Leonardo DiCaprio
The floppy-haired heartthrob whose face covered every bedroom wall and Tiger Beat cover after Titanic. Before he was an Oscar-winning elder statesman of film, '90s Leo was pure teen-idol "Leo-mania."
Leonardo DiCaprio broke through as a teenager, landing a recurring role on the sitcom Growing Pains in 1991 before pivoting hard to film. In 1993 Robert De Niro handpicked him from some 400 young actors for This Boy's Life, and that same year his performance as a developmentally disabled boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at just 19 — one of the youngest nominees ever in the category.
Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet, opposite Claire Danes, turned the respected young actor into a leading man and a heartthrob, winning him a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Then came Titanic (1997), James Cameron's epic opposite Kate Winslet, which grossed over $1.8 billion worldwide, became the highest-grossing film of its time, and won eleven Oscars.
Titanic detonated "Leo-mania" — his middle-parted curtain haircut, his "I'm the king of the world!" line, and his pinup ubiquity in teen magazines made him the most famous young man on the planet, with fans seeing the film again and again. It's the role that defined his '90s, long before his later career as one of Hollywood's most acclaimed dramatic actors.
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Titanic
James Cameron's three-hour epic about the Titanic sinking became the movie phenomenon of 1997, driven by the chemistry of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and an unforgettable Celine Dion ballad. It became the highest-grossing film ever and captured 11 Oscars at the 1998 ceremony, making "I'm flying" a phrase heard in every theater lobby and school cafeteria.
Robin Williams
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Freddie Prinze Jr.
Son of the 1970s sitcom legend Freddie Prinze, who died when Freddie Jr. was a baby. He grew up carrying one of television's most poignant legacies—and then became the face of the late-90s teen-movie boom. Dimpled, kind-eyed, and impossibly likable, he was THE heartthrob of an era that believed in nice guys.