Who will the American Film Institute select as its 50th life achievement award recipient? Which iconic actor is the most likely choice to be honored in 2025? After reviewing the possible choices, be sure to vote in our poll below as to who you think should be the best selection.
For our recent directors poll, Francis Ford Coppola received the most support over Ron Howard, Ridley Scott and many others. For our recent actress poll, Glenn Close had the most votes over Jessica Lange, Maggie Smith and many others.
Since AFI will be celebrating their 50th ceremony, we’re hoping 2025 will bring an undeniably great choice!
Starting in the early 1970s, the AFI started choosing actors, actresses and directors with recipients being director John Ford (1973), actor James Cagney (1974), director/actor Orson Welles (1975), director William Wyler (1976), actress Bette Davis (1977), actor Henry Fonda (1978) and director Alfred Hitchcock (1979).
Past recipients still living (and therefore not eligible again) are: actor Jack Nicholson (1994), director Steven Spielberg (1995), actor/director Clint Eastwood (1996), director Martin Scorsese (1997), actor Dustin Hoffman (1999), actor Harrison Ford (2000), actress/director Barbra Streisand (2001), actor/director Tom Hanks (2002), actor Robert De Niro (2003), actress Meryl Streep (2004), director George Lucas (2005), actor Al Pacino (2007), actor/director Warren Beatty (2008), actor/producer Michael Douglas (2009), actor Morgan Freeman (2011), actress Shirley MacLaine (2012), director/actor Mel Brooks (2013), actress Jane Fonda (2014), actor/writer Steve Martin (2015), composer John Williams (2016), actress Diane Keaton (2017), actor/director George Clooney (2018), actor/director Denzel Washington (2019), actress Julie Andrews (2022) and actress/producer Nicole Kidman.
Other than Spielberg and Hanks, who were 49 and 46 respectively when they were honored, everybody else has been at least in their mid 50s. For our poll, we set the minimum age as 50. Our list of actors for the poll below includes Oscar winners Jeff Bridges, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Robert Redford, plus Oscar nominees Tom Cruise, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray. Vote below for who you think will be selected.
