The Marx Brothers
Groucho
(1890-1977)

Groucho introduced absurdist anarchy to mainstream comedy in Animal Crackers and Horse Feathers.

Best Films: The Cocoanuts (1929), Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935), A Day at the Races (1937)

James Mason
(1901-1984)

Odd Man Out put Mason on the radar, and he brought a touch of tainted class to North by Northwest and Lolita.

Best Films: The Seventh Veil (1945), Odd Man Out (1947), Caught (1949), The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), 5 Fingers (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), A Star is Born (1954), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), North by Northwest (1959), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Lolita (1962), Georgy Girl (1966), Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Boys From Brazil (1978), The Verdict (1982)

Steve McQueen
(1930-1980)

McQueen's brand of sensitive rebelliousness made him the ultimate in cool in The Great Escape.

Best Films: The Magnificent Seven (1960), Hell is for Heroes (1962), The Great Escape (1963), Love With the Proper Stranger (1963), Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Bullitt (1968), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), The Reivers (1969), On Any Sunday (1971), Le Mans (1971), The Getaway (1972), Papillon (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Hunter (1980)

Robert Mitchum
(1917-1999)

Mitchum's sleepy, vaguely menacing sensuality made him a noir icon in movies like Out of the Past and The Night of the Hunter.

Best Films: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Crossfire (1947), Out of the Past (1947), Pursued (1947), The Lusty Men (1952), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Enemy Below (1957), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), The Sundowners (1960), Cape Fear (1962), The Longest Day (1962), Two for the Seesaw (1962), El Dorado (1967), Ryan's Daughter (1970), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), The Yakuza (1975), The Big Sleep (1978)

Paul Newman
(1925-2008)

Newman defiantly hitched his good looks to one slippery, startling classic after another, from The Hustler to Hud.

Best Films: The Silver Chalice (1954), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Left Handed Gun (1958), The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Exodus (1960), The Hustler (1961), Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Hombre (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Winning (1969), Sometimes a Great Notion (1971), The Sting (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), Slap Shot (1977), Absence of Malice (1981), Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981), The Verdict (1982), The Color of Money (1986), Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), Nobody's Fool (1994), Twilight (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), Where the Money Is (2000), Road to Perdition (2002), Cars (2006)

Jack Nicholson
(1937- )

Nicholson's feral, defiant energy dovetailed with the Zeitgeist, producing movies like Five Easy Pieces, Carnal Knowledge, and Chinatown.

Best Films: Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Shining (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Reds (1981), Terms of Endearment (1983), Prizzi's Honor (1985), Ironweed (1987), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Batman (1989), The Two Jakes (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Wolf (1994), The Evening Star (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), As Good As It Gets (1997), The Pledge (2001), About Schmidt (2002), Anger Management (2003), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Departed (2006), The Bucket List (2007)

Sir Laurence Olivier
(1907-1989)

Classically trained and Hollywood handsome, Olivier approached Shakespeare with the same vigor he brought to Wuthering Heights.

Best Films: Wuthering Heights (1939), Pride and Prejudice (1940), Rebecca (1940), That Hamilton Woman (1941), Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), Carrie (1952), The Beggar's Opera (1953), Richard III (1955), The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), The Entertainer (1960), Spartacus (1960), Othello (1965), Khartoum (1966), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), The Jazz Singer (1980), Inchon (1981)

Al Pacino
(1940- )

A bundle of urban energy, Pacino embraced bravura in such crowd-pleasers as Glengarry Glen Ross and The Devil's Advocate.

Best Films: The Panic in Needle Park (1971), The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), ...And Justice for All (1979), Scarface (1983), Sea of Love (1989), Dick Tracy (1990), The Godfather, Part III (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Carlito's Way (1993), Scent of a Woman (1992), Heat (1995), Looking for Richard (1996), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Donnie Brasco (1997), Any Given Sunday (1999). The Insider (1999). Insomnia (2002), S1m0ne (2002), Angels in America (2003), The Recruit (2003), The Merchant of Venice (2004), 88 Minutes (2007), Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Righteous Kill (2008)

Gregory Peck
(1916-2003)

Peck could play neurotic (Spellbound) and dashing (Roman Holiday) but excelled at righteousness (Gentlemen's Agreement).

Best Films: The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), Spellbound (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Yellow Sky (1948), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Gunfighter (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), David and Bathsheba (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), Moby Dick (1956), The Big Country (1958), Beloved Infidel (1959), On the Beach (1959), Pork Chop Hill (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), The Omen (1976), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Old Gringo (1989)

Sean Penn
(1960- )

Penn's specialty is the intense, complicated loners he's played in movies like Dead Man Walking and Mystic River.

Best Films: Taps (1981), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Bad Boys (1983), Racing With the Moon (1984), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), At Close Range (1986), Shanghai Surprise (1986), Colors (1988), Casualties of War (1989), We're No Angels (1989), Carlito's Way (1993), Dead Man Walking (1995), The Game (1997), She's So Lovely (1997), U Turn (1997), Hurlyburly (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), Sweet and Lowdown (1999), I Am Sam (2001), Mystic River (2003), 21 Grams (2003), The Interpreter (2005), All the King's Men (2006), Milk (2008), The Tree of Life (2011)