As much as I love Cusack (and I seriously love Cusack), he’s more neurotic than cool. Existential, as **msmith **says, fits him perfectly. Cool, not so much.
Newman clearly should be much more higher ranked than he is. The man exudes class. Seriously, the cool just oozes from him.
I’d thought about putting Jimmy Stewart on the list, because I love me some Jimmy Stewart, but he’s not really cool at all. Classy, sophisticated, gentlemanly - all this and more is my Jimmy, but he’s not cool.
Ernest Borgnine
Elvis
Martin Sheen
Robert Shaw
Bruce Lee
Harvey Keitel
Bill Murray (pre Lost In Translation)
Jack Thompson
Mark Wahlberg
Danny De Vito
Sam Neill
Sorry to shatter your illusions.
What? No James Caan? For shame, people…
Chow Yun Fat
James Caan
Steve McQueen
James Coburn
Clint Eastwood
Honorable mentions to :
Rutger Hauer
Bruce Willis
Mandy Patinkin
Ben Kingsley
Chuck Norris would be number one on the list,
except that Chuck Norris is too cool for lists.
Oh wow. Another illustration of the subjectivity of such a list: Mandy Patinkin would be at the top of my personal NOT cool list. He always makes me shudder with embarrassment just to watch him be so overwhelmingly, disturbingly, just, icky.
Jean Reno was the first name that leapt to mind on seeing the thread title. Several other names on the OP’s list came is a moment later. Then there’s Toshiro Mifune, at least in most of his most famous roles (leaving out Red Lion, which even I, a fan of the first water, could barely get through once).
It’s Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Duh.
I think lissener’s list shows then originators of cool. These guys were cool before there was a definition of cool. The actors being listed later in this thread as simply imitators of cool.
Errol Flynn
Brad Pitt
Lee Van Cleef
Randolph Scott?
<choir>RAAAN-DOLPH SCOTT!!</choir>
Ah, yes, “everything back in the day was better and everything today pales in comparison”. Just like music, sports and women.
James Garner was the coolest. He couldn’t help but be cool.
And Bogie.
No, I was talking about a different guy . . . yeah, that’s it–he’s Ejiofor’s cooler cousin.
Danny Trejo.
End of thread :]
Wow. I was just scrolling through this thread and intended to post Sterling Hayden’s name and whoops! You beat me to it.
And Cary Grant.
That’s it for cool in The Known Universe.
Neil Patrick Harris
Gary Oldman.
Alan Rickman.
Dang, how did I miss this? Yes, I agree, he’s up there somewhere. Well, he wasn’t all the cool in The Godfather, but The Killing and *Johnny Guitar *have enough cool to make up for just about anything. Well, except maybe for King of the Gypsies . . . :dubious:
No love for Samuel L Jackson’s role in Pulp Fiction? Especially the restaurant scene. Look up “cool” in the dictionary, you’ll find that scene. 