seven Academy Awards (with the two wins). Like several other actors on this list, many of his later films took on more comedic turns in such flicks as Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000). He continues to be one of the busiest actors in Hollywood and has appeared in more than 90 films in his 45-plus-year career.
(6) HARRISON FORD (age 71) - Maybe the first controversial member of my list, I'm putting Ford #6 because of his incredible box-office success through (mostly) the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. His first role of note was in the 1973 film American Graffiti (which he helped get in part due to his carpenter work on director George Lucas' home). He became a true star with his role of Han Solo in the first three Star Wars films. His reputation as Hollywood's top box office star was cemented when he took the lead role of Indiana Jones in 1980's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other major movies he starred in include Witness (garnering his lone Academy Award best actor nomination), Working Girl, Patriot Games and The Fugitive.
(7) KIRK DOUGLAS (age 97) - While Douglas' health has been poor since a 1996 stroke, his amazing film career dates back almost to World War II and he is just one of two living male members of AFI's 1999 list of greatest screen legends (along with Sidney Poitier). His most significant films include The Bad and the Beautiful, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lust For Life (receiving one of his three Best Actor nominations - he never won an actual award but he did receive an honorary award from the Academy in 1996), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Spartacus. His son Michael is also an accomplished actor/producer with two Academy Award wins.
(8) MICHAEL CAINE (age 80) - Caine is probably the most prolific actor on this list with more than 115 films in his filmography dating all the way back to the 1950's. His first prominent roles, however, were in the 1960's in such films as Zulu and Alfie (his first of six Academy Award nominations). He and Jack Nicholson are the only actors to be nominated for Academy Awards in five straight decades from the 1960's to the 2000's. Caine has two wins - for supporting acting roles in 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1999's The Cider House Rules.
(9) JANE FONDA (age 76) - One of Hollywood's leading ladies from the 1960's through the 1980's, Fonda announced her retirement from acting in 1991 but has appeared in a few films since then including 2005's Monster-in-Law. She has been nominated for seven Academy Awards with two wins (Coming Home in 1978 and On Golden Pond in 1981, which also was the only film her legendary father Henry Fonda won a Best Actor). She also is well known for her political activism, most notably her opposition to the Vietnam War. She also became a successful entrepreneur and a leader in the fitness craze of the 1980s with her numerous workout videos.
(10) TOM HANKS (age 57) - The youngest member of my list, Hanks continues to be a force in today's Hollywood and has been a huge box office success since his first role of note in 1984's Splash. A comedic actor initially in Hollywood and on television, Hanks transitioned into more serious roles in the 1990's and received back-to-back Best Actor wins for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He has five Academy Award nominations all told (with the two wins). His other more famous films include Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away and Toy Story.
Also under consideration (in alphabetical order): Lauren Bacall, Warren Beatty, Judi Dench, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, Mickey Rooney and Denzel Washington.
