The Best Actresses Ever - 1930s

101. Noel Francis

Pretty Noel Francis came to Hollywood after attracting the attention of Fox talent scouts and was signed to a contract in 1929. Born in Temple, Texas, she grew up in Dallas and had studied at Southern Methodist University and Columbia. Like so many other hopefuls who had little theatrical ...

651 points

102. 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 ...

650 points

103. Constance Bennett

Actress | Topper

Independent, outspoken Constance Bennett, the first of the Bennett sisters to enter films, appeared in New York-produced silents before a chance meeting with Samuel Goldwyn led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea (1924). She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to Philip Plant in ...

647 points

104. Marie Dressler

Actress | Dinner at Eight

Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on...

639 points

105. Ann Sheridan

Actress | Kings Row

Ann Sheridan won the "Search for Beauty" contest which carried with it a Paramount screen test. Signed to a contract at 18, she was put into a number of small roles under her real name of Clara Lou Sheridan. As she got better, her name was changed to Ann. In 1936, after two dozen films, she went to...

636 points

106. Binnie Barnes

Actress | The Time of Their Lives

British-born actress who appeared in both British and American films, but who found her greatest success in Hollywood second leads. After a variety of jobs, including nurse, chorus girl and milkmaid, Barnes entered vaudeville. She appeared in more than a score of short comedies with comedian ...

634 points

107. Mayo Methot

Actress | Jimmy the Gent

Mayo Methot was born on March 3, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Jimmy the Gent (1934), Virtue (1932) and Counsellor at Law (1933). She was married to Humphrey Bogart, Percy Tredegar Morgan Jr. and John M. La Mond. She died on June 9, 1951 in Portland, Oregon, USA.

603 points

108. Lilian Harvey

Actress | Die Drei von der Tankstelle

Lilian Harvey was born on January 19th, 1906 in London. Her mother was English and her father was German. When she was eight her family moved to Berlin shortly before the outbreak of WW1. She spent much of the war at school in Switzerland where she broadened her knowledge of languages and classical...

583 points

109. Kay Johnson

Actress | Madam Satan

The personification of class and cultivation on the movie screen, comely actress Kay Johnson forsook a prominent stage and film career in order to play wife to actor John Cromwell and mother to their two children. Still and all, the elegant actress, reminiscent in looks and style to that of Irene ...

579 points

110. Margo

Actress | Lost Horizon

The daughter of a Mexican surgeon, Maria Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estella Castilla Bolado y O'Donnell was born in Mexico City. As a niece to famous bandleader Xavier Cugat, she performed with his orchestra from the age of nine as a specialty dancer in nightclubs, and, later, on the Starlight Roof...

579 points

111. Mireille Balin

Actress | Pépé le Moko

Mireille Balin was one the most glamorous and best loved actresses of pre-war French cinema. She appeared in two of the best remembered French films of the 1930s: Pépé le Moko (1937) and Lady Killer (1937), both opposite Jean Gabin. After the German occupation of France and her ...

578 points

112. Irene Hervey

Actress | Play Misty for Me

Attractive, blond, dimple-cheeked artist's daughter Irene Hervey was first tutored in acting by the noted English stage thespian Emma Dunn. She appeared in junior theatrical productions during her time at Venice High School in Los Angeles. Irene completed her training at the M-G-M School of Acting ...

578 points

113. Elissa Landi

Actress | The Sign of the Cross

Elissa Landi was born in Venice, Italy on December 6, 1904. From an early age, she wanted to be an actress and writer. Her acting career started at the Oxford Repertory Company and on London's West End performing with actors such as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. She played Desdemona in "...

575 points

114. Rosalind Russell

Actress | Auntie Mame

The middle of seven children, she was named, not for the heroine of "As You Like It" but for the S.S. Rosalind on which her parents had sailed, at the suggestion of her father, a successful lawyer.

After receiving a Catholic school education, she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New ...

561 points

115. 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. ...

560 points

116. Frances Drake

Actress | Mad Love

Frances Drake was born on October 22, 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Mad Love (1935), The Preview Murder Mystery (1936) and The Invisible Ray (1935). She was married to David Brown and Lt. Cecil John Arthur Howard. She died on January 18, 2000 in Irvine, ...

554 points

117. Alison Skipworth

Actress | Raffles

In her younger days, auburn-haired Alison Skipworth had been a celebrated patrician beauty. She was the favorite model of English artist Frank Markham Skipworth (1854-1929) who would later become her husband. A physician's daughter, Alison did not make her professional acting debut until the age of...

549 points

118. Annabella

Actress | Le million

At age 16, Annabella was chosen by Abel Gance to appear in Napoleon (1927). In the 30s, she became a star of French movies. She made movies in numerous other countries, before being called to Hollywood in 1938, where she met and married Tyrone Power. She remained in the USA until 1947. Then she ...

541 points

119. Kinuyo Tanaka

Actress | Joyû Sumako no koi

Tanaka Kinuyo was a highly regarded and prolific actress best known for her films with director Mizoguchi Kenji. She was immersed in the world of film having received her start in the world of entertainment at age fourteen, being a filmmaker herself, being the cousin of director Kobayashi Masaki ...

536 points

120. Sylvie

Actress | La vieille dame indigne

Sylvie was born on January 3, 1883 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for La vieille dame indigne (1965), The Adultress (1953) and Roger la Honte (1922). She died on January 5, 1970 in Compiègne, Oise, France.

535 points

121. Madeleine Ozeray

Actress | Liliom

Madeleine Ozeray was born on September 13, 1908 in Bouillon-sur-Semois, Belgium. She was an actress, known for Liliom (1934), La guerre des valses (1933) and Le père Chopin (1945). She died on March 29, 1989 in Paris, France.

535 points

122. 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...

535 points

123. Heather Angel

Actress | Peter Pan

Heather Grace Angel was born in Oxford, England, on February 9, 1909. She dabbled on the stage for a time before coming to California to try her luck on the screen. Heather was 20 years old when she landed a bit part for the 1929 film, Bulldog Drummond (1929). Although she didn't know it at the ...

533 points

124. Gloria Stuart

Actress | Titanic

Gloria Stuart was born on a dining room table on 4th Street in Santa Monica, California on July 4, 1910. Her early roles as a performing artist were in plays she produced in her home as a young girl. She was the star of her senior class play at Santa Monica High School in 1927. Attending the ...

518 points

125. Frances Dee

Actress | I Walked with a Zombie

Dee was born in Los Angeles, where her Army officer father was stationed, and grew up in Chicago after her father was transferred there. In 1929, he was re-assigned to L.A., and, as a lark, the 19 year old Dee began working in motion pictures as an extra. Her debut was in Words and Music (1929) ...

515 points

126. Marie Bell

Actress | Un carnet de bal

Marie Bell was born on December 23, 1900 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. She was an actress, known for Life Dances On (1937), Madame Récamier (1928) and La garçonne (1936). She was married to Jean Chevrier. She died on August 14, 1985 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

509 points

127. Claire Trevor

Actress | Key Largo

Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchman from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife, Benjamina, known as "Betty". Young ...

503 points

128. Flora Robson

Actress | Clash of the Titans

Flora Robson knew she was no beauty, but her wise and sympathetic face would become a familiar - indeed, shining - ornament of the 1930s and '40s silver screen. Though not sure of acting as a career in her early years, she first appeared on stage when 5 years old. She was educated at Palmer's Green...

502 points

129. Anita Louise

Actress | The Little Princess

An actress from the age of 6, Anita appeared with Walter Hampden in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson. As a juvenile actor, Anita used the name Louise Fremault and made her film debut at 9 in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924). She continued to make films as a child actor, and in 1929, ...

476 points

130. Gale Sondergaard

Actress | The Mark of Zorro

Sly, manipulative, dangerously cunning and sinister were the key words that best described the roles that Gale Sondergaard played in motion pictures, making her one of the most talented character actresses ever seen on the screen. She was educated at the University of Minnesota and later married ...

474 points

131. Jean Parker

Actress | Little Women

Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch (later known professionally as Mildred Brenner), one of 18 children of a pioneer family that came to Montana from Missouri and Iowa. Jean's maternal grandfather was...

441 points

132. Anita Page

Actress | The Broadway Melody

Beautiful Anita Page was one of the most famous and popular leading ladies during the last years of the silent screen and the first years of the talkie era. She was best known for starring in The Broadway Melody (1929), the first sound film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her leading men...

441 points

133. Genevieve Tobin

Actress | Easy to Love

The daughter of a stage entertainer, New York-born actress Genevieve Tobin started treading the boards as a child and appeared in the role of Little Eva in the silent short Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910). Her older brother George Tobin and younger sister Vivian Tobin also became stage and film actors. By...

438 points

134. Constance Cummings

Actress | Blithe Spirit

Coming from a musical family - her mother was a concert soprano - Constance Cummings made her show business debut in 1926 in regional stock theater, and by 1928 had appeared in her first Broadway play. Her success in the theater resulted in an invitation to Hollywood, where she went 1931. Although ...

436 points

135. Claire Dodd

Actress | Roberta

She was born Dorothy Arlene Dodd on December 29, 1911 in Baxter, Iowa when her Little Rock, Arkansas parents were on a trip to Des Moines. Her father was a doctor who abandoned her and her mother before she was ten years old. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and Dorothy was forced to support ...

405 points

136. Simone Simon

Actress | Cat People

Diminutive, fiery-tempered Simone Simon was born in France, but spent much of her early childhood in Madagascar, where her father managed a graphite mine. Her schooling was somewhat unsettled, her family moving from city to city (Berlin, Budapest, Turin) before finally establishing themselves in ...

403 points

137. Louise Closser Hale

Actress | Shanghai Express

An endearing veteran of the U.S. and London stages before entering films at the advent of sound, matronly Louise Closser Hale would also earn recognition as a novelist. Born Louise Closser in Chicago, Illinois on October 13, 1872, she was the daughter of a well-to-do grain dealer. She began her ...

401 points

138. 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 ...

399 points

139. Joyce Compton

Actress | The Awful Truth

Joyce Compton was born on January 27, 1907 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for The Awful Truth (1937), Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and Bedtime Story (1941). She was married to William Francis Kaliher. She died on October 13, 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

397 points

140. Line Noro

Actress | L'assommoir

Line Noro was born on February 22, 1900 in Houdelaincourt, Meuse, Lorraine, France. She was an actress, known for L'assommoir (1933), I Accuse (1938) and The Well-Digger's Daughter (1940). She died on November 4, 1985 in Paris, France.

395 points

141. Jane Wyatt

Actress | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Born in Campgaw, New Jersey, Jane Waddington Wyatt came from a New York family of social distinction (her father was a Wall Street investment banker and her mother was a drama critic). Jane was raised from the age of three months in New York City and attended the fashionable Chapin School and later...

393 points

142. Lucie Mannheim

Actress | The 39 Steps

Lucie Mannheim was born on April 30, 1899 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for The 39 Steps (1935), Der Ball (1931) and Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965). She was married to Marius Goring. She died on July 18, 1976 in Braunlage, Lower Saxony, Germany.

393 points

143. Peggy Ashcroft

Actress | A Passage to India

Academy Award-winning, legendary English actress - who maintained her status in the British acting elite for decades. Made a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956. Almost always on stage, she appeared rarely in film, her first being The Wandering Jew (1933). On stage she was cast...

393 points

144. Helen Haye

Actress | The Case of the Frightened Lady

Helen Haye was born on August 28, 1874 in Assam Province, British India. She was an actress, known for The Frightened Lady (1940), The 39 Steps (1935) and Drake the Pirate (1935). She was married to Ernest Attenborough. She died on September 1, 1957 in London, England, UK.

393 points

145. 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...

392 points

146. Nora Gregor

Actress | La règle du jeu

Nora Gregor was an operetta diva, stage and film actress. She made her debut in Graz, Austria, and from there went to the Volksbühne an das Raimund-Theater in Vienna. She also worked at the Reinhardt Bühne in Berlin. From 1930 to 1933 she lived in Hollywood and also in Berlin. She made her first ...

391 points

147. 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...

391 points

148. Margot Grahame

Actress | The Three Musketeers

Margot Grahame was born on February 20, 1911 in Canterbury, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Three Musketeers (1935), Criminal Lawyer (1937) and The Fabulous Joe (1947). She was married to Augustus Dudley Peters, Allan McMartin and Francis Lister. She died on January 1, 1982 in ...

390 points

149. Rose Hobart

Actress | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Born in New York City, Rose Hobart responded to the lure of the theater at a young age, went on stage at 15, then drifted to Hollywood and embarked on a movie career. Hobart film-debuted in the 1930 Fox version of "Liliom" and went on to appear in over 40 additional films, both in the A and B ...

389 points

150. Lana Turner

Actress | Madame X

Lana Turner had an acting ability that belied the "Sweater Girl" image MGM thrust upon her, and even many of her directors admitted that they knew she was capable of greatness (check out The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)). Unfortunately, her private life sometimes overshadowed her professional ...

389 points

151. Michèle Morgan

Actress | La symphonie pastorale

A classic beauty, blonde French actress Michèle Morgan was one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. Born Simone Renee Roussel on Leap Year Day (February 29) in 1920, she ran away from home as a teenager and studied acting under René Simon, beginning her film career at...

388 points

152. Micheline Cheirel

Actress | So Dark the Night

Micheline Cheirel was born on April 12, 1917 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for So Dark the Night (1946), Jewels of Brandenburg (1947) and Carnival in Flanders (1935). She was married to Paul Meurisse and John Loder. She died on October 25, 2002 in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.

388 points

153. Helen Chandler

Actress | Dracula

Helen Chandler was born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 1, 1906. By the late 1920s she had become a hugely popular actress on the New York stage. That Hollywood should beckon was inevitable, but unfortunately whatever quality made Chandler a success on the stage did not survive the ...

375 points

154. Madge Evans

Actress | Dinner at Eight

Lovely Madge Evans was the perennial nice girl in films of the 1930s. By then, she had been in front of the camera for many years, starting with Fairy Soap commercials at the age of two (she sat on a bar of soap holding a bunch of violets with the tag line reading "have you a little fairy in your ...

374 points

155. Joan Fontaine

Actress | Suspicion

Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was ...

373 points

156. Ruth Hussey

Actress | The Philadelphia Story

A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Drama, Ruth Hussey's first show-business job was as a fashion commentator on a local radio station. She journeyed to New York City, where she was signed as a model by the world-famous Powers agency. She obtained some stage roles with touring ...

373 points

157. Enid Bennett

Actress | The Red Lily

Australian-born Enid Bennett (her sisters, Catherine Bennett and Marjorie Bennett, were also actresses) started her career on stage in Sydney. She became a well-regarded stage actress there, and eventually made her way to New York to conquer Broadway. Broadway, however, wasn't particularly ...

372 points

158. Gloria Holden

Actress | Dracula's Daughter

Hollywood leading lady in B-movies, and supporting actress in big budget films. Although remembered for her portrayal of "Mme. Zola" in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), she is most memorable for her chilling-yet-beauteous performance as Dracula's Daughter (1936). She had another memorable role in ...

372 points

159. 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 ...

371 points

160. Shirley Grey

Actress | The Hurricane Express

Born Agnes Zetterstrand in 1902 in the small industrial town of Naugatuck, Connecticut, Grey was the seventh surviving and youngest child of Swedish immigrants. Her life and that of her family was sent into turmoil when her father died suddenly of a heart attack in 1911. Grey's family eventually ...

370 points

161. Muriel Evans

Actress | Call of the Prairie

Muriel Evans was born on July 20, 1910 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for Call of the Prairie (1936), Three on the Trail (1936) and Manhattan Melodrama (1934). She was married to Marshall R. Worcester and Michael Cudahy. She died on October 26, 2000 in Woodland Hills, Los...

370 points

162. Patsy Kelly

Actress | Rosemary's Baby

Patsy Kelly was born Bridget Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly on January 12, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York. She began performing in vaudeville when she was just twelve years old. Patsy worked with comedian Frank Fay and starred in several Broadway shows. She was discovered by producer Hal Roach, who paired ...

368 points

163. Lola Lane

Actress | The Big Fight

Lola Lane, born Dorothy Mullican, grew up Indianola, Iowa. Small-town life was not to her taste and she yearned to be in show business. She was also a bit of a rebel. At one time, in her teens, she 'scandalized' the townsfolk by dancing a particularly suggestive Charleston right in front of the ...

368 points

164. Louise Platt

Actress | Stagecoach

Louise Platt was born on August 3, 1915 in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. She was an actress, known for Stagecoach (1939), Captain Caution (1940) and Tell No Tales (1939). She was married to Stanley Gould and Jed Harris. She died on September 6, 2003 in Greenport, New York, USA.

368 points

165. Mae Madison

Actress | So Big!

Born Mariska Megyzsi to Hungarian parents (her father was a violin maker who played in the San Francisco Symphony), Mae was one of those gals destined to be forever cast in the chorus line of lightweight musicals without ever attracting much notice. The exception was, in this case, the attention of...

333 points

166. Verree Teasdale

Actress | A Midsummer Night's Dream

Teasdale trained for the stage at the New York School of Expression. Acting on the stage from 1924, and after appearing in the stage play "The Constant Wife" with Ethel Barrymore in 1927, Teasdale was offered a film contract. In films, she often played society wives, the 'other woman' and second ...

327 points

167. Marian Marsh

Actress | Beauty and the Boss

One of the early sound era's most attractive young leading ladies, doll-faced Marian Marsh enjoyed a short yet significant film career as the star of several memorable 1930s melodramas opposite some of the cinema's best, most charismatic lead actors. Her youthful, wide-eyed innocence combined with ...

305 points

168. Marjorie Weaver

Actress | The Man Who Wouldn't Die

This saucy and engaging Tennessee born-and-bred brunette beauty came into the world on March 2, 1913, the daughter of John Thomas Weaver and Ellen Martin, both non-professionals. She attended private and high schools while growing up and attended the University of Kentucky and the University of ...

305 points

169. Zita Johann

Actress | The Mummy

Zita Johann was born on July 14, 1904 in Temesvar, Austria-Hungary [now Timisoara, Timis, Romania]. She was an actress, known for The Mummy (1932), The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) and Tiger Shark (1932). She was married to Bernard Edward Shedd (Schetnitz), John McCormick and John Houseman. She died on...

304 points

170. Lynn Bari

Actress | The Bridge of San Luis Rey

A curvaceous, dark-haired WWII pin-up beauty (aka "The Woo Woo Girl" and "The Girl with the Million Dollar Figure"), "B" film star Lynn Bari had the requisite looks and talent but few of the lucky breaks needed to penetrate the "A" rankings during her extensive Hollywood career. Nevertheless, some ...

304 points

171. Virginia Grey

Actress | Airport

Born into a show-business family--her father was a director and her mother was a film cutter--Virginia Grey made her film debut at age 10 as Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927). After a few more films as a child actress, she left the business to finish her schooling. Returning to films as an adult in ...

304 points

172. Joan Bennett

Actress | Suspiria

Joan Geraldine Bennett was born on February 27, 1910, in Palisades, New Jersey. Her parents were both successful stage actors, especially her father, Richard Bennett, and often toured the country for weeks at a time. In fact, Joan came from a long line of actors, dating back to the 18th century. ...

304 points

173. Lili Damita

Actress | Fighting Caravans

Lili Damita was a French-American actress, best remembered today for whom she married than for the movies in which she appeared. When the sound revolution arrived in Hollywood, all of the studio's scrambled to find actors who could speak lines and record well. It was at this time Lili burst onto ...

304 points

174. Bebe Daniels

Actress | 42nd Street

Bebe Daniels already had toured as an actor by the age of four in a stage production of "Richard III". She had her first leading role at the age of seven and started her film career shortly after this in movies for Imperial, Pathe and others. At 14 she was already a film veteran, and was enlisted ...

303 points

175. Kathleen Howard

Actress | It's a Gift

Kathleen Howard was born on July 27, 1884 in Clifton, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress and writer, known for It's a Gift (1934), Ball of Fire (1941) and Death Takes a Holiday (1934). She was married to Edward Kellogg Baird (lawyer). She died on August 15, 1956 in Hollywood, California, USA.

303 points

176. Nella Walker

Actress | Sabrina

Nella Walker was born on March 6, 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Sabrina (1954), Two Sisters from Boston (1946) and Three Smart Girls (1936). She was married to Wilbur Mack. She died on March 22, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

303 points

177. Erin O'Brien-Moore

Actress | Seven Keys to Baldpate

This fetching beauty, Erin O'Brien-Moore, started to attract notice on the Broadway stage before Warner Bros. signed her to a contract in the mid-30s. She played 'second leads' opposite many of the top stars on the lot, including Donald Cook in Ring Around the Moon (1936), Humphrey Bogart in Black ...

303 points

178. Marie Prevost

Actress | The Racket

Popular star in Hollywood for two decades through 1936, Marie Prevost began as a Mack Sennett "Bathing Beauty" in 1917, later starring in dozens of light comedies. But not long into the sound era, she encountered problems with her burgeoning weight, to the jeopardy of her career. Her self-remedy ...

302 points

179. Ann Harding

Actress | When Ladies Meet

Ann, born Dorothy Gatley, spent most of her childhood as an "army brat" constantly moving around before the family finally settled in New York. Ann first appeared on the stage while she spent a year attending Bryn Mawr College. She became a clerk and freelance script reader with a film company ...

302 points

180. Lucille Ball

Actress | I Love Lucy

The woman who will always be remembered as the crazy, accident-prone, lovable Lucy Ricardo was born Lucille Desiree Ball on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York, the daughter of Desiree Evelyn "DeDe" (Hunt) and Henry Durrell "Had" Ball. Her father died before she was four, and her mother worked ...

301 points

181. Patricia Ellis

Actress | Block-Heads

Patricia Ellis called herself "the Queen of B pictures at Warner Brothers". With only three years of theatrical experience in New York under her belt, she started in films in 1932. Alongside other ladies considered to have potential (such as Ginger Rogers and Mary Carlisle), Patricia was selected ...

288 points

182. Barbara Pepper

Actress | Foreign Correspondent

Barbara Pepper's signature roles were as worldly "dames" during the Hollywood's 1930s and 1940s Golden Era, fitting snugly alongside other flashy broads of that period such as Iris Adrian, Joan Blondell and Veda Ann Borg. Barbara patented her own unique, hard-boiled style, however, and should have ...

265 points

183. Irene Rich

Actress | Everybody's Hobby

Born Irene Luther on October 13, 1891, silent-screen femme Irene Rich came from a once well-to-do family in Buffalo, New York. Her father had a reversal of fortune while she was quite young and the family subsequently had to move to California. Following her education, Irene pursued a career as a ...

263 points

184. Tallulah Bankhead

Actress | Lifeboat

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was born on January 31, 1902 in Huntsville, Alabama. Her father was a mover and shaker in the Democratic Party who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from June 4, 1936, to September 16, 1940. Tallulah had been interested in acting and, at age ...

262 points

185. 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 ...

262 points

186. Danielle Darrieux

Actress | 8 femmes

Danielle Darrieux was born in 1917 in Bordeaux, France, to Marie-Louise (Witkowski) and Germain Jean Darrieux, a physician. She was raised in Paris. She was only fourteen when she auditioned for a secondary role in Le bal (1931): she got the part, and the producer offered her a five-year contract. ...

262 points

187. Gladys George

Actress | The Roaring Twenties

One of the finest, if relatively short-lived, character actresses of Hollywood, during the 1930s and 1940, Gladys George was born into an acting family who were literally on the road at the time of her birth.

Her parents were actually English and touring with a Shakespearean theater company in ...

258 points

188. Luise Rainer

Actress | The Great Ziegfeld

Luise Rainer, the first thespian to win back-to-back Oscars, was born on January 12, 1910 in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family. Her parents were Emilie (Königsberger) and Heinrich Rainer, a businessman. She took to the stage, and plied her craft on the boards in Germany. As a ...

258 points

189. Tilly Losch

Actress | The Garden of Allah

Tilly Losch was born on November 15, 1903 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. She was an actress, known for The Garden of Allah (1936), Backstage (1937) and The Good Earth (1937). She was married to Henry George Alfred Marius Victor Francis Herbert 6th Earl of Carnarvon and Edward James. She ...

258 points

190. Blanchette Brunoy

Actress | Le mannequin assassiné

Blanchette Brunoy was born on October 5, 1915 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Le mannequin assassiné (1948), La Bête Humaine (1938) and It Happened at the Inn (1943). She was married to Maurice Maillot and Robert Hommet. She died on April 4, 2005 in Manosque, ...

258 points

191. Marguerite Moreno

Actress | La dame de pique

Marguerite Moreno was born on September 15, 1871 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Pique Dame (1937), Les Misérables (1934) and Jim la houlette (1935). She was married to Jean Daragon and Marcel Schwob. She died on July 14, 1948 in Touzac, Lot, France.

258 points

192. Mary Carlisle

Actress | The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi

She was the standard prototype of the porcelain-pretty collegiate and starry-eyed romantic interest in a host of Depression-era films and although her name may not ring a bell to most, Mary Carlisle enjoyed a fairly solid decade in the cinematic limelight.

The petite Boston-born, blue-eyed blonde ...

258 points

193. Janet Gaynor

Actress | A Star Is Born

Janet Gaynor was born Laura Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she & her parents moved to San Francisco, California, where she graduated from high school in 1923. She then moved to Los Angeles where she enrolled in a secretarial school. She got a job at a shoe ...

257 points

194. Betty Field

Actress | Of Mice and Men

Thespian Betty Field was born in Boston on February 8, 1916, the daughter of a salesman and his wife. Ancestors on her father's side were Mayflower colonists Priscilla and John Alden. Her parents divorced while she was still young and Betty eventually learned to speak Spanish while traveling with ...

256 points

195. Ginette Leclerc

Actress | Nuit sans fin

Ginette Leclerc was born on February 9, 1912 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Nuit sans fin (1947), The Baker's Wife (1938) and La maison dans la dune (1952). She was married to Lucien Leclerc. She died on January 2, 1992 in Paris, France.

256 points

196. Lucile Watson

Actress | Watch on the Rhine

Unsmiling character player Lucile Watson was one of Hollywood's most indomitable mothers of the 1930s and 1940s...and you can take that both ways. The archetypal matriarch who enhanced scores of plush, soapy, Victorian-styled drama, her prickly pears could be insufferable indeed and heaven help ...

255 points

197. Estelle Taylor

Actress | Street Scene

A former typist, Estelle Taylor married a banker at age 14 and, after leaving him, moved to New York to study dramatic acting. She also modeled for artists and appeared in the chorus of a couple of Broadway shows. In the early 1920s she came to Hollywood and was noted as one of the film state's ...

255 points

198. Suzy Prim

Actress | Le cabaret du grand large

Suzy Prim was born on October 11, 1896 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France. She was an actress and producer, known for Le cabaret du grand large (1946), Les anges noirs (1937) and Mayerling (1936). She died on July 7, 1991 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

255 points

199. Jany Holt

Actress | Le pays sans étoiles

Jany Holt was born on May 13, 1909 in Bucharest, Romania. She was an actress and director, known for Le pays sans étoiles (1946), Mademoiselle de la Ferté (1949) and Satan's Paradise (1938). She was married to Marcel Dalio. She died on October 26, 2005 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...

255 points

200. Fay Wray

Actress | King Kong

Canadian-born Fay Wray was brought up in Los Angeles and entered films at an early age. She was barely in her teens when she started working as an extra. She began her career as a heroine in westerns at Universal during the silent era. In 1926 the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers ...

254 points