Well, if you start off by figuring he’s the Greatest Of All Time, anyone else will of course fall short. But for a big-guy leading man in his forties who can Lancaster from “a commanding presence” over to “a full-throated laugh,” how about Idris Elba?
Years ago I thought Brandon Fraser would be Burt Lancaster, but he got sucked into those mummy movies, Monkeybone, etc. as if Lancaster had done nothing but one *Hallelujah Trail * after another.
Lancaster’s athleticism included some pretty decent trapeze skills. Not many actors today can claim that on their résumé.
“All right Fatso…if it’s killin’ ya want…”
Agreed. My favorite Lancaster movies are rhe ones he made with Nick Cravat. Things like The Crimson Pirate have rarely been approached in skill and derring-do like Burt’s. I think Gene Kelly came close as far as the skills went, but Burt also had that macho hellraiser thing going.
Mark Valley is ex-Army and served in Desert Storm, but IMDB doesn’t lie: he can (a) be a leading man on TV, as an NYPD cop outdoing Scotland Yard’s finest or a two-fisted bodyguard telling it like it is – or he can (b) get big-screen supporting roles as an FBI agent or a C-130 pilot – but he’s not, y’know, a movie star; he’s believable as the sheriff in a western, or a homicide detective out of Philly, or a no-nonsense CIA Director, but he’s still Oh I Thought We Were Hiring Neal McDonough.
I’d like to toss in another name for consideration from the currently active group: Christopher Walken. His dancing skills compare in a way to Burt’s acrobatic ones. And the range of types they have played are amazingly similar – to my eye. You can never tell what Walken will say or do next. Same with Burt.
Can you imagine Burt doing Chris’s role in The Deer Hunter?
I almost mentioned Valley in the “Actors you thought would be huge but aren’t” thread. He’s been great in everything I’ve seen him in but doesn’t seem to get the starring roles.
As for manly men can play all types of roles - how about Tom Hardy?
Well, reasonable people can differ on this. I’m not saying he’s my favorite performer, but I am saying that he’s not a cookie-cutter star (and that the same could be said of Burt Lancaster).
Some stars have a bit of mystery about them–Lancaster being a prime example. I’d say that Johnny Depp qualifies in that department, too, but Depp doesn’t really do macho (or not mucho, anyway ^_~). Franco (annoying as he may be to you) is probably closer to that equilibrium point of being an acceptable action star, yet not so by-the-numbers as someone like Jason Statham or Dwayne Johnson or a Hemsworth.
Meh. I suppose even Burt Lancaster wasn’t universally adored, in his prime. Some people might have found him…annoying.
I think you have to put our wanna-be Burts into a few of his iconic roles and see how they fit. For example, how would Walken or any of the others done in The Swimmer?
I think Hugh Jackman could do it.
I think Daniel Craig for no apparent reason.
I’ll go with Russell Crowe. I can see him in Birdman, Elmer Gantry, From Here to Eternity, The Killers, The Swimmer, and he cut a fine figure as a sea captain. I can’t see him on a trapeze but I can’t see any of the other choices there either. Burt had quite a nice body.
Liam Neeson?
Handsome or at least striking enough (although certainly not pretty like the delicate cheekbones of today’s leading man), big (I think somewhere around 6’4") and broad, has the allure of previous careers of truck driver and amateur boxer, and has been convincing over a wide range.
At the time i wrote the OP I was unsure of Burt’s age, but in looking at his IMDb page I see that he would have just turned 100 back in November. He and my dad had similar lifespans, born the same year, died a year apart. From time to time I wonder how many of my favorite movie people were the same age (more or less) as my parents and to what extent that affected my attraction to them.
As of Post #35, these are the names presented so far:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Robert Downey Jr.
Josh Brolin
Jeff Bridges
Matt Damon
Mark Wahlberg
Russell Crowe
Dwayne Johnson
James Franco
Christian Bale
Clint Eastwood
Mel Gibson
Alec Baldwin
Damian Lewis
Hugh Jackman
Ryan Gosling
Jason Statham
Channing Tatum
George Clooney
Tom Hanks
Idris Elba
Brandon Fraser
Mark Valley
Neal McDonough
Christopher Walken
Tom Hardy
Johnny Depp
Chris Hemsworth
Liam Neeson
I hope I didn’t miss any. Maybe we should have a poll? I’ll let this run a while longer since we probably have yet to name The Guy.
This has been fun so far. I sense a real appreciation for Burt. He was always one of my favorites since I was old enough to realize his unique talents. Jim Thorpe – All American was probably the first movie I saw him in. And I was a fan all the way through Field of Dreams and Atlantic City.
Armand Assante. Excellent in The Odyssey.
To cheat a bit, consider Chris Evans: he got cast as Captain America after carving out a niche as the wisecracking smartass who’s a little on the skinny side, but danged if he didn’t hit the gym like crazy before delivering throw-yourself-on-the-grenade lines with the straightforward simplicity of – well, a role model circa the '40s.
They could’ve gone a different way – Chris Pine is certainly having no trouble getting work as everyone from Captain Kirk to Jack Ryan with a bit of a smirk – but as per the sequel’s previews, Evans is apparently still going for sincerity and muscles when hauling injured folks out of the wreckage or incapacitating hand-to-hand combatants after giving them a chance to back down.
As of Post #38 these names have been mentioned and I have attached their birth years and sorted them that way.
On the way to a poll of some sort please list your Top Five contenders for the “Present Day Burt Lancaster” and we’ll see what we’re dealing with.
Don’t restrict yourself to this list. Mention any five you think share attributes with the just-turned-100 Mr. Lancaster.
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Clint Eastwood 1930
Christopher Walken 1943
Armand Assante 1949
Jeff Bridges 1949
Liam Neeson 1952
Mel Gibson 1956
Tom Hanks 1956
Alec Baldwin 1958
George Clooney 1961
Johnny Depp 1963
Russell Crowe 1964
Mark Valley 1964
Robert Downey Jr. 1965
Neal McDonough 1966
Jason Statham 1967
Josh Brolin 1968
Brendan Fraser 1968
Hugh Jackman 1968
Matt Damon 1970
Damian Lewis 1971
Mark Wahlberg 1971
Idris Elba 1972
Dwayne Johnson 1972
Christian Bale 1974
Leonardo DiCaprio 1974
Tom Hardy 1977
James Franco 1978
Ryan Gosling 1980
Chris Pine 1980
Channing Tatum 1980
Chris Evans 1981
Chris Hemsworth 1983
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I’d hope we could narrow down to maybe 20 contenders for a poll.
This is a good one. When they announced that they’d cast Evans as Cap, I was extremely skeptical. Evans had played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies, and Storm is Cap’s polar opposite – brash, cocky, mouthy, and a playboy. But, Evans did an outstanding job as Cap – earnest, quietly confident, charismatic in an honest way, and just the right amount of self-effacing humor.