Posted on 03/18/2009 6:36:29 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
No, it’s not any of those celebrities we’re told are stars. DiCaprio and George Clooney didn’t even make the top 10. Neither did Ashton Kutcher, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Seth Rogen, Matt Damon, Will Farrell, or Tom Cruise.
Every year for about 15 years now, Harris Interactive has conducted a nationwide poll and asked a very simple question: “Who is your favorite movie star?” And every year since the taking of the poll one particular individual has placed in the top ten — 13 of those years in the top 3.
This year, 2,388 U.S. adults were surveyed and this star rose three places to tie Will Smith for third. Only Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood rank as more popular.
One last hint before the reveal: This star is the only actor in the history of the poll to rank posthumously:
Here’s the 2009 rundown:
Denzel Washington
Clint Eastwood
John Wayne
Will Smith
Harrison Ford
Julia Roberts
Tom Hanks
Johnny Depp
Angelina Jolie
Morgan Freeman
In 2007, Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss (a film writer I respect) got it kinda wrong when Wayne ranked #3 back in 2007:
Nothing radical there, except that Pitt, Jolie and, oh, Tom Cruise were among the missing. …
Forget the youthquake. What America really loves is… old. Whatever Wayne represents - the Old Testament God, a Mount Rushmore face with a permanent scowl, the craggy soul of Frontier or Sunbelt America[.] …
Will Hollywood take any lessons from this poll - say, to make movies with, and for, older people. Nah. The moguls have read the small print in the Harris poll, and noted that it was weighted for many variables, but not to mirror the average age of moviegoers.
(Excerpt) Read more at bighollywood.breitbart.com ...
For me,Actor:John Wayne,Actress:Natalie Wood.
But that’s just me.
Yeah and Roberts is right in there between robber baron and robot... big deal.
First time I remember seeing her in a movie, I was in my late teens, and saw At Swords Point on tv. Since then I've always had a thing for STRONG, toe to toe women.
Why do all of you think John Wayne was so good? I have no problem with him as a person and I think the movies were classics, of course, but he really was not so hot as an actor. Now, Paul Newman, that man could ACT (excluding the Silver Chalice of course).
I liked Glenn Ford also. Another great actor from the older film days was Burt Lancaster.
Oh yes, a classic. The four phases of an actor’s career: (1) Who’s Jack Elam? (2) Get me Jack Elam. (3) Get me a young Jack Elam. (4) Who’s Jack Elam?
I remember the first time I saw a old John Wayne movie in France on TV. It was of course all dubbed into French, and when John Wayne got mighty upset, he let a string of manly EXPLETIVES fly. I was shocked! In our old movies we are used to the men never saying anything heavier than a hearty “Damn.” But the French thought that was far too sissy for the tough cowboy, so they dirtied up his language considerably. :)
Just goes to show you that the French don't know what real men are like. They know what being a sissy is like, but they think being a tough man is about swearing. And the more the tougher.
Clint Eastwood
...Sorry, even as a guy, we keep forgetting:
Kurt Russel1. From Disney to Snake Pliscan and beyond...always one of my favorites.
We love, love, love John Wayne at our house. He and my maternal grandfather looked so similar that as a small child, I actually believed that my grandaddy was John Wayne. lol
Copy the picture to a CD..buy a white T-Shirt..take them to Kinkos(or some other Print Center) and let them print it for you.
Wow. There’s one actual man on that list.
oops make that two actual men.
WAY TOO COOL! The Duke Rules! Posers Drool
One of the best movies ever made. If you ever get the chance, try to rent the DVD with the specials on it. There’s a wonderful documentary and an interview with Maureen O’Hara.
I think John Wayne was the quintessential American.
Rugged,individualistic,and self-sufficiant.
He didn’t ask anyone for anything.
I respect your opinion about Paul Newman,but what movie did he ever appear in that would compare with “The Sands of Iwo Jima”,or “The Longest Day”?
Newman was considered one of the “new-school” actors,along with Marlon Brando.
I’m relatively young for my age,(that’s a joke,son)but I never got the mystique of Newman,Brando, or the other “Anti-Heroes”.
But,again,that’s just me.
Newman wasn’t as powerful an actor as John Wayne but he was very good, his greatest movie is Cool Hand Luke.
Critics are only now starting to admit what a great actor Wayne was, for years his politics led the media to constantly mock him.
Here is a little from wikipedia.
“The Searchers continues to be widely regarded as perhaps Wayne’s finest and most complex performance. In 2006 Premiere Magazine ran an industry poll in which Wayne’s portrayal of Ethan Edwards was rated the 87th greatest performance in film history.”
” John Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969).”
“Wayne was also nominated as the producer of Best Picture for The Alamo, one of two films he directed. The other was The Green Berets (1968), the only major film made during the Vietnam War to support the war.”
“During the filming of Green Berets, the Degar or Montagnard people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, fierce fighters against communism, bestowed on Wayne a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and all subsequent films.”
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