I don’t know when it happened, but my Facebook feed has been showing me random posts (not from friends) for months now. While I simply skip over most of these for one reason or another, one recently caught my attention with a dialogue about some of the best actors of all time and who had the best seven-year run. Is it Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, or someone else known for great movie characters?
Truth be told, plenty of great options were brought up in a Facebook post, and now I’m having a hard time deciding who is right or if there’s even an answer to this question. That said, I’ve come up with a list of a few Hollywood leading men who gave audiences some of the best ‘80s movies, even more of the greatest ‘90s films, and countless big-screen moments we’re still talking about years later.
Tom Cruise (1986 – 1993)
- Top Gun
- The Color of Money
- Cocktail
- Rain Man
- Born on the Fourth of July
- Days of Thunder
- Far and Away
- A Few Good Men
- The Firm
Tom Cruise was already a star-in-the-making by the time Top Gun came around in 1986, but this all-time great action flick took his career to new heights. In the seven years following his first portrayal of Maverick, Cruise would appear in classics like The Color of Money, Born on the Fourth of July, and A Few Good Men, to name just a few.
Harrison Ford (1977 – 1984)
- Star Wars
- Apocalypse Now
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Blade Runner
- Return of the Jedi
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Harrison Ford had some acting roles before portraying Han Solo in Star Wars, but his run of hits after taking audiences to the galaxy far, far away in 1977 made him one of Hollywood’s biggest badasses and sexiest men alive. He had a small part in Apocalypse Now, but his return as the “stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, nerf herder” in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi was huge. The same goes for the debut of another one of his iconic characters: Indiana Jones.
Eddie Murphy (1982 – 1989)
- 48 Hrs.
- Trading Places
- Best Defense
- Beverly Hills Cop
- The Golden Child
- Beverly Hills Cop II
- Eddie Murphy Raw
- Coming To America
- Harlem Nights
A couple of years after Eddie Murphy breathed new life into Saturday Night Live, he took Hollywood by storm with his starring role in the iconic buddy cop movie, 48 Hrs.. In the years that followed the success of the 1982 comedy, Murphy had a string of hits that included classics like Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America, all of which are considered some of the funniest comedies of all time.
Tom Hanks (1992 – 1999)
- A League of Their Own
- Sleepless in Seattle
- Philadelphia
- Forrest Gump
- Apollo 13
- Toy Story
- That Thing You Do!
- Saving Private Ryan
- You’ve Got Mail
- Toy Story 2
- The Green Mile
There’s a strong case to be made for Tom Hanks’ run in the ‘90s being the greatest of all time. Over the course of the decade, Hanks went from one of the biggest up-and-coming actors in the comedy world to a two-time Oscar winner, a Hollywood leading man, and the star of the most transformative animated film franchise of the decade.
Samuel L. Jackson (1989 – 1995)
- Do the Right Thing
- Goodfellas
- Jungle Fever
- Juice
- Patriot Games
- Menace II Society
- Loaded Weapon 1
- Jurassic Park
- True Romance
- Pulp Fiction
- Die Hard with a Vengeance
I’m not going to lie, I had to leave off at least a half-dozen Samuel L. Jackson movies from this list to make it fit. Seriously, Jackson’s box office run from the late ‘80s through the early ‘90s is straight up bonkers. One of the best sci-fi movies of all time? Check, thanks to Jurassic Park. One of the most quotable characters of all time? Check, thanks to Pulp Fiction. And that’s just barely scratching the surface.
Jim Carrey (1994 – 2001)
- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
- The Mask
- Dumb and Dumber
- Batman Forever
- Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
- The Cable Guy
- Liar Liar
- The Truman Show
- Man on the Moon
- Me, Myself & Irene
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas
- The Majestic
Already one of the funniest names in comedy by the time he took over Hollywood, Jim Carrey became a force of chaos with his trifecta of comedies in 1994. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber all in the same year is straight up wild! But he followed it with hit after hit throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s. Though Carrey’s best movie would come a decade later with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, let’s just look back on that run…
Brad Pitt (1994 – 2001)
- Interview with the Vampire
- Legends of the Fall
- Seven
- 12 Monkeys
- Sleepers
- The Devil’s Own
- Seven Years in Tibet
- Meet Joe Black
- Fight Club
- Snatch
- The Mexican
- Spy Game
- Ocean’s Eleven
Can we talk about how great Brad Pitt was throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s? I mean, he’s still great today, and some of his best work has been in recent years, but he had a stranglehold on American culture back then. Seven, Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven, and more, all coming out over the course of seven years, is absurd. During the ‘90s, Pitt went from a supporting player to THE GUY in show business.
Orlando Bloom (2001 – 2008)
- Black Hawk Down
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Troy
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Elizabethtown
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Okay, Orlando Bloom probably isn’t the first person to come to mind whenever the conversation turns to great runs, but his seven-year stretch in the 2000s is out of this world. From the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and examples of all the major genres in between, Bloom had hit after hit at the start of the 21st century.
After going through all these actors and their respective filmographies, I’m having a really hard time deciding who had the best seven-year run. I mean, Tom Hanks’ stretch in the ‘90s is in a league of its own, but Tom Cruise also had a firm grasp on things in the era. Harrison Ford kept striking back, and Samuel L. Jackson was just one bad motherfucker.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below…
