My Best Actors

101. Vittorio Gassman

Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed him to his ...

Best Films: * Il sorpasso (1962) * C'eravamo tanto amati (1974) * Riso amaro (1949)

102. Mia Farrow

Actress | Rosemary's Baby

Mia Farrow is the daughter of the director John Farrow and the actress and Tarzan-girl Maureen O'Sullivan. She debuted at the movies in 1959 in very small roles. She was noticed for the first time in the film Rosemary's Baby (1968) by Roman Polanski. She showed her talent also on TV and at the ...

Best Films: * Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) * The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) * Rosemary's Baby (1968)

103. Ana Torrent

Actress | El nido

Ana Torrent was born on July 12, 1966 in Madrid, Spain. She is an actress, known for The Nest (1980), Thesis (1996) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).

Best Films: * El espíritu de la colmena (1973) * Cría cuervos... (1975) * Vacas (1992)

104. Geraldine Chaplin

Actress | Hable con ella

Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California, to Oona Chaplin (née O'Neill) and legendary entertainer Charles Chaplin (A.K.A. Charlie Chaplin). She is a granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill and a great-granddaughter of stage actor James O'Neill. She attended the Royal Ballet ...

Best Films: * Cría cuervos… (1975) * Hable con ella (2002) * Doctor Zhivago (1965)

105. Catherine Deneuve

Actress | 8 femmes

Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France, to actor parents Renée Simonot and Maurice Dorléac. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (...

Best Films: * Belle de jour (1967) * Repulsion (1965) * Tristana (1970)

106. Jean-Paul Belmondo

Actor | Pierrot le fou

The son of the renowned French sculptor Paul Belmondo, he studied at Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD); after the minor stage performances he made his screen debut in À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957) but the episodes with his participation were cut before ...

Best Films: * La ciociara (1960) * Une femme est une femme (1961) * À bout de souffle (1960)

107. Jean-Claude Brialy

Director | Églantine

One of the most popular and respected actors to come from the French "New Wave" film movement, Jean-Claude Brialy was born to a military family, which included one brother, in French colonial Algeria on March 30, 1933. Residing in various places while his father, a colonel with the French Army, ...

Best Films: * Le genou de Claire (1970) * Une femme est une femme (1961) * Io la conoscevo bene (1965)

108. Stefania Sandrelli

Actress | Il conformista

She was born in Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy) on June 5th, 1946. She won a beauty contest when she was just 15 years old, which led to her first role in "Il federale" together with the great Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi. She was then cast by Germi for the Italian comedy "Divorzio all'Italiana", working ...

Best Films: * C'eravamo tanto amati (1974) * Il conformista (1970) * La terrazza (1980)

109. Jean-Pierre Léaud

Actor | Les quatre cents coups

Jean-Pierre Léaud is not everybody's cup of tea for sure, but will remain an important name in film history. As an actor he can be adored or hated for exactly the same reasons: he is one of those rare players that directors let improvise his dialogue, which gets on certain viewers' nerves while it ...

Best Films: * Les Quatre cents coups (1959) * Masculin, féminin: 15 faits précis (1966) * La nuit américaine (1973)

110. Michael Caine

Actor | The Dark Knight

Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of ...

Best Films: * Youth - La giovinezza (2015) * Hannah and her Sisters (1986) * Children Of Men (2006)

111. Nicole Kidman

Actress | Moulin Rouge!

Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.

Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical ...

Best Films: * Eyes Wide Shut (1999) * The Hours (2002) * Dogville (2003)

112. Robert Redford

Actor | The Natural

Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Charles Robert Redford, an accountant for Standard Oil, and Martha Redford, Charles Robert Redford, Jr. was a scrappy kid who stole hubcaps in high school and lost his college baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado because of ...

Best Films: * The Sting (1973) * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) * Out of Africa (1985)

113. Julianne Moore

Actress | Far from Heaven

Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...

Best Films: * The Big Lebowski (1998) * The Hours (2002) * Children Of Men (2006)

114. Frances McDormand

Actress | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She ...

Best Films: * Fargo (1996) * Miller's Crossing (1990) -secundary role- * Raising Arizona (1987) -secundary role-

115. Fernando Fernán Gómez

Actor | El abuelo

Spanish actor and director of cinema and theater. Son of the actress Carola Fernán Gómez. When he was three years old he comes back to Spain from Argentina. He has written comedies, novels and poem books. He plays a wide repertoire of roles from comedy to drama.

Best Films: * El espíritu de la colmena (1973) * La lengua de las mariposas (1999) * El viaje a ninguna parte (1986)

116. Sean Penn

Actor | Mystic River

Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.

Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...

Best Films: * 21 Grams (2003) * The Thin Red Line (1998) * Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

117. Anna Magnani

Actress | Roma città aperta

Anna Magnani was born in Rome, Italy (not in Egypt, as some biographies claim), on March 7, 1908. She was the child of Marina Magnani and an unknown father often said to be from Alexandria, Egypt, but whom Anna herself claimed was from the Calabria region of Italy although she never knew his name. ...

Best Films: * Mamma Roma (1962) * Roma, città aperta (1945) * Bellissima (1951)

118. Gene Hackman

Actor | The French Connection

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Anna Lyda Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After ...

Best Films: * The Conversation (1974) * Unforgiven (1992) * The French Connection (1971)

119. Morgan Freeman

Actor | Driving Miss Daisy

With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mayme Edna (Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber. The young Freeman...

Best Films: * Unforgiven (1992) * Million Dollar Baby (2004) * Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

120. 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). ...

Best Films: * Hobson's Choice (1953) * Witness for the Prosecution (1957) * This Land is Mine (1943)

121. Totò

Actor | Guardie e ladri

'Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis di Bisanzio' was a descendant of the 'Comneno di Bizanzio' and also one of the most popular Italian film stars in history. His genre was undoubtedly the comedy where he achieved world fame. From 1917 he was an actor...

Best Films: * Uccellacci e uccellini (1966) * I soliti ignoti (1958) * Le streghe (1967)

122. Edward G. Robinson

Actor | Double Indemnity

Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began ...

Best Films: * The Woman in the Window (1944) * Double Indemnity (1944) * Scarlet Street (1945)

123. Sophia Loren

Actress | La ciociara

Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...

Best Films: * La ciociara (1960) * Una giornata particolare (1977) * I Girasoli (1970)

124. Katharine Hepburn

Actress | The Lion in Winter

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...

Best Films: * Bringing Up Baby (1938) * The Philadelphia Story (1940) * Holiday (1938)

125. 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 ...

Best Films: * Witness for the Prosecution (1957) * Der blaue Engel [The Blue Angel] (1930) * Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

126. Ingrid Bergman

Actress | Casablanca

Ingrid Bergman was one of the greatest actresses from Hollywood's lamented Golden Era. Her natural and unpretentious beauty and her immense acting talent made her one of the most celebrated figures in the history of American cinema. Bergman is also one of the most Oscar-awarded actresses, tied with ...

Best Films: * Stromboli, terra di Dio (1950) * Höstsonaten [Autumn Sonata] (1978) * Europa '51 (1951)

127. Audrey Hepburn

Actress | Breakfast at Tiffany's

Audrey Hepburn was born as Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was a Dutch noblewoman, while her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was born in Úzice, Bohemia, to English and Austrian parents.

After her parents' divorce, ...

Best Films: * Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) * The Children's Hour (1961) * My Fair Lady (1964)

128. Javier Bardem

Actor | Skyfall

Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.

He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were...

Best Films: * Mar adentro (2004) * Los lunes al sol (2002) * Before Night Falls (2000)

129. Gabriel Byrne

Actor | The Usual Suspects

Byrne was the eldest of six children born to a family in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a cooper and his mother a hospital worker. He was raised Catholic and educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. He spent five years of his childhood in a seminary training to be a Catholic priest. He later said...

Best Films: * Miller's Crossing (1990) * Excalibur (1981) * The Usual Suspects (1995)

130. Gregory Peck

Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird

Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, to Bernice Mae (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. He had Irish (from his paternal grandmother), English, and some German, ancestry. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child...

Best Films: * Yellow Sky (1948) * To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) * The Omen (1976)

131. Dustin Hoffman

Actor | Tootsie

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, ...

Best Films: * The Graduate (1967) * Midnight Cowboy (1969) * Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

132. Helen Mirren

Actress | The Queen

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...

Best Films: * The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) * Excalibur (1981) * O Lucky Man! (1973)

133. Gary Cooper

Actor | High Noon

Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper. Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (then called Iowa College). His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a ...

Best Films: * High Noon (1952) * Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) * Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

134. Richard Harris

Actor | Unforgiven

Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family, one of nine children born to Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He attended Crescent College, a Jesuit school, and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout ...

Best Films: * Il deserto rosso (1964) * Unforgiven (1992) * The Guns of Navarone (1961)

135. Audrey Tautou

Actress | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Audrey Justine Tautou was born on August 9, 1976 in Beaumont, France, to Evelyne Marie Laure (Nuret), a teacher, and Bernard Tautou, a dental surgeon. Audrey showed an interest for comedy at an early age and started her acting lessons at 'Cours Florent'. In 1998 she won the best young actress award...

Best Films: * Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) * Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) * L'auberge espagnole (2002)

136. Harrison Ford

Actor | Raiders of the Lost Ark

Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, ...

Best Films: * Apocalypse Now (1979) -secundary role- * The Conversation (1974) * Blade Runner (1982)

137. Albert Finney

Actor | Murder on the Orient Express

The son of a Lancashire bookmaker, Albert Finney came to motion pictures via the theatre. In 1956, he won a scholarship to RADA where his fellow alumni included Peter O'Toole and Alan Bates. He joined the Birmingham Repertory where he excelled in plays by William Shakespeare. A member of the Royal ...

Best Films: * Miller's Crossing (1990) * Big Fish (2003) * Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

138. Raf Vallone

Actor | The Italian Job

Raf Vallone was an internationally acclaimed Italian movie star known for his rugged good looks. The athletic Vallone, a former soccer player who often was compared to Burt Lancaster, was born Raffaele Vallone in 1916 in Tropea in Calabria, Italy, the son of a prominent lawyer and his aristocratic ...

Best Films: * Riso amaro (1949) * Il Cristo proibito (1951) * Roma ore 11 (1952)

139. Elizabeth Taylor

Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked ...

Best Films: * Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) * Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) * Giant (1953)

140. Héctor Alterio

Actor | Cría cuervos

Héctor Alterio was born on September 21, 1929 in Chacarita, Buenos Aires City, Argentina. He is an actor, known for Cría Cuervos (1976), Son of the Bride (2001) and El último tren (2002). He has been married to Bacaicoa, Tita since 1969. They have two children.

Best Films: * Cría cuervos... (1975) * La historia oficial (1985) * El hijo de la novia (2001)

141. Gong Li

Actress | Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia

Born in Shenyang, grew up in Jinan, the daughter of an economics professor. Loved music from childhood, and dreamed of a singing career. After failing to gain entrance to China's top music school in 1985, applied for and was admitted to the Central Drama Academy in Beijing, from which she graduated...

Best Films: * Eros: The Hand (2004) * Ju Dou (1990) * 2046 (2004)

142. Shirley MacLaine

Actress | Terms of Endearment

Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on ...

Best Films: * The Apartment (1960) * The Children's Hour (1961) * Being There (1979)

143. Ethan Hawke

Actor | Training Day

Ethan Green Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas, to Leslie Carole (Green), a charity worker, and James Steven Hawke, an insurance actuary. His parents were students at the University of Texas at the time but divorced when Ethan was 5 years old. His mother raised him alone for the ...

Best Films: * Before Sunrise (1995) * Before Sunset (2004) * Boyhood (2014)

144. John Hurt

Actor | Nineteen Eighty-Four

One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend ...

Best Films: * The Elephant Man (1980) * Alien (1979) * 10 Rillington Place (1971)

145. Joan Crawford

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1906, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. It wasn't an easy life; ...

Best Films: * Johnny Guitar (1954) * The Unknown (1927) * Grand Hotel (1932)

146. Mercedes McCambridge

Actress | Giant

Mercedes McCambridge was a highly talented radio performer who won a best supporting Actress Oscar for her film debut.

Mercedes McCambridge was born in Joliet, Illinois, to Marie (Mahaffry) and John Patrick McCambridge, a farmer. She was of mostly Irish (with a small amount of English and German) ...

Best Films: * Johnny Guitar (1954) * Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) * Giant (1956)

147. Miriam Hopkins

Actress | Trouble in Paradise

Born into wealth in Savannah, Georgia, on October 18, 1902, Ellen Miriam Hopkins was able to attend the finest educational institutions, including Goddard Seminary in Plainfield, Vermont, and Syracuse University in New York State. Studying dance in New York, she received her first taste of show ...

Best Films: * Design for Living (1933) * Trouble in Paradise (1932) * The Heiress (1949)

148. Montgomery Clift

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-...

Best Films: * Wild River (1960) * Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) * The Heiress (1949)

149. 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 ...

Best Films: * The Innocents (1961) * Separate Tables (1958) * Julius Caesar (1953)

150. William Holden

Actor | Stalag 17

Billy Wilder proclaimed William Holden to be "the ideal motion picture actor". For almost four decades, the handsome, affable 'Golden Holden' was among Hollywood's most durable and engaging stars. He was born William Franklin Beedle Jr., one of three sons to a high school English teacher, Mary ...

Best Films: * The Wild Bunch (1969) * The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) * Network (1976)

151. Ernest Borgnine

Actor | Marty

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. His parents were Anna (Boselli), who had emigrated from Carpi (MO), Italy, and Camillo Borgnino, who had emigrated from Ottiglio (AL), Italy. As an only child, Ernest enjoyed most sports, especially boxing, ...

Best Films: * Marty (1955) * Johnny Guitar (1954) * The Wild Bunch (1969)

152. Spencer Tracy

Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg

Spencer Tracy was the second son born on April 5, 1900, to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While attending Marquette Academy, he and classmate Pat O'Brien quit school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy was still at Norfolk Navy Yard...

Best Films: * Captains Courageous (1937) * Adam's Rib (1949) * Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

153. John Cusack

Actor | Grosse Pointe Blank

John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American ...

Best Films: * Bullets over Broadway (1994) * The Thin Red Line (1998) * Being John Malkovich (1999)

154. Dianne Wiest

Actress | The Birdcage

One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1946. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on ...

Best Films: * The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) * Bullets over Broadway (1994) * Hannah and her Sisters (1986)

155. Ben Johnson

Actor | The Last Picture Show

Born in Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California. He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper ...

Best Films: * The Last Picture Show (1971) * The Wild Bunch (1969) * Shane (1953)

156. Edward Everett Horton

Actor | Arsenic and Old Lace

It seemed like Edward Everett Horton appeared in just about every Hollywood comedy made in the 1930s. He was always the perfect counterpart to the great gentlemen and protagonists of the films. Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Isabella S. (Diack) and Edward Everett Horton, a ...

Best Films: * Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) * Design for Living (1933) * Holiday (1938)

157. Elsa Lanchester

Actress | Witness for the Prosecution

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born into an unconventional a family at the turn of the 20th century. Her parents, James "Shamus" Sullivan and Edith "Biddy" Lanchester, were socialists - very active members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in a rather broad sense - and did not believe in the ...

Best Films: * Witness for the Prosecution (1957) * Mary Poppins (1964) * The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

158. Eugene Pallette

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

This eminently recognizable, bulbous, beetle-browed character actor left Culver Military Academy and began acting in repertory companies before becoming a Hollywood extra and stunt man. Eugene's father had also been a thespian at one time but eventually ended his career as an insurance salesman. In...

Best Films: * Heaven Can Wait (1942) * Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) * My Man Godfrey (1936)

159. Dana Andrews

Actor | Laura

American leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on New Years Day 1909 on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi. One of thirteen children, including fellow actor Steve Forrest, he was a son of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a ...

Best Films: * The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) * The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) * The Last Tycoon (1976)

160. Jack Carson

Actor | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

When Jack Carson arrived in Hollywood in 1937, he found work at RKO as an extra. His first major acting role came alongside Humphrey Bogart in the romantic comedy Stand-In (1937). After a few years, he developed into a popular character actor who would be seen in a large number of comedies, ...

Best Films: * Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) * A Star Is Born (1954) * Gentleman Jim (1942)

161. Roberto Benigni

Actor | La vita è bella

Roberto Benigni was born on October 27, 1952 in Manciano La Misericordia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and Down by Law (1986). He has been married to Nicoletta Braschi since December 26, 1991.

Best Films: * La voce della luna (1990) * La vita è bella (1997) * Il Mostro (1994)

162. Louis Calhern

Actor | Duck Soup

Tall, distinguished, aristocratic Louis Calhern seemed to be the poster boy for old-money, upper-crust urban society, but he was actually born Carl Vogt, to middle-class parents in New York City. His family moved to St. Louis when he was a child, and it was while playing football in high school ...

Best Films: * Heaven Can Wait (1943) * The Asphalt Jungle (1950) * Duck Soup (1933)

163. Cate Blanchett

Actress | Carol

Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...

Best Films: * Carol (2015) * Babel (2006) * Blue Jasmine (2013)

164. Alida Valli

Actress | The Third Man

Enigmatic, dark-haired foreign import Alida Valli was dubbed "The Next Garbo" but didn't live up to postwar expectations despite her cool, patrician beauty, remote allure and significant talent. Born in Pola, Italy (now Croatia), on May 3, 1921, the daughter of a Tridentine journalist and professor...

Best Films: * The Third Man (1949) * Il grido (1957) * Senso (1954)

165. Massimo Girotti

Actor | Ultimo tango a Parigi

Manly, chiseled, exceedingly handsome, very agile Massimo Girotti was an engineering student and polo/swimming star before entering films in 1939. He began auspiciously in serious leads, most notably Roberto Rossellini's Desire (1946), Luchino Visconti's Obsession (1943) and Vittorio De Sica's The ...

Best Films: * Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) * Roma ore 11 (1952) * Senso (1954)

166. Jean Gabin

Actor | La grande illusion

Jean-Alexis Moncorgé started his career with 15 years at the theatre and debuted at the "Moulin Rouge" in Paris in 1929. Despite of his rude aspect he knew to be the gentleman of the French cinema in the time between the two World Wars. One of his most popular personalities was inspector Maigret. ...

Best Films: * Le Quai des Brumes (1938) * La Grande Illusion (1937) * Le plaisir (1952)

167. Simone Signoret

Actress | Les diaboliques

The face of Simone Signoret on the Paris Metro movie posters in March 1982 looked even older than her 61 years. She was still a box-office draw, but the film L'étoile du Nord (1982) would be her last theatrical release; she played the landlady. Signoret had a long film apprenticeship during ...

Best Films: * Casque d'or (1952) * La ronde (1950) * Room at the Top (1959)

168. 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 ...

Best Films: * You Can't Take it With You (1938) * Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) * Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

169. Greta Garbo

Actress | Ninotchka

Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. She was fourteen when her father died, which left the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and ...

Best Films: * Die Freudlose Gasse [The Joyless Street] (1925) * Ninotchka (1939) * Grand Hotel (1932)

170. Franklin Pangborn

Actor | Hail the Conquering Hero

Franklin Pangborn - a name more befitting a fictionalized bank president rather than a great comedic actor - was a singular character actor but little is known of his early years. He spent some time in developing acting talent prior to appearing on Broadway by March of 1911, and would do six plays ...

Best Films: * Design for Living (1933) * Stage Door (1937) * Easy Living (1937)

171. Rachel Weisz

Actress | The Constant Gardener

Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...

Best Films: * Youth - La giovinezza (2015) * The Lobster (2015) * Ágora (2009)

172. John C. Reilly

Actor | Chicago

Character actor, dramatic leading man, or hilarious comic foil? With an astonishing range of roles already under his belt, John C. Reilly has played an eclectic host of rich characters to great effect over the years, from seedy ne'er-do-wells, to lovable, good-natured schlepps.

The fifth of six ...

Best Films: * The Hours (2002) * The Lobster (2015) * The Thin Red Line (1998)

173. Marion Cotillard

Actress | La Môme

Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is from Brittany.

Raised in Orléans, France, she ...

Best Films: * Big Fish (2003) * Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) * La Môme (La Vie en Rose) (2007)

174. 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 ...

Best Films: * Gone With the Wind (1939) * It Happened One Night (1934) * Red Dust (1932)

175. Sissy Spacek

Actress | In the Bedroom

As a kid, Sissy Spacek climbed trees, rode horses, swam, and played in the woods. She was born Mary Elizabeth Spacek on December 25, 1949, in Quitman, Texas, to Virginia Frances (Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent. Her father's family was of Czech and German origin.

...

Best Films: * The Straight Story (1999) * J.F.K. (1991) * Three Women (1977)

176. 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 ...

Best Films: * The Little Foxes (1941) * Trouble in Paradise (1932) * The Letter (1940)

177. Jon Polito

Actor | The Crow

A veteran of nearly 100 films, Jon Polito is most recognized for his work with The Coen brothers, as well as his many television appearances as a series regular and guest star. Notable motion picture roles include: Millers Crossing, Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn't There, The Crow, Blankman, and The...

Best Films: * The Big Lebowski (1998) * Barton Fink (1991) * Miller's Crossing (1990)

178. Edwin Maxwell

Actor | Scarface

Edwin Maxwell was born on February 9, 1886 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Scarface (1932), The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and His Girl Friday (1940). He was married to Betty Alden. He died on August 13, 1948 in Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA.

Best Films: * The Shop around the Corner (1940) * Ninotchka (1939) * American Madness (1932)

179. Jeff Corey

Actor | Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Jeff Corey was a film and television character actor, as well as one of the top acting teachers in America.

Corey was born Arthur Zwerling on August 10, 1914 in New York City, New York, to Mary (Peskin), a Russian Jewish immigrant, and Nathan Zwerling, an Austrian Jewish immigrant. He was an ...

Best Films: * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) * True Grit (1969) * The Killers (1946)

180. John Turturro

Actor | Fading Gigolo

Highly talented, lightly built American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy has become a favourite of cult/arthouse film aficionados with his compelling performances in a broad range of cinematic vehicles.

Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian-American parents, Katherine (...

Best Films: * Raging Bull (1980) * The Big Lebowski (1998) * Miller's Crossing (1990)

181. Adrien Brody

Actor | The Pianist

Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the ...

Best Films: * The Pianist (2002) * The Thin Red Line (1998) * The Village (2004)

182. Charles Durning

Actor | Dog Day Afternoon

WWII veteran, dance instructor and diversely talented stage & screen actor were all inclusions on the resume of this perpetually busy US actor who didn't get in front of the cameras until around the time of his fortieth birthday. The stockily built Charles Durning was one of Hollywood's most ...

Best Films: * The Sting (1973) * The Front Page (1974) * Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

183. John Goodman

Actor | 10 Cloverfield Lane

John Stephen Goodman's an American film, TV & stage actor. He was born in Affton, Missouri to Virginia Roos (Loosmore), a waitress and saleswoman & Leslie Francis Goodman, a postal worker who died when he was a small child. He's of English, Welsh & German ancestry. He's best known for his role as ...

Best Films: * The Big Lebowski (1998) * Barton Fink (1991) * Arizona Baby (1987)

184. Richard Widmark

Actor | Kiss of Death

Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new ...

Best Films: * Yellow Sky (1948) * Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) * Pickup on South Street (1953)

185. Georg John

Actor | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

Georg John was born on July 23, 1879 in Schmiegel, Poland. He was an actor, known for M (1931), Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922) and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924). He died on November 18, 1941 in Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland.

Best Films: * Der Letzte Mann [The Last Laugh] (1924) * M (1931) * Metropolis (1927)

186. Fernando Sánchez Polack

Actor | La rebelión de las muertas

Fernando Sánchez Polack was born on August 11, 1920 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain. He was an actor, known for Vengeance of the Zombies (1973), Estudio 1 (1965) and Captain Apache (1971). He died on January 24, 1982 in Madrid, Spain.

Best Films: * Los flamencos (1968) * Dramma della gelosia: Tutti i particolari in cronaca (1970) * Peppermint Frappé (1967)

187. José Sepúlveda

Actor | Estudio 1

José Sepúlveda was born on February 28, 1909 in Madrid, Spain. He was an actor, known for Estudio 1 (1965), Novela (1963) and Amanecer en Puerta Oscura (1957). He was married to Josefina Serratosa. He died on May 10, 1969 in Madrid, Spain.

* Muerte de un ciclista (1955) * Los flamencos (1968) * El camino (1963)

188. Juan Diego

Actor | Los hombres de Paco

Juan Diego was born on December 14, 1942 in Bormujos, Seville, Andalucía, Spain. He was an actor and producer, known for Los hombres de Paco (2005), Cabeza de Vaca (1991) and El triunfo (2006). He was married to Maria Ruiz. He died on April 28, 2022 in Madrid, Spain.

Best Films: * Los santos inocentes (1984) * Los flamencos (1968) * Dramma della gelosia: Tutti i particolari in cronaca (1970)