Many movie buffs are looking forward to Paradise City, in what's expected to be Bruce Willis' last movie before retirement, also starring his one-time Pulp Fiction co-star John Travolta. Willis has personified the everyman antihero since Die Hard and is among a select group of distinguished actors with classic old-school charisma considered to be among the coolest of all time with scene-stealing presences and effortless rapport.
Talent notwithstanding, there is a certain poised composure only a few possess. Over at Ranker, film fans continue to vote for the "coolest" actors of all time.
Note: Ranker lists are live and continue to accrue votes, so some rankings may have changed after this publishing.
Robert Downey Jr.
Naturally, Rober Downey Jr. would make the top ten of a coolest actor list; the only surprise is why he hasn't accrued more votes from fans on Ranker. With a wildly eclectic career spanning over multi-generational movie-goers, Downey has set his legacy in stone on a number of fronts, including an Oscar nomination for Chaplin, starring in a number of Gen X staples in the 1980s, and of course being the face that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe juggernaut.
Downey's easy-going, laid-back yet self-assured delivery alternatively sets himself as both good cop and bad cop, making him the quintessential choice to play Tony Stark. The ease in which he renders his stellar and often underrated performances makes wrangling high-concept scripts look all too easy.
Michael Caine
Caine's inclusion on this fan-voted list might be surprising to those not in the know about his dashing derring-do. His suave cockney accent has graced over 130 films during the course of his lauded career, and the manner in which he portrays his often eccentric yet debonair characters is truly one-of-a-kind.
He is perhaps best known for his roles in Educating Rita, The Cider House Rules, Alfie, Sleuth, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In more recent eras, audiences have come to know him as Bruce Wayne's loyal valet in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies and as Mike Meyer's cad spy agent father in the Austin Powers series. Caine offers an irreproachable charm as well as a commanding yet debonair grace to his nuanced performances.
Christopher Walken
Few actors have been more imitated and emulated by both professional and amateur impressionists alike than Christopher Walken. Delivering his lines with his signature savvy New York accent, Walken consistently delivered some of the most memorable roles of the last fifty years, including in The Deer Hunter, Annie Hall, True Romance, and Pulp Fiction.
Known for his frequent Saturday Night Live appearances, Walken shows no hesitance in parodying his reputation as a cool cat kind of guy, whether it's hamming it up in an infamous cowbell skit or appearing in Flatboy Slim's music video dancing in perhaps the coolest manner ever seen on MTV screens.
Samuel L. Jackson
It's tough to get cooler than Sam Jackson when it comes to the big screen. This is the same guy who made a rather infamously awful B flick called Snakes On a Plane seem that much better all based on Jackson's signature rendering of a certain epithet he's well known for using.
An actor's actor, he's appeared in over 150 films and broadened to global appeal via iconic appearances in a number of highly rewatchable Quentin Tarantino films, with career-defining roles in Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight. Perhaps it goes without saying that his portrayal of Nick Fury in the MCU might be the coolest aspect of the entire Marvel series.
Al Pacino
Pacino is universally lauded as one of the all-time greats and for good reason. He's appeared in so many legendary films, that it's hard to keep track of the flashpoints in his acclaimed body of work. His celebrated roles in The Godfather trilogy, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Carlito's Way, Scent of a Woman, and Heat all firmly established Pacino as one of the finest actors of his generation.
His nuanced delivery of being both vulnerable and concurrently commanding is a key component of his actor's wherewithal, and the mixed bag of bravado and mystery he manages to emanate in utterly intense and demanding crime caper roles is uniquely his, impossible for others to replicate.
Clint Eastwood
Looking past the somewhat dated alpha male persona that was prevalent in the 60s and 70s era of film, Eastwood nonetheless offered an exquisitely profound sense of amalgamized detachment and concern and quickly became known as perhaps the coolest actor ever to work in Hollywood.
His roles in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns as the Man with No Name are immortalized in cinematic history, and his subsequent portrayal of Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry series is the stuff of legend. Few actors could so effortlessly render the cool and capable confidence Eastwood's characters possess, and his Academy recognition for Unforgiven was long overdue.
Morgan Freeman
Colloquially known as "the voice," Freeman has provided some of the most vaunted performances, narrative voiceovers, and quotable lines for the last fifty years of cinema. His deep baritone oozes the nuance of 'coolness,' lending down-home authenticity and assured authority to any projects he's involved in, even when playing God. His roles in Bruce Almighty, Driving Miss Daisy, Million Dollar Baby, and Glory all showcase Freeman's ease in taking on any type of role from starring to support.
Working up convincing renditions of regular joes put under often wildly adverse circumstances seems to be Freeman's bread and butter, perhaps most well known for his compelling role in The Shawshank Redemption as Red.
Harrison Ford
The man who gave the movie world its most renowned space smuggler and the best adventure movie series ever made is a foregone conclusion to any ranking of "coolest" actors. In many of his signature outings, Ford manages to encapsulate a hapless yet adaptable scoundrel ever prone to circumstances beyond his control, yet somehow managing to overcome ridiculously long odds.
Exuding a quiet determination heavily seasoned with outright disbelief at their misfortunes, Ford's characters somehow skirt the line between death-defying antics and genuine care and concern for his on-screen associates and love interests. His key participation in two of Hollywood's most cherished franchises will certainly stand the test of time.
Sean Connery
Always a sentimental favorite for nearly all James Bond fans, Sean Connery continues to hold the crown as the world's favorite version of agent 007 (via The Express). While some of the earlier Broccoli-produced films don't quite age too well with their era-constrained portrayals of Bond women or the titular hero's occasional misogynist dismissal of them, there's little denying Connery knew how to wield a cool and sensual measure of cockiness, radiating debonair charm like nobody's business.
Connery himself often described his portrayal of Bond as "an amoral spy awake to everything, thriving on conflict." The Scottish accent didn't hurt too much either.
Denzel Washington
There's little question as to why Washington took the top slot in the Ranker poll, having won two Academy Awards as well as the distinction from The New York Times as the greatest actor of the 21st century. His roles have defined almost 50 years of tent pole cinema across a vast array of genres, from Philadelphia and Antwone Fisher to Malcolm X and Training Day.
Washington digs deep in his actor's bag of tricks, wielding sublimely refined performances which almost always depict tortured men in varying degrees of torment, loss, triumph, and victory. He is arguably the cream of the crop in his acting achievements, frequently showcasing the very heart of what it means to be human - and the coolest of them all.