The Most Famous

ACTORS from United States

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This page contains a list of the greatest American Actors. The pantheon dataset contains 13,578 Actors, 5,907 of which were born in United States. This makes United States the birth place of the most number of Actors.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary American Actors of all time. This list of famous American Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of American Actors.

Photo of Sylvester Stallone

1. Sylvester Stallone (b. 1946)

With an HPI of 86.88, Sylvester Stallone is the most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 106 different languages on wikipedia.

Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Critics' Choice Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards. Stallone is one of only two actors in history (alongside Harrison Ford) to have starred in a box-office No. 1 film across six consecutive decades. Struggling as an actor for a number of years upon moving to New York City in 1969, Stallone found gradual work in films such as The Lords of Flatbush (1974). He achieved his greatest critical and commercial success starting in 1976 with his iconic role as boxer Rocky Balboa in the first film of the successful Rocky franchise, which he also wrote. In 1977, he became the third actor in history to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. He portrayed the PTSD-plagued soldier John Rambo in First Blood (1982), a role he would play across five Rambo films (1982–2019). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, Stallone would go on to become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors acting in action films such as Cobra (1986), Tango and Cash (1989), Cliffhanger (1993), Demolition Man (1993), and The Specialist (1994). At the height of his career, Stallone was known for his rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Stallone continued his established roles in Rocky Balboa (2006) and Rambo (2008) before launching The Expendables film franchise (2010–present), in which he starred as the mercenary Barney Ross. In 2013, he starred in the successful film Escape Plan and appeared in its sequels. In 2015, he returned to Rocky again with Creed, in which a retired Rocky mentors former rival Apollo Creed's son Donnie Creed. The film brought Stallone widespread praise and his first Golden Globe Award, as well as a third Academy Award nomination, having been first nominated for the same role 40 years prior. He also starred in the sequel Creed II (2018) and portrayed Stakar Ogord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Regarded as an icon of action cinema, Stallone is credited with helping redefine the Hollywood action hero. He has occasionally ventured from the action genre, with mixed results. He starred in the comedies Oscar (1991) and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), both of which had modest success. He also starred in the 1997 drama Cop Land, for which he temporarily shed his sculpted physique and gained weight for his role as a powerless sheriff. In television, he has starred in the Paramount+ crime series Tulsa King (2022-present). In addition to his film work, Stallone is a noted art collector and painter, and has written books on fitness.

Photo of Marilyn Monroe

2. Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962)

With an HPI of 85.61, Marilyn Monroe is the 2nd most famous American Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 188 different languages.

Marilyn Monroe ( MARR-ə-lin mən-ROH; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2023) by the time of her death in 1962. Born and raised in Los Angeles County, Monroe spent most of her childhood in a total of twelve foster homes and an orphanage before marrying James Dougherty at age sixteen. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career, which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in late 1950. Over the next two years, she became a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photographs prior to becoming a star, but the story did not damage her career and instead resulted in increased interest in her films. By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars. She had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a "dumb blonde". The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and cover of the first issue of Playboy. Monroe played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, but felt disappointed when typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career. When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe's contract, she founded her own film production company in 1954 with her good friend, photographer Milton Greene. She dedicated 1955 to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. Her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1956) and her first independent production in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961). Monroe's troubled private life received much attention. Her marriages to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and to playwright Arthur Miller were highly publicized; both ended in divorce. On August 4, 1962, she died at age 36 of an overdose of barbiturates at her Los Angeles home. Her death was ruled a probable suicide. Long after her death, Monroe remains a pop culture icon, with the American Film Institute ranking her as the sixth-greatest female screen legend from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Photo of Bruce Lee

3. Bruce Lee (1940 - 1973)

With an HPI of 83.04, Bruce Lee is the 3rd most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 121 different languages.

Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong-American martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from Lee's experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense—as well as eclectic, Zen Buddhist and Taoist philosophies—as a new school of martial arts thought. With a film career spanning Hong Kong and the United States, Lee is regarded as the first global Chinese film star and one of the most influential martial artists in the history of cinema. Known for his roles in five feature-length martial arts films, Lee is credited with helping popularize martial arts films in the 1970s and promoting Hong Kong action cinema. Born in San Francisco and raised in British Hong Kong, Lee was introduced to the Hong Kong film industry as a child actor by his father. His early martial arts experience included Wing Chun (trained under Ip Man), tai chi, boxing (winning a Hong Kong boxing tournament), and frequent street fighting (neighborhood and rooftop fights). In 1959, Lee moved to Seattle, where he enrolled at the University of Washington in 1961. It was during this time in the United States that he began considering making money by teaching martial arts, even though he aspired to have a career in acting. He opened his first martial arts school, operated out of his home in Seattle. After later adding a second school in Oakland, California, he once drew significant attention at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships of California by making demonstrations and speaking. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to teach, where his students included Chuck Norris, Sharon Tate, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His roles in America, including playing Kato in The Green Hornet introduced him to American audiences, but the cultural frictions that existed did not allow Lee to fully express himself. After returning to Hong Kong in 1971, Lee landed his first leading role in The Big Boss, directed by Lo Wei. A year later he starred in Fist of Fury, in which he portrayed Chen Zhen, and The Way of the Dragon, directed and written by Lee. He went on to star in the US-Hong Kong co-production Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978). His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films, all of which were commercially successful, elevated Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of Western interest in Chinese martial arts. The direction and tone of his films, including their fight choreography and diversification, dramatically influenced and changed martial arts and martial arts films worldwide. With his influence, kung fu films began to displace the wuxia film genre—fights were choreographed more realistically, fantasy elements were discarded for real-world conflicts, and the characterisation of the male lead went from simply being a chivalrous hero to one that embodied the notion of masculinity. Lee's career was cut short by his sudden death at age 33 from a brain edema. Nevertheless, his films remained popular, gained a large cult following, and became widely imitated and exploited. He became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, based upon his portrayal of Cantonese culture in his films, and among Asian Americans for defying Asian stereotypes in the United States. Since his death, Lee has continued to be a prominent influence on modern combat sports, including judo, karate, mixed martial arts, and boxing, as well as modern popular culture, including film, television, comics, animation, and video games. Time named Lee one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

Photo of Grace Kelly

4. Grace Kelly (1929 - 1982)

With an HPI of 82.91, Grace Kelly is the 4th most famous American Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 98 different languages.

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982), also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. Prior to her marriage, she achieved stardom in several significant Hollywood films in the early to mid-1950s. She received an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and was ranked 13th on the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars list. Kelly was born into a prominent Catholic family in Philadelphia. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1949, she began appearing in New York City theatrical productions and television broadcasts. Kelly made her film debut in Fourteen Hours (1951) and gained stardom from her roles in Fred Zinnemann's western film High Noon (1952), and John Ford's adventure-romance Mogambo (1953), the latter of which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the drama The Country Girl (1954). Other notable works include the war film The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), the romantic comedy High Society (1956), and three Alfred Hitchcock suspense thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955). Kelly retired from acting at age 26 to marry Rainier and began her duties as Princess of Monaco. Grace and Rainier had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. Princess Grace's charity work focused on young children and the arts. In 1964, she established the Princess Grace Foundation to support local artisans. Her organization for children's rights, AMADE Mondiale, gained consultive status within UNICEF and UNESCO. Her final film role was narrating The Children of Theatre Street (1977), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Grace died at the age of 52 at Monaco Hospital, from injuries sustained in a car crash. Her son, Prince Albert, helped establish the Princess Grace Awards in 1984 to recognize emerging performers in film, theatre, and dance.

Photo of Al Pacino

5. Al Pacino (b. 1940)

With an HPI of 80.49, Al Pacino is the 5th most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 120 different languages.

Alfredo James Pacino ( pə-CHEE-noh; Italian: [paˈtʃiːno]; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century, Pacino has received many accolades including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also received four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016. A method actor, Pacino studied at HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg. Pacino went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Scent of a Woman (1992). His other Oscar-nominated roles were in The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), ...And Justice for All (1979), Dick Tracy (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Irishman (2019). His other notable roles include The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Scarecrow (1973), Cruising (1980), Scarface (1983), The Godfather Part III (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), Heat (1995), Donnie Brasco, The Devil's Advocate (both 1997), The Insider, Any Given Sunday (both 1999), Insomnia (2002), Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and House of Gucci (2021). On television, Pacino has acted in multiple productions for HBO, including Angels in America (2003) and the Jack Kevorkian biopic You Don't Know Jack (2010), winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for each. Pacino starred in the Amazon Prime Video series Hunters (2020–23). He has also had an extensive career on stage. He is a two-time Tony Award winner, winning Best Featured Actor in a Play in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (1969) and Best Actor in a Play for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977). Pacino made his directing debut with the documentary Looking for Richard (1996); Pacino had played the lead role on stage in 1977. He has also acted as Shylock in a 2004 feature film adaptation and 2010 stage production of The Merchant of Venice. Pacino directed and starred in Chinese Coffee (2000), Wilde Salomé (2011), and Salomé (2013). Since 1994, he has been the joint president of the Actors Studio.

Photo of Robert De Niro

6. Robert De Niro (b. 1943)

With an HPI of 80.45, Robert De Niro is the 6th most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 122 different languages.

Robert Anthony De Niro ( də NEER-roh, Italian: [de ˈniːro]; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016. De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first credited screen role was in Brian de Palma's Greetings (1968). De Niro's first collaboration with Martin Scorsese was with the crime drama film Mean Streets (1973). De Niro has earned two Academy Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974) and the other for Best Actor portraying Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's drama Raging Bull (1980). De Niro also earned Oscar nominations for his performances in Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He is also known for his film roles in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), 1900 (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), Joker (2019), and The Irishman (2019). He directed and acted in both A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). His comedic roles include Hi, Mom! (1970), Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999) and its sequel, Analyze That (2002), the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), and The Intern (2015). Also known for his television roles, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017), earning a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He received further Emmy Award nominations for producing the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019), and for portraying Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live. De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Many of De Niro's films are considered classics of American cinema. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" as of 2023. Five films are featured on the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the 100 greatest American films of all time. Timeout magazine's list of 100 best movies included seven of De Niro's films, as chosen by actors in the industry.

Photo of Clint Eastwood

7. Clint Eastwood (b. 1930)

With an HPI of 79.44, Clint Eastwood is the 7th most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 105 different languages.

Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Eastwood's greatest commercial successes are the adventure comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its action comedy sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980). Other popular Eastwood films include the Westerns Hang 'Em High (1968), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Pale Rider (1985), the action-war film Where Eagles Dare (1968), the prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the war film Heartbreak Ridge (1986), the action film In the Line of Fire (1993), and the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995). More recent works include Gran Torino (2008), The Mule (2018), and Cry Macho (2021). Since 1967, Eastwood's company Malpaso Productions has produced all but four of his American films. An Academy Award nominee for Best Actor, Eastwood won Best Director and Best Picture for his Western film Unforgiven (1992) and his sports drama Million Dollar Baby (2004). In addition to directing many of his own star vehicles, Eastwood has directed films in which he did not appear, such as the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the war film Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations. He also directed the biographical films Changeling (2008), Invictus (2009), American Sniper (2014), Sully (2016), and Richard Jewell (2019). Eastwood's accolades include four Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, three César Awards, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2000, he received the Italian Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion award, honoring his lifetime achievements. Bestowed two of France's highest civilian honors, he received the Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1994, and the Legion of Honour in 2007.

Photo of Bette Davis

8. Bette Davis (1908 - 1989)

With an HPI of 78.51, Bette Davis is the 8th most famous American Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 87 different languages.

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was known for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations (and one write-in) for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was placed second on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and had her critical breakthrough playing a vulgar waitress in Of Human Bondage (1934). Contentiously, she was not among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year, and she won it the following year for her performance in Dangerous (1935). In 1936, due to poor film offers, she attempted to free herself from her contract, and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies. She was praised for her role in Marked Woman (1937) and won a second Academy Award for her portrayal of a strong-willed 1850s southern belle in Jezebel (1938), the first of five consecutive years in which she received a Best Actress nomination; the others for Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), and Now, Voyager (1942). A period of decline in the late 1940s was redeemed with her role as a fading Broadway star in All About Eve (1950), which has often been cited as her best performance. She received Best Actress nominations for this film and for The Star (1952), but her career struggled over the rest of the decade. Her last nomination came for her role as the psychotic former child star Jane Hudson in the psychological horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). In the latter stage of her career, Davis played character parts in films like Death on the Nile (1978) and shifted her focus to roles in television. She led the miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978), won an Emmy Award for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979), and was nominated for her performances in White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982). Her last complete cinematic part was in the drama The Whales of August (1987). Davis was known for her forceful and intense style of acting and her physical transformations. She gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors, and co-stars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style, and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated. Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and three times divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 film, television, and theater roles to her credit.

Photo of Marlon Brando

9. Marlon Brando (1924 - 2004)

With an HPI of 78.43, Marlon Brando is the 9th most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 134 different languages.

Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century, Brando received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences. Brando came under the influence of Stella Adler and Stanislavski's system in the 1940s. He began his career on stage, where he was lauded for adeptly interpreting his characters. He made his Broadway debut in the play I Remember Mama (1944) and won Theater World Awards for his roles in the plays Candida and Truckline Cafe, both in 1946. He returned to Broadway as Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), a role he reprised in the 1951 film adaptation, directed by Elia Kazan. He made his film debut playing a wounded G.I. in The Men (1950) and won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for his roles as a dockworker in the crime drama film On the Waterfront (1954) and Vito Corleone in the gangster epic The Godfather (1972). He was Oscar-nominated for playing Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (1953), an air force pilot in Sayonara (1957), an American expatriate in Last Tango in Paris (1973), and a lawyer in A Dry White Season (1989). Brando was known for playing characters who later became popular icons, such as the rebellious motorcycle-gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One (1953), and he came to be seen as an emblem of the era's so-called "generation gap". He also played Sky Masterson in the musical film Guys and Dolls (1955), Fletcher Christian in the action film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Jor-El in the superhero film Superman (1978), and as Colonel Kurtz in the Vietnam war drama Apocalypse Now (1979). He made his directorial film debut in the western drama One-Eyed Jacks (1961), in which he also starred, which did poorly at the box office. On television, Brando won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his role in the ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979), after which he took a nine-year hiatus from acting. He later returned to film, with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. The last two decades of his life were marked by controversy, and his troubled private life received significant public attention. He struggled with mood disorders and legal issues. His last films include The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and The Score (2001).

Photo of Danny DeVito

10. Danny DeVito (b. 1944)

With an HPI of 78.01, Danny DeVito is the 10th most famous American Actor.  His biography has been translated into 80 different languages.

Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi (1978–1983), which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He plays Frank Reynolds on the FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2006–present). He is known for his film roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Terms of Endearment (1983), Head Office (1985), Ruthless People (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Twins (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Jack the Bear (1993), Junior (1994), Matilda (1996), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Big Kahuna (1999), Big Fish (2003), Deck the Halls (2006), When in Rome (2010), Wiener-Dog (2016), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). He has voiced roles in such films as Hercules (1997), The Lorax (2012), and Smallfoot (2018). DeVito and Michael Shamberg founded Jersey Films. Soon afterwards, Stacey Sher became an equal partner. The production company is known for films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Garden State (2004), and Freedom Writers (2007). DeVito also owned Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911! DeVito and wife Rhea Perlman starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. DeVito was also one of the producers nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for Erin Brockovich (2000). From 2012 to 2013 he played Willie Clark in the West End revival of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. He made his Broadway debut as Gregory Solomon in the revival of Arthur Miller's The Price (2017), earning a Tony Award nomination for his performance. He returned to Broadway in the Theresa Rebeck play I Need That (2023).

People

Pantheon has 6,413 people classified as American actors born between 1807 and 2009. Of these 6,413, 4,432 (69.11%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living American actors include Sylvester Stallone, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro. The most famous deceased American actors include Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Lee, and Grace Kelly. As of April 2024, 507 new American actors have been added to Pantheon including Henry Calvin, Shera Danese, and Frank Wolff.

Living American Actors

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Deceased American Actors

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Newly Added American Actors (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Actors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Actors since 1700.