Academic intelligence or “booksmarts”. Dude/chick could have a million Ph.D’s behind them
Business/commercial sense. Maybe they marketed an image that brought in millions of billions of bucks. This is tied in to financial savvy.
Strategic know-how. They planned ahead for years and years for what they would do and how they would climb the ladder. And it worked.
Outwitting competition. Nuff said.
Portraying the most complex of characters skillfully.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Who do you consider the most intelligent actor/actress?
Note that they have to have been born after 1900 (20th Century)
I would say Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tom Cruise (though I can’t stand the latter). Both seem to be extremely self-made men. The more I learn about Arnold, the more I realise just how tough it was to be him and make the money that he did. He is also the quintessential strategist. He planned so many details of his life (right down to who he’d even marry! Well, almost as good as), and got it right. He’s made mini-fortunes on the stock market and in real estate. Not to mention his movies. He made “all the right moves” (to take a page outta Tom’s books).
Tom because he’s also amassed a huge bucketload out of his (protected, and might I say, annoying) image. He moved his way up the Hollywood A-list by marketing himself brilliantly, and now his movies are some of the most powerful (in that they bring in lots of dough on a regular basis). He also has played complicated characters well, I think. At least when he’s given himself the chance to break free from his usual “failed guy who experiences a lapse of confidence but is now quickly on the road to mend” roles.
As far as business savvy: Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray, Desi Arnaz/Lucille Ball, Goldie Hawn, Dean Martin, Lyle Waggoner (of Carol Burnett Show and Playgirl centerfold fame) and Kristhyne Haje [the redhead from Head of the Class) all made many times more money from investments and business than from acting.
As far as education, it’s hard to compete with Ben Stein. Richard Paul (the chubby character actor who played the mayor on Carter Country and played Jerry Falwell in a couple of movies) was a licensed clinical psychologist who got involved in acting while researching its therapeutic properties- he still considered himself a psychologist first, but acting was too lucrative to ignore.
Hedy Lamarr is credited (rightly or wrongly) with being one of the inventors of radar, which would imply there were some intellectual blips radiating from her.
Jayne Mansfield was the mistress of self-promotion, becoming (briefly) a major star after the prime age of most “sex kittens”, always keeping her name in the press and supposedly having a genius level IQ.
Well, you beat me to it in your OP. I was going to say Arnie. He came to the US with squat, and when he did make a pile, invested it wisely, instead of blowing it. He became a conservative Republican who nvertheless could ingratiate himself into a prominent Democratic family so well that he married one of the daughters.And it takes talent for anyone to learn to speak fluently a language heshe did not grow up with.
The hugely unpopular but even more hugely talented Russell Crowe. I’m no expert, but for my money he’s the best actor I’ve ever seen. Whether this is because he’s that damned good or just because he resonates that way with me I couldn’t say.
While I don’t know much else about Tom Cruise’s background, I do know about his family. He comes from a fairly affluent background. His family owns a medium sized Louisville law firm that specializes in representing creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. There’s some money in the family. I don’t know whether he had any Hollywood connections when he entered the business. But I doubt that he had to wait tables to make the rent.
After seeing the words “intelligent cunning clever actor”, surely I wasn’t the only person here who immediately thought - Johnny Depp.
Oh and he certainly fits the criteria of “Portraying the most complex of characters skillfully.”
I saw David Duchovny on a talk show once and he said he was working on his doctorate in English when he got his first role so I would say he qualifies. He’s one I enjoy watching on talk shows, too. He is witty.
well he’s back, how comes J. Depp? I agree with you that he plays complicated characters especially well, but I have no idea whether he’s done something else that’s really clever that I don’t know about.
I’d love to see a chess match between David and Tom. My brother and I discussed this once. His vote goes to Tom, mine’s to Dave. In all his interviews he always comes across extremely articulate.
Didn’t Molly Ringwald also make a killing playing around on the stock market? Or am I thinking about someone else (flashes of Wall Street here)?
Jodie Foster Majored in English lit at Yale and is quite fluent in French. I saw her on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy once and she mopped the floor with her contestants.
When I was about fourteen I was a dead ringer for DD. All of my friends and family would sit around watching the X-files going, “That’s Cal!”
All is not so anymore.
However my uncle still looks pretty much like a tanned photo-fit of him (though he’s about 60 - still has his hair but is a little greyed).
Well, hard as it is to believe Dolph Lundgren actually has a Masters in Chemical Engineering and had a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT when he decided to pursue acting. I know, I know, it totally floored me too…
Viggoe Mortensen seems to be something of a Renaissance man (in addition to being hotter than the radiator on an exploding Pinto and the least depressing reason I can think of for turning forty). Samples of his painting and poetry can be found here. (Apparently he’s not that good with money, though; he was on E! and said he went broke after filming LOTR and admitted he took Hidalgo strictly for the money [he added a “not that the film’s not good or anything” disclaimer].)
Matt Damon certainly pumps himself as an intellect but I have doubts. There was little frighteningly original (or believable) in Good Will Hunting and there’s a difference in having attended Harvard and having graduated from it. Will Smith was offered a full scholarship to MIT (just being admitted is an achievement worth bragging about) but (to the horror of his mother) declined it to pursue his music career. Turned out okay.
Will Smith - definately gotta be in the list. Think about it. He’s a totally rubbish rapper yet he made huge bitg-hit singles thanks in no small part to having carried them on the back of big blockbuster movies (Men In Black, Wild Wild West theme song(s)). He’s played the media really really well and used whatever shards of talent he has to make a fortune and be a success. I didn’t know he was offered sc’ship at MIT but it doesn’t surprise me - he’s a lot smarter than he looks (and he does look like a bit of a dumbass - at least to me).
I’ve also gotta agree with SS about Steve Martin. I read a passage from one of his books (sounds a lot like narration in some of his movies e.g. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid), and to be honest, he sounds very smart too.
I don’t think Matt Damon is so smart either. I mean he’s definately brighter than Ben Affleck (at least in his interviews he comes across that way) but that’s hardly much of a compliment.