19th and 20th century actors and actresses
by animefan-08335 | created - 28 Feb 2019 | updated - 06 Mar 2019 | Public1. Jim Varney
Actor | Ernest Goes to Camp
James Albert Varney, Jr. was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nancy Louise (Howard) and James Albert Varney, Sr. He became interested in theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while a student at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky. At age 15 he played Ebeneezer ...
2. Burt Reynolds
Actor | Boogie Nights
Enduring, strong-featured, and genial star of US cinema, Burt Reynolds started off in T.V. westerns in the 1960s and then carved his name into 1970s/1980s popular culture, as a sex symbol (posing nearly naked for "Cosmopolitan" magazine), and on-screen as both a rugged action figure and then as a ...
3. Richard Brooker
Actor | Friday the 13th Part III
Discovered by a casting magazine "Dramalogue" for the role of mindless killer Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982), Richard Brooker also gained the supporting role of the warrior Oghris in "Deathstalker" (1983). It was the only acting experience of Brooker, who later started creating ...
4. Betsy Palmer
Actress | Friday the 13th
Betsy Palmer was probably best known for playing Jason Voorhees' mother in the horror film Friday the 13th (1980), but her career as an actress began many years before.
Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, Indiana, to Marie (née Love), who launched the Chicago Business College, and...
5. Greta Garbo
Actress | Ninotchka
Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. She was fourteen when her father died, which left the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and ...
2130 points
6. Dale Fuller
Actress | Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ
Dale Fuller was born on June 17, 1885 in Santa Ana, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), Twentieth Century (1934) and The Sacred Flame (1929). She died on October 14, 1948 in Pomona, California, USA.
1320 points
7. Lil Dagover
Actress | Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
A prominent German film actress born on 30 September 1887 at Madiven, Java, the daughter of a forest ranger in the service of the Dutch authorities. Sent at the age of ten to Baden-Baden to study, she later entered the cinema thanks to her marriage in 1917 to the actor Fritz Dagover who was 25 ...
1241 points
8. Kathryn McGuire
Actress | The Navigator
Kathryn McGuire was born on December 6, 1903 in Peoria, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Navigator (1924), Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The Big Diamond Robbery (1929). She was married to George Landy. She died on October 10, 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1224 points
9. Yvette Guilbert
Actress | Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage
Yvette Guilbert was born on January 20, 1865 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Faust (1926), The Two Orphans (1933) and Iceland Fisherman (1934). She was married to Max Schiller. She died on February 3, 1944 in Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
1220 points
10. Marion Davies
Actress | Little Old New York
Marion Davies was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era and into the 1930s.
Marion Cecelia Douras was born in the borough of Brooklyn, New York on January 3, 1897, the daughter of Rose (Reilly) and Bernard J. Douras, a lawyer and judge. Her parents were both of Irish descent. Marion ...
1219 points
11. Norma Shearer
Actress | The Divorcee
She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to ...
1176 points
12. Edna Purviance
Actress | A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate
Edna Purviance began working as a stenographer in San Francisco. Charles Chaplin invited her to join him at Essanay Studio in 1915, the year of her film debut in Chaplin's His Night Out. Over the next seven years she appeared as his leading lady in over 20 Chaplin films made by Essanay, Mutual, and...
1127 points
13. Gloria Swanson
Actress | Sunset Boulevard
Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on ...
1108 points
14. Lillian Gish
Actress | The Night of the Hunter
Lillian Diana Gish was born on October 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio. Her father, James Lee Gish, was an alcoholic who caroused, was rarely at home, and left the family to, more or less, fend for themselves. To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy Gish, and their mother, Mary Gish, ...
1087 points
15. Jobyna Ralston
Actress | Lightning
Curly-locked, cherubic knockabout comedienne of the silent cinema. Her mother, portrait photographer Mrs. Kemp Raulston, named her after her favorite actress, Jobyna Howland. She harbored ambitions for her daughter to achieve similar fame and trained her to that end. After a failed teenage marriage...
1074 points
16. Marcelle Corday
Actress | The Great Ziegfeld
Touted by contemporary studio publicity as a 'native Parisian', Marcelle was in fact born in Brussels on January 8 1890. Her father, who was most definitely French, had her packed off to be educated at private schools in Paris and Geneva. She began her acting career on stage in her home town before...
1051 points
17. Astrid Holm
Actress | Körkarlen
Trained as a ballet dancer she turned to acting. Stage work at Det ny Teater and Det kongelige Teater without much success. Started acting in films in 1917 with much more appeal. In her silent film career, she worked with some of the worlds most prominent directors. Her low key but intense acting ...
1032 points
18. Greta Schröder
Actress | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Greta Schröder was a German actress. She is best known for the role of Thomas Hutter's wife in the 1922 silent film Nosferatu. In the fictionalized 2000 film, Shadow of the Vampire, she is portrayed as having been a famous actress during the making of Nosferatu, but in fact she was little known.
The...
998 points
19. Olga Baclanova
Actress | Freaks
Born Olga Vladimirovna Baklanova, one of six children of Vladimir Baklanoff and his wife Alexandra, later billed as the Russian Tigress in her early talking films, was born August 19, 1893. She graduated from the Cherniavsky Institute in Moscow prior to her selection in 1912 at age 19 to apprentice...
994 points
20. Josephine Crowell
Actress | The Birth of a Nation
Josephine Crowell was a Canadian-born character actress. She appeared in vaudeville as early as 1879. On screen, she is best remembered for her dramatic portrayal of the mother in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), her comedic performances in Harold Lloyd's Speedy (1928) and Stan Laurel ...
990 points
21. Hanna Ralph
Actress | Helena
Born in Bad Kissingen, Germany, in 1885, Hanna Ralph made her stage debut in 1913 and her film debut in 1917. She was quite active in silent films, and worked for such directors as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau, and at one point was married to Emil Jannings (they later divorced). She made her final ...
975 points
22. Georgia Hale
Actress | The Gold Rush
Georgia Theodora Hale was born on June 27, 1900 in St. Joseph, Missouri. Her parents were George Washington Hale and Laura Imbrie, and her two older sisters were Eugenia and Helen. Soon, her family moved to Illinois. In 1922, she won a beauty contest in Chicago and despite strong disapproval from ...
866 points
23. Marion Mack
Actress | The General
Many recognise Marion Mack as the beautiful but brainless heroine Annabelle Lee, of Buster Keaton's classic 'The General'. However, few realise that Marion was also a talented screenwriter who, with her husband, formed a successful production team. Born Joey Marion McReery, she began her career as ...
866 points
24. Marceline Day
Actress | The Cameraman
The younger sister of actress Alice Day, Marceline achieved stardom in the mid-1920s, appearing opposite such stars as John Barrymore and Lon Chaney. Adept at comedy, she also starred with such top comics as Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon. Her career faltered in the early 1930s, however, and she ...
850 points
25. Hilda Borgström
Actress | Körkarlen
Hilda Borgström was born on October 13, 1871 in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an actress, known for The Phantom Carriage (1921), Ingeborg Holm (1913) and Striden går vidare (1941). She died on January 2, 1953 in Stockholm, Sweden.
847 points
26. Maria Falconetti
Actress | La passion de Jeanne d'Arc
Renée Jeanne or Maria Falconetti, born in Pantin (not in Sermano, Corsica, as many film dictionaries wrongly attest) on July 21, 1892 and died in Buenos Aires on December 12, 1946, is a French actress of theater and cinema. Joining the troupe of the Odeon theater in 1916, she made her debut in "...
844 points
27. Margaret Livingston
Actress | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Margaret Livingston was born on November 25, 1895 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. She was an actress, known for Sunrise (1927), God's Gift to Women (1931) and The Last Warning (1928). She was married to Paul Whiteman. She died on December 13, 1984 in Warrington, Pennsylvania, USA.
844 points
28. Camilla Horn
Actress | Schloß Königswald
The daughter of a railroad official, Camilla Horn was educated in Germany and Switzerland. She initially trained as a dressmaker and received her first job experience in a fashion salon in Erfurt. This was merely a stepping stone for a performing career which began with dance lessons in Berlin and ...
830 points
29. Merna Kennedy
Actress | The Circus
Merna Kennedy was born on September 7, 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Circus (1928), Ghost Valley (1932) and The Big Chance (1933). She was married to Forrest Brayton and Busby Berkeley. She died on December 20, 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
828 points
30. Ruth Dwyer
Actress | The Reckless Age
Ruth Dwyer was born on January 25, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Reckless Age (1924), The Lurking Peril (1919) and Seven Chances (1925). She was married to William Jackie. She died on March 2, 1978 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
822 points
31. Mildred Davis
Actress | A Sailor-Made Man
Mildred Davis was born on February 22, 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for A Sailor-Made Man (1921), Safety Last! (1923) and Dr. Jack (1922). She was married to Harold Lloyd. She died on August 18, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
821 points
32. Estelle Clark
Actress | The Crowd
Estelle Clark was born on May 7, 1898 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for The Crowd (1928), Don't (1925) and Sinners in Silk (1924). She died on December 3, 1982 in Ventura, California, USA.
818 points
33. Julanne Johnston
Actress | The Thief of Bagdad
Julanne was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, but she and her family briefly lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then settled in Los Angeles, California, where she attended the Hollywood School for Girls. She also studied dancing and went on tour with the Ruth St. Denis Dancers, which led to her first ...
810 points
34. Anna May Wong
Actress | The Toll of the Sea
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California, to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. A third-generation American, she managed to have a substantial acting career during a deeply racist time when the ...
810 points
35. Aleksandra Khokhlova
Actress | Po zakonu
Aleksandra Khokhlova was born on October 4, 1897 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress and assistant director, known for By the Law (1926), Luch smerti (1925) and Incident on a Volcano (1941). She was married to Lev Kuleshov and Konstantin Khokhlov. She died on August 22, 1985 in Moscow, RSFSR, ...
809 points
36. Ann Christy
Actress | Speedy
Tiny, blue-eyed Ann Christy started in films with a bit part in Long Pants (1927) with Harry Langdon. She was then signed by one of the three major producers of silent comedy, Al Christie, to appear in a series of short comedies filmed at Paramount. It was there that she was spotted by Harold Lloyd...
806 points
37. Marion Byron
Actress | Steamboat Bill, Jr.
At Warner Brothers, tiny, five feet tall Marion Byron was nicknamed (and occasionally billed as) "Peanuts". She was a cute and vivacious soubrette who featured in early, long forgotten musicals, with titles like Show of Shows (1929), Broadway Babies (1929) and Playing Around (1930). Marion began ...
803 points
38. Julia Swayne Gordon
Actress | My Lady's Slipper
Julia Swayne Gordon was born on October 29, 1878 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for My Lady's Slipper (1916), You Can't Fool Your Wife (1923) and The Painted World (1919). She was married to Hugh Thomas Swayne. She died on May 28, 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
792 points
39. Vera Baranovskaya
Actress | Takový je zivot
Vera Baranovskaya was born on March 7, 1885 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Takový je zivot (1930), Mother (1926) and Konets Sankt-Peterburga (1927). She died on December 7, 1935 in Paris, France.
786 points
40. Rosa Valetti
Actress | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
Rosa Valetti was born Rosa Alice Vallentin, the daughter of industrialist Felix Vallentin and his wife, Bertha. Her brother was actor Hermann Vallentin, who emigrated to Mandatory Palestine. She first appeared on the Berlin stage and later also in Paris, Brussells and Vienna. During the First World...
651 points
41. Lya De Putti
Actress | Othello
The daughter of a Hungarian baroness and a military officer, Lya De Putti went on to perform classical ballet in Berlin, Germany, after a brief stint in Hungarian vaudeville. She later made several films at the German UFA studios, most notably Variety (1925), before going to Hollywood in 1926. ...
584 points
42. Mabel Van Buren
Actress | The Dawn of a Tomorrow
Mabel Van Buren was born on July 17, 1878 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Dawn of a Tomorrow (1924), The Light That Failed (1923) and Brewster's Millions (1914). She was married to Ernest Joy and James Gordon. She died on November 4, 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.
571 points
43. Mae Busch
Actress | The Unholy Three
Mae Busch can certainly claim career versatility, having successfully played Erich von Stroheim's mistress, Lon Chaney's girlfriend, Charley Chase's sister, James Finlayson's ex-wife and Oliver Hardy's wife! She was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1891; her parents were in the theater and when she...
557 points
44. Vilma Bánky
Actress | The Son of the Sheik
Vilma Bánky appeared in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies between 1920 and 1925, the year in which Samuel Goldwyn signed her, in Budapest, to a Hollywood contract. In Hollywood she was billed as the "The Hungarian Rhapsody". In the mid and late 1920s she was Goldwyn's biggest money maker, ...
519 points
45. Agnes Ayres
Actress | The Sheik
Extremely popular silent star of the 1920s. Her popularity was enhanced when she co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926). She made her screen debut at Essanay Studios in 1915. While she was popular in the 1920s (thanks to the patronage of her lover, ...
518 points
46. Lyudmila Semyonova
Actress | Tretya meshchanskaya
Lyudmila Semyonova was born on February 17, 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Bed and Sofa (1927), Fragment of an Empire (1929) and Severnoye siyaniye (1926). She died on May 25, 1990 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
513 points
47. Phyllis Haver
Actress | The Christian
Phyllis Haver was born Phyllis O'Haver on January 6, 1899, in Douglas, KS. When she was a child her family moved to California. Young Phyllis got a job playing piano at a local movie theater. Producer Mack Sennett saw her and hired her to be one of his "Sennett Bathing Beauties". Between 1916-20 ...
511 points
48. May McAvoy
Actress | The Jazz Singer
Silent-screen star May McAvoy was born in an upscale area of New York City. Her well-to-do family owned and operated a large livery stable situated where the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel now stands. She initially wanted to be a teacher but became intrigued with show business after watching a friend ...
509 points
49. Julia Faye
Actress | The Ten Commandments
Julia Faye's career is inextricably linked to director Cecil B. DeMille. He was her mentor, while she was for many years his mistress (a liaison which was tolerated by De Mille's long-suffering wife Constance Adams). Julia was born in Richmond, Virginia, of French-American parentage. She had a ...
507 points
50. 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 ...
503 points
51. Ilka Grüning
Actress | Peer Gynt
Ilka Grüning was born on September 4, 1876 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. She was an actress, known for Peer Gynt (1919), Figaros Hochzeit (1920) and Words and Music (1948). She died on November 11, 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
474 points
52. Evelyn Brent
Actress | The Silver Horde
Petite, sultry leading lady of the 1920's and 30's who was born and schooled in Tampa, Florida, until the age of ten when she lost her mother. She moved to New York with her dad and started modelling while still in her teens. Her original intention was to go into the teaching profession. Instead, ...
444 points
53. Lucie Höflich
Actress | Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter
Lucie Höflich was born on February 20, 1883 in Hannover, Germany. She was an actress, known for Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (1956), Tartuffe (1925) and Sky Without Stars (1955). She was married to Georg Anton Mayer and Emil Jannings. She died on October 9, 1956 in Berlin, Germany.
442 points
54. Zasu Pitts
Actress | Greed
Classic comedienne Zasu Pitts, of the timid, forlorn blue eyes and trademark woebegone vocal pattern and fidgety hands, was born to Rulandus and Nellie (Shay) Pitts, the third of four children on January 3, 1894. Her aged New York-native father, who lost a leg back in the Civil War era, had settled...
441 points
55. Marguerite De La Motte
Actress | The Mark of Zorro
Marguerite de la Motte was trained as a dancer, reputedly by the great ballerina Anna Pavlova, and entered films in 1918. She played opposite Douglas Fairbanks in many of his productions. Like many performers of the silent era, however, she was not able to sustain her career with the coming of ...
408 points
56. Priscilla Bonner
Actress | Charley's Aunt
Priscilla Bonner was born on February 17, 1899 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Charley's Aunt (1925), 3 Bad Men (1926) and The False Alarm (1926). She was married to Dr. E. Bertrand Woolfan and Allen Wynes Alexander. She died on February 21, 1996 in Los ...
401 points
57. Aud Egede-Nissen
Actress | Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler
Aud Egede-Nissen was born on May 30, 1893 in Bergen, Norway. She was an actress and producer, known for Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Das Phantom der Oper (1916) and Deception (1920). She was married to Paul Richter and Georg Alexander. She died on November 6, 1974 in Oslo, Norway.
440 points
58. Carmel Myers
Actress | Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ
Though she is little remembered today, silent screen star Carmel Myers had a high-flying career in her heyday and was ranked among the screen's most glamorous and enticing vamps. She was born at the turn of the century in San Francisco, the daughter of immigrant parents. Her father, a rabbi, ...
401 points
59. Gerda Maurus
Actress | Frau im Mond
Gertrud Pfiel was born in present day Croatia, the daughter of an engineer and inventor. A strikingly beautiful blonde with high cheekbones and expressive blue eyes, she grew up in Vienna where she was trained as a singer and dancer, embarking on a theatrical career by the age of fifteen. Until ...
401 points
60. Dorothy Cumming
Script_department | The Gallant Blade
Dorothy Cumming was born on October 12, 1913 in North Carolina, USA. She is known for The Gallant Blade (1948), Hot Blood (1956) and Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966). She died on April 22, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
400 points
61. Clara Bow
Actress | Wings
Clara Gordon Bow, destined to become "The It Girl", was born on July 29, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in poverty and violence. Her often absentee and brutish father could not or did not provide and her schizophrenic mother tried to slit Clara's throat when the girl spoke of becoming ...
398 points
62. Pola Negri
Actress | Bella Donna
Pola Negri was born in Lipno, Poland, and moved to Warsaw as a child. Living in poverty with her mother, a teenage Pola auditioned and was accepted to the Imperial Ballet. Due to an illness that ended her dancing career, she soon switched to the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts and became ...
396 points
63. Betty Amann
Actress | Asphalt
Born in Germany to American parents, dark-haired Betty Amann (born Philippine Amann) grew up in the US. She began her screen career as Bee Amann in the mid-'20s, but returned to Germany after appearing in a 'Tom Tyler' Western for low-budget FBO Pictures. Arriving in the wake of Louise Brooks, she ...
394 points
64. Valeska Gert
Actress | Die 3 Groschen-Oper
Valeska Gert was born on January 11, 1892 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for The Threepenny Opera (1931), Ein Sommernachtstraum (1925) and Coup de Grâce (1976). She was married to Robin Hay Anderson and Helmuth von Krause. She died on March 15, 1978 in Kampen, Sylt, ...
394 points
65. Doris Pawn
Actress | The Penalty
Doris Pawn was born on December 29, 1894 in Norfolk, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for The Penalty (1920), Putting It Over (1922) and What Happened to Rosa (1920). She was married to Samuel William Dunaway, Paul Reiners and Rex Ingram. She died on March 30, 1988 in La Jolla, California, ...
393 points
66. Ethel Grey Terry
Actress | The Penalty
A graduate of the Notre Dame academy at Roxbury, Massachusetts, Ethel began her career as a classical dancer working under the direction of Belasco and the Shuberts. She began her career on the stage at two years of age, later being going to New York to pursue a career on the stage. On Broadway she...
393 points
67. Claire Adams
Actress | The Penalty
Claire Adams was born in Winnipeg, Canada (her brother was prolific screenwriter Gerald Drayson Adams), and after her education in that country she was sent to a private school in England, where she studied drama. At the outbreak of World War I, however, she joined the nursing corps and spent the ...
393 points
68. 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...
392 points
69. Alice Terry
Actress | The Conquering Power
Alice started as an extra in films at age 15. She worked in "Inceville" and would appear as several characters in 'Civilization (1916)'. In 1917, she would meet director Rex Ingram and they would marry in 1921. It was also in 1921 that Alice would gain acclaim as Marguerite in 'The Four Horsemen of...
388 points
70. Claire McDowell
Actress | The Big Parade
Claire McDowell was born on November 2, 1877 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Big Parade (1925), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) and The Mark of Zorro (1920). She was married to Charles Hill Mailes. She died on October 23, 1966 in Hollywood, California, USA.
376 points
71. Dorothy Sebastian
Actress | A Woman of Affairs
The daughter of a clergyman and a mother, who was an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes, Stella Dorothy Sabiston spent her formative years in her home state of Alabama. She had three siblings, all of whom died relatively young. She attended the University of Alabama, but always ...
376 points
72. 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 ...
370 points
73. Gertrude Olmstead
Actress | The Monster
Gertrude Olmstead was born in Chicago, IL, on Nov. 13, 1897. She entered the film business early, making her film debut in The Fox (1921) at 17 years of age. The next year she appeared in the hit The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1922). She stayed busy throughout the 1920s, appearing in a total of...
333 points
74. Asta Nielsen
Actress | Hamlet
Danish leading woman of German films who became one of the greatest stars of the silent era. A native of the Copenhagen suburb of Vesterbro, Nielsen was the daughter of a coppersmith and a washerwoman, both of whom died before Nielsen was fifteen. Her stage debut came as a child in the chorus of ...
328 points
75. Barbara La Marr
Actress | The Eternal City
Barbara La Marr was born in Yakima, Washington, on July 28, 1896, as Reatha Watson. Her childhood was mostly uneventful, mainly because Yakima--today a medium-sized city with a population of over 50, 000-wasn't exactly a beehive of activity. Her parents eventually moved to the Los Angeles area, ...
328 points
76. 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 ...
304 points
77. Nita Naldi
Actress | The Ten Commandments
Nonna Dooley, the future silent screen star, began her career as a showgirl in a Shubert revue in the Winter Garden, later went on to the famed Ziegfeld Follies.
After a successful career on the stage with the Follies, Nita decided to try her hand with films in Hollywood. Her rise to fame was very ...
304 points
78. Eugenie Besserer
Actress | The Jazz Singer
Eugenie Besserer was born in Watertown, New York on Christmas Day of 1868. She was largely a silent film actress who made her debut in 1910's silent version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910). She was 42 at the time. For the most part Eugenie was a character actress, much in demand for filling in ...
303 points
79. Belle Bennett
Actress | Stella Dallas
Belle Bennett's parents were William and Mary Bendon (stage name Bennett). They appeared in "Billy Bennett's Big Shows" which were traveling shows appearing in tents and local 'opera' houses. The shows presented vaudeville acts and melodramas. Belle was headlining in her teens before moving on to ...
264 points
80. Vera Lewis
Actress | The Roaring Twenties
Vera Lewis was born on June 10, 1873 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Roaring Twenties (1939), Betty in Search of a Thrill (1915) and Four Daughters (1938). She was married to Ralph Lewis. She died on February 8, 1956 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
264 points
81. Betty Bronson
Actress | Peter Pan
Betty Bronson's discovery reads like a Hollywood dream. As a New Jersey teenage bit-player, she was rocketed from obscurity when she was chosen to play the part of Peter Pan in 1924's Peter Pan (1924). She was hand-selected by author J.M. Barrie and beat several Hollywood superstars to the part, ...
257 points
82. Kathleen Key
Actress | Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ
Kathleen Key was born Kitty Lanahan. Her great-great grandfather was Francis Scott Key who composed The Star Spangled Banner. When she was a baby her family moved to ranch in Southern California. In 1920 she made her acting debut opposite Snowy Baker in the Australian film The Jackeroo of Coolabong...
257 points
83. Helen Lynch
Actress | Romance of the Underworld
Helen Lynch was born on April 6, 1900 in Billings, Montana, USA. She was an actress, known for Romance of the Underworld (1928), Minnie (1922) and Bustin' Thru (1925). She was married to Carroll Nye. She died on March 2, 1965 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
257 points
84. Virginia Bradford
Actress | Atta Boy
Virginia Bradford was born on November 7, 1899 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Atta Boy (1926), Chicago (1927) and Two Lovers (1928). She was married to Thomas Prentice, Cedric Belfrage, Joseph Petrie Lyons and Frederick Minter. She died on October 30, 1995 in Indiana, USA.
256 points
85. May Robson
Actress | A Star Is Born
Born Mary Jeanette Robison. She was the youngest daughter of Henry Robison of Penrith, Cumberland, England and Julia Schelesinger of Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Her father died in 1860 and her mother remarried. In 1866/67 they were living in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and moved ...
256 points
86. Lien Deyers
Actress | Le capitaine Fracasse
Dutch actress Lien Deyers was discovered by the great German director Fritz Lang, who gave her a part in his film Spies (1928). After that she became a big star in Germany and appeared in many successful films in the 1930s. She married director Alfred Zeisler. When the Nazis came to power, she and ...
256 points
87. Yelena Kuzmina
Actress | Chelovek No. 217
Yelena Kuzmina was born on February 17, 1909 in Tiflis, Russian Empire [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]. She was an actress, known for Girl No. 217 (1945), Russkiy vopros (1948) and Sekretnaya missiya (1950). She died on October 15, 1979 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
256 points
88. Olive Borden
Actress | Gang War
Considered one of the most beautiful actresses of the silent era, Olive Borden was a Mack Sennett bathing beauty at 15 and reached the peak of her career in 1926 when she made 11 films for Fox Studios and was earning $1,500 a week. Refusing to take a salary cut, Borden abruptly left Fox in 1928 and...
255 points
89. Lydia Knott
Actress | Luck in Pawn
Lydia Knott was born on October 1, 1866 in Tyner, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for Luck in Pawn (1919), As Ye Sow (1914) and Crime and Punishment (1917). She died on March 30, 1955 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
253 points
90. Natalie Talmadge
Actress | Passion Flower
Natalie Talmadge was the middle daughter of the original "stage mother", Margaret Talmadge (Peg). Her two sisters, Constance Talmadge (the comedienne) and Norma Talmadge (the tragedian) were also in the movies, and had their own production companies, bankrolled by Norma's husband in the 1920s, ...
253 points
91. 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 ...
252 points
92. Carrie Daumery
Actress | The Conquering Power
Carrie Daumery was born Carrie Mess in Amersterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress who married Belgian composer and pianist, Théophile Ysaÿe (1865-1918). After her husband's death in Nice, France, she moved to the United States. She had acted in two short films in France in 1908, ...
252 points
93. Theresa Maxwell Conover
Actress | When Knighthood Was in Flower
Theresa Maxwell Conover was born on September 26, 1884 in Richmond, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), Yolanda (1924) and The Age of Innocence (1934). She died in September 1968 in Levittown, New York, USA.
252 points
94. Florence Vidor
Actress | Main Street
Houston-born-and-bred Florence Vidor was one of the great beauties of early Hollywood. But while her photogenic looks went a long way, audiences would not get to enjoy or really experience her voice as she abruptly left the silver screen after her first disastrous attempt at a talking picture.
Born ...
252 points
95. Gina Manès
Actress | Thérèse Raquin
Gina Manès was born on April 7, 1893 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Thérèse Raquin (1928), Le diable en bouteille (1935) and La nuit rouge (1923). She died on September 6, 1989 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France.
252 points
96. Arlette Marchal
Actress | Aux jardins de Murcie
Brunette, exotic Lucienne Marie Marchal overcame her affliction with shyness by enrolling in, and ultimately winning, a beauty contest. One of the judges was the director Léonce Perret, who promptly helped her get her first role in motion pictures. After that, her face was sufficient to keep her in...
252 points
97. Marie Mosquini
Actress | 7th Heaven
Marie Mosquini was a pert, slightly-built comedienne of amazingly prolific output. Between 1917 and 1926, the feisty brunette appeared in close to 200 one- and two-reel shorts, mostly for Hal Roach. She was featured in the initial series of comedies, which propelled Stan Laurel to stardom. ...
252 points
98. Gladys Brockwell
Actress | Lights of New York
The daughter of actress Billie Brockwell, Brockwell first appeared on the stage at the age of three. She made her screen debut in Philadelphia for the Lubin Company in 1913, later working with D.W. Griffith. Joining Fox Studios, Brockwell was one of the busiest actresses in town and easily made the...
252 points
99. Norah Baring
Actress | Murder!
Norah Baring was born on November 26, 1905 in Acton, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Murder! (1930), Underground (1928) and Mystery at the Villa Rose (1930). She was married to John Henry K. Baerselman, Douglas A. Forbes and Ronald M. Simon. She died on February 8, 1985 in ...
252 points
100. Mary Pickford
Actress | Coquette
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Elsie Charlotte (Hennessy) and John Charles Smith. She was of English and Irish descent. Pickford began in the theater at age seven. Then known as "Baby Gladys Smith", she toured with her family in a number of theater ...
251 points
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