Hell, I dunno. I can’t say how actors were perceived in the past because I don’t know. That doesn’t prove me wrong, though.
Well, you’re the one who proposed the hypothesis that the non-expert audience is not in some sense really qualified to judge an actor’s ability. Usually the way it works is you’re supposed to provide some evidence to support it.
I’ll certainly grant the weaker claim that the audience often does not understand how difficult acting is, or that pulling of certain roles is much more difficult than other roles. But that’s not quite the same thing. It seems to me that ultimately the only useful metric for good acting is simply whether it “works” on the target audience.
Oh, okay.
Well, golly. I can have some kind of opinion on who’s a good painter or sculptor since I spent/wasted four years in art school. I lived in a house all those years with theater majors, so I have some idea what they do. And, second hand for me, my dad knew John Wayne (and others incl. Walter Brennan. No brag, just fact).
But the proof is in the pudding, and the memory of its eating. IMHO, the strongest proof is if no other actor could have made his or her role as well. All these years on, can you imagine anyone besides Bette Davis in All About Eve?. If John-limited range, always plays himself-Wayne hadn’t been available, would we still be watching The Searchers with Randolph Scott?
While this is a fair point, a lot of these actors have been in interview shows, done various unscripted appearances, and otherwise had public appearances separate and apart from their acting roles that we can at least get a fair approximation of their true selves.
I mean, it is possible that Will Smith has been deeply in character since he was a teenager, but he at least seems to be apparently open about his true self, which is pretty jovial and gregarious.
(And I get that seeing these people in the public eye, even when unscripted, may still give us a false impression. Harrison Ford is incredibly standoffish in public, but is probably much more affable when in private. But I still think we can get some sense of people when, for example, they are speaking with somebody like Graham Norton, where it’s just unscripted banter for an extended period of time)
This is actually somewhat true. He’s always confessed to severe insecurities and desperately needing to be liked, so he developed a likeable persona for himself, both personally and professionally. His internal life, according to him, can be pretty dark.
Not enough women mentioned. Some thoughts…
Linda Hamilton
Kathy Bates
Pamela Amderson
But the character wasn’t John Wayne.
And Ali, and Concussion.
Although I admit I haven’t seen either of those films. But the trailers and clips I have seen seemed to show that Smith wasn’t playing the Fresh Prince in either of those films.
Kalifornia Brad Pitt as well
I recently rewatched the original Jumanji and was surprised how much underlying subtlety there was in his and Bonnie Hunt’s acting.
I thought that was the result of a car accident?
I disagree with Kevin Costner. Like some others on the list I think the role choices he made (or were made for him) at times tended to be similar. That doesn’t mean his acting had no range. You can’t tell me he is the same character in Fandango, Silverado, Bull Durham, A Perfect World, and Yellowstone.
That may be true. The story I was told was of the date raping cowboy.
We disagree. There may be an exception or two, and he has been in some decent shows, but most of the time he plays Kevin Costner.
I think he was the most convincing in his screen debut! 
Joel McHale seems to always be pretty much the same guy, acting or not.
A couple in the comedy world that come to mind are Seth Rogan and Nick Frost.
Well, and which is HIMSELF? It didn’t take long before this thread became about actors playing the same kind of character, which is not the same thing as playing the same kind of character that’s basically the same as you.
Alan Rickman was well known for largely playing either villains, or Severus Snape, who usually behaved like a villain, but Rickman himself was, by all accounts, a friendly and gentle man. Even if he had literally never played a non villainous role he would not have been playing himself.
The Rock, on the other hand, basically just plays The Rock over and over. He’s a big, tough, noble and charismatic guy, and that’s who he keeps playing. It works, I don’t have a problem with it.
Watch De Niro in Awakenings or The King of Comedy and then tell me he has never really acted.