My Best Actors

1. Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...

Best Films: * La dolce vita (1960) * Otto e mezzo [8½] (1963) * La notte (1961)

2. Chishû Ryû

Actor | Tôkyô monogatari

What an amazing career! Few can boast a longer one (64 years of activity). Few have been able to have to relate to three generations. And it is pretty sure that no one can compare with him in terms of faithfulness to a director: Chishu Ryu indeed appeared in no fewer than fifty-two out of ...

Best Films: * Banshun [Later Spring] (1949) * Ohayo [Good Morning] (1959) * Tokyo monogatari [Tokio Story] (1953)

3. Setsuko Hara

Actress | Banshun

Setsuko Hara became one of Japan's best-loved stars over her 30-year film career. Her signature character type, variations on a daughter devoted to her parents and home, inspired the nickname that stayed with her until retirement: the Eternal Virgin. To some extent, reality mirrored her roles in ...

Best Films: * Banshun [Later Spring] (1949) * Tokyo monogatari [Tokio Story] (1953) * Bakushû [Early Summer] (1951)

4. Erland Josephson

Actor | Offret

Erland Josephson, the distinguished Swedish actor best known for his appearance in Ingmar Bergman's films, was born in Stockholm, Sweden on June 15, 1923. Josephson's relationship with Bergman, a long-time friend, began in the late 1930s when they first worked together in the theater.

Although he ...

Best Films: * Offret (1986) * Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers] (1972) * Fanny och Alexander (1982)

5. Bibi Andersson

Actress | Persona

Her artistic dreams came early in life and were further supported by her older sister Gerd Andersson who became a ballet dancer at the Royal Opera and made her acting debut in 1951. Bibi, on the other side, had to make do with bit parts and commercials. She debuted in Dum-Bom (1953), playing ...

Best Films: * Det sjunde inseglet [The Seven Seal] (1957) * Persona (1966) * Smultronstället [Wild Strawberries] (1957)

6. Monica Vitti

Actress | L'avventura

Monica Vitti was born on November 3, 1931 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for L'Avventura (1960), Red Desert (1964) and L'Eclisse (1962). She was married to Roberto Russo. She died on February 2, 2022 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Best Films: * L'eclisse (1962) * La notte (1961) * L'avventura (1960)

7. Liv Ullmann

Actress | Viskningar och rop

Liv Ullmann's father was a Norwegian engineer who used to work abroad, so as a child she lived in Tokyo, Canada, New York and Oslo. In the mid-1950s she made her stage debut and in 1957 made her film debut. She really became successful, however, when she began to work for Swedish director Ingmar ...

Best Films: * Persona (1966) * Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers] (1972) * Scener ur ett äktenskap [Scenes of a Marriage] (1973)

8. Giulietta Masina

Actress | Le notti di Cabiria

Born in San Giorgio di Piano, Giulietta Masina spent part of her teenage years living with a widowed aunt in Rome, where she cultivated a passion for the theater and studied for a degree in Philosophy. She began her career on the radio with the program "Terzoglio" (1942), about the adventures of ...

Best Films: * Giulietta degli spiriti (1965) * Le notti di Cabiria (1957) * La strada (1953)

9. Alain Delon

Actor | Le Samouraï

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Édith (Arnold) and Fabien Delon. His father was of French and Corsican Italian descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His parents divorced early on, and Delon had a stormy childhood, being ...

Best Films: * L'eclisse (1962) * Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) * Il gattopardo (1963)

10. Max von Sydow

Actor | Flash Gordon

Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.

...

Best Films: * Det sjunde inseglet [The Seven Seal] (1957) * Den goda viljan [The Best Intentions] (1992) * Jungfrukällan [The Virgin Spring] (1960)

11. Juliette Binoche

Actress | The English Patient

Juliette Binoche was born in Paris, France, to Monique Yvette Stalens, a director, teacher, and actress, and Jean-Marie Binoche, a sculptor, director, and actor. Her mother was born in Czestochowa, Poland, of French, Walloon Belgian, and Polish descent, while her father is French. Juliette was only...

Best Films: * Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) * Mauvais sang (1986) * Caché (2005)

12. Haruko Sugimura

Actress | Tôkyô monogatari

Haruko Sugimura was born on January 6, 1909 in Hiroshima, Japan. She was an actress, known for Tokyo Story (1953), A Last Note (1995) and Repast (1951). She died on April 4, 1997 in Tokyo, Japan.

Best Films: * Banshun [Later Spring] (1949) * Ohayo [Good Morning] (1959) * Tokyo monogatari [Tokio Story] (1953)

13. Claudia Cardinale

Actress | C'era una volta il West

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy ...

Best Films: * Otto e mezzo [8½] (1963) * Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) * C'era una volta il west (1968)

14. Alain Cuny

Actor | La dolce vita

Alain Cuny went to medical school with the intention of becoming a physician, but left to attend an arts school in Paris and became a painter. He entered the film industry as a costume and set designer for such directors as Alberto Cavalcanti and Jacques Feyder, all the time attending acting school...

Best Films: * La dolce vita (1960) * La voie lactée (1969) * Il Cristo proibito (1951)

15. Gunnel Lindblom

Actress | Jungfrukällan

After acting studies at the Gothenburg City Theatre from 1950-52, she made her breakthrough debut in Gustaf Molander's Kärlek (1952). When Ingmar Bergman became head of the Malmö City Theatre he asked her to join him there and with him as a director she played the role of Margareta in Goethe's...

Best Films: * Det sjunde inseglet [The Seven Seal] (1957) * Tystnaden [The Silence] (1963) * Jungfrukällan [The Virgin Spring] (1960)

16. Toshirô Mifune

Actor | Yôjinbô

Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...

Best Films: * Rashomon (1950) * Akahige [Red Beard] (1965) * Shichinin no Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954)

17. Ingrid Thulin

Actress | Smultronstället

Ingrid trained as a ballet dancer and attended Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre. She came to fame thanks to Bergman's "Wild Strawberries". She acted in 9 Ingmar Bergman's films. Her fame allowed her to act in Luchino Visconti's "The Damned" in 1969. Ingrid Thulin lived in Rome since the 1960's. ...

Best Films: * Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers] (1972) * Tystnaden [The Silence] (1963) * Smultronstället [Wild Strawberries] (1957)

18. Machiko Kyô

Actress | Rashômon

Machiko Kyô was born on March 25, 1924 in Osaka, Japan. She was an actress, known for Rashomon (1950), The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) and Gate of Hell (1953). She died on May 12, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

Best Films: * Rashomon (1950) * Ugetsu monogatari [Ugetsu] (1953) * Akasen chitai [Street of Shame] (1956)

19. Masayuki Mori

Actor | Rashômon

Masayuki Mori was born on January 13, 1911 in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. He was an actor, known for Rashomon (1950), The Bad Sleep Well (1960) and The Idiot (1951). He died on October 7, 1973.

Best Films: * Rashomon (1950) * Ugetsu monogatari [Ugetsu] (1953) * Yôkihi [The Princess Yang Kwei Fei] (1955)

20. Francisco Rabal

Actor | Átame!

Francisco Rabal -- Paco to everyone -- was born in the mining camp where his father worked. His mother owned a small mill. At the age of six, with the Civil War breaking out, the family emigrated to Madrid and he started working as a street salesman and later in a chocolate factory, which later led...

Best Films: * L'eclisse (1962) * Viridiana (1961) * Nazarín (1959)

21. Gunnar Björnstrand

Actor | Persona

Being the son of an acting father, Oscar Johanson, it isn't surprising that he wanted to be an actor already as a child. However, he first worked as a baker's apprentice, in a barber shop or in the docks. After the conscription he got his first role, a bit part on the theater Lilla Teatern in ...

Best Films: * Det sjunde inseglet [The Seven Seal] (1957) * Fanny och Alexander (1982) * Smultronstället [Wild Strawberries] (1957)

22. Eiji Okada

Actor | Hiroshima mon amour

Eiji Okada was born on June 13, 1920 in Chiba, Japan. He was an actor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Woman in the Dunes (1964) and The Boy Detectives Club - The Iron Fiend (1957). He was married to Wasa, Aiko. He died on September 14, 1995 in Japan.

Best Films: * Okaasan [Mother] (1952) * Hiroshima, mon amour (1959) * Suna no onna [Woman in the Dunes] (1964)

23. Kyôko Kagawa

Actress | Tengoku to jigoku

Born in Namegata, Ibaraki Prefecture in 1931, Kagawa Kyoko (also Makino Kyoko) has endured through the golden age of Japanese cinema, into the end of the century and onto the new to act in many of the more important films from her native country. Growing up she had aspired to learn English and then...

Best Films: * Tokyo monogatari [Tokio Story] (1953) * Okaasan [Mother] (1952) * Akahige [Red Beard] (1965)

24. James Stewart

Actor | Vertigo

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...

Best Films: * The Man Who Shot Liberty Balance (1962) * It's a Wonderful Life (1946) * Vertigo (1958)

25. Tatsuya Nakadai

Actor | Seppuku

Japanese leading man, an important star and one of the handful of Japanese actors well known outside Japan. Nakadai was a tall handsome clerk in a Tokyo shop when director Masaki Kobayashi encountered him and cast him in The Thick-Walled Room (1956). Nakadai was subsequently cast in the lead role in...

Best Films: * Ran (1985) * Seppuku [Harakiri] (1962) * Kagemusha (1980)

26. John Wayne

Actor | True Grit

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.

Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern ...

Best Films: * The Man Who Shot Liberty Balance (1962) * The Searchers (1956) * Stagecoach (1939)

27. Al Pacino

Actor | Serpico

Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.

He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...

Best Films: * The Godfather (1972) * The Godfather: Part II (1974) * The Godfather: Part III (1990)

28. Sterling Hayden

Actor | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Born to George & Frances Simonson Walter, and named Sterling Relyea Walter. Father died in 1925. Adopted by stepfather 'James Hayden' renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. Grew up in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Maine. Though very poor, attended prep school at ...

Best Films: * Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) * The Godfather (1972) * Johnny Guitar (1954)

29. Jean-Louis Trintignant

Actor | Amour

Born 1930 in Piolenc in south France as son of a wealthy industrialist. Studied law in Aix-en-Provence. Started theatrical acting in 1950, but was regarded untalented at first, until Roger Vadim discovered him for the movies. When the press stalked him 1956 because of rumors of an affair with ...

Best Films: * Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) * Amour (2012) * Ma nuit chez Maud (1969)

30. Marlon Brando

Actor | Apocalypse Now

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...

Best Films: * The Godfather (1972) * Apocalypse Now (1979) * On the Waterfront (1954)

31. Jeanne Moreau

Actress | Jules et Jim

When people gave Louis Malle credit for making a star of Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows (1958) immediately followed by The Lovers (1958), he would point out that Moreau by that time had already been "recognized as the prime stage actress of her generation." She had made it to the Comédie ...

Best Films: * La notte (1961) * Falstaff [Chimes at Midnight] (1965) * To Meteoro Vima tou Pelargou [The Suspended Step of the Stork] (1991)

32. Harriet Andersson

Actress | Viskningar och rop

Discovered at age 20 by celebrated director Ingmar Bergman, she became part of Bergman's regular stable of performers; in fact, he wrote Summer with Monika (1953) especially for her breakthrough. Extraordinary and versatile as an actress, her roles have ranged from the naive young wife in Sawdust ...

Best Films: * Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers] (1972) * Sommarnattens leende [Smiles of a Summer Night] (1955) * Sommaren med Monika [Summer with Monika] (1953)

33. Fernando Rey

Actor | Tristana

Fernando Rey, the great Spanish movie actor primarily known in the United States for his role as "Frog One" in The French Connection (1971) and its sequel, was born Fernando Casado D'Arambillet on September 20 1917, in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, the son of Colonel Casado Veiga. Originally, the young...

Best Films: * Viridiana (1961) * Elisa, vida mía (1977) * Tristana (1970)

34. Michel Piccoli

Actor | Le mépris

This suave, elegant character star was a ubiquitous presence in French cinema for nearly seven decades. His distinguished career extended to both stage and screen and his versatility was such that he could take on just about any persona (in his own words: "I do not put on an act... I slip away ...

Best Films: * Le mépris (1963) * Belle de jour (1967) * Mauvais sang (1986)

35. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

Best Films: * Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966) * Unforgiven (1992) * Million Dollar Baby (2004)

36. Peter Sellers

Actor | Being There

Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his ...

Best Films: * Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) * Lolita (1962) *The Ladykillers (1955)

37. Robert De Niro

Actor | Cape Fear

One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...

Best Films: * The Godfather: Part II (1974) * Once Upon a Time in America (1984) * Taxi driver (1976)

38. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

Best Films: * Citizen Kane (1941) * Falstaff [Chimes at Midnight] (1965) * The Third Man (1949)

39. Kinuyo Tanaka

Actress | Joyû Sumako no koi

Tanaka Kinuyo was a highly regarded and prolific actress best known for her films with director Mizoguchi Kenji. She was immersed in the world of film having received her start in the world of entertainment at age fourteen, being a filmmaker herself, being the cousin of director Kobayashi Masaki ...

Best Films: * Okaasan [Mother] (1952) * Ugetsu monogatari [Ugetsu] (1953) * Sansho Dayu [Sansho the Bailiff] (1954)

40. Takashi Shimura

Actor | Shichinin no samurai

Japanese character actor Takashi Shimura was one of the finest film actors of the 20th century and a leading member of the "stock company" of master director Akira Kurosawa. A native of southern Japan, Shimura was a descendant of the samurai warrior class. Following university training, he founded ...

Best Films: * Rashomon (1950) * Shichinin no Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954) * Ikiru (1952)

41. Diane Keaton

Actress | Annie Hall

Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Deanne (Keaton), an amateur photographer, and John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall, a civil engineer and real estate broker. She studied Drama at Santa Ana College, before dropping out in favor of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New ...

Best Films: * The Godfather (1972) * Annie Hall (1977) * The Godfather: Part II (1974)

42. José Isbert

Actor | El cochecito

He debuted in theater when he was 19 years old and later he worked in the company of the Lara theater where he played as a first actor during 16 years. He participated in a short in 1912 but his cinematographic career mostly began on the 30s, working more in cinema than in theater in the 40s and ...

Best Films: * El verdugo (1963) * ¡Bienvenido, Míster Marshall! (1953) * El cochecito (1960)

43. José Luis López Vázquez

Actor | Atraco a las tres

Spanish actor. He started his career in theatre in 1939, when he was only 17, with the support of the director Modesto Higueras and the painter José Caballero. His first works were as actor, set decorator and costume designer in non-commercial amateur theatre plays, basically at the 'Teatro de las ...

Best Films: * El verdugo (1963) * Plácido (1961) * El cochecito (1960)

44. Naomi Watts

Actress | Mulholland Dr.

Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she ...

Best Films: * Mulholland Drive (2001) * Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) * 21 gramos (2003)

45. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

Best Films: * Annie Hall (1977) * Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) * Manhattan (1979)

46. Bette Davis

Actress | All About Eve

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but...

Best Films: * All About Eve (1950) * The Little Foxes (1941) * What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

47. Nino Manfredi

Actor | Per grazia ricevuta

Nino Manfredi was born on March 22, 1921 in Castro dei Volsci, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor and writer, known for Between Miracles (1971), Bread and Chocolate (1974) and Café Express (1980). He was married to Erminia Ferrari Manfredi. He died on June 4, 2004 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Best Films: * El verdugo (1963) * C'eravamo tanto amati (1974) * Brutti, sporchi e cattivi (1966)

48. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

Best Films: * The Hustler (1961) * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) * The Sting (1973)

49. Kirk Douglas

Actor | The Final Countdown

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. ...

Best Films: * Paths of Glory (1957) * The Big Sky (1952) * Out of the Past (1947)

50. Peter Lorre

Actor | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy in the Slovak area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Hungarian Jewish parents. He learned both Hungarian and German languages from birth, and was educated in elementary and secondary schools in the Austria-Hungary capitol Vienna, but did ...

Best Films: * M (1931) * Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) * The Maltese Falcon (1941)

51. Lillian Gish

Actress | The Night of the Hunter

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, ...

Best Films: * The Wind (1928) * Intolerance (1916) * The Birth of a Nation (1915)

52. Franco Fabrizi

Actor | I vitelloni

Mr. Fabrizi was Italian actor best known for his performance as the lady-killer among a group of small-town youths in Federico Fellini's 'I Vitelloni'. Starting as a stage and variety revue actor in 1947, he broke into film in 1952 with Francesco De Roberti's 'Carica Eroica'. His role as a tireless...

Best Films: * I Vitelloni (1953) * Ginger e Fred (1985) * Il bidone (1955)

53. Michel Simon

Actor | Le quai des brumes

The son of a sausage-maker, Michel Simon was conscripted into the Swiss Army at the start of World War I, but was thrown out through a combination of tuberculosis and general insubordination. He was variously a boxer, photographer, general handyman and right-wing anarchist, finally becoming a stage...

Best Films: * L'Atalante (1934) * Drôle de drame (1937) * Le Quai des Brumes (1938)

54. Robert Duvall

Actor | The Apostle

Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a ...

Best Films: * The Godfather (1972) * The Godfather: Part II (1974) * Apocalypse Now (1979)

55. Kamatari Fujiwara

Actor | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

Kamatari Fujiwara was born on January 15, 1905 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for The Hidden Fortress (1958), Seven Samurai (1954) and Ikiru (1952). He died on December 21, 1985 in Tokyo, Japan.

Best Films: * Akahige [Red Beard] (1965) * Shichinin no Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954) * Ikiru (1952)

56. John Cazale

Actor | Dog Day Afternoon

John Cazale was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to an Irish-American mother, Cecilia (Holland), and an Italian-American father, John Cazale. Cazale made only five feature films in his career, which fans and critics alike call classics. But before his film debut, in the short The American Way (1962),...

Best Films: * The Godfather (1972) * The Godfather: Part II (1974) * The Deer Hunter (1978)

57. Silvana Mangano

Actress | Dune

Silvana Mangano was born on April 21, 1930 in Rome, Italy and was raised in poverty during World War II. She trained as a dancer for seven years and supported herself as a model. In 1946, at age 16, she won the Miss Rome beauty pageant and through this, she obtained role in a Maria Della Costa film...

Best Films: * Morte a Venezia (1971) * Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (1974) * Riso amaro (1949)

58. James Caan

Actor | Thief

A masculine and enigmatic actor whose life and movie career have had more ups and downs than the average rollercoaster and whose selection of roles has arguably derailed him from achieving true superstar status, James Caan is New York-born and bred.

He was born in the Bronx, to Sophie (Falkenstein) ...

Best Films: * The Godfather (1972) * The Rain People (1969) * Dogville (2003)

59. Lee Van Cleef

Actor | Escape from New York

One of the great movie villains, Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. was born in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia (Van Fleet) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Sr. His parents were of Dutch ancestry. Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and sub ...

Best Films: * Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966) * High Noon (1952) * Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)

60. Harvey Keitel

Actor | Reservoir Dogs

American actor and producer Harvey Keitel was born on May 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Miriam (Klein) and Harry Keitel. An Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee, he has appeared in films such as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), Ridley Scott's The Duellists (...

Best Films: * Taxi driver (1976) * Reservoir Dogs (1992) * Pulp Fiction (1994)

61. Cary Grant

Actor | North by Northwest

Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I."

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in ...

Best Films: * North by Northwest (1959) * Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) * Bringing Up Baby (1938)

62. Jack Nicholson

Actor | Chinatown

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...

Best Films: * Chinatown (1974) * One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) * The Shining (1980)

63. Burt Lancaster

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and ...

Il gatBest Films: * Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (1974) * Il Gatopardo (1963) * Separate Tables (1958)

64. Tim Roth

Actor | Rob Roy

Often mistaken for an American because of his skill at imitating accents, actor Tim Roth was born Timothy Simon Roth on May 14, 1961 in Lambeth, London, England. His mother, Ann, was a teacher and landscape painter. His father, Ernie, was a journalist who had changed the family name from "Smith" to ...

Best Films: * Reservoir Dogs (1992) * Pulp Fiction (1994) * The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)

65. Franco Citti

Actor | The Godfather

Franco Citti was born on April 23, 1935 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor and director, known for The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part III (1990) and Accattone (1961). He died on January 14, 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Best Films: * Accattone (1961) * Mamma Roma (1962) * Edipo re (1967)

66. Helmut Berger

Actor | The Godfather Part III

Helmut Berger - Austrian born film actor, mostly known for starring in Luchino Visconti's films, which are now considered modern classics. Born Helmut Steinberger in Salzburg in 1944, he turned down a prospect of running a family hotel business and went to London where he worked as waiter to pay ...

Best Films: * Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (1974) * The Godfather: Part III (1990) * La caduta degli Dei (1969)

67. Tony Leung Chiu-wai

Actor | Fa yeung nin wah

Tony Leung Chiu Wai was born in Hong Kong on 27 June 1962. He and his younger sister were raised by their mother after his father left them. In 1982, after passing the training courses of TVB, Tony became a TV actor and became famous for his comedy style in such TV shows as Tales of a Eunuch (1983)...

Best Films: * Fa yeung nin wa [In the Mood for Love] (2000) * 2046 (2004) * Cheun gwong tsa sit [Happy Together] (1997)

68. Harry Dean Stanton

Actor | Lucky

Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during ...

Best Films: * París, Texas (1984) * Alien (1979) * Wild at Heart (1990)

69. Dennis Hopper

Actor | Easy Rider

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a ...

Best Films: * Apocalypse Now (1979) * Blue Velvet (1986) * Giant (1956)

70. Manuel Alexandre

Actor | Elsa y Fred

He began the studies of law. But after his participation in the universitary theater he left the university and entered the school of dramatic arts in Madrid. In 1945 he debuted in the proffesional theater, and in the cinema in 1947.

Best Films: * Calle Mayor (1956) * Plácido (1961) * Atraco a las tres (1962)

71. Anthony Quinn

Actor | Alexis Zorbas

Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...

Best Films: * Lawrence of Arabia (1962) * La strada (1954) * Zorba the Greek (1964)

72. Joseph Cotten

Actor | The Third Man

Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, into a well-to-do Southern family. He was the eldest of three sons born to Sally Whitworth (Willson) and Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster.

Jo (as he was known) and his brothers Whit and Sam spent their summers at their...

Best Films: * Citizen Kane (1941) * The Third Man (1949) * The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

73. George Sanders

Actor | All About Eve

George Sanders was born of English parents in St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked in a Birmingham textile mill, in the tobacco business and as a writer in advertising. He entered show business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio and theatrical understudy. His film debut, in ...

Best Films: * All About Eve (1950) * This Land is Mine (1943) * Rebecca (1940)

74. Melvyn Douglas

Actor | Being There

Two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas was one of America's finest actors, and would enjoy cinema immortality if for no other reason than his being the man who made Greta Garbo laugh in Ernst Lubitsch's classic comedy Ninotchka (1939), but he was much, much more.

Melvyn Douglas was born Melvyn Edouard...

Best Films: * Le locataire (1976) * Captains Courageous (1937) * Ninotchka (1939)

75. Natalie Wood

Actress | Rebel Without a Cause

Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.

Wood was born July 20, 1938 in ...

Best Films: * The Searchers (1956) * Splendor in the Grass (1961) * The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

76. Strother Martin

Actor | Slap Shot

American character actor who achieved considerable fame in the last decade of his life. A native of Kokomo, Indiana, Strother Martin Jr. was the youngest of three children of Strother Douglas Martin, a machinist, and Ethel Dunlap Martin. His family moved soon after his birth to San Antonio, Texas, ...

Best Films: * The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) * The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) * The Wild Bunch (1969)

77. Jean Dasté

Actor | La grande illusion

Jean Dasté was born on August 18, 1904 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for The Grand Illusion (1937), L'Atalante (1934) and Z (1969). He was married to Marie-Hélène Dasté. He died on October 15, 1994 in Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, Loire, France.

Best Films: * L'Atalante (1934) * La chambre verte (1978) * La Grande Illusion (1937)

78. Lionel Barrymore

Actor | You Can't Take It with You

Famed actor, composer, artist, author and director. His talents extended to the authoring of the novel "Mr. Cartonwine: A Moral Tale" as well as his autobiography. In 1944, he joined ASCAP, and composed "Russian Dances", "Partita", "Ballet Viennois", "The Woodman and the Elves", "Behind the Horizon...

Best Films: * It's a Wonderful Life (1946) * You Can't Take it With You (1938) * Captains Courageous (1937)

79. Trevor Howard

Actor | The Third Man

The son of an insurance underwriter who represented Lloyd's of London in Ceylon, Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith was born in Margate, Kent. He spent his early childhood globetrotting with his mother, frequently left in the care of strangers. After attending private school he went on to study drama at ...

Best Films: * Ryan's Daughter (1970) * The Third Man (1949) * Ludwig II (1972)

80. Claude Rains

Actor | Casablanca

William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth...

Best Films: * Lawrence of Arabia (1962) * Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) * Notorious (1946)

81. Keiji Sada

Actor | Anata kaimasu

Keiji Sada was born on December 9, 1926 in Kyoto City, Japan. He was an actor and producer, known for I Will Buy You (1956), Taifû sôdôki (1956) and Good Morning (1959). He died on August 17, 1964 in Nirazaki, Japan.

Best Films: * Ohayô [Good Morning] (1959) * Sanma no aji [An Autumn Afternoon] (1962) * Ningen no joken I [The Human Condition I] (1959)

82. Dirk Bogarde

Actor | The Servant

Sir Dirk Bogarde, distinguished film actor and writer, was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde on March 28, 1921, to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the art editor of "The Times" (London) newspaper, and actress Margaret Niven in the London suburb of Hampstead. He was one of three children...

Best Films: * Morte a Venezia (1971) * La caduta degli Dei (1969) * Despair (1978)

83. Agustín González

Actor | Belle Epoque

Agustín González was born on March 24, 1930 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain. He was an actor, known for Belle Epoque (1992), Estudio 1 (1965) and The Grandfather (1998). He died on January 16, 2005 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Best Films: * El verdugo (1963) * Los santos inocentes (1984) * La escopeta nacional (1978)

84. Alberto Sordi

Actor | Io e Caterina

One of Italy's most captivating and talented cinematic comedy stars, Italian veteran Alberto Sordi was known for satirizing his country's social mores in pungent black comedies, farcical tales and grim drama. He, along with peers Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi, arguably represent ...

Best Films: * I Vitelloni (1953) * La grande guerra (1959) * Un borghese piccolo piccolo (1977)

85. Alec Guinness

Actor | Star Wars

Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...

Best Films: * Lawrence of Arabia (1962) *The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) * Doctor Zhivago (1965)

86. Amparo Soler Leal

Actress | La gran familia

Amparo Soler Leal was born on August 23, 1933 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain. She was an actress, known for La gran familia (1962), The Cuenca Crime (1980) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). She was married to Alfredo Matas and Adolfo Marsillach. She died on October 25, 2013 in Barcelona, ...

Best Films: * Plácido (1961) * La escopeta nacional (1978) * ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! (1984)

87. Henry Fonda

Actor | 12 Angry Men

This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, ...

Best Films: * C'era una volta il west (1968) * The Grapes of Wrath (1940) * The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

88. James Mason

Actor | Lolita

James Mason was born in Huddersfield and had a film career spanning over 50 years during which he appeared in over 100 films in England and America but never won an Oscar. Whatever role he played, from the wounded Belfast gunman in Odd Man Out to Rommel in The Desert Fox, his creamy velvet voice ...

Best Films: * North by Northwest (1959) * Lolita (1962) * Julius Caesar (1953)

89. Eli Wallach

Actor | Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

One of Hollywood's finest character / "Method" actors, Eli Wallach was in demand for over 60 years (first film/TV role was 1949) on stage and screen, and has worked alongside the world's biggest stars, including Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole,...

Best Films: * Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966) * The Godfather: Part III (1990) * The Misfits (1961)

90. Julie Delpy

Actress | Trois couleurs: Blanc

Julie Delpy was born in Paris, France, in 1969 to Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, both actors.

She was first featured in Jean-Luc Godard's Detective (1985) at the age of fourteen. She has starred in many American and European productions since then, including Disney's The Three Musketeers (1993), ...

Best Films: * Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994) * Mauvais sang (1986) * Before Sunrise (1995)

91. James Woods

Actor | Vampires

James Howard Woods was born on April 18, 1947 in Vernal, Utah, the son of Martha A. (Smith) and Gail Peyton Woods, a U.S. Army intelligence officer who died during Woods' childhood. James is of Irish, English, and German descent. He grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, with his mother and stepfather ...

Best Films: * Once Upon a Time in America (1984) * Casino (1995) * Salvador (1986)

92. Steve Buscemi

Actor | Fargo

Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to...

Best Films: * Reservoir Dogs (1992) * Fargo (1996) * The Big Lebowski (1998)

93. Gael García Bernal

Actor | Mozart in the Jungle

Gael García Bernal was born in Guadalajara to Patricia Bernal, an actress/model & José Ángel García, an actor/director. His stepfather's cinematographer Sergio Yazbek. He began his acting career as a child, working w/ his parents in a variety of plays. At 14, he starred in a soap opera called El ...

Best Films: * Amores perros (2000) * Babel (2006) * Neruda (2016)

94. Meryl Streep

Actress | Out of Africa

Considered by many critics to be the greatest living actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 21 times, and has won it three times. Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, to Mary Wolf (Wilkinson), a commercial artist, and Harry William ...

Best Films: * The Deer Hunter (1978) * Manhattan (1979) * The Hours (2002)

95. Jason Robards

Actor | All the President's Men

Powerful and highly respected American actor Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Hope Maxine (Glanville) and stage and film star Jason Robards Sr. He had Swedish, English, Welsh, German, and Irish ancestry. Robards was raised mostly in Los Angeles. A star athlete at ...

Best Films: * C'era una volta il west (1968) * The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) * Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (1973)

96. Jodie Foster

Actress | The Silence of the Lambs

Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received ...

Best Films: * Taxi Driver (1976) * Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) * The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

97. Joe Pesci

Actor | Goodfellas

Compact Italian-American actor Joe Pesci was born February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey, to Mary (Mesce), a part-time barber, and Angelo Pesci, a bartender and forklift driver. Pesci first broke into entertainment as a child actor, and by the mid-1950s, was starring on the series "Star Time Kids"....

Best Films: * Once Upon a Time in America (1984) -secundary role- * Raging Bull (1980) * Casino (1995)

98. Christopher Walken

Actor | The Deer Hunter

Lead and supporting actor of the American stage and films, with sandy colored hair, and pale complexion. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter (1978), and has been seen in mostly character roles, often portraying psychologically unstable individuals, though...

Best Films: * Annie Hall (1977) * The Deer Hunter (1978) * Pulp Fiction (1994)

99. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

Best Films: * City Lights (1931) * Monsieur Verdoux (1947) * The Great Dictator (1940)

100. Jack Lemmon

Actor | The Apartment

Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Mildred Lankford Noel and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., the president of a doughnut company. His ancestry included Irish (from his paternal grandmother) and English. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers ...

Best Films: * The Apartment (1960) * Some Like It Hot (1959) * The Front Page (1974)