The '90s were a pivotal era in the movie industry. Independent cinema blossomed, the Disney Renaissance came and went, modern blockbusters began taking form, and disaster films dominated the box office. It was a time of spectacle and breakthroughs that would pave the way for the new millennium.
Many actors experienced massive critical and commercial success during the decade, becoming pop culture icons. Thanks to their charming personas and their starring roles in some of the decade's biggest hits, these actors became synonymous with the '90s as a whole, securing their place in Hollywood history.
Macaulay Culkin
It only took two movies to turn Macaulay Culkin into a star and '90s icon. Arguably the greatest child actor of the decade and one of the best of all time, Culkin rose to fame playing Kevin McCallister, the protagonist of the original Home Alone movies. His performance on the first film even earned him a Golden Globe nomination in 1991, cementing him as one of the most promising actors of his generation.
Culkin diversified his portfolio with several intriguing choices, including 1991's My Girl and 1993's The Good Son. In 1994, he starred in another of his most recognizable projects, Richie Rich. He then took a break for the remainder of the decade, returning in the new millennium but failing to achieve the same level of success he had in the first half of the '90s.
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner defined the first half of the '90s. He had major successes in the late '80s, including Bull Durham and the classic Field of Dreams. However, the '90s cemented him as an A-lister and a major box office draw. He began the decade starring in the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year, Dances with Wolves, for which he won two Oscars for producing and directing.
The actor then starred in the box-office hits Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bodyguard while attracting critical praise for projects like JFK and A Perfect World. Then came 1995's Waterworld, the most expensive film ever made at the time, which turned out to be a major critical and commercial flop. Costner kept acting, but his career never really recovered from Waterworld's disappointment.
John Travolta
After gaining worldwide fame in the late '70s with the two-punch of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, John Travolta's career declined in the '80s. For a while, it seemed the actor would never recover from his setbacks, but then along came Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino's perfect follow-up to Reservoir Dogs.
Pulp Fiction effectively revived Travolta's career, earning him an Oscar nomination and placing him back at the top of Hollywood's A-list. He starred in several other box office hits throughout the rest of the decade, including the comedy Get Shorty, the action flicks Broken Arrow and Face/Off, and the political drama Primary Colors.
Tom Cruise
Nowadays, Tom Cruise is best-known as arguably the biggest action star in the world. However, his career was much more varied during the '90s, a decade that saw him cement his place as one of the best leading men the big screen has ever seen.
Cruise's career took off in the '80s and solidified in the '90s. The actor starred in hit after hit, including A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire, and the first two entries in the Mission: Impossible franchise. For his performances in 1996's Jerry Maguire and 1999's Magnolia, Cruise won Golden Globes and received Academy Award nominations in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories, respectively.
Robin Williams
One of the greatest comedians in cinematic history, Robin Williams' legend consolidated throughout the 1990s. The actor had several hits in the late '80s, mainly Good Morning, Vietnam, and Dead Poets Society, which earned him Oscar nominations. However, the '90s elevated him into a whole other level of success.
During the first half of the decade, Williams starred in some of his most recognizable and acclaimed movies, including Awakenings, The Fisher King, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Jumanji. In 1998, Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Good Will Hunting and closed the decade with the box office hit Patch Adams.
Keanu Reeves
Whoa! Keanu Reeves rose to prominence with 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, entering the 1990s as one of the most promising rising stars. Reeves attracted acclaim for 1991's My Own Private Idaho before cementing himself as an action hero with roles in 1991's Point Break and 1994's Speed.
Keanu Reeves worked with several acclaimed directors during the '90s, including Francis Ford Coppola in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Kenneth Branagh in Much Ado About Nothing, and Bernardo Bertolucci in Little Buddha. After a period of disappointing projects, Reeves ended the decade with two of the biggest hits of his career, The Devil's Advocate and, of course, The Matrix, a movie that would go on to represent 90s excellence as a whole.
Leonardo DiCaprio
With a career spanning more than thirty years, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the undisputed kings of Hollywood. He received recurring roles on television during the early 9'0s before attracting critical acclaim for his supporting turn in 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape. His performance earned him an Oscar nomination and marked the beginning of his wildly successful big-screen career.
DiCaprio became a teen heartthrob with 1995's The Basketball Diaries and 1996's Romeo + Juliet. 1997 saw him starring in Titanic, one of the best epic movies of all time and the third-highest-grossing film in history. DiCaprio then starred in The Man in the Iron Mask and The Beach and entered the 2000s as a bonafide leading man.
Will Smith
In the span of five years, Will Smith went from beloved sitcom protagonist to badass action star and undisputed king of the box office. Before transitioning to the big screen, the actor first gained fame and critical acclaim in the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. His role in 1993's Six Degrees of Separation earned him praise, and 1995's Bad Boys effectively launched his action career.
In 1996, Smith starred in Independence Day, a smashing hit that became one of the highest-grossing movies of the decade. His next project, Men in Black, turned out to be equally successful critically and commercially, cementing him as one of the biggest box-office draws of the '90s. And even though 1999's Wild Wild West was a major bomb, it did little to derail Smith's wildly successful career going into the new millennium.
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis rose to prominence in the '80s thanks to the hit series Moonlighting, for which he won an Emmy Award in 1987. However, it was his role as John McClane in 1998's Die Hard that turned him into the ultimate action star.
The '90s were Willis' to dominate, and the actor did so, starring in some of the most successful blockbusters of the decade. He led major box office hits like The Last Boy Scout, Armageddon, and The Fifth Element, while garnering acclaim for his roles in prestigious dramas like Pulp Fiction and 12 Monkeys. In 1999, he starred in his most successful project, critically and commercially, The Sixth Sense, earning raves for his performance and ending the decade with a bang... literally.
Tom Hanks
After scoring two hits during the '80s, Splash and Big, Tom Hanks became a bonafide star during the '90s. Thanks to his undeniable charm, charisma, and screen presence, Hanks became the ultimate leading man, an actor whose versatility allowed him to jump from light-hearted rom-coms to epic war movies without ever turning in a bad performance.
The '90s saw Hanks winning back-to-back for his work in two of the best sleeper hits in the decade, Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He also cemented his reputation as a loveable leading man with starring roles in Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, both opposite Meg Ryan. He also found box-office success and critical acclaim with the mega-hits A League of Their Own, Toy Story, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan.