Al Pacino tops poll of 100 greatest film stars
Godfather star Al Pacino has been named the greatest film star of them all - just ahead of his co-lead in the movie, Robert De Niro.
Oscar-winner Pacino, 63, topped a poll of the 100 greatest film stars for a Channel 4 countdown which finished on Monday night.
Pacino is known for a string of gritty roles and was twice nominated for an Oscar for his Godfather performance.
He has won just one Academy Award for his acting, playing a rather more tender role as a blind army colonel The Scent Of A Woman.
A Channel 4 search for the 100 top films many months ago has already demonstrated the high esteem in which film fans hold The Godfather series, ranking them in second place.
Runner-up De Niro, who has appeared in such classics as Taxi Driver and the Deer Hunter, was way behind Pacino in the voting.
He played Pacino’s father in The Godfather II, winning one of his two Oscars for the role.
The highest charting non-Oscar winner is Harrison Ford, loved by audiences for his performances as Han Solo in three Star Wars movies.
He is also hugely popular for his roles as Indiana Jones and is next year expected to begin working on a fourth movie as the archaeologist action hero.
More than 25,000 votes were cast in the Channel 4 poll, for which Scottish star Ewan McGregor is the youngest actor in the top 10 at the age of 32.
Not one woman has made the top 10. Breakfast At Tiffany’s star Audrey Hepburn is the highest woman, charting at 13. The next, at 20, is Sigourney Weaver, best known for the Alien sci-fi series.
North By Northwest and An Affair to Remember star Cary Grant is the highest dead entry at number 10 in the list.
Recent Oscar winner Catherine Zeta Jones is unplaced but her husband Michael Douglas came in at number 100.
The list of candidates was compiled and edited by a panel of film critics and film-makers with voting taking place on the Channel 4 website and by text voting over a six-week period.
Producer and director of the show John Piper said: “The list reveals a few surprises in the way that the British public have voted.
“Although all the classic greats are there, the final top five demonstrates that there are now modern greats who are established and are recognised up there alongside those classic movie stars.”
The countdown was screened in two parts on Sunday and Monday nights.
The top 100:
1. Al Pacino
2. Robert De Niro
3. Tom Hanks
4. Kevin Spacey
5. Harrison Ford
6. Jack Nicholson
7. Anthony Hopkins
8. Sean Connery
9. Ewan McGregor
10. Cary Grant
11. Samuel L Jackson
12. James Stewart
13. Audrey Hepburn
14. Steve McQueen
15. Brad Pitt
16. Paul Newman
17. Mel Gibson
18. Clint Eastwood
19. Robin Williams
20. Sigourney Weaver
21. Nicole Kidman
22. Johnny Depp
23. Jodie Foster
24. Dustin Hoffman
25. Susan Sarandon
26. Russell Crowe
27. Morgan Freeman
28. Denzel Washington
29. Julia Roberts
30. Marlon Brando
31. Christopher Lee
32. Tom Cruise
33. Nicolas Cage
34. Christopher Walken
35. Bruce Willis
36. Humphrey Bogart
37. Cate Blanchett
38. Katharine Hepburn
39. Marilyn Monroe
40. Gary Oldman
41. Jackie Chan
42. Gene Hackman
43. Jack Lemmon
44. Michael Caine
45. Bette Davis
46. John Travolta
47. Jim Carrey
48. John Cusack
49. Bruce Lee
50. Charlie Chaplin
51. Will Smith
52. Sidney Poitier
53. Harvey Keitel
54. Arnold Schwarzengger
55. Kate Winslet
56. John Wayne
57. Peter Sellers
58. Meryl Streep
59. John Malkovich
60. Jude Law
61. Robert Redford
62. Robert Downey Jr
63. Clark Gable
64. James Dean
65. Cameron Diaz
66. Gene Kelly
67. Eddie Murphy
68. Ingrid Bergman
69. River Phoenix
70. Richard Burton
71. Woody Allen
72. George Clooney
73. Hugh Grant
74. Angelina Jolie
75. Meg Ryan
76. Richard Gere
77. Elizabeth Taylor
78. Oliver Reed
79. Vivien Leigh
80. Dennis Hopper
81. Fred Astaire
82. Judy Garland
83. Ralph Fiennes
84. Doris Day
85. Daniel Day Lewis
86. Grace Kelly
87. Winona Ryder
88. Juliette Binoche
89. Gwyneth Paltrow
90. Gerard Depardieu
91. Julie Christie
92. Amitabh Bachchan
93. Kevin Costner
94. Leonardo DiCaprio
95. Uma Thurman
96. Wesley Snipes
97. Burt Reynolds
98. Jane Fonda
99. Halle Berry
100.Michael Douglas.
