I once presented you top 10 favourite actors. But, of course, I have much more than only 10 favourite actors, even more than 100 favourite actors. But I’ll keep that to this number as it is a beautiful number, no? Of course this list contains my own personal choices. I don’t say that an actor is better than another one if he is higher in the list. The most important thing to know here is that, I love all the actors on this list, even number 100!
It was, of course, not an easy exercise and I’m working on it since quite a long time. Of course, is this actor REALLY my #58? Well, for the moment, yes, but it may always change. The thing is, there are some actors I love as much as some others, so it’s hard to make decisions.
Anyway, in general, this list will give you a view of what my tastes are. Here, we have all types of actors, classic, modern, leading man, character actors, etc. I only want to precise that, on my list, I only included the actors from whom I had seen at least two films.
So, here we go! Enjoy!
1. James Stewart
2. William Holden
3. Marlon Brando
4. Cary Grant
5. Burt Lancaster
6. Gregory Peck
7. Joseph Cotten
8. Robert de Niro
9. Gary Cooper
10. Peter O’Toole
11. Jack Lemmon
12. Buster Keaton
13. Charlie Chaplin
14. Michael Redgrave
15. James Cagney
16. James Mason
17. Robert Mitchum
18. Fredric March
19. Laurence Olivier
20. Claude Rains
21. John Gielgud
22. Peter Lorre
23. Sidney Poitier
24. Robert Young
25. Jack Carson
26. Humphrey Bogart
27. George Kennedy
28. Paul Douglas
29. Charles Laughton
30. Jack Nicholson
31. Eli Wallach
32. Montgomery Clift
33. Spencer Tracy
34. Herbert Marshall
35. Henry Fonda
36. Dustin Hoffman
37. Anthony Hopkins
38. Stewart Granger
39. Paul Newman
40. Leonardo DiCaprio
41. Earl Holliman
42. David Niven
43. Rémy Girard
44. Robert Donat
45. John Williams
46. Clark Gable
47. Arthur Kennedy
48. John Mills
49. Lee J. Cobb
50. Cecil Kellaway
51. Paul Henreid
52. Michel Côté
53. Edward G. Robinson
54. Walter Pidgeon
55. Paul Dupuis
56. Pierre Fresnay
57. Lew Ayres
58. Rod Steiger
59. Dana Andrews
60. Karl Malden
61. Tom Hanks
62. Bing Crosby
63. Frank Sinatra
64. Gilbert Sicotte
65. Robert Ryan
66. Naunton Wayne
67. Louis Calhern
68. Dennis Hopper
69. Glenn Ford
70. Brian Aherne
71. Robin Williams
72. Thomas Mitchell
73. Charlton Heston
74. Yul Brynner
75. Tony Curtis
76. George Raft
77. Lionel Barrymore
78. Basil Radford
79. Morgan Freeman
80. George Sanders
81. Al Pacino
82. Sterling Hayden
83. Michael Rennie
84. Eric Blore
85. S.Z Sakall
86. Martin Balsam
87. James Dean
88. Paul Lukas
89. Alan Arkin
90. Wallace Ford
91. Tyrone Power
92. Rod Taylor
93. Richard Basehart
94. Jude Law
95. Richard Dreyfuss
96. Andrew Prine
97. Robert Duvall
98. Roger Moore (the only exception to the rules, as I haven’t seen him in any movies, but only a TV show: The Saint.)
99. Walter Matthau
100. Cliff Robertson
Ok, honorable mention to Warren Beatty, Kevin Spacey, Clint Eastwood, Louis Jourdan, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Richard Burton, Ernest Borgnine and many others favourites that I would have loved to include on the list. I have to say, that’s the hardest thing I ever did for my blog! A very difficult, but worthy exercise. The problem with these tops is that they may always change depending on the actors you discover in the future.
Anyway, I hope there’s at least ONE actor you like or love among those on this list. Otherwise, well, we have VERY different tastes ahah!
Stay tuned for a ultimate top 100 of my favourite actresses!
The Wonderful World of Cinema 
Oh controversial Ginnie! Some interesting choices there.
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No John Barrymore on the list?? He’s my favorite along with Spencer Tracy.
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Aww I haven’t seen any of his movies yet unfortunately.
But I’m planning to watch 20th Century asap
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Oh my, oh my, oh my!!! That must have been hard! I was surprised to see Al Pacino and Tom Hanks so low on the list, and I was kind of hoping Jack Lemmon would be in your top 10 (almost! lol).
I could NEVER do this kind of list, so well done! lol I’m impressed.
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I plan to do mine as well, but it’s a lot of work and it needs a whole day to really dedicate to it. So, I am very impressed with the energy and you love that you’ve poured in making this list. As always, it’s very interesting list.
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Thanks Miedy! 🙂 And good luck if you do one! 😉
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Great list! I couldn’t make a list of 100 it would be so difficult. I went through the list twice. I’m very surprised that Alec Guiness hasn’t made it?
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Great list with great actors. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of my top together with many of the ones you already have on there. I love that your list reminded me of the Super 8 movies I used to watch with my parents as a little girl and can’t believe how many movies I had forgotten about: Last of Sheila (James Mason), Vera Cruz (Gary Cooper), Little Caesar (Edward G. Robinson) and Soylent Green (Edward G. Robinson and Charlton Heston) and the list goes on. Thanks goodness a weekend is coming up as I now want to watch some of them that I have managed to track down on DVD over the years.
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very eclectic list, Virginie!! You do love your lists..knew Jimmywas #1, glad you included Spencer Tracy and Al Pacino. Also I would have included George C. Scott but it is all subjective. Looking forward to your top actresses with Audrey Hepburn being # 1.
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I almost included him!
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An interesting exercise. We share a lot of same choices. I liked that you included a few that were not among the usual suspects.
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Only american actors?
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Not at all. Cary Grant, Peter O’Toole, Charlie Chaplin, Michael Redgrave, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Claude Rains, John Gielgud, Charles Laughton, Herbert Marshall, Antony Hopkins, Stewart Granger, David Niven, Robert Donat, John Williams, John Mills, Cecil Kellaway, Nauton Wayne, Brian Aherne, Basil Radford, George Sanders, Michael Rennie, Eric Blore, Jude Law and Roger Moore are British (Irish for O’Toole); Peter Lorre and Paul Henreid are Austrian; S.Z Sakall and Paul Lukas are Hungarian; Pierre Fresnay is French; Jack Carson, Rémy Girard, Michel Côté, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Dupuis, Gilbert Sicotte and Glenn Ford are Canadian/French-Canadian; and Rod Taylor is Australian. Thank you! 🙂
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[…] it is! Finally! Almost two years after having published my top 100 favourite actors (which already has to be updated, I’ve finally decided to do the same with my favourite […]
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