The 3th Annual David Gest American Cinema Awards (1985) Premiere
by germanior | created - 19 Nov 2020 | updated - 19 Nov 2020 | Public22 November 1985
1. June Allyson
Actress | Executive Suite
American leading lady whose sweet smile and sunny disposition made her the prototypical girl-next-door of American movies of the 1940s. Raised in semi-poverty in Bronx neighborhoods by her divorced mother, Allyson (nee Ella Geisman) was injured in a fall at age eight and spent four years confined ...
2. Judith Anderson
Actress | Rebecca
Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There she established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway ...
3. Patty Andrews
Actress | The Phynx
She was born in Mound, Minnesota on 16 February 1918, the daughter of Peter Andreos (changed to 'Andrews' upon arriving in the US) and Olga Sollie. Her real name was Patricia Marie (Patty nickname). Her father was a Greek Catholic immigrant and her mother a Lutheran from Norway who ran the pure ...
4. 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 ...
5. Eve Arden
Actress | Our Miss Brooks
Eve Arden was born Eunice Mary Quedens in Mill Valley, California (near San Francisco), and was interested in show business from an early age. At 16, she made her stage debut after quitting school to join a stock company. After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice ...
6. Lew Ayres
Actor | Holiday
Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in San Diego, California. A college dropout, he was found by a talent scout in the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles and entered Hollywood as a bit player. He was leading man to Greta Garbo in The Kiss (1929), but it was the role of Paul ...
7. Burt Bacharach
Soundtrack | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Burt Bacharach was a well known and multi award winning singer and song writer.
Over 1,000 different artists have recorded Bacharach's songs. From 1961 to 1972, most of Bacharach and David's hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957 to ...
8. Diane Baker
Actress | Marnie
Actress with a notable career in films and television. Born and raised in Hollywood, she moved to New York at eighteen to study acting with Charles Conrad and ballet with Nina Fonaroff. She continued her training in Los Angeles at the Estelle Harman Workshop, securing a contract with Twentieth ...
9. 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 ...
10. Carole Bayer Sager
Soundtrack | The Spy Who Loved Me
Carole Bayer Sager was born on March 8, 1944 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a composer, known for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Arthur (1981) and Junior (1994). She has been married to Robert A. Daly since June 8, 1996. She was previously married to Burt Bacharach and Andrew Sager.
11. Frances Bergen
Actress | American Gigolo
The daughter of William and Lillie Mae Westerman, her father died of tuberculosis when she was ten years old. Her mother then moved the family to Los Angeles.
She suffered a skull fracture in an auto accident when she was 14. While recuperating, she was given a Charlie McCarthy doll to cheer her up....
12. Milton Berle
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor.
Berle's career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948-55), he was the first major American television star and ...
13. Joseph Bologna
Actor | The Big Bus
Before signing with director Stanley Donen to play Michael Caine's libidinous best friend in Blame It on Rio (1984), Joe Bologna netted rave reviews for his Sid Caesar send-up in the well-received comedy My Favorite Year (1982) with Peter O'Toole. Well known as both a writer and an actor, Bologna ...
14. Eddie Bracken
Actor | Hail the Conquering Hero
This owl-faced comic actor enjoyed his first featured film role in the RKO production Too Many Girls (1940), in which he reprised the role of "JoJo Jordan" that he had played in the Broadway stage version of that musical. (Into the pantheon of pop-music standards came one that Bracken had ...
15. Carol Burnett
Soundtrack | The Carol Burnett Show
The entertainment world has enjoyed a six-decade love affair with comedienne/singer Carol Burnett. A peerless sketch performer and delightful, self-effacing personality who rightfully succeeded Lucille Ball as the carrot-topped "Queen of Television Comedy," it was Burnett's traumatic childhood that...
16. 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, ...
17. Billy Campbell
Actor | The Rocketeer
In 2019 Billy Campbell won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor for his role in the CTV/HULU television series "Cardinal" for the second year in a row, as well as being nominated for a 2018 International Emmy Award for Best Actor in a series. He is also known for his work as a co-lead in the ...
18. Mae Clarke
Actress | Frankenstein
Vivacious, blonde Mae Clarke was exposed to cinema from an early age, her father being an organist in a motion picture cinema. Growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she learned how to dance. At the tender age of 13 she was already performing in nightclubs and amateur theatricals. In 1924, she ...
19. Macdonald Carey
Actor | Shadow of a Doubt
American film and television actor MacDonald Carey became famous for his role as Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965). For three decades he was the centered cast member of the show.
His film career was from the 1940s-'60s, and he appeared mostly in second-features (aka "B" ...
20. Jackie Cooper
Actor | Superman
Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper in Los Angeles, California, to Mabel Leonard, an Italian-American stage pianist, and John Cooper. Through his mother, he was the nephew of actress Julie Leonard, screenwriter Jack Leonard, and (by marriage) director Norman Taurog. Jackie served with the Navy in ...
21. Ellen Corby
Actress | The Waltons
Ellen Corby was born Ellen Hansen on June 3, 1911, in Racine, Wisconsin. She played many uncredited bit parts from the late '20s through the '30s. Ellen would not be seen on the big screen again until 1945 in Cornered (1945). In 1946, she appeared in 14 films, although mostly in small, minor roles....
22. Joseph Cotten
Actor | The Third Man
Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, into a well-to-do Southern family. He was the eldest of three sons born to Sally Whitworth (Willson) and Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster.
Jo (as he was known) and his brothers Whit and Sam spent their summers at their...
23. Viola Dana
Actress | Two Sisters
Viola Dana (real name Virginia Flugrath) was born in Brooklyn, NY, on June 26, 1897. She was the middle sister of three sisters (the other two were Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason). She made her film debut in 1914 in Molly the Drummer Boy (1914). The following year she received top billing playing ...
24. Yvonne De Carlo
Actress | The Ten Commandments
Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of ...
25. 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) ...
26. Billie Dove
Actress | The Black Pirate
In her silent heyday, this ravishing and highly photogenic star, known for her voluptuous femininity on the silent screen, rivaled that of Mary Pickford, Marion Davies and Clara Bow in popularity. She retired after only a few years into the talking picture era, however, and is not as ...
27. Wynne Gibson
Actress | Children of Pleasure
Wynne Gibson was born on July 3, 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Children of Pleasure (1930), The Crosby Case (1934) and Double Cross (1941). She was married to John Gallaudet. She died on May 15, 1987 in Laguna Niguel, California, USA.
28. Mel Ferrer
Actor | Lili
Actor/director/producer Mel Ferrer was born Melchor Gaston Ferrer on August 25, 1917, in Elberon, New Jersey. The son of a Cuban-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite, he went to prep school and attended Princeton University. From the age of 15 he worked in summer stock. After Princeton he became ...
29. Robert Goulet
Actor | The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
Robert Gerard Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a family of French-Canadian origin. He was the son of Jeanette (Gauthier) and Joseph Georges André Goulet. After hearing his son sing "Lead Kindly Light", in their church hall, his father told him, "I'm proud of you, son". A few weeks ...
30. Kathryn Grayson
Actress | Kiss Me Kate
Kathryn Grayson was born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick in Winston-Salem, NC, on February 9, 1922. This pretty, petite brunette with a heart-shaped face was discovered by MGM talent scouts while singing on the radio. The studio quickly signed her to a contract, and she was given acting lessons ...
31. Lorne Greene
Actor | Bonanza
Lorne Greene was born Lyon Himan "Chaim" Green on February 12, 1915, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He began acting while attending Canada's Queen's University, and after graduation got a job in radio broadcasting. His rich, deep, authoritarian voice quickly propelled him to prominence as Canada's top...
32. Jane Greer
Actress | Out of the Past
As a baby, she was winning beauty contests; as a teenager, with good looks and an attractive contralto voice, she was singing with big bands (most notably Enric Madriguera's orchestra in Latin Club Del Rio in Washington, D.C.. She met Rudy Vallee, her first husband, on the radio where she also ...
33. 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 ...
34. Huntz Hall
Actor | Dead End
The 14th of 16 children born to an air conditioning repairman, Henry Richard Hall (he got the name "Huntz" from a brother who said his large nose made him look German) was anything but the tough street kid he played in the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys films. He made his stage debut at the age of 1 in...
35. George Hamilton
Actor | Zorro: The Gay Blade
Noted these days for his dashing, sporting, jet-setting playboy image and perpetually bronzed skin tones in commercials, film spoofs and reality shows, George Hamilton was, at the onset, a serious contender for dramatic film stardom. Born George Stevens Hamilton in Memphis, TN, on August 12, 1939, ...
36. Signe Hasso
Actress | Heaven Can Wait
Young Signe Larsson was only 12 when she started to work as a child extra at The Royal Dramatic Theater and was the youngest ever enrolled for acting studies there at 16. She quickly got leading roles in movies and always received very good reviews. In 1940 she went to Hollywood and signed a ...
37. June Haver
Actress | The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
June Haver was born on June 10, 1926, in Rock Island, Illinois, with the birth name of Beverly June Stovenour. Her parents divorced at an early age and she was adopted by Bert Haver, her stepfather. Her mother and new father moved to Cincinnati, where she appeared on the stage for the first time at...
38. Paul Henreid
Actor | Casablanca
Paul Henreid was born Paul Georg Julius Freiherr von Hernreid Ritter von Wasel-Waldingau in Trieste, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of Marie Luise Heilig (Lendecke) and Baron Karl Alphons Hernreid. His father was an aristocratic banker, who was born to a Jewish family whose surname ...
39. 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 ...
40. Bo Hopkins
Actor | American Graffiti
Sandy-haired American actor Bo Hopkins was born William Mauldin Hopkins in Greenville, South Carolina, and was raised by his mother and grandmother after his father died when Bo was only nine years old. He joined the US Army at the age of 16. After serving his hitch he decided on acting as a career...
41. Susan Howard
Actress | Dallas
Susan Howard, best known for her eight years as Donna Krebbs in the prime-time soap opera, Dallas (1978) was born Jeri Lynn Mooney in Marshall, Texas. "I grew up with my father telling me that I was talented and beautiful and wonderful. I respected and loved my father, so I believed him - until I ...
42. Marsha Hunt
Actress | Pride and Prejudice
Stardom somehow eluded this vastly gifted actress. Had it not perhaps been for her low-level profile compounded by her McCarthy-era blacklisting in the early 1950s, there is no telling what higher tier Marsha Hunt might have attained. Perhaps her work was not flashy enough, or too subdued, or ...
43. Wilfrid Hyde-White
Actor | My Fair Lady
British character actor of wry charm, equally at home in amused or strait-laced characters. A native of Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, he attended Marlborough College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. His stage debut came in 1922, and by 1925 he was a busy London actor. He married ...
44. Al Jarreau
Soundtrack | Moonlighting
Al Jarreau was born on March 12, 1940 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Moonlighting (1985), Dick Tracy (1990) and Out of Africa (1985). He was married to Susan Player and Phyllis Hall. He died on February 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
45. Anne Jeffreys
Actress | Riffraff
The ever-lovely, poised and vivacious blonde Anne Jeffreys was born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael in 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Firmly managed by her mother, she trained in voice at a fairly early age and received her first break in the entertainment field after signing with the John Robert ...
46. Howard Keel
Actor | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Howard Keel was the Errol Flynn and Clark Gable of "golden age" movie musicals back in the 1950s. With a barrel-chested swagger and cocky, confident air, the 6'4" brawny baritone Keel had MGM's loveliest songbirds swooning helplessly for over a decade in what were some of the finest musical films ...
47. Ruby Keeler
Actress | 42nd Street
Ruby Keeler started as a dancer on Broadway. After her marriage to Al Jolson she moved to Hollywood and become a star in Warners musicals opposite Dick Powell. After her divorce from Jolson she retired for almost 30 years, until she appeared in "No No Nanette" on Broadway in 1971 under the ...
48. Ken Kercheval
Actor | Dallas
Ken Kercheval was born on July 15, 1935 in Wolcottville, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Dallas (1978), Network (1976) and The Secret Storm (1954). He was married to Cheryl Paris, Ava Ruth Fox and Judith Peters Launt. He died on April 21, 2019 in Clinton, Indiana USA.
49. Deborah Kerr
Actress | The King and I
Deborah Jane Trimmer was born on 30 September 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Captain Arthur Kerr Trimmer. She was educated at Northumberland House, Clifton, Bristol. She first performed at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London. She subsequently performed with the Oxford ...
50. John Kerr
Actor | Tea and Sympathy
His father Geoffrey Kerr (b. 25 Jan 1895, London; d. 1971) and mother June Walker (b. 14 June 1904, New York City; d. 1966) were successful Broadway and, occasionally, film actors. He went into theatre as soon as he graduated from Harvard. He had an important role in the stage play "Bernadine" in ...
51. Laura La Plante
Actress | God's Gift to Women
Laura La Plante was 15 years old when she entered films as a Christie Comedy Bathing Beauty. By 1921, she had played a number of roles including a Tom Mix Western called The Big Town Round-Up (1921) for Fox and The Old Swimmin' Hole (1921) for First National. Laura, now 17, next signed with ...
52. Arthur Lake
Actor | Tanned Legs
His parents were circus acrobats and he became part of their act. When they changed to vaudeville and wound up in California, he got a job in the movies. The founder of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle changed his name to Lake. In silent films he played somewhat dimwitted youngsters, The ...
53. Francis Lederer
Actor | One Rainy Afternoon
Frantisek Lederer was born on November 6th, 1899, in Czechoslovakia. His father was a leather merchant, and young Frantisek began his working life as a department store delivery boy in Prague. He fell in love with acting from a young age, and was soon on stage touring Moravia and then all over ...
54. Anna Lee
Actress | The Sound of Music
The daughter of a clergyman, Anna Lee was born Joan Boniface Winnifrith and encouraged to pursue an acting career by her father. After training at London's Royal Albert Hall, she took to the boards and later began appearing in English films, first as an extra, then working her way up to featured ...
55. Janet Leigh
Actress | Psycho
Janet Leigh was the only child of a couple who often moved from town to town. Living in apartments, Janet was a bright child who skipped several grades and finished high school when she was 15. A lonely child, she would spend much of her time at movie theaters. She was a student, studying music and...
56. Betty Lynn
Actress | The Andy Griffith Show
Missouri born-and-bred Betty Ann Lynn was born in Kansas City. Her name is as light, breezy and innocent as the characters she played on film and TV. She is pleasantly remembered for playing TV's sweet-as-apple-pie "Thelma Lou," who had the tough end of the bargain as the ever-patient girlfriend of ...
57. Fred MacMurray
Actor | Double Indemnity
Fred MacMurray was likely the most underrated actor of his generation. True, his earliest work is mostly dismissed as pedestrian, but no other actor working in the 1940s and 50s was able to score so supremely whenever cast against type.
Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois, to ...
58. Karl Malden
Actor | A Streetcar Named Desire
Born to a Czech mother and a Serbian father in Chicago as Mladen Sekulovich, on March 22, 1912, Karl Malden did not speak English until he was in kindergarten. After graduating from high school in the nearby steel town of Gary, Indiana, Malden worked in the industry for three years until 1934, when...
59. Walter Matthau
Actor | The Odd Couple
Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.
He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York...
60. Virginia Mayo
Actress | White Heat
Virginia Clara Jones was born on November 30, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a newspaper reporter and his wife. The family had a rich heritage in the St. Louis area: her great-great-great-grandfather served in the American Revolution and later founded the city of East Saint Louis, ...
61. Joel McCrea
Actor | Sullivan's Travels
One of the great stars of American Westerns, and a very popular leading man in non-Westerns as well. He was born and raised in the surroundings of Hollywood and as a boy became interested in the movies that were being made all around. He studied acting at Pomona College and got some stage ...
62. Roddy McDowall
Actor | Fright Night
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman of Scottish descent. Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five and by ten had appeared in his first film, ...
63. Dorothy McGuire
Actress | Gentleman's Agreement
A genuine model of sincerity, practicality and dignity in most of the roles she inhabited, actress Dorothy McGuire offered Tinseltown more talent than it probably knew what to do with. A quiet, passive beauty, she had a soothing quality to her open-faced looks and voice. She was a natural when he ...
64. Patricia Medina
Actress | Snow White and the Three Stooges
Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born on July 19, 1919 in Liverpool, England to a Spanish father and an English mother. She began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s and worked her way up to leading roles in the mid-1940s, then left for Hollywood. Medina teamed up with British actor Louis Hayward ...
65. Stephanie Mills
Soundtrack | Cop Out
Stephanie Mills was born on March 22, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Cop Out (2010), Fletch (1985) and The Wiz Live! (2015). She was previously married to Micheal Saunders, Dino Meminger and Jeffrey Daniel.
66. Christopher Mitchum
Actor | Un verano para matar
Christopher Mitchum is the second son of actor Robert Mitchum destined, like older brother James Mitchum, to follow in the footsteps of his famous dad. Chris grew up avoiding the limelight and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (1962-1966), attending Dublin's Trinity College as part of ...
67. Robert Mitchum
Actor | Out of the Past
Robert Mitchum was an underrated American leading man of enormous ability, who sublimated his talents beneath an air of disinterest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. His father died in a ...
68. Ricardo Montalban
Actor | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority...
69. George Montgomery
Actor | Samar
George Montgomery was boxing champion at the University of Montana where he majored in architecture and interior design. Dropping out a year later he decided to take up boxing more seriously. He moved to California where he was coached by ex-heavyweight world champion James J. Jeffries. While in ...
70. Peggy Montgomery
Actress | On the Divide
Peggy Montgomery was born on August 5, 1904 in Rock Island, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for On the Divide (1928), Arizona Days (1928) and Looking for Trouble (1926). She was married to ? Ponder. She died on August 3, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
71. Constance Moore
Actress | Atlantic City
Blonde singer/actress Constance Moore was a stylish, glamorous lead in many "B" war-era musicals. Born in Sioux City, Iowa, on January 18, 1920, she was raised in Dallas, Texas, and nurtured ambitions to be a singer. The one-time brunette with the rich contralto started out as a band vocalist prior...
72. Jan Murray
Actor | History of the World: Part I
First and foremost a stand-up comedian, this top banana of the "Borscht Belt" circuit relied on amiable Jewish ethnic humor for longtime career sustenance. He also relied on his multi-talented gifts as an actor, master of ceremonies, game show host and raconteur.
Gravel-toned Jan Murray was born in...
73. Fayard Nicholas
Actor | The Pirate
Fayard Nicholas was one-half of The Nicholas Brothers, a famous African-American tap dancing team who appeared in several movies and became one of the famous and most beloved dance team of all time. Both brothers appeared in films such as An All-Colored Vaudeville Show (1935), The Pirate (1948) and ...
74. Nancy Olson
Actress | Sunset Blvd.
Milwaukee-born Nancy Ann Olson was the daughter of Henry, a physician, and Evelyn Olson, and educated at the University of Wisconsin. Discovered on stage after transferring to California's UCLA, the pretty, peaches-and-cream blonde was quickly signed by Paramount Studios in 1948 and almost ...
75. 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...
76. Catherine Oxenberg
Actress | Dynasty
Award-winning actress Catherine Oxenberg was born in New York and raised in London. She is the daughter of HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and the granddaughter of Prince Paul, Prince Regent of Yugoslavia. Her first acting coach was Richard Burton. She was admitted to Harvard University. She ...
77. Debra Paget
Actress | The Ten Commandments
An acting career was always in the cards for Debra Paget (nee Debralee Griffin) and her siblings, coming from a show biz family and being the offspring of a "stage mother" anxious to get her kids into the movies. Paget's sister Teala Loring got her movie breaks in the 1940s, Lisa Gaye was a film ...
78. Suzanne Pleshette
Actress | The Birds
Suzanne Pleshette achieved television immortality in her role as Bob Newhart's wife in the 1970s classic situation comedy, The Bob Newhart Show (1972). For her role as "Emily Hartley," wife of psychologist "Bob Hartley" (played by Bob Newhart), Pleshette was nominated for the Emmy Award twice, in ...
79. Sidney Poitier
Actor | In the Heat of the Night
Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal ...
80. Robert Preston
Actor | The Music Man
American leading man of vast charisma, Robert Preston was the son of a garment worker and a record store clerk and grew up in Los Angeles. He was a trained musician, playing several instruments, and in high school became interested in theatre. He joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse, taking ...
81. Jane Powell
Actress | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Jane Powell was singing and dancing at an early age. She sang on the radio and performed in theaters before her screen debut in 1944. Through the 1940s and 1950s, she had a successful career in movie musicals. However, in 1957, Jane's career in films ended, as she had outgrown her innocent ...
82. Ella Raines
Actress | Phantom Lady
Ella Raines was born in Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, in 1920. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the University of Washington as a drama student and participated in many plays. Following graduation, she traveled to New York and the lights of Broadway. She was eventually signed by ...
83. Vera Ralston
Actress | Storm Over Lisbon
After achieving modest fame as an ice skater in her native Czechoslovakia, Vera Hruba was brought to the United States by Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates, who hoped to turn her into the next Sonja Henie. After featuring her in two "Ice Capades" movies, he added "Ralston" to her name and ...
84. Lee Remick
Actress | The Omen
Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Gertrude Margaret (Waldo), an actress, and Francis Edwin Remick, a department store owner. She had Irish and English ancestry. Remick was educated at Barnard College, studied dance and worked on stage and TV, before making her film debut as a sexy ...
85. Joan Rivers
Actress | Spaceballs
Joan Rivers is an American talk show host, comedian, writer and actress from Brooklyn, New York. She voiced Dot Matrix from Mel Brooks' Spaceballs. She has portrayed in several films and shows such as Shrek 2, Look Who's Talking, The Smurfs and Iron Man 3. She passed away in September 2014 at ...
86. Tristan Rogers
Actor | General Hospital
Tristan Rogers was born on June 3, 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is an actor and writer, known for General Hospital (1963), The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and The Bay (2010). He has been married to Teresa Parkerson since May 21, 1995. They have two children. He was previously married ...
87. Cesar Romero
Actor | Batman: The Movie
Tall, suave and sophisticated Cesar Romero actually had two claims to fame in Hollywood. To one generation, he was the distinguished Latin lover of numerous musicals and romantic comedies, and the rogue bandit The Cisco Kid in a string of low-budget westerns. However, to a younger generation weaned...
88. Ann Rutherford
Actress | Gone with the Wind
Ann Rutherford was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The daughter of a former Metropolitan Opera singer, John Rutherford, and her actress mother, Lillian Mansfield, was destined for show business.
Not long after her birth, her family moved to California, where she made her stage debut in ...
89. Bret Saberhagen
Actor | The Scout
Bret Saberhagen was born on April 11, 1964 in Chicago Heights, Illinois, USA. He is an actor, known for The Scout (1994), Married... with Children (1987) and 1984 American League Championship Series (1984).
90. Lizabeth Scott
Actress | Too Late for Tears
Lizabeth Scott was born Emma Matzo on September 29, 1922 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the oldest of six children of Mary (Pennock) and John Matzo, who were Slovak immigrants. Scott attended Marywood Seminary and the Alvienne School of the Theatre in New York City, where she adopted the stage name of ...
91. Martha Scott
Actress | The Ten Commandments
Martha Ellen Scott was born in Jamesport, Missouri, to Letha (McKinley) and Walter Alva Scott, an engineer and garage owner. She entered films in the early 1940s, following an initial appearance in stock. Her first film appearance was Our Town (1940), playing the same character as she played on the...
92. Jane Seymour
Actress | Somewhere in Time
Jane Seymour was born as Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg in 1951 in Middlesex, England, to a nurse mother and gynaecologist/obstetrician father. She is of Polish Jewish (father) and Dutch (mother) descent. She adopted the acting name of "Jane Seymour" when she entered show business as it was ...
93. Joanna Shimkus
Actress | The Virgin and the Gypsy
Joanna Shimkus was born on October 30, 1943 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is an actress and producer, known for The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), Zita (1968) and The Uninvited (1969). She was previously married to Sidney Poitier.
94. Dinah Shore
Soundtrack | The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
Her real name was Frances "Fanny" Rose Shore, and she was born in Winchester, Tennessee. Stricken with polio at 18 months of age, she recovered after receiving the Sister Kenny treatment. She became a cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville and went on to graduate from Vanderbilt ...
95. Ginny Simms
Actress | Night and Day
War-era songstress Ginny Simms was born Virginia Simms on May 23, 1913, in Texas but was raised in California, which accounts for her lack of a Southern accent in her speaking/singing voice. Though she studied piano as a child, it was her vocal gifts that launched her career, which started when she...
96. Penny Singleton
Actress | After the Thin Man
Her father was Irish Philadelphian newspaperman, Benny McNulty. He was related to Jim Farley, Roosevelt's campaign manager and later U.S. Postmaster General. As a child, she sang songs at a silent movie theater. After the sixth grade she joined a touring vaudeville act called "The Kiddie Kabaret." ...
97. Lionel Stander
Actor | The Transformers: The Movie
Lionel Stander, the movie character actor with the great gravelly voice, was born on January 11th, 1908 in The Bronx borough of New York City. Stander's acting career was derailed when he was blacklisted during the 1950s after being exposed as a Communist Party member during the House Un-American ...
98. Jill St. John
Actress | Diamonds Are Forever
An incredible piece of 1960s eye candy, Jill St. John absolutely smoldered on the big screen, a trendy presence in lightweight comedy, spirited adventure and spy intrigue who appeared alongside some of Hollywood's most handsome male specimens. Although she was seldom called upon to do much more ...
99. Alexis Smith
Actress | The Age of Innocence
Statuesque, smart Canadian-born Alexis Smith, with her blue/green eyes and a seductively husky voice, lent a touch of class to her leading ladies of the 1940s and 1950s.
After her family moved to California, Alexis grew into a precocious talent and performed ballet in public by the age of thirteen -...
100. Craig Stevens
Actor | Gunn
Born in Liberty, Missouri, as Gail Shikles Jr., tall, suave Craig Stevens will forever be remembered for his role as the cool, laid-back private eye Peter Gunn (1958), a ground-breaking show that ushered in the era of tough but smooth private eyes who were handy with their fists and with the ladies...
Tell Your Friends