Where have all the big stars gone?

Question:Is it just me or are we starting to have the "star of the week, month, year" more than career actors and actresses. If you look back to the likes of Shirley Temple or Audrey Hepburn...just to name a few. Even more recently, you had Sean Connery, Morgan Freeman, even Stallone.
Now days it seems like the actors and actresses are a) a dime a dozen and almost doomed to be temporary. Does this tie in with the need to always have a young actor or actress play the leading role (more times than not)?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Is it just me or are we starting to have the "star of the week, month, year" more than career actors and actresses. If you look back to the likes of Shirley Temple or Audrey Hepburn...just to name a few. Even more recently, you had Sean Connery, Morgan Freeman, even Stallone.
Now days it seems like the actors and actresses are a) a dime a dozen and almost doomed to be temporary. Does this tie in with the need to always have a young actor or actress play the leading role (more times than not)?

i do agree with you that there seems to be a higher demand for sex appeal over raw talent. there are performers today being given the spotlight who do not bring the dynamic characters their predecessors had. i still think there are career stars out there...just look at tom hanks and julia roberts etc. i do agree that hollywood has changed drastically over time.

All the big stars have gone to hollywood.

Most of those big time actors are either doing theater, doing other lesser gigs like spokespersons and voice over work for animation or just chillin

Got to have a dozen new stars to replace every one that retires or dies or gets thrown in jail. Out of the dozen, one might have staying power for a few years.

“Big” and “Great” are two different animals. The “great” stars are flourishing: Helen Mirren, Sir Ian McKellan, Dame Judy Dench. You can always expect a quality performance from them. And there are others behind them like Cate Blanchet and Kate Winslet and Nicole Kidman – all doing interesting work.

I think we have tired of the teenyboppers who spend more time in rehab than they do on screen. And it shows in the movie ticket sales.

Well, actors can only make so many millions before the tax man bitith.

So they semi-retire until SAG tells them their medical and death benefits are going too low, then they come out and do some TV to get the benefits back up.

Eh. I disagree. They're still out there, they're just not on the radar as much with the like of Paris Hilton and Britney being on the cover of every tabloid. Many of the superstars have started settling down and having families, so they're not the gossip fodder the younger actors are.

But they ARE still working:
Nicole Kidman and Dustin Hoffman both just had movies come out. Russell Crowe, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp all have movies coming out within the next month. Rober DeNiro, Al Pacino, Cate Blanchett, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise (to name a few) all have movies in post production and several in pre-production.

I think of the younger generation Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall are some examples of actors that are taking on interesting choices, not just whatever big blockbuster is coming up and will be around for a while. There ARE some actors (who I won't name) that I don't think will last once their looks start to fade because they don't have the substance to back it up. But, hey, that's the way it goes.