All-Time Top 100 Stars at the Box Office

A while back there was a buzz going on in Hollywood about how the success of The Incredibles was sure to help Samuel L. Jackson finally surpass Harrison Ford as the top grossing box-office star of all-time. And while it's not hard to fathom either of those two men being that successful, I found myself curious as to where these so-called rankings were being kept.

Enter "The Numbers", a movie-industry site that keeps tabs on just about everything connected with the silver screen. Most of the site is dedicated to measuring which film did the best over a given holiday weekend, or who had the biggest opening day -- but if you dig a little deeper you'll find a handful of lists that tell some pretty interesting stories about Hollywood and the people who work in it.

For example, while it's true that Samuel L. Jackson's movies have generated more revenue than Harrison Ford's, that still doesn't make him #1. That honor is held by Frank Welker, whose box office totals over the course of his career cash in at over $4 billon.

For those of you who might not be familiar, Frank Welker is a voice actor who has been working in animation and film since the early 1960's. Probably most recognizable as the voice of Freddy from the Scooby Doo series, Welker has lent his talents to more than 500 television and film projects, making him more like an institution than a star.

Of course, herein lies the basic problem with the list - the idea that anyone associated with a given movie can be given individual credit for it's financial success (which not only accounts for the prominence of voice actors in the list, but also helps to explain the respective statuses of people like John Ratzenburger, Kenny Baker, and Clint Howard).

Bottom line -- next time you catch your kid making funny cartoon voices instead of doing their homework, don't get mad

Get them an agent.