Robert Pattinson's break-out role as Edward Cullen in "Twilight" has made him a international star, but does he have the staying power to become a major movie star, capable of carrying a big budget movie?
It's too early to tell at this point in his career, but those voting in a recent Improper.com poll believe Rob has all the makings of a matinée idol just like James Dean and Marlon Brando.
Both stars, like Rob, vaulted to fame in breakout roles in coming of age films about teens during the 1950s.
Brando went on to an illustrious movie career, starring in a wide range of films from "Mutiny on the Bounty" to "The Godfather" later in life. He twice won Oscars for Best Actor and was named the fourth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Robert Pattinson GQ photo
Dean died young and tragically in a car accident, but he cemented his reputation as a major Hollywood star after appearing in just three films.
He is the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only person to be honored with two posthumous acting nominations.
Rob's career is just unfolding, and most of his work to date has been in small, independent films. But 88.6 percent of those responding to TheImproper.com's poll believe that Rob definitely has the same qualities as Dean and Brando.
Of those in that group, 39.65 percent see striking similarities to Rob and the two matinée icons and 48.95 percent said they saw some similarities. Only 11.4 percent of those responding said the actors were totally different.
Stardom is by no means a given, even with a big breakout hit. More than one heartthrob of the moment has faded into obscurity or semi-stardom because they become typecast.
Every other generation or so, however, an actor comes along who captures the imagination of their contemporaries. Brando and Dean were those actors in the 1950s.
What makes them so alike and what makes them different from Rob?
Dean, a relative unknown, vaulted to fame in “East of Eden,” a film based on a novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. He played the troubled son of a farmer in a story loosely based on the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel.
His performance in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in “Rebel Without A Cause,” which has parallels to “Twilight.” Both Dean's and Pattinson's characters are angst-ridden, misunderstood outcasts, trying to find themselves, if for different reasons.
In “Rebel Without a Cause,” a 1955 film, Dean’s 17-year-old character is a new to the town. He’s moody and alienated, and different from than the others in his high school much like Edward Cullen.
In "Twilight," however, Bell Swan (Kristen Stewart) is new to the school. But they share the same feelings of being outsiders, being different.
Dean's character meets Judy, played by Natalie Wood,, a budding actress at that time, who would go on to international fame. She was Dean's Kristen.
The film was an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth with a focus on parents who failed to assert moral discipline. But it was also about the pressure to conform and about being different – two themes that also appear in “Twilight.”
Dean confronts bullies at the school, much like Edward Cullen must deal with renegade vampires who threaten Bella.
In 1953, Brando starred in “The Wild One” about the leader of a motorcycle gang that takes over a small town.
Brando became an iconic symbol of teen rebellion and posed on his own Triumph Thunderbird 6T motorcycle, forever associating freedom and teen rebellion with motorcycles, leather jackets and blue jeans.
Only time will tell where Rob's career goes after "Twilight." But his fan base clearly believes he has a bright future ahead of him.
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