50 Greatest Movie Stars list

[emperordorkin]

Premiere Magazine recently compiled a “50 Greatest Movie Stars Of All Time” list. Read and cringe…

1. Cary Grant
2. Marilyn Monroe
3. Tom Cruise
4. John Wayne
5. Ingrid Bergman
6. Paul Newman
7. Julia Roberts
8. Greta Garbo
9. James Stewart
10. Henry Fonda
11. James Cagney
12. Grace Kelly
13. Humphrey Bogart
14. Katharine Hepburn
15. Marlon Brando
16. Jack Nicolson
17. Robert Redford
18. Audrey Hepburn
19. Spencer Tracy
20. Sidney Poitier
21. Clark Gable
22. Judy Garland
23. Fred Astaire
24. Doris Day
25. Bette Davis
26. Errol Flynn
27. Gregory Peck
28. Tom Hanks
29. Warren Beatty
30. James Dean
31. Steve McQueen
32. Jane Fonda
33. Shirley Temple
34. Rita Hayworth
35. Harrison Ford
36. Sean Connery
37. Al Pacino
38. Robert De Niro
39. Denzel Washington
40. Elizabeth Taylor
41. Peter Sellers
42. Gary Cooper
43. Clint Eastwood
44. Will Smith
45. Jack Lemmon
46. Meryl Streep
47. Johnny Depp
48. Nicole Kidman
49. Russell Crowe
50. Brad Pitt

Ok…I know that Premiere is just one of those “we love everyone and everything that’s popular” movie magazines….but for chrissake, what the HELL is Tom Cruise doing at number three?! Julia Roberts at number seven?! And why is Will freakin’ Smith even ON this list?! Above Jack Lemmon and Meryl Streep and right below Clint Eastwood no less?!!

Other puzzlers:
---Bogart, Brando and Kate Hepburn not making the top ten.
---Pacino and De Niro just barely cracking the top 30!
---Jack Lemmon, but no Walter Matthau? And, c'mon, what about Dustin Hoffman?! Or George C. Scott...or Burt Lancaster...or Robert Mitchum...or......

To be fair, when this list was being created, they were most likely thinking more in terms of “Ooooh, look darling, isn’t that_______ over there?!” than in terms of “Now there’s a damn good actor/actress!”. But, if this was the mentality, then why not include Burt Reynolds and John Travolta (quite a lot of crappy films among them and questionable actors at best…but their popularity was HUGE in the 70’s and 80’s) as well as Rudolph Valentino (the first mega movie star…hell, his funeral was a mob riot!)

I should really curb my list obsession, I guess…

[Torgo]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Tom Cruise at #3! That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

I will admit to being a Will Smith fan, but he does seem oddly out of place on that list, even with such a low ranking.

[Mr. Atari]

Well, they did call it the "Movie Stars" list and not the "Actors" list.

And as terrible as Cruise is as an actor, he brings in the bank. Which is obscene and a testament to the idiocy of groupthink.

It would be fun to list our own top "Actors" list. Where we could each list our top 3 or 5 and see who gets mentioned the most.

[Torgo]

That is technically true. But I wouldn't go as far as to call Cruise a terrible actor. I thought he was fantastic in War of the Worlds (even though the rest of the movie was surprisingly bland, especially with Spielberg at the helm) and Mission: Impossible is a personal fav of mine.

I just don't hold him to nearly that much respect.

[Shep]

sampo said:

Well, they did call it the "Movie Stars" list and not the "Actors" list.

Exactly. These are personalities, not artists.

Acting-wise, Tom Cruise, Marilyn Monroe and Julia Roberts are pretty laughable choices.

[Da Worm Fizzle]

How about Angelina Jolie? She always manages to bring people to her lousy movies. I would add Samuel L. Jackson because he is the f*ck*n man! Yes they deserved to die, and I hope they burn in hell!

[yousonuva]

If you're making a shallow biggest stars list, how do you not include Arnold?

[Don Quixote]

For that matter, why is Marilyn Monroe above Ingrid Bergman?

[Mr. Atari]

donquixote said:

For that matter, why is Marilyn Monroe above Ingrid Bergman?

THANK YOU!

One of them was the most beautiful woman ever in Hollywood.

The other one liked having wind blow up her skirt.

Which reminds me....off to the blonde thread I go....

[Captain Hygiene]

Shirley Temple > Robert De Niro ? I thought that was mathematically impossible.

[Don Quixote]

I think Bogart and Hepburn should be higher up on that list as well.

But ah well, if I wanted that to happen that badly, I suppose I could create a magazine company, and publish it.