Twenty-two leading men of modern cinema, from Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson to Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling, with the roles, rivalries and odd habits behind their careers.
A great leading man can carry a film on a look or a line, and the actors in this collection have done so for more than half a century. It begins with the generation that reshaped Hollywood in the 1970s, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson and Robert Redford, and continues through the stars of the following decades: Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Tommy Lee Jones, Michael Douglas and Robin Williams, and on to Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell and Woody Harrelson.
Their commitment to roles is legendary. De Niro drove real twelve-hour taxi shifts for Taxi Driver and gained 60 pounds for Raging Bull, Hanks lost 50 pounds for Cast Away, and Anthony Hopkins reads his scripts aloud more than 200 times. Hopkins won an Oscar for less than sixteen minutes on screen, while Jack Nicholson holds the record for the most Oscar nominations by a male actor.
Their paths to fame were rarely straight. Pacino was paid $35,000 for The Godfather and almost cut from it, Morgan Freeman's Hollywood breakthrough came at 50, Brad Pitt wore a chicken suit on Sunset Boulevard, and Jim Carrey lived in a Volkswagen van before becoming the first actor paid $20 million for a single film. Robin Williams won the role of Mork by sitting on his head during the audition.
Off screen they are just as surprising: Clooney gave fourteen friends $1 million each, Woody Harrelson drew a chess game against Garry Kasparov, and Tommy Lee Jones roomed with Al Gore at Harvard. Pick an actor below and read fifteen facts about him.
Every item on this page, with the one fact most people get wrong about it.
| Name | Where you'll meet it | The fact worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Al Pacino | The Godfather, Scarface | He was paid just $35,000 for The Godfather. |
| Robert De Niro | Taxi Driver, Raging Bull | He drove real 12-hour cab shifts to prepare for Taxi Driver. |
| Jack Nicholson | The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | He grew up believing his mother was his sister. |
| Anthony Hopkins | The Silence of the Lambs | He won an Oscar for less than 16 minutes of screen time. |
| Denzel Washington | Training Day, Malcolm X | He quietly paid for Chadwick Boseman's acting education. |
| Morgan Freeman | The Shawshank Redemption | His Hollywood breakthrough came at the age of 50. |
| Tom Hanks | Forrest Gump, Cast Away | He is one of only two actors to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars. |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | Titanic, The Revenant | The Taliban banned his Titanic haircut in Afghanistan. |
| Matthew McConaughey | Dazed and Confused, Dallas Buyers Club | He played nine hours of bongo music during his wife's labour. |
| Russell Crowe | Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind | He bought a dinosaur skull from Leonardo DiCaprio. |
| Robert Redford | Butch Cassidy, The Sting | He never won an acting Oscar but won for directing. |
| Brad Pitt | Fight Club, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | He worked in a chicken suit on Sunset Boulevard before he was famous. |
| George Clooney | ER, Ocean's Eleven | He gave 14 of his closest friends $1 million in cash each. |
| Matt Damon | Good Will Hunting, the Bourne films | Fans joke that fictional governments have spent billions rescuing his characters in Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar and The Martian. |
| Michael Douglas | Wall Street, Basic Instinct | He was once fired by his own father, Kirk Douglas. |
| Tommy Lee Jones | The Fugitive, Men in Black | He roomed with future Vice President Al Gore at Harvard. |
| Robin Williams | Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting | He won the role of Mork by sitting on his head during the audition. |
| Jim Carrey | The Mask, The Truman Show | He was the first actor paid $20 million for a single film. |
| Ryan Gosling | La La Land, Barbie | He practised piano non-stop to play it himself in La La Land. |
| Kevin Spacey | The Usual Suspects, American Beauty | He insisted on uncredited billing for Se7en. |
| Steve Carell | The Office, Despicable Me | The famous chest-waxing scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin was real and unscripted. |
| Woody Harrelson | Cheers, The Hunger Games | He played chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov to a draw. |
Most Oscar Nominations
12
Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male actor in Oscar history, with three wins. Jack Nicholson
Shortest Oscar Role
< 16 minutes
Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs with less than sixteen minutes on screen. Anthony Hopkins
First $20 Million Salary
$20 million
Jim Carrey became the first actor paid $20 million upfront, for The Cable Guy in 1996. Jim Carrey
Biggest Weight Gain
60 pounds
Robert De Niro set a Hollywood record by gaining 60 pounds to play the older Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. Robert De Niro
The Godfather, Scarface
Al Pacino survived attempts to cut him from The Godfather and boycotted the Oscars over his supporting-actor nomination. He was badly injured filming the explosive climax of Scarface and is devoted to Shakespeare. He holds acting's Triple Crown and became a father again in his eighties.
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Taxi Driver, Raging Bull
Nicknamed "Bobby Milk" as a child, Robert De Niro gained a record 60 pounds for Raging Bull and shares the distinction with Marlon Brando of winning an Oscar for playing Vito Corleone. He co-founded the Nobu restaurant empire and the Tribeca Film Festival. He turned down the role of Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ.
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The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Jack Nicholson started in Hanna-Barbera's animation department and became the most nominated male actor in Oscar history. He improvised "Here's Johnny!" in The Shining and turned down Michael Corleone. His film contracts are built around Los Angeles Lakers games.
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The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins overcame undiagnosed dyslexia, planned to be a concert pianist and composed a waltz performed by André Rieu. Hannibal Lecter's famous slurp was spontaneous, and he reads scripts aloud more than 200 times. He is the oldest Best Actor Oscar winner.
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Training Day, Malcolm X
A woman in a beauty shop predicted Denzel Washington's fame, and he once worked as a garbage collector. He deeply regrets turning down Se7en and immersed himself in Malcolm X. Nelson Mandela visited his home.
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The Shawshank Redemption
Morgan Freeman discovered acting through a school punishment and was a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair. Red in Shawshank was written as a white Irishman, and Nelson Mandela chose him to play himself. He turned his Mississippi ranch into a bee sanctuary and got his pilot's licence at 65.
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Forrest Gump, Cast Away
Tom Hanks is distantly related to Abraham Lincoln and collects vintage typewriters. He lost 50 pounds for Cast Away, and his brother often voices Woody for Toy Story spin-offs. An asteroid bears his name.
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Titanic, The Revenant
Named after Leonardo da Vinci, DiCaprio was fired from Romper Room and kept acting through a bad hand cut in Django Unchained. He survived a skydiving malfunction and a great white shark encounter. He later handed Marlon Brando's stolen Oscar over to the authorities.
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Dazed and Confused, Dallas Buyers Club
A self-help book convinced Matthew McConaughey to switch from law to film, and his breakthrough in Dazed and Confused was unplanned. He was almost cast as Jack in Titanic and transformed himself physically for his Oscar role. He has kept a daily diary for more than 35 years.
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Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind
Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Russell Crowe was a teenage DJ and fronts a rock band. He rewrote parts of the Gladiator script on the fly and earned three Oscar nominations in a row. He also helped turn around the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club.
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Butch Cassidy, The Sting
Robert Redford studied art in Europe and was expelled from the University of Colorado. He was rejected for The Graduate for being too handsome and founded the Sundance Institute with his own money. He optioned All the President's Men before the book was written.
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Fight Club, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Brad Pitt dropped out of college two weeks before graduating, and George Clooney auditioned five times for his breakout role. He chipped his own tooth for Fight Club and tore his Achilles tendon playing Achilles. He owns a French winery and studied architecture under Frank Gehry.
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ER, Ocean's Eleven
George Clooney tried out for the Cincinnati Reds and slept in a friend's closet after moving to Los Angeles. He cuts his own hair with a Flowbee and still apologises for Batman & Robin. He co-founded Casamigos tequila and sold it for up to $1 billion.
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Good Will Hunting, the Bourne films
Matt Damon left Harvard before graduating and won an Oscar with childhood friend Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting. He anchored the Bourne franchise and turned down a role in Avatar. He co-founded Water.org and keeps up a long-running fake feud with Jimmy Kimmel.
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Wall Street, Basic Instinct
Michael Douglas shared a home with Danny DeVito and survived a helicopter crash. He denied his father the lead role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which he produced, and was almost cast as John Rambo. He shares his exact birthday with his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones.
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The Fugitive, Men in Black
Tommy Lee Jones worked on oil rigs to pay for school and played in one of college football's most famous games. He improvised his best-known line in The Fugitive and told Jim Carrey he could not sanction his buffoonery. In Japan he is famous as "Alien Jones" from coffee adverts.
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Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting
Robin Williams named his daughter after Zelda, owned more than 80 bicycles and quietly funded Jessica Chastain's Juilliard education. His contracts required the hiring of homeless people. He called Steven Spielberg weekly to cheer him up during Schindler's List.
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The Mask, The Truman Show
As a teenager Jim Carrey's family lived in a Volkswagen van, and he wrote himself a $10 million cheque long before he earned it. Saturday Night Live rejected him twice. He trained with a CIA specialist to endure the Grinch make-up and exchanged letters with Tupac Shakur.
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La La Land, Barbie
Ryan Gosling performed with his uncle's Elvis act as a child and lived in a trailer park during his Mouseketeer days. He was fired from The Lovely Bones after gaining weight for the role and built furniture to prepare for The Notebook. His performance as Ken in Barbie even produced a Billboard Hot 100 hit.
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The Usual Suspects, American Beauty
Kevin Spacey trained at Juilliard and won two Oscars, for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. He led London's Old Vic theatre for a decade and starred in House of Cards. After allegations ended his Hollywood career, he was acquitted in high-profile trials and returned in independent films.
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The Office, Despicable Me
Steve Carell's family name was originally Caroselli, and he was a college ice hockey goalie and a disastrous mailman. Bob Odenkirk almost played Michael Scott in The Office. He later earned an Oscar nomination for a chilling dramatic role in Foxcatcher.
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Cheers, The Hunger Games
Woody Harrelson's father was a convicted hitman, and he once planned to become a minister. He was arrested for climbing the Golden Gate Bridge and directed the world's first live cinema film. He refused to eat real Twinkies in Zombieland.
Read the full article →8 questions, every answer is somewhere above.
1. How much was Al Pacino paid for The Godfather?
2. Which famous line did Jack Nicholson improvise in The Shining?
3. How old was Morgan Freeman when he got his pilot's licence?
4. Which vintage objects does Tom Hanks collect obsessively?
5. Which country's government banned Leonardo DiCaprio's Titanic haircut?
6. What did Brad Pitt do to his own tooth for Fight Club?
7. Which Harvard roommate of Tommy Lee Jones became US Vice President?
8. Which world chess champion did Woody Harrelson play to a draw?
Among the actors in this collection, Jack Nicholson has won three Academy Awards from a record twelve nominations for a male actor. Tom Hanks is one of only two actors to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars.
Anthony Hopkins, who won for The Father. He had already won for The Silence of the Lambs with less than sixteen minutes of screen time.
Robert Redford won the Oscar for directing but never for acting, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Tommy Lee Jones and Jack Nicholson have all directed features, and Robert De Niro directed two major films.
Jack Nicholson turned down Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Denzel Washington regrets passing on Se7en, Leonardo DiCaprio declined Hocus Pocus for a dramatic breakthrough, and Matt Damon turned down a role in Avatar.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were childhood best friends, Michael Douglas shared a flat with Danny DeVito, and singer Rosemary Clooney was George Clooney's aunt and early mentor.
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