Most Oscar-Nominated Actors

1. Meryl Streep

Considered by many critics to be the greatest living actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 21 times, and has won it three times. Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, to Mary Wolf (Wilkinson), a commercial artist, and Harry William ...

3/21 The Post (Actress); Florence Foster Jenkins (Actress); Into the Woods (S. Actress); August: Osage County (Actress); The Iron Lady (Actress - win); Julie & Julia (Actress); Doubt (Actress); The Devil Wears Prada (Actress); Adaptation. (S. Actress); Music of the Heart (Actress); One True Thing (Actress); The Bridges of Madison County (Actress); Postcards from the Edge (Actress); A Cry in the Dark (Actress); Ironweed (Actress); Out of Africa (Actress); Silkwood (Actress); Sophie's Choice (Actress - win); The French Lieutenant's Woman (Actress); Kramer vs. Kramer (S. Actress - win); The Deer Hunter (S. Actress)

2. Katharine Hepburn

Actress | The Lion in Winter

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...

4/12 On Golden Pond (Actress - win); The Lion In Winter (Actress -win/tie); Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Actress - win); Long Day's Journey into Night (Actress); Suddenly, Last Summer (Actress); The Rainmaker (Actress); Summertime (Actress); The African Queen (Actress); Woman of the Year (Actress); The Philadelphia Story (Actress); Alice Adams (Actress); Morning Glory (Actress - win) R.I.P.

3. Jack Nicholson

Actor | Chinatown

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...

3/12 About Schmidt (Actor); As Good As It Gets (Actor - win); A Few Good Men (S. Actor); Ironweed (Actor); Prizzi's Honor (Actor); Terms of Endearment (S. Actor - win); Reds (S. Actor); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Actor - win); Chinatown (Actor); The Last Detail (Actor); Five Easy Pieces (Actor); Easy Rider (S. Actor)

4. Bette Davis

Actress | All About Eve

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but...

2/10 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Actress); The Star (Actress); All About Eve (Actress); Mr. Skeffington (Actress); Now, Voyager (Actress); The Little Foxes (Actress); The Letter (Actress); Dark Victory (Actress); Jezebel (Actress - win); Dangerous (Actress - win) R.I.P.

5. Laurence Olivier

Actor | Sleuth

Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...

1/10 The Boys from Brazil (Actor); Marathon Man (S. Actor); Sleuth (Actor); Othello (Actor); The Entertainer (Actor); Richard III (Actor); Hamlet (Actor - win); Henry V (Actor); Rebecca (Actor); Wuthering Heights (Actor) R.I.P.

6. Spencer Tracy

Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg

Spencer Tracy was the second son born on April 5, 1900, to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While attending Marquette Academy, he and classmate Pat O'Brien quit school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy was still at Norfolk Navy Yard...

2/9 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Actor); Judgment at Nuremburg (Actor); Inherit the Wild (Actor); The Old Man and the Sea (Actor); Bad Day at Black Rock (Actor); Father of the Bride (Actor); Boys Town (Actor - win); Captain Courageous (Actor - win); San Francisco (Actor) R.I.P.

7. Denzel Washington

Actor | Fences

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...

2/9 The Tragedy of Macbeth (Actor); Roman J. Israel, Esp. (Actor); Fences (Actor); Flight (Actor); Training Day (Actor - win); The Hurricane (Actor); Malcolm X (Actor); Glory (S. Actor - win); Cry Freedom (S. Actor)

8. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

1/9 Road to Perdition (S. Actor); Nobody's Fool (Actor); The Color of Money (Actor - win); The Verdict (Actor); Absence of Malice (Actor); Cool Hand Luke (Actor); Hud (Actor); The Hustler (Actor); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Actor) R.I.P.

9. Al Pacino

Actor | Serpico

Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.

He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...

1/9 The Irishman (S. Actor); Scent of a Woman (Actor - win); Glengarry Glenn Ross (S. Actor); Dick Tracy (S. Actor); ...And Justice for All (Actor); Dog Day Afternoon (Actor); The Godfather Part II (Actor); Serpico (Actor); The Godfather (S. Actor)

10. Cate Blanchett

Actress | Carol

Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...

2/8 Tár (Actress); Carol (Actress); Blue Jasmine (Actress - win); Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Actress); I'm Not There (S. Actress); Notes on a Scandal (S. Actress); The Aviator (S. Actress - win); Elizabeth (Actress)

11. Marlon Brando

Actor | Apocalypse Now

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...

2/8 A Dry White Season (S. Actor); Last Tango in Paris (Actor); The Godfather (Actor - win); Sayonara (Actor); On the Waterfront (Actor - win); Julius Caesar (Actor); Viva Zapata! (Actor); A Streetcar Named Desire (Actor) R.I.P.

12. Robert De Niro

Actor | Cape Fear

One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...

2/8 Killers of the Flower Moon (S. Actor); Silver Linings Playbook (S. Actor); Cape Fear (Actor); Awakenings (Actor); Raging Bull (Actor - win); The Deer Hunter (Actor); Taxi Driver (Actor); The Godfather Part II (S. Actor - win)

13. Jack Lemmon

Actor | The Apartment

Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Mildred Lankford Noel and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., the president of a doughnut company. His ancestry included Irish (from his paternal grandmother) and English. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers ...

2/8 Missing (Actor), Tribute (Actor), The China Syndrome (Actor); Save the Tiger (Actor - win); Days of Wine and Roses (Actor); The Apartment (Actor); Some Like It Hot (Actor); Mister Roberts (S. Actor - win) R.I.P.

14. Judi Dench

Actress | Skyfall

Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the ...

1/8 Belfast (S. Actress); Philomena (Actress); Notes on a Scandal (Actress); Mrs. Henderson Presents (Actress); Iris (Actress); Chocolat (S. Actress); Shakespeare in Love (S. Actress - win); Mrs. Brown (Actress)

15. Geraldine Page

Actress | Sweet Bird of Youth

Considered by many to be one of the greatest American actresses of all time, Geraldine Page was a master craftswoman who seemed to bring out the most inner detail of the character she was playing. Her dedication to her craft has earned her the respect of many of today's great actors including Meryl...

1/8 The Trip of Bountiful (Actress - win); The Pope of Greenwich Village (S. Actress); Interiors (Actress); Pete 'n' Tillie (S. Actress); You're a Big Boy Now (S. Actress); Sweet Bird of Youth (Actress); Summer and Smoke (Actress); Hondo (S. Actress) R.I.P.

16. Glenn Close

Actress | Fatal Attraction

Eight time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Mary H. "Bettine" (Moore) and William Taliaferro Close (William Close), a prominent doctor. Both of her parents were from upper-class families.

Glenn was a noted ...

0/8 Hillbilly Elegy (S. Actress); The Wife (Actress); Albert Nobbs (Actress); Dangerous Liaisons (Actress); Fatal Attraction (Actress); The Natural (S. Actress); The Big Chill (S. Actress); The World According to Garp (S. Actress)

17. Peter O'Toole

Actor | Lawrence of Arabia

A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a...

0/8 Venus (Actor), My Favorite Year (Actor), The Stunt Man (Actor); The Ruling Class (Actor); Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Actor); The Lion In Winter(Actor); Becket (Actor); Lawrence of Arabia (Actor) R.I.P.

18. 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 ...

3/7 Autumn Sonata (Actress); Murder on the Orient Express (S. Actress - win); Anastasia (Actress - win); Joan of Arc (Actress); The Bells of St. Mary's (Actress); Gaslight (Actress - win); For Whom the Bell Tolls (Actress) R.I.P.

19. 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 ...

2/7 The Morning After (Actress); On Golden Pond (S. Actress); The China Syndrome (Actress); Coming Home (Actress - win); Julia (Actress); Klute (Actress - win); They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Actress)

20. Dustin Hoffman

Actor | Tootsie

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, ...

2/7 Wag the Dog (Actor); Rain Man (Actor - win); Tootsie (Actor); Kramer vs. Kramer (Actor - win); Lenny (Actor); Midnight Cowboy (Actor); The Graduate (Actor)

21. Jeff Bridges

Actor | The Big Lebowski

Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...

1/7 Hell or High Water (S. Actor); True Grit (Actor); Crazy Heart (Actor - win); The Contender (S. Actor); Starman (Actor); Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (S. Actor); The Last Picture Show (S. Actor)

22. Robert Duvall

Actor | The Apostle

Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a ...

1/7 The Judge (S. Actor); A Civil Action (S. Actor); The Apostle (Actor); Tender Mercies (Actor - win); The Great Santini (Actor); Apocalypse Now (S. Actor); The Godfather (S. Actor)

23. Greer Garson

Actress | Pride and Prejudice

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was born on September 29, 1904 in London, England, to Nancy Sophia (Greer) and George Garson, a commercial clerk. Of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent, Garson displayed no early interest in becoming an actress. Educated at the University of London intending to become a ...

1/7 Sunrise at Campobello (Actress); The Valley of Decision (Actress); Mrs. Parkington (Actress); Madame Curie (Actress); Mrs. Miniver (Actress - win); Blossoms in the Dust (Actress); Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Actress) R.I.P.

24. 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...

1/7 Steve Jobs (S. Actress); The Reader (Actress - win); Little Children (Actress); Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Actress); Iris (S. Actress); Titanic (Actress); Sense and Sensibility (S. Actress)

25. Richard Burton

Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.

Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in ...

0/7 Equus (Actor); Anne of the Thousand Days (Actor); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Actor); The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Actor); Becket (Actor); The Robe (Actor); My Cousin Rachel (S. Actor) R.I.P.

26. Daniel Day-Lewis

Actor | There Will Be Blood

Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...

3/6 Phantom Thread (Actor); Lincoln (Actor - win); There Will Be Blood (Actor - win); Gangs of New York (Actor); In the Name of the Father (Actor); My Left Foot (Actor - win)

27. Frances McDormand

Actress | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She ...

3/6 Nomadland (Actress - win); Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Actress - win); North Country (S. Actress); Almost Famous (S. Actress); Fargo (Actress - win); Mississippi Burning (S. Actress)

28. Michael Caine

Actor | The Dark Knight

Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of ...

2/6 The Quiet American (Actor); The Cider House Rules (S. Actor - win); Hannah and Her Sisters (S. Actor - win); Educating Rita (Actor); Sleuth (Actor); Alfie (Actor)

29. Tom Hanks

Producer | Cast Away

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has ...

2/6 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (S. Actor); Cast Away (Actor); Saving Private Ryan (Actor); Forrest Gump (Actor - win); Philadelphia (Actor - win); Big (Actor)

30. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

2/6 The Father (Actor - win); The Two Popes (S. Actor); Amistad (S. Actor); Nixon (Actor); The Remains of the Day (Actor); The Silence of the Lambs (Actor - win)

31. 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...

2/6 Blue Sky (Actress - win), Music Box (Actress); Sweet Dreams (Actress); Country (Actress); Frances (Actress); Tootsie (S. Actress - win)

32. 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 ...

2/6 Gosford Park (S. Actress); A Room with a View (S. Actress); California Suite (S. Actress - win); Travels with My Aunt (Actress); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Actress - win); Othello (S. Actress)

33. Ellen Burstyn

Actress | Requiem for a Dream

Ellen Burstyn was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Correine Marie (Hamel) and John Austin Gillooly. She is of Irish, French/French-Canadian, Pennsylvania Dutch (German), and Native American ancestry.. She worked a number of jobs before she became an actress. At 14, she was a short-order cook at a ...

1/6 Requiem for a Dream (Actress); Resurrection (Actress); Same Time, Next Year (Actress); Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Actress - win); The Exorcist (Actress); The Last Picture Show (S. Actress)

34. Leonardo DiCaprio

Actor | Inception

Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...

1/6 Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (Actor); The Revenant (Actor - win); The Wolf of Wall Street (Actor); Blood Diamond (Actor); The Aviator (Actor); What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (S. Actor)

35. 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, ...

1/6 Howard's End (S. Actress), The Bostonians (Actress); Julia (S. Actress - win); Mary, Queen of Scots (Actress); Isadora (Actress); Morgan! (Actress)

36. Norma Shearer

Actress | The Divorcee

She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to ...

1/6 Marie Antoinette (Actress); Romeo and Juliet (Actress); The Barretts of Wimpole Street (Actress); A Free Soul (Actress); The Divorcee (Actress - win); Their Own Desire (Actress) R.I.P.

37. Sissy Spacek

Actress | In the Bedroom

As a kid, Sissy Spacek climbed trees, rode horses, swam, and played in the woods. She was born Mary Elizabeth Spacek on December 25, 1949, in Quitman, Texas, to Virginia Frances (Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent. Her father's family was of Czech and German origin.

...

1/6 In the Bedroom (Actress); Crimes of the Heart (Actress); The River (Actress); Missing (Actress); Coal Miner's Daughter (Actress - win); Carrie (Actress)

38. 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 ...

0/6 Vice (S. Actress); American Hustle (Actress); The Master (S. Actress); The Fighter (S. Actress); Doubt (S. Actress); Junebug (S. Actress)

39. Deborah Kerr

Actress | The King and I

Deborah Jane Trimmer was born on 30 September 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Captain Arthur Kerr Trimmer. She was educated at Northumberland House, Clifton, Bristol. She first performed at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London. She subsequently performed with the Oxford ...

0/6 The Sundowners (Actress); Separate Tables (Actress); Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (Actress); The King and I (Actress); From Here to Eternity (Actress); Edward, My Son (Actress) R.I.P.

40. 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 ...

0/6 Birdman of Alcatraz (S. Actress); Pillow Talk (S. Actress); Pickup on South Street (S. Actress); With a Song in My Heart (S. Actress); The Mating Season (S. Actress); All About Eve (S. Actress) R.I.P.

41. Gary Cooper

Actor | High Noon

Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper. Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (then called Iowa College). His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a ...

2/5 High Noon (Actor - win); For Whom the Bell Tolls (Actor); The Pride of the Yankees); Sergeant York (Actor - win); Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Actor) R.I.P.

42. 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 ...

2/5 The Heiress (Actress - win); The Snake Pit (Actress); To Each His Own (Actress - win); Hold Back the Dawn (Actress); Gone with the Wind (S. Actress) R.I.P.

43. Jodie Foster

Actress | The Silence of the Lambs

Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received ...

2/5 Nyad (S. Actress); Nell (Actress); The Silence of the Lambs (Actress - win); The Accused (Actress - win); Taxi Driver (S. Actress)

44. Gene Hackman

Actor | The French Connection

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Anna Lyda Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After ...

2/5 Unforgiven (S. Actor - win); Mississippi Burning (Actor); The French Connection (Actor - win); I Never Sang for My Father (S. Actor); Bonnie and Clyde (S. Actor)

45. Fredric March

Actor | Inherit the Wind

Fredric March began a career in banking but in 1920 found himself cast as an extra in films being produced in New York. He starred on the Broadway stage first in 1926 and would return there between screen appearances later on. He won plaudits (and an Academy Award nomination) for his send-up of ...

2/5 Death of a Salesman (Actor); The Best Years of Our Lives (Actor - win); A Star Is Born (Actor); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Actor - win/tie); The Royal Family of Broadway (Actor) R.I.P.

46. Sean Penn

Actor | Mystic River

Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.

Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...

2/5 Milk (Actor - win); Mystic River (Actor - win); I Am Sam (Actor); Sweet and Lowdown (Actor); Dead Man Walking (Actor)

47. 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 ...

2/5 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Actress - win); BUtterfield 8 (Actress - win); Suddenly, Last Summer (Actress); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Actress); Raintree County (Actress) R.I.P.

48. Anne Bancroft

Actress | The Graduate

Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared...

1/5 Anges of God (Actress); The Turning Point (Actress); The Graduate (Actress); The Pumpkin Eater (Actress); The Miracle Worker (Actress - win) R.I.P.

49. Morgan Freeman

Actor | Driving Miss Daisy

With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mayme Edna (Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber. The young Freeman...

1/5 Invictus (Actor); Million Dollar Baby (S. Actor - win); The Shawshank Redemption (Actor); Driving Miss Daisy (Actor); Street Smart (S. Actor)

50. 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...

1/5 I Want to Live! (Actress - win); I'll Cry Tomorrow (Actress); With a Song in My Heart (Actress); My Foolish Heart (Actress); Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (Actress) R.I.P.

51. 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, ...

1/5 Wait Until Dark (Actress); Breakfast at Tiffany's (Actress); The Nun's Story (Actress); Sabrina (Actress); Roman Holiday (Actress - win) R.I.P.

52. 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 ...

1/5 Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (Actress); Duel in the Sun (Actress); Love Letters (Actress); Since You Went Away (S. Actress); The Song of Bernadette (Actress - win) R.I.P.

53. Nicole Kidman

Actress | Moulin Rouge!

Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.

Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical ...

1/5 Being the Ricardos (Actress); Lion (S. Actress); Rabbit Hole (Actress); The Hours (Actress - win); Moulin Rouge! (Actress)

54. 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 ...

1/5 Terms of Endearment (Actress - win); The Turning Point (Actress); Irma la Douce (Actress); The Apartment (Actress); Some Came Running (Actress)

55. Julianne Moore

Actress | Far from Heaven

Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...

1/5 Still Alice (Actress - win); Far from Heaven (Actress); The Hours (S. Actress); The End of the Affair (Actress); Boogie Nights (S. Actress)

56. Paul Muni

Actor | Scarface

Paul Muni was born Sept. 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, who were both professionals. His family was Jewish, and spoke Yiddish. Paul was educated in New York and Cleveland public schools. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches, with black hair and ...

1/5 The Last Angry Man (Actor); The Life of Emile Zola (Actor); The Story of Louis Pasteur (Actor - win); I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Actor); The Valiant (Actor) R.I.P.

57. Gregory Peck

Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird

Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, to Bernice Mae (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. He had Irish (from his paternal grandmother), English, and some German, ancestry. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child...

1/5 To Kill a Mockingbird (Actor - win); Twelve O'Clock High (Actor); Gentleman's Agreement (Actor); The Yearling (Actor); The Keys of the Kingdom (Actor) R.I.P.

58. 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 ...

1/5 Dead Man Walking (Actress - win); The Client (Actress); Lorenzo's Oil (Actress); Thelma & Louise (Actress); Atlantic City (Actress)

59. James Stewart

Actor | Vertigo

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...

1/5 Anatomy of a Murder (Actor); Harvey (Actor); It's a Wonderful Life (Actor); The Philadelphia Story (Actor - win); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Actor) R.I.P.

60. Annette Bening

Actress | American Beauty

Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, ...

0/5 Nyad (Actress); The Kids Are All Right (Actress); Being Julia (Actress); American Beauty (Actress); The Grifters (S. Actress)

61. Bradley Cooper

Actor | A Star Is Born

Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Gloria (Campano), is of Italian descent, and worked for a local NBC station. His father, Charles John Cooper, who was of Irish descent, was a stockbroker. Immediately after Bradley graduated from the ...

0/5 Maestro (Actor); A Star is Born (Actor); American Sniper (Actor); American Hustle (S. Actor); Silver Linings Playbook (Actor)

62. 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...

0/5 I Remember Mama (Actress); Love Affair (Actress); The Awful Truth (Actress); Theodora Goes Wild (Actress); Cimarron (Actress) R.I.P.

63. Albert Finney

Actor | Murder on the Orient Express

The son of a Lancashire bookmaker, Albert Finney came to motion pictures via the theatre. In 1956, he won a scholarship to RADA where his fellow alumni included Peter O'Toole and Alan Bates. He joined the Birmingham Repertory where he excelled in plays by William Shakespeare. A member of the Royal ...

0/5 Erin Brockovich (S. Actor); Under the Volcano (Actor); The Dresser (Actor); Murder on the Orient Express (Actor); Tom Jones (Actor) R.I.P.

64. Arthur Kennedy

Actor | Lawrence of Arabia

Arthur Kennedy, one of the premier character actors in American film from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, achieved fame in the role of Biff in Elia Kazan's historic production of Arthur Miller's Pultizer-Prize winning play "Death of a Salesman." Although he was not selected to recreate the ...

0/5 Some Came Running (S. Actor); Peyton Place (S. Actor); Trial (S. Actor); Bright Victory (Actor); Champion (S. Actor) R.I.P.

65. Michelle Williams

Actress | Blue Valentine

A small-town girl born and raised in rural Kalispell, Montana, Michelle Ingrid Williams is the daughter of Carla Ingrid (Swenson), a homemaker, and Larry Richard Williams, a commodity trader and author. Her ancestry is Norwegian, as well as German, British Isles, and other Scandinavian. She was ...

0/5 The Fabelmans (Actress); Manchester by the Sea (S. Actress); My Week with Marilyn (Actress); Blue Valentine (Actress); Brokeback Mountain (S. Actress)

66. Walter Brennan

Actor | The Westerner

In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and ...

3/4 Sergeant York (S. Actor); The Westerner (S. Actor - win); Kentucky (S. Actor - win); Come and Get It (S. Actor - win) R.I.P.

67. Glenda Jackson

Actress | Women in Love

Few in modern British history have come as far or achieved as much from humble beginnings as Glenda Jackson did. From acclaimed actress to respected MP (Member of Parliament), she was known for her high intelligence and meticulous approach to her work. She was born to a working-class household in ...

2/4 Hedda (Actress); A Touch of Class (Actress - win); Sunday Bloody Sunday (Actress); Women in Love (Actress - win) R.I.P.

68. Anthony Quinn

Actor | Alexis Zorbas

Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...

2/4 Zorba the Greek (Actor); Wild is the Wind (Actor); Lust for Life (S. Actor - win); Viva Zapata! (S. Actor - win) R.I.P.

69. 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 ...

2/4 Poor Things (Actress - win); The Favourite (S. Actress); La La Land (Actress - win); Birdman (S. Actress)

70. Shelley Winters

Actress | The Poseidon Adventure

Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift of very humble beginnings on August 18, 1920 (some sources list 1922) in East St. Louis, Illinois. Her mother, Rose Winter, was born in Missouri, to Austrian Jewish parents, and her father, Jonas Schrift, was an Austrian Jewish immigrant. She had one sibling...

2/4 The Poseidon Adventure (S. Actress) A Patch of Blue (S. Actress - win); The Diary of Anne Frank (S. Actress - win); A Place in the Sun (Actress) R.I.P.

71. Renée Zellweger

Actress | Chicago

Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (Andreassen), is a Norwegian-born former nurse and midwife, of Norwegian, Kven (Finnish), and Swedish descent. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born engineer. The two married in 1963. Renée ...

2/4 Judy (Actress - win); Cold Mountain (S. Actress - win); Chicago (Actress); Bridget Jones Diary (Actress)

72. Alan Arkin

Actor | Argo

Alan Arkin was an Academy Award-winning American actor who was also an acclaimed director, producer, author, singer and composer.

He was born Alan Wolf Arkin on March 26, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York. His family were Jewish emigrants from Russia and Germany. In 1946, the Arkins moved from Brooklyn to...

1/4 Argo (S. Actor); Little Miss Sunshine (S. Actor - win); The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Actor); The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming (Actor) R.I.P.

73. Christian Bale

Actor | The Dark Knight

Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries ...

1/4 Vice (Actor); The Big Short (S. Actor); American Hustle (Actor); The Fighter (S. Actor - win)

74. Ethel Barrymore

Actress | The Spiral Staircase

Ethel Barrymore was the second of three children seemingly destined for the actor's life of their parents Maurice and Georgiana. Maurice Barrymore had emigrated from England in 1875, and after graduating from Cambridge in law had shocked his family by becoming an actor. Georgiana Drew of ...

1/4 Pinky (S. Actress); The Paradine Case (S. Actress); The Spiral Staircase (S. Actress); None But the Lonely Heart (S. Actress - win) R.I.P.

75. Javier Bardem

Actor | Skyfall

Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.

He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were...

1/4 Being the Ricardos (Actor); Biutiful (Actor); No Country for Old Men (S. Actor - win); Before Night Falls (Actor)

76. Kathy Bates

Actress | Misery

Multi-talented, multi-award-winning actress Kathleen (Doyle) Bates was born on June 28, 1948, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the youngest of three girls born to Bertye Kathleen (Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her grandfather was author Finis L. Bates...

1/4 Richard Jewell (S. Actress); About Schmidt (S. Actress); Primary Colors (S. Actress); Misery (Actress - win)

77. Julie Christie

Actress | Doctor Zhivago

Julie Christie, the British movie legend whom Al Pacino called "the most poetic of all actresses," was born in Chabua, Assam, India, on April 14, 1940, the daughter of a tea planter and his Welsh wife Rosemary, who was a painter. The young Christie grew up on her father's plantation before being ...

1/4 Away from Her (Actress); Afterglow (Actress); McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Actress); Darling (Actress - win)

78. George Clooney

Actor | The Ides of March

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nina Bruce (née Warren), a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and television host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). He has Irish, English, and German ancestry. Clooney ...

1/4 The Descendants (Actor); Up in the Air (Actor); Michael Clayton (Actor); Syriana (S. Actor - win)

79. Penélope Cruz

Actress | Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Known outside her native country as the "Spanish enchantress," Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Madrid to Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to ...

1/4 Parallel Mothers (Actress); Nine (S. Actress); Vicky Christina Barcelona (S. Actress - win); Volver (Actress)

80. 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 ...

1/4 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Actress); Fences (S. Actress - win); The Help (Actress); Doubt (S. Actress)

81. Lee Grant

Actress | In the Heat of the Night

Academy Award-winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City, to Witia (Haskell), a teacher and model, and Abraham Rosenthal, an educator and realtor. Her father was of Romanian Jewish descent, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Lee ...

1/4 Voyage of the Damned (S. Actress); Shampoo (S. Actress - win); The Landlord (S. Actress); Detective Story (S. Actress)

82. Alec Guinness

Actor | Star Wars

Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...

1/4 Little Dorrit (S. Actor); Star Wars (S. Actor); Bridge on the River Kwai (Actor - win); The Lavender Hill Mob (Actor) R.I.P.

83. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actor | The Master

Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...

1/4 The Master (S. Actor); Doubt (S. Actor); Charlie Wilson's War (S. Actor); Capote (Actor - win) R.I.P.

84. Holly Hunter

Actress | Broadcast News

Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, to Opal Marguerite (Catledge), a homemaker, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a part-time sporting goods company representative and farmer with a 250 acre farm. She is the youngest of seven children. Her parents encouraged her talent at an early age, and her first...

1/4 Thirteen (S. Actress); The Piano (Actress - win); The Firm (S. Actress); Broadcast News (Actress)

85. William Hurt

Actor | A History of Violence

William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department. He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent nomination for his ...

1/4 A History of Violence (S. Actor); Broadcast News (Actor); Children of a Lesser God (Actor); Kiss of the Spider Woman (Actor - win) R.I.P.

86. Walter Huston

Actor | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

For many years Walter Huston had two passions: his career as an engineer and his vocation for the stage. In 1909 he dedicated himself to the theatre, and made his debut on Broadway in 1924. In 1929 he journeyed to Hollywood, where his talent and ability made him one of the most respected actors in ...

1/4 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (S. Actor - win); Yankee Doodle Dandy (S. Actor); All That Money Can Buy (Actor); Dodsworth (Actor) R.I.P.

87. Tommy Lee Jones

Actor | The Fugitive

Tommy Lee Jones was born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked on oil fields. Tommy himself worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school ...

1/4 Lincoln (S. Actor); In the Valley of Elah (Actor); The Fugitive (S. Actor - win); JFK (S. Actor)

88. Diane Keaton

Actress | Annie Hall

Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Deanne (Keaton), an amateur photographer, and John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall, a civil engineer and real estate broker. She studied Drama at Santa Ana College, before dropping out in favor of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New ...

1/4 Something's Gotta Give (Actress); Marvin's Room (Actress); Reds (Actress); Annie Hall (Actress - win)

89. Ben Kingsley

Actor | Sexy Beast

Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during ...

1/4 House of Sand and Fog (Actor); Sexy Beast (S. Actor); Bugsy (S. Actor); Gandhi (Actor - win)

90. Burt Lancaster

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and ...

1/4 Atlantic City (S. Actor); Birdman of Alcatraz (Actor); Elmer Gantry (Actor - win); From Here to Eternity (Actor) R.I.P.

91. Jennifer Lawrence

Actress | The Hunger Games

As the highest-paid actress in the world in 2015 and 2016, and with her films grossing over $5.5 billion worldwide, Jennifer Lawrence is often cited as the most successful actress of her generation. She is also the first person born in the 1990s to have won an acting Oscar.

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence...

1/4 Joy (Actress); American Hustle (S. Actress); Silver Linings Playbook (Actress - win); Winter's Bone (Actress)

92. 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. ...

1/4 The Last Station (Actress); The Queen (Actress - win); Gosford Park (S. Actress); The Madness of King George (S. Actress)

93. Joaquin Phoenix

Actor | Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Arlyn (Dunetz) and John Bottom, and is the middle child in a brood of five. His parents, from the continental United States, were then serving as Children of God missionaries. His mother is from a Jewish family from New ...

1/4 Joker (Actor - win); The Master (Actor); Walk the Line (Actor); Gladiator (S. Actor)

94. Brad Pitt

Actor | Fight Club

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student ...

1/4 Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (S. Actor - win); Moneyball (Actor); The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Actor); 12 Monkeys (S. Actor)

95. Julia Roberts

Actress | Pretty Woman

Julia Fiona Roberts never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. She was born in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou (Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. As a child, due to her ...

1/4 August: Osage County (S. Actress); Erin Brockovich (Actress - win); Pretty Woman (Actress); Steel Magnolias (S. Actress)

96. Geoffrey Rush

Actor | The King's Speech

Geoffrey Roy Rush was born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His mother was of German descent and his father had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. ...

1/4 The King's Speech (S. Actor); Quills (Actor); Shakespeare in Love (S. Actor); Shine (Actor - win)

97. George C. Scott

Actor | Patton

George C. Scott was an immensely talented actor, a star of the big screen, stage and television. He was born on October 18, 1927 in Wise, Virginia, to Helena Agnes (Slemp) and George Dewey Scott. At the age of eight, his mother died, and his father, an executive at Buick, raised him. In 1945, he ...

1/4 The Hospital (Actor); Patton (Actor - win); The Hustler (S. Actor); Anatomy of a Murder (S. Actor) R.I.P.

98. Maureen Stapleton

Actress | Reds

Academy Award-winner Maureen Stapleton was born June 21, 1925 in Troy, New York, to Irene (née Walsh) and John P. Stapleton. Her family was of Irish descent. Maureen moved to New York City at the age of eighteen and did modeling to pay the bills. Already a Tony Award-winner, she made her Academy ...

1/4 Reds (S. Actress - win); Interiors (S. Actress); Airport (S. Actress); Lonelyhearts (S. Actress) R.I.P.

99. Emma Thompson

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...

1/4 Sense and Sensibility (Actress); The Remains of the Day (Actress); In the Name of the Father (S. Actress); Howard's End (Actress - win)

100. Jon Voight

Actor | Midnight Cowboy

Jon Voight is an American actor of German and Slovak descent. He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Luke Martin in the war film "Coming Home" (1978). He has also been nominated for the same award other two times. He was first ...

1/4 Ali (S. Actor); Runaway Train (Actor); Coming Home (Actor - win); Midnight Cowboy (Actor)