15 TALLEST Actors In The World
Number 15.
Ben Affleck - 6'3" Ben Affleck met his best friend Matt Damon
in Cambridge, MA when they were 10.
The two took acting classes together, eventually moving to Hollywood and co-writing the screenplay
Good Will Hunting in 1992.
Affleck took small parts in movies through the 90's until finally Miramax agreed to fund
his movie, which went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay.
This skyrocketed Affleck into the limelight, who would continue rising until the critically
panned Gigli, which he made with his then fiancé Jennifer Lopez.
Affleck's career took a swoon until he re-emerged as a major player with his films Gone Girl
and Argo, the latter of which won him an Oscar for best picture.
Recently Affleck has taken his height to thrillers, starring in Batman Vs Superman and The Accountant.
Number 14.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - 6'4" Before he was "The Rock", Dwayne Johnson won
a national championship playing football for the Miami Hurricanes.
He was drafted into the Canadian Football League, but cut only two months into the season.
Unsure of what to do, he was soon recruited by WWE.
By 2000 he had taken over the scene and won his first Royal Rumble.
The Rock set a record by making $5.5 million for his leading role in The Scorpion King,
the most an actor has ever made in his major motion picture debut.
Since this debut The Rock has taken over Hollywood, becoming the industries highest earner in
2017.
Among his roles, The Rock is perhaps best known as portraying the tough Diplomatic Security
Service officer Luke Hobbs in the last three installments of the popular Fast and the Furious
franchise.
Number 13.
Liam Neeson 6'4" Liam Neeson was born in Northern Ireland.
He began acting in the 1970s, and had fully integrated himself in the Hollywood system
by the end of the 80s.
His first massive role was the lead in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, a performance
which earned him an academy award nomination.
Audiences were ecstatic when the high caliber actor was cast as the wise jedi Qui-Gon Jinn
in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
In 2008, his career hit a new gear when he played an ex-CIA operative searching for his
daughter in Taken.
The movie was a huge success, and has launched him into several other action films that serve
the gentleman's imposing tall frame including The Grey and The Commuter.
Number 12.
Jeff Goldblum - 6'5" Jeff Goldblum first got his start as a gang
thug in the controversial 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish.
He had big parts here and there, including line roles in Annie Hall and Invasion of the
Body Snatchers.
In 1981, he was nominated for a Genie Award (Canadian film award) for best performance
by a foreign actor for his portrayal of Aldo Gehring in 1981's Threshold.
Five years later he won a Saturn Award under David Cronenberg's direction in the 1986 movie
The Fly.
And guess what?
In 1989 he starred in a movie entitled The Tall Guy!
But it was his role as the charming scientist in Spielberg's Jurassic Park that made audiences
adore the 6'5" nontraditional actor.
Three years later he hit jackpot again in Independence Day, causing him to become one
of the 1990s highest grossing actors, and a pop culture mainstay up to this very day.
Number 11.
John Cleese - 6'5" In 1962, John Cleese was at Cambridge University
performing in a Footlights show called "Cambridge Circus".
There, he met Graham Chapman, two would go on to create Monty Python's Flying Circus,
arguably the most influential sketch comedy group of all time.
Cleese, 6'5" used as height as his advantage, playing the high status, authoritative characters
who had a inkling for hurling insults.
After the success of the group, Cleese went on to create and star in Fawlty Towers, one
of Britain's all time best sitcoms.
Cleese is still working today on films, television, video games, and even broadway, and as appeared
in over 200 projects throughout his lifetime.
Number 10.
Joe Manganiello - 6'5" Joe Manganiello claims in high school he was
skinny with coke bottle glasses and invisible to girls.
Yeah, right, well, the past is the past.
At 6'5" and 236 lbs of pure muscle, Joe has become the ultimate Hollywood hunk.
After graduating from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon acting school, Manganiello took on
guest roles here and there through the aughts, most notably Peter Parker's bully Flash Thompson
in Spider Man 2 and 3.
Joe says his height hurt his ability to get roles.
Since most leading men are much shorter than him, unless he is a bodyguard or bouncer,
casting directors don't want him to dwarf the masculinity of their star.
But it was in 2010, when he started appearing in True Blood, that audiences couldn't help
but notice him.
Manganiello cemented his superstar status when he starred as a stripper opposite Channing
Tatum in both Magic Mike films.
Oh, and in 2014 he married Sofia Vergara, sigh.
Number 9.
Tyler Perry - 6'5" Tyler Perry saved up $12,000 in order to write,
direct, produce and star in his first musical, I Know I've Changed, based on a series of
letters he wrote to himself about his abusive father.
The project reportedly lasted one weekend and only drew 30 patrons, ouch.
Most people would have given up at that point, but Perry was undeterred.
He resorted to living out of his car in order to save money for his projects.
"Can you imagine a 6'5" living in a Geo Metro?" he told Essence Magazine.
But soon, audiences turned towards Perry, and his stage success led to the production
of his first movie.
Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
Although it was panned by critics, the film went on to make $50 million dollars.
With the money he made from the sequels, Perry became a major media mogul, and now owns his
own media company and acting school.
It just shows that you should never give up on your dream, no matter how cramped your
Geo gets.
Number 8.
Vince Vaughn - 6'5" Although he played football and baseball in
high school, Vince Vaughn always described himself as an average athlete, so it was an
easy choice to pursue acting.
He was first cast in a Chevrolet commercial, prompting his exodus to Hollywood in 1988.
He got his first film role as a minor character in the 1993 feel good sports movie Rudy.
It was there that he met Jon Favreau, who he would go on to write and star opposite
him in his breakout movie Swingers three years later.
Vaughn upped his profile two years later starring in Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic
Park.
Vaughn appeared in several acclaimed films following this, but it wasn't until his comedic
turn in 2003's Old School that he became a household name.
He went to cement his standing a year later as the villain in the classic comedy Dodgeball:
A True Underdog Story.
During this time Vaughn as labeled one of the "Frat Pack", a group of hollywood celebrities
who frequented comedies.
Vaughn briefly dated Jennifer Aniston before marrying a Canadian realtor.
The couple have two children.
Vaughn recently returned to athletics, getting his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Number 7.
James Cromwell - 6'6" James Cromwell, the son of two actors, made
his screen debut in a guest role for The Rockford Files.
A few weeks later he landed his first recurring role as Stretch Cunningham on All in the Family.
For the next ten years he played modest roles on television and screen alike.
Then, in 1985 he had a breakout performance in Babe.
For this, he received an academy award nomination, making him the tallest actor to ever receive
the honor.
He's been nominated for a total of four Emmys, winning best supporting actor for his role
in American Horror Story: Asylum.
Cromwell is still working at 78 and has over 200 credits to his filmography.
Number 6.
Christopher Lee - 6'6" Christopher Lee was a premier english actor
whose career spanned 70 years, and whose height spanned 6'6"!
He had trouble finding roles because of his height, which was mostly worked around by
having him sit for scenes or propping other actors on apple boxes.
Lee's breakthrough role was perhaps The Curse of Frankenstein.
His long gate added to the terror of the titular character and reinvigorated the monster into
popular culture.
Lee moved from Britain to Hollywood in 1977, concerned he was being typecast for his height.
Christopher Lee had an incredible last act of his career.
He starred as the high status dignified villains Saruman and Count Dooku in the The Lord of
the Rings and Star Wars prequels respectively.
All said and done, before his passing in 2015, Lee worked in over 250 projects, and was even
knighted!
Number 5.
Kevin Durand - 6'6" No, not Durant.
Kevin Durand, Canadian by birth, is the original tall KD.
Kevin got his start as a hockey player in the 1999 comedy drama Mystery, Alaska, directed
by Jay Roach.
In 2004 he joined the tall title club when he played Booth in Walking Tall.
A couple years later he would gain major mainstream exposure by recurring as Martin Keamy on the
cult phenomenon LOST.
Despite the powerhouse ensemble cast, it was easy to focus on Kevin as his hulking built
frame towered over everyone, making him an imposing antagonist.
Since then he has never stopped working, appearing films and television alike such as X-Men Origins:
Wolverine, Robin Hood, The Strain, and Vikings.
Number 4.
Brad Garrett - 6'8'' Brad Garrett began his career during the stand
up boom of the 1980's.
He didn't lean on his height for material, but it undoubtedly helped him get noticed
by agents.
He started his television career in minor roles and guest spots until landing his big
break to play opposite Ray Romano in the critically lauded sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
Brad would go on to win three primetime Emmy awards, out of a total six nominations.
In between acting gigs, Garrett has begun a side career as a professional poker player.
Number 3.
Shaq - 7'1" When Shaquille O'Neal was drafted into the
NBA, opposing coaches had no idea what to do with him.
For Hollywood agents, it was the exact opposite.
Shaq started his acting career opposite his Orlando Magic teammate Penny Hardaway in the
1994 film Blue Chips.
Two years later he starred as a 5,000 year old genie in the musical fantasy comedy Kazaam.
Two years later he became one of the first African Americans to portray a major comic
book hero in the titular role of Steel.
Shaq has gone on to appear as himself in various sitcoms, films, and music videos.
You can see him now as a studio analyst for the TNT NBA Show.
Number 2.
Richard Kiel - 7'2" Richard Kiel, a charming, sweet man at heart,
could never avoid being typecast as monsters in film.
In his debut film, he played the titular Eegah, the caveman who kidnaps the innocent Roxy.
Fast forward fifteen years, and he's sick of the monster roles.
So when his agent tried to get him to play the menacing henchmen Jaws in the latest James
Bond film, he almost turned it down.
Then he figured, hey, it's James Bond, I have to do it.
Kiel says that he put human touches on the character, so that he wasn't all bite.
This humanization is perhaps why Jaws is considered one of the best Bond characters of all time,
and why he is considered one of the greatest tall actors of all time as well.
Kiel, who has always had an exemplary sense of humor, got to show it off in Adam Sandler's
Happy Gilmore.
Since then he has taken a quieter profile, but not so quiet he couldn't record as Vlad,
the soft-hearted thug in the critically acclaimed Disney animated film Tangled.
Number 1.
Peter Mayhew - 7'3" You probably wouldn't recognize Peter Mayhew
in the street, but he gets on the list for playing one of the most iconic players of
all time, Chewbacca.
Mayhew was first discovered by the producers of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger when they
saw him in a newspaper article about people with big feet.
They contacted the big man and cast him as a minotaur in 1977.
The same year, George Lucas was casting Star Wars.
He had bodybuilder David Prowse in mind to play Chewbacca, but he ended up playing Darth
Vader instead.
Lucas went on a search that led him to Mayhew, who was working as an orderly at the time.
The rest is history.
Mayhew went on to play the tough lovable hulking furball in five of the Star Wars movies.