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The New Generation Of Leading Men

The New Generation Of Leading Men

Who Are Hollywood's New Leading Men?

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Today's leading men aren’t what they used to be. There are no longer the Clark Gables, Cary Grants or Humphrey Bogarts of yesteryear — and we haven’t yet found another George Clooney. So, which of today's Hollywood actors fill the shoes of a "leading man"?

It's not an easy question to answer. And, quite frankly, we're not interested in gushing over a bunch of dudes we see on newsstands. We're here to  examine what the Coopers and Francos say about masculinity today. Because, fellas, like it or not, leading men — past, present and future — reflect the Zeitgeist of our time.

That's where you come in. We need you to help define who the next generation of leading men will be. Here's how it works:

In this article, the first of our series, you'll learn about the leading men of past generations. But in the following parts — which will run throughout the week (see below for schedule) — we'll be profiling four men who demonstrate true leading-man potential.

Read them. Reflect on them. And then "Recommend" them. The article in this series with the most "Recommendations" decides who best captures what it means to be a man today.

Leading Men Candidates

May 29: Rick Mele will present his case for Bradley Cooper as today’s leading man.
May 30: Dan Barna will make his case for Ryan Gosling.
May 31: Radheyan Simonpillai will argue for James Franco.
April 1: Stefan Sirucek will canvass for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Part 1: The New Generation Of Leading Men

People magazine named Bradley Cooper "The Sexiest Man Alive" in 2009. GQ named James Franco "Leading Man of the Year" in 2010. Ryan Gosling earned his second Golden Globe Award nomination for the independent drama Blue Valentine the same year, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star in next summer’s blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises.  

Today’s new stars are bright individuals, engaging actors and all-around sex symbols. They are destined to become icons for a new generation of men, like the leading men before them.  

In his biography on Cary Grant, Marc Eliot summed up what it means to be a leading man: “Movie stars are the magnified external images of society’s idealised dreams, hopes and fantasies. Filmgoers associate with these stars to such a degree that their physical beauty becomes a social metaphor for moral and emotional perfection.”  

Inherent to leading man status is the fact that future historians will look back on them as examples of our society. A leading man, through his personality and fashion, is society’s mirror. Whether he’s neurotic, heroic, tough, or mentally fragmented, he represents how that generation views either a typical guy or the best of men.  

If you look at Hollywood’s history, the most iconic leading men characterised the generation they entertained.

The First Stars Are Reluctantly Born

When Hollywood first began churning out movies, it actually tried to suppress the star system. Studios learned from the theater industry that creating stars meant paying star salaries, so in the earliest silent films, the actors went uncredited.  

Unfortunately, Hollywood could not succeed in thwarting the audience’s appetite for a leading man. These are the people we identify with, an essential ingredient when we must pay attention to the trials their fictional characters endure. As film became the most popular form of entertainment, leading men became style icons, defining what was popular and what it meant to be a man. They were and still are a necessity.  

So when the actors were kept anonymous, fans would write letters to studios demanding autographs of its unnamed stars. Audiences would flock to movies with the nameless face that they most admired. How did they know what movies to pick? Well, every studio had its roster of actors, identifiable only as the “Biograph Girl” and so on. It was only a matter of time before studios began marketing the names of their stars.

Discover how the leading man was born next...

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