Greatest living male actor, aka The Male Meryl

Mark Rylance.

Ben Whishaw.

Willem Dafoe

Russell Tovey

Mr. Burt Reynolds

The greatest living male actor is F. Murray Abraham.

Impossible to choose just one. They're all top notch in their own way. Master craftsman who put in the work to get there.

NOT James (Fat Fuck) Corden

It is Gary Oldman.

Paul Reubens

Malkovitch

[quote]Malkovitch

Drop the T

What about Twinkothee Chalamet?

Bryan Cranston (says Sir Anthony Hopkins)

I voted for DeNiro. So many iconic roles.

Daniel Day-Lewis.

Booth, the greatest tragedian of this or any other era.

L'il Dustin has played such a wide variety of characters through the years. He's also responsible for 5.6% of U.S. males being named Dustin.

^

Sam Rockwell

I think Hugo Weaving is pretty great, but I've had the advantage of seeing him in a range of stage work. I am looking forward to seeing him share some scenes with Gary Oldman in Slow Horses--he didn't in the last season.

interesting question. if by "the male Meryl" you mean who is the greatest living transformational actor or, put another way, an actor who completely transforms from one part to another, i'ts hard to say. I guess Daniel Day Lewis comes the closest.

I had a very interesting conversation with a senior CAA talent agent who was seated next to me at a charity dinner. This guy was surprisingly counter to the stereotype of an agent, but he must be good at it because his clients were some of the biggest names going. He told me that Meryl Streep, great as she is, would struggle to get a career going today because the industry has changed so much since the 70's. He also noted that some of the best actors are the "hardest to market" because of their ability to transform and the people at the decision making level are not always the creatives. This dynamic is reversed from the 70's when creatives had more say in casting. He said the "best actors" in the country could conceivably be working in a regional theater and remain unknown in NY and LA.

So who is the male Meryl or even this generations Meryl? His point is they may be overlooked because they are too hard to market. I thought that was interesting.

Andrew Scott

I picked Daniel Day-Lewis, even though he is not working much anymore. But even he is not great at comedy or singing, so he falls more in the drama range.

If Meryl started today, she would have to get a nose job and conform more to cookie-cutter looks standards for actresses (like Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, and Margot Robbie, who all look similar). They also are the only 3 actresses at present who are allowed to be on the A-list, with maybe Sydney Sweeney and Zendaya coming up fast.

In the 80's, there were over a dozen actresses who were allowed to be female movie stars (Cher, Fonda, Field, Streep, Close, Turner, Winger, Lange, Streisand, Huston, Spacek, Hawn). Now with streaming, there are more parts but the movie world is more limited for top actresses.

I don't think Timothee is a very good actor, so I don't know how he has receive such prominence.

Where is Mickey Rourke?

OP, why are the last names capitalized? Are we supposed to scream the last name in our heads as we read the list?

“Ben … KINGSLEY!!!”