My Very, Very, Very Short List of Fantastic Actresses Working Today...
by Gwendylan | created - 24 Jun 2014 | updated - 12 May 2015 | Public.....List is subject to expansion at creator's discression. Be patient. 'Few and far between as they are, it may take some time. =]
1. 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 ...
....What can I say? The Top o' the Heap! She's done it all.. A cut above. And as are always the best of the best, afraid of not a thing.
I cannot think of one stinker she's been in..well, ok, I wasn't fond of that one she did not too long ago.. OH, "It's Comlicated", with Alec Baldwin, but that's because he's one of my not-so favourites anymore. My faves of her's start with going way back to 70's with "Kramer vs. Kramer", and then into the 80's with the gut-wrenching "Sophie's Choice", "Out of Africa", and "Heartburn".....then, among too many others to mention, "Mamma Mia!"
Yep! No doubt about it, she's pretty much the cream o' the crop.
2. Kathy Bates
Actress | Misery
Multi-talented, multi-award-winning actress Kathleen (Doyle) Bates was born on June 28, 1948, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the youngest of three girls born to Bertye Kathleen (Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her grandfather was author Finis L. Bates...
As are many of my favourite actors/actresses, she is afraid of ABsoltely NOTHing! She tackles roles that the majority of others would leave behind. From her unhinged character in "At Play in the Fields of The Lord", to her "Titanic" role of the 'Unsinkable Molly Brown', to her no-holds-barred all-too-short stint as 'Harry' in "Harry's Law", she has given us her all.. she can be raw, and she can be tender. Always from her deep, inner core, with poignant, visceral and brilliant.. extraordinary performances throughout. Don't stop now girl!
3. 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 ...
Never a fake bone in her body, she is a Ruth Gordon tell-it-like-it-is type of actress. She wears only real emotions.. No put-ons for this lady. As Jack Lemmon was an Every Man, so Gena Rowlands is an Every Woman. A fine, talented, classy woman.
4. Helen Mirren
Actress | The Queen
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. ...
Afraid of nothing, she is flawless in her every performance. From gritty to glamourous, she's a class act.
5. Maggie Smith
Actress | Gosford Park
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...
Everything she touches turns to gold.
6. 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 ...
Still going strong, along with her best friend, Maggie Smith, as one of the very few classic actresses of stage and screen, playing everything from Shakespearen ladies on both these venues, to comtemporary comedies on the small screen, and winning award after award in the process. Her roles are never mundane, and possess an air of class and distinction, whatever she's portraying, from the slipperiest, to the most spectacular of human beings.
7. Jane Alexander
Actress | Kramer vs. Kramer
Angular in features, reserved in demeanor and more-or-less plaintive in appearance, actress Jane Alexander has played down the glamour card for the most part. Her true brilliance has come from the remarkable range and depth of her talent. Heralded as one of the finest 70s actresses to arrive in ...
A venerable actress, and just plain brilliant, on stage, and off.
8. 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 Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She ...
True. Honest. Genuine article actress, through and through! Brave, and raw true talent.
9. Julia Roberts
Actress | Pretty Woman
Julia Fiona Roberts never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. She was born in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou (Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. As a child, due to her ...
Her roll in "Dying Young" ripped my heart out. In "Pretty Woman" she was a delight. In "Steel Magnolias"... well.. In each of her roles, she so makes you feel her character's inner core. She's no common, fluffy, surface wanna-be, {like there are so many of today}, she's the real deal!
10. Brenda Blethyn
Actress | Pride & Prejudice
After forty years of hard work on stage and both television and film, there are not many other actresses who deserved the success, recognition and stardom which Brenda Blethyn has now achieved.
Born in 1946 in Ramsgate, Kent, England, she started her career at British Rail in the 1960s. Saving money...
11. Faye Dunaway
Actress | Bonnie and Clyde
An icy, elegant blonde with a knack for playing complex and strong-willed female leads, enormously popular actress Faye Dunaway starred in several films which defined what many would come to call Hollywood's "second Golden Age." During her tenure at the top of the box office, she was a more than ...
Appearing in relatively few movies, perhaps, in comparison to many of her fellow-actresses during her busiest years from the early 70's - 80's, but always great parts in very well-chosen, memorable films, including Network, Chinatown, Mommie Dearest, and The Eyes of Laura Mars.. just to name a few.
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