Actresses To Be Admired
by roark183 | created - 25 Nov 2016 | updated - 10 May 2022 | PublicThese are actresses that I highly admire as individuals as well as for the quality of their acting.
Women need not feel slighted because I distinguish actresses from actors. One cannot compare one to the other. No actress may be compared to any actor and conversely no actor may be compared to any actress. This list is just actresses.
1. 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, ...
Number ONE on this list, no competition as Number ONE. A real lady on & off screen. Very beautiful lady. She actually could sing, but was allowed very little singing in My Fair Lady (1964), one of the greatest film musicals of all time. Her performance in Charade (1963) with Cary Grant showed her off hand romantic humor. I consider both of those films to be Audrey Hepburn's signature films.
2. Mitzi Gaynor
Actress | South Pacific
It is perhaps ironic that the film for which this performer is best remembered was also her musical swansong and one of her very last motion picture appearances. That was, of course, South Pacific (1958), with Mitzi Gaynor famously cast as feisty Ensign Nellie Forbush, warbling "I'm Gonna Wash That...
Probably number two on this list, but with tough competition. Fabulous singer / dancer and actress. Of course her signature film was South Pacific (1958), another one of the greatest musicals. She demonstrated her great dancing ability in Anything Goes (1956). Great values on & off screen. Very enduring career.
3. 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 ...
Great singer and ALWAYS held to her high values in her acting. She was a great comedienne, which added to her value as an actress. In the running for 3rd place.
4. 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 ...
Not sure of her social views, though I suspect rather socialist. But this woman is undoubtedly the finest actress on the screen today, as I write - November 2016. Her performance in Veronica Guerin demonstrates her light heartedness, as well as her dramatic ability. If I knew more about her social values, I might adjust her placement on this list. But for now she's only on this list because there is no doubt she is the finest actress acting today, evidenced by her great breadth of ability.
5. 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 ...
Another competitor for number 3 on this list. I just really liked the values she portrayed on screen. Even in Anatomy for Murder, she didn't over play her character as a sex symbol.
6. June Allyson
Actress | Executive Suite
American leading lady whose sweet smile and sunny disposition made her the prototypical girl-next-door of American movies of the 1940s. Raised in semi-poverty in Bronx neighborhoods by her divorced mother, Allyson (nee Ella Geisman) was injured in a fall at age eight and spent four years confined ...
Her deep, raspy voice really captivates me.
7. 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...
One of the finest singer / actresses in the height of the musical period. Julie Andrews is the characterization of the height of the musical era, her signature film being Sound of Music (1965).
8. Jean Simmons
Actress | Guys and Dolls
Demure British beauty Jean Simmons was born January 31, 1929, in Crouch End, London. As a 14-year-old dance student, she was plucked from her school to play Margaret Lockwood's precocious sister in Give Us the Moon (1944). She had a small part as a harpist in the high-profile Caesar and Cleopatra (...
Another competitor for number 3 on this list. Great in comedy as well as drama. I particularly liked her comedic performance in The Grass is Greener (1960). Also a powerful romantic performance in Spartacus (1960).
9. Lesley-Anne Down
Actress | North and South
Lesley-Anne Down was born on March 17, 1954 and raised in London, England. With the help of her father, she began modeling at age 10, acting in commercials, and winning several beauty contests. By the time she was 15, Down had completed four films and was voted "Britain's Most Beautiful Teenager". ...
Very touching and captivating in the TV series North and South. Most admirable and enduring romantic performance in North & South (1985 TV).
10. Rhonda Fleming
Actress | Out of the Past
A native-born Californian, Rhonda Fleming attended Beverly Hills public and private schools. Her father was Harold Cheverton Louis (1896-1951). Her mother, Effie Olivia Graham (1891-1985), was a famous model and actress in New York. She has a son (Kent Lane), two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly)...
It must be the red hair that captivates me. I just go for that red hair.
11. Sophia Loren
Actress | La ciociara
Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...
Has maintained a high level image of herself through all her acting and retains that image today after over 65 years on the screen.
12. Andie MacDowell
Actress | Groundhog Day
Andie MacDowell was born Rosalie Anderson MacDowell on April 21, 1958 in Gaffney, South Carolina, to Pauline Johnston (Oswald), a music teacher, and Marion St. Pierre MacDowell, a lumber executive. She was enrolled at Winthrop College located in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Initially discovered by a ...
Great dramatist. Never played as a sex symbol to my knowledge. Most memorable performance for me was in Harrison's Flowers (2000).
13. Virginia McKenna
Actress | Born Free
Talented flaxen-blonde British star combined her deep loves for acting and for wildlife throughout most her adult life. Born in London, England on June 7, 1931, her family possessed a sturdy theatrical background. Mother Anne was a jazz pianist, composer and cabaret performer while father Terry, an...
Really liked her love for animals in her signature film, Born Free (1966), and that carries over to her personal life.
14. Maureen O'Hara
Actress | The Quiet Man
In America, the early performing arts accomplishments of young Maureen FitzSimons (who we know as Maureen O'Hara) would definitely have put her in the child prodigy category. However, for a child of Irish heritage surrounded by gifted parents and family, these were very natural traits. Maureen made...
Always played the very strong woman, in addition that red hair captivates me. I liked her strong comedy in Parent Trap (1961).
15. 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 ...
Very sexy, but has a "look but don't touch" viewpoint. Seems to never have relished her sexy image off screen.
16. Vera-Ellen
Actress | White Christmas
Vera-Ellen began dancing at the age of 10, and a few years later became one of the youngest Rockettes. She appeared in several Broadway musicals until she was spotted by film producer Samuel Goldwyn in 1945. She was only 24 years old when Goldwyn cast her opposite Danny Kaye in Wonder Man (1945). ...
Very exciting, upbeat performance in White Christmas (1954).
17. Dana Wynter
Actress | Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The daughter of a noted surgeon, Dana Wynter was born Dagmar Winter in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in England. When she was 16 her father went to Morocco, reportedly to operate on a woman who wouldn't allow anyone else to attend her; he visited friends in Southern Rhodesia, fell in love with it ...
Portrayed a very touching and captivating performance in Sink the Bismark (1960). Would like to see more of her along that line. Not so good at comedy, but great in drama.
18. Jaclyn Smith
Actress | The Adventurers
Jaclyn Smith was born Jacquelyn Ellen Smith on October 26, 1945 in Houston, Texas. She graduated from high school and originally aspired to be a famous ballerina. In 1973, she landed a job as a Breck shampoo model. In 1976, she was offered a chance to star in a new pilot for a planned television ...
I like the values she played on screen.
19. Kelly Preston
Actress | Battlefield Earth
Kelly Preston was born on October 13, 1962 in Honolulu, Hawaii. A talented and captivating performer, she first garnered international attention with her role as "Marnie Mason" in Ivan Reitman's Twins (1988), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. With her diverse character portrayals in ...
20. Rene Russo
Actress | Nightcrawler
Rene Russo was born in Burbank, California, to Shirley (Balocca), a barmaid and factory laborer, and Nino Russo. Her father, a sculptor and mechanic, left the family when Rene was just two, and thus her mother raised Rene and her sister, Toni, as a single mom. Her father was of Italian descent, and ...
21. Sigourney Weaver
Actress | Alien Resurrection
Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist to Gwen/Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently, 14-year-old Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. With a career spanning over 50 years, Weaver has ...
22. 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 ...
I particularly admire her romantic performance The Shipping News (2001) and her romantic pursuit for her son in The Forgotten (2004).
23. Julianna Margulies
Actress | ER
Julianna Margulies was born on June 8, 1966 in Spring Valley (near New York City), as the youngest of three daughters of Francesca (Goldberg), a teacher and dancer in American Ballet, and Paul Margulies, an advertising writer and philosopher. She is of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage (from Romania, ...
24. 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, ...
25. Petula Clark
Soundtrack | Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Petula Clark was a star at the age of 11. She starred in British concert halls and on BBC radio singing for the troops during WWII. She was a child star in a series of British films from the end of WWII through to the early 1950s,and by 1954 was having hit records. After a move to France in 1960, ...
Haven't seen much of her acting, but a really great singer.
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