Actors with the greatest onscreen presence?

I don't know if I agree or disagree with the ones so far named. Brando and De Niro are just really top notch actors. I don't think it's any "natural presence", which is what I thought we were looking for. People who might not even have to be great actors, but it doesn't hurt or help either way. Just people who stick out for some reason.

Directors and camera crews make people have presence, too.

For me, some who had "presence" did so with voices more than physical presence, because I was born in 1956, and although most of the baby boomers weren't allowed to watch movies or TV till we were about 10 years old, at that point, it was 1967 (if you're born in December like I was), and TV was still fuzzy black and white in two stations, fuzzier in a third, and real fuzzy in educational TV. Only the very wealthy people got color or cable before about 1977 to 1980. 

So, for me, "presence" came more from voices. Even today, most of us "listen" to TV as background noise more than we watch, since we're in an age of double duty or whatever it's called, doing many things at once. Almost no one "watches TV" more than 1/8 of the time it is on. Only at a movie theater do I watch more than 2/3 of a show.

So, while it's not always the case, it's mostly from voice that I find "presence". If "presence" is from physical stance during scenes, it's not the actor, but the director and camera person. And, of course, if an actor is totally silent on screen during a long interchange among others, he gets a notable "presence" due to his silence, but if that's the total "presence", then that's the presence of the director calling for that scene.

Here are some that I find have a lot of "presence":

Whit Bissell
Dan Duryea
James Cagney
Humphrey Bogart
Edward G. Robinson
Morgan Freeman
Groucho Marx
Chico Marx
Harpo Marx (a rare case of physical presence not related to voice, but perhaps it is the lack of voice that does it)
Jim Nabors 
Chill Wills 
Andy Devine 
Randolph Scott 
Broderick Crawford 
Martin Balsam 
Walter Matthau 


And for women, I'm afraid I have to admit I'm a male hetero animal, so DAWN WELLS heads the list. I hate to tell the others, because women will get mad, and rightfully so, I admit. But, for the male animal, these have presence:
Dawn Wells
Sophia Loren
Raquel Welch
Annette Funicello 
Anna Maria Alberghetti
Jacqueline Bisset
Jacqueline Smith 
Barbara Bach 

okay, you get the picture. I apologize to the ladies, because that is sexist. My idea of "female presence" on screen does go that way. I'm sorry. In real life, I am quite different when selecting female companionship or stewardship. I really have no use for high maintenance women. I like down to Earth women in my life.

Some of the ones I think had a lot of presence also did spoken word albums back in the day. Commanding presence on screen and commanding voices.

Charlton Heston
Charles Laughton

I haven't seen Face-off, will do soon. I like Nic Cage generally, hes good in National Treasure and Knowing. But in Con Air his presence and acting just seemed off, very wooden and monotone.

PRESENCE .It's quite an unquantifiable but distinct Thingy.
Jolly Hard to ascertain a Greatest.....but I am gonna throw in my personal ten penn'orth.

There's some great actors who have wide ranges of skills that can (for want of a better word) almost transcend a role, ala, De Niro, Daniel Day Lewis, Peter Sellers, Gary Oldman Meryl Streep, and the suchlike , but not necessarily with a 'Presence' driven element, moreso because of their admirable craft and skill.

Folk , for me, who seem to have that unexplainable 'presence',, whether it be size, looks, eyes, chutzpah, bollocks, accent, delivery, voice, smile, a mixture of those....or whatever.... are:

James Cagney
John Goodman
Kenneth Williams
John Wayne
Anna Faris,
Fred Astaire
Bill Murray
Michael Caine
Woody Harrelson 
Robert Downey Jr
Bill Murray
Gene Hackman
AL Pacino
Anthony Hopkins
Brian Dennehy (not Always but often)
George Formby
Nicholas Cage.

I have just finished a fierce shift and had a few glasses of Merlot, but these are the bods that have first come to mind.....all In my humble opinion, of course.

Intriguing thread.