Sure, this board skews old, but we don’t skew so old that any of us was watching Shirley Temple’s movies when she was making them. I’ve never even seen any of her movies at all. By contrast, I did see Macaulay Culkin’s biggest movies in their first run in the theater. And despite that, I’d still consider Temple to be significantly more famous than Culkin.
By the over 40s, which a quick Google tells me is about 3bn people. Not the under 40s, which are, Google continues to tell me, 5bn people.
Ignoring the fact that many countries won’t know any of the names we have mentioned, which is a good 3bn people of the world, the 5:3 proportions will still hold true. Young people have different pop cultural touchstones than old fogeys like us. They are the majority. Their influence is not properly being taken into account here.
I do agree that Shirley Temple is currently the correct answer, but I don’t think you can so easily dismiss people like Miley Cyrus or Macaulay Culkin from the equation.
But he’s never had a drink named after him.
I’ll grant that a 10 or 20 year old might not know who Shirley Temple is. But I would posit that they wouldn’t know who Macaulay Culkin is, either. Why would they? Home Alone is just another movie, out of many, from before they were born.
I just asked my 22 year old son if he knew who Shirley Temple was and he responded with his best “Animal Crackers in my Soup!”
He also mentioned that he and his friends have seen countless commercials for Shirley Temple DVD collections on late night Cartoon Network and similar.
Practically everyone I know watches Home Alone at Christmas, especially those who have kids.
You’re right, I should have included Darla. I humbly beg forgiveness.
I just remembered Bobby, aka Robert Blake. So he was around before Treasure of the Sierra Madre… My bad! 
Just like Miracle on 34th Street. Part of the original’s endurance is the presence of Natalie Wood. Other than Sebastian Cabot, I can’t think of anyone who appeared in the remakes
I suspect Culkin will be remembered for little else in 90 years, if for anything at all.
Shirley Temple, hands down. Acting? Check. Singing? Check. Dancing? Oh, hell yeah. She was mature beyond her years but still able to hold the title of America’s Sweetheart for many years. Adored by the public and costars and directors. And when all that was over, she parlayed her intellect into sitting on the boards of some major companies including Disney and Del Monte. She started her diplomatic career in the late 60s, working under several presidents (Nixon, Ford) and was appointed as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (where I met her) by George Bush. Not bad for a cute kid with curly hair.
Miracle on 34th Street is very much an American Christmas tradition, whereas Home Alone is still popular in a lot of the world outside the US.
Agreed about Culkin not being known for anything else in 90 years, because that’s all he’s known for now. But now is when we’re talking about, and Home Alone is already 30 years old.
Shirley Temple is probably the archetypal child actor. (Even though she actually had a reasonable adult acting career till she was in her 30s). Culkin is probably in second place. All the others don’t really come close at all, either because they weren’t as famous to begin with, they’re too recent, or because their adult careers eclipsed their child careers.
A lesson here is to be cast in a perennial holiday film to ensure you’ll at least be remembered for something.
That said, who remembers Karolyn Grimes? 
Practically everyone I know watches A Christmas Story at Christmas, especially those who have kids. Now, without looking, who played Ralphie?
Peter Billingsley
And he hasn’t even been mentioned.
I’ve never even heard of that.
I wonder how many of us can sing “On the Good Ship Lollipop”? I can, and I haven’t seen a Shirley Temple movie in almost 60 years!
Allow me to introduce you.
The BB gun? The pole lick? 
Nope. Even with the imdb link, it’s completely unfamiliar to me.
Are you saying that Mickey Rooney dropped out of the public eye? Or are you saying he was a bigbig star? Cuz he definitely didn’t drop out of the public but I may be reading you wrong.
I think Shirley Temple was the quintessential child star. I’m 42.
@SciFiSam, you live outside the U.S., yes? I suspect that A Christmas Story may not be well-known outside of the U.S. It was not a big hit when it was originally released, and became kind of a cult classic due to repeated showings on TV during the holidays.
I was going to link to the Saturday Night Live skit from their first season with Laraine Newman as Shirley Temple Black, ambassador to Angola, but I can’t find it anywhere online. It’s hilarious.