Where Are Hollywood's Manly Men? The Last of a Dying Breed

Is Liam Neeson one of the last of Hollywood's manly men?Liam Neeson is Hollywood's last real man. That's the gist of "The Grey" director Joe Carnahan's recent statement on his star's success. Carnahan tells Collider Magazine, "You have a town now that has put so much premium on boys instead of men, and has put so many shirtless 17-year-olds in front of the camera and tried to pass off as a masculine form. I have nothing against the younger generations, but I feel when I look in their eyes, I don't see s---, man. I don't see a life lived, I don't see experience, I don't see dirt under the nails, I don't see loss, tragedy, you name it. The reason that a guy like Liam, who's nearly 60 years old, is having this resurgent kind of career swing is because we are sorely lacking in his ilk in this business right now."

Carnhahan makes a good point. Where did all the gristle go? Hollywood was once teaming with dirt-kicking, spit-shooting Steve McQueens, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwoods and Kris Kristoffersons.

The next wave of leading men are more fragile and gender-neutral. Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg, even Robert Pattinson are sexy not because they would win in a fight, but because they could talk their way out of one. It makes sense this would be the trend considering the power nerds ruling the internet and the economy in real life.

But even the current titans of the big screen, well into their 40's and 50's are far more deodorized than the Burts and Clints of their day. It's hard to separate Brad Pitt from his 'architectural design aesthetic' and the fact that his hair color requires an hour wrapped in tin foil. George Clooney? Apart from his politically-charged movies, his life is a lot of sunbathing and manicures. Leo? Spray tans. Johnny Depp? The man carries a monocle. Even Ryan Gosling, who cut a promising old school car-chaser in 'Drive' is way too fashion-savvy to be considered a classic manly man. Can you imagine Liam Neeson in a striped tank top sitting at an outdoor café like some female protagonist in a Godard movie? I think not.

A few years ago, there were more Neesons to come by, but a lot of our action heroes have turned out to be nut jobs: Arnold, Mel, Tom. Or let downs: Mark Wahlberg, Ben Affleck, Gerard Butler. Or a disappointing combination of the two: Collin Farrell. The original grizzly men who still roam Hollywood like Clint, Kris and Burt have either retired or ventured behind the camera.

Liam indeed is one of the last of the man-hicans. As far as I can tell there are only a handful of men in Hollywood with the same heaving, semi-hunchbacked masculinity. You know, the kind of guy whose personal trainer is a Harley. The kind of guy who doesn't have an image consultant pick out his glasses for him, and doesn't let anyone excuse his vices as 'exhaustion'. The kind guy who doesn't value speaking as much as he values silence. The kind of guy who will run you off a bridge in a car chase and then swim your rescue. The kind of guy you can smell from your movie theater seat, the minute he enters a shot.

Here's my list of the top manly men of Hollywood, a dying breed if ever there was one.

Neeson in 'The Grey'
Liam Neeson
Age: 59
Always a grizzly man, even in his youth, but with each passing year his age becomes him. Forget Rogaine. Neeson defies his receding hairline to cross a threshold by sheer will, or so it seems. His sad eyes, which one might assume projects the pain of the losing his beloved wife Natasha Richardson, have remained sturdy as reusable bullets. His gravelly, Irish delivery elevates the same psychological action thriller he stars in repeatedly into memorable films. And in one simple, exhausted sigh at the end of each performance, he blows away 20 Jason Stathams.


Craig in 'Cowboys and Aliens'
Daniel Craig
Age: 43
The next great Liam Neeson. All through 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' he makes wool cardigans seem like bullet proof vests. His compact facial features are imprecise. His mug is like a rearranged Brad Pitt, shrunken to the bare necessities.


Indie isn't a low-budget movie. It's a Hollywood hero.
Harrison Ford
Age: 69
We'll forgive him the mid-life crisis earring because he's stuck with it, like a man that makes choices and doesn't look back. Even as his face folds over itself, the chin scar is still the most prominent of his features. Ford invented the 'not without my wife' genre, not even flinching when Mel Gibson tried to take it over in the '90s. Why? Because Indie doesn't give a f---. Long ago Ford, quit his coterie of agents and managers in favor of one lawyer and home in the mountains of Montana, where he could pursue his manliness in peace.


Elba in 'Takers'.
Idris Elba
Age: 39
Elba's debonair designer style is promptly undercut but his gritty middle-class Londoner accent. He's as pressed as a Frette sheet with the suggestion of Mick Jagger beneath them. It's that rogue edge that separates him from the Clooneys of Hollywood. He seems cultured by circumstance not allure. And that makes his performances as a detective in 'Takers' or a CIA black-ops in 'The Losers' far more believable than anyone on the new 'A Team'.


McGregor on his trip to Capetown.
Ewan McGregor
Age: 40
Not your typical man's man, the Scottish actor lends a punk pretense to all of his characters. But you can bet your racehorses he's never gotten a manicure and he's certainly never bothered to get his teeth fixed (ahem, Tom Cruise). A documented international trek on his motorcycle with his best friend proved McGregor's ability to go without a shower for eons and grow a brawny ginger beard. And the fact that he admitted without much fanfare that he gave up drinking after years of severe alcohol abuse speaks to the fact that he's a survivor, not a drama-seeker.

Damon on the set of an upcoming movie.
Matt Damon
Age: 41
Damon earns a place on this manly list for several reasons. Firstly: he is balding openly and without apologies. Secondly: the tinier, less-gambling and J.Lo-dating of the Matt and Ben '90s duo, he wasn't the obvious shoe-in of the two to become the classic action hero. But that's how real men are: full of surprises.


Fassbender in 'Shame'
Michael Fassbender
Age: 34
Fassbender is on this list for one reason only: he's got the kind of man-part that gets thanked in awards acceptance speeches. No small thang.


Penn as Penn
Sean Penn
Age: 51
I'm not a huge Penn fan, and I believe his needle sometimes skews to closer to steam-punk Johnny Depp than Neeson. But I do believe he's never cleaned underneath his well-bitten finger nails. He's also proven that you don't have to copulate strictly with hot women in movies to be manly man. It's taken Hollywood a long time to figure that out and Penn has certainly helped the process along with his portrayal of Harvey Milk. I'm also not convinced he makes the best partner, but he doesn't shy from a strong woman who's potentially more successful than he is. Madonna, Robin Wright, Scarlett Johansson, to name a few.

Greene is now in movies like 'Fist of a Warrior.' Let's get this real man some real work.
Peter Greene
Age: 46
One of the most forgotten, then remembered, then forgotten actors in the business. Greene broke out with 'Pulp Fiction' and the very excellent 'Clean, Shaven.' Then he broke down in 'Rich Man's Wife.' Within a year he'd lost almost everything he'd worked for to a brutal heroin addiction. Here's where the gristle comes out. He defied the business of Hollywood cover-ups and allowed his assistant to write a profile about how the culture of on-set excess nearly killed him. It's been a roller coaster of addiction and rehabilitation for Greene, but he's still working as he nears his 50th year. Today he looks like a stretched out Daniel Craig. On screen his marble blue eyes and his fearlessness when it comes to self-destruction makes him addictive to watch. Had Gerard Butler and Greene's roles been reversed in 'The Bounty Hunter,' the movie might have worked better.

Bridges in 'True Grit'
Jeff Bridges
Age: 62
Another holdover from the original grizzly man generation. He's managed to hang with one arm from the cliff of Hollywood, because no one from this generation can challenge him. Bridges can play country, he can play burnout, and he can play a man from outer-space. But at his core, he's always playing a cowboy. Bridges is gifted actor and loyal dude. He has been with the same woman since 1977. They met on set of the western 'Rancho Deluxe'. She was an extra and in an essay he once penned about his wife, he said he was drawn to the fact that she had a black eye when they met. It made him want to take care of her. And he did.

Jackson in 'The Avengers'
Samuel L. Jackson
Age: 63
Before he became an actor, he was involved in the civil rights movement and served as an usher for Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral. Then he went to college, to Broadway, and later Hollywood. He's a Jedi Master, who can spew Bible verses and bullets at close range on camera. It's impossible to think he's packed so much into one life, and more impossible still to think he's still wearing that same Kangol hat. Like Ford and his earring, Jackson picked a thing and stuck with it. No regrets. That's part of what makes Jackson old-school manly sexy. It's working for him; in 2011 he was named the highest grossing actor of all time. Still, he isn't cast in the same heroic lead roles as his equally swaggering contemporaries. In the words of Steve McQueen's 'Frank Bullit', that's b---s---.

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