My Favourite 300 Female Film Stars

1. Joan Crawford

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1906, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. It wasn't an easy life; ...

Greatest Performances: Possessed (1947), Mildred Pierce (1945), What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (1962), Grand Hotel (1932), Above Suspicion (1943), Humoresque (1946), Female On The Beach (1955), Sudden Fear (1952), The Women (1939), The Damned Don't Cry (1950), The Unknown (1927), Flamingo Road (1949)

2. Elizabeth Taylor

Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked ...

Greatest Performances: Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966), A Place In The Sun (1951), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958), The V.I.P.s (1963), Father Of The Bride (1950), Raintree County (1957), National Velvet (1944), Little Women (1949), The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

3. Myrna Loy

Actress | The Thin Man

Myrna Williams, later to become Myrna Loy, was born on August 2, 1905 in Helena, Montana. Her father was the youngest person ever elected to the Montana State legislature. Later on her family moved to Radersburg where she spent her youth on a cattle ranch. At the age of 13, Myrna's father died of ...

Greatest Performances: The Thin Man (1934), After The Thin Man (1936), The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946), Love Crazy (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1944), Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941), I Love You Again (1940), Lonelyhearts (1958), Love Crazy (1941), Midnight Lace (1960), The Mask Of Fu Manchu (1932), From The Terrace (1960), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

4. Irene Dunne

Actress | The Awful Truth

Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age...

Greatest Performances: The Awful Truth (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), Penny Serenade (1941), Love Affair (1939), Magnificent Obsession (1935), Back Street (1932), Show Boat (1936), Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

5. Jean Arthur

Actress | You Can't Take It with You

This marvelous screen comedienne's best asset was only muffled during her seven years' stint in silent films. That asset? It was, of course, her squeaky, frog-like voice, which silent-era cinema audiences had simply no way of perceiving, much less appreciating. Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna ...

Greatest Performances: The Devil And Miss Jones (1941), The Ex-Mrs Bradford (1936), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Talk Of The Town (1942), The More The Merrier (1943), History Is Made At Night (1937), Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939), A Lady Takes A Chance (1943), Too Many Husbands (1940), The Whole Town's Talking (1935), Easy Living (1937), Arizona (1940)

6. Margaret Rutherford

Actress | The V.I.P.s

Rare is the reference to Margaret Rutherford that doesn't characterize her as either jut-chinned, eccentric, or both. The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was made for the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford ...

Greatest Performances: Murder Most Foul (1964), Murder She Said (1961), Murder Ahoy (1964), Murder At The Gallop (1963), The Happiest Days Of Your Life (1950), Blithe Spirit (1945), The V.I.P.s (1963), The Runaway Bus (1954), Chimes At Midnight (1965)

7. Audrey Hepburn

Actress | Breakfast at Tiffany's

Audrey Hepburn was born as Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was a Dutch noblewoman, while her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was born in Úzice, Bohemia, to English and Austrian parents.

After her parents' divorce, ...

Greatest Performances: Charade (1963), Sabrina (1954), Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961), The Children's Hour (1961), Roman Holiday (1953), Robin And Marian (1976), How To Steal A Million (1966), Wait Until Dark (1967), Two For The Road (1967), The Nun's Story (1959), Love In The Afternoon (1957), The Unforgiven (1960)

8. Barbara Stanwyck

Actress | Double Indemnity

Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985). But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the ...

Greatest Performances: The Mad Miss Manton (1938), Sorry Wrong Number (1948), The Furies (1950), Double Indemnity (1944), The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946), East Side West Side (1949), Witness To Murder (1954), Blowing Wild (1953), Night Nurse (1931), Baby Face (1933), The Lady Eve (1941), Forty Guns (1957), Titanic (1953), There's Always Tomorrow (1955)

9. Déborah François

Actress | Populaire

The daughter of a police officer and a social worker and the middle of three siblings, Déborah François was cast by the Dardenne brothers in L'enfant in 2005 while she was in high school. Between the ages of 10 to 16 François had taken acting classes but she did not expect to make acting her career...

Greatest Performances: The Page Turner (2006), L'enfant (2005), Populaire (2012), Student Services (2010), Female Agents (2008), The Monk (2011), Never Grow Old (2019), Savage State (2019)

10. Natalie Wood

Actress | Rebel Without a Cause

Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.

Wood was born July 20, 1938 in ...

Greatest Performances: Love With The Proper Stranger (1963), Rebel Without A Cause (1955), The Great Race (1965), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), The Searchers (1956), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), This Property Is Condemned (1966), Miracle On 34th Street (1947), Splendor In The Grass (1961)

11. Loretta Young

Actress | The Stranger

Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's Biography (1987) has stated that Young "remains a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in her ...

Greatest Performances: The Bishop's Wife (1947), A Night To Remember (1942), Come To The Stable (1949), Eternally Yours (1939), The Farmer's Daughter (1947), The Stranger (1946), Along Came Jones (1945), Four Men And A Prayer (1938), Suez (1938)

12. Lee Remick

Actress | The Omen

Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Gertrude Margaret (Waldo), an actress, and Francis Edwin Remick, a department store owner. She had Irish and English ancestry. Remick was educated at Barnard College, studied dance and worked on stage and TV, before making her film debut as a sexy ...

Greatest Performances: Wild River (1960), Days Of Wine And Roses (1962), The Long Hot Summer (1958), Anatomy Of A Murder (1959), Experiment In Terror (1962), No Way To Treat A Lady (1968), The Omen (1976), The Medusa Touch (1978), The Running Man (1963), Sometimes A Great Notion (1971)

13. Shirley MacLaine

Actress | Terms of Endearment

Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on ...

Greatest Performances: The Apartment (1960), The Children's Hour (1961), Irma La Douce (1963), Terms Of Endearment (1983), Sweet Charity (1969), The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964), Gambit (1966), The Trouble With Harry (1955), Around The World In Eighty Days (1956), Two Mules For Sister Sara (1970)

14. Valeria Golino

Actress | Rain Man

Valeria Golino is an Italian actress and film director. She is known to English-language audiences for her role in Rain Man, Big Top Pee-wee and the two Hot Shots! films, especially the olive-in-the-belly-button scene. The second child of an Italian germanist and a Greek painter, Valeria Golino ...

Greatest Performances: Rain Man (1988), Hot Shots! (1991), 36 (2004), Respiro (2002), Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019), Immortal Beloved (1994), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), The Indian Runner (1991), Year Of The Gun (1991)

15. Emily Blunt

Actress | Edge of Tomorrow

Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is a British actress known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and The Girl on the Train (2016), among many others.

Blunt was born on February 23, 1983, in Roehampton, South West London, England, the second of ...

Greatest Performances: A Quiet Place (2018), Looper (2012), Edge Of Tomorrow (2014), Sicario (2015), My Summer Of Love (2004), A Quiet Place Part II (2020), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), Jungle Cruise (2021), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), The Girl On The Train (2016)

16. Emma Stone

Actress | La La Land

Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born on November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker & Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish, German & British Isles descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the ...

Greatest Performances: La La Land (2016), Easy A (2010), Battle Of The Sexes (2017), The Help (2011), Zombieland (2009), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) 2014,The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), The Favourite (2018), Gangster Squad (2013), The Croods (2013)

17. Linda Darnell

Actress | Fallen Angel

Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and...

Greatest Performances: Fallen Angel (1945), A Letter To Three Wives (1949), Hangover Square (1945), Everybody Does It (1949), Unfaithfully Yours (1948), The Mark Of Zorro (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Second Chance (1953)

18. Priscilla Lane

Actress | Arsenic and Old Lace

Priscilla Lane attended the Eagin School of Dramatic Arts in New York before she began touring with her sisters in the Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians Dance Band. She was a popular singer with her sisters and, after 5 years, she was signed to a Hollywood contract with Warner Brothers in 1937. ...

Greatest Performances: Arsenic And Old Lace (1944), Four Daughters (1938), Saboteur (1942), The Roaring Twenties (1939), Dust Be My Destiny (1939), Daughters Courageous (1939), Blues In The Night (1941), Four Wives (1939)

19. Rachel Weisz

Actress | The Constant Gardener

Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...

Greatest Performances: The Constant Gardener (2005), Youth (2015), The Favourite (2018), Denial (2016), The Lovely Bones (2009), Beautiful Creatures (2000), I Want You (1998), The Lobster (2015), The Fountain (2006), The Mummy (1999), Runaway Jury (2003), The Bourne Legacy (2012), Oz The Great And Powerful (2013)

20. Elisabeth Shue

Actress | Leaving Las Vegas

Elisabeth Shue was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Anne Brewster (Wells), who worked for the Chemical Banking Corporation, and James William Shue, a lawyer and real estate developer. She is of German and English ancestry, including descent from Mayflower passengers. Shue's parents divorced while ...

Greatest Performances: Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Cousin Bette (1998), Cocktail (1988), Mysterious Skin (2004), Heart And Souls (1993), The Trigger Effect (1996), Adventures In Babysitting (1987), Soapdish (1991), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Battle Of The Sexes (2017)

21. Claudia Cardinale

Actress | C'era una volta il West

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy ...

Greatest Performances: Once Upon A Time In The West (1968), The Leopard (1963), The Magnificent Showman (1964), The Pink Panther (1963), The Professionals (1966), Blindfold (1965), Lost Command (1966), Mafia (1968), Escape To Athena (1979), Rocco And His Brothers (1960)

22. Julie Andrews

Actress | The Sound of Music

Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her...

Greatest Performances: Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound Of Music (1965), Victor Victoria (1982), The Americanization Of Emily (1964), Enchanted (2007), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), The Princess Diaries (2001), Darling Lili (1970)

23. Ginger Rogers

Actress | Kitty Foyle

Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911, the daughter of Lela E. Rogers (née Lela Emogene Owens) and William Eddins McMath. Her mother went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he ...

Greatest Performances: Roxie Hart (1942), Stage Door (1937), Monkey Business (1952), Top Hat (1935), Star Of Midnight (1935), I'll Be Seeing You (1944), Kitty Foyle (1940), Dreamboat (1952), Bachelor Mother (1939), Once Upon A Honeymoon (1942), Storm Warning (1951)

24. Marjorie Weaver

Actress | The Man Who Wouldn't Die

This saucy and engaging Tennessee born-and-bred brunette beauty came into the world on March 2, 1913, the daughter of John Thomas Weaver and Ellen Martin, both non-professionals. She attended private and high schools while growing up and attended the University of Kentucky and the University of ...

Greatest Performances: The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942), Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940), Murder Over New York (1940), Michael Shayne: Private Detective (1940), I'll Give A Million (1938), Just Off Broadway (1942), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

25. Miriam Hopkins

Actress | Trouble in Paradise

Born into wealth in Savannah, Georgia, on October 18, 1902, Ellen Miriam Hopkins was able to attend the finest educational institutions, including Goddard Seminary in Plainfield, Vermont, and Syracuse University in New York State. Studying dance in New York, she received her first taste of show ...

Greatest Performances: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1931), The Heiress (1949), The Old Maid (1939), Trouble In Paradise (1932), The Chase (1966), Design For Living (1933), 24 Hours (1931), Virginia City (1940), Splendor (1935), Old Acquaintance (1943)

26. Claudette Colbert

Actress | It Happened One Night

One of the brightest film stars to grace the screen was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903, in Saint Mandé, France where her father owned a bakery at 57, rue de la République (now Avenue Général de Gaulle). The family moved to the United States when she was three. As Claudette ...

Greatest Performances: It Happened One Night (1934), Three Came Home (1950), Boom Town (1940), Since You Went Away (1944), Without Reservations (1946), The Sign Of The Cross (1932), Sleep My Love (1948), Thunder On The Hill (1951), It's A Wonderful World (1939), The Egg And I (1947), Under Two Flags (1936), Midnight (1939), Drums Along The Mohawk (1939), The Palm Beach Story (1942)

27. Olivia de Havilland

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her ...

Greatest Performances: The Heiress (1949), Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938), To Each His Own (1946), In This Our Life (1942), Captain Blood (1935), The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936), Dodge City (1939), Raffles (1939), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

28. Kim Novak

Actress | Vertigo

Kim Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933 with the birth name of Marilyn Pauline Novak. She was the daughter of a former teacher turned transit clerk and his wife, also a former teacher. Throughout elementary and high school, Kim did not get along well with teachers. She even ...

Greatest Performances: Vertigo (1958), Strangers When We Meet (1960), Bell Book And Candle (1958), Picnic (1955), The Mirror Crack'd (1980), The Eddy Duchin Story (1956), Pushover (1954), The Notorious Landlady (1962), Pal Joey (1957)

29. Ingrid Bergman

Actress | Casablanca

Ingrid Bergman was one of the greatest actresses from Hollywood's lamented Golden Era. Her natural and unpretentious beauty and her immense acting talent made her one of the most celebrated figures in the history of American cinema. Bergman is also one of the most Oscar-awarded actresses, tied with ...

Greatest Performances: Casablanca (1942), Journey To Italy (1954), The Bells Of St. Mary's (1945), Notorious (1946), Spellbound (1945), The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964), Gaslight (1944), The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness (1958), Intermezzo (1939), Adam Had Four Sons (1941)

30. Jennifer Jason Leigh

Actress | The Hateful Eight

Jennifer Jason Leigh was born Jennifer Lee Morrow in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of writer Barbara Turner and actor Vic Morrow. Her father was of Russian Jewish descent and her mother was of Austrian Jewish ancestry. She is the sister of Carrie Ann Morrow and half-sister of actress Mina ...

Greatest Performances: Last Exit To Brooklyn (1989), The Hateful Eight (2015), Flesh & Blood (1985), Short Cuts (1993), Heart Of Midnight (1988), Single White Female (1992), The Machinist (2004), The King Is Alive (2000), The Hitcher (1986), Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

31. Amy Adams

Actress | Arrival

Amy Lou Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy, to American parents, Kathryn (Hicken) and Richard Kent Adams, a U.S. serviceman who was stationed at Caserma Ederle in Italy at the time. She was raised in a Mormon family of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado, and has English, as well as ...

Greatest Performances: Nocturnal Animals (2016), American Hustle (2013), Enchanted (2007), Doubt (2008), Night At The Museum 2 (2009), The Master (2012), Arrival (2016), The Fighter (2010), Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Vice (2018), Man Of Steel (2013)

32. Susannah York

Actress | A Man for All Seasons

The lovely Susannah York, a gamine, blue-eyed, cropped-blonde British actress, displayed a certain crossover star quality when she dared upon the Hollywood scene in the early 1960s. A purposefully intriguing, enigmatic and noticeably uninhibited talent, she was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher on ...

Greatest Performances: They Shoot Horses Don't They (1969), Images (1972), Freud (1962), Battle Of Britain (1969), The Silent Partner (1978), Tunes Of Glory (1960), Superman (1978), Sands Of The Kalahari (1965), The Killing Of Sister George (1968), A Man For All Seasons (1966), Conduct Unbecoming (1975)

33. Vera Farmiga

Actress | Up in the Air

Vera Farmiga is an American actress who has received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Up in the Air (2009) and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Bates Motel (2013) and When They See Us (2019).

She was born Vera Ann Farmiga, the second of seven children, on August 6, 1973, ...

Greatest Performances: Up In The Air (2019), The Departed (2006), The Conjuring (2013), Source Code (2011), The Boy In The Striped Pajamas (2008), The Conjuring 2 (2016), Safe House (2012), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), Running Scared (2006), Nothing But The Truth (2008), The Commuter (2018)

34. Lily James

Actress | Cinderella

Lily James was born Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson in Esher, Surrey, to Ninette (Mantle), an actress, and Jamie Thomson, an actor and musician. Her grandmother, Helen Horton, was an American actress. She began her education at Arts Educational School in Tring and subsequently went on to study acting at...

Greatest Performances: Baby Driver (2017), Cinderella (2015), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society (2018), Yesterday (2019), The Exception (2016), Fast Girls (2012), Darkest Hour (2017), Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (2016), Little Woods (2018)

35. Susan Hayward

Actress | With a Song in My Heart

Susan Hayward was born Edythe Marrener in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1917. Her father was a transportation worker, and Susan lived a fairly comfortable life as a child, but the precocious little redhead had no idea of the life that awaited her. She attended public school in Brooklyn, where she...

Greatest Performances: Deadline At Dawn (1946), The Lost Moment (1947), The Lusty Men (1952), Tap Roots (1948), I Want To Live! (1958), Soldier Of Fortune (1955), My Foolish Heart (1949), Adam Had Four Sons (1941), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), Rawhide (1951), Woman Obsessed (1959)

36. Ella Raines

Actress | Phantom Lady

Ella Raines was born in Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, in 1920. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the University of Washington as a drama student and participated in many plays. Following graduation, she traveled to New York and the lights of Broadway. She was eventually signed by ...

Greatest Performances: Tall In The Saddle (1944), Phantom Lady (1944), Uncle Harry (1945), The Suspect (1944), A Dangerous Profession (1949), The Web (1947), Cry Havoc (1943), Fighting Coast Guard (1951)

37. Jane Fonda

Actress | Klute

Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was ...

Greatest Performances: They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), Klute (1971), Barefoot In The Park (1967), The China Syndrome (1979), The Chase (1966), Cat Ballou (1965), Youth (2015), This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

38. Lauren Bacall

Actress | To Have and Have Not

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She was the daughter of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, and William Perske, who was born in New Jersey, to Polish Jewish parents. Her family was middle-class, with her father working as a ...

Greatest Performances: Murder On The Orient Express (1974), The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948), Dark Passage (1947), North West Frontier (1959), Confidential Agent (1945), Woman's World (1954), Harper (1966), The Shootist (1976), My Fellow Americans (1996), Appointment With Death (1988)

39. Jacqueline Bisset

Actress | Bullitt

Jacqueline Bisset has been an international film star since the late '60s. She received her first roles mainly because of her stunning beauty, but over time she has become a fine actress respected by fans and critics alike. Bisset has worked with directors John Huston, François Truffaut, George ...

Greatest Performances: Murder On The Orient Express (1974), Bullitt (1968), The Deep (1977), The Thief Who Came To Dinner (1973), La Ceremonie (1995), Class (1983), St. Ives (1976), The Greek Tycoon (1978), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), Who Is Killing The Great Chefs Of Europe? (1978)

40. Jennifer Jones

Actress | The Towering Inferno

One of the world's most underrated Academy Award-winning actresses, Jennifer Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley on 2 March 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Flora Mae (Suber) and Phillip Ross Isley, who ran a travelling stage show. As a young aspiring actress, she met and fell for young, handsome, aspiring ...

Greatest Performances: Madame Bovary (1949), Portrait Of Jennie (1948), Love Letters (1945), Since You Went Away (1944), Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing (1955), A Farewell To Arms (1957), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit (1956), Good Morning Miss Dove (1955), Indiscretion Of An American Wife (1953)

41. Gale Sondergaard

Actress | The Mark of Zorro

Sly, manipulative, dangerously cunning and sinister were the key words that best described the roles that Gale Sondergaard played in motion pictures, making her one of the most talented character actresses ever seen on the screen. She was educated at the University of Minnesota and later married ...

Greatest Performances: The Cat And The Canary (1939), Sherlock Holmes And The Spider Woman (1944), The Black Cat (1941), Anthony Adverse (1936), The Mark Of Zorro (1940), My Favorite Blonde (1942), The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946), A Night To Remember (1942), East Side West Side (1949)

42. Anne Hathaway

Actress | Les Misérables

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Kate McCauley Hathaway, an actress, and Gerald T. Hathaway, a lawyer, both originally from Philadelphia. She is of mostly Irish descent, along with English, German, and French. Her first major role came in the short-lived television series ...

Greatest Performances: The Intern (2015), One Day (2011), Becoming Jane (2007), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Dark Waters (2019), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Interstellar (2014), The Witches (2020), Don Jon (2013), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Get Smart (2008)

43. Sarah Miles

Actress | Ryan's Daughter

Sarah Miles is an English actress whose career flourished during the Swinging Sixties and in the early Seventies. The high point of her career came when her husband, screenwriter Robert Bolt, adapted "Madame Bovary" into a story set during the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Ireland. Directed by David Lean...

Greatest Performances: Ryan's Daughter (1970), Term Of Trial (1962), The Hireling (1973), Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)

44. Lynn Bari

Actress | The Bridge of San Luis Rey

A curvaceous, dark-haired WWII pin-up beauty (aka "The Woo Woo Girl" and "The Girl with the Million Dollar Figure"), "B" film star Lynn Bari had the requisite looks and talent but few of the lucky breaks needed to penetrate the "A" rankings during her extensive Hollywood career. Nevertheless, some ...

Greatest Performances: The Falcon Takes Over (1942), Nocturne (1946), Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938), Sleepers West (1941), Shock (1946), City In Darkness (1939), Home Sweet Homicide (1946), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), The Amazing Mr. X (1948)

45. Kate Winslet

Actress | Titanic

Ask Kate Winslet what she likes about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume that runs the gamut...

Greatest Performances: Little Children (2006), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Finding Neverland (2004), The Reader (2008), Contagion (2011), Holy Smoke (1999), Jude (1996), Quills (2000), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Life Of David Gale (2003), The Mountain Between Us (2017), Steve Jobs (2015)

46. Angela Lansbury

Actress | The Manchurian Candidate

Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar ...

Greatest Performances: The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Beauty And The Beast (1991), Gaslight (1944), Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971), Death On The Nile (1978), The Long Hot Summer (1958), The Three Musketeers (1948), The Mirror Crack'd (1980), A Lawless Street (1955), National Velvet (1944), The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1945)

47. Marlene Dietrich

Soundtrack | Witness for the Prosecution

Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator ...

Greatest Performances: Morocco (1930), Destry Rides Again (1939), Blonde Venus (1932), Dishonored (1931), Witness For The Prosecution (1957), The Blue Angel (1930), Angel (1937), Shanghai Express (1932), The Spoilers (1942), The Devil Is A Woman (1935), Touch Of Evil (1958), Rancho Notorious (1952), Judgement At Nuremberg (1961), Manpower (1941)

48. Doris Day

Soundtrack | Love Me or Leave Me

One of America's most loved actresses was born Doris Mary Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died ...

Greatest Performances: The Thrill Of It All (1963), Pillow Talk (1959), Move Over Darling (1963), Storm Warning (1951), Send Me No Flowers (1964), Midnight Lace (1960), Teacher's Pet (1958), Love Me Or Leave Me (1955), That Touch Of Mink (1962), Please Don't Eat The Daisies (1960)

49. Mary Astor

Actress | The Maltese Falcon

Mary Astor was born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke on May 3, 1906 in Quincy, Illinois to Helen Marie Vasconcellos, an American of Portuguese and Irish ancestry from Illinois, and Otto Ludwig Langhanke, a German immigrant. Mary's parents were very ambitious for her and wanted something better for her...

Greatest Performances: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Great Lie (1941), Across The Pacific (1942), Act Of Violence (1948), The Kennel Murder Case (1933), Little Women (1949), Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), Dodsworth (1936), Midnight (1939), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Case Of The Howling Dog (1934), Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

50. Janet Leigh

Actress | Psycho

Janet Leigh was the only child of a couple who often moved from town to town. Living in apartments, Janet was a bright child who skipped several grades and finished high school when she was 15. A lonely child, she would spend much of her time at movie theaters. She was a student, studying music and...

Greatest Performances: Psycho (1960), The Naked Spur (1953), Act Of Violence (1948), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Little Women (1949), Touch Of Evil (1958), Harper (1966), The Vikings (1958)

51. Jane Russell

Actress | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her father was a United States Army lieutenant and her mother had been a student of drama and an actress with a traveling troupe. Once Mr. Russell was mustered out of the service, the family took up residence in ...

Greatest Performances: The Paleface (1948), Macao (1952), Son Of Paleface (1952), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), His Kind Of Women (1951), The Las Vegas Story (1952), The French Line (1953), Underwater! (1955), The Tall Men (1955)

52. Rosamund John

Actress | Tawny Pipit

A leading British stage and screen actress, Rosamund John is remembered with affection for her roles in film classics such as The Way to the Stars, Green For Danger and Tawny Pipit.

Born in 1913 she grew up in Tottenham, London and studied at the Embassy School of Acting. She made her film debut in ...

Greatest Performances: The Way To The Stars (1945), Green For Danger (1947), The First Of The Few (1942), The Lamp Still Burns (1943), Fame Is The Spur (1947), The Gentle Sex (1943)

53. Elsa Lanchester

Actress | Witness for the Prosecution

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born into an unconventional a family at the turn of the 20th century. Her parents, James "Shamus" Sullivan and Edith "Biddy" Lanchester, were socialists - very active members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in a rather broad sense - and did not believe in the ...

Greatest Performances: Murder By Death (1976), Bride Of Frankenstein (1935), Witness For The Prosecution (1957), The Bishop's Wife (1947), Come To The Stable (1949), Mystery Street (1950), Mary Poppins (1964), The Spiral Staircase (1946)

54. Saoirse Ronan

Actress | Hanna

Saoirse Una Ronan was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States, to Irish parents, Monica Ronan (née Brennan) and Paul Ronan, an actor. When Saoirse was three, the family moved back to Dublin, Ireland. Saoirse grew up in Dublin and briefly in Co. Carlow before moving back to Dublin ...

Greatest Performances: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014),Brooklyn (2015), Little Women (2019), The Lovely Bones (2009), Ammonite (2020), Violet & Daisy (2011), Lady Bird (2017), Hanna (2011), Byzantium (2012), Loving Vincent (2017), The Host (2013)

55. Eva Marie Saint

Actress | On the Waterfront

Actress and producer Eva Marie Saint was born on July 4, 1924 on Newark, New Jersey. She is known for starring in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). Her film career also includes ...

Greatest Performances: On The Waterfront (1954), North By Northwest (1959), Raintree County (1957), Grand Prix (1966), The Sandpiper (1965), Exodus (1960), A Hatful Of Rain (1957)

56. Dorothy Lamour

Actress | Creepshow 2

In addition to being Miss New Orleans in 1931, Dorothy Lamour worked as a Chicago elevator operator; band vocalist for her first husband, band leader Herbie Kaye; and radio performer. In 1936 she donned her soon-to-be-famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), and ...

Greatest Performances: Road To Morocco (1942), Road To Zanzibar (1941), My Favourite Brunette (1947), Road To Singapore (1940), Lulu Belle (1948), Manhandled (1949), Last Train From Madrid (1937), The Hurricane (1937), The Greatest Show On Earth (1952), Road To Utopia (1945)

57. Agnes Moorehead

Actress | The Magnificent Ambersons

Agnes was born of Anglo-Irish ancestry near Boston, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister (her mother was a mezzo-soprano) who encouraged her to perform in church pageants. Aged three, she sang 'The Lord is my Shepherd' on a public stage and seven years later joined the St. Louis Municipal Opera ...

Greatest Performances: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Bat (1959), Dark Passage (1947), Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), The Lost Moment (1947), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Station West (1948), Raintree County (1958)

58. Julie Delpy

Actress | Trois couleurs: Blanc

Julie Delpy was born in Paris, France, in 1969 to Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, both actors.

She was first featured in Jean-Luc Godard's Detective (1985) at the age of fourteen. She has starred in many American and European productions since then, including Disney's The Three Musketeers (1993), ...

Greatest Performances: Before Sunset (2004), Before Sunrise (1995), Three Colours: White (1994), Before Midnight (2013), Beatrice (1987), Two Days In New York (2012), Wiener-Dog (2016)

59. Lizabeth Scott

Actress | Too Late for Tears

Lizabeth Scott was born Emma Matzo on September 29, 1922 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the oldest of six children of Mary (Pennock) and John Matzo, who were Slovak immigrants. Scott attended Marywood Seminary and the Alvienne School of the Theatre in New York City, where she adopted the stage name of ...

Greatest Performances: Dead Reckoning (1947), The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946), Dark City (1950), The Racket (1951), I Walk Alone (1947), Silver Lode (1954), Too Late For Tears (1949), Easy Living (1949), Two Of A Kind (1951), Scared Stiff (1953), Pulp (1972), The Weapon (1956), Red Mountain (1951), Bad For Each Other (1953)

60. Paulette Goddard

Actress | The Ghost Breakers

Paulette Goddard was a child model who debuted in "The Ziegfeld Follies" at the age of 13. She gained fame with the show as the girl on the crescent moon, and was married to a wealthy man, Edgar James, by the time she was 17. After her divorce she went to Hollywood in 1931, where she appeared in ...

Greatest Performances: The Cat And The Canary (1939), The Ghost Breakers (1940), Hold Back The Dawn (1941), The Young In Heart (1938), Modern Times (1936), The Women (1939), Nothing But The Truth (1941), The Great Dictator (1940), Reap The Wild Wind (1942), The Crystal Ball (1943)

61. Evan Rachel Wood

Actress | Thirteen

Evan Rachel Wood was born September 7, 1987, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a theatre actor, writer and director, and her mother, Sara Wood, is an actress and acting coach. She has two older brothers--Dana Wood, a musician, and Ira David Wood IV, who has also acted. ...

Greatest Performances: Westworld (2016-2022), The Wrestler (2008), Barefoot (2014), Pretty Persuasion (2005), Into The Forrest (2015), Kajillionaire (2020), Allure (2017)

62. Rooney Mara

Actress | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Actress and philanthropist Rooney Mara was born on April 17, 1985 in Bedford, New York. She made her screen debut in the slasher film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005), went on to have a supporting role in the independent coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009), and has since starred in the horror ...

Greatest Performances: Carol (2015), Una (2016), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011), Women Talking (2022), Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013), Side Effects (2013), Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot, Her (2013), Nightmare Alley (2021), The Social Network (2010)

63. Shailene Woodley

Actress | Divergent

Actress and activist Shailene Woodley was born in Simi Valley, California, to Lori (Victor), a middle school counselor, and Lonnie Woodley, a school principal. She has one brother, Tanner. She was educated at Simi Valley High School in California. When Woodley was four years old she began ...

Greatest Performances: The Fault In Our Stars (2014), The Descendants (2011), The Spectacular Now (2013), To Catch A Killer (2023), The Last Letter From Your Lover (2021), The Mauritanian (2021), Snowden (2016), The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015), Allegiant (2016), Robots (2023)

64. Goldie Hawn

Actress | Private Benjamin

Goldie Jeanne Hawn was born November 21, 1945 in Washington, D.C. and raised in Takoma Park, Maryland to Laura Hawn, a jewelry shop/dance school owner & Rut Hawn, a band musician. She has a sister, Patti Hawn, and a brother, Edward, who died in infancy before her birth. She was raised in the Jewish...

Greatest Performances: Foul Play (1976), Private Benjamin (1980), Deceived (1996), Seems Like Old Times (1980), Shampoo (1975), The Sugarland Express (1974), The Heist (1971), There's A Girl In My Soup (1970), The First Wives Club (1996)

65. Emmanuelle Béart

Actress | 8 femmes

Emmanuelle Béart was born August 14, 1963, in Gassin, France. She lived with her mother, brothers, and sister on a farm not far from Saint-Tropez in Provence (southern France), because her father, singer and poet Guy Béart, did not want his children to be affected by the glamour world of Paris. ...

Greatest Performances: La Belle Noiseuse (1991), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996), 8 Women (2002), Manon Of The Spring (1986), Un Coeur Un Hiver (1992), Hell (2005), Strayed (2003), Vinyan (2008), Hell (1994)

66. Catherine Deneuve

Actress | 8 femmes

Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France, to actor parents Renée Simonot and Maurice Dorléac. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (...

Greatest Performances: Tristana (1970), Belle De Jour (1967), Les Demoiselles De Rochefort (1967), 8 Women (2002), Repulsion (1965), The Hunger (1983), Potiche (2010), The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (1964), The Last Metro (1980), The April Fools (1969), Place Vendome (1998), L'argent Des Autres (1978),

67. Carol Lynley

Actress | The Poseidon Adventure

Blonde and blue-eyed with an attractively feline appeal, Carol Lynley began her professional career as Carolyn Lee. She learned ballet at age seven, became a successful child model at age 10 (eventually working for the Sears & Roebuck department store in New York), and got her face nationally ...

Greatest Performances: Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Last Sunset (1961), The Shuttered Room (1967), Once You Kiss A Stranger (1969), The Cardinal (1963)

68. Dominique Sanda

Actress | Il conformista

Dominique Sanda was born in 1951, in Paris, France. When she was 16, she left her upper-class family and married, but divorced two years later. She found a temporary job as a Vogue model, when Robert Bresson gave her the starring part in his absorbing drama A Gentle Woman (1969); she was quite ...

Greatest Performances: The Conformist (1970), The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis (1970), The Mackintosh Man (1973), First Love (1970), A Gentle Woman (1969), 1900 (1976), The Crimson Rivers (2000), Garage Olimpo (1999)

69. Cameron Diaz

Actress | Vanilla Sky

Cameron Diaz, an American actress, was born in 1972 in San Diego, the daughter of a Cuban-American father and a German mother. Self described as "adventurous, independent and a tough kid," Cameron left home at 16 and for the next 5 years lived in such varied locales as Japan, Australia, Mexico, ...

Greatest Performances: There's Something About Mary (1998), The Mask (1994), Shrek (2001), Feeling Minnesota (1996), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek The Third (2007), Shrek Forever After (2010), Being John Malkovich (1999), The Invisible Circus (2001)

70. Jessica Chastain

Actress | Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Michelle Chastain was born in Sacramento, California, and was raised in a middle-class household in a Northern California suburb. Her mother, Jerri Chastain, is a vegan chef whose family is originally from Kansas, and her stepfather is a fireman. She discovered dance at the age of nine and ...

Greatest Performances: Zero Dark Thirty (2012), The Help (2011), Molly's Game (2017), Miss Sloane (2016), Take Shelter (2011), Lawless (2012), IT Chapter Two (2019), The Good Nurse (2022), Interstellar (2014), The Tree Of Life (2011), The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)

71. Joan Fontaine

Actress | Suspicion

Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was ...

Greatest Performances: Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956), Ivy (1947), The Duke Of West Point (1938), Blood On My Hands (1948), The Women (1939), Jane Eyre (1943)

72. Octavia Spencer

Actress | Hidden Figures

Spencer is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, which she claims is the proverbial buckle of the Bible belt. She's the sixth of seven siblings and holds a BS in Liberal Arts from Auburn University. A "closet" lover of acting, this practical Alabamian knew that she'd someday work in the film industry, ...

Greatest Performances: The Help (2011), Hidden Figures (2016), Fruitvale Station (2013), The Witches (2020), The Shape Of Water (2017), Luce (2019), Instant Family (2018), Ma (2019), Zootopia (2016), Drag Me To Hell (2009)

73. Donna Reed

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

Donna Reed was born in the midwestern town of Denison, Iowa, on January 27, 1921, as Donna Belle Mullenger. A small town - a population of less than 3,000 people - Denison was located by the Boyer River, and was the county seat of Crawford County. Donna grew up as a farm girl, much like many young ...

Greatest Performances: From Here To Eternity (1953), It's A Wonderful Life (1946), Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941), Eyes In The Night (1942), Trouble Along The Way (1953), Three Hours To Kill (1954), Green Dolphin Street (1947), Scandal Sheet (1952)

74. Judith Godrèche

Actress | The Overnight

Judith Godrèche was born on March 23, 1972 in Paris, France. She is an actress and writer, known for The Overnight (2015), The Spanish Apartment (2002) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998).

Greatest Performances: The Disenchanted (1990), Ridicule (1996), The 15 Year Old Girl (1989), Potiche (2010), Pot Luck (2002), Home Sweet Home (2008)

75. Ann Sheridan

Actress | Kings Row

Ann Sheridan won the "Search for Beauty" contest which carried with it a Paramount screen test. Signed to a contract at 18, she was put into a number of small roles under her real name of Clara Lou Sheridan. As she got better, her name was changed to Ann. In 1936, after two dozen films, she went to...

Greatest Performances: Come Next Spring (1956), I Was A Male War Bride (1949), The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), City For Conquest (1940), Edge Of Darkness (1943), Kings Row (1942), The Unfaithful (1947), Nora Prentiss (1947), Woman On The Run (1950), They Drive By Night (1940)

76. Claire Trevor

Actress | Key Largo

Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchman from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife, Benjamina, known as "Betty". Young ...

Greatest Performances: Farewell My Lovely aka Murder My Sweet (1944), Stagecoach (1939), Key Largo (1948), Johnny Angel (1945), The Velvet Touch (1948), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938), Crack-Up (1946), Dark Command (1940), Crossroads (1942), Born To Kill (1947), Man Without A Star (1955)

77. Kay Francis

Actress | Mandalay

Kay Francis is possibly the biggest of the 'forgotten stars' from Hollywood's Golden Era. Yet, for a while in the 1930s she ranked as one of America's most popular actresses, tagged the 'Queen of Warner Brothers'. By 1935, she earned a yearly salary of $115,000 (compared to Bette Davis with $18,000...

Greatest Performances: One Way Passage (1932), Jewel Robbery (1932), Trouble In Paradise (1932), The Feminine Touch (1941), 24 Hours (1931), The Cocoanuts (1929), Raffles (1930), In Name Only (1939), Charley's Aunt (1941), For The Defense (1930), Cynara (1932)

78. Madeleine Carroll

Actress | The 39 Steps

The original ash-blonde "iceberg maiden", Madeleine Carroll was a knowing beauty with a confident air, the epitome of poise and "breeding". Not only did she have looks and allure in abundance, but she had intellectual heft to go with them, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Birmingham ...

Greatest Performances: The 39 Steps (1935), My Favorite Blonde (1942), Secret Agent (1936), My Son, My Son! (1940), I Was A Spy (1933), The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937)

79. Viola Davis

Actress | Fences

Viola Davis is a critically revered actress of film, television, and theater and has won rave reviews for her multitude of substantial and intriguingly diverse roles. Audiences across the United States and internationally have admired her for her work- including her celebrated, Oscar-nominated ...

80. Jessica Lange

Actress | Tootsie

Jessica Lange was born in 1949, in Cloquet, Minnesota, USA, where her father worked as a traveling salesman. She obtained a scholarship to study art at the University of Minnesota, but instead went to Paris to study drama. She moved to New York, working as a model, until producer Dino De Laurentiis...

Greatest Performances: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Frances (1982), Cousin Bette (1998), Tootsie (1982), Cape Fear (1991), Big Fish (2003), Blue Sky (1994), Crimes Of The Heart (1986)

81. Thelma Ritter

Actress | Rear Window

Thelma Ritter appeared in high school plays and was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the 1940s she worked in radio. Her movie career was started with a bit part in the 1946 Miracle on 34th Street (1947). In the movie she played a weary Xmas shopper. Her performance in the short ...

Greatest Performances: Rear Window (1954), The Misfits (1961), All About Eve (1950), Pickup On South Street (1953), The Incident (1967), Titanic (1953), Birdman Of Alcatraz (1962), Lucy Gallant (1955), Move Over Darling (1963), Pillow Talk (1959)

82. Maggie Smith

Actress | Gosford Park

One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...

Greatest Performances: Hot Millions (1968), Murder By Death (1976), Gosford Park (2001), The V.I.P's (1963), The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Evil Under The Sun (1982), California Suite (1978), Death On The Nile (1978), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)

83. Emma Watson

Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years,...

84. Anne Baxter

Actress | All About Eve

Anne Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on May 7, 1923. She was the daughter of a salesman, Kenneth Stuart Baxter, and his wife, Catherine Dorothy (Wright), who herself was the daughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-renowned architect. Anne was a young girl of 11 when her parents moved ...

Greatest Performances: Chase A Crooked Shadow (1958), All About Eve (1950), Guest In The House (1944), Carnival Story (1954), I Confess (1953), The Fighting Sullivans (1944), The Blue Gardenia (1953), Angel On My Shoulder (1946)

85. Helen Mirren

Actress | The Queen

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...

Greatest Performances: Gosford Park (2001), Red (2010), Cal (1984), The Good Liar (2019), Eye In The Sky (2015), The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover (1989), Red 2 (2013), The Long Good Friday (1980), Excalibur (1981), National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007), State Of Play (2009), Fast & Furious Present: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), Hitchcock (2012), Age Of Consent (1969)

86. Gemma Arterton

Actress | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Gemma Christina Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she was raised. She is the daughter of Sally-Anne (Heap), a cleaner, and Barry J. Arterton, a welder. Her mother's cousin is singer-songwriter Eric Goulden.

Her parents divorced when she was age five, and Gemma subsequently lived ...

87. Michelle Pfeiffer

Actress | The Fabulous Baker Boys

Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their lives' work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High ...

Greatest Performances: Stardust (2007), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), What Lies Beneath (2000), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Dangerous Minds (1995), Up Close & Personal (1996), The Witches Of Eastwick (1987), The Family (2013), Murder On The Orient Express (2017), Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2019)

88. Vera Miles

Actress | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won her the title of "Miss Kansas" in 1948, leading soon to small roles in Hollywood films and television series. Fame came to the forthright, spirited Miles when she ...

Greatest Performances: 23 Paces To Baker Street (1956), Psycho (1960), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), The Wrong Man (1956), The Searchers (1956), A Touch Of Larceny (1959), Wichita (1955), Psycho II (1983), Web Of Evidence (1959), 5 Branded Women (1960)

89. Vanessa Redgrave

Actress | Coriolanus

On January 30, 1937, renowned theatre actor Michael Redgrave was performing in a production of Hamlet in London. During the curtain call, the show's lead, Laurence Olivier, announced to the audience: "tonight a great actress was born". This was in reference to his co-star's newborn daughter, ...

90. Faye Dunaway

Actress | Bonnie and Clyde

An icy, elegant blonde with a knack for playing complex and strong-willed female leads, enormously popular actress Faye Dunaway starred in several films which defined what many would come to call Hollywood's "second Golden Age." During her tenure at the top of the box office, she was a more than ...

Greatest Performances: Bonnie And Clyde (1967), Mommie Dearest (1981), Chinatown (1974), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), The Arrangement (1969), The Four Musketeers (1974), The Three Musketeers (1973),Three Days Of The Condor (1975), Eyes Of Laura Mars (1978), Network (1976), The Towering Inferno (1974), Voyage Of The Damned (1976)

91. Lana Turner

Actress | Madame X

Lana Turner had an acting ability that belied the "Sweater Girl" image MGM thrust upon her, and even many of her directors admitted that they knew she was capable of greatness (check out The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)). Unfortunately, her private life sometimes overshadowed her professional ...

Greatest Performances: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), The Bad And The Beautiful (1952), The Three Musketeers (1948), Johnny Eager (1941), Peyton Place (1957), Green Dolphin Street (1947)

92. Joan Blondell

Actress | Grease

With blonde hair, big blue eyes and a big smile, Joan Blondell was usually cast as the wisecracking working girl who was the lead's best friend.

Joan was born Rose Blondell in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of Katie and Eddie Blondell, who were vaudeville performers. Her father was a Polish ...

93. Romane Bohringer

Actress | Les nuits fauves

Romane Bohringer was born on August 14, 1973 in Pont-Sainte-Maxence, Oise, France. She is an actress and director, known for Savage Nights (1992), L'amour flou (2018) and The Apartment (1996).

Greatest Performances: L'appartement (1996), Les Nuits Fauves (1992), The King Is Alive (2000), Total Eclipse (1995), Mina Tannenbaum (1994), Renoir (2012), Vigo: A Passion For Life (1998), Our Precious Children (2003), Portraits Chinois (1996)

94. Susan Sarandon

Actress | Thelma & Louise

It was after the 1968 Democratic convention and there was a casting call for a film with several roles for the kind of young people who had disrupted the convention. Two recent graduates of Catholic University in Washington DC, went to the audition in New York for Joe (1970). Chris Sarandon, who ...

95. Amanda Seyfried

Actress | Les Misérables

Amanda Seyfried was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Ann (Sander), an occupational therapist, and Jack Seyfried, a pharmacist. She is of German, and some English and Scottish, ancestry. She began modeling when she was eleven, and acted in high school productions as well as taking ...

96. Jo Van Fleet

Actress | East of Eden

Jo Van Fleet was born on December 29, 1915 in Oakland, California. She established herself as a notable dramatic actress on Broadway over several years, winning a Tony Award in 1954 for her skill in a difficult role, playing an unsympathetic, even abusive character, in Horton Foote's "The Trip to ...

97. Sally Gray

Actress | The Saint's Vacation

Lovely, statuesque actress Sally Gray, complete with husky voice and dumb blonde persona was born Constance Vera Stevens in London, England on February 14, 1915. In a career instigated by her ballerina mother, Sally began performing at age 10 in minstrel shows and was initially trained in dance and...

98. Joan Sims

Actress | Carry on Up the Khyber

Joan Sims, the "First Lady of Carry On", was born Irene Joan Marion Sims on 9 May 1930. The daughter of an Essex railway station master, Joan was interested in pursuing show-business, and soon became a familiar face in a growing number of amateur productions. In 1946, Joan first applied to RADA, ...

99. Judy Geeson

Actress | To Sir, with Love

Born in Arundel, Sussex, in 1948, Judy's father moved the family to London when she was 10 years old and enrolled her and sister Sally Geeson into the Corona Academy, Chiswick. Judy initially wanted to be a ballet dancer but had to change course when she suffered from terrible headaches as a result...

100. Teresa Wright

Actress | Shadow of a Doubt

A natural and lovely talent who was discovered for films by Samuel Goldwyn, the always likable Teresa Wright distinguished herself early on in high-caliber, Oscar-worthy form -- the only performer ever to be nominated for Oscars for her first three films. Always true to herself, she was able to ...

Greatest Performances: Shadow Of A Doubt (1943), The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946), Enchantment (1948), Mrs Miniver (1942), The Little Foxes (1941), Escapade In Japan (1957), Track Of The Cat (1954), Pursued (1947), Something To Live For (1952), The Men (1950)