Young Hollywood Revisited

CHRIS O'DONNELL

Boyish, entertainingly brash, fresh-faced and ambitious, Chris O'Donnell had already made nine movies when he appeared on our 1996 cover at age 25. At his best in, say, Men Don't Leave, Scent of a Woman and Circle of Friends, he demonstrated the natural ease that can, with luck, season into a Harrison Ford- or Kevin Costner-style presence. O'Donnell nabbed the much sought-after role of Robin in Batman Forever, and instead of winning years of cachet, suffered from snickers caused by a nippled muscle suit and comically humongous codpiece. Not even Gary Cooper-level swagger would have brought off the young Ernest Hemingway role in In Love and War which followed, but O'Donnell was winning as the crusading young lawyer in the undervalued movie version of John Grisham's The Chamber. Since his ill-advised remake of a Buster Keaton classic, The Bachelor, which he made after taking time off, O'Donnell has enjoyed good box office with Vertical Limit, paving the way for better things to come.

ANGELINA JOLIE

Packing some amazing, spooky DNA and a stingingly provocative presence, Angelina Jolie already had two Emmy nominations (and Golden Globe wins) for her supporting turn in the biopic George Wallace and for playing supermodel junkie Gia when she appeared on Movieline's cover in 1999, some months before the all-star Pushing Tin and the cop drama The Bone Collector hit theaters. "You could say my sense of reality is more than a little warped," she asserted at the time. She could afford to flaunt her eccentricity a bit because it was perfectly clear the girl could act. A career that was red-hot suddenly took off to a whole new level when she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted. Bringing so much in-your-face intensity to the table, it's no wonder Jolie is in demand. Born to play femmes fatales, tragic heroines, and just about anything but a wallflower, Jolie could become a franchise megastar this summer as the brainy, wily adventure heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO

In March 1995, 19-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio had already astonished talent watchers as the battered survivor in This Boy's Life and had won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as the mentally challenged, saintly/monstrous brother in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. DiCaprio, a born actor, was so electric and full of promise on-screen that he evoked comparisons to James Dean. But no one could have foreseen what happened next, least of all the young Leonardo himself. William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet transformed him into a full-on heartthrob, and then Titanic turned a blinding spotlight on him. Reeling from the unreasonable level of celebrity, DiCaprio fought to shift the focus back to acting, and now stands ready to create a new and different momentum with Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

KATE WINSLET

As the female star of Titanic, Kate Winslet, our 22-year old cover star in 1998, could have torn across town booking one big movie role after another and posing for the paparazzi. But that is not what she did. "I care nothing about being a movie star," she declared in her interview, and having already been an art-house revelation at 17 in Heavenly Creatures and an Oscar nominee for her performance in Sense and Sensibility, she could get away with a statement like that. She went on to dance to her own tune, and it's led her to newly lauded work in Quills. As good as her word, she has not one empty blockbuster on her resume.

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