There's a textbook image that everybody has in their heads about what a Hollywood leading man should look like. According to that image, the men who play big roles in movie blockbusters should be charismatic, handsome, and tall. Presence on the big screen is linked to height, rightly or wrongly.
Because of that, we have a tendency to believe that the male actors we see in our favorite films are over six feet tall. There are some obvious exceptions, like Danny DeVito or Tom Cruise, but for the main part, we usually imagine that Hollywood is a land of giants.
We have news for you - it isn't! Just like the textbook man being 'tall, dark, and handsome,' the connection between height and prominence is a myth. The men who appear on today's list might be big name actors, but they're nowhere near as big in stature as you probably imagined!
The word 'legend' gets tossed around far too easily these days - especially in the acting profession. That word should be reserved exclusively for those who truly deserve it. Al Pacino, with his incredible career that's spanned five decades, absolutely deserves it. We'd hate to think of living in a world where we don't have Pacino's incredible films to entertain us.
Of all the fantastic films that Pacino has made, the one that will come to mind first for most people is 'The Godfather.' That's the performance that put him on the map, and for many of us, it's still the gangster movie that all the others aspire to be. Pacino's charisma made the film, and yet he nearly lost out on the role. Standing only 5 feet and 7 inches in height, producers were apparently worried he wouldn't be able to pull it off. We should all be thankful that they reconsidered.
We don't know whether it would be more correct to call Aziz Ansari an actor or a comedian - and we don't mean that as an insult. It's a rare gift to be people to make people laugh, but it's a quality that Ansari seems to have in abundance. He seems to be a genuinely funny and charming man, and so we're happy to see him doing so well for himself. The first time most of us became aware of him was when he landed a part in 'Parks and Recreation,' which he used as a platform for bigger and better things.
In more recent years, Ansari has been fostering a close relationship with Netflix, who have bought into him in a big way. He makes many exclusive shows for them, including 'Master of None,' which has met with a great deal of critical acclaim. Not bad for a guy who's only 5 foot 6!
We already mentioned Danny DeVito in our introduction, so let's get him out of the way early by saying yes, of course he's one of the better-known short people in the entertainment business. We'd even go so far as saying he's one of the best-known short people in the whole world. Generations of movie-goers have grown up watching Danny DeVito, whether he was making us laugh in 'Twins' or to tormenting Batman as the Penguin in 'Batman Returns.' How many of you remember his big break opposite Jack Nicholson in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?'
These days, younger audiences are more likely to know him from 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' where he's demonstrated that he's lost none of his comedic wit over time. DeVito doesn't even crack the 5-foot barrier - he's 4 feet and 10 inches tall - but there's a medical reason for that. DeVito was born with a condition called Fairbank's Disease. Needless to say, he's never let it hold him back.
Hagrid may once have informed Harry Potter that he was a wizard, but you wouldn't have found him complimenting him on his height. Because of his 'Harry Potter' fame, many of us still imagine Radcliffe has a child, when in fact he's now very much an adult man. That doesn't necessarily mean he's grown much larger though - he isn't much taller now than he was when the last of the 'Harry Potter' movies was released, and we think he's probably finished growing by now!
If you look at this picture, you'll notice that his glamorous co-star Emma Watson is towering over him. That's not just because she's wearing heels - Radcliffe is a mere 5 feet and 5 inches tall. He was once mocked about his height in an interview with Playboy magazine, to which he responded that he's still tall enough to enter the US marines if he wanted to, and so his height doesn't bother him. Good answer!
Ken Jeong's height is something of an optical illusion. You probably realize that he isn't the tallest actor in the world - in fact, you likely always assumed he was short - but in Jeong's case, he may actually be slightly taller than you thought he was. Would you be surprised if we told you he was exactly the same height as Daniel Radcliffe, at 5 foot 5? If so, be surprised - because he is!
Jeong is a comedy actor who almost got into the profession by accident. His most prominent roles to date have probably been in the hilarious 'Hangover' series of movies, but you've likely also seen him in 'Knocked Up,' 'Role Models,' and several other places. If there's an accident or injury on set, he'll be the first one on the scene - he's a fully qualified doctor, and had to be persuaded by an agent to give it all up and follow a career in the acting profession. Our congratulations to his agent.
Not everybody is the biggest fan of Ben Stiller's comedy movies, but someone out there must be, or he wouldn't have been able to make so many of them over so many years! You probably have your own favorite Stiller film, but if we were forced to choose, we'd probably go with 'Zoolander.' If 'Zoolander' were about a real male model though, we suspect Stiller wouldn't have been in the running to play the part. Professional male models tend to be very tall. Stiller definitely isn't.
The star of 'Night at the Museum' and 'Meet the Parents' (and of course 'Meet the Fockers') is a pinch shorter than the average American man. According to our figures, the average American male is 5 feet and 9 inches tall. Stiller comes in at 5 foot 7. That's not particularly short, but we bet you thought he was a little closer to six feet.
Saying that Elijah Wood is a little on the short side runs the risk of stating the obvious. You don't get cast as Frodo in 'Lord of the Rings' if you're a giant. In the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels, hobbits are almost dwarfs, and so a smaller man is required to play one convincingly on screen. That made Wood the ideal choice, at the height of only 5 foot 6.
Both Wood and Daniel Radcliffe have frequently complained that they're mistaken for each other by people in the street. That must be particularly upsetting for Wood, who's an inch taller. When you're this short, every inch matters! Perhaps Wood's biggest achievement in acting was convincingly playing a soccer hooligan in 'Green Street' - we suspect he might have been wearing lifts in his shoes for that, or else he wouldn't have been able to intimidate anyone!
Part of the reason that Michael J. Fox was able to play a teenager in the 'Back to the Future' movies so convincingly is that he's a wickedly talented actor. Another reason is that American movies, for reasons that have never been clear to the rest of the world, always seem to cast people in their late 20s (or even early 30s) as teenagers. The third reason, though, and perhaps the most compelling, is that Fox simply didn't look like a fully-grown man at the time. He was too short!
At the time of making the movies, Fox was only 5 feet and 4 inches tall. It's even possible that he's become shorter since then - Parkinson's Disease can stiffen bones and prevent people from standing at their full height. The illness hasn't stopped Fox from working - in fact he even turned it into a feature of his performance during his memorable cameo appearances as an evil lawyer on 'The Good Wife.'
Jonah Hill had the world at his feet as a comedy actor, but made the brave step of drastically changing his appearance when he decided he wanted to take on more serious roles. He had us all rolling in the aisles in 'Superbad' and 'Knocked Up,' and turned in a truly memorable performance as Leonardo DiCaprio's sidekick in 'The Wolf of Wall Street.' Hill was so keen to land that role that he worked for less than a tenth of his usual rate just so he could take the part. That shows you how serious he is about his craft - as does his dramatic weight loss.
If you go back five or six years, Hill was roughly twice the weight he is now. He looks happier and healthier - but shrinking down so much has drawn attention to the fact that he's a lot shorter than people who saw 'Superbad' must have thought. Hill is 5 foot 7. He may have lost a lot of size, but he hasn't lost any of his on-screen presence! He credits acting buddy Channing Tatum with helping him to get into shape.
If you remember everything we said about Elijah Wood and the 'Lord of the Rings,' it can also be applied to Martin Freeman and 'The Hobbit.' 'The Hobbit' may be set before 'Lord of the Rings,' but the character of Bilbo Baggins still belongs to the same species as Frodo, and that means a shorter actor has to be brought in to play the role! For a global audience, it was the first time they got to appreciate the fantastic acting talents of Freeman, who was already a big star at home in Great Britain.
Freeman, whose other notable work includes his part as Watson opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in 'Sherlock.' is believed to be a pinch over 5 foot 6. We say, 'believed to be,' because he's known to be a little irritable when interviewers mention his height. We'll try not to dwell on it too much here because of that! If you've never seen the British version of 'The Office,' it's well worth your time to check out Freeman's performances in it. That's how he got his big break.
We're going a long, long way back in time for this one - all the way back to the time of silent movies! Charlie Chaplin was probably one of the first-ever true 'movie stars,' and one of even fewer silent picture actor that most people can still name today. He was a wonderful comic actor, who didn't need to use words to make people laugh. He could do more with a simple gesture than most comedians could do with a whole page of jokes.
Chaplin is almost inseparable from his most famous character, 'The Tramp.' Most people assume that 'The Tramp' is actually what Chaplin looked like all the time, rather than realizing he was just playing a role! Chaplin himself acknowledged that his short stature of 5 foot 4 helped with playing the role - being small made it easier for him to gain sympathy from the audience.
One of the worst mistakes you can make as a smaller person is to spend all of your time hanging around with much taller friends. All it does is make people notice your height when you take pictures together! We can't really begrudge Hart's choice in friends though - if our best buddy was Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, we'd spend all of our time hanging around with him, too. Anyone would look small next to Johnson - he's a monster of a man - but in Hart's case he'd probably look a little small no matter who was standing next to him.
Like Martin Freeman, Hart has never confirmed his true height, so all we can do is try to work it out based on pictures of who we've seen him standing with. Using that highly scientific method, we think he's probably around 5 foot 4. They do say good things come in small packages, though, and Hart has been a great package of laughter for many years now. He occasionally courts controversy, but that's inevitable when you're an edgy comedian.
This is something of a strange one. If you saw Jack Black in the movie 'Gulliver's Travels' (and we appreciate that won't be many of you - the film was a disaster), then you might be laboring under the misapprehension that Black is a giant. Let us put that one to bed for you. He's not. That was all special effects. In fact, we think Black might have been cast in the part as a joke because he's so far from being giant in real life.
Part actor and part rock star, Black has made a career out of playing larger than life characters, and that makes it easy to believe that he's much taller than 5 foot 6, but that's his real height. Everything on top of that is just his charisma. When he's not busy entertaining you on screen, you'll find Black busy writing songs and playing concerts with his friend Kyle Gass in the band Tenacious D.
Seth Green has come a very long way since he was a child actor in the original TV movie version of 'IT.' It might be hard to put your finger on one particular film that he's appeared in, but he's a face you recognize from everywhere. Just as recognizable as his face is his voice, which he's lent to Chris Griffin on 'Family Guy' for years. His real pride and joy is 'Robot Chicken,' which may not have the rabid fan following of 'Family Guy,' but is adored by the cult audience it appeals to.
Perhaps if we saw Green in person more often rather than just hearing his voice, we'd be more likely to notice his height - or lack of it. Green is a mere 5 feet and 4 inches tall. We suppose that's the thing about voice acting though - you can play a seven-foot giant easily if nobody can see you!
Dave Franco isn't as big a household name as his bigger (in several ways) brother James Franco, but he still has a solid career in the entertainment business in his own right. His movies might not be quite as popular as his brothers have been, but with credits in 'Now You See Me,' and the two 'Jump Street' movies, he's not exactly struggling to pay the bills. James even threw him a bone by getting him a part in 'The Disaster Artist' so the two of them could work together.
We suspect that Dave has always looked up to James. He'd had to - James is four inches taller than Dave, who measured up at 5 foot 7. Given that James is a full seven years older, Dave probably expected that he'd catch up with him one day, but nature had other plans for him.
Pete Wentz might be much, much better known as a musician than he is as an actor, but he has a few acting credits to his name, and owns his own movie production company. In our eyes, that's enough to gain him credit! If you liked your music with a harder edge during the early part of the 21st century, you probably spent a few years rocking out to Fall Out Boy, Wentz's band. Their biggest hit was 'Sugar, We're Going Down.' which we're about to ruin for you. Wentz only wrote part of that song - the rest was written by his father, who's an attorney. Not so cool now, is it?
In truth, Wentz does almost all the work in Fall Out Boy. He plays bass, he performs all the backing vocals, and he also writes the words (when his pops isn't helping him out). All in all, he plays a big part, but he isn't a big man. His full clearance is 5 feet and 6 inches above ground level. We imagine he got teased at school about that - but it just gave him more ammunition to write emo songs about.
We don't know where Johnny Galecki's career would be if it hadn't been for 'The Big Bang Theory,' but then we also don't know if 'The Big Bang Theory' would have been such a success if it wasn't for Galecki, so the two things together worked out for the best. Because so much of his appearance in the popular sitcom is the work of the costume department, it's not always easy to spot him when he's out of character. He's actually racked up a few movie credits over the years, including the ill-fated Will Smith superhero movie 'Hancock.'
He's so strongly associated with the show that for a lot of people, he'll probably always be Leonard. We imagine that doesn't bother him all too much - it's believed he was being paid just under $1m per episode for the final season, so he probably never has to work again if he doesn't want to. Not bad for a guy who was once told he was too short to make it as an actor, at 5 foot 5.
Here's another huge acting name who made it to the top by accident! Joe Pesci's first love was music, and he was initially far more interested in playing guitar and singing than he was in turning up to auditions. He even had a great friend in the business in the shape of Frankie Valli, who could probably have given him a leg up. In the end, though, the acting bug caught him, and movie history is all the better for it.
It's impossible to imagine Pesci playing anything other than a Sicilian tough guy, and that's all thanks to his other big-name friend, Robert De Niro. De Niro saw him acting in 'The Death Collector,' and recommended him for a part to Martin Scorsese. After that, he was on the train to the big time. In fact, the only thing that isn't 'big time' about him is his height - he's 5 foot 4. Pesci believes that the fact he has 'angry short guy syndrome' actually makes it easier for him to play menacing characters on screen.
Speaking of Martin Scorsese, the all-time-great director is also eminently qualified to make an appearance on our list. You can see just from this picture of him standing with Leonardo DiCaprio - who is by no means a giant - that Scorsese isn't tall in stature. His legend in the movie business, however, is ten miles high and counting. Scorsese did more than make Joe Pesci a star - he did the same for Robert De Niro in movies like 'Raging Bull,' and 'Taxi Driver.' Without his influence, all we might know De Niro for is 'Meet the Fockers.'
When he isn't making millions of dollars at the box office, Scorsese is busy picking up awards. He has numerous Oscars and Grammy Awards to his name. If he put them one on top of each other, they'd probably tower over him - Scorsese is a mere 5 foot 4, just as Pesci is. Perhaps that's why so many of his characters are angry short men - they're all extensions of himself!
Tom Cruise is another name we mentioned right at the beginning of this list, so you knew we were always going to get back around to him eventually! There have been many jokes made about Cruise's diminutive height over the years, but Cruise has always had the perfect answer in terms of success. Common sense says that Cruise shouldn't have landed half the action movie parts he's been able to land, but he has so much charisma that directors find it impossible not to cast him. In the 'Jack Reacher' novels, the protagonist is well over six feet tall. That hasn't stopped Cruise playing him at the movies.
How tall Cruise actually is remains something of a mystery. In the past few years, he's been telling people that he's 5 foot 7. We've found interviews from the 1990s in which he's claimed to be taller, though. Some people who've worked with him say that he wears lifts inside his shoes, or even discreetly elevated heels. As with so much of Cruise's life, it's hard to separate the fact from the fiction - but we can safely say he's short.
Mark Wahlberg's career trajectory has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster at Hollywood Studios. It all started off brightly when he was in New Kids on the Block with his brother Donnie, but he didn't quite hit the heights he expected to when he became Marky Mark and started his own dreadfully-named band The Funky Bunch. Musical success didn't last long for Wahlberg, and problems with the law seemed likely to scupper his career completely.
Somewhere along the line, Wahlberg managed to turn it all around and re-invent himself as a tough-guy movie star, and has spoken many times about his remorse over some of the things he did when he was younger. It takes a big man to own up to things and admit when you're wrong - which is all the more impressive when you discover Wahlberg is only 5 foot 8.
You might not instantly recognize the name of Jonathan Taylor Thomas, but we promise you that you've definitely come across his work before. He was the voice of Simba in 'The Lion King.' No, not the live-action remake - the original 'Lion King' from the mid-1990s! That should have been a platform to go on and do bigger and better things for Thomas, but it didn't really pan out for him that way. He had a recurring role in 'Home Improvement' for a while as Randy Taylor, but after that, it all goes a little quiet for his career.
We don't know what went wrong for him - it may just have been another case of a child star not transitioning into an adult star - or it might be the fact that he found his height was an issue when it came to playing adult roles. 5 foot 5 is a fine height to be if you're playing children, or young people. It's not quite so useful when you're playing a fully-grown adult male.
Regardless of whether or not Bruno Mars ever stars in his own feature film, we have no reservations about saying that he's 100% a Hollywood performer. Not only has he lent his talents to a number of movie soundtracks, but everything about him is pure box office. As a combination of singer, musician, and dancer, he might be the best we've seen since Michael Jackson was in his prime - and he still has many years ahead of him. Topping 'Uptown Funk' might not be easy, but we're sure he'll give it a try.
Mars' real name is Peter Gene Hernandez, which doesn't have quite as much star quality to it. We can see why he chose to hide that under a much more fame-friendly moniker. What he can't mask, however, is his height. Mars is a mere 5 foot 5. He might not be able to reach things off a high shelf, but he'd still catch a grenade for you if it came to it, and we think that's more important.
Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, it was fairly routine for people to pack up all their things and move to Tinseltown in the hope of landing an audition. You don't really need to do that anymore - videotapes and the internet exist, and so you can send a demo reel in from wherever you are. Hollywood will call you if they're interested. Josh Hutcherson must be an old-school guy, though, because he risked it all and fled to Hollywood in 2002. It took a few years for him to make it, but it all worked out well in the end.
If you're looking at Hutcherson's face and wondering where you know him from, we'll put you out of your misery. It's 'The Hunger Game,' in which he was Peeta Mellark. He was blond back then though, so he looks a little different now. He also looks taller on the big screen - when you see him on the red carpet at a premiere, as we do here, you might be surprised to find that he's only 5 foot 7.
If you live in the UK - or you like to watch TV shows from the UK on streaming services - then you might recognize Nathan McMullen from the cult comedy-horror show 'Misfits,' in which he spent two seasons playing Finn - a young man trying to come to terms with the fact that he had telekinesis abilities, and no idea what to do with them. From there, he landed himself a role in one of the Christmas specials of the BBC flagship show 'Doctor Who.'
The character he played in 'Doctor Who' was an elf, which is probably quite a big clue than McMullen isn't exactly the tallest guy in the world! We don't know how tall Santa's elves are up in the North Pole, but we bet that at 5 foot 4, McMullen wouldn't stand out among them. Since his 'Doctor Who' role, McMullen has mostly been working on stage - although he still gets in front of the camera occasionally for TV and movie shorts (sorry, we couldn't resist).
We've already reached back through the sands of cinematic time to bring you Charlie Chaplin; now we're doing it again so we can have a closer look at Humphrey Bogart, who was as big a leading male name as you could get in Hollywood during the 1940s. Without Bogart's incredible storytelling ability as an actor, nobody would remember 'Casablanca' or 'The Maltese Falcon.' If you've ever said, "here's looking at you, kid," then you were quoting Bogart even though you probably didn't realize it at the time.
While we've speculated that Tom Cruise may have worn lifts in his shoes occasionally, we know that Bogart definitely did. Hollywood simply couldn't have a man playing romantic roles in big films when their female co-stars towered over them, so Bogart got plenty of assistance to add a few inches to his height. Without those heels on, he was actually only 5 foot 8.
There are a few reasons that you might not realize that Emilio Estevez has famous brothers. One of them is that he uses a different name to the rest of the family. His dad Martin and his brother Charlie go by the name of 'Sheen,' but Estevez decided to forge his own path and use the family's real second name. The second is that he doesn't actually look all that much like the other two either. He's significantly shorter for a start - as you can see in this picture.
Fans of 80s cult movies will always have a special place in their hearts for Estevez - he was in both 'The Breakfast Club,' and 'St. Elmo's Fire,' - both movies which are winning new fans today thanks to streaming services. You'll be more likely to find him behind the camera as a director these days instead of standing in front of it. Perhaps people don't notice his height quite so much when he's sitting down - he's only 5 foot 7.
The semi-recent remake of 'The Great Gatsby' was a triumph of cinematography, but it would never have been made at all if there hadn't been a fantastic original film to base it on - and so there's a lot of praise owed to Alan Ladd, who gave a career-defining performance in the role during Hollywood's Golden Age. He was just as impressive in some of the other classics of that era, including 'The Blue Dahlia,' and 'The Glass Key.'
Ladd's presence on the screen was so domineering and powerful that it never even crossed most people's minds to wonder about his height. If they had, they've have been taken aback to find out that at 5 foot 6, he was significantly smaller than almost all of his co-stars. Chances are he'd have been regarded as a bigger name as he is had he not passed away too soon - an accidental overdose claimed his life in 1964, when he was 51.
Sometimes, a role has a habit of defining your career in ways that you don't expect it to. Jonathan Lipnicki was the star of 'Stuart Little,' and it turned out to be a case of little by name, and little by nature. He's much older now than he was when he broke out onto the big screen as a child actor, but he hasn't grown much taller. He's 5 foot 7. He's not the smallest man on our list, but he's noticeably shorter than most men around him.
Lipnicki was able to carry his child-star fame forward for a little while - he got 'Stuart Little' off the back of being Renee Zellweger's son in the classic 'Jerry Maguire' - but in recent years he's not been able to get himself on level pegging with the majority of his former co-stars. He still gets work semi-regularly, but you're more likely to see him in minor roles on television than you are in the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Remember what we said right at the start of this list, when we mentioned that most people assume tall, dark, and handsome men get all the women? We told you it was a myth, and here's our evidence. For several years, David Spade was never out of the tabloid headlines for his many relationships with glamorous women, and yet he's neither tall nor dark! We'll let him have the 'handsome' part though - he might not be conventionally good-looking, but he has an undeniable charm about him.
Spade's career highlights all came during the 1990s, when he was never short of opportunities to crack a joke on screen. As a star of 'Saturday Night Live,' he won over audiences by making himself the butt of most of his jokes, showing that he had no fear of laughing at himself. The one thing he is short of is height - Spade is 5 foot 7, and yet somehow manages to look even smaller than that.
"We're going to need a bigger boat!" Richard Dreyfuss might not have been the actor who said that famous line from 'Jaws,' but he'll forever be associated with his role in the famous horror movie. That's just one highlight in a career of them for Dreyfuss, who managed to land leading role after leading role all the way from 1975 until the late 1990s. His movies aren't quite as high profile today as they once were, but he's still working regularly - despite having a reputation for being a little difficult to get along with on occasion.
Without meaning to sound disrespectful to Dreyfuss, who we recognize as a screen icon, he manages to look both older and taller than he really is. He's been around forever, but he's still only just over 70. Also, despite his towering screen personas, he's 5 foot 5. His height didn't turn out to be a barrier to becoming the youngest actor ever to win a Best Actor award at the Oscars, which he did in 1978.
The career of Scottish actor James McAvoy has been a slow burner. He's never struggled to find work, but for a long time, his talents were confined to the small screen in the UK, and he was a stranger to international audiences. Hard work paid off for him in the end, with his lead role in the dark and gritty 'Filth' leading on to bigger and better things for him. Now he's a certifiable Hollywood A-Lister.
The person he's standing next to in this picture is a certified Hollywood A-Lister too - it's Jennifer Lawrence, and she's visibly much taller than he is. He's a mere 5 foot 7, but we suppose you don't need to be particularly tall when you're sat in a chair playing Professor Xavier in 'X-Men' movies - a role he's shared with Patrick Stewart. Now that's some fine company to be in!
When you see Dustin Hoffman in a movie, you know you're probably in for an emotional ride. Hoffman is what's known in the trade as a 'serious actor,' tending to take on roles that demand a real depth of performance, and great emotional range. That's why it was such a surprise and a delight when he played against type to take on the role of Captain Hook opposite Robin Williams' Peter Pan in 'Hook.' Hoffman is a special actor and a unique talent, and it makes us a little sad that he's essentially retired from the profession now.
He's not totally gone from the movie industry though. Every now and then he'll get behind the camera as a director, having directed his first film 'Quarter' comparatively late in his career in 2012. Whether in front of the camera or behind it, Hoffman's gigantic presence is all the more impressive for a guy who's only 5 foot 6.
When you're playing a teen on screen, it helps if you're short. It generally means you can carry on playing the part long after your teenage years are behind you, because you still have the (lack of) height to pull it off. That's how Frankie Muniz managed to carry on playing 'Malcolm in the Middle' for as long as he did - he's 5 foot 5. He could probably have done even more as an actor in his younger years, but he never treated it as a priority. He tried to break into motor racing for a while, and also drummed for an indie rock band.
Sadly, Muniz suffered a stroke a few years ago, and it had a debilitating effect on his career. He's recovering well, but said in 2017 that the stroke had robbed him of many of his memories, including most of his time in 'Malcolm in the Middle.' He also doesn't take on much acting work anymore, because he struggles to remember lines. He can still light up a screen though, which is why he makes such a natural host of 'Dancing with The Stars: Juniors.'
Earlier on in his rapping career, Eminem once sang 'I am whatever you say I am.' OK then Eminem, we're saying you're short - and you're right! The ground-breaking rapper is 5 foot 8, so when the real Slim Shady does stand up, it actually isn't all that impressive to look at. We'd never say that to his face, though - he's got a real skill for putting together very effective insults, and making them rhyme.
Even now, approaching 25 years since he first hit the big time, it's still major record industry news when Eminem releases an album, and he'd have no problem selling out a huge arena if he decided to on tour. It's perhaps a surprise that he hasn't done more in the way of acting - as he demonstrated in the semi-biographical film '8 Mile,' he has a definite talent for it, and an audience who would happily pay to see him.
Before you write Macauley Culkin off as just being a child star, consider this: He may not have done much (if anything) as an actor when he grew up, but the 'Home Alone' movies are on television every single Christmas, and Culkin still earns money from them. He was one of the biggest child stars in history, and displayed an incredible acting talent for someone so young during the early 1990s. For a lot of people reading this, Culkin will have been a big part of their childhood.
He's still entertaining today, even if he doesn't act anymore. His comedy music act is well-reviewed, and he's also a fun follow on Twitter, where he's happy to laugh at himself. Because he's so thin and angular, it's natural to assume that he's quite tall, but Culkin's height is 5 foot 7. That means he can still hide in cupboards if burglars come to his house.
We've inducted a few music stars onto our list so far, but again, Price is someone who's appeared in films, and has contributed to movie soundtracks. To give him his full name, Prince Rogers Nelson was something of a savant - he was said to be capable of writing four or five songs every day, and is believed to have written well over a thousand during his career. He couldn't record all of them, so he gave many of them away- including the iconic Sinead O'Connor hit 'Nothing Compares 2 U.'
To date, Prince has sold more than one hundred million records, which firmly secures him a place on the 'all-time great' list. We can only guess how many more albums he would have gone on to release had he not passed away before his time, in 2016. The pint-sized musical prodigy was only 5 foot 3 when he wasn't wearing the platform boots he was so fond of on stage.
The Sandra Bullock-led Netflix movie 'Bird Box' may have polarized audiences (and launched thousands of memes in the process), but it did something else, too - it introduced international audiences to Tom Hollander, who had been a big favorite with British viewers ever since he broke through with his role as a cynical vicar in the dark sitcom 'Rev,' after years of playing roguish characters in period dramas.
Hollander's star might be bigger right now than it ever has been, but he's been around the big screen for a long time if you've known where to look. He's had (suitably) small parts in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies, as well as the recent blockbuster 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' - so wherever a role is created that requires a relatively short actor, the 5 foot 5 Hollander seems to be more than happy to take it!
Apparently, David Faustino and Seth Green get confused for one another regularly. Perhaps it's our eyesight, but we really can't see that at all. They don't have the same facial shape or hair color, and nor do they sound the same. In fact, there's only one physical characteristic they have in common at all as far as we can see - they're both considerably shorter than most of their male acting peers!
Faustino's movie work hasn't been anything to write home about, but he's had a very successful career on the small screen. 'Married with Children' is his most obvious hit, in which he's played 'Bud Bundy' for years, but he's also been in 'Bones' and 'Little House on the Prairie' among others. You'll notice in this picture that he's wearing some seriously big soles on his boots - that's because he's only a tiny 5 foot 3, and so if he didn't do that he'd be face-to-chest with almost everyone he met.
Yes, we know that Kanye West isn't technically a movie star, but this is Kanye West we're talking about. He's a man who describes himself as being the biggest rock star on the planet, despite the fact he's never released a rock song in his life. If you don't think he's a movie star, you go and tell him. We'll stand back and watch. You never know quite what you're going to get with West, whether it's turning up to the White House to talk music with the President, or getting into a seemingly endless spat with Taylor Swift.
Not only would we not tell Kayne that he isn't a rock star, but we also wouldn't bring up his height to him. We suspect that at 5 foot 8, he's probably quite sensitive about it. That might explain why he married Kim Kardashian, who's barely over five feet tall. Alternatively, that might have been more to do with the fact that she's one of the richest and most beautiful women in showbusiness. He might be short, but he's winning at life!
The movie world still misses Bob Hoskins, who passed away at the age of 71 in 2014. Hoskins was an actor so gifted that he survived appearing in a movie based on the video game 'Super Mario Brothers.' To most cinema-goers, he's probably best known for his part in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit,' but some of our younger readers might remember him for playing one of the seven dwarfs in the Kristen Stewart film 'Snow White and The Huntsman' in 2012 - one of his final roles.
As a fellow short actor, Hoskins enjoyed a great relationship with Danny DeVito - he once said that he'd want DeVito to play him in a movie about his life, although he also joked that being asked whether he was Danny DeVito was the worst thing that had ever happened to him! DeVito playing Hoskins would quite literally be a stretch though - the 5 foot 6 Hoskins was considerably taller than the American actor.
Every year or so, somebody starts a rumor that Rick Moranis is going to end his retirement from acting, and start making films again. That means every year, we all get excited, and then end up disappointed when it once again turns out to be a baseless story. Much as we'd all love to see Moranis' talents on our screens again, it's probably time to accept that he's happy away from the limelight, and he isn't going to come back.
The biggest movie that Moranis was ever involved in was probably the original 'Ghostbusters,' in which he almost stole the show from Bill Murray. 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' and its sequels were a bigger vehicle for his talents although had he really shrunk some children, they probably still wouldn't have ended up much shorter than he is. Moranis is 5 foot 4 inches tall, which made him perfect for playing slightly wimpish characters to great effect in almost all of his films.
Jason Alexander isn't known for much in the realm of acting other than 'Seinfeld,' but then he doesn't really need to be. Playing George Costanza in the show brought him widespread fame and acclaim, and nominations for Emmy Awards six years in a row. With a steady job and income, he had time to focus on his other interests, which are almost limitless. Alexander has had paid work as a director, actor, voice actor, stand-up comedian, musician, and singer. To put it another way, he can do almost any job in the entertainment business.
Of all the talents he has, though, he seems to prefer acting the most. He's returned several times to the stage, where he once won a prestigious Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical when he starred in 'Jerome Robbins' Broadway' in 1989. More recently, he's directed several ex-Broadway shows which have found their way to Los Angeles. His resume is probably longer than he is - he's a mere 5 foot 4.
Woody Allen's career hasn't always made the headlines for the right reasons, but if you can ignore his seemingly endless bitter feud with his ex-wife, he's shown a great talent for making us all laugh. He's also both made and starred in some of the most successful films in Hollywood history, and he has the trophy cabinet to prove it - somewhere in Allen's house, you'll find a pair of Golden Globes, a whole nine BAFTAs, and an impressive four Oscars.
In typical style, Allen tries not to take any credit at all for his years of success. He once, with a straight face, told an interviewer than eighty percent of success was just showing up to a job. We suppose if you're as talented as Allen is, just showing up and doing the basics is more than enough. We wouldn't mind betting that his trophy cabinet is harder to pick up off the floor than he is - Allen weighs only 150 pounds, and is 5 feet and 5 inches tall.
James Caan has a reputation as one of the greatest 'bad boy' Hollywood actors of all time. His son Scott hasn't quite got there just yet - but he's well on his way. Look at this picture and tell us that he isn't mean! At 5 foot 5 he isn't physically imposing, but that hasn't stopped him playing a tough cop in 'Hawaii 5-0' - he's been playing 'Danno' in the show for nearly ten years now, and isn't showing any signs of getting bored of it.
It took a while for Caan to show an interest in following his father into the acting business. In his younger years, Caan was more interested in music - he performed in a hip-hop group called 'The Whooliganz,' with which he scored some success. After that, he tried photography for a while, before finally deciding that acting was the right way for him to go.
We've already had one of his co-stars on here, and now we have another member of the 'Big Bang Theory' family to talk about on our list. This time it's Simon Helberg, who played Howard Wolowitz in the show. We're not quite sure why there were so many short men on 'The Big Bang Theory.' Did the producers think that short men were more lightly to be geeky, or were there just no tall people turning up for auditions that month? We may never know!
As with all of his former castmates, Helberg is currently looking for whatever's next after the long-running sitcom came to an end after twelve long years. He has several inroads into film to consider - he got a Golden Globe nomination for 'Best Supporting Actor' for 2016's 'Florence Foster Jenkins' which confirms he can cope with the larger stage just fine. As for his height? He's 5 foot 6.
Toby Jones is another one of those actors who you might not know by name, but you'll absolutely know by face. Fans of cult science fiction will recognize him straight away as the Dream Lord from 'Doctor Who,' but if you like spy movies you might prefer his work in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.' Jones can play the stiff-upper-lipped Englishman very well, but he's also more than capable of letting his guard down and playing for laughs.
Rather than his five-foot five height hindering his career, it's actually helped it - one of his first major movies successes was in the Truman Capote biopic 'Infamous' - and it's not like a taller actor would have been able to play the part! Since then he's appeared in 'Sherlock,' 'Captain America: The First Avenger,' and 'Frost/Nixon.' He's a versatile and adaptable performer, whose reputation seems to grow with each passing year. It's a shame he doesn't!
When you see the rugged, bearded face of Zach Galifianakis, your thoughts probably turn to 'The Hangover' straight away. His character is the troublemaker who tends to trigger the gang's regrettable escapades, and we've had a lot of fun watching him do it. Earning that part wasn't a sudden rise to the top for Galifianakis, though - it was the culmination of years of on-screen entertainment work which started with his own 'Comedy Central Presents' show back in 2001.
Because the internet is everywhere these days, you don't need to be on television or in a currently-screening movie to entertain your fans. He's won Emmy Awards for 'Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis,' and that's a show which is only available through the 'Funny or Die' website! You'll still see him at the movie theater though - film roles seem to be coming in thicker and faster for the 5-foot 7 actor than ever before.
British actor Tim Roth's first major breakthrough in acting came when he was spotted by the legendary Quentin Tarantino, who has made him a personal favorite over the years. Roth was in 'Reservoir Dogs,' 'Pulp Fiction,' and 'Four Rooms.' before reuniting with him once again many years later with a part in 'The Hateful Eight.' He was even supposed to have a small part in 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood,' but sadly his scenes ended up being edited out to save time.
Roth, who is 5 feet and 7 inches tall, is actually a British actor. We say 'actually' because that may not be apparent to most people - he's famous within the industry for his ability to do accents, and so could probably convince you he was from anywhere in the world if he wanted to. These days he lives in Los Angeles, and is probably hoping his old friend will phone him yet again when Tarantino makes his final movie in around a year's time.
Mike Myers has been around the comedy movie circuit for such a long time that you can almost guess people's age from how they best know him. If you're over 35, then the first Mike Myers films that will come to mind will probably be the two 'Wayne's World' films. If you're a little younger than that, then it will almost certainly be the 'Austin Powers' movies. Either way, he's almost certainly been making you laugh for most of your life. For Myers, it's been a whole career of hilarity - he's one of many performers who got his start on 'Saturday Night Live.'
For many of his films - and especially the 'Austin Powers' range - Myers is in costume, and often wearing prosthetics. That can make it a little difficult to judge his height, but we have it on very good authority that he stands five feet and eight inches tall. You can add at least two feet to that when he's playing 'Shrek!'
