The site Stat Significant tackles a dicey challenge: naming the "greatest leading actor" of all time. And, yes, Daniel Parris acknowledges "the absurdity of quantifying something so personal, human, and deeply subjective," but nevertheless digs in. The ranking uses three factors—online ratings of the actor's movies, box office success, and Oscar recognition, all of which have their strengths and weaknesses that are detailed. When all is said and done, Leonardo DiCaprio finishes as No. 1. One other thing that stands out is that no women crack the top 10, with Audrey Hepburn the top female finisher at No. 11. "Is there a bias against women in online ratings?" wonders Parris. "It's hard to say for sure, given the limited dimensionality of our dataset." Here are the site's top 10, caveats and all:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, 12.3 average ranking (the lower the better)
- Paul Newman, 27.6
- Al Pacino, 29.0
- Jack Nicholson, 29.6
- Brad Pitt, 32.6
- Tom Hanks, 37.3
- Jack Lemmon, 38.0
- Denzel Washington, 41.0
- Dustin Hoffman, 45.6
- Christian Bale, 49.6
See the
full rankings, with Hepburn at 50.6, and methodology. (Or check out other
lists.)
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