Sidney Poitier
(1927-2022)

At a time when most black actors were stuck at the back of the bus, Poitier took the wheel, winning an Oscar for Lilies of the Field.

Best Films: The Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Defiant Ones (1958), Porgy and Bess (1959), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Lilies of the Field (1963), The Bedford Incident (1965), The Long Ships (1965), A Patch of Blue (1965), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), To Sir, With Love (1967), They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970), Little Nikita (1988), Shoot to Kill (1988), The Jackal (1997)

William Powell
(1892-1984)

Powell was a leading man for four decades, assembling a highly diverse filmography, including The Thin Man series, My Man Godfrey and Sherlock Holmes.

Best Films: The Last Command (1928), The Canary Murder Case (1929), One Way Passage (1932), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), The Thin Man (1934) (and five sequels), Reckless (1935), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), My Man Godfrey (1936), Libeled Lady (1936), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), Life With Father (1947), Mister Roberts (1955)

Edward G. Robinson
(1893-1973)

Squat and ugly, Robinson was convincing as a force for justice (Double Indemnity), a criminal (Little Caesar), and a schmuck (Scarlet Street).

Best Films: Little Caesar (1930), The Whole Town's Talking (1935), Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), The Sea Wolf (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), Scarlet Street (1945), The Stranger (1946), Key Largo (1948), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Soylent Green (1973)

George C. Scott
(1926-1999)

In movies like Patton, Hardcore, and A Christmas Carol, he embodied moral outrage, right or wrong.

Best Films: Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Hustler (1961), Dr. Strangelove Or: (1964), The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), Patton (1970), The Hospital (1971), They Might Be Giants (1971), Hardcore (1979), The Changeling (1980), A Christmas Carol (1984) (TV)

Peter Sellers
(1925-1980)

Sellers was bitter fun: who else could have played Dr. Strangelove and president Merkin Muffley in the same scene?

Best Films: The Ladykillers (1955), The Mouse That Roared (1959), Lolita (1962), The Pink Panther (1963) films, A Shot in the Dark (1964), Dr. Strangelove Or: (1964), Casino Royale (1967), I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968), The Party (1968), Being There (1979)

James Stewart
(1908-1997)

Stereotyped as an aw-shucks Everyman, Stewart brought fierce intelligence to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and many other roles.

Best Films: You Can't Take It With You (1938), Destry Rides Again (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), It's A Wonderful Life (1946), Rope (1948), Call Northside 777 (1948), Broken Arrow (1950), Harvey (1950), Winchester '73 (1950), Bend of the River (1952), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Naked Spur (1953), The Far Country (1954), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Rear Window (1954), The Man From Laramie (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Bell Book and Candle (1958), Vertigo (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The FBI Story (1959), How the West Was Won (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Cheyenne Autumn (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), Shenandoah (1965), The Shootist (1976)

Spencer Tracy
(1900-1967)

Practical about the art of acting, Tracy was an unlikely leading man in the socially conscious drama Bad Day at Black Rock.

Best Films: Fury (1936), Libeled Lady (1936), San Francisco (1936), Captains Courageous (1937), Boys Town (1938), Test Pilot (1938), Boom Town (1940), Edison, the Man (1940), Northwest Passage (1940), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Tortilla Flat (1942), Woman of the Year (1942), A Guy Named Joe (1943), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Adam's Rib (1949), State of the Union (1948), Father of the Bride (1950), Father's Little Dividend (1951), Pat and Mike (1952), Broken Lance (1954), Bad Day At Black Rock (1955), Desk Set (1957), The Last Hurrah (1958), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Denzel Washington
(1954- )

Washington played the voice of moral authority in movies like Glory and Courage Under Fire without seeming sanctimonious.

Best Films: Cry Freedom (1987), Glory (1989), Mississippi Masala (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Philadelphia (1993), The Pelican Brief (1993), Devil In A Blue Dress (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), Courage Under Fire (1996), The Preacher's Wife (1996), Fallen (1998), The Siege (1998), The Hurricane (1999), The Bone Collector (1999), Remember the Titans (2000), Training Day (2001), Antwone Fisher (2002), John Q. (2002), Out of Time (2003), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Man on Fire (2004), Deja Vu (2006), American Gangster (2007), The Great Debaters (2007), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), The Book of Eli (2010), Flight (2012), The Equalizer (2014), The Magnificent Seven (2016), Fences (2016), Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), The Equalizer 2 (2018), The Little Things (2021), The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), The Equalizer 3 (2023)

John Wayne
(1907-1979)

Wayne spent 50 years defining American manhood, while starring in the career-making Stagecoach and the bittersweet The Shootist.

Best Films: Stagecoach (1939), The Flying Tigers (1942), Back to Bataan (1945), They Were Expendable (1945), Fort Apache (1948), Red River (1948), The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The High and the Mighty (1954), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), Rio Bravo (1959), The Alamo (1960), The Longest Day (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Hatari! (1962), El Dorado (1967), The Green Berets (1968), True Grit (1969), The Shootist (1976)

Orson Welles
(1915-1985)

Citizen Kane showcased Welles' bravura acting style, and roles in Touch of Evil and The Lady From Shanghai proved he was no fluke.

Best Films: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Jane Eyre (1943), The Stranger (1946), The Lady From Shanghai (1948), Macbeth (1948), The Third Man (1949), Moby Dick (1956), Touch of Evil (1958), Compulsion (1959), Chimes at Midnight (1966), A Man For All Seasons (1966)