Best Actor- All Time (according to IMDB)

I started out to do a little research to prove Holden wrong. Some of the movies I love the most have starred John Wayne, and I always felt he got a bad rap when it came to his acting.
So I went to Imdb and did research on what percentage of his, and other actors' movies had a rating of at least 7.0 (which I think marks a good movie on that site).
We need to get a little objectivity in this discussion.

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"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."- Groucho Marx

The Results (I just picked male actors out of my head, mostly American. I know I missed some people)

The second column is the number of movies at 7.0 or greater. The third is total number of movies. the fourth is the percentage.

WC Fields 22 28 79
Paul Muni 15 20 75
Toshiro Mifune 38 53 72
Jack Lemmon 23 36 64
Alec Guinness 29 50 58
Daniel Day Lewis 9 16 56
Johnny Depp 22 39 56
Al Pacino 22 40 55
Lawrence Olivier 35 65 54
Fredric March 25 48 52
Claude Rains 23 47 49
Dustin Hoffman 23 48 48
Cary Grant 29 62 47
Marlon Brando 21 45 47
Albert Finney 23 49 47
Ronald Colman 13 28 46
Matt Damon 17 38 45
Humphrey Bogart 31 71 44
Greory Peck 25 57 44
Spencer Tracy 25 57 44
Christian Bale 15 35 43
Jean Gabin 22 54 41
James Stewart 34 84 40
Burt Lancaster 33 83 40
Ewan McGregor 15 38 39
Gary Cooper 28 71 39
Henry Fonda 31 80 39
Robert De Niro 27 72 38
Tom Hanks 16 42 38
Denzel Washington 14 37 38
James Cagney 24 65 37
Russell Crowe 10 27 37
Brad Pitt 15 42 36
Kevin Spacey 15 42 36
William Powell 17 47 36
Yun-Fat Chow 16 46 35
Robert Duvall 30 86 35
Anthony Hopkins 25 74 34
Tom Cruise 10 30 33
Samuel Jackson 28 87 32
Orson Welles 25 79 32
Paul Newman 19 60 32
Sidney Poitier 15 47 32
Jeff Daniels 16 52 31
Edgar G Robinson 20 67 30
Clint Eastwood 17 57 30
Sean Connery 19 66 29
Errol Flynn 14 48 29
Harrison Ford 12 42 29
Jack Nicholson 16 58 28
Nicolas Cage 14 50 28
Charlie Chaplin 22 82 27
Richard Burton 15 55 27
Michael Caine 28 105 27
William Holden 17 65 26
Tyrone Power 11 43 26
James Caan 20 77 26
William Hurt 14 56 25
Peter O'Toole 16 67 24
Morgan Freeman 14 60 23
Joel McCrea 12 53 23
Gerard Depardieu 27 124 22
Rod Steiger 21 96 22
Peter Sellers 11 52 21
Ben Stiller 12 59 20
Harvey Keitel 18 88 20
George Raft 7 37 19
Matt Dillon 7 40 18
Chritian Slater 9 50 18
John Wayne 24 142 17
Clark Gable 12 69 17
Tommy Lee Jones 9 54 17
John Travolta 7 47 15
Randolph Scott 10 70 14
Alan Ladd 7 51 14
Mel Gibson 5 41 12
Bert Reynolds 4 97 4

A pretty good Top 10, by any standards

Paul Muni 15 20 75
Toshiro Mifune 38 53 72
Jack Lemmon 23 36 64
Alec Guinness 29 50 58
Daniel Day Lewis 9 16 56
Al Pacino 22 40 55
Lawrence Olivier 35 65 54
Fredric March 25 48 52
Dustin Hoffman 23 48 48
Cary Grant 29 62 47

And the Duke only beat out Mel Gibson. Holden was right again!

I don't see how the user ratings at the IMDb are any great source of objectivity. They're a gauge of what mostly boys mostly between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five with on-line access may skew towards (you know, and what they've bothered to watch), but I'd hardly use it as empirical data for much beyond that. It also doesn't necessarily follow that if a movie received a seven or higher on that site that it means the lead actor's performance was a great or even good one. It means the movie is popular among the people who bothered to vote. That's all.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I think the list of actors who came out on top show that the people voting are more knowledgeable than you give them credit for. Five years ago, you would probably have been right. But the fact that

Paul Muni
Toshiro Mifune
Jack Lemmon
Alec Guinness
Daniel Day Lewis
Al Pacino
Lawrence Olivier
Fredric March
Dustin Hoffman
Cary Grant

came out on top, kind of tells me that the voters on Imdb are more knowledgeable than you give them credit for.

Even if they're more knowledgeable, the fact still remains that the ratings are based on the films and not the set performance, surely some of the 7+ films the actor may have just starred in a bit part or cameo, i'm sure a lot Mifune's films are rated highly since to Kurosawa's efforts. It's an interesting experiment but would hardly call it conclusive.

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I'm sure you are right about Kurosawa/Mifune.

I didn't mean to present these ratings as being conclusive, only as a starting point for a discussion.

Another way to look at it would be best Actor Nominations. Those with 3 or more are :

1. Spencer Tracy (9)
2. Laurence Olivier (9)
3. Jack Nicholson (8)
4. Paul Newman (8)
5. Peter O'Toole (8)
6. Marlon Brando (7)
7. Dustin Hoffman (7)
8. Jack Lemmon (7)
9. Richard Burton (6)
10. Tom Hanks (5)
11. Fredric March (5)
12. Gary Cooper (5)
13. Robert DeNiro (5)
14. Paul Muni (5)
15. Al Pacino (5)
16. Gregory Peck (5)
17. James Stewart (5)
18. Ronald Colman (4)
19. Charles Boyer (4)
20. Burt Lancaster (4)
21. Albert Finney (4)
22. Michael Caine (4)
23. James Cagney (3)
24. Clark Gable (3)
25. Charles Laughton (3)
26. Denzel Washington (3)
27. William Hurt (3)
28. Russell Crowe (3)
29. Humphrey Bogart (3)
30. Daniel-Day Lewis (3)
31. Anthony Hopkins (3)
32. William Powell (3)

Actually, Daniel-Day Lewis should be on both of your lists. To date he has three Oscar nominations as Best Actor (one win): My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father and Gangs of New York.

Thanks. Now the differences in the two lists top 32 are :

Nominations List has : Nicholson, O'Toole, Burton, Boyer, Gable, Laughton, Caine, Newman and Hurt

The Imdb List has : Mifune, Guinness, Grant, Gabin, McGregor, Pitt, Spacey, Chow and Fonda

I'd take Imdb list.

And Charles Laughton had three nominations as Best Actor (one win): The Private Life of Henry VIII, Mutiny on the Bounty and Witness for the Prosecution.

Clark Gable had three noms (one win): It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty and Gone with the Wind.

And Charles Boyer, he had four nominations: Conquest, Algiers, Gaslight & Fanny.

And Clark Gable and Anthony Hopkins are missing too. The original list I got from filmsite.org wasn't any good.

http://www.filmsite.org/bestactor.html


I'm really surprised that I am having so much trouble finding an accurate list of Most Nominations on line.

And William Powell, he had three Best Actor noms as well: The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey & Life with Father.

Harrison Ford made the most money.

Oh, and Jimmy Cagney had three nominations as Best Actor, too (with one win): Angels with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy and Love Me or Leave Me.

Lists, lists, lists, lists, lists. I'm listing slightly to the right now...

One thing that blows it right out of the water for me - Larry Olivier was a frightful old ham, straight out of the Michael MacLiammoir school.

He made some great films, though.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Except that Mifune, for all that he is most closely associated with Kurosawa, did the majority of his films for other directors. Remember, Mifune stayed extraordinarily busy throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, and didn't work with Kurosawa at all after 1967.

And yes, I firmly believe he was probably the finest film actor of all time.

Even if Holden doesn't like John W, it doesn't mean he is right, you can still like him and his work

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But if you look at his filmography on Imdb, 9 of his top 13 movies (using Imdb ratings) were directed by Kurosawa.