In sports they are always talking about who might be basketball’s next Michael Jordan, football’s next Peyton Manning, hockey’s next Wayne Gretzky or baseball’s Derek Jeter. So if they can have those discussions with sports….it only seems fair to have those discussions about actors and actresses. This page is going to try and answer the question…Who is the next Marlon Brando? Not to mention many other stars from the past.
Who is the next Spencer Tracy? Our pick is Mr. Morgan Freeman.
But Why? All the way back in 2011 we wrote a page on Morgan Freeman. Chris, one of our commenters said “If I could compare him to any of the classic stars, I would say Spencer Tracy, because he comes across as the most natural actors ever and like Tracy, he makes acting look very easy.” I liked and agreed with his comment….and the idea for this page was created. In my return comment to Chris, I said….”well if I ever write that page I will give you credit for Who is the new Tracy?”…five plus years later I kept my word.
Who is the next Katharine Hepburn? Our pick is Meryl Streep.
But Why? Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep are simply the two greatest actresses ever. Hepburn made movies from 1932-1994…while Streep has been making movies since 1975….that’s a combined 84 years of quality performances. Together they have earned 31 Oscar® nominations and have won 7 Oscars®.
Who is the next Jerry Lewis? Our pick is Adam Sandler.
But Why? “I’ve had great success being a total idiot. …. I get paid for what most kids get punished for” – Jerry Lewis. Pretty sure Adam Sandler has had that same exact thoughts.
Who is the next Paul Muni? Our pick is Daniel Day-Lewis.
But Why? First of all I am sure some of the younger readers are wondering who is Paul Muni? Muni was an Oscar® winning actor who was considered by many to be the best actor working in the 1930s. Muni disappeared so far into his characters that audiences never got to really know Muni. Hey that sounds like 3-time Oscar® winner Daniel Day-Lewis.
Who is the next Charles Bronson? Our pick is Bruce Willis.
But Why? Ok….we admit it….we are huge Bruce Willis fans….so we had to get him on this page. Got lots of suggestions. James Cagney, Richard Widmark, Steve McQueen and Gary Cooper were all rejected…..but in the end Charles Bronson seemed to be the best fit. Both actors were known for their action roles and both actors were not considered great thespians. But they both had incredible screen presence. Added bonus is the fact that Bruce is signed to play the Bronson part in a Death Wish reboot.
Who is the next James Stewart? Our pick is Tom Hanks.
But Why? Trying to match Tom Hanks with a Screen Legend was sort of difficult as he seemed like a good match for Cary Grant and Gary Cooper as well. In the end we went with Hanks’ acting idol James Stewart. Both actors appeared in quality movie after quality movie and always gave good to great performances. Off screen they both had great reputations as good people.
Who is the next Doris Day? Our pick is Sandra Bullock.
But Why? Doris Day was the queen of the romantic comedy in the 1950s and 1960s…while Sandra Bullock was the queen of the romantic comedy in the 1990s and 2000s. We realize Bullock can not sing like Day and that Day does not have an Oscar win on her resume. Speaking of Oscars….it is not past time to give Day an Honorary Oscar?
Who is the next Sidney Poitier? Our pick is Denzel Washington.
But Why? Denzel Washington’s Oscar® winning acceptance speech for Training Day says it all. “I will always be chasing you Sidney, I will always be following in your footsteps, there is nothing I rather do sir.”
Who is the next John Wayne? Our pick is Clint Eastwood.
But Why? My first thought was there will never be another John Wayne. But the more I thought about Clint Eastwood the more this pick made sense. Both Wayne and Eastwood became superstars for their roles in westerns. Both actors were very tall…they both were 6 feet 4 inches tall. Their screen personas were almost identical. As they both had a forceful screen presence with virile masculinity and appeared to be indestructible.
Who is the next Edward G. Robinson? Our pick Philip Seymour Hoffman.
But Why? When we originally came up with this pick…Philip Seymour Hoffman was alive and well…sadly he passed away before we got this page finished. After a stellar leading man career, Edward G. Robinson, became one of the greatest supporting actors ever. We really think that is where PSH was heading…to be the next EGR.
Who is the next Gary Cooper? Our pick is Harrison Ford.
But Why? When we think of Gary Cooper and Harrison Ford…one word pops into our minds…..hero. Cooper played the hero in movies from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Ford played the hero in movies from the mid 1970s to present day….that is almost 80 years of movies where you can find either Cooper or Ford playing a hero.
Who is the next Robert Mitchum? Our pick is Jean Reno.
But Why? First of all there seems to be somewhat of a resemblance between the AFI Screen Legend Robert Mitchum and French actor Jean Reno. In Reno’s Leon: The Professional he tries to walk like John Wayne…but I always thought he walked more like Mitchum in that movie. The other connection is that they both have the same quiet intensity in their performances.
Who is the next Paul Newman? Our pick is Matthew McConaughey.
But Why? We remember when Matthew McConaughey’s A Time To Kill was being released… McConaughey was labeled the next Paul Newman. At the time that seemed pretty ridiculous. Fast forward over 20 years and that no longer seems ridiculous. Both are Oscar winners and both have had to overcome their good lucks to be considered great actors.
Who is the next Marlon Brando? Our pick is Leonardo DiCaprio.
But Why? Actually drew a blank when thinking about who is the next Marlon Brando. So we asked an expert on Brando, Bob from Belfast, what he thought. He suggested Leonardo DiCaprio. We took his suggestion and did a twitter poll on that question….and Leo got 75% of the vote followed by 17% for Tom Hardy and 8% for Sean Penn. In the end….we decided to go along with their logic and pick DiCaprio as the next Brando.
So what do you think? Are our picks completely wrong? Are they looking good? Got any suggestions for better matches? There are many more stars we looked at (Bogart, McQueen, Peck, Cagney)…but we could not find a good match. Looking forward to some feedback.
The New European Newspaper 12-18 May 2022
Tim Walker’s Stage Review: “House of Life” at Bush London until June 11 2022
“BIRTH OF A NEW BRANDO
Beth Tessema’s House of Life about a dysfunctional family coming to terms with the death of the eldest son is in essence a very traditional drama.
The first-time playwright Beth treads in the footsteps of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill among others in examining the human capacity for misery.
The twist in this superbly written but often an intensely-painful piece is that this time around the family is British-Ethiopian one. Michael Workeye’s character Yosi is the tormented surviving son carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The ensemble cast is strong and includes Sarah Priddy and Karla-Simone Spence but it is Michael Workeye – just out of drama school- who manages to dominate the proceedings.
Workeye has a naturalistic style of acting and a charisma that reminded me of the youthful Marlon Brando in Williams’ great classic “A Streetcar named Desire”
Workeye doesn’t have to say anything as his ghastly father holds forth at the dining table; yet it is clear that his life was hell trying to cope with his late unlamented brother whose dark secret may have been that he was gay and thus suffered abuse from his God-fearing father.
It’s an extraordinary thing when Workeye the actor can say so much about what’s going on inside him without having to utter so much as a single word. Brando had that capacity in spades and Richard Burton has stated publicly that he feels that Marlon might indeed have been the greatest silent actor ever had his career been in the silent era of movies.
I watched House of Life with two of today’s other modern actors -always the toughest of judges of each other’s work – and at the end I asked them if we had just been witnessing a star being born. Happily both agreed.
Workeye has debuted in movies too and is noted for a supporting role in the acclaimed full-length drama “Sitting in Limbo”; and for two short productions “Brother” a drama in which again Workeye supports; and “Sauce” a comedy where he enjoys prominence as one of just two actors in the brief film. All were released in 2020.
TIM WALKER”
I would like to belatedly add to the list Christopher Abbott who plays John Yosarian in the 2019 TV miniseries adaptation of Joseph Heller’s famous classic novel Catch 22.
Two of the 6 episodes [the 4th and final ones] are directed by Rosemary Clooney and Jose Ferrer’s great nephew who is also it’s associate executive producer and appears sporadically in a supporting role in which he is frankly magnificent.
Chris made his acting debut in 2009, has received 4 acting awards and 11 noms according to IMDB and has already generated $42 million according to Celebrity Net Worth for prolific stage, screen and Tv work
It was W o Bob who pointed out to me that Chris looked a bit like Brando, especially around the lips and in profile [though he has more hair on top than the Great Mumbler probably ever had on screen!] and when Abbott walks about in full military uniform in Catch 22 it is uncannily like watching Brando way back in 1957’s Sayonara. A complete list of Chris’ 22 films extracted from Wiki is in Part 2.
REPORTER to Joseph Heller at public interview When he was alive: “You don’t seem to have written anything as good as Catch 22 ever again.” HELLER: “Has anybody?”
CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT FILMOGRAPHY
2011/Martha/Marcy/May/Marlene
2012/Hello I Must be Going
2012/Father-Son [Short]
2012/Art Machine
2013/Roshambo [Video short]
2013/All That I Am
2013/The Exit Room [Short]
2014/The Sleepwalker
2014/A Most Violent Year
2015/James White
2015/The Girlfriend Game [Short – voice only]
2015/Criminal Activities
2016/Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
2016/Katie Says Goodbye
2017/Sweet Virginia
2017/It Comes at Night
2018/Tyrel
2018/Piercing
2018/First Man
2018/Vox Lux
2019/FULL Dress
2020/Possessor [Post Production]
NOTE: In his previous 21 movies/shorts Christopher had a few lead roles but seemingly mostly 2nd lead or supporting parts. In 2020’s forthcoming Possessor, a SCI-FI thriller, he has the lead, hopefully more the shape of things to come. Certainly if he did become a prolific successful leading man he has one great advantage Brando never had: no Joel to blow raspberries!
Here is a vintage Dan-like link that is maybe a ‘sign’ that the fates DO intend Chris to be the new Brando. In Possessor, Chris’ leading lady is Tuppence Middleton who first acted in school plays and one of them was Guys and Dolls in which she was the female lead as Sister Sarah, a role played by Jean Simmons to Brando’s Sky Masterson in the 1955 movie Guys and Dolls!
Chris Abbott made his debut in 2008 [on stage] and not 2009 as I stated in my first post. Apologies. His first screen appearance was on TV in 2008 and first movie was in 2011 as my part 2 shows.
Hey Bob….interesting about the resemblance of Chris Abbott and Marlon Brando….I can see it when Mr. Abbott is clean shaven….when he is with facial hair I have a harder time seeing it….but good catch by WoB. Thanks for the breakdown of Mr. Abbott’s career so far.
When Mr. Abbott becomes a bigger star when can add him to the page..for now he will get a Honorable Mention.
HI BRUCE
Sounds reasonable to me. Glad we agree there is some resemblance. The only time I can recall seeing Brando with a full beard has been when he was dressed up as Santa for charity and in Southwest to Sonora when it was so scraggly that he was unrecognizable!. Keep safe.
I actually was thinking the other day…..Orlando Bloom might be the next Omar Sharif. Both actors started off super strong in movies (Lawrence of Arabia for Omar, Lord of the Rings for Orlando), both had good looks that seemed to overshadow their acting skills and Orlando’s seems to be following the same downward career path that Sharif followed…both had awesome 6 to 7 year runs….then things really slowed down for them. Just sharing my thoughts.
HI BRUCE: You draw good parallels here. I am not sure though what lifestyle Orlando leads but it has been suggested that Omar’s decadent lifestyle and gambling addiction had a severe adverse effect on his artistry.
Also historians have suggested that “The Great Lover” of the screen Rudolph Valentino became both physically and emotionally brought down by his romantic entanglements [via endless quarrels, breakups and being constantly pursued by jealous husbands etc].
Sharif had wives and at the same time many lovers. Apparently when he and Peter O’Toole became friends during the making of Lawrence they had women flown out to the desert for weekend companionship and director David Lean organised the passages.
It started to catch up with Omar, and his affair with my Barbra [both of them married, her to Elliot Gould at the time] brought a fierce backlash that included enormous political pressures from their respective countries, Streisand being Jewish and Sharif being Egyptian and publicity photos flooding the world of the pair kissing in Funny Girl in the aftermath of the famous 6 Day War between Egypt and Israel.
Babs claims that the pressures, stress and disapproval from even her own Jewish mother that the Sharif entanglement brought prevented her from appearing on stage again for 27 years. For example such was the hostility to her from various quarters that she needed “heavy” police protection for a time when appearing in public. A mind boggling 300 police officer were said to be involved at once stage and when that was reduced to 30 she began to panic.
Anyway it didn’t help either that when in his declining years Omar was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and one epitaph when he died in 2015 aged 83 sadly read that the man once nicknamed The Quintessential Playboy had “squandered his talent and died alone and angry”.
By the way I have been meaning to say that it’s good to see someone [especially a person who has sat at the feet of The Master with all his negativity about The Great Mumbler!] paying via the resurrection of this page some respect these days to AFI’s 4th Greatest Screen Male Legend of all time!
I was watching, the other night, an actor called Armand Assante [now 69] who I thought was very ‘Brandoesque’ in mannerisms and speech and in being somewhat ‘method’ in style. Films in which Armand has appeared include
Stallone’s 1978 Paradise Alley
Goldie Hawn’s 1980 Private Benjamin
Joint lead with Antonio Banderas is 1992 The Mambo Kings
Nicholson’s 1992 Hoffa
Gimme More’s 1996 Striptease
Pacino’s 2005 Two for the Money.
However I thought Armand actually LOOKED like Rossano Brazzi [South Pacific, Barefoot Contessa etc]. Anyway well done in bringing back this Brando page. If he were alive he would no doubt say to you “I knew one day you would come!”
Hey Bob….interesting comparison of Brando and Assante….gotta admit I have never seen that before. I do agree with you on Armand and Brazzi. Thanks for the listing some of Armand’s bigger movie roles. Good stuff as always.
I really like how this page is put together. Enjoy reading your thoughts and insights of actors from yesterday and today.
Thank you BryRog57.