Ask five movie people who the greatest actor of this generation is and you get five different answers. Depends what you value: box office, statues, range, cultural footprint, or the size of a fan army. For a lot of folks, the short list narrows to Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert Downey Jr. Before you plant your flag, here is the clean, no-BS rundown on why each guy has a legit claim.
Daniel Day-Lewis: the gold standard of the craft
If your definition of greatest starts and ends with pure acting skill, Daniel Day-Lewis is the benchmark. He famously retired in 2017, then recently un-retired to appear in his son’s movie, Anemone. Across his career he has teamed with directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Martin Scorsese, and they have not been shy about calling him one of the most committed actors they have ever worked with.
The receipts are there: three Best Actor Oscars for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007), and Lincoln (2012) — the most Best Actor wins anyone has, period. The commitment stories are legendary, sometimes controversial, always intense. For My Left Foot, he stayed in character in a wheelchair around the clock and had the crew feed and carry him. On Gangs of New York, he apprenticed with a real butcher. For The Last of the Mohicans, he lived in the wilderness; for The Crucible, he gave up electricity and running water; on Lincoln, he wanted to be addressed as Mr. President; for Phantom Thread, he took actual dressmaking classes.
The tradeoff: his movies aren’t built to crush global box office the way superhero or disaster epics do. His biggest hit is still Lincoln at $275.3 million worldwide. After that it’s Gangs of New York at $193.8 million, Gandhi at $127.8 million, There Will Be Blood at $76.2 million, and The Last of the Mohicans at $75 million.
Part of his mystique is how sparingly he works — basically one film every few years — which is why each project feels like an event. Now that he’s back in front of a camera, fans are already assuming we might see another appearance in a couple of years.
Leonardo DiCaprio: the total package
Comparing DiCaprio to Day-Lewis is apples to caviar. Leo is the all-terrain vehicle of movie stars — range, box office, critical acclaim, cultural influence, and staying power. Casting directors can throw almost any genre at him and he makes it feel like a layup.
The arc is wild: an early breakout with What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (Oscar and Golden Globe nominations), the doomed romantic lead in Titanic, psychological heavy-hitters like Shutter Island and Inception, a gleefully deranged villain in Django Unchained, and pure chaos-comedy in The Wolf of Wall Street. He toggles between thrillers (The Departed, Catch Me If You Can), historical epics (The Aviator, Killers of the Flower Moon), and survival films (The Revenant — and a heads up: you may see a stray mention of a survival title called One Battle After Another; that’s not actually a DiCaprio movie, so chalk that up to confusion).
The numbers are real. Titanic isn’t just Leo’s top earner; it’s still sitting at no. 4 worldwide all-time with $2.264 billion. Inception crossed $839.4 million globally and delivered his biggest payday at $50 million. His next three biggest worldwide totals: The Revenant at $533 million, Django Unchained at $449.8 million, and The Wolf of Wall Street at $407 million.
Awards-wise, he has six Best Actor Oscar nominations and one win, for The Revenant. From Gilbert Grape to his recent Paul Thomas Anderson project, he’s been relevant for more than 30 years. The man makes roles that stick in the culture — and in your meme feed.
Robert Downey Jr.: the comeback that rewired blockbuster culture
Nobody in this trio has a better redemption arc. After late-90s addiction issues and legal trouble, the industry basically wrote RDJ off. The early 2000s were a grind; producers didn’t want to take the risk. With help from friends like Mel Gibson, he steadied the ship, then reminded everyone he could carry a movie with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang — which put him on Jon Favreau’s radar and led straight to Iron Man.
He didn’t just play Tony Stark; he redrew the blueprint for the modern movie star superhero — rakish, funny, and surprisingly heartfelt. Iron Man launched the MCU and grossed $585 million worldwide. In the process, RDJ ended up defining the feel of the 21st-century blockbuster: witty, character-forward, and built around a star who can sell a punchline as well as a punch.
The money arc is just as dramatic: he reportedly started at $500,000 for Iron Man and later earned around $75 million each for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (per Celebrity Net Worth). His five biggest worldwide totals are a murderers’ row: Avengers: Endgame at $2.799 billion, Avengers: Infinity War at $2.048 billion, The Avengers at $1.52 billion, Avengers: Age of Ultron at $1.4 billion, and Iron Man 3 at $1.21 billion. Outside Marvel, both Sherlock Holmes films were big hits too.
And then there’s the Oscar he finally picked up for Oppenheimer, after two previous nominations. On the franchise front, he is set to return to Marvel in a new villain role and reportedly signed a $100 million deal for a film titled Avengers: Doomsday, which would put him at the top of the pay scale again. Add it up and he’s one of the most recognizable, broadly liked stars on earth.
So who is the greatest?
It depends on your scoreboard. If you mean pure craftsmanship, it’s Day-Lewis. If you want range plus longevity, it’s DiCaprio. If you’re measuring cultural impact and the way one performance can change the course of mainstream movies, it’s Downey.
Who you got? Hit the comments and make your case.