In the 1950s, the new American actor was formed by the Actor’s Studio. At the end of the 1960s, the next generation of actors arrived, manifesting themselves alongside established Hollywood actors (from Bronson and Heston to Newman, from Reynolds to Scott) in very different kinds of films. The common denominator of Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Robert de Niro, and Richard Dreyfuss? They aren’t introverted or haughty like Actor’s Studio actors: they’re exuberant, dynamic, aggressive. They’re not masochistic (Dean, Brando) but sadistic (Dreyfuss and Nicholson). They’re not neurotic but psychotic (De Niro). They aren’t looking for recognition but confirmation. They aren’t playing for the audience but for themselves.