An A-list actor is a major

movie star A movie star (also known as a film star or cinema star) is an actor who is famous for their starring, or leading, roles in movies. The term is used for performers who are marketable stars as they become popular household names and whose names ...

, or one of the most bankable actors in a

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

. The A-list is part of a larger guide called ''The Hot List'', which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood. American entertainment journalist James Ulmer, the guide's creator, has also developed a version including directors, the ''Hot List of Directors''. The Ulmer scale categorizes the lists into A+, A, B+, B, C, and D listings. Similarly, in India, there is three-tier strategy, tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3, which are based on the saleability and box office collection capability of a star.

Popular usage

In popular usage outside the film industry, an A-list

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

is any person with an admired or desirable social status. Even

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

s with popular press coverage and elite associations have been termed as A-list celebrities. Similarly, less popular persons and current teen idols are referred to as B-list celebrities – and the ones with lesser fame as C-list ones. In 2000, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' interpreted a C-list celebrity as "that guy (or sometimes that girl), the easy-to-remember but hard-to-name

character actor A character actor is an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric, or interesting character (arts), characters in supporting roles, rather than leading ones.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrie ...

". The D-list is for someone whose celebrity is so obscure that they are generally only known for appearances as celebrities on panel game shows and

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

. In the late 20th century, D-listers were largely ignored by the news industry; for example,

Paul Lynde Paul Edward Lynde (; June 13, 1926January 10, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and game-show panelist. A character actor with a distinctively campy and snarky persona that often poked fun at his closeted homosexuality, Lynde was well know ...

, by this point in his career best known for being on the daytime game show ''

Hollywood Squares ''Hollywood Squares'' (originally ''The Hollywood Squares'', later stylized as ''H2: Hollywood Squares'') is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show originally aired as a ...

'', went largely unnoticed by the supermarket tabloids, and his homosexuality (which would have drawn attention for bigger celebrities) went largely unreported. Kathy Griffin, an American comedian who became widely known for her frequent appearances on such programs, used the term in a tongue-in-cheek manner for her 2005 TV special '' The D-List'' and her 2005 TV series '' Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List''. The term "D-list" is derived from the lowest rating used for the Ulmer scale. Other successive letters of the alphabet beyond D, as in the terms ''E-list'' and ''Z-list'', are sometimes used for exaggeration or comic effect but effectively have the same meaning as ''D-list''.

References

{{Wiktionary, A-list Celebrity Cinema of the United States Film and video terminology

Popular usage

See also

References