The 100 Greatest Actors of All Time (TV Shows)
by Flo-Gre | created - 21 Mar 2019 | updated - 23 May 2020 | Public
1. Bryan Cranston
Actor | Breaking Bad
Bryan Lee Cranston was born on March 7, 1956 in Hollywood, California, to Audrey Peggy Sell, a radio actress, and Joe Cranston, an actor and former amateur boxer. His maternal grandparents were German, and his father was of Irish, German, and Austrian-Jewish ancestry. He was raised in the Canoga ...
2. Aaron Paul
Actor | Breaking Bad
Aaron Paul was born Aaron Paul Sturtevant in Emmett, Idaho, to Darla (Haynes) and Robert Sturtevant, a retired Baptist minister. While growing up, Paul took part in church programs, and performed in plays.
He attended Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho. It was there, in eighth grade, that Aaron ...
3. Dean Norris
Actor | Breaking Bad
Dean Joseph Norris is an American actor. He is well known for playing DEA agent Hank Schrader on the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008-2013). He also portrayed town councilman James "Big Jim" Rennie on the CBS series Under the Dome (2013-2015) and played mob boss Clay "Uncle Daddy" Husser on the TNT ...
4. Bob Odenkirk
Actor | Nobody
Robert John Odenkirk was born in Berwyn, Illinois, to Barbara (Baier) and Walter Odenkirk, who worked in printing. His ancestry includes German and Irish. He grew up in Naperville, IL, the second of seven children. He worked as a DJ for WIDB, his college radio station at Southern Illinois ...
5. Jonathan Banks
Actor | Mudbound
Versatile veteran character actor Jonathan Banks was born in Washington, D.C. in 1947. While growing up he always had an interest in acting and stage work, so decided to pursue a career in entertainment. To this day he is a very accomplished stage actor. While acting in film, he usually plays ...
6. Giancarlo Esposito
Actor | Breaking Bad
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an Italian carpenter/stagehand father from Naples, Italy, and an African-American opera singer mother from Alabama. His parents, working in Europe at the time of his birth, settled in Manhattan by the time he was 6, and ...
7. Mark Margolis
Actor | Pi
Mark Margolis was an American actor who is well-known for his collaborations with film director Darren Aronofsky, particularly Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Noah (2014), Black Swan (2010), and The Fountain (2006). Margolis also gained notoriety for his portrayal of "Tio" Hector Salamanca ...
8. Billy Bob Thornton
Actor | Sling Blade
Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in ...
9. Martin Freeman
Actor | Black Panther
Martin Freeman is an English actor, known for portraying Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, Tim Canterbury in the original UK version of sitcom mockumentary The Office (2001), Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama Sherlock (2010) and Lester Nygaard in the dark ...
10. Ewan McGregor
Actor | Moulin Rouge!
Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents ...
11. Patrick Wilson
Actor | The Phantom of the Opera
Patrick Joseph Wilson was born in Norfolk, Virginia and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, the son of Mary Kathryn (Burton), a voice teacher and professional singer, and John Franklin Wilson, a news anchor.
Wilson has a B.F.A. in Drama from Carnegie-Mellon University. His theater work has produced ...
12. Jesse Plemons
Actor | Game Night
Jesse Lon Plemons is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and achieved a career breakthrough with his major role as Landry Clarke in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights (2006-2011). He subsequently portrayed Todd Alquist in season 5 of the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad...
13. Michael C. Hall
Actor | Dexter
Michael C. Hall was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Janice (Styons), a guidance counselor, and William Carlyle Hall, who worked for IBM. Michael is a graduate of NYU's Master of Fine Arts program in acting. He is known for the titular character "Dexter" in Dexter (2006) and as mortician "David ...
14. James Remar
Self | Sex and the City: A Farewell
James is a rugged, intense character player with leading man good looks. Having first gained recognition in 1979 as Ajax, in his second film, The Warriors (1979). That same year he garnered acclaim on Broadway with Richard Gere in the concentration camp drama "Bent".
In a career spanning nearly four...
15. John Lithgow
Actor | The World According to Garp
If "born to the theater" has meaning in determining a person's life path, then John Lithgow is a prime example of this truth. He was born in Rochester, New York, to Sarah Jane (Price), an actress, and Arthur Washington Lithgow III, who was both a theatrical producer and director. John's father was ...
16. Michael McKean
Actor | This Is Spinal Tap
McKean was born in New York City at Manhattan Women's Hospital, now part of the Mt. Sinai St. Luke's complex on Amsterdam Avenue. He is the son of Ruth Stewart McKean, a librarian, and Gilbert S. McKean, one of the founders of Decca Records, and was raised in Sea Cliff, New York, on Long Island. ...
17. Timothy Olyphant
Actor | Justified
From Timothy Olyphant's first screen appearances, such as his two-minute bit in The First Wives Club (1996), to "Nicko", whose presence at times dwarfed the island in A Perfect Getaway (2009), he has been a force to be reckoned with.
Born in Hawaii, Timothy David Olyphant was raised in Modesto, ...
18. Walton Goggins
Actor | Justified
Walton Goggins is an actor of considerable versatility and acclaim who has delivered provocative performances in a multitude of feature films and television series. He won a Critics' Choice Award for his performance in the HBO comedy series "Vice Principals" and landed an Emmy nomination for his ...
19. Jeremy Davies
Actor | Saving Private Ryan
Jeremy Davies attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California. He made his film debut starring in David O. Russell's acclaimed first film, the Indy classic, "Spanking the Monkey", which became a surprise Sundance Film Festival winner, earning Jeremy an Independent Spirit ...
20. Simon Baker
Actor | Margin Call
Simon Baker was first recognized in 1992, when he received Australia's prestigious Logie award for Most Popular New Talent. Upon relocating to Los Angeles with his family, Baker was immediately cast in the Academy Award winning film L.A. Confidential (1997).
21. Tim Kang
Actor | Rambo
Yila Timothy Kang is an American actor. He is known for his role as Kimball Cho in the television series The Mentalist and Gordon Katsumoto in the CBS/NBC reboot series Magnum P.I. Kang was born in San Francisco, California, and is the eldest of three brothers. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts ...
22. Peter Dinklage
Actor | Game of Thrones
Peter Dinklage is an American actor. Since his breakout role in The Station Agent (2003), he has appeared in numerous films and theatre plays. Since 2011, Dinklage has portrayed Tyrion Lannister in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011) . For this he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a...
23. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Actor | Game of Thrones
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor, producer and screenwriter. He graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre in Copenhagen in 1993. Coster-Waldau's breakthrough performance in Denmark was his role in the film Nightwatch (1994). Since then he has appeared in ...
24. Iain Glen
Actor | Game of Thrones
Iain Glen is a Scottish actor, born June 24, 1961, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), followed by the University of Aberdeen. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he was the winner of the ...
25. Sean Bean
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sean Bean's career since the eighties spans theatre, radio, television and movies. Bean was born in Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, to Rita (Tuckwood) and Brian Bean. He worked for his father's welding firm before he decided to become an actor. He attended RADA in London and appeared in a ...
26. James Gandolfini
Actor | The Sopranos
James Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, to Santa (Penna), a high school lunchlady, and James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., a bricklayer and head school janitor. His parents were both of Italian origin. Gandolfini began acting in the New York theater. His Broadway debut was in the 1992 revival ...
27. Steven Van Zandt
Actor | The Sopranos
Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, activist and author. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He is also ...
28. Michael Kelly
Actor | Chronicle
Michael was born in Philadelphia but raised in Lawrenceville, Georgia by parents Michael and Maureen Kelly. He has two sisters, Shannon and Casey, and one brother, Andrew. He went to college at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina with the original intention to study law, but changed his ...
29. Kevin Spacey
Actor | The Usual Suspects
Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in...
30. Wagner Moura
Actor | Tropa de Elite
Moura was born in Salvador, a city located in Northeast Region of Brazil, but grew up in the small town of Rodelas, Bahia. His mother, Alderiva, was a housewife, and his father, José Moura, was a Sergeant in the Brazilian Air Force. At the age of 13, he moved with his family to Salvador, Bahia.
...
31. Pedro Pascal
Actor | The Last of Us
Pedro Pascal is a Chilean-born actor. He is best known for portraying the roles of Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011), Javier Peña in the Netflix series Narcos (2015), the titular character in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019) and Joel Miller in the...
32. Vincent D'Onofrio
Actor | Men in Black
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio was born on June 30, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York, to Phyllis, a restaurant manager and server, and Gene D'Onofrio, a theatre production assistant and interior designer. He is of Italian descent and has two older sisters. He studied at the Actors Studio and the American ...
33. Matt Smith
Actor | Doctor Who
Matt Smith is an English actor who shot to fame in the UK aged 26 when he was cast by producer Steven Moffat as the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC's iconic science-fiction adventure series Doctor Who (2005).
Matthew Robert Smith was born and raised in Northampton, the son of Lynne (Fidler) and David ...
34. William H. Macy
Actor | Fargo
William Hall Macy Jr. is an American actor. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in mainstream films. Macy has won two Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, while his performance in Fargo earned a nomination for the ...
35. Sterling K. Brown
Actor | Black Panther
The Emmy Award-winning actor stars in NBC's Emmy and Golden Globe nominated drama series This Is Us (2016). For his role as Randall Pearson, Brown won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as a Golden Globe, becoming the first African-American actor to win his category in ...
36. J.K. Simmons
Actor | Whiplash
J.K. Simmons is an American actor.
He was born Jonathan Kimble Simmons in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Patricia (Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a music teacher. He attended the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; University of Montana, Missoula, MT (BA in Music).
He had ...
37. Gabriel Macht
Actor | The Good Shepherd
Gabriel Macht is an American actor. He was born in the Bronx, New York, to Suzanne, a museum curator and archivist, and actor Stephen Macht. Gabriel has three siblings, and moved with his parents to California when he was young.
Gabriel had his first success on screen when he was 8-years-old. He was ...
38. Rami Malek
Actor | Bohemian Rhapsody
Rami Said Malek (born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He won a Critics' Choice Award and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his lead role as Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot. He also received Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors ...
39. Christian Slater
Actor | Very Bad Things
Christian Michael Leonard Slater was born on August 18, 1969 in New York City, to Michael Hawkins, a well-known soap actor, and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), a casting agent. Christian started in show business early, appearing on the soap opera The Edge of Night (1956) in 1976 at the age of 7. He ...
40. Donald Glover
Actor | Solo: A Star Wars Story
The multi-talented Donald Glover is a writer, actor, musician, comedian, producer and director, who performs under the stage names Childish Gambino and mcDJ. He was born Donald McKinley Glover at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and was raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia. His mother, Beverly (...
41. Brian Tyree Henry
Actor | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Academy Award, Emmy and Tony Award nominee Brian Tyree Henry is a versatile actor whose career spans film, television and theater. Earlier this year, Henry starred opposite Jennifer Lawrence in A24's "Causeway," which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is streaming globally on...
42. Idris Elba
Actor | Beasts of No Nation
An only child, Idrissa Akuna Elba was born and raised in London, England. His father, Winston, is from Sierra Leone and worked at Ford Dagenham; his mother, Eve, is from Ghana and had a clerical duty. Idris attended school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting, before he dropped...
43. Jeremy Piven
Actor | Serendipity
Jeremy Piven was born on July 26, 1965 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Serendipity (2001), Entourage (2004) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997).
44. Kevin Connolly
Actor | Entourage
Kevin Connolly was born on March 5, 1974 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Entourage (2004), The Notebook (2004) and John Q (2002).
45. Wentworth Miller
Actor | Prison Break
Wentworth Miller is a compelling and critically acclaimed actor whose credits span both television and feature film.
Wentworth Earl Miller III was born June 2, 1972 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, to American parents, Joy Marie (Palm), a special education teacher, and Wentworth Earl Miller...
46. Robert Knepper
Actor | Prison Break
Robert Knepper, the son of a veterinarian, was born in Fremont, Ohio, and was raised in Maumee (near Toledo). When he was growing up, his mother worked in the props department for the community theater, and because of her involvement, he became interested in acting. Robert began his career in ...
47. William Fichtner
Actor | Crash
A small-town guy with a big heart, William Fichtner has been captivating the hearts of Western New Yorkers for decades. Bill was born in 1956 on Long Island, New York, to Patricia A. (Steitz) and William E. Fichtner. He is of German, Irish, and English descent.
Fichtner was raised in Cheektowaga, ...
48. Zach Braff
Actor | Garden State
Zach Braff was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, to Anne Hutchinson (Maynard), a clinical psychologist, and Harold Irwin Braff, a trial attorney. His father is from Russia and Austria, while Zach's mother is from a family with deep roots in New England. Zach attended Columbia High School...
49. John C. McGinley
Actor | Scrubs
John C. McGinley's path to stardom is a story that reads like a classic Hollywood script. While an understudy in New York in the Circle-In-The-Square production of John Patrick Shanley's "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," he was spotted by director Oliver Stone and soon after was cast in "Platoon," the...
50. Donald Faison
Actor | Scrubs
Donald Faison was born on June 22, 1974 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Scrubs (2001), Clueless (1995) and Skyline (2010). He has been married to Cacee Cobb since December 15, 2012. They have two children. He was previously married to Lisa Askey.
51. Ken Jenkins
Actor | Scrubs
A versatile veteran of film, television and theater, Ken Jenkins began his acting career performing in high school theater productions in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. "I was fortunate to discover the world through the words of William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller and Tennessee ...
52. Neil Flynn
Actor | Mean Girls
Neil Richard Flynn is an American actor and comedian, known for his role as "The Janitor", in the medical comedy-drama, Scrubs (2001). He currently portrays "Mike Heck" in the ABC sitcom, The Middle (2009). Neil was born in the south-side of Chicago. He is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic. ...
53. Matthew Rhys
Actor | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Matthew Rhys Evans is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Kevin Walker in Brothers & Sisters (2006-2011) and Philip Jennings in The Americans (2013-2018), for which he received two Golden Globe Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award. In film, he appeared as Dylan Thomas in the film The ...
54. Neil Patrick Harris
Actor | How I Met Your Mother
Neil Patrick Harris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 15, 1973. His parents, Sheila Gail (Scott) and Ronald Gene Harris, were lawyers and ran a restaurant. He grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico, a small town 120 miles south of Albuquerque, where he first took up acting in the fourth grade. ...
55. Norman Reedus
Actor | The Walking Dead
Norman Reedus was born in Hollywood, Florida. He is of Italian, English, Scottish and Irish descent. He is an accomplished photographer with several books of his photography published and continues to do art shows in galleries all around the world every year. His first novel was published in 2022 ...
56. Andrew Lincoln
Actor | The Walking Dead
Andrew Lincoln is a British actor. Lincoln spent his early childhood in Hull, Yorkshire before his family relocated to Bath, Somerset when he was age 10. He was educated at Beechen Cliff School in Bath, and then the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His father is a civil engineer...
57. David Morrissey
Actor | The Walking Dead
David Morrissey started acting at Everyman's Youth Theatre in Liverpool, where he was born and raised. He made an auspicious debut in One Summer (1983), a series about two Liverpool runaways. Following a degree at RADA, he worked with the theatre company Cheek By Jowl. He has also worked at theatre...
58. David Duchovny
Actor | The X Files
David William Duchovny was born on August 7, 1960, in New York City, New York, USA. His father, Amram Ducovny, was a writer and publicist who was from a family of Jewish immigrants (from Ukraine and Poland), and worked for the American Jewish Committee. His mother, Margaret (Miller), was a ...
59. Justin Theroux
Actor | Mulholland Dr.
Justin was born and raised in Washington, DC, the son of Phyllis (Grissim), a writer for The Washington Post, and Eugene Theroux, a corporate lawyer. He is a nephew of writer Paul Theroux and a cousin of journalists Louis Theroux and Marcel Theroux. His father is of French-Canadian and Italian ...
60. David Tennant
Actor | Doctor Who
Widely considered as one of the greatest stage and screen actors of his generation both in his native Scotland and internationally, David Tennant was born David John McDonald in West Lothian, Scotland, to Essdale Helen (McLeod) and Sandy McDonald, who was a Presbyterian minister. He is of Scottish ...
61. Jim Parsons
Actor | The Big Bang Theory
Having grown up in Houston, and its northern suburb of Spring, he made his first stage appearance in a school play at the age of 6. Parsons then went on to study theater at the University of Houston. From there he won a place on a two-year Masters course in classical theater at the University of ...
62. Giovanni Ribisi
Actor | Boiler Room
Antonino Giovanni Ribisi is an American actor who was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents both have careers in the entertainment industry. His mother, Gay Ribisi (née Landrum), is a talent manager for actors and writers, and his father, Albert Anthony Ribisi, is a musician. He has a twin ...
63. Kida Khodr Ramadan
Actor | Blind
Kida Khodr Ramadan was born on October 8, 1976 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is an actor and producer, known for Man from Beirut (2019), Kanun (2018) and 4 Blocks (2017).
64. Kevin James
Actor | Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Kevin James was born Kevin George Knipfing on April 26, 1965, in Mineola, Long Island, New York, to Janet (Klein), an office worker, and Joseph Valentine Knipfing, Jr., an insurance agency owner. He was raised in Stony Brook, and attended SUNY Cortland, where he played fullback on the football team...
65. Jerry Stiller
Actor | The Heartbreak Kid
As the short, straight-man counterpart of the stellar husband-and-wife comedy team "Stiller & Meara", Jerry Stiller and wife Anne Meara were on top of the comedy game in the 1960s, a steady and hilarious presence on television variety, notably The Ed Sullivan Show (1948), on which they appeared 36 ...
66. Patton Oswalt
Actor | Young Adult
Patton Oswalt has been headlining at comedy clubs all over the United States since 1996, as well as appearing in his own standup specials on Comedy Central and HBO. He was chosen as Entertainment Weekly's "It" comedian in 2002. He is a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993). His other ...
67. Charlie Sheen
Actor | Two and a Half Men
Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez on September 3, 1965, in New York City. His father, actor Martin Sheen (born Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez), was at the time just breaking into the business, with performances on Broadway. His mother, Janet Sheen (née Templeton), was a former New York art ...
68. Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor | The Imitation Game
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold ...
69. Matthew McConaughey
Actor | Interstellar
American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is ...
70. Woody Harrelson
Actor | True Detective
Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning actor Woodrow Tracy Harrelson was born on July 23, 1961 in Midland, Texas, to Diane Lou (Oswald) and Charles Harrelson. He grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, where his mother was from. After receiving degrees in theater arts and English from Hanover College, he...
71. William Zabka
Actor | The Karate Kid
William Zabka was born on October 20, 1965 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Karate Kid (1984), Back to School (1986) and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). He has been married to Stacie Lynn Doss since 2008. They have two children.
72. Cillian Murphy
Actor | 28 Days Later...
Striking Irish actor Cillian Murphy was born in Douglas, the oldest child of Brendan Murphy, who works for the Irish Department of Education, and a mother who is a teacher of French. He has three younger siblings. Murphy was educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork. He went on to study law ...
73. Hugh Laurie
Actor | House M.D.
Hugh was born in Oxford, England on June 11, 1959, to Patricia (Laidlaw) and William George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, a doctor, both of Scottish descent. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Son of an Olympic gold medalist in the sport, he rowed for the England youth team (1977) and for ...
74. Ron Perlman
Actor | Hand of God
Ron Perlman is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television productions.
Ronald N. Perlman was born April 13, 1950 in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. His mother, Dorothy (Rosen), is retired from the City Clerk's Office. His father, ...
75. Jon Bernthal
Actor | The Wolf of Wall Street
Jon Bernthal was born and raised in Washington D.C., the son of Joan (Marx) and Eric Bernthal, a lawyer. His grandfather was musician Murray Bernthal. Jon went to study at The Moscow Art Theatre School, in Moscow, Russia, where he also played professional baseball in the European professional ...
76. Álvaro Morte
Actor | La casa de papel
Álvaro Morte was born on February 23, 1975 in Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain. He is an actor and producer, known for Money Heist (2017), Mirage (2018) and The Wheel of Time (2021).
77. Jon Hamm
Actor | Mad Men
Jon Hamm is an American actor and producer from St. Louis, Missouri who is known for playing Don Draper in Mad Men. He also played Mister Sinister in a deleted scene of The New Mutants and Legion, Brogan from Shrek Forever After, and other films and shows including Sucker Punch, Million Dollar Arm,...
78. Mads Mikkelsen
Actor | Hannibal
Mads Mikkelsen's great successes parallel those achieved by the Danish film industry since the mid-1990s. He was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen, to Bente Christiansen, a nurse, and Henning Mikkelsen, a banker.
Starting out as a low-life pusher/junkie in the 1996 success Pusher (1996), he slowly grew ...
79. James Spader
Actor | The Blacklist
James Todd Spader was born on February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of teachers Jean (Fraser) and Stoddard Greenwood "Todd" Spader. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover with director Peter Sellars; he dropped out in eleventh grade. He bused tables, shoveled manure, and taught yoga ...
80. William Shatner
Actor | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
Shatner was born ...
81. Kiefer Sutherland
Actor | 24
Kiefer Sutherland was born in London, England, UK, to Canadian actors Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland, who moved to California shortly after his birth. His maternal grandfather, Tommy Douglas, was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who was a Premier of Saskatchewan for over 17 years and led ...
82. Damian Lewis
Actor | Band of Brothers
Damian Lewis was born on February 11, 1971, in St. John's Wood, London, England, to Charlotte Mary (Bowater), from an upper-class background, and J. Watcyn Lewis, a city broker whose own parents were Welsh. He was raised on Abbey Road in London until the age of 8 with his siblings Gareth, William, ...
83. Mandy Patinkin
Actor | Homeland
Mandy Patinkin was born Mandel Bruce Patinkin in Chicago, Illinois, to Doris "Doralee" (Sinton), a homemaker and cookbook writer, and Lester Patinkin, who operated two scrap metal plants. He is of Russian Jewish and Latvian Jewish descent. Growing up, he began singing in synagogue choirs at the age...
84. Liev Schreiber
Actor | Spotlight
Liev (pronounced Lee-ev) Schreiber was born in San Francisco. His mother, Heather (Milgram), is a painter, and his father, Tell Schreiber (Tell Carroll Schreiber III), is a theatrical actor who had a small role in The Keeper (1976). His mother is from a working-class Jewish family from Poland and ...
85. Jon Voight
Actor | Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight is an American actor of German and Slovak descent. He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Luke Martin in the war film "Coming Home" (1978). He has also been nominated for the same award other two times. He was first ...
86. Patrick Macnee
Actor | The Avengers
British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her ...
87. Tom Ellis
Actor | Lucifer
Tom Ellis is a Welsh actor from Cardiff, Wales. He is best known for playing Lucifer Morningstar in the American television series Lucifer (2016-2021).
Ellis was born in Cardiff. He studied BA Dramatic Studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (previously the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and...
89. Joe Mantegna
Actor | The Godfather Part III
Joe Mantegna is an American actor who has made over 200 film and TV appearances. He is also a producer, writer, and director, and is probably best known for his role as Joey Zasa in the Francis Ford Coppola epic The Godfather Part III (1990), in which he stars alongside Al Pacino and Andy Garcia.
...
89. Ben Mendelsohn
Actor | Rogue One
Despite his prominence in Hollywood as a character actor known for playing villains and criminals, Ben Mendelsohn has been a leading man in Australia since starting acting as a teenager.
Paul Benjamin Mendelsohn was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Carole Ann (Ferguson), a nurse, and Frederick ...
90. Bill Pullman
Actor | Independence Day
William James Pullman was born in Hornell, New York, one of seven children of Johanna (Blaas), a nurse, and James Pullman, a doctor. He is of Dutch (mother) and English, Northern Irish, and Scottish (father) descent. After high school, Bill went into a building construction program at SUNY Delhi in...
91. Jonny Lee Miller
Actor | Æon Flux
Jonny (sometimes credited as Johnny) Lee Miller was born on November 15, 1972, in Kingston, England, UK. He is the son of actors Anna Lee and Alan Miller and the grandson of actor Bernard Lee. After appearing in many high school plays at his selective state grammar school, Jonny dropped out at 17 ...
92. Will Smith
Producer | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Willard Carroll "Will" Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden ...
93. Mark Harmon
Actor | NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Thomas Mark Harmon was born on September 2, 1951, in Burbank, California, to football player and broadcaster Tom Harmon and actress and artist Elyse Knox (née Kornbrath). Harmon played college football and found success as one of TV's hunkiest actors. While many of his roles have relied on good ...
94. Henning Baum
Actor | Der letzte Bulle
Henning Baum was born on September 20, 1972 in Essen, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Der letzte Bulle (2010), Mit Herz und Handschellen (2002) and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (2018).
95. Alex O'Loughlin
Actor | Hawaii Five-0
The Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin was born in August 1976.
Alex started out his film career in 2004, when he starred in Oyster Farmer (2004) as Jack Flange. The following year, he returned to the big screen as Michael Carter in Feed (2005), a movie that he also co-produced and helped write. Also ...
96. Scott Caan
Actor | Ocean's Eleven
Scott Caan is the son of tough guy actor James Caan. While it is obvious that he admires tough method actors like Marlon Brando and Sean Penn, Scott also has a strong egalitarian streak, evidenced by his reasoning for baring his body in films. He is quoted as saying that originally only the women ...
97. David Caruso
Actor | First Blood
His low-keyed intensity, deep-voiced somberness, pale skin, puffy-eyed baby face and crop of carrot-red hair are all obvious and intriguing trademarks of TV star David Caruso. A hugely popular item in the 1990s as a result of a smash crime series, he got way too caught up in all the hoopla ...
98. Kyle MacLachlan
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
The "boy next door, if that boy spent lots of time alone in the basement", is how Rich Cohen described Kyle MacLachlan in a 1994 article for "Rolling Stone" magazine. That distinctly askew wholesomeness made MacLachlan a natural to become famous as the alter ego of twisted director David Lynch.
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99. Ed Harris
Actor | Appaloosa
By transforming into his characters and pulling the audience in, Ed Harris has earned a reputation as one of the most talented actors of our time.
Ed Harris was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, to Margaret (Sholl), a travel agent, and Robert Lee Harris, a bookstore worker who also sang professionally. ...
100. Anthony Hopkins
Actor | The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...
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