- in Progress - They Touched My Heart 1000 Actresses Through the Years born 1883- 1998

1. Lillian Gish

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, ...

films 1912-1987 inc The White Sister 1923 Duel in the Sun 1947- List ONE of 20

2. 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 ...

films 1909-1934 inc Stella Maris 1918 Sparrows 1926 - Canada

3. Hattie McDaniel

Actress | Gone with the Wind

After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George ...

films 1930-1952 inc Saratoga 1937 In This Our Life 1942

4. Edna May Oliver

Actress | Penguin Pool Murder

She was born Edna May Nutter, a child of solid New England stock, on 9th November 1883 in Malden, Massachusetts. The daughter of Ida May and Charles Edward Nutter, Edna was a descendant of the 2nd American president John Adams and his son, the 6th American president John Quincy Adams. In addition, ...

films 1923-1941 inc David Copperfield 1935 Drums Along the Mohawk 1940

5. 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...

films 1914-1953 inc The Docks of New York 1928 - Russia

6. Billie Burke

Actress | The Wizard of Oz

Billie Burke was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke on August 7, 1885 in Washington, D.C. Her father was a circus clown, and as a child she toured the United States and Europe with the circus (before motion pictures and after the stage, circuses were the biggest form of entertainment in the...

films 1916-1960 inc A Bill of Divorcement 1937 Topper 1937

7. Beulah Bondi

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

Character actress Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and 1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great films, including The Trail...

films 1931-1974 inc Make Way for Tomorrow 1937 Of Human Hearts 1939

8. Chieko Higashiyama

Actress | Tôkyô monogatari

Chieko Higashiyama was born on September 30, 1890 in Chiba, Japan. She was an actress, known for Tokyo Story (1953), Sen-hime (1954) and The Idiot (1951). She died on May 8, 1980.

films 1936-1971 inc The Portrait 1945 Sincere Hearts 1953 - Japan (This listing needs a head shot)

9. Spring Byington

Actress | You Can't Take It with You

The possessor of one of Hollywood's gentlest faces and warmest voices, and about as sweet as Tupelo honey both on-and-off camera, character actress Spring Byington was seldom called upon to play callous or unsympathetic (she did once play a half-crazed housekeeper in Dragonwyck (1946)). Although ...

films 1938-1964 inc Ah Wilderness 1936 The Devil & Miss Jones 1941

10. Gladys Cooper

Actress | My Fair Lady

Gladys Cooper was the daughter of journalist William Frederick Cooper and his wife Mabel Barnett. As a child she was very striking and was used as a photographic model beginning at six years old. She wanted to become an actress and started on that road in 1905 after being discovered by Seymour ...

films 1913-1969 inc Now Voyageur 1943 The Song of Bernadette 1944 - British

11. Fay Bainter

Actress | Jezebel

Fay Bainter's career began as a child performer in 1898. For some time, she was a member of the traveling cast of the Morosco Stock Company in Los Angeles. In 1912, she made her Broadway debut in 'The Rose of Panama', but this and her subsequent play 'The Bridal Path' (1913), were conspicuous ...

films 1934-1961 inc State Fair 1945 The Children's Hour 1961

12. Margaret Rutherford

Actress | The V.I.P.s

Rare is the reference to Margaret Rutherford that doesn't characterize her as either jut-chinned, eccentric, or both. The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was made for the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford ...

films 1936-1970 inc Blithe Spirit 1945 Murder She Said 1961 - England

13. Anna Q. Nilsson

Actress | The Greater Glory

Anna Quirentia Nilsson, popularly known as "Anna Q", who was born on March 30th, 1888, in Ystad, Sweden, emigrated to the United States in 1905. The 5'7" Nilsson used her blonde beauty to become a famous model for well-known fashion photographers and fine artists. In 1907 she was chosen the most ...

films 1911-1954 inc The Rustle of Silk 1924 -later career as a bit player - Sweden

14. Sara García

Actress | La tercera palabra

The legendary "granny of Mexican cinema" began her movie career when she was a 22-year-old teacher in a nun's school for girls. One day, young Sara's attention was attracted to a small building in downtown Mexico City. Inside it was Azteca Films, one of the very first Mexican film production ...

films 1917-1988 inc La Abuelita 1942 Los Tres Garcia 1947 - Mexico

15. Alice Brady

Actress | My Man Godfrey

Alice Brady was born in New York City on November 2, 1892. She was interested in the stage from childhood, as her father was famed Broadway producer William A. Brady. After a few stage productions, Alice was discovered by movie producers in New York, since this was the film capital at the time. Her...

films 1914-1939 inc At the Mercy of Men 1918 My Man Godfrey 1936

16. Marjorie Main

Actress | The Egg and I

Her father was a minister, and when she joined a local stock company as a youngster she changed her name to avoid embarrassing her family. She worked in vaudeville and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her film debut was in A House Divided (1931). She repeated her stage role in Dead End (1937) as Baby ...

films 1931-1957 inc Dead End 1937 Summer Stock 1951

17. Theda Bara

Actress | A Fool There Was

Theda Bara was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Theodosia Goodman, on July 29, 1885. She was the daughter of a local tailor and his wife. As a teenager Theda was interested in the theatrical arts and once she finished high school, she dyed her blond hair black and went in pursuit of her dream. By 1908 ...

silent films 1914-1926 inc The Devils' Daughter 1915

18. Zara Cully

Actress | The Jeffersons

Zara Cully was born on January 26, 1892 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Jeffersons (1975), All in the Family (1971) and Sugar Hill (1974). She was married to James M. Brown. She died on February 28, 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

films 1970-1975 inc Brother John 1971 best known for 85 episodes of the Jeffersons 1975-78 tv series

19. Peggy Wood

Actress | The Sound of Music

Above all else, singer/actress Peggy Wood has endeared herself to both TV and film audiences with one single role in each medium. She made warm, lasting impressions as the benevolent, strong-willed Scandinanvian matriarch Marta Hansen in the series drama Mama (1949), and as the knowing Mother ...

films 1919-1965 inc. Jalna 1935 best known for 300+ episodes of Mama 1949-57 tv series

20. Estelle Winwood

Actress | The Producers

When Estelle saw the girl on a white horse at the circus, she then decided that she wanted to be an actress. And she was from the age of 5, to the disapproval of her father. Her mother had her train with the Liverpool Repertory Company, and Estelle performed in many plays and many roles in the West...

films 1931-1976 inc Quality Street 1934 The Notorious Landlady 1962 - England

21. Gertrude Astor

Actress | Stage Struck

The first actress to sign a contract with Universal in 1915, Gertrude Astor (born in Ohio as Gertrude Irene Astor) began her career playing trombone and saxophone on a riverboat. Towering over most of her leading men at 5'11", she often played golddiggers, rich socialites or a leading lady's best ...

films 1915-1966 inc Ginsberg the Great 1927 -later prolific career as a bit player

22. Verna Felton

Actress | Sleeping Beauty

Verna Felton had extensive experience on the stage and in radio before she broke into film and television. Her trademarks was her distinctive husky voice and her no-nonsense attitude. She was quite in demand for voiceover work, as evidenced by her roles in Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (...

films 1939-1947 inc The Gunfighter 1950 - best known for 156 episodes for December Bride 1954-59

23. Mabel Normand

Actress | Mickey

Mabel Normand was one of the comedy greats of early film. In an era when women are deemed 'not funny enough' it seems film history has forgotten her contributions. Her films debuted the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the pie in the face gag. She co-starred with both Chaplin and Roscoe "...

silent films 1910-1927 inc Dodging a Million 1918 The Extra Girl 1923

24. Blanche Yurka

Actress | A Tale of Two Cities

This imposing-looking stage star of early 20th century Broadway was born Blanche Jurka to Bohemian immigrants on June 18, 1887 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Some references claim that she was brought to the United States as an infant and then raised in St. Paul. Her Czech parents saw a blossoming singing...

films 1919-1966 inc Cry of the Werewolf 1944 - Czech

25. Kathleen Harrison

Actress | Scrooge

Although British actress Kathleen Harrison was born in 1892 in the Lancashire town of Blackburn, she was fondly known for her cockney characters throughout her career. Trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art she first married and lived overseas in Argentina for nearly eight years...

films 1931-1979 inc Night Must Fall 1937 Cast a Dark Shadow 1955 - England

26. Betty Blythe

Actress | She

Brunette, buxom matinee idol Betty Blythe capitalised on the 'roaring 20's' infatuation with exotic screen sirens to achieve a brief period of stardom. She was, notoriously, one of the first actresses to ever appear nude (or in various stages of undress) on screen. It wasn't that Betty couldn't act...

films 1916-1964 inc Queen of Sheba 1921 Pilgrimage 1933 - later films as a bit player

27. Edith Evans

Actress | The Whisperers

Edith Evans was the greatest actress on the English stage in the 20th century, treading the boards for over half-a-century. She made her professional stage debut in 1912 and excelled in both classic and modern roles in the West End of London and on Broadway, as well as the Shakespeare Memorial ...

films 1947-1977 inc Woman of Dolwyn 1944 Tom Jones 1964 - England

28. Etta McDaniel

Actress | The Great Man's Lady

Etta McDaniel was born on December 1, 1890 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Great Man's Lady (1941), What a Man! (1944) and The Pittsburgh Kid (1941). She died on January 13, 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

films 1933-1945 inc The Lawless 90's 1937 The Pittsburgh Kid 1941

29. Charlotte Greenwood

Actress | Oklahoma!

Charlotte Greenwood was born Frances Charlotte Greenwood on June 25, 1890, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a sickly child and her father left the family when she was very young. Charlotte grew into a healthy, six foot tall woman. She started her career dancing in vaudeville where she became ...

films 1915-1956 inc So Long Letty 1929 Moon Over Miami 1941

30. Almira Sessions

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

A member of a very socially prominent Washington family, Sessions played vaudeville, radio, television and film for sixty years. Sessions made her debut in 1909 in a comic opera. She has appeared over 500 times in movies and on television. Session sang comic songs in cabarets before going to New ...

films 1932-1971 inc 3 Girls About Town 1941 Fear 1946

31. Florence Bates

Actress | Rebecca

The American character actress, Florence Rabe, was the daughter of an antique store owner. She gained a degree in Mathematics from the University of Texas in 1906 and went on to a career in teaching and social work. She changed course after being persuaded by a friend to study law, and, passing her...

films 1937-1953 inc The Moon & Sixpence 1942 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

32. Ruth Chatterton

Actress | Dodsworth

Beginning as a chorus girl at age 14, Ruth Chatterton became a Broadway star with "Daddy Long Legs" in 1914. She appeared in such shows as "Mary Rose" and "Come Out of the Kitchen" before moving to Hollywood in 1925. As her film career faded in the late 1930s, she returned to the stage in revivals,...

films -1932-1938 inc Sarah & Son - 6 roles in 1950's television theater

33. Rafaela Ottiano

Actress | Curly Top

Rafaela Ottiano was born on March 4, 1888 in Venice, Italy. She was an actress, known for Curly Top (1935), Grand Hotel (1932) and The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942). She died on August 15, 1942 in East Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

films 1924-1942 inc She Done Him Wrong 1933 The Devil Doll 1936 - Italy

34. Cathleen Nesbitt

Actress | An Affair to Remember

Genteel Cathleen Nesbitt was a grand dame of the theatre on both sides of the Atlantic in a career spanning seven decades. Among almost 300 roles on stage, she excelled at comic portrayals of sophisticated socialites and elegant mothers. Hollywood used her, whenever a gentler, sweeter version of ...

films 1919-1980 Jassy 1947 The Parent Trap 1961 England

35. Madge Kennedy

Actress | Marathon Man

In 1906, Madge went to New York City to study at the Art Students League where she hoped to become an illustrator. This lasted until she appeared in a student musical, which led to a full time job in a traveling stock company. By 1912, Madge was a Broadway Star with the bedroom farce "Little Miss ...

films 1917-1976 inc The Fair Pretender 1918 The Rains of Ranchipur 1955

36. Marjorie Rambeau

Actress | Primrose Path

Born July 15, 1889 in San Francisco, unappreciated character player Marjorie Rambeau worked on the stage from the age of 12. In the 1910s and 1920s, she became a prominent Broadway lead, noted for her serene beauty, elegant poise and touching theatrics. Around the same time she made a few silent ...

films 1917-1957 in Her Man 1920 Torch Song 1954

37. Tsuru Aoki

Actress | The Dragon Painter

Born Tsuru Kawakami, Tsuru emigrated to the U.S. in 1903 with her aunt and uncle, who were in the theater business. She found work on stage before moving to film. She worked in L.A., then moved to San Francisco and New York before returning to California. At a time when even in her home country ...

films 1913 -1960 inc Black Roses 1926 Hell to Eternity 1960 Japan

38. Esther Howard

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

Switching from Broadway to Hollywood in 1931, actress Esther Howard was an expert at portraying frumpy old crones, man-hungry spinsters and oversexed dowagers. Utilizing her wide, expressive eyes and versatile voice for both broad comedy and tense drama, Howard was equally at home portraying ...

films 1930-1952 Merrily We Go to Hell 1932 Born to Kill 1947

39. 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 ...

films 1917-1979 inc Destiny 1921 Tales from the Vienna Woods 1980 Germany

40. 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 ...

films 1918-1948 inc Being Respectable 1924 Angel & the Badman 1947

41. Florence Lawrence

Actress | Not Like Other Girls

Florence Lawrence was the first film player whose name was used to promote her films and the studio (Independent Moving Pictures Company [IMP]) for which she worked. Before her, actors and actresses worked anonymously, partly out of fear that stage managers would refuse to hire them if they were ...

films 1906-1937 inc Elusive Isabel 1916 Pleasure 1931 received 1st screen credit followed by 298 more

42. Elisabeth Risdon

Actress | Abe Lincoln in Illinois

Elisabeth Risdon was born on April 26, 1888 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), High Sierra (1940) and Mexican Spitfire (1939). She was married to Brandon Evans and George Loane Tucker. She died on December 20, 1958 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

films 1913-1952 inc The Mother of Dartmoor 1917 Scaramouche 1952 England

43. Athene Seyler

Actress | Drake of England

Athene Seyler was born on May 31, 1889 in Hackney, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Drake the Pirate (1935), Curse of the Demon (1957) and The Franchise Affair (1951). She was married to Nicholas Hannen and James Bury Sterndale-Bennett. She died on September 12, 1990 in ...

films 1921-1963 inc April Blossoms 1934 Make Mine Mink 1960 England

44. Estelle Hemsley

Actress | The Leech Woman

Estelle Hemsley was born on May 5, 1887 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Leech Woman (1960), Take a Giant Step (1959) and Green Mansions (1959). She died on November 5, 1968 in Hollywood, California, USA.

films 1948-1965 inc Take a Giant Step 1959 - made a few significant film appearances.

45. Françoise Rosay

Actress | La kermesse héroïque

Françoise Rosay was born on April 19, 1891 in Paris, France. She was an actress and writer, known for Carnival in Flanders (1935), The Halfway House (1944) and Le petit café (1931). She was married to Jacques Feyder. She died on March 28, 1974 in Montgeron, Essonne, France.

films 1911 -1973 inc Carnival in Flanders 1935 Johnny Frenchman 1945

46. Mae Murray

Actress | The Merry Widow

Dubbed "The Girl with the Bee Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen," silent screen star Mae Murray was born in New York City as Marie Adrienne Koenig on May 10, 1885. The middle of three children born to French and German émigrés, she began studying dance at a young age.

Mae's professional ...

films 1916-1931 inc To Have & Hold 1916 Jazzmania 1923

47. Esther Dale

Actress | Ten Gentlemen from West Point

Esther Dale was born on November 10, 1885 in Beaufort, South Carolina. She attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townsend, Vermont, then studied music in Berlin, Germany and had a successful career as a lieder singer. Later, she became an actress in summer stock. She had the title role on Broadway ...

films 1934-1960 inc Timothy's Quest 1936 Laddie 1940

48. 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...

films 1915-1947 inc the Christian 1923 A Man's Man 1929 Australia

49. Mady Christians

Actress | Heidi

Mady Christians was born in Vienna, Austria. Destined to be in films in both Germany and the US, she started out as a stage actress but soon found new challenges in the world of cinema. Her first film was at the age of 24 when she appeared in Audrey (1916). She remained in German films for the next...

films 1916-1950 inc The Runaway Princess 1929 Tender Comrade 1943 Austria

50. Red Wing

Actress | The Squaw Man

Red Wing was born on February 13, 1884 on the Winnebago Reservation, Nebraska, USA as Lillian St. Cyr. Her parents were Julia De Cora (Winnebago) and Mitchell St. Cyr (French Canadian and Sauk). She was graduated in 1902 from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Red Wing was an ...

films 1908-1916 inc In the Days of the Thundering Herd 1918 + 58 short Western silent films. - Winnebago [End of list One]

51. Irene Dunne

Actress | The Awful Truth

Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age...

films 1930-1952 in Cimarron 1931 I Remember Mama 1949 List TWO of 20

52. Agnes Moorehead

Actress | The Magnificent Ambersons

Agnes was born of Anglo-Irish ancestry near Boston, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister (her mother was a mezzo-soprano) who encouraged her to perform in church pageants. Aged three, she sang 'The Lord is my Shepherd' on a public stage and seven years later joined the St. Louis Municipal Opera ...

films 1941-1973 in Mrs Parkington 1945 Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte 1965

53. Ethel Waters

Actress | Cabin in the Sky

The child of a teenage rape victim, Ethel Waters grew up in the slums of Philadelphia and neighboring cities, seldom living anywhere for more than a few weeks at a time. "No one raised me, " she recollected, "I just ran wild." She excelled not only at looking after herself, but also at singing and ...

films inc Tales of Manhattan 1942 Pinky 1949

54. Jean Arthur

Actress | You Can't Take It with You

This marvelous screen comedienne's best asset was only muffled during her seven years' stint in silent films. That asset? It was, of course, her squeaky, frog-like voice, which silent-era cinema audiences had simply no way of perceiving, much less appreciating. Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna ...

films 1923-1953 in Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 The More the Merrier 1944

55. Marlene Dietrich

Soundtrack | Witness for the Prosecution

Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator ...

films 1919-1978 inc Morocco 1931 Judgment at Nuremberg 1959 Germany

56. Gloria Swanson

Actress | Sunset Blvd.

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 ...

films 1914-1974 inc Society for Sale 1918 Sadie Thompson 1929

57. Ruth Gordon

Actress | Rosemary's Baby

When Ruth Gordon convinced her father, a sea captain, to let her pursue acting she came to New York and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She acted in a few silents made at Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 1915. She made her Broadway debut in "Peter Pan" as Nibs the same year. The next 20 ...

films 1940-1987 inc Abe Lincoln in Illinois 1940 inside Daisy Clover 1965

58. Helen Hayes

Actress | Airport

Known as "The First lady of the American Theater", Helen Hayes had a legendary career on stage and in films and television that spanned over eighty years. Hayes was born in Washington, D.C., to Catherine Estelle "Essie" Hayes, an actress who worked in touring companies, and Francis van Arnum Brown,...

films 1917-1985 inc The Sin of Madelon Claudet 1932 Anastasia 1956

59. Paola Borboni

Actress | Roman Holiday

Paola Borboni was born on January 1, 1900 in Golese di Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She was an actress, known for Roman Holiday (1953), The Bullocks (1953) and I Have Lost My Husband (1937). She was married to Bruno Vilar. She died on April 9, 1995 in Bodio Lomnago, Lombardy, Italy.

films 1918-1990 inc Lo Smemorato 1936 Between Miracles 1972 Italy

60. Shirley Booth

Actress | Come Back, Little Sheba

Character actress Shirley Booth could play everything in all facets of show business, whether it was Miss Duffy the Tavern Owner's Man Crazy Daughter on "Duffy's Tavern", the sassy maid on TV's Hazel (1961) or the pathetic woman in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). For those who only know her through...

films inc About Mrs. Leslie 1955 also 154 ep of Hazel 1961-1966 television series

61. 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 ...

films 1933-1986 inc The Furies 1950 A Man Called Horse 1971 Australia

62. Arletty

Actress | Les enfants du paradis

Before Arlette-Leonie Bathiat went to the movies she was a secretary and had posed several times as a model for different painters and photographers. In 1920 she debuted on stage at a theatre. She only began to work in movies after 1930. After World War II she was condemned to prison for having ...

films 1930-1968 Hotel du Nord 1938 Maxime 1958 France

63. 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...

films 1917-1963 inc Ruggles of Red Gap 1935 Let's Face It 1943

64. Lillian Randolph

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

Lillian Randolph was born on December 14, 1898 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Gildersleeve's Ghost (1944) and Magic (1978). She was married to Garcia Delano "Gossie" McKee and James Lott . She died on September 12, 1980 in Los Angeles, ...

films 1934-1979 The Great Gildersleeve 1942 Miles to Go Before I Sleep 1975

65. Mabel Albertson

Actress | What's Up, Doc?

When, at 50, Mabel Albertson was given the supporting role of Mrs. Carter, young actress Aileen Stanley Jr.'s mother in a Warner Bros. Technicolor musical romance, little did she know that she was starting out a movie and TV career in which she would shine as "the ultimate haughty judgmental (often...

films 1939-1975 inc Ransom 1956 Barefoot in the Park 1967

66. 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 ...

films 1917-1937 inc Belle of New York 1919 Zander the Great 1923

67. Hermione Gingold

Actress | Gigi

One of stage, screen, radio and TV's most inimitable, irrepressible entertainers, Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold was born in London on December 9, 1897, the daughter of an upscale Austrian-Jewish financier and English homemaker. The blue-eyed blonde loved to perform in school plays and made her ...

films inc 1931-1984 Belle Book & Candle 1958 The Music Man 1963 - England

68. Connie Gilchrist

Actress | Auntie Mame

With more than two decades of stage experience in France, England and on Broadway behind her, this moon-faced, heavy-set character actress first entered films in 1940. But no matter a film's genre - contemporary drama, historical costumer or shoot 'em up western - her Brooklyn roots always sounded ...

Films inc 1940-1969 Presenting Lily Mars 1943 A Letter to 3 Wives 1949

69. Gale Sondergaard

Actress | The Mark of Zorro

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

films 1936-1982 inc Anthony Adverse 1937 The Spider Woman 1943

70. Chôko Iida

Actress | Nagaya shinshiroku

Chouko Iida was born in 1897, in the old downtown of Tokyo, Asakusa.After dropping out of high school and working as a clerk at the Matsuzakaya Department Store, she joined the Nakamura Matsugoro Acting Company. In 1922, Iida entered Shochiku Kamata Productions. Her acting was soon recognized by a ...

films 1923-1971 inc The Only Son 1936 Record of a Tenement Generation 1947 - Japan

71. Aline MacMahon

Actress | Kind Lady

Aline MacMahon was born of Scottish-Irish and Russian-Jewish ancestry on May 3,1899, the daughter of William Marcus MacMahon and Jennie Simon MacMahon. Her father became editor-in-chief of Munsey's Magazine, while her mother pursued a theatrical acting career from middle-age and lived to age107. ...

films 1931-1975 inc One Way Passage 1932 Dragon Seed 1932

72. Lilia Skala

Actress | Flashdance

Lilia Sofer was born on November 28, 1896, to Catholic Katharina Skala and Jewish Julius Sofer , in Vienna, Austria. Julius Sofer worked as a manufacturer's representative for the Waldes Kohinoor Company. Lilia had two sisters: Lisl (later known as renowned dance-therapy pioneer Elizabeth Polk); ...

films 1931-1990 inc Lilies of the Field 1964 Roseland 1978 - Austria

73. Gladys George

Actress | The Roaring Twenties

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

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

films 1919-1954 inc Valiant is the Word for Carrie

74. Dolores Camarillo

Actress | Ahí está el detalle

Dolores Camarillo was born on March 31, 1910 in San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. She was an actress, known for You're Missing the Point (1940), Santo contra Blue Demon en la Atlántida (1970) and La reina de la opereta (1946). She was married to Antonio R. Frausto and Francisco ...

films 1933-1986 inc La reina de la operatu 1946 Jalisco nunca pierde 1974 - Mexico

75. Gracie Allen

Actress | A Damsel in Distress

Gracie Allen was born on July 26, 1895 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for A Damsel in Distress (1937), The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) and The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939). She was married to George Burns. She died on August 27, 1964 in ...

films 1929-1944 inc Honolulu 1939 alos 292 episodes of The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show television series 1950-1958

76. Marjorie Bennett

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Marjorie Bennett was an Australian actress, who spend most of her career working in the United Kingdom and the United States. She was born in York, Western Australia, a town that was an important stop for miners and travelers during the Australian gold rushes of the late 19th century. York is ...

films 1917-1979 inc Limelight 1952 Home Before Dark 1957 Australia

77. Ruth Donnelly

Actress | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Feisty, ebullient character comedienne who, for three decades, enlivened Hollywood films with her drollery and quick-fire repartee. The daughter of a newspaper editor and music critic, Ruth made her stage debut in the chorus of the touring production 'The Quaker Girl' in 1913. Four years later, she...

films 1914-1965 inc A Slight Case of Murder 1938 Little Miss Broadway 1947

78. Celia Lovsky

Actress | Soylent Green

The daughter of Bretislav Lvovsky, a.k.a. Emil Pick (1857-1910), a minor Czech opera composer, Lovsky was born in Vienna, where she trained at the Royal Academy of Arts and Music. She was a rising stage star in Vienna and Berlin in 1929, when she met future husband Peter Lorre. Celia accompanied ...

films 1930-1973 inc Night Into Morning 1951 Death of a Scoundrel 1956 Austria

79. Mae Marsh

Actress | The Birth of a Nation

Mae Marsh's father was an auditor for the railroad who died when she was four. Her family moved to San Francisco, where her stepfather was killed in the 1906 earthquake. Her great-aunt then took Mae and her sister to Los Angeles. With her show business background, Mae's aunt took them to the ...

films 1910-1973 inc The White Rose 1923 3 Godfathers 1948

80. Eiko Miyoshi

Actress | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

Eiko Miyoshi was born on April 8, 1894 in Tokyo, Japan. She was an actress, known for The Hidden Fortress (1958), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) and Ikiru (1952). She died on July 28, 1963.

films 1941-1956 inc No Regrets for Our Youth 1946 The Hidden Fortress 1958 Japan

81. Natalie Schafer

Actress | Gilligan's Island

Natalie Schafer got her start doing Broadway plays then making the move to the big screen. Even before Gilligan's Island (1964), she was typecast in roles as society women, or elegant, fashionable ladies. It was her role as "Eunice 'Lovey' Wentworth Howell" wife of multi-millionaire Thurston Howell...

films 1941-1990 inc Female on the Beach 1955 40 Carats 1973

82. Dorothy Adams

Actress | The Best Years of Our Lives

Dorothy Adams was born on January 8, 1900 in Hannah, North Dakota, USA. She was an actress, known for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Killing (1956) and The Ten Commandments (1956). She was married to Byron Foulger. She died on March 16, 1988 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

films 1931-1975 inc Laura 1944 Carrie 1952

83. Martita Hunt

Actress | Great Expectations

Popular British character actress known for her rich cluster of queens, dowagers, shrews and evildoers, Martita Hunt was born on a ranch in Argentina to British parents, but moved with her family to England at age 10 for her formal education. On stage at age 21 with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre,...

films 1932-1969 inc The Admirable Crichton 1957 The Unsinkable Molly Brown 1964 - England

84. 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 ...

films 1914-1964 inc Forbidden Paradise 1924 Hi Diddle Diddle 1943 - Poland

85. Mildred Dunnock

Actress | The Trouble with Harry

Petite American character actress who was celebrated for her definitive portrayal of long-suffering Linda Loman in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", a part she played opposite Lee J. Cobb at the Morosco Theatre for 742 consecutive performances between 1949 and 1950. Mildred recreated her role ...

films 1945-1987 inc Death of a Salesman 1951 Baby Doll 1956

86. Lee Patrick

Actress | The Maltese Falcon

The highly versatile character actress Lee Patrick could readily play a tough, scrapping, hard-bitten dame as she did in the gritty women's prison drama Caged (1950), or a meek and twittery wife as exemplified by her uppity socialite Doris Upson in the freewheeling farce Auntie Mame (1958). She ...

films 1929-1975 inc Saturday's Children 1940 The Black Black 1975

87. Bessie Love

Actress | The Broadway Melody

Bessie Love was born in Texas. Her cowboy father moved the family to Hollywood, where he became a chiropractor. As the family needed money, Bessie's mother sent her to Biograph Studios, hoping she would become an actress. D.W. Griffith saw she was pretty and had some acting talent, and put her in ...

films 1915-1983 inc Human Wreckage 1923 the Last World 1925 small roles in films after 1935

88. Doris Lloyd

Actress | The Time Machine

Doris Lloyd was an English actress with a lengthy film career. She appeared in over 150 films between 1920 and 1960. She spent most of her life abroad in the United States.

In 1891, Lloyd was born in Walton, Liverpool. Her parents were Edward Franklin Lloyd and Hessy Jane McCappin. One of her ...

films 1920-1967 inc Waterloo Bridge 1931 Kind Lady 1951 England

89. Renée Adorée

Actress | The Big Parade

Renee Adoree was born Jeanne de la Fontein in Lille in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, on September 30, 1898. She had what one could call a normal childhood. Her background is, perhaps, one of the most difficult to find information on any actress in existence. What we do know that her interest in ...

films 1918-1930 inc The Blackbird 1926 The Show 1927 - France

90. Hope Emerson

Actress | Caged

Although there may have been "bigger" actresses in Hollywood's history, there were few larger than Hope Emerson. She notably appeared as a witness for the defense in "Adam's Rib". At 6' 2" and 230 pounds, she towered over many of her male co-stars, and her size, brusque voice and stern demeanor ...

films 1934-1958 inc House of Strangers 1949 A perious Journey 1953

91. Minerva Urecal

Actress | The Ape Man

A stage actress, Urecal made her screen debut in 1933. For the remainder of her career and two hundred plus movies, she played cleaning women, landladies, shopkeepers and the like. She was known as a Marjorie Main type actress and later went on to a career in television playing in such shows as "...

films 1933-1965 inc Her Husband's Secretary 1937 Murder by Invitation 1941

92. Norma Talmadge

Actress | Camille

Norma Talmadge was born on May 26, 1895, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The daughter of an unemployed alcoholic and his wife, Norma did not have the idyllic childhood that most of us yearn for. Her father left the family on Christmas Day and his wife and three daughters had to fend for themselves. Her...

films 1910-1933 inc The Devil's Needle 1916 Secrets 1924

93. Irene Handl

Actress | The Italian Job

English character actress best known for her many portrayals of feisty cockney types, ranging from barmaids to landladies, charwomen to cooks. Unlike her working class screen personae, Irene's parentage was quite cosmopolitan, her father (Frederick) a Viennese banker, her mother (Maria) a French ...

films 1937-1968 inc Uncensored 1942 Call Me Genius 1961 - England

94. Elisabeth Bergner

Actress | The Rise of Catherine the Great

Elisabeth Bergner was the daughter of the merchant Emil Ettel and his wife Anna Rosa Wagner. She grew up in Vienna, and she made her theatre debut in Innsbruck in 1915. In 1916 she obtained a contract in Zürich, where she played Ophelia next to the famous Alexander Moissi, who fell in love with her...

films 1924-1968 Escape Me Never 1936 Die glucklichen Jahre de Thorwalds 1963 - Austria

95. Betty Compson

Actress | Street Girl

A mining engineer's daughter, blond, blue-eyed Betty Compson began in show business playing the violin in a Salt Lake City vaudeville establishment for $15 a week. Following that, she went on tour, accompanied by her mother, with an act called 'The Vagabond Violinist'. Aged eighteen, she appeared ...

films 1916-1948 inc The Rustle of Silk 1923 The Spoilers 1930

96. Louise Fazenda

Actress | The Bat

When top "working girl" silent screen comedienne Mabel Normand would gripe to Mack Sennett about making classier films, Sennett's quippy retort would always be, "I'll send for Fazenda." This pretty, oval-faced, highly popular Keystone comedy cut-up put in her time first in comic two-reelers from ...

films 1913-1931 inc Down on the Farm 1920 The Widow from Monte Carlo 1935

97. 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, ...

films 1914-1937 inc Clarence 1922 Son of the Sheik 1926

98. Constance Talmadge

Actress | Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

Constance was blonde; star sister Norma Talmadge was brunette. She was buoyant and a comedienne; Norma was introspective and a tragedienne. Nicknamed "Dutch" by her stage mother Peg as she looked like a cherubic Little Dutch Boy, silver screen star Constance Talmadge was one of silent pictures' ...

films 1914-1929 inc A Girl of the Timber 1917 Her Sister from Paris 1925

99. Sara Haden

Actress | The Shop Around the Corner

Sara Haden was the daughter of silent screen star Charlotte Walker who was also a celebrated beauty in her day. Alas, Sara did not inherit her mother's good looks. She was actually born Catherine Haden in Center Point, Texas, on November 17 1898. There was nothing particularly outstanding about her...

films 1934-1965 inc Captain January 1936 Andy Hardy Comes Home 1958

100. Bedia Muvahhit

Actress | Kötü Tohum

Bedia Muvahhit was born on January 16, 1897 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]. She was an actress, known for Kötü Tohum (1963), Çalikusu (1966) and Sevinç Gözyaslari (1965). She was married to Ferdi Statzer and Ahmet Muvahhit. She died on January ...

films 1923-1969 inc Beklenen 1953 Sevinc Gozyaslari 1965 Turkey end of list two