Which number one box office star had the best career?

i want to vote a&c but arnold has just given me so many more hours of pleasure over the last 30 years

Maybe Stewart, Maybe Eastwood.

Biggest surprises, no Bogart, Brando, Henry Fonda, Bruce Willis or Matt Damon. I thought Schwarzenegger would have been number one for more than a single year (1991).

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6DpEiwWPjI8/SlQenHJE1sI/AAAAAAAAFTU/KXJ0Ciwenf8/s400/vertigo3.gif

harrison ford

this is jimmy stewart for me but i wish harrison ford had had a better career or that nicholson hadn't succumbed to jack.

or been in more than one james l. brooks movie.

Jimmy Stewart thirded.

Stewart, Holden, Nicholson... hard to choose

Maybe Stewart, Maybe Eastwood.

maybe go fuck yourself

(sorry)

Was that a Dirty Harry quote?

feel sorta proud of sandy b for getting name on this list tbh

voted jimmy stewart tho

Was that a Dirty Harry quote?

departed yo

ARNOLD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJj3mERrEgA

No Cary Grant????

I know Stewart is probably the righter answer, but I'm voting Newman anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxn0Xfqkgw

Does this mean Bullock is CURRENTLY no 1? Can't be right.

she's america's sweetheart!

she also won an oscar for a kindly white lady rescues talent black kid movie. we eat that shit uo.

No Cary Grant????

multi xpost

Nope, Grant's best year was 1959 when he was runner up to Rock Hudson.

Bullock was number one in 2009, Depp was number one in 2010. She didn't even make the top 10 last year.

from Sly Stallone down the list gets depressing.

tho I have far more love for Jack than most of you.

this is cracking me the fuck up:

Stars of Tomorrow

Zach Galifianakis
Michelle Williams

...what if they mated...

Does this mean Bullock is CURRENTLY no 1? Can't be right.

naw its for 2009 when she had three movies out (all of which made money i think?) xps

i want to do this really scientifically somehow, like look at each actor's biggest hits or what they had out the year(s) they were #1, but i'll probably just go with my gut (although even that way i don't have any particular snap judgement)

No Cary Grant????

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:02 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

that's who i was looking for, too.

this is cracking me the fuck up:

Stars of Tomorrow

Zach Galifianakis
Michelle Williams

― cr?m margera (some dude), Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

haha, that made me go o_0 too

Good poll. You could look at them through a Bill James career value vs. peak value prism. Career value: Wayne or Stewart or Nicholson. Peak value: Stewart, Newman, or Nicholson. Since it's a career poll, I'll vote for Nicholson, but Stewart or Wayne would be good choices.

my serious answer would prob be jimmy stewart, but in my heart of hearts i really can't vote for anyone but arnold. what an improbable 'star'

i know Burt Reynolds being #1 for five years straight shouldn't be surprising but it's still so o_O

Good poll. You could look at them through a Bill James career value vs. peak value prism. Career value: Wayne or Stewart or Nicholson. Peak value: Stewart, Newman, or Nicholson. Since it's a career poll, I'll vote for Nicholson, but Stewart or Wayne would be good choices.

I agree. If polling more recent entries, Nicholson would top mine, hands down, with Eastwood next: the guy still stars or co-stars in #1 potboilers or worse yet still makes the occasional art house gesture to remind us that he's a good actor too.

i dont know if i want to live in a world where shia le boeuf made the list two years running

3 star wars movies, 3 indiana jones movies, and blade runner. what more do you want from a star! & well just pretend random hearts never happened.

had to go with James Stewart.

the guy still stars or co-stars in #1 potboilers or worse yet still makes the occasional art house gesture to remind us that he's a good actor too.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:18 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

are you talking about nicholson or eastwood?

a good pool wld be which of the 00s has the worst top 10 imo

i kinda forgot that harrison ford is famous or really just alive tbh never mind that hes been in some good movies & star wars

he's talking about shia le bouef

plus: witness! the fugitive! air force one! the jack ryan movies! k-19 the widowmaker!

even hollywood homicide seemed okay, though tbf i saw it in spanish

you underestimate harrison ford at your own peril

i saw a preview for that cowboys and aliens movie and harrison ford finally looks old in a way that doesn't freak me out. like now he just looks like a grizzled old man instead of looking like an uncanny ruin of his former handsome self. this is probably not relevant to the thread but anyway.

regarding henry!

if only hed never pierced his ear, you guys would take him more seriously

never thought glenn ford was that big of a star though he was in some good ones

also
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/jamawalk2/Slapped-by-Glenn-Ford-640.jpg

ford's been coasting for so damn long that i've developed a distaste for the guy, hard to evaluate him objectively

I'm voting Poitier because I'm a bigot

SEAN CONNERY

i saw a preview for that cowboys and aliens movie and harrison ford finally looks old in a way that doesn't freak me out. like now he just looks like a grizzled old man instead of looking like an uncanny ruin of his former handsome self.

but is he still rocking the lone gold hoop earring (xp!!!)

if only hed never pierced his ear, you guys would take him more seriously

― ☂ (max), Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:22 PM (23 seconds ago) Bookmark

he really needs to take that thing out, its just getting weird now

Frantic!
Six Days, Seven Nights!

i saw morning glory and it was terrible but harrison ford (and diane keaton) were the only bright spots

xp i didn't see the hoop! that was probably a huge part of it

i was gonna say ed bradley too, but it turns out hes dead - wonder if they buried him with it :[

Gotta be Clint for me, two great careers and one of my favourite movie stars.

LAY OFF THE EARRING

(signed, dude who wears one earring)

oh, dan.

the 90s were a long time ago, man.

http://jaynir.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/harrison-ford-indiana-jones-c10037164.jpg?w=317&h=398

one of the great movie stars of all time

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Harrison_Ford_and_Calista_Flockhart_at_the_2009_Deauville_American_Film_Festival-02_cropped.jpg

guy trying to sell you a condo

On 7 June 2007, Connery denied rumours that he would appear in the fourth Indiana Jones film, stating that "retirement is just too much damned fun"

the 90s were a long time ago, man.

they will never die until I do

bury me in my raver pants

he should give his one hoop earring to michael jordan and theyd both look a lot better

Why has Ford let a sea anemone grow on his head?

ford i mean, not dan

he looks like someone's worldly/kindly gay uncle who's always good for thanksgiving conversation

(signed, dude who wears one earring)

well unless you were a very slow starter you arent PUSHING 70! (xp - lol that picture is the exact one where i was just smdh)

that sd 'fugitive' is such a badass movie - totally redeems all his other 90s flix

anyway fuck Harrison Ford for forcing us to forget the tripe of the last fifteen years because he was Han Solo and Indy.

ford is the kind of guy who should have grown a beard in old age

julia

sean connery figured it out, why cant he?

I wear a diamond, not a hoop

I've got a pot leaf floating around somewhere too but having to wear it to church one Sunday in college because I lost my conservative earring taught me the value of boring earrings

ha!

ford is the kind of guy who should have grown a beard in old age

on his head?

could have claimed it was a fig leaf

you wearing a pot leaf earring seems v out of character to me for some reason

xp

can't go to church without an earring?

dan do you ever borrow one of yr wife's earings just for kicks around the house? it's okay if you do.

that sd 'fugitive' is such a badass movie - totally redeems all his other 90s flix

― "what a great post" - some (Lamp), Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:28 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yep - redeems a lot of TLJ's clunkers too

this is a safe space.

The last man who mentioned him around here was Archie Leach

:)

i think just being tommy lee jones redeems a lot of his clunkers tbh. i love him.

ditto

tommy lee jones was born grizzled and cynical so really we were just waiting for age and career to catch up.

reading abt william holden's personal life is kinda o_O

you wearing a pot leaf earring seems v out of character to me for some reason

that is because you didn't know me in college, lol; I actually got my ear pierced specifically for that earring, which I think I wore twice.

can't go to church without an earring?

I'd just recently had my ear pierced and lost the starter earring they gave me; I was terrified that the ear hole would seal back up.

I don't really understand why I was totes A-OK wearing a t-shirt with MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO on it in to a church service but was all "oh shit" over a pot leaf earring, but then again I didn't make all that much sense in college.

dan do you ever borrow one of yr wife's earings just for kicks around the house? it's okay if you do.

lol I put on one of her ridiculous dangly earrings ones and decided she had earlobes of steel because those shits are HEAVY

i hate when tlj sleepwalks through a role, but when he brings the ruckus its just like all is forgiven thomas~~

im developing a sitcom/reality show about al gore and tommy lee jones moving back in with each other after al and tipper divorce

i would watch the hell out of that

would watch incessantly (xp!)

i love tlj but i feel like if he had his way hed only star in movies that started life as newyorker short stories. & not even the good newyorker short stories im talking the ones they burn off in mid-february that are abt 'the plains' or w/e

omg yes
xxp

i love tlj but i feel like if he had his way hed only star in movies that started life as newyorker short stories. & not even the good newyorker short stories im talking the ones they burn off in mid-february that are abt 'the plains' or w/e

the Annie Proulx variety

xp
I hope Fred Willard has a walk in part as Bill Clinton.

they move in together because they are heading back to grad school; TLJ is getting a business school degree and AG is in film school

lol there's a tommie lee jones thread in which shakey calls him awful and everyone else bristles

tommie? tommy, of course

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20071012&t=2&i=1931637&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2007-10-12T210112Z_01_N12437521_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE0
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9CE24uCUnEg/S9OZV-oZNAI/AAAAAAAAAFI/9Ua0e4vzovs/s1600/no-country-for-old-men_tommy-lee-jones_josh-brolin_javier-bardem_9.jpg

Paul Newman

paul newman had the handsomest career. rip.

also best fake oreos

u know what - i know that this is like objectively true but he never did it for me

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/269752162_728578c04d.jpg?v=0

yea i def still eat his food all the time, gr8 marinara xp

paul newman had the handsomest career. rip.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YXGxtLmzMkE/SN6cH7UyVGI/AAAAAAAAB2o/VeBqvtYFqq0/s320/paul_newman.jpg

"what a great... actor"

"Hello, Newman."

after Stewart, Newman had the best middle and old age -- he got fun in the seventies and eighties.

Marie Dressler - "We must talk about the Civil War sometime."
Will Rogers - Great guy, not much of a career.
Shirley Temple - Lovely child, meh teenager, good ambassadress
Mickey Rooney - C'mon...
Abott & Costello - Not long enough
Betty Grable - Nice gams
Bing Crosby - To me he's really a singer
Bob Hope - To me he's just a guy w/a schtick
John Wayne - Good at what he did but not much breadth to his talent
Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis - Loveable, goofy and too light
Gary Cooper - A pretender, but second-tier
James Stewart - A serious contender
William Holden - A serious contender
Rock Hudson - Just not my cup of tea
Glenn Ford - Not quite
Doris Day - Great singer and lovely lady but her persona is offputting to me.
Elizabeth Taylor - How many of her films do I love? A few.
Sean Connery - A great and over decades. Def a contender.
Julie Andrews - I can think of maybe three of her films
Sidney Poitier - Kind of one-note
Paul Newman - Amazing career
Clint Eastwood
Robert Redford - Nice guy but his directing disqulifies him.
Sylvester Stallone - Huh?
Burt Reynolds - Nope
Tom Cruise - Still like him best in 'Taps'.
Eddie Murphy - Man, I loved him in 'Bowfinger' and he has a solid career
Jack Nicholson - Someone above said something about him turning into Jack. Seconded.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Puerile films for the most part.
Kevin Costner - One movie of his I like.
Tom Hanks - Good career. I prefer him behind the camera too much to think of him as a 'box office star'
Harrison Ford - Not quite.
Julia Roberts - Not even.
Jim Carrey - Too early.
Johnny Depp - Sold out to dross too easily
Will Smith - Haven't seen
Sandra Bullock - Nice lady but really?

In terms of overall respect over the years, it's Eastwood. He's made terrible decisions and then followed them up with good (or much better) ones. He's famously good to his crews. He's done comedy and drama and a musical; TV and films. He's directed and produced. He's been a pretty tough guy, a tough guy, a wash-up, some weird dude w/an orang. He made movies like 'Dirty Harry' and then followed them years later w/ a movie like 'Unforgiven'. He was under contract in the dying days of the studio system.

Well, it's a tribute to, well, something that Eastwood scored one of his biggest hits ever just two years ago.

Robert Redford - Nice guy but his directing disqulifies him

His other films are average to terrible, but Quiz Show is a better movie than a lot of these stars have chosen.

Julie Andrews - I can think of maybe three of her films

wait waht

but Quiz Show is a better movie than a lot of these stars have chosen.

Fair enough

I mean... Sound of Music? Mary Poppins? 10? S.O.B.? Victor/Victoria? Enchanted? The Princess Diaries movies? The Shrek movies?

i dont really know if arnold needs the "for the most part" qualification there

I'm trying to think of what Arnold's least puerile movie would be and I keep thinking "The Last Action Hero" which really doesn't seem right, and yet...

maybe "True Lies"...?

wait waht

'Mary Poppins', 'Victor/Victoria', and '10'. Was she in 'The Sound of Music'? I can't recall. I hate the flick so much.

Enchanted? The Princess Diaries movies? The Shrek movies?

Haven't seen SOB or the Princess movies but my bad for forgetting Shrek.

all of Arnold's movies are garbage

i only know julie andrews so well because my mom sings every song in a julie andrews voice.

this includes things like dmx's party up.

I don't dislike her at all. I have her recording of 'My Fair Lady'.

...

she was the MAIN CHARACTER in "The Sound of Music"!

lol, that's kind of like saying "was Harrison Ford in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'? I hate that movie so much"

I know but it's a little before my time and I never watch it or see it

looooooooooooooooooooooooool

she plays the nazi iirc

It's one of her defining roles!

I mean, it's akin to asking "Did Jimmy Stewart work with Hitchcock?"

Julie Andrews was the original Terminator, guys. She ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT STOP.

When I first went to Salzburg, there were the tourists who would go to the Wohnhaus and Tomaselli's and Hohensalzburg and then there were the tourists who would get in the bus and take the 'TSOM' tour.

they probably had more fun

would totally get stoned and go twirling down hills singing von trapp songs tbh

Bob Hope - To me he's just a guy w/a schtick
Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis - Loveable, goofy and too light

what, are you lex?!? all funny people are on their shoulders, towering figures

Would y'all just stop for a moment and reflect upon the fact that this woman was the number one box office star in America at one point:

http://www.latimes.com/includes/projects/hollywood/portraits/marie_dressler.jpg

So my vote easily goes to Marie Dressler. Her fame is practically the only thing that would put me into "those were the good ole days" mode (or at least "history is not always progress" mode).

P.S. She was a lesbian.

I rather doubt it. I ended up meeting some insane Scottish punks, getting drunk and ending up in the railway station going back to Vienna, defending a rather gnädige Fraulein from their coarse anti-German insults, got a date the next night and proceeded to get deleted.

Big fan of Dressler, btw.

weird that "deleted" is the German slang equivalent of "head"

you don't want to know what "partition format" means then

can't really agree with first two terminators as 'garbage'.

Stewart or clint, picked stewart.

P.S. She was a lesbian.

Supposedly w/Garbo, right?

Eastwood (I'm aware I just got SBed off the planet for this one but eat my cocoa butter-flavored nuts)

lots of ppl picked eastwood

tbf i still sb'd you

weird that "deleted" is the German slang equivalent of "head"

Ha ha, actually I was a callow youth and I remember her rolling me over and saying in that irresistible Germanic way, "I em not finisht yet." It was fun getting my krieg blitzed.

xpost thx dawg

tbh i didn't read most of the thread, I just assumed Eastwood was the type that ILE would consider a 'shallow' director......

I find it more mind boggling that Michael has managed to avoid Will Smith for the past 20 years than not being up to snuff on Julie Andrews Filmography.

xposts to Michael White

Not sure about Garbo but she lived with a younger actress named Claire DuBrey for many years.

P.S. I've been to the Marie Dressler Museum (really just a room) in Cobourg, Ontario!

I've never seen a Will Smith movie either and have no plans to

#badgeofhonor

nah that wax cuba gooding jr

That picture of Paul Newman Lamp posted is seriously the hottest I think any man has ever looked. Ever. I love it so much.

God damn.

Also I never noticed Ford's earring before. :( I'm blaming Calista.

Jimmy Stewart is a god

i think calista was of a piece with the mid-life crisis harrison ford was having that led to the earring

i could do without jimmy stewart tbh

i guess i love vertigo though

<3 Rear Window and Vertigo

I don't know what my real answer to this question is. I can't stop staring tat that picture long enough to decide.

This is Paul Newman's to lose.

i could do without jimmy stewart tbh

I really can't do without SB-ing you, tbh.

kinda surprised how few of these ppl i care about. stewart by some distance.

that's fair

xp

I've only seen Marie Dressler in Dinner at Eight. Is Min and Bill even available on DVD?

I can't be bothered to think seriously about this, and I've never seen any Will Rogers movies but I'm going to vote for him because he was the coolest.

Newman comes in a close second though. I like his cookies.

a shame he never had hooters

To me Stewart had the most impressive career. I don't think anyone else on the list comes close to his range. Depending on the needs of the script, he could be credibly funny, romantic, idealistic, sentimental, violent, cynical, kinky, or crazy.

He also retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general, so he gets some extra credit for a concurrent second career.

whenever i see that picture of newman i just figure i should quit trying to "be attractive" in any way, at all, ever

also this

i want to vote a&c but arnold has just given me so many more hours of pleasure over the last 30 years

― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Tuesday, June 21, 2011 3:47 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/T-Ball_06_039_website.jpg

tbh arnold's hilarious personal life makes me much more likely to give him +1s than even T2... i mean dude was just str8 dgaf ballin from the day he started ~*pumpen iron*~

Newman.

That picture of Paul Newman Lamp posted is seriously the hottest I think any man has ever looked. Ever. I love it so much.

God damn.

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, June 21, 2011 6:10 PM (1 hour ago)

That pic made me reevaluate my orientation for a few minutes.

dude it happens its almost kinda creepy that way

lol

It's amazing. I know that I've posted that particular picture in Vintage WS at least 2x.

i ws classic paul newman.

signed,
generally prefers boobs but here we are

<3333333

hahahahaha

my mom actually made it clear to me at a young age that Paul Newman Was The Handsomest Man There Ever Was http://teslastaging.com/forums/images/smilies/Gestures/userArmsCrossed.gif and i guess...she was right

I want to give that young movie star a hickey.

MOM OTM

My mother hates movies, but when Paul Newman died, he was all she could talk about for like a week.

Hopefully my reasons for voting for him were my own.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

NO CARY GRANT???

voted jimmy stewart w/ eastwood, wayne, nicholson somewhere bunched up behind him

pretty otm

i ended up going with James Stewart. mr. awe-shucks's career was pretty unfuckwithable.

grandma thought Cary Grant was Handsomest Man Ever (there was this cutout headshot of him glued to a popsicle stick she'd keep on the fridge and would teasingly make my grandpa hold it up in front of his head when she was mad at him so as to forget her anger more quickly), mom thinks Handsomest Man Ever is Neuman and so does sister.

http://www.leconcombre.com/concpost/us/postcard4/alfred_e_neuman.jpg?

haha

awesome granny story tbf

hard to argue w/ the longevity of Newman's career, even if I like Jimmy Stewart better as an actor.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

mind the gap