re: Is Tom Hanks the GOAT?

If we're talking strictly, lead actor, modern era - perhaps - that 10-year run from 1992 to 2002 is pretty impressive for a lead actor.

However, of all time? Tough. Like many lead actors, Hanks often plays a variant of himself - which is not a criticism - it is what he gets paid for. Many people thought John Wayne couldn't act - but he was never asked to - he was paid well to be John Wayne.

But, GOAT - now you're talking against lead guys like Bogie, Stewart, Cagney (although he was a character guy/villain, a bunch), Tracy, Peck, Lancaster, Holden, Burton, Olivier (ETA: Cooper, Gable) - just a $hit ton of guys from the golden era who could act their socks off. Then you get to Brando, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Deniro.

GOAT is a big order to fill in this category. Pushed up against the wall, with a gun to my head, I probably say Spencer Tracy, but on a given day it could just as easily be Bogie or Holden.

And if you throw character actors who had the occasional lead role? Jack Lemmon and Philip Seymour Hoffman probably top any list.