Who is today's Steve McQueen?

[Stearmen]

"Name me a hero, and I'll prove he's a bum!"
Col. GREGORY "Pappy" BOYINGTON Baa Baa Black Sheep

 

[Hercule]

McQueen was waaay cool off screen. None of today's crop of actors even come close.

I think I would agree with this, though I've long thought Damian Lewis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507073/ -I know him mostly from the series Life ) comes close in looks.

edit: come to find out he has a web site too: http://www.damian-lewis.com/

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

I believe Hoosier nailed it. I would add who is today's James Garner. Maybe Mark Harmon.?

 

[herringbonekid]

Nor do I think he ever really was all that cool himself.

me neither. i've never seen what was 'cool' about McQueen. i thought he was good in 'the Great Escape' but offscreen... drinking and racing bikes ? too bloke-ish for me.

 

[gtdean48]

I think I would agree with this, though I've long thought Damian Lewis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507073/ -I know him mostly from the series Life ) comes close in looks.

edit: come to find out he has a web site too: http://www.damian-lewis.com/

Liked him in Homeland on Showtime

 

[gtdean48]

... I would add who is today's James Garner. Maybe Mark Harmon.?

Clooney

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

Is James Garner cooler than Steve McQueen?

 

[gtdean48]

Is James Garner cooler than Steve McQueen?

IMHO, a different style of cool....self-depricating humor....I was an avid Rockford Files fan after being an avid Maverick fan.
Loved Garner's Wyatt Earp in Sunset...

McQueen was ruggedly cool where Garner is smoothly cool. His nickname as a teen was "Slick", kind of fits...Garner is still being cool...

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

A different comparison also because Mcqueen was a movie actor and Garner was a television actor. TV requires short scenes and quick endings. In my mind James Garner could have easily carried the same roles.

 

[gtdean48]

McQueen did his TV Western too...as Garner did movies.
From Garner webpage = (on Steve McQueen) Steve was my neighbor for some time, I called him "Crazy McQueen", because, quite frankly, he was crazy. We were friends, but he wanted to play my part in Grand Prix (1966) and because of that we didn't talk for four years...He wasn't a great actor, but he was a star - McQueen had probably the highest amount of star quality I've ever seen in an actor.

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

James Garner "He wasn't a great actor but he was a star" Interesting insight from a peer. I love Steve McQueen had a Tag Huer Monaco watch in part because of S.M.
I think Garner did the same thing .....better

 

[Angus Forbes]

...He wasn't a great actor, but he was a star -

To me, that just about sums it up, except to add that he wasn't really all that cool, more like childish. He was cool in the same way that The Fonz was cool.

 

[ButteMT61]

Clooney

lol

 

[ButteMT61]

I read that Christian Bale went to visit the victims of the CO shooting.
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21147699/christian-bale-town-visiting-victims-shooting
He gets a nod. I didn't like the rant that was recorded and publicized some years back, but he truly is a great actor and might just be the dark horse in the running here. (nods to the previous poster that mentioned him).

 

[HoosierDaddy]

McQueen did his TV Western too...as Garner did movies.
From Garner webpage = (on Steve McQueen) Steve was my neighbor for some time, I called him "Crazy McQueen", because, quite frankly, he was crazy. We were friends, but he wanted to play my part in Grand Prix (1966) and because of that we didn't talk for four years...He wasn't a great actor, but he was a star - McQueen had probably the highest amount of star quality I've ever seen in an actor.

I didn't think that McQueen or Garner..either one..were great actors. They both played themselves.
They did have Star quality. Charismatic personality. Garner had a 'your buddy' charm while McQueen had some of the loner moodiness of a James Dean without the extra Dean drama. Garner was much more *happy go lucky* Maverick..Rockford..and once Rock Hudson lite in romantic comedys. Not so dramatic by any means.
HD

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I read that Christian Bale went to visit the victims of the CO shooting.
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21147699/christian-bale-town-visiting-victims-shooting
He gets a nod. I didn't like the rant that was recorded and publicized some years back, but he truly is a great actor and might just be the dark horse in the running here. (nods to the previous poster that mentioned him).

I put a pic of Bale at the hospital on another thread yesterday.
Hell man..anyone can rant at times..even me
I think Bale is one hell of an actor. The first film I saw him in..he played the part of a guy alone in his apartment...who eventually started killing people...and in the end..you were led to believe it might have been all in his imagination. Can't remember the name of that movie(long time ago)...but he really impressed me! This guy can not only play the hero...he can act.
(just looked the movie up...'American Psycho' out in 2000)
HD

 

[W-D Forties]

Clooney

I think Clooney is todays Burt Lancaster. He's smart, acts, directs, and has intergrity and charm to boot.

 

[Edward]

I didn't think that McQueen or Garner..either one..were great actors. They both played themselves.
HD

To be fair to both, it seems that anyone who makes it to the Hollywood A list ends up doing that. What sells is not great acting, but the Tom Cruise persona, or the Brad Pitt persona, or whatever, so you see projects being written and produced as vehicles for those personas, and actors being directed to play a version of themselves, rather than act. It's easy to dismiss Cruise as a bit of a loon, but when you see hi get the chance to actually act, he can be very good indeed. Brad Pitt was a revelation for me in Fight Club beause he was allowed to play the role rather than his own celebrity image. It's strange to see someone I had previously dismissed as a pretty-boy hack actually display real talent, and to realise it was the machine holding them back. Capitalism versus art...

 

[andymckinnon]

I didn't know we were even considering their acting ability or event there habits...there are some people that just exude "cool", McQueen is definately one of them...while Bale, Garner, Cruise, Clooney, and others have been mentioned, to me they don't seem "cool"... on a totally different topic....Who is yester year and todays "bad-ass"....not "bad-boy" ie..Sheen....but "bad-ass" ie...Daniel Craig

 

[Feraud]

I think Clooney is todays Burt Lancaster. He's smart, acts, directs, and has intergrity and charm to boot.

Nicely put!