I’ll go for the greatest movie actor in history, James Stewart.
Meryl Streep. She’s been a consistent A-lister for about 35 years now.
Indy 3? Highlander 1?
I would place the early date at 1921 (The Kid), but I would also shorten it to 1947 (Monsieur Verdoux).
A King in New York was blackballed from US release until 1972, but it wasn’t terribly missed - it wasn’t like the clamor we’d have if an A-lister’s flick like a Harrison Ford movie wasn’t released in the US.
Sir John Gielgud?
I think we have to look at the difference between “Great Actor” and “A-Lister.” There is surprisingly little overlap between the two.
Yeah, you might as well change it to “top grosser.”
I thought A-list meant you won, or were nominated for, an Oscar.
Otherwise, this is just a list of top grosser/long-lastiong actors.
No, there’s no necessary connection between Oscar winners and A-listers. In my view, an A-lister is an actor who movie producers believe can “open” a movie, that is attract so much interest merely by his or her appearance in a lead role that it can serve as the sole factor in determining whether to greenlight a project. Alternatively, you could say its an actor whose presence as lead is relied on by a movie studio as a virtual guarantee of a certain degree of attention or success. Or you could say that signing that actor in a leading role in itself represents more promotional value than any amount of cash spent on promoting a movie without an A-list actor.
In my view, current A-listers include people like George Clooney, Will Ferrell, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johanson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Hugh Jackman, Natalie Portman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson
Former A-listers include Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Julia Robertsf
Arnold Schwarzenegger might still be an A-lister, but we’ll have to see what happens when he returns to the movie business.
Personally, I would call an a-lister someone who a studio is willing to gamble 200million or more on in a non-franchised project, and who probably is going to take a percentage of gross as their payment. Of the list above, I would only count Will Smith, Al Pacino, DeNiro, Ford, DiCaprio, and Jackson.
Clint Eastwood for the win.
He joined the “A” list after “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” in 1968. That would be 43 years ago. Before that, he had starring roles in film and on television dating back to the 1950’s.
In the 1970’s he was a huge star. The Dirty Harry movies, The Gauntlet, Any Which Way But Loose, High Plains Drifter, Play Misty for Me, etc. In the 80’s he turned to direction but still starred in huge movies like Sudden Impact, The Dead Pool, Pale Rider, City Heat. In the 1990’s he came into his own as a director with moves like White Hunter, Black Heart, Bridges of Madison County, Unforgiven, etc. Still going strong in the 21st century as a leading man - in his 80’s.
And he’s a double threat - he’s been an A-list director for at least 25 years, and first won raves for his directing in “Play Misty for Me”, 40 years ago.
My second pick would be either John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart, both of whom remained on the A list from the 1930’s until the 1970’s. Extra props to Stewart for managing it while also rising to Brigadier General in the military and flying many combat missions in WWII - earning an Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Croix de Guerre and 7 battle stars along the way.
I think Connery has them beat. His breakout role was James Bond and he did Dr No in 1962. He’s had lead roles on a regular basis ever since.
With a few notable exceptions, every one of his non-Bond films I can think of has him in a supporting role. I think that’s what happens when you become acting elder statesman.
She really hasn’t done A-list work since 1990. Just a few stray roles, and no major hits.
There’s a difference between having lead roles and being an ‘A’ list star. I don’t think Connery has been an A list star in America outside of the Bond films. His biggest successes as a leading man were in “The Man Who Would be King” and “The Wind and the Lion” - both over 30 years ago. Almost everything else he’s done has either been a Bond movie or a supporting role. The three modern roles he’s most remembered for would tbe “The Untouchables”, “The Hunt for Red October”, and “Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade”. But all three of those movies were made as starring vehicles for other actors (Kevin Costner, Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford).
I know it’s hard to pin down what an ‘A List’ actor is, but here’s an example: An A List actor can have an entire movie or franchise built just for him. Scripts are written with draft titles like, “Unnamed John Travolta Movie”. Bringing an A-list actor into a project can result in the movie attracting A-list directors and writers.
I don’t think Connery has ever had that kind of pull. He’s one of the best supporting actors around, but he hasn’t carried a movie in a long, long time.
The definitive A-List actor was John Wayne. Put him in whatever crappy movie you’ve got, and it will not lose money (It might not break any box office records, but it won’t lose money). For years after his glory days, the memory of his past successes was enough to get a movie made if his name was attached to it, and he had the occasional hit in his later years (True Grit, Rooster Cogburn, The Shootist). Orson Welles didn’t have any solid hit movies in my lifetime, but his name drew heat to projects that otherwise would have been lost forever in turnaround. Butterfly was a steaming turd of a movie, but even in the guy’s twilight years, everyone in Hollywood wanted to have an Orson Welles project on their resume, just to be able to say they’d worked with him. David Niven and Laurence Olivier were clearly whoring for the bucks in their final years, but you couldn’t take their early triumphs away from them. A glint of classy Britishness goes a long way.
A-List means you get seven figure salary guaranteed, your name goes above the title, and you have a solid enough record of box office and/or critical success that having you on board is a fairly wise investment. Robin Williams hasn’t had a hit since The Birdcage, but he’s worth taking a chance on. The qualities that made his past hits work are still in play. Ditto Eddie Murphy and (for the moment) Jackie Chan.
You don’t really drop off the A-List until your most bankable quality disappears; Sigourney Weaver isn’t a sexy young woman anymore, nor Mel Gibson a rogueishly-likable young man. But you know Steve Martin might have one more really funny movie in him, and Jodie Foster can still credibly kick ass whole being eminently watchable. A-List is about more than your last movie’s gross receipts.
I would argue that’s the only thing keeping you on the A-list.
The Rock grossed more than a hundred million, and he was undeniably the star of that one (Nicholas Cage was the side-kick).
Also, the Hunt for Red October poster doesn’t say “An Alec Baldwin Film” to me.
Nonetheless, he was at best a co-star in both of those films. He didn’t get nearly as much screen time as Alec Baldwin in The Hunt For Red October, and Baldwin played Jack Ryan, the main action hero. Connery was first billed though, so you could make the case that it was a starring role.
In any event, even with those two films included he hasn’t had anywhere near the ‘A’ list longevity as some of the other actors mentioned, nor was he ever an iconic star like John Wayne, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, or Clint Eastwood.
45 years after 1953 would be 1998, at which point you would struggle to convince me Sophia Loren was an A-lister. She’s a very famous elder stateswoman of film, but she’s long past being a box office draw. She stepped out of the A-list voluntarily during the 1980s to spend more time with her family, which you can’t really argue with. She did have some success with Grumpier Old Men and Pret-A-Porter but at that point she wasn’t an A-lister.
I think Clint Eastwood has to be the winner. They’ve been making Clint Eastwood Movies for well over 40 years (well, now HE makes them, but anyone will happily put up the money for him to do it.)