The "Oldest" Film Actors
by CurioserAndCurioser | created - 01 Jun 2021 | updated - 19 Jul 2021 | Public(born by 1910 -- In no particular ranked order...
1. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
FILM ACTOR/DIRECTOR: 1914-1967; The Great Dictator; Modern Times; The Kid; Gold Rush; The Circus; Limelight; City Lights; Camille; The Immigrant; The Tramp; The Vagabond; The Champion
2. Max Schreck
Actor | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Max Schreck was born in Berlin. He worked in an apprenticeship until his father's death before enrolling into a school for acting. He toured the country with his peers and was a member of several theaters until he became a part of Max Reinhardt's group of innovative German actors. He played mostly ...
FILM ACTOR: 1920-1936; Nosferatu
3. Lionel Barrymore
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
Famed actor, composer, artist, author and director. His talents extended to the authoring of the novel "Mr. Cartonwine: A Moral Tale" as well as his autobiography. In 1944, he joined ASCAP, and composed "Russian Dances", "Partita", "Ballet Viennois", "The Woodman and the Elves", "Behind the Horizon...
FILM ACTOR: 1905-1956; It's a Wonderful Life; Key Largo; You Can't Take It With You; A Free Soul; Grand Hotel (1932); Captains Courageous; Since You Went Away; Saratoga; Ah, Wilderness!; The Little Colonel; Mata Hari (1931); Decameron Nights; Rasputin and the Empress; Dinner at Eight; Treasure Island (1934); David Copperfield (1935); Dr. Kildare franchise; Dr Gillespie's franchise
4. Clark Gable
Actor | It Happened One Night
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle ...
FILM ACTOR: 1923-1961; Gone With the Wind; It Happened One Night; Mutiny on the Bounty (1935); Red Dust; Call of the Wild (1935); Caine and Mabel; Comrade X; Lone Star; Saratoga; A Free Soul; Night Flight; Test Pilot; Mogambo; The Misfits
5. Leslie Howard
Actor | Pygmalion
Leslie Howard Steiner was born in London to Lilian (Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and his English mother was of German Jewish and mostly English descent. Leslie went to Dulwich College, then worked as a bank clerk until the outbreak of World ...
FILM ACTOR: 1914-1943; Gone With the Wind; Pygmalion (1938); Spitfire; 'Pimpernel' Smith; Intermezzo; The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934); Romeo and Juliet (1936); Of Human Bondage (1934)
6. Edmund Gwenn
Actor | Miracle on 34th Street
There are very few character actors from the 1930s, '40s or '50s who rose to the rank of stardom. Only a rare man or woman reached the level of renown and admiration, and had enough audience appeal, to be the first name in a cast's billing, a name that got marquee posting. Charles Coburn comes to ...
FILM ACTOR: 1916-1957; Miracle on 34th St (1947); The Trouble With Harry (1955); Pride and Prejudice (1940); Them! (1954); The Skin Game (1921 and 1931); Lassie Come Home; Of Human Bondage (1946); Les Miserables (1952)
7. Groucho Marx
Actor | A Night at the Opera
The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers. With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love...
FILM ACTOR: 1921-1972; A Night at the Opera; Duck Soup; A Day at the Races; Horse Feathers; Animal Crackers
8. Harpo Marx
Actor | A Night at the Opera
With poofy, curly red hair, a top hat and a horn, the lovable mute was the favorite of the Marx Brothers. Though chasing women was a favorite routine of his in the movies, Harpo was a devoted father and husband. He adopted the mute routine in vaudeville and carried it over to the films. Harpo was ...
FILM ACTOR: 1921-1962; A Night at the Opera; Horse Feathers; Duck Soup; Too Many Kisses; A Day at the Races; Animal Crackers
9. Chico Marx
Actor | Duck Soup
As a kid trying to negotiate his way through various gang territories to a floating crap game or a new pool hall where he was not yet known as a hustler, Leonard (Chico) Marx learned to fake several accents. Because he later employed an Italian accent in the Marx Brothers' act, people assumed his ...
FILM ACTOR: 1921-1959; A Night at the Opera; Duck Souop; A Day at the Races; Animal Crackers; Monkey Business
10. Zeppo Marx
Actor | Duck Soup
The youngest of The Marx Brothers, Zeppo was put into the role of the straight man after his brother Gummo left the act. Zeppo also acted as an understudy to all three of his brothers, and he has been said to have played Grouchos part better than Groucho himself. After playing small parts in the ...
FILM ACTOR: 1921-1933; Duck Soup; Horse Feathers; Animal Crackers; Monkey Business
11. Boris Karloff
Actor | Bride of Frankenstein
Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor most closely identified with the general public's perception of the "monster" from the classic Mary Shelley book, "Frankenstein". William Henry ...
FILM ACTOR: 1919-1969; The Bride of Frankenstein; Frankenstein (1931); The Mummy; Black Friday; The Black Cat; Scarface (1932); The Mask of Fu Manchu; The Walking Dead (1936); The Body Snatcher
12. James Cagney
Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces
One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur ...
FILM ACTOR: 1930-1984; The Roaring Twenties; Angels With Dirty Faces; White Heat; Yankee Doodle Dandy; Taxi (1931); "G" Men; Ragtime; Lady Killer; The Public Enemy
13. Lon Chaney
Actor | He Who Gets Slapped
Although his parents were deaf, Leonidas Chaney became an actor and also owner of a theatre company (together with his brother John). He made his debut at the movies in 1912, and his filmography is vast. Lon Chaney was especially famous for his horror parts in movies like e.g. Quasimodo in The ...
FILM ACTOR: 1912-1930; The Phantom of the Opera (1925); He Who Gets Slapped; The Penalty; The Monster (1925); Oliver Twist (1922)
14. Buster Keaton
Actor | The General
Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...
FILM ACTOR: 1917-1966; The General; Sherlock, Jr.; Steamboat Bill, Jr.; Seven Chances; Limelight; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
15. Douglas Fairbanks
Actor | The Thief of Bagdad
Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, ...
FILM ACTOR: 1915-1937; Robin Hood (1922); The Thief of Baghdad (1924); The Mark of Zorro (1920); The Iron Mask (1929); The Taming of the Shrew (1929); The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
16. Bela Lugosi
Actor | Dracula
Bela Lugosi was born Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó on October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and István Blaskó, a banker. He was the youngest of four children. During WWI, he volunteered and was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant, and was wounded ...
FILM ACTOR: 1917-1957; Dracula (1931); The Black Cat; Island of Lost Souls; Glen or Glenda; Plan 9 From Outer Space; Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein; The Body Snatcher; The Return of the Vampire; The Ghost of Frankenstein; The Wolf Man; Ninotchka
17. Louis Armstrong
Actor | High Society
Louis Armstrong grew up poor in a single-parent household. He was 13 when he celebrated the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol that belonged to the current man in his mother's life. At the Colored Waifs Home for Boys, he learned to play the bugle and the clarinet and joined ...
FILM ACTOR: 1930-1969; High Society; Pennies From Heaven; The Glenn Miller Story; Hello, Dolly!
18. Claude Rains
Actor | Casablanca
William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth...
FILM ACTOR: 1920-1965; Casablanca; The Invisible Man (1933); Notorious; Mr Smith Goes to Washington; The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938); The Wolf Man (1941); Now, Voyager; Phantom of the Opera (1943); Caesar and Cleopatra (1945); Lawrence of Arabia; The Greatest Story Ever Told
19. Canada Lee
Actor | Lifeboat
Lee played Danny (opposite of Hilda Simms, who played Anna) in Anna Lucasta on Broadway in 1944. Anna Lucasta was the first non-black written play performed by an all black cast on Broadway. He became an actor after careers as a jockey, boxer and musician. Lee was a civil rights activist, following...
FILM ACTOR: 1939-1951; Lifeboat; Cry, the Beloved Country; Body and Soul; Keep Punching
20. Ray Milland
Actor | The Lost Weekend
Ray Milland became one of Paramount's most bankable and durable stars, under contract from 1934 to 1948, yet little in his early life suggested a career as a motion picture actor.
Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in the Welsh town of Neath, Glamorgan, to Elizabeth Annie (Truscott) and Alfred ...
FILM ACTOR: 1928-1985; The Lost Weekend; Dial M for Murder; Love Story; The Uninvited; Escape to Witch Mountain; The Ray Milland Show (TV Series)
21. Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Actor | The Rise of Catherine the Great
Although he appeared in approximately 100 movies or TV shows, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. never really intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was born into and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian. Noblesse oblige.
He was born Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. in ...
FILM ACTOR: 1916-1989; Little Caesar; The Fighting O'Flynn; The Great Manhunt; The Narrow Corner; The Pirates of Penzance (1982, TV Movie); The Corsican Brothers; Angels Over Broadway; Gunga Din; The Prisoner of Zenda; The Dawn Patrol
22. Alfred Abel
Actor | Metropolis
This elegant actor of the golden age of German cinema appeared in several masterpieces, before the cameras of such inspired geniuses as Lang, Lubitsch and Murnau. Vocation had come rather late in his life, though. Abel was indeed already 33 when he made his first film. Beforehand, he had been a ...
FILM ACTOR: 1913-1938; Metropolis
23. Gustav Fröhlich
Actor | Metropolis
Gustav Fröhlich was born on March 21, 1902 in Hanover, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Metropolis (1927), Leb' wohl, Christina (1945) and Seine Tochter ist der Peter (1955). He was married to Maria Hajek and Gitta Alpar. He died on December 22, 1987 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
FILM ACTOR: 1922-1981; Metropolis; Kismet
24. Marcel Dalio
Actor | Sabrina
Sunday, November the 20th is the anniversary of Marcel Dalio's death in 1983. It was the end of a serendipitous life. You know him. He was a citizen of the world. Born Israel Moshe Blauschild, in Paris, in 1900, he became a much sought-after character actor. His lovely animated face with its great ...
FILM ACTOR: 1931-1982; Sabrina (1954); The Rules of the Game; To Have and Have Not; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Catch-22; American in Paris (1964 TV Movie); Pillow Talk; Casablanca
25. Aleksandr Antonov
Actor | Bronenosets Potyomkin
Aleksandr Antonov was born on February 13, 1898 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Battleship Potemkin (1925), Dvenadtsataya noch (1955) and The Country Bride (1938). He died on November 23, 1962 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
FILM ACTOR 1923-1957; Battleship Potemkin
26. Vladimir Barskiy
Actor | Bronenosets Potyomkin
Vladimir Barskiy was born on March 15, 1866. He was a director and actor, known for Battleship Potemkin (1925), Shuquras saidumloeba (1925) and Tavadis asuli Meri (1926). He died on January 24, 1936.
FILM DIRECTOR/ACTOR: 1919-1935; Battleship Potemkin
27. Grigoriy Aleksandrov
Director | Vesna
Grigori Aleksandrov was a Soviet-Russian filmmaker best known as director of Volga - Volga (1938), The Circus (1936), and October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927), as well as co-star in Battleship Potemkin (1925) by director Sergei Eisenstein.
He was born Grigori Vasilyevich Mormonenko on ...
FILM ACTOR/DIRECTOR: 1923-1985; Battleship Potemkin
28. Alexander Granach
Actor | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Alexander Granach was born in the region of Galizia, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ukraine). Given the name Jessaja Szajko Gronish, he was one of a dozen children of a poor Jewish family eking out a living, first in a farming village, later in a series of small towns and ...
FILM ACTOR: 1919-1944; Nosferatu; Ninotchka; Hangmen Also Die!; The Hitler Gang; Svengali
29. Gustav von Wangenheim
Actor | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Gustav von Wangenheim was a German actor, film director, and screenwriter from Wiesbaden. He is mostly remembered for playing the character Hutter in the classic horror film "Nosferatu" (1921). His character was based on the character of Jonathan Harker in the novel "Dracula" (1897) by Bram Stoker.
...
FILM ACTOR: 1916-1931; Nosferatu; Der Kampf
30. Mack Swain
Actor | The Gold Rush
Mack Swain was born in 1876 and soon became a talented vaudevillian. In 1913 he was hired by Mack Sennett and appeared in a few Mabel Normand pictures until a year later he became even bigger when Charlie Chaplin arrived at the Keystone Studio. Swain later created a character by the name of Ambrose...
FILM ACTOR: 1913-1935; The Gold Rush; The Last Warning; Tillie's Punctured Romance; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Ambrose's franchise
31. Tom Murray
Actor | The Gold Rush
Tom Murray was born on September 8, 1873 in Stonefoot, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Gold Rush (1925), Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) and Into Her Kingdom (1926). He was married to Louise Carver. He died on August 27, 1935 in Hollywood, California, USA.
FILM ACTOR: 1916-1931; The Gold Rush; Tramp, Tramp, Tramp; Into Her Kingdom; Private Izzy Murphy
32. Jackie Coogan
Actor | Oliver Twist
Jackie Coogan was born into a family of vaudevillians; his father was a dancer and his mother had been a child star. On the stage by age 4, Jackie was touring at age 5 with his family in Los Angeles, California.
While performing on the stage, he was spotted by Charles Chaplin, who then and there ...
FILM ACTOR: 1917-1983; The Kid; Oliver Twist (1922); Tom Sawyer (1930); Huckleberry Finn (1931); The Buster Keaton Story; McKeever and the Colonel (TV Series); The Addams Family (TV Series); The Escape Artist
33. Jack Oakie
Actor | The Great Dictator
"America's Joyboy," beefy, plump-faced comedian Jack Oakie, was one of the funniest top and second banana jokesters of stage, radio and especially film's "Golden Age." He would accomplish so much despite the fact that he was "functionally deaf" throughout his career and performed primarily with the...
FILM ACTOR: 1923-1966); The Great Dictator; Call of the Wild (1935); Million Dollar Legs; The Affairs of Annabel; Little Men (1940); Tin Pan Alley; Alice in Wonderland (1933)
34. Nigel Bruce
Actor | Rebecca
Nigel was, from the beginning, typecast as bumbling English aristocrats, military types or drawing room society snobs and, within the narrow parameters of his range, he was very, very good at playing these parts. Nigel Bruce was born in Mexico, where his father, Sir William W. Bruce, worked as an ...
FILM ACTOR: 1922-1954; Rebecca (1940); Suspicion; Pursuit to Algiers; Sherlock Holmes Faces Death; Treasure Island (1934); The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934); The Charge of the Light Brigade; Kidnapped (1938); The Hound of the Baskerville (1939); The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939); Sherlock Holmes series (1940's); Lassie Come Home; Frenchman's Creek; Son of Lassie; Limelight
35. Syd Chaplin
Actor | King, Queen and Joker
Syd Chaplin was born on March 16, 1885 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for King, Queen and Joker (1921), The Better 'Ole (1926) and A Lover's Lost Control (1915). He was married to Minnie Chaplin and Henriette. He died on April 15, 1965 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
FILM ACTOR: 1914-1928; King, Queen and Joker; The Better 'Ole; A Lover's Lost Control; Gussle's franchise
36. Al Ernest Garcia
Actor | Modern Times
Al Ernest Garcia was born on March 11, 1887 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and casting director, known for Modern Times (1936), The Circus (1928) and City Lights (1931). He was married to Ruth Garcia. He died on September 4, 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
FILM ACTOR: 1911-1938; Modern Times; The Circus; City Lights; South of Santa Fe
37. Joe Keaton
Actor | Sherlock Jr.
Joe Keaton and wife Myra were grade-Z vaudeville performers in the early 1900s. Their son Buster joined the act when he was only a few months old. The act was a rough-and-tumble one, with Buster being thrown around on stage most of the time. As the years went by, Joe Keaton became an alcoholic, ...
FILM ACTOR: 1917-1935; Sherlock, Jr.; The General; Our Hospitality; Convict 13
38. Glen Cavender
Actor | The General
Glen Cavender was born in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He was an actor and director, known for [=tt0017925], [=tt0463180] and The Man from Brodney's (1923). Before he went into the movies he was a soldier of fortune. He served in the Boer war, in Cuba and in the Philippines. Also, served in China during ...
FILM ACTOR: 1914-1949; The General; The Man From Brodney's; The Lion and the Girl; A Scoundrel's Toll
39. T. Roy Barnes
Actor | It's a Gift
T. Roy Barnes was born on August 11, 1880 in Lincolnshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for It's a Gift (1934), Scratch My Back (1920) and Sally (1929). He was married to Blanche Berner, Mamie McNab and Bessie Crawford (actress). He died on March 30, 1937 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, ...
FILM ACTOR: 1920-1935; It's a Gift; Scratch My Back; So Long Letty; Aloha
40. Johnny Mack Brown
Actor | Valley of Fear
An All-American halfback while attending the University of Alabama, Johnny Mack Brown chose the silver screen over the green grass of the football field when he graduated. Signed to a contract with MGM in 1926, Brown debuted in Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) with William Haines in a film about - ...
FILM ACTOR: 1927-1965; Valley of Fear; Desperate Trails; Flaming Frontiers; Rustlers of Red Dog; The Oregon Trail; Billy the Kid (1930); Coquette
41. Matt Moore
Actor | Rain
Matt Moore was born on January 8, 1888 in County Meath, Ireland. He was an actor and director, known for Rain (1932), The Unholy Three (1925) and The Narrow Street (1925). He died on January 20, 1960 in Hollywood, California, USA.
FILM ACTOR: 1912-1958; Rain; The Unholy Three; Call of the West; The Squealer; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; That Forsyte Woman; Coquette
42. Cedric Hardwicke
Actor | The Ten Commandments
Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, ...
FILM ACTOR: 1913-1964; The Ten Commandments; The War of the Worlds (1953); Suspicion; Around the World in 80 Days (1956); The Pumpkin Eater; The Gertrude Berg Show (TV Series); Helen of Troy (1956); Richard III (1955); Salome (1953); The Desert Fox; Rope; The Lodger; The Ghost of Frankenstein; Suspicion; The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); King Solomon's Mines (1937); Les Miserables (1935); The Dreyfus Case; Nelson
43. Reginald Owen
Actor | Mary Poppins
Born August 5th, 1887 in England, Reginald Owen was among Hollywood's busier character actors, making more than 80 films. He was educated in England at Sir Herbert Tree's Academy of Dramatic Arts. Owen excelled and made his professional debut also in England at the age of 18. He came to New York in...
FILM ACTOR: 1911-1973; Mary Poppins (1964); Of Human Bondage (1934); A Study in Scarlet; A Christmas Carol (1938); Henry VIII (1911); Sherlock Holmes (1932); Voltaire; A Tale of Two Cities (1935); Kidnapped (1938); Mrs Miniver; Madame Curie (1943); The Canterville Ghost; National Velvet; The Secret Garden (1949); Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
44. Ed Wynn
Actor | Alice in Wonderland
An old-fashioned comedian, who, by recommendation by his son Keenan Wynn, became one of the world's most beloved clowns, and one of the best actors of his time. He was born on November 9, 1886. He performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, and later had a son Keenan in 1916. He later wrote his own shows, ...
FILM ACTOR: 1927-1967; Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951); Mary Poppins (1964); Babes in Toyland (1961); The Diary of Anne Frank (1959); That Darn Cat! (1965); Son of Flubber (1963); Cinderfella; Miracle on 34th Street (TV Movie, 1959); Meet Me in St Louis
45. John Barrymore
Actor | Twentieth Century
John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical ...
FILM ACTOR: 1912-1941; Twentieth Century; Svengali; Dinner at Eight; Grand Hotel (1932); Marie Antoinette (1938); Bulldog Drummond franchise; Romeo and Juliet (1936); Hamlet (1933); Moby Dick (1930); Beau Brummel (1924); Sherlock Holmes (1922); Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920)
46. George Burns
Actor | Oh, God!
George Burns was an American actor, comedian, singer, and published author. He formed a comedy duo with his wife Gracie Allen (1895-1964), and typically played the straight man to her zany roles. Following her death, Burns started appearing as a solo performer. He once won an Academy Award for Best...
FILM ACTOR: 1929-1994; Oh, God!; Going in Style; The Sunshine Boys; Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Radioland Murders; 18 Again!; Oh, God! Book Two; Oh, God! You Devil
47. John Gielgud
Actor | Arthur
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other ...
FILM ACTOR: 1924-2000; Julius Caesar (1953); Shine; Arthur (1981); Murder on the Orient Express (1974); Elizabeth (1998); Hamlet (1996); The Portrait of a Lady (1996); War and Remembrance (TV Mini-Series); A Man For All Seasons (TV Movie, 1988); Arthur 2: On the Rocks; Gandhi; Brideshead Revisited (TV Mini-Series, 1981); Chariots of Fire; The Elephant Man; Caligula; Treasure Island (1965); Becket (1964); The Prime Minister; Hamlet (1948)
48. Ivor Novello
Writer | Downhill
While his special gifts seemed to lie in music and composing, the dapper, multi-talented Welsh actor Ivor Novello (ne David Ivor Davies), with his leading-man good looks, had a strong affinity for the camera.
Born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1893, he was the son of a tax-collector father and a well-known ...
FILM ACTOR: 1920-1934; The Lodger; Downhill
49. Chief Dan George
Actor | Little Big Man
Actor, author, and musician Chief Dan George was born in present-day North Vancouver as Geswanouth Slahoot (later anglicized as 'Dan Slaholt'), the son of a tribal chief on Burrard Indian Reserve Nº. 3. He is the only Aboriginal actor in Canadian history to date with the right to use the title "...
FILM ACTOR: 1960-1981; The Outlaw Josey Wales; Little Big Man; Harry and Tonto (1974); Americathon; The Beachcombers (TV Series)
50. Robert Donat
Actor | The 39 Steps
Robert Donat's pleasant voice and somewhat neutral English accent were carefully honed as a boy because he had a stammer and took elocution lessons starting at age 11 to overcome the impediment. It was not too surprising that freedom from such a vocal embarrassment was encouragement to act. His ...
FILM ACTOR: 1932-1958; The 39 Steps (1935); Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939); The Count of Monte Cristo (1934); The Citadel; The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933); The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
51. Ralph Richardson
Actor | Doctor Zhivago
Sir Ralph Richardson was one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century English-language theater, ascending to the height of his profession in the mid-1930s when he became a star in London's West End. He became the first actor of his generation to be knighted. He became Sir Ralph in 1947, and was ...
FILM ACTOR: 1933-1984; Doctor Zhivago; The Heiress; Time Bandits; The Fallen Idol; Anna Karenina (1948); Richard III (1955); Exodus; The Great War (TV Mini-Series Documentary, 1964); Watership Down (1978, voice); Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
52. Paul Lukas
Actor | Watch on the Rhine
Oscar-winning actor Paul Lukas was born in Hungary and graduated from the School for Dramatic Arts. In 1916 he went to Kosice (Kassa) to be an actor; in 1918 he became an actor specializing in comedy. For ten years he was the most popular character player and romantic lead of the company. In 1918 ...
FILM ACTOR: 1915-1970; Watch on the Rhine; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954); The Lady Vanishes; Deadline at Dawn; Lord Jim (1965); Kim; The Three Musketeers (1935); Little Women (1933)
53. Charles Laughton
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...
FILM ACTOR: 1928-1962; Witness For the Prosecution; Mutiny on the Bounty (1935); Spartacus; The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933); Young Bess; Salome; The Paradine Case; Captain Kidd (1945); The Canterville Ghost (1944); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); Jamaica Inn; I, Claudius (1937); Les Miserables (1935); The Barretts of Wimpole Street; Island of Lost Souls
54. George Sanders
Actor | All About Eve
George Sanders was born of English parents in St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked in a Birmingham textile mill, in the tobacco business and as a writer in advertising. He entered show business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio and theatrical understudy. His film debut, in ...
FILM ACTOR: 1934-1973; All About Eve; Rebecca (1940); The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945); Man Hunt (1941); The Jungle Book (1967, voice); Bat Man (1966 TV Series); In Search of the Castaways; Ivanhoe (1952); The Ghost and Mrs Muir; The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945); The Lodger; The House of the Seven Gables (1940); The Falcon franchise
55. 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...
FILM ACTOR: 1937-1981; The Third Man; Citizen Kane; Gaslight (1944); Soylent Green; Shadow of a Doubt; The Magnificent Ambersons (1942); Portrait of Jennie; Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series); Hush..Hush Sweet Charlotte; Tora Tora Tora!; Heaven's Gate
56. Herbert Marshall
Actor | Foreign Correspondent
Herbert Marshall had trained to become a certified accountant, but his interest turned to the stage. He lost a leg while serving in World War I and was rehabilitated with a wooden leg. This did not stop him from making good his decision to make the stage his vocation. He used a very deliberate ...
FILM ACTOR: 1927-1965; The Little Foxes; The Letter; Murder!; Trouble in Paradise; The Virgin Queen (1955); The Secret Garden (1949); The Razor's Edge; The Painted Veil (1934); I Was a Spy
57. Charles Boyer
Actor | Gaslight
Charles Boyer studied philosophy before he went to the theater where he gave his debut in 1920. Although he had at first no intentions to pursue a career at the movies (his first movie was Man of the Sea (1920) by Marcel L'Herbier) he used his chance in Hollywood after several filming stations all ...
FILM ACTOR: 1920-1976; Gaslight (1944); Conquest; Hold Back the Dawn; Algiers; Lost Horizon; Barefoot in the Park; Casino Royale (1967); Around the World in 80 Days; The Constant Nymph
58. Lon Chaney Jr.
Actor | The Wolf Man
American character actor whose career was influenced (and often overshadowed) by that of his father, silent film star Lon Chaney. The younger Chaney was born while his parents were on a theatrical tour, and he joined them onstage for the first time at the age of six months. However, as a young man,...
FILM ACTOR: 1922-1971; High Noon; The Wolf Man; Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man; Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein; Dracula vs Frankenstein; House of Dracula; Son of Dracula; The Mummy's Curse (1944); The Mummy's Ghost (1944); The Mummy's Tomb; The Ghost of Frankenstein; Of Mice and Men (1939)
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