Clint Eastwood crowned America's most loved movie star

Coming in to claim the second place was Johnny Depp, who rose from eight on the list to nab the silver (interesting considering his only roles in the past year have been as notorious gangster, John Dillinger in Public Enemies and as one of the Tonys in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, far less commercial and high profile than his Captain Jack in the recent Pirates of the Caribbean flicks). Capping a fantastic comeback year that might even see her nab the Oscar, Sandra Bullock was the highest-placed female in fourth and Tom Hanks climbed from seven to five (because of Angels and Demons, really?).

After two years off the list, George Clooney returns to claim the number six spot and flying the flag for past favourites is grizzled hero, John Wayne in seventh, a drop after being joint third last year. The second actress to make an appearance, Meryl Streep swoops in for eighth, the likes of crowd-pleasers such as Julie & Julia and It’s Complicated helping her to make her list debut. And the final two spots in the top ten belong to Morgan Freeman in ninth (a spot he shared last year) and Julia Roberts in tenth (down four places on 2009).

All these new entries mean that some past faves got the boot, namely Will Smith, Harrison Ford and Angelina Jolie, though interestingly the results aren’t universal across the age groups and sexes. Clint has the male vote, while Johnny boasts the female and it’s a similar split when it comes to generations, those aged over 45-years-old preferring the former Dirty Harry but for 18-32-year-olds it’s all about Captain Jack. And those in-between, the Gen X-ers aged 33-44 are Sandy fans.

The poll by Harris Interactive questioned 2,276 American adults providing pretty interesting results. Now all we need is a savvy Hollywood producer to get Clint, Johnny and Sandy all in a film together. What are the odds?

[via Harris Interactive]