Bw-2

1. 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 ...

2. Olga Zabotkina

Actress | Cheryomushki

Olga Zabotkina was born on January 18, 1936 in Leningrad, USSR. She was an actress, known for Cherry Town (1963), Don Sezar de Bazan (1957) and Neokonchennaya povest (1955). She died on December 21, 2001 in Moscow, Russia.

3. Gloria Grahame

Actress | In a Lonely Place

Gloria Grahame Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever (1944)...

4. Grace Kelly

Actress | Dial M for Murder

On November 12, 1929, Grace Patricia Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to wealthy parents. Her girlhood was uneventful for the most part, but one of the things she desired was to become an actress which she had decided on at an early age. After her high school graduation in 1947, Grace ...

5. Gene Tierney

Actress | Laura

With prominent cheekbones, luminous skin and the most crystalline green eyes of her day, Gene Tierney's striking good looks helped propel her to stardom. Her best known role is the enigmatic murder victim in Laura (1944). She was also Oscar-nominated for Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Her acting ...

6. Helena Carter

Actress | The Fighting O'Flynn

Of Irish descent, Helena Carter pursued a master's degree in English Literature at Columbia University with which she hoped to teach, but due to her striking beauty was sidetracked into modeling, signing with the Conover agency. Renowned photographer Dick Isaacs shot some magazine covers of her ...

7. 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 ...

8. 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 ...

9. Yvonne De Carlo

Actress | The Ten Commandments

Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of ...

10. Eleanor Parker

Actress | The Sound of Music

Eleanor Jean Parker was born on June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio, the last of three children born to a mathematics teacher and his wife. Eleanor caught the acting bug early and began performing in school plays. She was was so serious about becoming an actor, that she attended the Rice Summer ...

11. Maria Palmer

Actress | Lady on a Train

This lovely Austrian-born actress was born (in 1917) and raised in Vienna, performing as a child on stage and appearing in various productions for the renown Max Reinhardt. Trained in dance, she was a member of the Bodenwieser Ensemble, a European troupe. Following a few high school plays and dance...

12. Bella Darvi

Actress | Hell and High Water

Bella Darvi became a 50s symbol for one of the many movie "Cinderellas" whose bright and beautiful Hollywood fairy tale would come crashing down, ending in bitterness and tragedy. A self-destructive brunette beauty, her life was full of misfortune. Of Polish/French descent, she miraculously ...

13. Allene Roberts

Actress | The Red House

Allene Roberts was born on September 1, 1928 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for The Red House (1947), The Sign of the Ram (1948) and Bomba on Panther Island (1949). She was married to Ralph Cochran. She died on May 9, 2019 in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

14. Julie London

Actress | Emergency!

Julie London recorded 32 albums during her career. Forced to give up band singing when her true age was discovered, she was primarily a torch singer. Her vocal range was described by "sultry" and "low-keyed". Her own favorite singers were Barbra Streisand and Roberta Flack.

She was known in some ...

15. Geraldine Fitzgerald

Actress | Dark Victory

Geraldine Fitzgerald was the only actress to appear as both Laurence Olivier's wife and Rodney Dangerfield's mother-in-law, which surely qualifies her as running the gamut (if not the gauntlet, in the latter case) of A to Z for co-starring with cinema immortals. The Irish lass appeared in many ...

16. Faye Emerson

Actress | Between Two Worlds

Synonymous with chic, the ever-fashionable Faye Emerson certainly qualified as one of the "first ladies" of TV glamour. Bedecked in sweeping, rather low-cut gowns and expensive, dangling jewelry, she was a highly poised and stylish presence on the small screen during its exciting "Golden Age". An ...

17. Ida Lupino

Actress | High Sierra

Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was ...

18. Capucine

Actress | The Pink Panther

With classic patrician features and an independent, non-conformist personality, Capucine began her film debut in 1949 at the age of 21 with an appearance in the film Rendezvous in July (1949). She attended school in France and received a BA degree in foreign languages. Married for six months in her...

19. Rita Hayworth

Actress | Gilda

Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino Reina, was a dancer as was his father before him. He emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita's American mother, Volga Margaret (Hayworth), who was of mostly ...

20. 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 ...

21. Julie Parrish

Actress | Mannix

Julie Parrish was born on October 21, 1940 in Middlesboro, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress and director, known for Mannix (1967), Fireball 500 (1966) and Return to Peyton Place (1972). She died on October 1, 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

22. 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 ...

23. Natalya Surovegina

Actress | Zabludshiy

Natalya Surovegina was born on October 13, 1938 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR. She was an actress, known for Zabludshiy (1966), Klyuchi ot neba (1965) and Bez osobogo riska (1983). She died on March 26, 2018 in Moscow, Russia.

24. Valentina Ushakova

Actress | Moskva slezam ne verit

Valentina Ushakova was born on March 9, 1925 in Moscow, USSR. She was an actress, known for Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980), Office Romance (1977) and Raznye sudby (1956). She died on October 5, 2012 in Moscow, Russia.

25. 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...

26. Irina Gubanova

Actress | Voyna i mir

Irina Gubanova was a Russian ballerina and film actress known as Elsa in The Snow Queen (1967) and Sonya in War and Peace (1965).

She was born Irina Igorevna Gubanova on March 3, 1940, in Leningrad, Russia (now, St. Petersburg, Russia). From 1950 to 1957 she studied classical ballet at the Leningrad...

27. Martha Hyer

Actress | The Sons of Katie Elder

Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's The Locket (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in ...

28. Svetlana Savyolova

Actress | Proshchayte, golubi

Svetlana Savyolova was born on January 7, 1942 in Simferopol, RSFSR, USSR. She was an actress, known for Proshchayte, golubi (1961), Pedejais bledis (1966) and Zelyonyy ogonyok (1964). She died on January 30, 1999 in Moscow, Russia.

29. Sylva Koscina

Actress | Le fatiche di Ercole

Sylva Koscina was born on August 22, 1933 in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia [now Zagreb, Croatia]. She was an actress, known for Hercules (1958), Hornets' Nest (1970) and Judex (1963). She was married to Raimondo Castelli. She died on December 26, 1994 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

30. Mariya Pakhomenko

Actress | Gorod i pesnya

Mariya Pakhomenko was born on March 25, 1937 in Lyutnya, Mogilyov Oblast, BSSR, USSR. She was an actress, known for Gorod i pesnya (1968), Lichnaya zhizn Kuzyaeva Valentina (1968) and Moscow in Notes (1969). She was married to Aleksandr Kolker. She died on March 8, 2013 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

31. Elizabeth Montgomery

Actress | Bewitched

Elizabeth Montgomery was born into show business. Her parents were screen actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Allen. Elizabeth graduated from the Spence School in New York City and attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. After three years' intensive training, she made ...

32. Aleksandra Zavyalova

Actress | Khleb i rozy

Aleksandra Zavyalova was born on February 4, 1936 in Titovka, Sosnovskiy rayon, Voronezhskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Tambovskaya oblast, Russia]. She was an actress, known for Khleb i rozy (1960), Fro (1965) and Alyoshkina lyubov (1961). She was married to Dmitriy Buchkin. She died on February 3,...

33. Sherry Britton

Actress | The Doctors

Fleeing an adolescence marred with domestic violence, foster homes and an abusive first husband, Sherry Britton started stripping at the age of fifteen at the People's Theater on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan. She received ten cents a performance. Along with her physical attributes -- an 18" waist;...

34. Iya Savvina

Actress | Dama s sobachkoy

Iya Savvina is a Soviet and Russian actress of Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).

She was born Iya Sergeevna Savvina on March 2, 1936, in Voronezh, Russia, Soviet Union (now Russia). From 1954 - 1958 she studied Journalism at Moscow University, graduating in 1958 as a journalist. While a student, Savvina ...

35. Lyubov Polishchuk

Actress | Tayna chyornykh drozdov

Lyubov Polishchuk was born on May 21, 1949 in Omsk, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Tayna chyornykh drozdov (1983), Persiki i perchiki. Kurtuaznye istorii (2003) and Moya prekrasnaya nyanya (2004). She was married to Sergey Tsigal and Valeriy Makarov. She died on November 28...

36. 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. ...

37. Margaret Lindsay

Actress | Scarlet Street

Picture-pretty brunette Margaret Lindsay was one of a number of pleasant, sweet-natured ingénues who could do no wrong in a score of 1930s stylish Hollywood pictures. Such altruistic love interests were often overlooked in pictures that were carried by the flashy histrionics of a jaunty James Cagney...

38. Jean Wallace

Actress | Jigsaw

Teenage fashion model and Earl Carroll showgirl Jean Wallace failed in her first bid to break into movies, after MGM discovered that she was only 17, not 19 years old - as she had claimed. Being underage meant that she could only work four hours a day (and with an official tutor) and so her bit in ...

39. Mylène Demongeot

Actress | Les sorcières de Salem

Mylène Demongeot, one of the blond sex symbols of French cinema during the 1950s and 1960s, managed to overcome typecasting and survived a long hiatus before a stellar comeback in her 70s. She appeared in more than 70 films, including such classics as the Fantomas trilogy.

She was born Marie-Helene ...

40. Helen Walker

Actress | Brewster's Millions

Helen Walker was a beautiful and bright actress whose career never reached its full potential, in spite of her evident talent. She was a successful actress on Broadway, and in 1942 her performance in the play "Jason" was so impressive that she was signed up to act in films. She immediately earned ...

41. Cathy O'Donnell

Actress | The Best Years of Our Lives

Born and raised in Alabama as Ann Steely, O'Donnell attended high school and college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then worked as a stenographer to finance a trip to Hollywood, where she was spotted by a talent scout, leading to her being signed to a contract by producer Samuel Goldwyn.

Recognizing ...

42. Wanda Hendrix

Actress | Song of Surrender

Born Dixie Wanda Hendrix in Jacksonville, Florida to a logging camp boss (Max Sylvester Hendrix) and his wife (Mary Bailley), wholesome, green-eyed, dark-haired Wanda Hendrix was involved in her hometown's little theater group when she was "discovered" by a passing talent agent and signed up by ...

43. Constance Dowling

Actress | Gog

Lovely, exotic-looking, hazel-eyed blonde Constance Dowling was born on July 24, 1920, in New York City, and raised there. One of four children, her younger sister, Doris Dowling, followed her into show business; her two brothers, Richard and Robert did not. Following graduation from Wadleigh High ...

44. 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)...

45. Veronica Lake

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

Veronica Lake was born as Constance Frances Marie Ockleman on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Constance Charlotta (Trimble) and Harry Eugene Ockelman, who worked for an oil company as a ship employee. Her father was of half German and half Irish descent, and her ...

46. 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 ...

47. Raquel Welch

Actress | The Three Musketeers

A new reigning 1960s international sex symbol took to the cinematic throne as soon as Raquel Welch emerged from the sea in her purposely depleted, furry prehistoric bikini. Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, ...

48. Barbara Slater

Actress | The Lady Confesses

Barbara Slater was born on December 17, 1920 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Lady Confesses (1945), Half-Wits Holiday (1947) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). She was married to Robert Foulk and Charles "Sandy" Sims. She died on October 14, 1997 in Green Valley, ...

49. Sylvia Sidney

Actress | Beetlejuice

Sylvia Sidney was born in The Bronx, New York City, on August 8, 1910 as Sophia Kosow to Jewish parents. Her father was born in Russia and her mother was born in Romania. They divorced not long after her birth. Her mother subsequently remarried and young Sophia was adopted by her stepfather, ...

50. Marsha Hunt

Actress | Pride and Prejudice

Stardom somehow eluded this vastly gifted actress. Had it not perhaps been for her low-level profile compounded by her McCarthy-era blacklisting in the early 1950s, there is no telling what higher tier Marsha Hunt might have attained. Perhaps her work was not flashy enough, or too subdued, or ...

51. Hildegard Knef

Actress | Jeder stirbt für sich allein

Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was born on December 28, 1925 in Ulm, Germany. In 1940, she began to study acting. Even before the fall of the Third Reich, she appeared in several films, but most of them were only released after the war. To avoid being raped by Soviet soldiers, she dressed like a ...

52. Jean Harlow

Actress | China Seas

Harlean Carpenter, who later became Jean Harlow, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. She was the daughter of a successful dentist and his wife. In 1927, at the age of 16, she ran away from home to marry a young businessman named Charles McGrew, who was 23. The couple pulled up ...

53. Ruth Roman

Actress | Strangers on a Train

Ruth Roman was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters of Lithuanian-Jewish parents Mary Pauline (Gold) and Abraham Roman. Her father, a carnival barker, died when she was a small child, forcing her mother to support the family by working as a waitress and cleaning woman. Ruth ...

54. Patricia Medina

Actress | Snow White and the Three Stooges

Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born on July 19, 1919 in Liverpool, England to a Spanish father and an English mother. She began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s and worked her way up to leading roles in the mid-1940s, then left for Hollywood. Medina teamed up with British actor Louis Hayward ...

55. Gloria Dickson

Actress | They Won't Forget

Gloria Dickson was born Thais Alalia Dickerson on August 13, 1917, in Pocotello, Idaho. After her father died, her mother took Gloria and her sister to California. During high school she started acting in local theater productions. When she was nineteen a Warner Brothers talent scout saw one of her...

56. Lila Leeds

Actress | Wild Weed

Lila Leeds was born on January 28, 1928 in Dodge City, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Wild Weed (1949), Moonrise (1948) and Lady in the Lake (1946). She was married to Irvin Rochlin, Dean O. McCollom and Jack Little. She died on September 15, 1999 in Canoga Park, Los Angeles County, ...

57. Audrey Totter

Actress | The Unsuspected

One is certainly hard-pressed to think of another true "bad girl" representative so closely identifiable with film noir than hard-looking blonde actress Audrey Totter. While she remained a "B"-tier actress for most her career, she was an "A" quality actress and one of filmdom's most intriguing ...

58. 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 ...

59. Lidiya Smirnova

Actress | U nikh est Rodina

Lidiya Smirnova was born on February 13, 1915 in Tobolsk, Russian Empire [now Tyumen Oblast, Russia]. She was an actress and writer, known for U nikh est Rodina (1950), Moya lyubov (1940) and White Sun of the Desert (1970). She died on July 25, 2007 in Moscow, Russia.

60. 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 ...

61. Kristine Miller

Actress | I Walk Alone

Kristine Miller was born Jacqueline Olivia Eskesen, the daughter of Johannes Eskesen, vice-president of Standard Oil of Argentina, headquartered in Buenos Aires, where Miller was born. Miller's mother, Myrtle Bennett Witham, was an Orpheum Circuit singer from Fresno, California. After a decade in ...

62. Beverly Michaels

Actress | Wicked Woman

Beverly Michaels was born on December 28, 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Wicked Woman (1953), East Side, West Side (1949) and Blonde Bait (1956). She was married to Russell Rouse and Voldemar Vetluguin. She died on June 9, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

63. Jeanne Moreau

Actress | Jules et Jim

When people gave Louis Malle credit for making a star of Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows (1958) immediately followed by The Lovers (1958), he would point out that Moreau by that time had already been "recognized as the prime stage actress of her generation." She had made it to the Comédie ...

64. Anita Ekberg

Actress | La dolce vita

Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born on September 29, 1931 in Malmo, Sweden. Growing up with seven brothers and sisters was not an adventure, but Anita's adventure began when she was elected Miss Sweden in 1950. She did not win the Miss Universe contest but she got a modeling contract in the ...

65. 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...

66. Laura Hidalgo

Actress | La bestia debe morir

Laura Hidalgo, whose real name was Pesea Faerman, was born in Romania in 1927. She arrived in Argentina when she was two years old. From 1945 she showed a remarkable ambition to become a movie star. She was rejected by some studios because of her weight and she lost more than a few pounds. ...

67. Barbara Payton

Actress | Bride of the Gorilla

One of the saddest tales ever to come out of Hollywood has to be that of Barbara Payton. A blue-eyed, peroxide blonde sexpot who had a lot going for her, her life eventually disintegrated, mostly by her own doing. Things started out well enough for Barbara Lee Redfield, born on November 26, 1927, ...

68. Hazel Brooks

Actress | Body and Soul

Hazel Brooks was born on September 8, 1924 in Cape Town, South Africa. She was an actress, known for Body and Soul (1947), Sleep, My Love (1948) and The Basketball Fix (1951). She was married to Cedric Gibbons and Dr. Rex Ross. She died on September 18, 2002 in Bel-Air, California, USA.

69. 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 ...

70. Diana Lynn

Actress | The Major and the Minor

She was a child prodigy and pianist at age 10. Her first movie was There's Magic in Music (1941) aka The Hard-Boiled Canary (1941), under the name Dolly (a short version of her real name, Dolores) Loehr. She signed a long-term contract with Paramount in 1942 and had her name changed to Diana Lynn. ...

71. Virginia Leith

Actress | The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Sultry, smoky-voiced brunette actress, a former model, who was put under contract by 20th Century-Fox in the early 1950s. She had a showy role and acquitted herself well in the thriller Violent Saturday (1955), but her career quickly lost momentum when Fox didn't renew her contract in 1956. She ...

72. Barbara Lawrence

Actress | Unfaithfully Yours

Her career may have only lasted a dozen years, and the number of films slightly more than twenty, but Barbara appeared in some interesting productions. As a young girl, she was a model. While completing her studies at UCLA, she co-starred in half a dozen movies for 20th Century Fox. Lawrence ...