The Best Actresses Ever - 1980s

1. Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow is the daughter of the director John Farrow and the actress and Tarzan-girl Maureen O'Sullivan. She debuted at the movies in 1959 in very small roles. She was noticed for the first time in the film Rosemary's Baby (1968) by Roman Polanski. She showed her talent also on TV and at the ...

3081 points

2. Carrie Fisher

Actress | Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Carrie Frances Fisher was born on October 21, 1956 in Burbank, California, to singers/actors Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. She was an actress and writer known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return ...

2487 points

3. Krystyna Janda

Actress | Przesluchanie

Krystyna Janda was born on December 18, 1952 in Starachowice, Swietokrzyskie, Poland. She is an actress and director, known for Interrogation (1989), Pestka (1995) and A Few People, a Little Time (2005). She was previously married to Edward Klosinski and Andrzej Seweryn.

2410 points

4. Barbara Sukowa

Actress | Hannah Arendt

A strikingly beautiful German lead actress, Barbara Sukowa broke into TV and films as the protégée of famed director Rainer Werner Fassbinder with his masterpiece mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) and the moody film drama Lola (1981) in the title role. In the latter, Barbara won critical ...

1787 points

5. Elizabeth McGovern

Actress | Ordinary People

Daughter of a law professor at Northwestern University, she moved with her family to Los Angeles when he transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.). She began acting in school plays at North Hollywood High, graduated from The Oakwood School and then continued her stage ...

1678 points

6. Rosel Zech

Actress | Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss

Rosel Zech was born on July 7, 1940 in Berlin, Germany as Rosalie Helga Lina Zech. She was an actress, known for Veronika Voss (1982), Salmonberries (1991) and The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time (1985). She died on August 31, 2011 in Berlin.

1627 points

7. Elisabeth Volkmann

Actress | Kein Pardon

Elisabeth Volkmann was born on March 16, 1936 in Essen, Germany. She was an actress, known for Kein Pardon (1993), Veronika Voss (1982) and Oh, diese Geister (1966). She was married to Eberhard Radisch and Walter Hass. She died on July 25, 2006 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

1627 points

8. Vera Alentova

Actress | Zavist bogov

Vera Alentova is among the most popular Soviet and Russian actresses, thanks to her wonderful performance in Vladimir Menshov's internationally acclaimed Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980). Born in 1942 into a family of actors (the apple does not fall far from the tree!), she naturally started...

1608 points

9. 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...

1574 points

10. Barbara Hershey

Actress | Black Swan

Barbara Hershey was born Barbara Lynn Herzstein in Hollywood, California, to Melrose (Moore) and Arnold Nathan Herzstein, a horse racing columnist. Her father, born in Manhattan, was from a Jewish family (from Hungary and Russia), and her mother, originally from Arkansas, had English and ...

1347 points

11. Brigitte Fossey

Actress | Jeux interdits

This lovely, docile, sensitive-appearing blonde French leading lady started impressively in films at age 6, making a most notable debut in René Clément's Forbidden Games (1952). She abandoned acting a few years later for schooling and a normal upbringing. After a brief career as an interpreter and ...

1317 points

12. Martha Plimpton

Actress | The Goonies

She has show biz in her blood. Martha Plimpton was born November 16, 1970, in New York City to two actors: Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton. Martha began her career at age 8, when her mom had a friend of hers, composer Elizabeth Swados, enroll her in an actors' workshop. At age 10, she got a ...

1194 points

13. Karin Baal

Actress | Die Halbstarken

Karin Baal was born on September 19, 1940 in Berlin-Wedding, Germany as Karin Blauermel. She is an actress, known for Teenage Wolfpack (1956), The Young Sinner (1960) and Vertauschtes Leben (1961). She has been married to Cevdet Celik since 2000. She was previously married to Volker Eckstein, ...

1128 points

14. Dianne Wiest

Actress | Hannah and Her Sisters

One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Her mother, Anne Stewart (Keddie), was a nurse from Auchtermuchty, Scotland, and her father, Bernard John Wiest, was a college dean and social worker who was born in Pennsylvania, of ...

1098 points

15. Susan Taslimi

Director | Hus i helvete

Susan Taslimi was born on February 7, 1950 in Rasht, Iran. She is an actress and director, known for All Hell Let Loose (2002), Maybe Some Other Time (1988) and Orka! Orka! (2004). She was previously married to Dariush Farhang.

1087 points

16. Sheila Reid

Actress | Brazil

Sheila Reid was born on December 21, 1937 in Glasgow, Scotland. She is an actress, known for Brazil (1985), Containment (2015) and The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997). She has been married to Terry Bullen since April 11, 2008. She was previously married to Julian Curry.

1077 points

17. Gena Rowlands

Actress | The Notebook

Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes ...

1063 points

18. Kim Stanley

Actress | Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Kim Stanley's movie roles were few and far between; she is perhaps best known for her stellar performances on stage, including successes on Broadway. But when she did step in front of the camera, nothing short of memorable resulted. Her repertoire in movies and on stage covered such diversity from ...

1057 points

19. Betty Buckley

Actress | Split

Betty Buckley, who has been called "The Voice of Broadway," is one of theater's most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient ...

1040 points

20. Tuesday Weld

Actress | Once Upon a Time in America

Susan Ker Weld was born on August 27, 1943 (Friday), in New York City. When her father, Lathrop Motley Weld, died three years later at the age of 49, the young girl, whose name by then had somehow been transmogrified into "Tuesday", took over the role of the family breadwinner, which included her ...

1013 points

21. Norma Aleandro

Actress | La historia oficial

Norma Aleandro is the Grande Dame of Argentine theater and cinema not only because she was not content to have trodden the stage as early as the the age of nine, she is still active in theater and cinema in 2011. Her last film to date, Daniel Burman's La suerte en tus manos (2012) is in ...

1009 points

22. Darlanne Fluegel

Actress | To Live and Die in L.A.

American leading lady, briefly prominent on screen during the 80s and 90's. Blond, gray-eyed Darlanne (whose not very Hollywood-sounding birth name literally translates to 'wing' in German) began her career in 1974 as a model with the Eileen Ford and Zoli Agencies in New York. Seven year later, ...

987 points

23. Dominique Sanda

Actress | Il conformista

Dominique Sanda was born in 1948, in Paris, France. When she was 16, she left her upper-class family and married, but divorced two years later. She found a temporary job as a Vogue model, when Robert Bresson gave her the starring part in his absorbing drama A Gentle Creature (1969); she was quite ...

982 points

24. Lea Thompson

Actress | Back to the Future

Lea Katherine Thompson was born on May 31, 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota. She is the youngest of five children. Her parents are Barbara Anne (Barry) and Clifford Elwin "Cliff" Thompson. Since all her siblings were much older than she, Lea says it seemed like she had more than two parents. The ...

979 points

25. Lena Olin

Actress | The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress before she came to Hollywood. She acted at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm and was directed by Ingmar Bergman. She was born in Stockholm, to actors Britta Holmberg and Stig Olin, who appeared in six of Bergman's films. Lena also ...

969 points

26. Lesley Ann Warren

Actress | Victor Victoria

Entrancing, beautiful Lesley Ann Warren started gearing towards a life in show business right off the bat as a young ballerina who trained at the School of American Ballet at the age of 14. Little did she know that Hollywood stardom would arrive on her doorstep in the form of a "Cinderella" story.

...

962 points

27. 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.

...

950 points

28. Jutta Lampe

Actress | Die bleierne Zeit

Jutta Lampe was born on December 13, 1943 in Flensburg, Germany. She was an actress, known for Marianne & Juliane (1981), Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness (1979) and Les possédés (1988). She was married to Peter Stein. She died on December 3, 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

949 points

29. Christine Kaufmann

Actress | Taras Bulba

Born in Austria to a French mother and a German father, young Christine Kaufmann conquered the hearts of post-war German movie audiences in movies like Der schweigende Engel (1954), Ein Herz schlägt für Erika (1956) and, most famously, Rosen-Resli (1954). Discovered at the tender age of ...

945 points

30. Natalya Negoda

Actress | Malenkaya Vera

Natalya Negoda was born on November 12, 1963 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR as Natalya Igorevna Negoda. She is an actress, known for Little Vera (1988), Tambourine, Drum (2009) and The Comrades of Summer (1992).

917 points

31. Shelley Duvall

Actress | The Shining

Shelley Alexis Duvall was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the first child to Bobbie Ruth (Massengale, 1929-2020), a real estate broker, and Robert Richardson Duvall (1919-1994), a lawyer. At the time of her birth, her mother was visiting her grandmother in Fort Worth, though Duvall was raised in Houston...

879 points

32. Sandrine Bonnaire

Actress | Sans toit ni loi

Sandrine Bonnaire was born on May 31, 1967 in Gannat, Allier, France. She is an actress and director, known for Vagabond (1985), À Nos Amours (1983) and La Cérémonie (1995). She was previously married to Guillaume Laurant.

866 points

33. Maureen O'Sullivan

Actress | The Thin Man

Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was born on May 17, 1911 in County Roscommon, Ireland, to Evangeline "Mary Eva" Lovatt (Frazer) and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in the Connaught Rangers. She was of Irish, English, and Scottish descent. The future mother of Mia Farrow was educated in private ...

841 points

34. Geraldine Chaplin

Actress | Hable con ella

Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California, to Oona Chaplin (née O'Neill) and legendary entertainer Charles Chaplin (A.K.A. Charlie Chaplin). She is a granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill and a great-granddaughter of stage actor James O'Neill. She attended the Royal Ballet ...

838 points

35. Zeinab Botsvadze

Actress | Erti tsis kvesh

Zeinab Botsvadze was born on August 13, 1944. She was an actress, known for Erti tsis kvesh (1961), Repentance (1984) and Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story (1983). She died on July 6, 1994.

829 points

36. Fanny Ardant

Actress | 8 femmes

Fanny Ardent was the youngest of 5 children born to a cavalry officer and his wife. She was raised in Monte Carlo where she was educated at a convent school. A voracious reader, she discovered Proust at age 15 and felt as though his writings were for her.

When she was 17 her father died and the ...

828 points

37. Cornelia Froboess

Actress | Mathilde Möhring

Cornelia Froboess was born on October 28, 1943 in Wriezen, Brandenburg, Germany. She is an actress, known for Mathilde Möhring (1968), Rheinsberg (1967) and Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997). She has been married to Hellmuth Matiasek since August 3, 1967. They have two children.

826 points

38. Annemarie Düringer

Actress | Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss

Annemarie Düringer was born on November 26, 1925 in Basel, Switzerland. She was an actress, known for Veronika Voss (1982), The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) and Before Sundown (1956). She died on November 26, 2014 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austria.

826 points

39. Chunchuna Villafañe

Actress | La historia oficial

Chunchuna Villafane was born Elva Villafañe in 1940, and originally had a career in modelling in the 60s. In the 70s she appeared in the film _No toquena a la nena (1976)_; that same year, she went into exile when the military junta took over Argentina, moving to Spain with her two daughters and her...

825 points

40. Ewa Fröling

Actress | Män som hatar kvinnor

Ewa Fröling was born on August 9, 1952 in Sweden. She is an actress, known for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), Fanny and Alexander (1982) and Sally and Freedom (1981).

824 points

41. Pernilla August

Actress | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Pernilla August started acting as a child, performing in plays at Vår teater and at school. In 1979 she was accepted at the Statens scenskola to study acting professionally. Director Ingmar Bergman took note of her early and cast her as a nanny in his Fanny and Alexander (1982).

In 1982 she got ...

824 points

42. Harriet Andersson

Actress | Viskningar och rop

Discovered at age 20 by celebrated director Ingmar Bergman, she became part of Bergman's regular stable of performers; in fact, he wrote Summer with Monika (1953) especially for her breakthrough. Extraordinary and versatile as an actress, her roles have ranged from the naive young wife in Sawdust ...

824 points

43. Meg Ryan

Actress | When Harry Met Sally...

Blond-haired, blue-eyed with an effervescent personality, Meg Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Hyra in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Susan (Duggan), an English teacher and one-time actress, and Harry Hyra, a math teacher. She is of Ruthenian, Polish, Irish, and German ancestry ("Hyra" is a Ruthenian ...

823 points

44. Silvana Mangano

Actress | Dune

Silvana Mangano was born on April 21, 1930 in Rome, Italy and was raised in poverty during World War II. She trained as a dancer for seven years and supported herself as a model. In 1946, at age 16, she won the Miss Rome beauty pageant and through this, she obtained role in a Maria Della Costa film...

821 points

45. Marthe Keller

Actress | Marathon Man

Marthe Keller was born on January 28, 1945 in Basel, Switzerland. She studied ballet as a child but stopped after a skiing accident at age 16. She changed to acting, and worked in Berlin at the Schiller Theatre and the Berliner Ensemble.

Keller's earliest film appearances were in Funeral in Berlin (...

821 points

46. Zena Walker

Actress | The Dresser

British actress Zena Walker would become better known for her output of theatre work than film. Born on March 7, 1934, in Birmingham, she was the daughter of George Walker, a grocer, and wife Elizabeth Louise (Hammond). A sensuous, graceful, dusky-voiced presence, she was educated at St. Martin's ...

821 points

47. Eileen Atkins

Actress | Gosford Park

Eileen Atkins was born in a Salvation Army Women's Hostel in north London. Her father was a gas meter reader; her mother, a seamstress and barmaid. A drama teacher taught her how to drop her Cockney accent, and she studied Shakespeare and Greek tragedies. Her breakthrough role in "The Killing of ...

821 points

48. Cathryn Harrison

Actress | Black Moon

Cathryn Harrison was born on May 25, 1959 in London, England as Cathryn Mary Lee Harrison. She was an actress, known for Black Moon (1975), Eat the Rich (1987) and The Dresser (1983). She was married to Paul Laing. She died in 2018 in Plymouth, Devon, England.

821 points

49. Elena Safonova

Actress | Oci ciornie

Elena Safonova was born on June 14, 1956 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR as Elena Vsevolodovna Safonova. She is an actress, known for Dark Eyes (1987), President i ego zhenshchina (1996) and Zhenskaya sobstvennost (1999). She was previously married to Samuel Labarthe.

821 points

50. Elisabeth Depardieu

Actress | Jean de Florette

Elisabeth Depardieu was born on August 5, 1941 in Paris, France as Elisabeth Dominique Guignot. She is an actress, known for Jean de Florette (1986), Manon of the Spring (1986) and Le tartuffe (1984). She was previously married to Gérard Depardieu.

821 points

51. Christina Orbakaite

Actress | Lyubov-Morkov

Kristina Orbakaite was born in Moscow and spent much of her childhood between Sventoji, the home of her father's parents, and Moscow, the home of her mother's parents. After the couple divorced in 1973, she was brought to Moscow by her mother, Alla Pugacheva, and lived with her maternal ...

819 points

52. Elena Sanaeva

Actress | Iskrenne vash...

Elena Sanaeva was born on October 21, 1943 as Yelena Vsevolodovna Sanayeva. She is an actress, known for Iskrenne vash... (1985), Nulevoy kilometr (2007) and Glavnyy svidetel (1969). She was previously married to Rolan Bykov.

819 points

53. 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...

818 points

54. Luminita Gheorghiu

Actress | 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile

Luminita Gheorghiu studied Ion Cojar's acting method under Ion Cojar himself at what is now called the National University of Theatre and Film from Bucharest. She had played in tens of movies and theatre shows since her graduation in 1972, but her real international breakthrough came with a role in...

817 points

55. Mary Tyler Moore

Actress | Ordinary People

Mary Tyler Moore was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on December 29, 1936. Moore's family relocated to California when she was eight. Her childhood was troubled, due in part to her mother's alcoholism. The eldest of three siblings, she attended a Catholic high school and married upon her graduation, in...

810 points

56. Ruby Dee

Actress | American Gangster

Ruby Dee was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and civil rights activist. She is best known for originating the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961).

She also starred in The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Cat People (1982), ...

809 points

57. Rosie Perez

Actress | White Men Can't Jump

Rosie Perez was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, to Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano, a merchant marine. She is of Puerto Rican descent. Rosie attended Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, and later enrolled at Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. ...

809 points

58. Sean Young

Actress | Blade Runner

Mary Sean Young was born on November 20, 1959 in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Lee Guthrie (née Mary Lee Kane), an Emmy-nominated producer, screenwriter, public relations executive, and journalist, and Donald Young, Jr., an Emmy award winning television news producer and journalist. ...

808 points

59. Daryl Hannah

Actress | Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Daryl Christine Hannah was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Susan Jeanne (Metzger), a schoolteacher and later a producer, and Donald Christian Hannah, who owned a tugboat/barge company. Her stepfather was music journalist/promoter Jerrold Wexler. Her siblings are Page ...

808 points

60. Joanna Cassidy

Actress | Blade Runner

The very lovely, vivacious and smart-looking Joanna Cassidy was born in Camden, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Haddonfield, a borough located in Camden County. She grew up in a creative environment as the daughter and granddaughter of artists. At an early age she engaged in painting and sculpture...

808 points

61. Irina Muravyova

Actress | Moskva slezam ne verit

Irina Muravyova was born on February 8, 1949 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR as Irina Vadimovna Muravyova. She is an actress and writer, known for Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980), Kitayskaya babushka (2010) and Samaya obayatelnaya i privlekatelnaya (1985). She has been married to Leonid Ejdlin since...

808 points

62. Raisa Ryazanova

Actress | Bashnya

Raisa Ryazanova was an Honored Artist of Russia (1993), People's Artist of Russia (2005). In 1964 she graduated from the Ryazan Musical Pedagogical School (accordion class). About a year Ryazanova worked as a teacher in a music school, then she entered the GITIS for the course of Platon ...

808 points

63. Blythe Danner

Actress | Meet the Parents

Blythe Danner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Katharine (Kile) and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has German, as well as English and Irish, ancestry. Danner studied acting and got her degree from Bard College and began her career in Boston theater companies. By 25, she won the ...

805 points

64. Sandy Dennis

Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

It would not be easy for anyone to out-do one of American theater's finest thespians, but somehow actress Sandy Dennis managed to even out-quirk the legendary Geraldine Page when it came to affecting nervous ticks and offbeat mannerisms on stage and in film. She and Page had few peers when it came ...

805 points

65. Mirjana Karanovic

Actress | Dobra zena

Mirjana Karanovic was born on January 28, 1957 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. She is an actress, known for A Good Wife (2016), Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (2006) and Petria's Wreath (1980).

804 points

66. Doris Schade

Actress | Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung

Doris Schade was born on May 21, 1924 in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia, Germany. She was an actress, known for Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung (1969), Rosa Luxemburg (1986) and Wild Chicks and Life (2009). She was married to Heinz Joachim Klein. She died on June 25, 2012 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

803 points

67. Gudrun Landgrebe

Actress | Die Katze

Gudrun Landgrebe was born on June 20, 1950 in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. She is an actress, known for The Cat (1988), Yerma (1984) and Rossini (1997). She has been married to Ulrich von Nathusius since June 2001.

803 points

68. Domiziana Giordano

Actress | Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

Domiziana Giordano was born on September 4, 1959 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Nostalgia (1983) and Zina (1985).

803 points

69. Katharine Hepburn

Actress | The Lion in Winter

Katharine Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist and a doctor 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 child, she was very close to her brother Tom; at 14 she was ...

801 points

70. 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 ...

801 points

71. Magda Vásáryová

Actress | Rusalka

Magda Vásáryová was born on August 26, 1948 in Banská Stiavnica, Czechoslovakia as Vásáryová Magdaléna. She is an actress, known for Rusalka (1977), Marketa Lazarová (1967) and Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1974). She is married to Milan Lasica. They have two children. She was previously married...

801 points

72. Nina Ruslanova

Actress | Korotkie vstrechi

Nina Ruslanova was born on December 5, 1945 in Bogodukhov, Kharkov Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR as Nina Ivanovna Ruslanova. She is an actress, known for Brief Encounters (1967), The Tuner (2004) and Ill Omen (1987).

800 points

73. Irina Cherichenko

Actress | Verbovshchik

Irina Cherichenko was born on August 3, 1963 in Polyarniy, Murmansk Oblast, RSFSR, USSR as Irina Vyacheslavovna Cherichenko. She is an actress, known for Verbovshchik (1991), Sluga (1989) and Zina-Zinulya (1986).

800 points

74. Nicoletta Braschi

Actress | La vita è bella

Nicoletta Braschi was born on April 19, 1960 in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), Johnny Stecchino (1991) and Down by Law (1986). She has been married to Roberto Benigni since December 1991.

785 points

75. Charlotte Rampling

Actress | 45 Years

Tessa Charlotte Rampling was born 5 February 1946 in Sturmer, England, to Isabel Anne (Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Lionel Rampling, an Olympic gold medalist, army officer, and colonel, who became a NATO commander. She was educated at Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles, ...

778 points

76. Ildikó Bánsági

Actress | Szenvedély

Ildikó Bánsági was born on October 19, 1947 in Budapest, Hungary. She is an actress, known for Passion (1998), Fekete gyémántok (1977) and Confidence (1980).

765 points

77. Geena Davis

Actress | Thelma & Louise

As a child, Geena dreamed of being an actress. While in high school, she felt left out and had low self-esteem because, at 6 feet, she was the tallest girl in school. After high school graduation, Geena entered New England College in New Hampshire and then transferred the next year to Boston ...

761 points

78. Meryl Streep

Actress | Out of Africa

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 ...

714 points

79. Judy Davis

Actress | Husbands and Wives

Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best...

693 points

80. Diahnne Abbott

Actress | Taxi Driver

Diahnne Abbott is an American actress from New York City. She is primarily known as the first wife of actor Robert De Niro (1943-),. Their marriage lasted from 1976 and 1988, and ended in a divorce.

Abbott made her film debut in the psychological thriller "Taxi Driver" (1976), where she played an ...

656 points

81. Helen Mirren

Actress | RED

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. ...

653 points

82. Teri Garr

Actress | Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Teri Garr can claim a career in show business by birthright. She was born in Lakewood, Ohio, the daughter of Eddie Garr (born Edward Leo Gonnoud), a Broadway stage and film actor, and Phyllis Garr (née Emma Schmotzer), a dancer. Her maternal grandparents were Austrian, and her father was of Irish ...

651 points

83. Grazyna Szapolowska

Actress | Krótki film o milosci

Grazyna Szapolowska was born on September 19, 1953 in Bydgoszcz, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland. She is an actress, known for A Short Film About Love (1988), Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania (1999) and 365 Days (2020).

631 points

84. Anne Bancroft

Actress | The Graduate

Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in the Bronx, the daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1908-2010), a telephone operator, both of whom were the children of Italian immigrants. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in ...

625 points

85. 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 The Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. ...

585 points

86. Nicole Garcia

Actress | Mon oncle d'Amérique

Nicole Garcia was born on April 22, 1946 in Oran, France. She is an actress and writer, known for My American Uncle (1980), Alias Betty (2001) and Le fils préféré (1994).

584 points

87. Karen Allen

Actress | Raiders of the Lost Ark

Karen Jane Allen was born in Carrollton, rural southern Illinois, to Patricia (Howell), a teacher, and Carroll Thompson Allen, an FBI agent. She spent her first 10 years traveling around the country with her parents and two sisters. She was always "the new girl in school." Acting did not really ...

579 points

88. Aurore Clément

Actress | Apocalypse Now

Aurore Clement was born in Soissons, France. Her parents were farmers, and after the death of her father, she left for Paris where she found work with a modeling agency. She quickly made a name for herself, preferring a natural style and refusing to wear make-up. In the seventies,Louis Malle, ...

576 points

89. 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 ...

575 points

90. Christine Lahti

Actress | Chicago Hope

Christine Lahti was born April 4, 1950 in Birmingham, Michigan, to Elizabeth Margaret (Tabar), a painter and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. She is of half Finnish and half Austro-Hungarian descent. She studied fine arts at Florida State University and received a bachelors degree in ...

575 points

91. Nathalie Baye

Actress | Catch Me If You Can

Nathalie Baye was born on July 6, 1948 in Mainneville, Eure, France. She is an actress, known for Catch Me If You Can (2002), Laurence Anyways (2012) and An Affair of Love (1999).

574 points

92. Sigourney Weaver

Actress | Alien: Resurrection

Sigourney Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver, on October 8, 1949, in Leroy Hospital in New York City. Her father, TV producer Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., originally wanted to name her Flavia, because of his passion for Roman history (he had already named her elder brother Trajan). Her mother, ...

558 points

93. Carmen Maura

Actress | Mujeres al borde de un ataque de "nervios"

Descendant of the conservative Spanish politician Antonio Maura, Carmen lead an art gallery and appeared in various roles in night- clubs. With Tigres de papel (1977) she had her first successful appearance on the movie screen and thereafter she worked at the theatre, the movies and in TV ...

558 points

94. 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 ...

553 points

95. Kelly McGillis

Actress | Witness

Kelly Ann McGillis was born in Newport Beach, California, to Virginia Joan (Snell), a homemaker, and Donald Manson McGillis, a general practitioner of medicine. She has English, Welsh, Scots-Irish, and German ancestry. McGillis dropped out of high school to pursue a career as an actress, and ...

537 points

96. Laura del Sol

Actress | Carmen

Laura del Sol was born on November 27, 1961 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain as Laura Escofet Arce. She is an actress, known for Carmen (1983), Voyage to Nowhere (1986) and Amelia Lópes O'Neill (1991).

520 points

97. Diane Venora

Actress | Heat

Diane Venora was born Diana Venora in East Hartford Connecticut. She left Hartford for a full scholarship in the drama division of the Juilliard School. After graduating from Juilliard, she performed extensively on the stage and developed a reputation as a talented stage actress, particularly in ...

514 points

98. Stefania Sandrelli

Actress | Il conformista

She was born in Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy) on June 5th, 1946. She won a beauty contest when she was just 15 years old, which led to her first role in "Il federale" together with the great Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi. She was then cast by Germi for the Italian comedy "Divorzio all'Italiana", working ...

506 points

99. Anjelica Huston

Actress | The Grifters

Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951 in Santa Monica, California, to prima ballerina Enrica "Ricki" (Soma) and director and actor John Huston. Her mother, who was from New York, was of Italian descent, and her father had English, Scottish, and Scots-Irish ancestry. Huston spent most of her ...

443 points

100. Kalina Jedrusik

Actress | La double vie de Véronique

Kalina Jedrusik was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1931. Her parents brought her up together with two other children. In 1953 she debuted on stage and year later married famous Polish writer Stanislaw Dygat (Jezioro Bodenskie, Disneyland). Her long list of theatre work includes plays by Jaroslaw ...

442 points