I don't think so.

First of all, there are many female stereotyped characters, too. Meg Ryan anyone?
Second of all there are a lot of male actors who have an enormous bandwidth of roles in their repertoire.

A lot of this is due to the studios trying to milk all they can from an actor's popularity.  If the audience like the actor in a role, they will put him into another similar role and the public will eat it up.  They assume, correctly much of the time, that the public will continue to pay to see the actor in a familiar role.

Many of the actors that are considered to be the best in the trade are character actors, not lead actors.  These supporting actors tend to be more versatile and build their acting skills over their career of playing many different types of characters.

In the examples given above, John Wayne pretty much played John Wayne in almost all of his movies.  The roles he was given, or chose, were pretty much the same.  Kevin Costner and Meg Ryan are other actors that I would put into that bucket.

Tom Hanks is one that defies this logic.  He is a superstar by anybody's scale, but he has not really allowed himself to fall into a stereotype.  He has used his power to demand different types of roles.  From Big to Apollo 13 to Cast Away to Forrest Gump, he's played characters of all types and done them well.  In Cast Away, he was able to use a volleyball as a co-star and made Wilson who he is today!

The true, great actors are out there, but in today's profit driven climate, I think it's getting harder for them to stay true to their profession and become better actors and not stars.

Quoting Srehtims:

Quote:
Who are the better actors male or female?
I vote for the females. I think it is part of a defense mechanism they learn it an early age.
Maybe it is because they can have more variations in hair styles, wardrobe and makeup.

These actors to name a few, seem to me to be able to blend into the character that they play, Glen Close, Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Forest Whitaker and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Male actors like John Wayne and Tom Cruise and most male actors are pretty much stereotyped and to me are always John Wayne and Tom Cruise. Maybe I've seen to many Westerns action and war movies.

When interviewed most female actors knew they wanted be actors at an early age, where as most male actors just kind of fell into it by accident or it was a good way to meet girls. I remember  we asked member of our local Sports Car Club of America why became a cosmetologist, and he said he meets a lot of women. That was in thr '60s and I didn't meet to many babes in the computer industry, then.

why post useless polls like this. Both men and women can be great, or horrible actors. Neither is "better" than the other

Quoting Lord Of The Sith:

Quote:
In retort to men being bad actors I would just like to submit these names, Sean Connery,  [...]

Probably a bad actor, but man what a stage presence. When he's appearing you notice him.