Actors/Actresses of the Era

Jason Statham
Kate Beckinsale
;-)
Richard Burton
Elizabeth Taylor – My grandma loved them!
& a +1 for Woody H.

No mention of Russell Crowe?
Excellent in LA Confidential and Master and Commander.
Gladiator was good, but I didnt like the film. He has loads of other roles that are not ‘action/fight/shoot’ based.

I too am a little confused by the OP’s initial thoughts, but I’m not thinking too hard about it since I think we’re just trying to define some actors who the public will remember the most in each decade..

I’m going for these Actors..

There are plenty more, but I reckon I’ll kill the forum if i post more.

Superb choices (for whatever they’re choices for) bikebouy.

the 80s –

No mention for Gary Oldman?

Jennifer Lawrence
Margot Robbie
Christain Bale
William Defoe
Cate blanchett
Jeff bridges
Matthew McConaughey

At last, some love for Cate Blanchett. She has an amazing ability to .. err…. act!! You sort of forget that the person on the screen is Cate Blanchett and not <character>. Compare and contrast, say, Tom Cruise.

So far, I think we’ve forgotten to mention the man who’s been in everything

Moving more character based:

Movies aren’t always about “real” people, but characters resembling the subtleties of ‘real’ people…

Todays youth will have similar fond memories, as we all did about characters from our respective era(s)