My favourite American actors
by nigel49 | created - 08 Nov 2016 | updated - 7 months ago | Public
1. Anthony Perkins
Actor | Psycho
Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His paternal great-grandfather was noted engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony.
Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University ...
2. Gregory Peck
Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird
Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, to Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. He had Irish (from his paternal grandmother), English, and some German, ancestry. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only ...
3. Tab Hunter
Actor | Damn Yankees
Dreamy Tab Hunter stood out in film history as one of the hottest teen idols of the 1950s era. With blond, tanned, surfer-boy good looks, he was artificially groomed and nicknamed "The Sigh Guy" by the Hollywood studio system, yet managed to continue his career long after his "golden boy" prime.
...
4. Chris Pratt
Actor | Guardians of the Galaxy
Christopher Michael Pratt is an American film and television actor. He came to prominence for his small-screen roles, including Bright Abbott in Everwood (2002), Ché in The O.C. (2003), and Andy Dwyer and Parks and Recreation (2009), and notable film roles in Moneyball (2011), The Five-Year ...
5. Paul Newman
Actor | The Hustler
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was , Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...
6. Jussie Smollett
Actor | Empire
Jussie Smollett was born on June 21, 1982 in Santa Rosa, California, USA as Justin Smollett. He is an actor, known for Empire (2015), The Mighty Ducks (1992) and Alien: Covenant (2017).
7. Farley Granger
Actor | Strangers on a Train
Farley Earle Granger was born in 1925 in San Jose, California, to Eva (Hopkins) and Farley Earle Granger, who owned an automobile dealership. Right out of high school, he was brought to the attention of movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, who cast him in a small role in The North Star (1943). He followed...
8. Marlon Brando
Actor | Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...
9. Montgomery Clift
Actor | From Here to Eternity
Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-...
10. George Chakiris
Actor | West Side Story
George Chakiris made his film debut at the age of 12 singing in the chorus of Song of Love (1947). Following his graduation from high school, he supported his night-time dancing, singing and dramatic lessons with a daytime job clerking in a Los Angeles department store. Later he started his acting/...
11. Bradley Stryker
Actor | Cold Pursuit
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Bradley is an award-winning Actor whose debut feature film as Writer/Director, "Land of Smiles", received 33 International film festival awards.
Bradley has been actively studying the craft of acting for going on two decades. An intrinsic need for ...
12. John Emmet Tracy
Actor | iZombie
John Emmet Tracy is an American theatre, film and television actor. The second of four children, he was born in Chicago and raised in both Chicago and Milwaukee. As a child, he was drawn to acting by an early love for storytelling. He formed his first theatrical partnership at the age of seven with...
13. Colton Haynes
Actor | Rough Night
American actor and model Colton Lee Haynes was born in Wichita, Kansas, to Dana Denise (Mitchell) and William Clayton Haynes. He began modeling at age 15 and his first success came with an Abercrombie & Fitch campaign. He also modeled for J.C. Penney, Kira Plastinina, and Ralph Lauren. He is best ...
14. Nigel Thatch
Actor | Godfather of Harlem
Nigel Thatch was born on August 8, 1976 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is an actor, known for Godfather of Harlem (2019), Selma (2014) and American Dreams (2002).
15. Edward Norton
Actor | Keeping the Faith
American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer ...
16. Christopher Jones
Actor | Ryan's Daughter
Christopher Jones was a brief cult star of the late '60s counterculture era and a would-be rebel successor to James Dean had he wanted it. Born William Franklin Jones amid rather impoverished surroundings to a grocery clerk in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1941, his artist mother had to be ...
17. Brandon Routh
Actor | Superman Returns
Brandon James Routh (pronounced like "south") was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up in nearby Norwalk. He is the son of Catherine LaVonne (Lear), a teacher, and Ronald Wayne Routh, a carpenter. Routh has English, Scottish, and German ancestry. He attended the University of Iowa and starred in ...
18. Ben Foster
Actor | Hell or High Water
Ben Foster was born October 29, 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Gillian Kirwan and Steven Foster, restaurant owners. His younger brother is actor Jon Foster. His paternal grandparents were from Russian Jewish families that immigrated to Massachusetts (his grandfather became a prominent judge in ...
19. Matthew Morrison
Actor | Glee
It took a summer of acting in a children's theater group to convince Matthew Morrison that he wanted to become an actor. He auditioned and attended Orange County High School of the Arts, and followed that with NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, although he didn't enjoy his college foray. Despite a ...
20. Sal Mineo
Actor | Rebel Without a Cause
Salvatore (Sal) Mineo Jr. was born to Josephine and Sal Sr. (a casket maker), who emigrated to the U.S. from Sicily. His siblings were Michael, Victor and Sarina. Sal was thrown out of parochial school and, by age eight, was a member of a street gang in a tough Bronx neighborhood. His mother ...
21. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor | Inception
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has completed production on the untitled Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman sci-fi film for Netflix in which he stars opposite Jamie Foxx and on the independent thriller, 7500, written and directed by Patrick Vollarth. Among his other projects, he is in development on a variety of ...
22. Sidney Poitier
Actor | In the Heat of the Night
A native of Cat Island, The Bahamas (although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents), Poitier grew up in poverty as the son of farmers Evelyn (nee Outten) and Reginald James Poitier, who also drove a cab. He had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to...
23. Justin Kirk
Actor | Angels in America
Born in Salem, Oregon, Justin Kirk spent his childhood in Union, Washington, where he attended grade school on a Native American reservation. Kirk knew from the age of 3 that he wanted to perform, and he made his acting debut at seven in a local college play. At 12, he moved with his mother to ...
24. Noah Wyle
Actor | ER
Noah Wyle was born in Hollywood, California, to Marjorie (Speer), an orthopedic head nurse, and Stephen Wyle, an entrepreneur and electrical engineer. He is one of six children. His father's family was Russian Jewish. Noah had early support for his acting ambitions from his stepfather, film ...
25. Chad Allen
Actor | Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Chad Allen was born on June 5, 1974 in Cerritos, California, USA as Chad Allen Lazzari. He is an actor and producer, known for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993), TerrorVision (1986) and Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (1986).
26. Neil Patrick Harris
Actor | How I Met Your Mother
Neil Patrick Harris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 15, 1973. His parents, Sheila Gail (Scott) and Ronald Gene Harris, were lawyers and ran a restaurant. He grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico, a small town 120 miles south of Albuquerque, where he first took up acting in the fourth grade. ...
27. James Shigeta
Actor | Die Hard
Hawaiian-born James Shigeta was, for a time, the biggest East Asian U.S. star the country had known for decades. His up-and-down career reflected the country's changing interest in films with East Asian themes, but, when called upon, he filled both A-movie starring roles and minor T.V. guest ...
28. Gordon Scott
Actor | Tarzan's Greatest Adventure
Physical Education major Gordon Weschkul left the University of Oregon after one term. He became an infantry drill instructor (rifle, pistol and bayonet; judo and hand-to-hand combat; close order drill), then a military policeman. After his honorable discharge in 1947, he was a fireman, cowboy, and...
29. Justin Hartley
Actor | This Is Us
Justin Hartley can currently be seen starring on NBC's critically acclaimed, award winning series, "This Is Us," alongside Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Sterling K. Brown and Chrissy Metz. Created by Dan Fogelman, "This Is Us" premiered in September 2016 and instantly broke ratings records, ...
30. Clifton Collins Jr.
Actor | Star Trek
An acting chameleon who can easily lose himself in the life of his film and television characters, Clifton Collins Jr. is a native Angeleno who grew up destined to become a part of the Latino entertainment industry. His great-grandparents on his mother's side were a Mexican trumpet player and ...
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