Who was the best Hollywood actor of the 1960's?

[SWC75]

Who is the best actor in Hollywood from the 1960s?

My choice: Paul Newman. The Hustler, Hud, Harper, Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a pretty strong hand to play.

 

[upperdeck]

Steve McQueen
Mag. 7
Hell is for Heroes
The Great Escape
The Cinci kid
Nevada Smith
the Sand Pebbles
the Thomas Crown Affair
Bullitt

and the Wanted dead or alive tv show

 

[CousCuse]

Jim Brown.

 

[bigmike]

Carlton Heston - Planet of the Apes, enough said. Also, Henry Fonda had a nice decade.

 

[orangeinohio]

That’s a tough choice for me between Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.
Those guys are both icons.
I gotta go with Steve McQueen. Dude was a manly man

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Who is the best actor in Hollywood from the 1960s?

My choice: Paul Newman. The Hustler, Hud, Harper, Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a pretty strong hand to play.

I looked up Brando. He was nominated for 4 or 5 Oscars in the 50's and a couple in the early 70's with a few wins but none in the 60's so not him. Richard Burton was nominated for 4 Oscars in the 60's which I think is the most of any actor. The 60's was a transitional decade for movies. You still had some war movies and westerns with the Duke and of course you had West Side Story and then towards the end of the decade you had the Graduate. Such a wide array of genres.

 

[Day2]

That’s a tough choice for me between Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.
Those guys are both icons.
I gotta go with Steve McQueen. Dude was a manly man

For Your Consideration: Sidney Poitier

A Raisin in the Sun
Paris Blues
Pressure Point
Lillies of the Field (Oscar winner)
The Slender Thread
A Patch of Blue
Duel at Diablo
To Sir, With Love
In the Heat of the Night
Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner?

And many, many more.

 

[Symphony Steve]

Gotta give Burt Lancaster a shout-out. Won the Academy Award for Elmer Gantry. Nominated for The Birdman Of Alcatraz. Also appeared in Judgement at Nuremburg, Seven Days In May, The Leopard, The Train, The Professionals, and The Scalphunters, among others.

Still think that it was Newman's best decade, though. And Lancaster's performances in the '50's were just incredible. Probably my favorite actor of all-time.

Which reminds me, if you've never seen 'Sweet Smell Of Success', also starring Tony Curtis, you owe it to yourself. I love that movie, and the noirishness of it.

 

[orangeinohio]

For Your Consideration: Sidney Poitier

A Raisin in the Sun
Paris Blues
Pressure Point
Lillies of the Field (Oscar winner)
The Slender Thread
A Patch of Blue
Duel at Diablo
To Sir, With Love
In the Heat of the Night
Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner?

And many, many more.

Good call. In the Heat of the Night is awesome.

 

[GreekFreak]

The Duke - John Wayne. Top grossing actor of the 60s. A few of his movies included:
- The Alamo (Best Picture Nominee)
- How The West Was Won (Best Picture Nominee)
- The Longest Day (Best Picture Nominee)
- True Grit (Best Actor Win)
- Hatari
- The Sons if Katie Elder
He is a legend.

 

[orangeinohio]

The Duke - John Wayne. Top grossing actor of the 60s. A few of his movies included:
- The Alamo (Best Picture Nominee)
- How The West Was Won (Best Picture Nominee)
- The Longest Day (Best Picture Nominee)
- True Grit (Best Actor Win)
- Hatari
- The Sons if Katie Elder
He is a legend.

He was a massive racist and a homophobe.

 

[bevosu]

The Duke - John Wayne. Top grossing actor of the 60s. A few of his movies included:
- The Alamo (Best Picture Nominee)
- How The West Was Won (Best Picture Nominee)
- The Longest Day (Best Picture Nominee)
- True Grit (Best Actor Win)
- Hatari
- The Sons if Katie Elder
He is a legend.

John Wayne was John Wayne. I wouldn't call him an actor.

 

[cuseattle]

Jack Lemmon had a good decade with -
The Apartment,
Days of Wine and Roses, and
The Odd Couple.

 

[donniesyracuse]

I was going to suggest Mastroianni, but then realized we were only talking about Hollywood.

He was great though. I only know about him because of a college film class.

 

[CousCuse]

Peter O'toole was very engaging, I will watch his movies now if their on.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Jack Lemmon had a good decade with -
The Apartment,
Days of Wine and Roses, and
The Odd Couple.

He was in a lot of good, entertaining movies over the years that are great to watch even nowadays but a lot of them weren't highly rated. It took me a long time to warm up to him and the characters that he played. I've appreciated him more over the years. However, not a fan of his golfing.

 

[donniesyracuse]

He was in a lot of good, entertaining movies over the years that are great to watch even nowadays but a lot of them weren't highly rated.

The Apartment is an all-time great film! The China Syndrome is no slouch either, although that was the 70s.

Edit: I forgot Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).

 

[SWC75]

John Wayne was John Wayne. I wouldn't call him an actor.

Nobody remains a star for that long if they can't act. Wayne didn't have a great range but could find different shadings of his character in different films, Check out "Red River" and "The Searchers".

 

[bevosu]

Nobody remains a star for that long if they can't act. Wayne didn't have a great range but could find different shadings of his character in different films, Check out "Red River" and "The Searchers".

I've seen just about all of Wayne's films including his low-budget cowboy movies when he first started. He was in some very good movies, but he was always basically the same person. He was John Wayne. People liked the movie version of John Wayne.

I enjoyed watching him, just like I enjoyed watching Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart. All of them had limited range and basically played themselves. They also had long careers. Their on-screen personas had an appeal. They rarely strayed from the character that the audience expected them to be.

Eastwood followed that pattern in his younger days.

Box office appeal, tickets sold, will lengthen an actor's career. They all had that going for them. Acting chops were questionable.

 

[SWC75]

I've seen just about all of Wayne's films including his low-budget cowboy movies when he first started. He was in some very good movies, but he was always basically the same person. He was John Wayne. People liked the movie version of John Wayne.

I enjoyed watching him, just like I enjoyed watching Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart. All of them had limited range and basically played themselves. They also had long careers. Their on-screen personas had an appeal. They rarely strayed from the character that the audience expected them to be.

Eastwood followed that pattern in his younger days.

Box office appeal, tickets sold, will lengthen an actor's career. They all had that going for them. Acting chops were questionable.

What did you think of Wayne in 'Red River' and 'The Searchers'?

As to Stewart, i remember when he was TCM's "star of the month and i saw about 15 of his films from the 30's to the 60's. He looked and sounded like Jimmy Stewart in each one, (except an early one where he had a Clark Gable moustache - Clark must have bene looking all over for it), but he played a different person in each film - the idealistic Senator in 'Mr. Smith', the cynical reporter in 'the Philadelphia Story', a college professor appalled at how two of his students have interpreted his lectures in 'Rope', a gentle soul in 'Harvey', a tough as nails westerner in 'Winchester 73', a voyeuristic photographer is 'Real Window', etc. etc.

Range isn't about superficial differences. it's about playing someone with a different image of himself and of the world.

 

[bevosu]

Red River is one of my favorite westerns. I liked Rio Bravo also. I do enjoy watching all of those old actresses and actors. Wayne was always fun to watch.

The Searchers is considered one of his better films. I've never watched the whole movie in one view. I've probably seen 90+% of it at various times.

I usually judge actors by the range of characters that they play. If they can get outside of their movie persona I think that's a plus.

Newman was interesting in that most of his characters were semi- likable anti-heroes. Brando was great in his early years and brought intensity to his characters. Pretty much changed the way most American actors approached their roles. A more natural approach. Montgomery Clift had a similar moody male approach.

Paul Muni was very good and mostly forgotten these days.

I probably have watched and still watch old movies (and foreign movies) as much as you do. I love TCM.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

He was a massive racist and a homophobe.

Was that the question?

 

[upperdeck]

he basically was like about 95% of white people living at the time.. he was a bigger name so more of what he said actually got out in the public. look at society now, its gotten better but in many areas not that much and its been almost 100 years since he was starting out.

even the interview that created the uproar was slightly out of context, while being short sited on his part.

his views would probably match almost all of hollywood from the 20-50s, which is too bad but true.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

he basically was like about 95% of white people living at the time.. he was a bigger name so more of what he said actually got out in the public. look at society now, its gotten better but in many areas not that much and its been almost 100 years since he was starting out.

even the interview that created the uproar was slightly out of context, while being short sited on his part.

his views would probably match almost all of hollywood from the 20-50s, which is too bad but true.

The judging of people then, by standards now, and in many cases selectively, drives me nuts.

 

[SWC75]

The judging of people then, by standards now, and in many cases selectively, drives me nuts.

We were wondering what did.