Can you remember your first exposure to these actors?

I'm pretty sure king Kong was the first movie I saw Bridges in.

I'm about the same age as Philip Seymour Hoffman btw, and I remember him in Scent of a woman.

I can't tell about the others. Too long ago.

Wait. I remember Splash for Tom Hanks and To kill a mockingbird for Duvall.

Al Pacino: Scarface, my favorite film at the age of 5.
Robert De Niro: Either Meet the Parents or Goodfellas.
Jack Nicholson: Batman.
Dustin Hoffman: Hook.
Gene Hackman: Superman: The Movie.
Robert Duvall: Deep Impact.
Jeff Bridges: Seabiscuit.
Denzel Washington: Remember the Titans or Training Day.
Tom Hanks: Toy Story. You've Got Mail for live-action.
Philip Seymour Hoffman: Twister.

Al Pacino: I guess it would've been the first time I saw The Godfather, around 11 or 12. I definitely had an awareness of him going into that though, I suppose just through cultural osmosis. Maybe I had seen Scarface before then - but I'm pretty certain that came after. 

Robert De Niro: Shark Tale lol. In terms of when I actually registered who he was, it was probably the first time I saw Goodfellas, also around 11 or 12, unless I had already seen The Godfather: Part II. I'm not sure, but I feel like my first impression of De Niro the actor was as Scorsese's guy. I had also seen Meet the Parents a lot on cable by this point, but I'm not sure I'd registered who he was in that. 

Jack Nicholson: This is a tricky one to pinpoint the first for me, because there were four big films I was exposed to all around the same age. The Departed and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are both movies I remember watching on cable with my dad around the age of 10. Then there's The Shining, which is one of my dad's favorite movies and that he showed to me waaaay too young, also around the age of 10. And then this was also around the time that I watched Burton's Batman, when I watched all of the Burton and Schumacer Batmans because I was so obsessed with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight at the time. 

So, seeing all four of those movies all around the same time formed my impression of him as a really major actor. If I had to guess the first movie where I really understood who he was, I think it'd be Cuckoo's Nest. I vaguely remember going into both The Shining and Batman already aware of who he was, and even more vaguely remember seeing The Departed and recognizing DiCaprio, Damon, and Wahlberg, but only processing Nicholson as some old guy I'd never seen. 

Dustin Hoffman: I guess the first of his signature roles I saw was The Graduate, at the age of 14. But I definitely knew who he was before then. I guess I had seen Kung Fu Panda and Meet the Fockers, but I don't think I really registered him in those. So, hard to say. I guess I picked up an awareness of him sometime along the way, then The Graduate was my real introduction to him as an actor. 

Gene Hackman: I remember my brother renting the DVD of Hoosiers at some point when we were kids. I didn't watch the movie, but I recall clocking his name on the DVD cover. In terms of the first of his movies I saw, it was probably Superman, around the age of 11 or so. Even still, I might not have fully registered him until watching Unforgiven, around 14 or 15.  

Robert Duvall: Again, it would've been The Godfather. 

Jeff Bridges: Iron Man is probably the first time I saw him, but I don't think I really knew who he was until The Big Lebowski. I was around 12 or 13? This period kinda blends together. I think the lesson is I became aware of all these people all around the same time, lol. 

Denzel Washington: I had an awareness of him pretty early because my brother was a fan of his when we were kids. My brother was a huge fan of Remember the Titans and I remember we also watched Deja Vu on cable a lot. The latter was around the time when Unstoppable came out, which I saw in theaters. I was 10. 

Tom Hanks: Toy Story, like everyone else. Though there's also The Polar Express, which I saw in theaters when I was 4, and I feel like I basically knew who he was at that point. I suppose I didn't see him in live-action until ... Forrest Gump, which I watched at 10. That doesn't sound right though ... maybe I saw Apollo 13, Catch Me If You Can, or Big before then, but I can't remember. I feel like they were around the same time. 

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Twister and Along Came Polly were both movies I watched a lot on DVD and cable respectively when I was a kid. Though I don't think it was until I saw Almost Famous and The Big Lebowski and whatnot, around 13, that I connected the dots that it was all the same guy. I was certainly well aware of who he was at the time of his death (I was 13), as I remember being really gutted by it. Even then he was one of my favorite actors. (Oh, and I also saw Moneyball in theaters, when I was 11, so there's that too.) 

None of these besides Hanks and Washington were that relevant in the late 90s.


My TV mildly showed any of those people. Even as late as 1999 (12 year old), these people's movies don't generally appeal to common 12 year old minds. Like regarding Pacino, I was a huge fan of football, but Any Given Sunday (probably Pacino's biggest movie in the late 90s) doesn't appeal to 12 year olds who are either always watching the WB, the Disney channel, or MTV.

Will Smith and Wild Wild West were much more catchy to a 12 year old watching TV previews than a movie about football where Cameron Diaz plays out of type (therefore irrelevant), LL Cool J a popular rap star but he wasn't exactly Dre, Eminem, Snoop, or Will Smith in hugeness, and Pacino while a once dominant actor is not a major actor to a child viewer.


DeNiro, Hackman, and Hoffman maybe had slight recognition..... but my parents aren't movie fans. I had to navigate my own waters, and to my common 10-12 year old mind, DeNiro and Hoffman movies especially late 90s ones don't generally appeal to me.


Nicholson, PSH, Bridges, and Duvall were a complete blank space for me in the late 90s.  


Duvall might've been in a big late 90s movie but he was, as usual, in a small supporting role and no common person paid attention to him. As for PSH, if Twister counts then sure. But surely most people don't remember him in it.

Al Pacino: Any Given Sunday
Robert De Niro: Meet the Parents
Jack Nicholson: Anger Management
Dustin Hoffman: Meet the Fockers
Gene Hackman: The Replacements
Robert Duvall: Kicking and Screaming
Jeff Bridges: Seabiscuit
Denzel Washington: Remember the Titans
Tom Hanks: Big
Philip Seymour Hoffman: Along Came Polly

Al Pacino - Must've been some scene from The Devil's Advocate which used to be on the telly rather often.

Robert De Niro - Once Upon a Time in America. I was just a small kid and my parents were watching it late at night. I was in the same room pretending to be asleep. Needless to say the car scene shook the heck out of me.

Jack Nicholson - I think it was Batman.

Dustin Hoffman - I have a very vague memory of watching Rain Man when I was a kid.

Gene Hackman - Must've been The Mexican although I don't remember anything about him in it (or the movie itself for that matter).

Robert Duvall - Probably Gone in 60 Seconds

Jeff Bridges - Definitely King Kong. That shit was on R*****n TV quite often.

Denzel Washington - I got acquainted with Denzel a bit later than with the others here. Probably via Inside Man. Or it might've been Man on Fire.

Tom Hanks - Oh man, it's either Big or Saving Private Ryan or The Green Mile!

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Absolutely positively Twister.

Edit: I just remembered that I first watched To Kill a Mockingbird in middle school after my class read the book, so that was definitely the first thing I saw Duvall in.... though I wasn't aware of who he was at the time.

It's hard to say exactly when I realized that these actors were considered a "big deal" as opposed to just seeing them in a movie and not registering who they were. Though I know that when I first watched Pacino in Ocean's Thirteen, I was definitely aware of his reputation as a GOAT-level actor from The Godfather and Scarface. In fact, I'm pretty sure I watched The Godfather for the first time shortly after seeing Ocean's Thirteen.

I didn't start watching movies until I was in college or so.

Al Pacino: Angels in America. I saw it in college. Probably his best performance tbh.

Robert De Niro: Silver Linings Playbook. I was 18 when it came out.

Jack Nicholson: As Good as It Gets.

Dustin Hoffman: Rain Man. I saw it in English class in middle school.

Gene Hackman: Runaway Jury. I saw it in college in a class about US judiciary.

Jeff Bridges: True Grit.

Denzel Washington: Flight. It's on tv all the time.

Tom Hanks: Forrest Gump. I saw it in history class in high school.

PSH: The Savages

Al Pacino - Godfather 3

Robert De Niro - Godfather 2, I think.

Jack Nicholson - Batman

Dustin Hoffman - Not sure, it's either Hook or Rain Man. I'm thinking it was Hook.

Gene Hackman - The Superman movies.

Robert Duvall - To Kill a Mockingbird would have been the first, though I had no idea who he was.

Jeff Bridges - Starman, I think.

Denzel Washington - Pretty sure it was The Pelican Brief.

Tom Hanks - No clue. This dude was all over my childhood - Dragnet is definitely the one I watched the most, but Big, Turner & Hooch, Splash, The 'burbs, The Man with One Red Shoe, etc. Couldn't tell you which was first.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Hmm, probably one of the PTA movies. Don't recall which I saw first. Probably Magnolia.

My parents were not strict at all lol.

Al Pacino - Ocean’s Thirteen
Robert De Niro - Shark Tale probably. I was a big fan of Meet the Parents as a kid too.
Jack Nicholson - Batman maybe?
Dustin Hoffman - Stranger Than Fiction. Loved that film as a kid haha.
Gene Hackman - The Royal Tenenbaums
Robert Duvall - I probably first saw him in The Godfather. Maybe The Road?
Jeff Bridges - Iron Man
Denzel Washington - I vividly remember the Man on Fire poster, but I haven’t seen that film. Probably Deja Vu.
Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Mission: Impossible III