I doubt many actors have actually inspired people to do things, possibly the characters they play maybe

what about Pele in Escape to Victory?
he inspired me to play football.
was it the actor or the character he was playing that inspired me?
doesn’t matter.

Ryan Gosling in Drive.
Was it Ryan Gosling or the nameless Driver he portrayed that made me want to wear driving gloves and a satin Scorpion jacket and help gangsters rob banks?
both.
I say both.

actually, I’d throw Ryan Gosling into the bag of cool as a modern day Steve McQueen.

JFK
Ozwald Boateng
Grace Kelly
Jim Morrison
Bruce Lee
Jim Clark
Howlin Wolf
Cary Grant

who was that undercover agent woman who died recently, saying her only regret was not killing more Nazis ? Top.

It seems to me the coolest people burn brightly for a short time, rather than fade away greyly. Terrible thought to think of jimi on a retirement circuit churning out old tunes for wealthy, mindless mddle aged **** for cash. Oh yeah, that’ll be Brian Wilson

If you want to watch a great Steve McQueen film then watch Papillon.
Amazing film.

on iplayer at the moment

Illuminating that posturers (actors) are regarded as cool rather than people who actually do things.

Is it really that illuminating? Cool is usually just a perception. Few are better than offering that than actors/performers.

Charlie Watts is up there.

jack Nicholson is cool as ****. He looks a bit like my dad. I think the defining factor of cool people is theit confidence in doing their own thing, and doing it well.

Lemmy in his prime.

Jesus Christ

for a Englishman Patrick Leigh Fermor
theres a truely fantastic clip of him on Greek TV translating Greek to German to Greek like he was dealing cards to play snap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Leigh_Fermor
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Kreipe_Abduction_Team.jpg
PLF is the one in the middle.

From the otherside of the pond Lee Marvin
Left school in 42 to enlist in the USMC wound in Siapan.
Did a bit a of acting inbetween drinking – John Boorman has some great tails about.
Out spoken as being Anti Vietnam and pro gay rights.
Sir i salute you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Marvin#Military_Service

+1 for Paddy Leigh Fermor – read about him during a holiday in Crete – truly amazing individual.

I flipping can’t stand Lemmy. I can understand McQueen, and Hendrix, et al. being named, although I am more inclined toward the MLK suggestion myself. But Lemmy? He can’t hold a candle up to most of those put forward so far.

As for women, it’s got to be Rosa Parks.

Gorbachev.

+1 for James Hunt. I mean, check out the patch on his racing overalls.

Leslie Nielsen

Coolest person?
Don’t be daft.. it’s a three way tie

Yuri Gagarin?
What about the pilot that landed on the Hudson River…that was cool

Seriously? All this, and no one has mentioned………HIM!

The one and only Elbry.

Spitfire Test Pilot – Alex Henshaw

Played Cricket for England, Football for England, World Record Long Jump and could jump backwards onto a mantelpiece at the age of 70…

Gilles….

Still between James Hunt and Steve McQueen for me though…

I reckon Michael Collins must be as cool as it gets. He floats around the moon when the other 2 are the 1st on it, & he doesn’t even get mad.
Thats cool.

FFS, what could possibly be cooler than surfing on a stone tablet? 8)

“Thou shalt be cool” 😆

Gary Numan becuase he only did his day job to pay for aeroplanes. Or Jessie Owens for sticking it to Hitler in his own back yard.

seriously… has anyone mentioned… Lemmy?

Or….

Can’t decide.

And they helped change the World. Nothing’s ‘cooler’ than that.

I disagree. They’re admirable, wise, empathetic etc people but they’re not cool.

Gorbachev is not at all cool: not personally charismatic, not a great thinker, not a great strategist, not nothing. Perestroika and glasnost were total disasters: he had intended to preserve the Soviet Union, not destroy it – and yet he precipitated a destruction of the union that was violent, crooked and resulted in the transfer of power to kleptocrats and and extremists.

But Yuri Gagarin was pretty cool.

Is Che Guevera not going to get a mention? Surely a zillion 6th formers can’t be wrong?

No shouts for Samuel L Jackson? Absolute legend.

#46

I disagree. They’re admirable, wise, empathetic etc people but they’re not cool.

It totally depends on your own personal definition of ‘cool’, which isn’t some fixed, immutable state, it’s merely a quality which is bestowed upon you by others. I’d think that having the legacy of your work, philosophies and ideas continue long after your death is pretty bloody cool in my book!

In my mind, an abusive misogynist who pretended to be other people, is not at all ‘cool’. I can see why the characters he played might appeal to the insecure and inadequate though.

Edit – And his Mum

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/sep/03/phil-lynott-mitt-romney-thin-lizzy

Continuing with the legacy aspect of ‘cool’, Dieter Rams is surely as cool as ****:

And more recently, Jonathan Ives:

And not forgetting:

Couple of mine:

Rollins –

Del –