America's Favorite Gentlemen (Napoleon's World)

America's Favorite Gentlemen is a term applied to actors Jack Kennedy, Don Sorenson, Peter O'Neill, and Grant Kerouac, who appeared in nearly sixty highly successful and visible films, often together, from the late 1940's through the early 1960's. The mid-1950's is generally referred to as the "Gentlemen's Time" due to their dominance of Hollywood and the box office. Their influence waned by the mid-1960's, however, as Kennedy pursued directing opportunities and later left acting for a few years due to struggles with alcoholism, O'Neill's automobile death in 1969 and Kerouac's various financial and legal troubles in the 1970's. In 1954, the Sorenson vehicle Cheyenne and the Kerouac vehicle Scoundrels at Sea together grossed more than every other film in Hollywood combined that year.