21st-century American male actors

Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created spontaneously and portrayed in drama and comedy films, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Williams received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards, as well as five Grammy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005.

Heywood "Woody" Allen is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and comedian. In a career spanning eight decades, he has written for film, television, and theater. Allen has received many accolades, including the most wins and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for an Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen has also received numerous honors, including an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential performers in the history of cinema, he received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTAs, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences.

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, politician, and former professional bodybuilder who served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Silver Bear and three Golden Globes. His films as a leading actor have grossed $7 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.

John Christopher Depp II is an American actor, musician, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. His films, in which he has often played eccentric characters, have grossed over $10.8 billion worldwide.

William Bradley Pitt is an American actor and film producer. In a film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and one Volpi Cup. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $7.5 billion worldwide.

Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Bradley Charles Cooper is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and three Grammy Awards. In addition, he has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award. Cooper appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list three times and on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2015. His films have grossed $13 billion worldwide, and he has been placed in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors four times.

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. In 2020, Hanks was ranked as the fourth-highest-grossing American film actor of all time. His numerous awards include two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards; he has also been nominated for five BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award. He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.

Willard Carroll Smith II is an American actor, rapper, and film producer. Known for his work in both the screen and music industries, his accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $10 billion worldwide, making him one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.

Alfredo James Pacino is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, during which he has earned many accolades, including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also received four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, two Actor Awards, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $3 billion worldwide.

George Timothy Clooney is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. His honors include the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2015, the Honorary César in 2017, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2018, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2022.

American actor, martial artist, and film producer

James Eugene Carrey is a Canadian and American actor and comedian. Known primarily for his energetic slapstick performances, he is regarded as one of the most prominent comedic actors of his generation. He has received two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for BAFTA Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award and a Tony Award. He was honored with the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire, he was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is an American actor and film producer. Regarded as a Hollywood icon, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or, an Academy Honorary Award, and three Golden Globes, in addition to nominations for four competitive Academy Awards. As of 2025, his films have grossed more than $13.3 billion worldwide, placing him among the highest-grossing actors of all time. One of Hollywood's most bankable stars, he is consistently one of the world's highest-paid actors.

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to popular culture. His work has earned a cult following alongside critical and commercial success; he has been named by some as the most influential director of his generation and has received numerous awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. His films have grossed more than $1.9 billion worldwide.

Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone is an American actor, painter, and filmmaker. In a film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Critics' Choice Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards. Stallone is one of only two actors in history to have starred in a box-office No. 1 film across six consecutive decades. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $7.5 billion worldwide.

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic series Mad Max (1979–1985) and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop series Lethal Weapon (1987–1998).

Nicolas Kim Coppola, known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. Known for his versatility as an actor, Cage's work across diverse film genres has gained him a significant cult following. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $6.4 billion worldwide.

Chinese-Singaporean martial artist and actor

Walter Bruce Willis is a retired American actor. Widely recognised as a Hollywood icon of the action genre, he first achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and has appeared in over one hundred films, gaining widespread recognition as an action hero for his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013).

John Joseph Travolta is an American actor. He began acting in television before transitioning into a leading man in films. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Harrison Ford is an American actor. Regarded as a cinematic cultural icon, Ford's accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, five Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He is the recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award, Honorary César, Honorary Palme d'Or and SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award.

American actor and former model

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of cinema. He has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Matthew Paige Damon is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He was ranked among Forbes's most bankable stars in 2007, and in 2010 was one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, an Actor Award, two Golden Globes, two Silver Bears and a Tony Award as well as nominations for a Grammy Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2020, The New York Times named Washington the greatest actor of the 21st century. He has also been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $5.1 billion worldwide.

American actor (born 1965)

Justin Randall Timberlake is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Prince of Pop", he is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Billboard named him one of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century. His awards include ten Grammy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, three Brit Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, the Contemporary Icon Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and MTV's Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known by his ring name "The Rock", is an American-Canadian actor and professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on a part-time basis. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Johnson was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation during the Attitude Era. He wrestled for the WWF full-time for eight years before pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $11.4 billion worldwide, making him one of the world's highest-grossing actors of all time. He is a co-owner of the United Football League, a member of the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings—the parent company of UFC and WWE—and co-founder of Seven Bucks Productions.

Curtis James Jackson III, known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, record executive, and businessman. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, he recorded his debut album, Power of the Dollar, for Columbia Records. During a shooting in May 2000, he was struck by nine bullets, causing its release to be canceled and Jackson to be dropped from the label. His 2002 mixtape Guess Who's Back? was discovered by Detroit rapper Eminem, who signed Jackson to his label Shady Records that year.

Benjamin Géza Affleck is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi (1984–1988). He later appeared in the independent comedy Dazed and Confused (1993) and several Kevin Smith comedies, including Chasing Amy (1997).

Jason Kent Bateman is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Michael Bluth in the Fox / Netflix sitcom Arrested Development (2003–2019) and Marty Byrde in the Netflix crime drama series Ozark (2017–2022), as well as for his work in numerous comedy films. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

American actor

LeBron Raymone James is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and has won four NBA championships from 10 NBA Finals appearances, including eight consecutive appearances between 2011 and 2018. He has also won three Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. James is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, filmmaker, racecar driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He has been described as "one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars". He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, seven Golden Globe Awards, an Actor Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and nominations for two Grammy Awards and a Tony Award. Along with his Best Actor Academy Award win, Newman also received the Academy Honorary Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Edward Regan Murphy is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential Black artists in the entertainment industry, and one of the greatest comedians of all time. He had his breakthrough as a stand-up comic before gaining stardom for his film roles; He has received several accolades including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, and an Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2023, and the 51st AFI Life Achievement Award in 2026.

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris was an American martial artist, actor, screenwriter, and author. He held black belts in karate, taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and judo. After serving in the United States Air Force, he won numerous martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline, Chun Kuk Do. Norris began working in the American film industry as a martial arts instructor for celebrities before making his screen debut with a minor role in The Wrecking Crew (1968). Friend and fellow martial artist Bruce Lee invited him to play one of the main villains in The Way of the Dragon (1972). While Norris continued acting, friend and student Steve McQueen suggested he take it seriously. Norris took the starring role in the action film Breaker! Breaker! (1977), which turned a profit. His second lead, Good Guys Wear Black (1978), became a hit, and he soon became a popular action film star.

American actor (born 1937)

American actor

Pierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor. He achieved worldwide fame playing the lead role in four James Bond films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Brosnan has also received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Nancy Astor (1982) and The Matador (2005).

American actor (1933–2016)

American actor (1916–2020)

American actor (born 1938)

American actor

American stand-up comedian (1937–2008)

Bahamian and American actor and diplomat (1927–2022)

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg, formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, producer, and former rapper. His work as a leading man spans the comedy, drama, and action genres. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.

Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. His accolades include three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and nominations for an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award. He received the Honorary César in 2015 and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2022.

American actor (born 1948)

Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Honorary Palme d'Or and the AFI Life Achievement Award.

Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. His accolades include an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to four British Academy Film Awards nominations. He was one of the highest-paid actors in 2014, and The Independent later named him one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.

American actor (1973–2013)

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was an American actor, director and producer, celebrated for his magnetic presence as a leading man during the American New Wave. Across a career spanning more than six decades, Redford earned widespread recognition and numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and five Golden Globe Awards,. He has also received various honors including the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996, the Academy Honorary Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and the Honorary César in 2019.

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., known professionally as Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, songwriter, and actor. A key figure in West Coast hip-hop, he helped define G-funk and gangsta rap, and is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Known for his signature drawled delivery and melodic flow, his lyrics frequently address social issues such as recreational drug use and gun violence.

American actor (1916–2003)

John Felix Anthony Cena is an American actor, retired professional wrestler, and former rapper. Widely regarded as one of WWE's greatest professional wrestlers of all-time, he is signed with WWE as a brand ambassador as of December 2025. He is best known for his in-ring career from 2001 to 2025, where he is recognized by WWE as a record 17-time world champion.

American musician (born 1969)