Leading man

A leading man is the actor who is the protagonist or plays a love interest to the leading actress in a film or play. A leading man is sometimes an all-rounder; capable of singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level.

For the film, see The Leading Man.
Clark Gable was a leading man in over 60 major Hollywood productions

A leading man can also be an actor who is often seen in romantic roles. An example of this would be Bruce Cabot's role in King Kong. Less frequently, the epithet has been applied to an actor who is often associated with one particular actress; for example, Spencer Tracy had a similar association with Katharine Hepburn. However, used in this sense, the woman is usually described as the leading lady of the man. The term is also used collectively, as in "Hollywood's leading men" to refer to a group of notable, famous, or popular actors.

Examples

1920s

Leading men of the silent era included Francis X Bushman, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Ramon Novarro, John Barrymore, John Gilbert, Wallace Beery, Conrad Nagel, Conrad Veidt, Rudolph Valentino, Sessue Hayakawa and Henry B. Walthall.

1930s

Leading men of the 1930s included Clark Gable, Ronald Colman, Maurice Chevalier, Warren William, Robert Young, William Powell, Fredric March, Paul Muni, Gary Cooper, Edward G. Robinson, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Robert Montgomery, Bing Crosby, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, Burgess Meredith, George Brent, Robert Taylor, and Charles Boyer.

1940s

In the 1940s, leading men included James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Tyrone Power, John Wayne, Joel McCrea, Ray Milland, Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Dana Andrews, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, William Holden, Fred MacMurray, Burt Lancaster, Victor Mature, Laurence Olivier and Robert Mitchum.

1950s

The 1950s included Michael Rennie, Gene Kelly, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Ricardo Montalban, Jeff Chandler, Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, James Dean, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, and Paul Newman.

1960s

The 1960s included Sidney Poitier, Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Rex Harrison, Robert Redford, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Jerry Lewis, and Sean Connery.

1970s

The 1970s included Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, James Caan, Henry Winkler, John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, Tim Matheson, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, and Alain Delon.

1980s

The 1980s included Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Eddie Murphy, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Michael J. Fox, Bob Hoskins, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, and Kurt Russell.

1981 marked the year when actor and stunt performer Ernesto dela Cruz (1957-1992) under the pseudonym Weng Weng became the world's first short person to be a lead man in cinema with a streak of films, standing at 2 foot 9. That year dela Cruz, from the Philippines, reached his peak of success with For Your Height Only. The production became the first highly exported film of their Cinema, and its worldwide success still hasn't been topped locally. This made dela Cruz their first international celebrity and the sole from the thespian community.[1][2][3][4]

1990s

The 1990s included Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, John Cusack, Nicolas Cage, Tupac Shakur, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Trey Parker, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tim Allen, Brad Pitt, Richard Gere, Hugh Grant, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, and Jim Carrey.

Contemporary

Some examples of non-aforementioned modern-day leading men include Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Bale, Daniel Radcliffe, Mark Wahlberg, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Michael B. Jordan, Sam Rockwell, Joaquin Phoenix, and Ryan Reynolds

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See also

Citations
  1. "Weng Weng Lives!". Inquirer Lifestyle. 2014-01-04. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  2. "The Larger-Than-Life Story of Weng Weng". Esquiremag.ph. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  3. Leavold, Andrew. The Search for Weng Weng (DVD). USA: Wild Eye Releasing. 760137943594.
  4. Harvey, Dennis; Harvey, Dennis (2015-02-26). "Film Review: 'The Search for Weng Weng'". Variety. Retrieved 2020-02-22.


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