List of most popular drama actors (all time)

Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at the age of ten. Following his first lead role in Octob...

Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor, singer, and film producer. Throughout the 2000s, Renner appeared largely in independent films such as Dahmer (2002) and Neo Ned (2005). He also appeared in supporting...

Sir Michael Caine, (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933), is a British actor and author. Caine has appeared in over 115 films. Although he uses the title Sir Michael Caine, he actually chose to be knighted as Sir Mauric...

Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, professional racing driver and team owner; he was also an environmentalist, activist, and philanthropist. He won numer...

Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American film actress. She is best known for her performances in the films Blade Runner (1982), Splash (1984), Roxanne (1987), Wall Street (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989) and Kil...

Josh James Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. His first role was in the 1985 film The Goonies. Since then he has appeared in a wide number of films, and is best known for his work as Llewellyn Moss in No Country...

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress, model and businesswoman. She has won various awards for her acting, including the Choice Actress Teen Choice Award and Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television, a...

Lucy Alexis Liu (born Lucy Liu; December 2, 1968) is an American actress, model and artist. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), for which...

David Carradine (born John Arthur Carradine; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his leading role as a Shaolin peace-loving monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television seri...

Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films like The Big Bird Cage (1972)...

John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) and starring in the box of...

Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Following early r...

Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is well known for his portrayal of Andy Dufresne in the prison drama film The Shawshank Redemp...

Peter Henry Fonda (born February 23, 1940) is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda (by first wife Susan Brewer, stepdaughter of Noah Dietrich). Fonda is an...

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer, and artist. He attended the Actors Studio, making his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in two films with J...

Michael Søren Madsen (born September 25, 1958) is an American actor, poet and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, including Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise, Wyatt Earp, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, Species, Kill Bi...

Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. His 19...

Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (born December 13, 1957) is an American actor and film director. Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films, including Parting Glances, New York Stories, Mystery Train,...

Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an American actor and producer. An Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee, he has appeared in films such as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma...

John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. Early in his career, he was best known for playing Dan Conner on the ABC TV series Roseanne (1988–1997), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1993...

William McChord Hurt (born March 20, 1950) is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in th...

Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (born June 6, 1967) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Cinderella Man and is also known for his roles in the films Sideways, American S...

Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American film actress and director. The daughter of director Ron Howard, she made her acting debut as an extra in her father's film Parenthood (1989) and went on to have small roles i...

Roman Polanski (born Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański, 18 August 1933) is a Paris-born Pole and, since 1976, naturalized French-Polish film director, producer, writer, and actor. Born in Paris to Polish parents, he moved with his fa...

Richard St John Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor, singer, theatrical and song producer, film director and writer. He appeared on stage and in many films, appearing as Frank Machin in This Sporting Life,...

Sir Alec Guinness (2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage he was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played...

Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and film producer. He achieved prominence in the early 1990s with films such as Jungle Fever (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Amos & Andrew (1993), True Romance (1993...

Hayden Christensen (born April 19, 1981) is an American-Canadian actor and producer. He began his career on Canadian television at the age of 13, then diversified into American television in the late 1990s. He was then seen as Sam...

Ewan Gordon McGregor (born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His first professional role was in 1993, when he won a leading role in the Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar. He is best known for his roles as heroin addict Ma...

Lupita Amondi Nyong'o (born March 1, 1983) is a Mexican-Kenyan actress and film director. She was born in Mexico, but was raised in Kenya. She attended college in the United States, earning a Bachelor's degree in film and theater...

Oscar Isaac (born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada; March 9, 1979) is a Guatemalan-American actor and singer. He is known for his lead film roles in the comedy-drama Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), for which he received a Golden Globe Aw...

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She rose to prominence after releasing her self-titled debut studio album Mariah Carey in 1990. It went multiplatinum and...

Selena Marie Gomez (born July 22, 1992) is an American actress, singer and fashion designer. Born and reared in Grand Prairie, Texas, she was first featured on the children's series Barney & Friends in the early 2000s. In 2007, Go...

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Franklin, Tennessee, she held minor roles in the television series Doc and the film Big Fish in her ch...

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 2 October 1951), known professionally by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist. He was the principal songwrit...

Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight (born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He is the winner of one Academy Award, having been nominated for four. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards and nominated for ten. He is the father o...

River Jude Phoenix (born River Jude Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician, and activist. He was the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix. Phoenix'...

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress, businesswoman and humanitarian. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, and was one of the most popular stars...

Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England, and the Netherlands,...

Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans (born June 13, 1981) is an American actor and director. Evans is best known for his superhero roles as the Marvel Comics characters Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Human Torch...

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (born 28 September 1934) is a French former actress, singer and fashion model, who later became an animal rights activist. Starting in 1969, Bardot became the official face of Marianne (who had previousl...

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after marrying Prince Rainier III, became Princess of Monaco. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, Kelly appeared...

Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez (born 30 July 1948), known as Jean Reno is a Moroccan-born French actor of Spanish descent. Working in French, English, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian, he has appeared in numerous successful films suc...

Gustaf Caspar Orm Skarsgård (born 12 November 1980) is a Swedish actor. He is best known outside Scandinavia for his role as Floki in the History Channel series Vikings.

Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (born August 25, 1976) is a Swedish actor. He is best known for his roles as vampire Eric Northman on the HBO series True Blood, Meekus in Zoolander and Brad Colbert in the HBO miniseries Generati...

Stellan John Skarsgård (born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his roles as Jan Nyman in Breaking the Waves (1996), Prof. Gerald Lambeau in Good Will Hunting (1997), Bootstrap Bill in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead...

Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba (born 6 September 1972) is a British actor, musician and DJ. Elba is best known for his portrayal of drug lord and aspiring businessman Russell "Stringer" Bell in the HBO series The Wire, Detective John...

Jesse Adam Eisenberg (born October 5, 1983) is an American actor. He made his television debut with the short-lived comedy-drama series Get Real (1999–2000). Following his first leading role in the comedy-drama film Roger Dodger (...

Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American film director, producer, and actor, best known for playing two high-profile roles in television sitcoms in his childhood and early adulthood, and for directing a numb...

Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Thor: The Dark World (2013). He...