Hollywood Heights: How Popular Stars Measure Up Height Wise

Hollywood is illusion. The Los Angeles dream factory weaves a tapestry of fun film fakery that puts us into theaters, glues us to television and has Netflix making our hard working mail carriers busier than ever.

Epic historic engagements, flashy spaces battles and nightmare creatures aren't the only things born of movie magic. Actors are coiffed and packaged to appear youthful, virile or taller. The fact is many actors aren't tall. Some are downright short. How do these titans of the silver screen measure up vertically? Remember 5'10 is average male height.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise makes the height obsessed fetish lovers amongst us forever excited. Why an actor's height who assumes a fictitious role in a fictitious film full of things that are well, fictitious matters sort of strains logic, however he's the actor most height worshippers love to mention as a shorty.

Tom Cruise's bio on the IMDB.com lists his height as 5'7. There's no deceit here. That's under average height for a male. It seems that Cruise, disregarding anything else about him, is completely honest about how high he stands.

Eddie Murphy

Funnymen don't have to possess imposing height. Of course Eddie Murphy excels in all sorts of roles. Currently in Shrek The Third as the acerbic donkey, and recently Oscar nominated in the musical Dreamgirls, Murphy is a truly versatile performer. Is he short or tall?

Murphy stands 5'9 ½". So yes, even short funnymen can still makes us laugh.

William Shatner

Space... The Final Frontier. Of all sci-fi heroes, Captain Kirk is still the most famous. William Shatner is a Canadian and he's Shakespearean trained in theater. Before Star Trek, he was in classics like The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. Does a Starship Captain need elevator shoes?

Captain Kirk is short. William Shatner at 5'9 ½" is a half inch under average height. Obviously, Shatner doesn't need height to defeat Klingons or legal opponents in Boston Legal on ABC.

Sylvester Stallone

Rocky Balboa and Rambo remain two of the most powerful film icons in history. Recently Sylvester Stallone did another Rocky - is it really the last, who knows - and he's working on yet another Rambo. Stallone's muscular physique has always been impressive. What about his height?

He's listed at 5'10. Rambo and Rocky have excellent combat skills, but evidently are average in the height department.

Patrick Dempsey

Dr. McDreamy works on the mega successful Grey's Anatomy television show on ABC. Dempsey played roles in Sweet Home Alabama and most recently opposite Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers.

This TV medical doctor at 5'10 ½" stands just half an inch above average. His physical stature isn't impressively tall, but the pleasant dreams female viewers get from him has nothing to do with height.

Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie's steady is a sex symbol extraordinaire. His casual masculinity and smoldering looks make him an in demand leading man and he even co-starred with Tom Cruise in Interview With A Vampire.

Brad Pitt stands 5'11. He's an inch over average height. He certainly can't be considered tall, but I guess his intense physical attractiveness overrides everything else.

James Cromwell

One of the busiest actors around is also one of the tallest. Television viewers first saw Cromwell as Archie Bunker's buddy Stretch Cunningham on the classic CBS sitcom All In The Family. That nickname told us a lot.

James Cromwell stands a whopping 6'7". He can currently be seen in Spiderman 3 and played Prince Phillip opposite Oscar winner Helen Mirren in last years The Queen. Despite his flexible acting gifts, I doubt we'll be seeing Cromwell commanding a Starship or fighting terrorists anytime soon.

Apparently height in real life doesn't matter as much in Reel Life.