Your List?

My Favorite Actresses

by loveclassicmovies created on Jun 4, 2012 (a list of 47 people )
Description:
These are my favorite actresses; if I think of more, I will add them later.
1. Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur (October 17, 1900 - June 19, 1991) was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball com... read more...
2. Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 1915 - 29 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the A... read more...
3. Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert (/koʊlˈbɛər/; 1903-1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress.Born in Saint-Mandé, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures. She established a suc... read more...
4. Jennifer Jones
Phylis Lee Isley (March 2, 1919 - December 17, 2009), better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette (1943).Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, t... read more...
5. Jean Simmons
Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE (January 31, 1929 - January 22, 2010) was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II - she was one of J. Arthur Rank's 'well-spoken young starlets' - followed mainly by Hol... read more...
6. Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.Olivia de Havi... read more...
7. Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned eight decades, she was adept in both dramatic and comedic roles. In 1999, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star in the h... read more...
8. Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 - October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical... read more...
9. Greer Garson
Greer Garson, CBE (29 September 1904 - 6 April 1996) was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson recei... read more...
10. Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved foll... read more...
11. Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 - May 14, 1987) was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars. She appeared in 61 films over 37 years and is listed as one of the American Film Institute's Greatest Stars of All Time.Born as Margarita Car... read more...
12. Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland known by acting name Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s. Fontaine is the only actor to have won an Academy Award for a... read more...
13. Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (March 23, 1905 - May 10, 1977), born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre.Starting as a dancer in travelling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initi... read more...
14. Donna Reed
Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 - January 14, 1986) was an American film and television actress.She received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in From Here to Eternity, and received the 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star - Female for her pe... read more...
15. Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (pronounced /mɒnˈroʊ/ or /mənˈroʊ/, born Norma Jeane Mortenson but baptized and raised as Norma Jeane Baker; June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962) was an American actress, singer and model. After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, whi... read more...
16. Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 - January 16, 1942) was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time and was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in th... read more...
17. Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon (18 February 1911 - 23 November 1979) was an Indian-born British actress.She began her film career in British films, and a prominent role, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), brought her attention. Leading roles in such films as The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) advanced... read more...
18. Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE (February 27, 1932 - March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. As one of the world's most famous film stars, Taylor was rec... read more...
19. Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr ( /ˈhɛdi/; November 9, 1913 - January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-American actress who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented - with composer George Antheil - an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to w... read more...
20. Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara (born 17 August 1920) is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne. Her autobiography, 'Tis Herself, ... read more...
21. Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen Paula O'Sullivan (17 May 1911 - 23 June 1998) was an Irish actressO'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt (née Fraser) and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War. She atte... read more...
22. Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 - June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto vocal range, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist... read more...
23. Judy Holliday
Judy Holliday (June 21, 1921 - June 7, 1965) was an American actress.Holliday began her career as part of a night-club act, before working in Broadway plays and musicals. Her success in the 1946 stage production of Born Yesterday as "Billie Dawn" led to her being cast in the 1950 film version, for w... read more...
24. Jean Harlow
June 7, 1937(1937-06-07) (aged 26) Los Angeles, California, U.S.Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911 - June 7, 1937) was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" (due to her platinum blonde hair), Harlow was ranked as one of the ... read more...
25. Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich (27 December 1901 - 6 May 1992) was a German born American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films. He... read more...
26. Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable (December 18, 1916 - July 2, 1973) was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World". Grable was pa... read more...
27. Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald (June 18, 1903 - January 14, 1965) was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starr... read more...
28. Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (pronounced /ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few en... read more...
29. Jane Powell
Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929) is an American singer, dancer and actress.After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, c... read more...
30. Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI (born Sofia Villani Scicolone; 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance. Loren has won 5... read more...
31. Mae West
Mae West (August 17, 1893 - November 22, 1980) was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol.Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in ... read more...
32. Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918 - 3 August 1995) was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the U.S. She also appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 o... read more...
33. Doris Day
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff; April 3, 1924) is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to ... read more...
34. Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 - November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura (1944) and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her ... read more...
35. Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 - November 28, 1976) was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame. She won all 5 Golden... read more...
36. June Allyson
June Allyson (October 7, 1917 - July 8, 2006) was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss (1951). From 1959-1961, she hosted and occasional... read more...
37. Loretta Young
Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 - August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the 1948 best actress Academy Award for her role in the 1947 film The Farmer's Daughter, and received an Oscar nomination for he... read more...
38. Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman (born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 - September 10, 2007) was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her perfo... read more...
39. Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award winning role in The Three Faces of Eve (1957).Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elin... read more...
40. Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (Russian: Наталья Николаевна Захаренко); July 20, 1938 - November 29, 1981) was an American actress.Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and became a successful child actor in such films as Miracle on 34th Stre... read more...
41. Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 June 6, 2013) is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star.Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because o... read more...
42. Shirley Temple
Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928), later known as Shirley Temple Black, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She began her film career in 1932 at the age of four (thought by the public to be three)... read more...
43. Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history. In her later career, she appeared on stage and in supporting film roles.She was born Angela Maxin... read more...
44. Hayley Mills
Hayley Mills (born 18 April 1946) is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay (1959), the... read more...
45. Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual ... read more...
46. Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈkaɾmẽȷ̃ miˈɾɐ̃dɐ] 9 February 1909 - 5 August 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the Unit... read more...
47. Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (18 September 1905 15 April 1990), born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress and an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of her films were sensational hits, and all but three of her twenty-four Hollywood films were profitable.[1... read more...