A cleverly conceived think piece in Newsweek by its movie critic, David Ansen, asks which of today’s film stars will the world be watching in 2055 the way we still watch Cary Grant and Clark Gable.He points out that the most seemingly likely candidate, Julia Roberts, has made almost no movies worth watching a second time besides Pretty Woman. But stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp — they just don’t seem to have the stuff for immortality.

He says Tom Cruise probably will, but primarily because he is a “team player” who usually has a strong co-star (Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Renee Zellweger).

The weird thing is that the one indisputable name that should be on the list isn’t, and that’s Tom Hanks. Ansen wrongly calls Cruise “the biggest male star of his era” when Hanks really holds that title, with a run of 11 consecutive blockbusters — a record that has never been matched in the history of motion pictures. Like Cary Grant and James Stewart, he has made a remarkable number of good or at least creditable movies, with a matchless talent for romantic comedy and serious drama. In fact, there’s every reason to believe that at 49, Hanks is the biggest star ever and, God willing, has three decades to go yet.

Hard to understand Ansen’s oversight here. He does say he’s sticking primarily to performers born after 1960, but that doesn’t make sense. After all, Cruise became a star in 1983 with Risky Business, a year beforeHanks’ breakout in Splash.