Hollywood's Leading Ladies of the 1940's

Garson was listed as one of America's top ten box office draws from 1942 through 1946, and was one of MGM's major stars during this decade. She received seven Academy Award nominations, and won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver (1942). Garson was a frequent co-star of actor Walter Pidgeon, making eight films with him, including; Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944) and That Forsyte Woman (1949). She was also partnered with Clark Gable after his return from war service in the 1945 film Adventure.

In 1941 Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Kitty Foyle (1940). She followed her win with a sleuth of hit films, including; Primrose Path (1940) Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) and Roxie Hart (1942), among others. She was RKO's hottest property during the early 1940's. After becoming a free agent she made hugely successful films with other studios during the mid-forties.

Bergman was a Swedish actress who achieved success not only in Europe, but in the United States as well, making a sleuth of successful films in both continents. She is perhaps best known for her role as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), opposite Humphrey Bogart. She also appeared alongside Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Notorious (1946). Bergman had other several hit films in this decade, including: For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Gaslight (1944), Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) and Joan of Arc (1948). The American Film Institute ranked her as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema.

Crawford signed with Warner Bros. in 1943, and made several of her most memorable pictures during this time. In 1945, she was picked to play the lead role in Mildred Pierce despite the fact that the film's director profusely asked the studio to cast another actress in her stead. Eventually she won him over and the role earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. The success of this film revived Crawford's career.

By the 1940's Davis was Warner Bros. most profitable star, and she was given priority in their female leading roles. She was often filmed in close ups to emphasize her distinctive eyes. In 1940, she made All This and Heaven Too which was her most profitable picture at the time. She was nominated again for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as an adulterous killer in The Letter (1940). She worked with director William Wyler again for the film The Little Foxes (1941), for which she received another Academy Award nomination. In 1942, she appeared in another of her more memorable pictures, the romantic melodrama Now, Voyager, opposite Paul Henreid. Unlike other stars of the era, Davis enjoyed playing unlikable and unsympathetic characters such as Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes and Fanny Trellis Skeffington in Mr. Skeffington (1944).

Her iconic bathing suit poster made her the number one pin-up girl of the World War II era. In the 1930's while under contract with Paramount Pictures she was relegated to starring in B-movies. That changed when in 1940 she was offered a ten year contract with 20th Century Fox. By 1943, she was named the most popular box office draw in the country and she was 20th Century Fox's top money maker. Darryl F. Zanuck, Fox's chief at the time, stated that Grable was his favorite contract player.

Though her career started in the mid 1930's, it wasn't until the 1940's that de Havilland achieved great success. In 1939, her biggest box office hit came with Gone with the Wind in which she played Melanie Hamilton, the second female lead after Vivien Leigh. She received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949).

During World War II, she became a popular pin-up girl and a sex symbol. She became a well-known femme fatale for her role in the film The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). She appeared in her first technicolor film in 1948 as Lady de Winter in The Three Musketeers.

She signed a contract with MGM studios in 1941 and appeared in small supporting roles until she was finally noticed for her role in the film noir The Killers (1946). The other memorable film she made during this decade was The Hucksters (1947), opposite Clark Gable. Her success continued in the 1950's with even more hit films.

Lamarr was a contract star of MGM's "Golden Age". She started out her career in Europe before moving to the United States and successfully crossing over into Hollywood. She made several hit films with some of the decade's most popular leading men, including Clark Gable, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Charles Boyer and William Powell, among many others. Her biggest success came in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah in which she played Delilah. It became the highest grossing film of 1949.

During the 1940's Colbert continued making hit films which made her one of the top paid stars of the era. In 1943, she appeared alongside Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake as a military nurse in the hit film So Proudly We Hail!. Colbert earned a third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film Since You Went Away (1945). She also starred with John Wayne in the comedy film Without Reservations (1946).

Her successful acting career which started out in the 1930's, continued to flourish in the 40's. By 1944 she was the highest paid woman in the United States. She made several hit films in this decade which continued her reign as box-office queen, some of this hits include: Meet John Doe (1941), Ball of Fire (1941), The Gay Sisters (1942), Double Indemnity (1944), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). Stanwyck was nominated four times for an Academy Award for Best Actress, but didn't win. However, in 1984 she received an honorary Oscar for her contributions to the film industry.

Hayworth was one of top stars of the 1940's. She is one of the few women to have the distinction of having danced onscreen with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. In 1944, she made one of her best-known films, Cover Girl. But her most memorable performance came in the film noir Gilda (1946) with Glenn Ford. The movie made her a cultural icon as a femme fatale. She followed this with a critically acclaimed performance in The Lady from Shanghai (1947), which was directed by her then husband, Orson Welles.

Jones won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Bernadette Soubirous in The Song of Bernadette (1943). She also made several hit films during the remainder of this decade including: Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945) Duel in the Sun (1946), Madame Bovary (1949) and We Were Strangers (1949). Her successful career continued to flourish in the 1950's.

At the age of 16 she was cast as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film which catapulted her to stardom. Her transition from teenage star to adult actress came with the film For Me and My Gal (1942), in which she received top billing. The film was also Gene Kelly's first screen appearance. Her other great success came in 1944 with Meet Me in St. Louis.

Is an Irish film actress and singer that achieved notable success in the 1940' and 50's. Her breakthrough role came in 1941 when she appeared in John Ford's highly successful How Green Was My Valley. In 1947, she starred as Doris Walker in Miracle on 34th Street. She is often remembered for her collaborations with director John Ford, and actor and longtime friend John Wayne.

In 1940 she starred in her most memorable role as a fast talking news reporter in Howard Hawk's His Girl Friday, opposite Cary Grant. During this decade, she earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her roles in My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946) and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947). Russell also made comedies such as The Feminine Touch (1941) and Take a Letter, Darling (1942), and the murder mystery The Velvet Touch (1948).

Her breakthrough role came in the 1941 war drama I Wanted Wings. Later she won critical and popular acclaim for her starring role in Sullivan's Travels (1941). Lake became well-known for her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. They made four films together. She was known for playing femme fatales in several film noirs, and also popularized the peek-a-boo hairstyle, which became her signature look. Although she was popular with the public she had a complex personality and acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with. In the mid to late 1940's she suffered a decline and in 1948 Paramount decided not to renew her contract.

Known for her husky voice and sultry looks, she found fame playing femme fatales in several successful film noirs of the decade. She had a successful partnership with husband, Humphrey Bogart, including: To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948).

In the 1940's she appeared in several film noirs directed by Fritz Lang, including The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945).

After being labelled "box office poison" in the late 1930's, Hepburn was able to make a comeback with her role as socialite Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story (1940), co-starring Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. During this decade she started a successful partnership with Spencer Tracy with whom she also had a romantic relationship. Hepburn's successful acting career continued for decades to come as Hollywood's reigning leading lady.

Her appearance in the hugely successful Gone with the Wind (1939) made her an instant star. The film earned many accolades including an Academy Award for Best Actress for Leigh's role as Scarlet O'Hara. In 1940 she received top billing for her role in the remake of the 1931 film Waterloo Bridge which co-starred Robert Taylor. She appeared beside her husband at the time Laurence Olivier in That Hamilton Woman (1941), the film was popular in the United States and was a huge success in the Soviet Union.

Perhaps best remembered for her role in The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. She received an Academy Award nominaton for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Great Lie (1941).

Wyman began her acting career as a contract player with Warner Bros. in 1936 at the age of 19. She finally gained critical acclaim with her role in the film noir The Lost Weekend (1945). In 1946 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Yearling. Two years later, she won the award for her role as a deaf-mute rape victim in the film Johnny Belinda (1948).

Renowned for her versatility which lead her to be dubbed the "Woman of a Thousand Faces". Parker had several successes in this decade including: Hollywood Canteen (1944), Pride of the Marines (1945), and also the remake of Of Human Bondage (1946), though the latter wasn't as well received as the original and Parker's performance was heavily criticized. Her success continued well into the fifties, and her career flourished further in this decade.

Goddard appeared in her then-husband, Charlie Chaplin's comedy drama The Great Dictator (1940). The movie was Chaplin's first real "talkie" and his most commercially successful film. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in So Proudly We Hail! (1943), which co-starred Claudette Colbert and Veronica Lake. Goddard's most successful film was Kitty (1945). She also appeared in three successful pictures directed by famed director Cecil B. DeMille.

She is best remembered for her role in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) with James Stewart. She also appeared in the first screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey in 1945. In the fifties she followed Loretta Young's example and moved to television with a sitcom titled The Donna Reed Show which lasted from 1958 to 1966.

Young made nineteen pictures during this decade, and kept working well into the 50's. She won an Academy Award for her performance in The Farmer's Daughter (1947). She also co-starred with Cary Grant in The Bishop's Wife (1947). She was nominated once again in 1949 for her role as Sister Margaret in Come to the Stable.

Dietrich made twelve films from 1940 to 1949, including: Seven Sinners (1940) and The Spoilers (1942), both opposite John Wayne. She also appeared in A Foreign Affair (1948), which co-starred Jean Arthur and John Lund.

In 1935 she began her career on the stage, and signed a contract with RKO that same year. Her contract was not renewed and expired in 1939. However, she made a strong impression on producer David O. Selznick who asked her to audition for the lead role in the film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. The film marked the American debut of Alfred Hitchcock. The role earned Fontaine an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. A year later she was nominated again for the same award for her role in another Hitchcock classic, Suspicion, except this time she took home the Oscar. Fontaine and her sister, Olivia de Hallivand are the only siblings to have won lead acting Academy Awards. During this decade Fontaine excelled in romantic melodramas.

Is an American film, theater and television actress that had considerable success during the late 1930's and the 1940's before being blacklisted by Hollywood movie studio executives in the 1950's for promoting liberal and progressive ideals. She worked steadily from 1935 until 1949 appearing in 52 films.

She is best remembered for her roles in The Roaring Twenties (1939), opposite James Cagney, Saboteur (1942), a Hitchcock film co-starring Humphrey Bogart, and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), in which she plays Cary Grant's fiancee.

She began her acting career as a child eventually signing a contract with Warner Bros. In 1941 she got her first major role in High Sierra. A year later she appeared as James Cagney's wife in Yankee Doodle Dandy. In 1946 exhibitors voted her the most promising "star of tomorrow'". She continued to make films until her marriage in 1950.