This is a list of male actors who are just outright cool. The actors were all picked from modern movies and they all have one thing in common: they have played the coolest people on film. From cool to coolest, here is the list:
10. Pierce Brosnan [IMDB | Wikipedia]
54 year old Pierce Brosnan was born in Ireland. He first shot to fame playing Remington Steele in the television series of the same name. Before his contract on the show was up, he was offered the role of James Bond in an up and coming film, but he was unable to break his contract. The suave actor finally played the role of Bond in Goldeneye, and he played Bond for a further four films (the last being Die Another Day). In 2004, Brosnan was voted “Best Dressed Environmentalist”.
9. Jack Nicholson [IMDB | Wikipedia]
70 yo Jack Nicholson is probably best known for his role in Stephen King’s The Shining in which he plays Jack Torrance, a writer who moves with his family to a hotel which is shut for the winter. While he is there he goes insane due to ghosts in the house. If you haven’t seen this film – you absolutely have to. It is one of the best thrillers ever made (probably because it is directed by Kubrick). Nicholson has been nominated for 12 Academy awards and has won three. He is considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time. It is alleged that he has had sex with over 2,000 women.
8. Brad Pitt [IMDB | Wikipedia]
43 year old Brad Pitt made it to this list because of one film: The Fight Club. Pitt plays an incredibly cool guy living in an abandoned house. In his spare time he makes soap from fat stolen from a liposuction clinic – so he can (ironically) sell the rich women their fat back. Another reason that Pitt is cool is that he is predicted to play the role of John Galt (the hero) in an upcoming trilogy of films aiming to bring Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged to the screen. His wife, Angelina Jolie is already signed to play the part of Dagny Taggart.
7. Johnny Depp [IMDB | Wikipedia]
44 year old Johnny Depp is well known for a diverse range of films, from dark movies like From Hell, and Sleepy Hollow, to childrens films like the Pirates of the Carribean and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Depp is a very diverse actor who spends half of him time living in France and the other half in the United States. He part owns a restaurant in Paris with Sean Penn, John Malkovich, and Mick Hucknall. He also plays the guitar and is very good friends with Marilyn Manson.
6. John Travolta [IMDB | Wikipedia]
53 year old Travolta shot to fame with his dance moves and singing in the 1970s through films such as Grease and Saturday Night Fever. After a series of flops in the 80s (following his last hit film Urban Cowboy), Travolta’s career had a downturn. Fortunately, in the 90s he made a comeback with his role as Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction (the reason he is on this list). He was nominated for an Academy Award and he returned to the A-list. The only unfortunate aspect of John Travolta which keeps him lower down the list than he could be, is that he is a Scientologist.
5. Edward Norton [IMDB | Wikipedia]
37 year old Edward Norton is on this list for two reasons: American History X, and Fight Club. For both of these films Norton went from a puny whiny actor to a buff muscleman. He exuded hatred in American History X (which has one of the most gruesome scenes in a modern film – think sidewalk and teeth) in which he played a white supremacist. In the fight club he plays the alter-ego of Brad Pitt’s character and lives with him in the abandoned house. Norton refuses to embrace his celebrity status and he contributes to many charitable organisations, both money and time.
4. Christian Bale [IMDB | Wikipedia]
33 year old Christian Bale was born in Wales, Great Britain. He has an incredible cult status on the internet and in 2007 IMDB users voted him their favourite actor ages under 40. For his role in the Machinists, Bale lost sixty pounds (27 kilograms) taking his weight down to 120 lbs (54 kilograms). Bale is most well known for his roles in American Psycho and Batman Begins where his part saw the Batman Franchise take a turn toward a much darker side. The film was an enormous hit and he will reprise his role in 2008 in The Dark Knight. If he fulfils his contractual obligation to play the role for a third time, he will be the first actor to play Batman in three films.
3. Samuel L. Jackson [IMDB | Wikipedia]
58 year old Samuel Jackson makes this list for his character in Pulp Fiction. In the film he played Jules Winnfield. His character has some classic quotes such as: “Yolanda, I thought you said you were gonna be cool. Now when you yell at me, it makes me nervous. And when I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfuckers get scared, that’s when motherfuckers accidentally get shot.” Jackson also appeared in two of the new Starwars films and a variety of other films in which he often plays a gangster. Jackson is bald in real life and usually wears wigs in films. He is an avid golfer.
2. Vinnie Jones [IMDB | Wikipedia]
Before you start reading, check out this picture. 42 year old Vinnie is the guy in front. Onscreen and off, Vinnie Jones takes no prisoners! That photo is taken from when he played Soccer for Wimbledon (they won the FA cup in 1988). Vinnie was born in Watford, London and is well known for his intimidating demeanour on screen. He has stared in films such as Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels, and Snatch. in 2006 he played Juggernaut in X Men: The Last Stand. Unfortunately Vinnie has had some difficulties with the law: in 2003 he was convicted of Air Rage and in 1998 was convicted of assaulting his neighbour. In 2005, he became president of the Hertfordshire Agricultural Society.
1. Bruce Willis [IMDB | Wikipedia]
Two words: Die Hard. For that reason alone 52 year old German-born Bruce Willis takes top spot. However, Willis has starred in an enormous number of highly popular films such as Sin City, Lucky Number Slevin, The Sixth Sense, and The Fifth Element. Willis was married to Demi Moore for thirteen years. Bruce is the ninth highest grossing movie star of all time. He is known as a keen supporter of the US military and is has been very public in his belief of various conspiracy theories and political views. On April 29, 2007 during a live broadcast of a Nets home playoff game vs. the Toronto Raptors on TSN Willis caused a furore by quoting a catch phrase from his Die Hard films, “Yipee-ki-yay motherfucker”.
That is the list! If you don’t agree with my selection, tell me about it in the comments.






























The images are clickable for a larger version btw.
What?you did not include Steve mcqueen? He was the coolest guy !!!
Al Pacino scarface #1 hands down or any other mafia/gangster movie come on put at least scarface up there
josh: heh – I did consider him and I guess we can count him as number 11 because he is definitely cool – though in more recent years he has done slightly less cool films than he used to. Hopefully something amazing will come out soon.
yea true but in the Hispanic community he is badest and coolest of all time
in fight club brad pitt plays nortons alter ego.. in the movie pitt does not really exist.
Monteze: you are right – I was trying not to put spoilers on the off-chance that someone may not have seen the film.
I cant find any reason to dissagree with this list at all. Although I can’t stand Brad Pitt and maybe Sean Connery would be a better fit then Pierce Brosnan. Travolta would be lower on the list…maybe #8 or 9
Dave: glad to know someone agrees with my selection
Can’t argue with any of your selections, well maybe John Travolta, but you have to include Clint Eastwood! From Dirty Harry to The Outlaw Josey Wales to Every Which Way but Loose, he plays every kind of bad-ass you can think of.
Hard to leave John Wayne and Bruce Lee off, too. Maybe a top ten coolest dead movie stars?
Morphy: no! How could you think Clint Eastwood is cool?! He annoys me so much! And you are right about the last two – left off due to death.
If I did a top 10 coolest dead stars, how would you score James Dean?
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Steve Mcqueen and Toshirô Mifune are probably the coolest but they’re dead so I guess that counts them out.
Why are Travolta and Depp on there? When were they ever cool?
And what about Robert De Niro or I dunno … Mel Gibson? Mad Max wasn’t cool?
We’ll have to agree to disagree about Clint, I guess!
James Dean is definitely in the top 5. Others I would include: Lee Marvin, George C. Scott, Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando. He’s a lot younger but I would probably list River Pheonix, too.
Morphy: Definitely agree about River Phoenix and the rest.
Whoever said Clint Eastwood should really take a night off and rent “Paint Your Wagon.” A musical about ***** and biligamy(sp). NOt his best work, i think it takes him down a few pegs myself.
Lets face it….everyone on this list has made their share of poor films (spesh Vinnie Jones!)….but no-one on this list has made more cool films than Eastwood (Fistful films, Good Bad Ugly, Dirty Harry, Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby(yes even at 70 – 80 this guys OOZES cool)…if your even gonna try and argue that….then you dont know what cool is so your opinion doesnt even matter!
I haven’t seen ANYTHING with him in it, but even I think Clint Eastwood is cool.
Brad: hehe – the only thing he could do worse is be a scientologist.
No Connery? No Eastwood? No Steve McQueen? No Bogart??? What kid came up with this list???
mooster: see the comments above about Eastwood
I generally considered younger actors with a couple of obvious exceptions.
As for Connery (don’t get me wrong, I love him) some examples of why he should not be on this list: Sword of the Valiant, First Knight, Entrapment, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. ‘Nuff said.
Kenneth Branagh, though often over-looked, would have to be on my list also.
Kenneth Branaghs cooler than Connery?…ok, lets just add William Shakespeare….he's cool, Neil Armstrong…walkling on the moon's cool!, thats sarcasm by the way…we'r talkling REAL cool here, Connery, Eastwood, Pacino, De Niro….infact this list sucks im outta here
Morphy: those are very good examples – I agree completely. Branagh is an interesting choice; I really liked him in Frankenstein.
I first got hooked on Branagh in Dead Again. And all of his Shakespeare adaptations I have seen have been excellent also.
I haven’t seen Dead again – I will have to check it out. He is definitely a top class actor.
Hey,
No Newman, Eastwood or McQueen. Three guys who I would have in my list, but this isn’t my list and you are only including actors who are alive. Clint Eastwood in his westerns are some of the coolest characters in film, If you like westerns that is. Wouldn’t have Vinny in it either (like him by the way). Seen him play for Wimbledon when they played a friendly in Ireland, I was about 14 at the time and me and my mates where giving him a bit of friendly abuse, your *****e and the like. He turned around and gave us a look, none of us said a bloody thing, even with the fencing. That picture is photo shopped by the way, which you no doubt can tell, it has Vinny wearing a Celtic shirt (A club he never played for) and Paul Gascoinge wearing a Ranger’s shirt, who he did play for (he was playing for Watford at the time of the incident, I think). Rangers and Celtic, both Glasgow clubs and fierce rivals.
CitizenFly: thanks for the extra information on Vinnie – I am not up on the various teams colours which is why I missed the fact that the photo is shopped. My brother used to support Wimbledon and he saw him play as well – he had the opposite experience to you though – he shouted out in support of Vinnie who heard him and gave him a supporting fist up.
As for the actors – I agree about Newman – he was great in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
jfrater: The experience I had was brilliant, we all ran on the pitch after the match and got autographs off some of the players including Vinny. He took what we where saying as it was intended a bit of a laugh.
Citizen – that is excellent – you are lucky to have his autograph especially as he is now a famous movie star – it may be worth a decent bit before long
jfrater: Unfortunatly I lost the autograph, along with my Eric Cantona autograph (my favorite player) and a few others, but that’s life. Not that big into it anyway, the autograph collecting, I used to have a few but didn’t get them to sell them. Doubt if Vinny’s would be worth much anyway, because he’s not the sort that would refuse fans unless he was busy or something. Now that you mention it, yeah, I would put him there in the top ten, maybe not as high, but he is cool. And he is one of us.
Citizen: exactly – I think the fact that he is so normal is partly what makes him so cool. You are probably right about the signature, but if you waited long enough… there is always someone who wants something bad enough to pay the big bucks
I have an autographed poem by Ginsberg which is not worth much now, but in 40 years I am sure it will be. Though it may be hard to sell as I love his poetry a lot! maybe my grandchildren (if I ever get any – or children at all for that matter) will make the money
Chuck Norris, come on, he speaks braille, AND lost his virginity before his father.
I had to think twice for a second! Lol
Roberto: I am scared to ask how you know the second of those two things to be true!
I have to say, I agree with keeping John Travolta low on the list due to being a scientologist. I just don’t understand that religion at all. Every other religion at least makes some kind of sense, but Scientology is completly crazy.
scientology is people believing in evolution and stuff like that…its not my religion but it makes sense to me
If this is the comment you were talking about when you said nm, then well nm. But Scientology isn't about evolution, that's Darwinism.
nm about what i said i guess i was wrong
I only have one name for you: Charles Bronson. They don’t get much cooler or badassed then that.
Wheres marlon brando from the godfather???!!! Al Pacino???!!!
Gravy: I had this same fight with someone else
They are both amazing and deserve a mention for sure.
I can only think of one man i like better than all of these guys. R Lee Ermy. He was one badass motherf*cker in full metal jacket. and i like johnny depps hat. just throwing that out there.
I don’t see Harrison Ford anywhere here. Some of the best action roles ever. Han Solo not good enough for you? Try Jack Ryan. Not good enough either? Two words. Indiana Jones.
greatk: Indiana Jones is cool – I agree. Thanks for adding him
these list is a crap…
where is sean connery, harrison ford, takeshi kaneshiro, hiroyuki sanada, toshiro mifune, tony leung..???
Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (go get your mule scene), Mark Wahlberg in The Departed, Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, Cary Grant in Notorious, James Dean in his three films, Marlon Brando in “ON THE WATERFRONT”, Gabriel Byrne in “Miller’s Crossing”, Will Smith in “Men in Black”, Toby Maguire in “Spider man”, Denzel Washington in “Training Day” … and more and more ..
Sam: great additions – thanks. It is very difficult to make a list like this because it is so subjective. In the end we have to go on personal taste. Oh – Maguire in Spider man is definitely cool – but he is kinda dorky in everything else
Sean Connery definitely deserves #1 or at least top 3.
“You’re the man now, Dog!”
You cant fight it…
Hello?!? Harrison Ford
Lets see, Han freakin solo, Indiana frakin jones and bladerunner… you’ve got to be kidding that he was not on this list.
pufonthis: who would you put him in place of on the list?
No John Wayne? He’s the Duke!
I’m baffled, never thought Pitt or Depp were even remotely cool. Difference of opinion. But no DeNiro?
rpenberg: If I was to substitute DeNiro for one on the list it would be Pitt – but definitely not Depp – aside from the rather awful pirate movies he has made, everything else has been excellent – and in real life he is pretty darn cool!
In response to Sam, i think if we remade this list 10 years from now mark wahlberg would have to make the list, hands down if he continues at the rate hes goin
ben: Mark Wahlberg is great.
Two of my all time favs are on the list and I’m happy about that. Brosnan and Depp. Delicious men, both. I did like Pitt in Thelma and Louise though. This site rocks! I found it through a link on UnexplainedMysteries.com. One of the posters mentioned it.
conni: He was good in Thelma and Louise – I really didn’t think I would like that film but I did enjoy it a lot. Susan Sarandon is an excellent actress too.
I like the list, just travolta shouldnt be so high, JACK should be a lot higher and im with the guy above that says connery instead of Brosnan. thats real cool you put vinnie jones on there though! MEAN MACHINE!
conni: I think Depp has been extremely clever with his selection of movies – he is a bit like the Uma Thurman of boys – he picks the films that interest him rather than the ones that might be commercial successes.
Farmer: Jack definitely rocks – if I were to change the list that would be one I would consider changing. Oh – and with you 100% on Vinnie
hey,whos vinnie jones,wats he,depp,bale, doin on this list?wat about RICHARD GERE, mel,heath ledger,crowe,eric bana,orlando bloom,connery,harrison ford,al PACINO.. UR LIST SEEMS INCOMPLETE,WITHOUT ALL THESE COOOLL GUYS..
Yeah! And what about William F. Buckley? Oh wait. Wrong list.
Looks like this should be branched out into a generational list.
When the phrase “coolest men in movies” showed up I immediately thought of William Powell and Clark Gable.
And Bogart, talk about cool. Maybe the list should go by decades
Don’t forget Errol Flynn if you’re going back that far for cool actors.
But I agree, Steve McQueen from The Great Escape… now THAT’S the essence of cool. Of course I would also add Bruce Campbell to the list, but that’s me.
Hmmm… why isn’t Alan Rickman, Harrrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, and Al Pacino in the list?
Kevin Costner for 1 reason only => 3000 miles to graceland he was great for the first time in that movie…
George Clooney => he got some cool movie, but From dusk till down urns him a place in the list?
bdw clint Eastwood plays so pretty cool roles to
someone: I agree…Costner..3000 miles…absolute ice!!
I also loved De Niro in Jackie Browne..