the pulp list

To make it in Hollywood, leading men need to fit the archetype: tall, (mostly) dark and handsome. It’s tough to project that special combination of sexual mastery, ironic intelligence, poise and vulnerability that creates the greatest male stars without the onscreen gravitas that comes from being taller than his average co-stars.

Think of one you’ve seen recently. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe? All tall. Or how about classic films? Carey Grant, Humphrey Bogart (thanks, Clovis), Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda — six feet at the shortest. There’s just something about his height that gives a leading man the presence to be in charge and convincingly so.

But not all leading men fit the archetype. Several famous, successful leading men buck the trend and make a name for themselves despite lacking the je ne sais quoi that comes with above-average height and we figured it was time to give them the recognition they deserve. In this list, we present the top 10 short leading men and review some of the films that made them famous.

Note: For our purposes, we define “tall” as 5′ 10″, or one inch greater than the the US national average. And in order to be considered a “leading man”, the actor must have appeared in at least two feature films as the principal male character. Finally, in ranking the actors, we took into consideration not only how famous they are but also how much below the 5′ 10″ they fall.

10. Woody Allen (5′ 5″)

Amazon

Famous more for his writing and directing than for his acting, Woody Allen nevertheless occupies a special place on the list for his influence on modern film. His movies span the gamut from slapstick and screwball comedies to serious dramas and out of his twenty-one Academy Award nominations, he’s won three (though not for Best Actor). 1977′s Best Picture Annie Hall, which he wrote, directed and starred in, set the standard for modern romantic comedies.

In addition to the 5′ 6.5″ Diane Keaton — whom he’s starred with at least a half dozen times — Allen has played a lead role opposite a number of famous (and much taller) leading ladies: Mia Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Kirstie Alley, Sharon Stone, and Debra Messing. He’s not gotten by on his looks, though some women find him irresistible — he’s a good example of where intelligence and self-deprecating humor make up for physical stature.

So influential is Allen’s work, that essentially any role on television or film you see that features the anxious, brainy, urban Jew character started with him. If Allen hadn’t formed the archetype in the 1970s, there might not be a Jerry Seinfeld, David Schwimmer, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow today.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: Annie Hall (1977)
Most Famous Role: Harry Block (Deconstructing Harry, 1997)

9. Richard Dreyfuss (5′ 5″)

Amazon

Best known for his role in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Mr. Holland’s Opus, Richard Dreyfuss was (at the time) the youngest actor ever to win an Academy Award for Best Actor (at 29, for 1977′s The Goodbye Girl, beating out Mr. Allen from above). His first film part was actually a small, uncredited role in The Graduate, in which he had one line: “Shall I call the cops? I’ll call the cops.”

Dreyfuss has a special ability to make annoyingly vain, arrogant and whiny characters seem both heroic and likable. Perhaps because his off-screen personality mirrored his roles, he developed a reputation for being hard to work with. After a meteoric rise in the late ’70s, he was poised to become a major star in the 1980s but blew it on booze and drugs. Out of rehab, his career rebounded with films like Stakeout, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and What About Bob?, establishing him as a both a terrific comedian and dramatic actor.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: American Graffiti (1973)
Most Famous Role: Roy Neary (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977)

8. Dustin Hoffman (5′ 5″)

Amazon

Among the most interesting things about Mr. Hoffman’s breakthrough role in The Graduate (aside leading opposite the 5′ 6.5″ Anne Bancroft) was that he got the part after negotiations with Warren Beatty and Robert Redford — both much taller leading men — fell through, at a time when it was rare indeed for a leading man to be so short. Most everyone else on this list can thank him for paving the way.

A highly versatile and respected actor, Dustin Hoffman counts two Academy Awards, six Golden Globes and three BAFTAs among his accomplishments. His best films include Midnight Cowboy, All the President’s Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie (which he played in drag), Rain Man, Captain Hook (in the eponymous fantasy starring Robin Williams), and my personal favorite, Bernard the existential detective in 2004′s I Heart Huckabees.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: The Graduate (1967)
Most Famous Role: Raymond Babbitt (Rain Man, 1988)

7. James Cagney (5′ 6.5″)

Amazon

An actor best known for his work in the 1920s and ’30s, James Cagney was ranked eighth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time by the American Film Institute. (It’s somewhat ironic that he dressed as a woman for his first performing role, in a vaudeville revue called Every Sailor.) One of the highest paid actors of his time, Cagney twice won the Oscar for Best Actor and is best remembered for playing Depression-era gangsters.

Cagney was equally loved and loathed in the dozens of film roles that demonstrated his range as an actor. For his performance as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy, the New York Herald Tribune described him as “the most ruthless, unsentimental appraisal of the meanness of a petty killer the cinema has yet devised.” The scene in which Cagney smashes a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face is viewed by many critics as one of the most famous moments in movie history.

You may remember his famous line from Taxi! (“You dirty rat!”), although he never actually said it. The closest he came was: “Come out and take it, you dirty, yellow-bellied rat, or I’ll give it to you through the door!”

Notable Films

Breakthrough: The Public Enemy (1931)
Most Famous Role: Martin “Moe the Gimp” Snyder (Love Me or Leave Me, 1955)

6. Gary Oldman (5′ 9″)

Amazon

Gary Oldman is perhaps the greatest character actor never to take home an Academy Award — not even nominated! — and is certainly a contender for most gifted on this list. He’s tackled some really tough roles, dark and morally corrupt and varied across the board, including Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Sirius Black in Harry Potter, Mason Verger in Hannibal, and, of course, Count Dracula.

He’s English but you wouldn’t necessarily know it, since he’s mastered virtually every kind of spoken English accent. He had a brief, Emmy-nominated run on Friends as Joey’s acting teacher and you may remember him most recently as Commissioner Gordon in the Dark Knight. Fun short leading man fact: he was married to the six-foot tall Uma Thurman from 1990-1992.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: Sid & Nancy (1986)
Most Famous Role: Count Dracula (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992)

5. Jack Lemmon (5′ 9″)

Amazon

One of America’s finest comedians, multiple Oscar-winner Jack Lemmon starred in over 60 films throughout his more than five decades in Hollywood. During his tenure, Lemmon worked alongside a number of legendary (and tall) leading ladies, including Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Janet Leigh, Shirley Maclaine, Rita Hayworth and Sophia Loren. (Some guys have all the luck.)

Many of his most notable films were produced in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, including Some Like it Hot, Days of Wine and Roses, Mister Roberts, The Apartment (which took Best Picture in 1960) and Save the Tiger, for which he won Best Actor. But unlike a lot of his acting contemporaries, Lemmon also did some of best work late in his career. In 1993, he teamed up with longtime collaborator Walter Matthau for the surprise hit Grumpy Old Men, which introduced the pair to a new generation of audiences.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: It Should Happen to You (1954)
Most Famous Role: Joe Clay (Days of Wine and Roses, 1962)

4. Buster Keaton (5′ 5″)

Amazon

Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton VI (yes, that’s six) died in 1966, so most modern audiences are unfamiliar with his silent-film body of work. But Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton’s “extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, [when] he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies” and called his film The General “one of the supreme masterpieces of silent film making.”

His real gift lay in physical comedy: slapstick, sight gags and stunts performed at great physical risk. A scene from Steamboat Bill Jr. required Keaton to run into the shot and stand still on a particular spot. Then, the facade of a three-story building toppled forward on top of Keaton. Keaton’s character emerged unscathed, thanks to a single open window which passed directly over him. The stunt required precision, because the prop house weighed two tons, and the window only offered a few inches of space around Keaton’s body.

He became a matinee idol and a precursor to the modern leading man as sex symbol, all without uttering a word. For this and his small frame, he earns a top spot on our list.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: Butcher Boy (1917)
Most Famous Role: Johnnie Gray (The General, 1927)

3. Al Pacino (5′ 7″)

Amazon

A virtual unknown before his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone, Al Pacino has gone on to define the modern gangster and every other Mafioso role since is in his shadow. The Godfather routinely tops many “best of” lists largely on the strength of his performance, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. At the time, Pacino was something of a gamble — Francis Ford Coppola pushed for him to play the role against the wishes of the studio. One of its main objections? He was too short.

His career took off in the 1970s, with a string of gritty, unforgettable lead roles in Serpico, The Godfather: Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and …And Justice for All. Pacino was nominated for Best Actor in all four. And though his career took something of a dive in the 1980s (including Scarface, which we at The Pulp List think is highly overrated), he bounced back in the 1990s with roles in The Godfather: Part III, Glengarry Glen Ross, Donnie Brasco, Heat and Scent of a Woman, for which he finally took home the gold. He may occasionally be prone to overacting lately, but his unmistakable voice makes up for what he lacks in height.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: The Godfather (1972)
Most Famous Role: Michael Corleone (The Godfather, 1972)

2. Tom Cruise (5′ 7″)

Amazon

We’d be remiss if we failed to include Mr. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV — truly, he’s a short leading man’s leading man and arguably the most famous actor on our list. Thrice nominated but never awarded an Oscar, he has been a part of some of the highest profile flicks in history: Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire and Minority Report. In most of his earliest roles, he played the handsome bad boy (Days of Thunder, anyone?), mostly light fare with little substance. But more recently he’s taken some risks and revealed additional depth with unusual roles in Magnolia, Collateral and even Tropic Thunder (which is worth seeing if only for his brief, but memorable, cameo).

It’s true that he may be more famous now for his offscreen antics, tabloid marriage (his third) to a woman 17 years his junior, and bizarrely creepy Scientology orientation video (be sure to check out Jerry O’Connell’s spoof). Whether negative public perception will have a lasting effect on his career remains to be seen.

Notable Films

Breakthrough: Risky Business (1983)
Most Famous Role: Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Top Gun, 1986)

1. Michael J. Fox (5′ 4.5″)

Amazon

One of the rare television stars to make the successful jump to the big screen (and back), our top spot goes to the shortest actor on the list, Michael Andrew Fox. (If you’re curious where the “J” came from, check out his Wikipedia profile.)

At 5′ 4.5″, it’s hard to believe that Fox would be able to hack it all as a leading man, since there are few actresses that wouldn’t tower over him, but he seems to have done quite well for himself. On account of his natural good looks, winning charm, and onscreen charisma, he landed the iconic 1980s role of young Republican Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom Family Ties and then went on to star in the Back to the Future trilogy, Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Succe$s, and Bright Lights, Big City. In 1996, he went back to television for a successful four-year run on Spin City before retiring following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. He has since returned playing playing smaller roles most notably a paraplegic in the highly acclaimed Denis Leary firefighter drama Rescue Me.

At his height, it’s tough to find leading ladies that match up well. For starters, Fox’s Family Ties girlfriend Ellen, played by Tracy Pollan, is 5′ 6″ (they married in 1988). Fortunately, Lea Thompson played the lead in Back to the Future and she’s only 5′ 4″, just the right height. Fox filmed the original Back to the Future in the evenings after shooting wrapped up for Family Ties. When it opened in 1985 it spent eleven straight weeks at #1 and grossed almost $400 million worldwide, establishing him forever as a bankable (and unlikely) Hollywood leading man. No doubt his Teen Beat cover-boy looks helped win over girl fans, which helps explain the success.

Like Pacino before him, one of the producers of Family Ties (Brandon Tartikoff) felt that Fox was too short in relation to the actors playing his parents and tried to have him replaced (Fox only got the gig after Matthew Broderick turned it down). After his later box office successes, Fox presented him with a custom-made lunchbox with the inscription “To Brandon, this is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox.”

Notable Films

Breakthrough: Back to the Future (1985)
Most Famous Role: Alex P. Keaton (Family Ties, 1982-1989)

Honorable Mention:

Joe Pesci 5′ 4″
Billy Crystal 5′ 7″
Robin Williams 5′ 8″
Mel Gibson 5′ 9″
Robert Redford 5′ 9″
Robert DeNiro 5′ 9.5″
Paul Newman 5′ 9.5″
Jack Nicholson 5′ 9.75″