20 Highest Grossing Actors Of All Time

By Alex Leadbeater / October 15, 2016

Everyone knows about the most financially successful movies (Avatar) or franchises (Harry Potter), but which actor has made the most at the box office? Which Hollywood names have managed to bring in the most money? The answer is probably not the one you expect. The best way for an actor to have a high cumulative gross is to star in a successful franchise - a few billion dollar entries and they'll be rubbing shoulders with the world's biggest stars - but it takes something truly special, be it incredible talent or a mega-success to make it to the very top. With a mix of stars of mega-franchises to some of Hollywood's most hard-working names, here are the twenty most successful (in terms of box office gross) actors of all time. Of course, the actors weren't the headline stars of all of the contributing movies, but they at least played a part in their success. There's surprising omissions, with some of the biggest stars in the world right now not quite making the cut (although with next year bringing new ages and awakenings to their respective franchises they could easily place in the near future). All numbers are based on worldwide box office, unadjusted for inflation and are correct (according to BoxOfficeMojo) at the time of publication).

20. Morgan Freeman

Rating: Total Gross: $8.560 billion

Highest Grossing Movie: The Dark Knight Rises ($1,084 million)

A relatively recent new top spot for the list, Morgan Freeman's involvement in all manner of successful movies have meant that, despite coming to prominence only the late eighties, the smooth-talker is the highest grossing actor of all time.