The 19 Best Performances as Real Business Founders

Garage-born computer makers share the screen with fast-food empire builders, racing legends and startup founders whose stories ended badly. Some actors chased an uncanny likeness; others went for the ego underneath.

1. 1
   Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs

   Fassbender's Oscar-nominated turn in Danny Boyle's 2015 film Steve Jobs, staged around three product launches.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Tom Hanks as Walt Disney

   Hanks played Walt Disney courting P. L. Travers for the Mary Poppins rights in Saving Mr. Banks (2013).
   681pts
3. 3
   Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs

   Kutcher played Jobs from college dropout to Apple's comeback in the 2013 biopic Jobs.
   622pts
4. 4
   Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari

   Driver played the carmaker during the turbulent summer of 1957 in Michael Mann's Ferrari (2023).
   622pts
5. 5
   Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes

   DiCaprio played the aviator, film producer and Hughes Aircraft founder in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004).
   551pts
6. 6
   Jared Leto as Adam Neumann

   Leto played the WeWork co-founder in the Apple TV+ series WeCrashed (2022).
   551pts
7. 7
   Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Travis Kalanick

   Gordon-Levitt played Uber's co-founder in the Showtime series Super Pumped (2022).
   466pts
8. 8
   Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg

   Eisenberg's Oscar-nominated portrayal of Facebook's founder in David Fincher's The Social Network.
   363pts
9. 9
   Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano

   Lawrence earned an Oscar nomination playing the Miracle Mop inventor in Joy (2015).
   363pts
10. 10
    Jeff Bridges as Preston Tucker

    Bridges played the maverick carmaker in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).
    363pts
11. 11
    Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs

    Wyle played a young Jobs in the 1999 TV film Pirates of Silicon Valley, about the Apple and Microsoft rivalry.
    363pts
12. 12
    Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates

    Hall played Bill Gates opposite Noah Wyle in the 1999 TV film Pirates of Silicon Valley.
    362pts
13. 13
    Ben Affleck as Phil Knight

    Affleck played Nike's co-founder in Air (2023), which he also directed.
    362pts
14. 14
    Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes

    Seyfried won an Emmy for playing the Theranos founder in the Hulu series The Dropout (2022).
    362pts
15. 15
    Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin

    Garfield played Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network (2010).
    0pts
16. 16
    Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis

    Baruchel played the Research In Motion co-founder behind the BlackBerry in BlackBerry (2023).
    0pts
17. 17
    Octavia Spencer as Madam Walker

    Spencer played the haircare entrepreneur and first female self-made millionaire in Netflix's Self Made (2020).
    0pts
18. 18
    Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc

    Keaton played the milkshake-machine salesman who built the McDonald's empire in The Founder (2016).
    0pts
19. 19
    Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby

    Damon played the Shelby American founder building the GT40 in Ford v Ferrari (2019).
    0pts

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