Samuel L. Jackson had some major films in the 90s as well. He may not have been the lead in some of them, but he was there.
Mo' Better Blues
Good Fellas
Patriot Games
Menace II Society
Jurassic Park
Pulp Fiction
Die Hard With A Vengeance
A Time To Kill
Jackie Brown
Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace
I dont know about Hanks for the 80s.
I mean others had a lot more "big movies" in that decade.
The big name well known films hanks did inntheb80s were splash, Dragnet, Punchline, Turner and Hooch. You could maybe make an argument for the money pit and the man with one red shoe.
In the same decade Tom Cruise had Risky Business, Top Gun, Cocktail, Rainman, The Colour of Money and born on the first of July.
I think a far better contender for that decade would be Eddie Murphy.
What with 48 Hrs, Trading Places, Beverly hills cop I and II, the Golden Child, coming to America and Harlem knights. He literally didn't have a single failed or unnoticed film in the decade. Everything he made in the 80s (including Raw) was pure gold
Actually, an even better choice for the 80s would be Harrison Ford. Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and three Indiana Jones movies that if I'm not mistaken were all amongst the top 40 grossing films of the decade. More films in that top 40 than any other star and the number 1 and 3 others in the top 20
1 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
2 Batman
3 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
4 Rainman
5 Back to the Future Part II
6 Who Framed Roger Rabbit Buena
7 Look Who's Talking
8 Coming to America
9 Return of the Jedi
10 Crocodile Dundee II
11 Dead Poets Society
12 Beverly Hills Cop
13 Ghostbusters
14 Lethal Weapon 2
15 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
16 Twins
17 Ghostbusters II
18 Raiders of the Lost Ark
19 Back to the Future
20 The Empire Strikes Back
21 Rambo III
22 The Little Mermaid
23 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
24 A Fish Called Wanda
25 Tootsie
26 Top Gun
27 Crocodile Dundee
28 Cocktail
29 Three Men and a Baby
30 Fatal Attraction
31 Beverly Hills Cop II
32 Gremlins
33 Born on the Fourth of July
34 Big
35 Rambo: First Blood
36 Die Hard 20th Century Fox
37 The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
38 Platoon
39 An Officer and a Gentleman
40 Rocky IV
Edward Norton and Morgan freeman are my personal favourites of the 1990s but Tom Hanks is probably the winner.
Wow, I really need to get an eye check and see if I need stronger glasses.
I could have sworn I read this was best film star of the 80's
I'd even add in To Wong Foo to show that range. One is a serious drama, the other is a big Hollywood action flick, and the latter is a (purposely) campy over-the-top comedy, all within a span of four years.
Hell, the producers wanted to cast him based on the strength of his performance in Demolition Man and to cast him against that type, while Wesley saw the opportunity as a challenge he wanted to tackle. The stars had aligned (even if the movie ultimately was... meh).