Great character actors/actresses
by HugoHackenbushDVM | created - 11 Jun 2017 | updated - 17 Aug 2022 | Public1. C. Aubrey Smith
Actor | Rebecca
Movie roles are sometimes based upon what the audience expects to see. If the role called for the tall stereotypical Englishmen with the stiff upper lip and stern determination, that man would be C. Aubrey Smith, graduate of Cambridge University, a leading Freemason and a test cricketer for England...
2. Harry Davenport
Actor | Gone with the Wind
Character fame on film came quite late for long-time stage actor Harry Davenport at age 70, but he made up for lost time in very quick fashion with well over a hundred film roles registered from the advent of sound to the time of his death in 1949. Beloved for his twinkle-eyed avuncular and/or ...
3. Etienne Girardot
Actor | The Kennel Murder Case
Etienne Girardot was born on February 22, 1856 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Garden Murder Case (1936) and The Dragon Murder Case (1934). He was married to Dr. Violetta Shelton. He died on November 10, 1939 in Hollywood, California, USA.
4. Ferdinand Gottschalk
Actor | Berkeley Square
Ferdinand Gottschalk was born on February 28, 1858 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Berkeley Square (1933), She Had to Say Yes (1933) and I Am a Thief (1934). He died on November 10, 1944 in London, England, UK.
5. May Robson
Actress | A Star Is Born
Born Mary Jeanette Robison. She was the youngest daughter of Henry Robison of Penrith, Cumberland, England and Julia Schelesinger of Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Her father died in 1860 and her mother remarried. In 1866/67 they were living in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and moved ...
6. Charles Halton
Actor | To Be or Not to Be
A respected stage actor -- he trained at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts -- since the 1920s, birdlike Charles Halton's thinning hair, rimless glasses and officious manner were familiar to generations of moviegoers. Whether playing the neighborhood busybody, a stern government bureaucrat or ...
7. Tom Ricketts
Director | Life's Blind Alley
Born in London, England, in 1853, prolific actor/director (300+ credits) Tom Ricketts is mostly forgotten today, but his chief claim to fame is that he directed the first motion picture shot in Hollywood.
Ricketts began his show-business career as an actor on the London stage, and gained a ...
8. Burt Mustin
Actor | The Twilight Zone
Burt Mustin was a salesman most of his life, but got his first taste of show business as the host of a weekly radio variety show on KDKA Pittsburgh in 1921. He appeared onstage in "Detective Story" at Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix Arizona, and played the janitor in the movie version, (Detective ...
9. Gustav von Seyffertitz
Actor | Sherlock Holmes
Gustav von Seyffertitz was born on August 4, 1863 in Haimhausen, Dachau, Bavaria [now Bavaria, Germany]. He was an actor and director, known for Sherlock Holmes (1922), Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Wizard (1927). He was married to Katharina Hoffmann, Eugenie von Mink, Toni Creutzburg, Nelly ...
10. Maude Eburne
Actress | The Bat Whispers
Eburne started on the stage in Ontario and New York, later appearing on Broadway in 1914, playing a cockney maid. She played comic servants on stage until 1930 then moved to films in 1931. On screen, she played a variety of roles from maids to aristocrats to pipe-smoking harridans. Eburne retired ...
11. Charles Coburn
Actor | The More the Merrier
A cigar-smoking, monocled, swag-bellied character actor known for his Old South manners and charm. In 1918 he and his first wife formed the Coburn Players and appeared on Broadway in many plays. With her death in 1937, he accepted a Hollywood contract and began making films at the age of sixty.
12. Albert Bassermann
Actor | Foreign Correspondent
Classically-trained actor, former chemist, whose formative years on the stage were spent in Bern (Switzerland) and, from 1909, the Deutsches Theater Berlin under Max Reinhardt's direction. Specialised in Shakespearean roles ('Richard III', 'Hamlet') and was a famous interpreter of the plays of ...
13. Spring Byington
Actress | You Can't Take It with You
The possessor of one of Hollywood's gentlest faces and warmest voices, and about as sweet as Tupelo honey both on-and-off camera, character actress Spring Byington was seldom called upon to play callous or unsympathetic (she did once play a half-crazed housekeeper in Dragonwyck (1946)). Although ...
14. 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 ...
15. Henry Stephenson
Actor | Captain Blood
Stephenson was a firm, dignified, worldly presence in Hollywood's classic history-based films of the 30s and 40s. The tall British character actor Henry Stephenson could be both imposing and benevolent in his patrician portrayals, usually expounding words of wisdom or offering gentlemanly aid. He ...
16. Lionel Atwill
Actor | To Be or Not to Be
Lionel Atwill was born into a wealthy family and was educated at London's prestigious Mercer School to become an architect, but his interest turned to the stage. He worked his way progressively into the craft and debuted at age 20 at the Garrick Theatre in London. He acted and improved regularly ...
17. Donald Meek
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
One Hollywood stalwart whose screen incarnations more than lived up to his name was bald-domed character actor Donald Meek, forever typecast as mousy, timorous or browbeaten Casper Milquetoasts. He stood at 5 ft. 6 in. in his boots and weighed a mere 81 pounds. However, the little Glaswegian's ...
18. H.B. Warner
Actor | It's a Wonderful Life
Henry Byron Warner was the definitive cinematic Jesus Christ in Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927). He was born into a prominent theatrical family on October 26, 1875 in London. His father was Charles Warner, and his grandfather was James Warner, both prominent English actors. He replaced ...
19. George Barbier
Actor | The Man Who Came to Dinner
Barbier was educated for the ministry before going to work on the stage. He appeared on Broadway in such successes as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Man Who Came Back," among others. He signed a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1929 and later worked as an actor for most of the major ...
20. Tully Marshall
Actor | Scarface
Tully Marshall intended to pursue a legal career, until he tried a dramatic course at Santa Clara University. He started stage work in San Francisco in 1883 and moved to New York in 1887, where he played in various roles on Broadway and on the road. After a few small parts in films he was given the...
21. Hattie McDaniel
Actress | Gone with the Wind
After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George ...
22. Lionel Belmore
Actor | Frankenstein
Lionel Belmore was born on May 12, 1867 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for Frankenstein (1931), Bardelys the Magnificent (1926) and The Vampire Bat (1933). He was married to Emmeline Florence Carder. He died on January 30, 1953 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles,...
23. Samuel S. Hinds
Actor | It's a Wonderful Life
Samuel S. Hinds, a Harvard graduate, was a lawyer in Hollywood until the stock market crash of 1929, in which he lost most of his money. Hinds, who had an interest in theater acting, decided to embark on a career in acting, albeit it age 54. The tall, dignified-looking Hinds appeared in over 200 ...
24. Edward Arnold
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
Edward Arnold was born as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider in 1890, on the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of German immigrants, Elizabeth (Ohse) and Carl Schneider. Arnold began his acting career on the New York stage and became a film actor in 1916. A burly man with a commanding style ...
25. Zasu Pitts
Actress | Greed
Classic comedienne Zasu Pitts, of the timid, forlorn blue eyes and trademark woebegone vocal pattern and fidgety hands, was born to Rulandus and Nellie (Shay) Pitts, the third of four children on January 3, 1894. Her aged New York-native father, who lost a leg back in the Civil War era, had settled...
26. Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The son of a minstrel and circus tightrope walker, Eddie Anderson developed a gravel voice early in life which would become his trademark to fame. He joined his older brother Cornelius as members of "The Three Black Aces" during his vaudeville years, singing for pennies in the hotel lobby. He ...
27. Sara Allgood
Actress | How Green Was My Valley
Dublin-born Sara Allgood started her acting career in her native country with the famed Abbey Theatre. From there she traveled to the English stage, where she played for many years before making her film debut in 1918. Her warm, open Irish face meant that she spent a lot of time playing Irish ...
28. Louise Beavers
Actress | Imitation of Life
1930s and 1940s film actress Louise Beavers was merely one of a dominant gallery of plus-sized and plus-talented African-American character actresses forced to endure blatant, discouraging and demeaning stereotypes during Depression-era and WWII Hollywood.
It wasn't until Louise's triumphant role in ...
29. Clarence Wilson
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
Clarence Wilson was born on November 17, 1876 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for You Can't Take It with You (1938), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and Penguin Pool Murder (1932). He died on October 5, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
30. Donald Crisp
Actor | How Green Was My Valley
White-haired London-born character actor, a familiar face in Hollywood for more than five decades. He was born George William Crisp, the youngest of ten siblings, to working class parents James Crisp and his wife Elizabeth (nee Christy). Despite his humble beginnings, Donald was educated at Oxford ...
31. June Lang
Actress | Chandu the Magician
This approachable blue-eyed blonde with a striking, open-faced beauty had a very encouraging career going for her in 30s Hollywood but extenuating circumstances hurt her chances in the long run. In less than a decade and a half June Lang was out of pictures altogether (after appearing in over 30) ...
32. Norman Lloyd
Actor | Dead Poets Society
Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne...
33. Una Merkel
Actress | The Parent Trap
Una Merkel began her movie career as stand-in for Lillian Gish in the movie The Wind (1928). After that, she performed on Broadway before she returned to movies for the D.W. Griffith film Abraham Lincoln (1930). In her early years, before gaining a few pounds, she looked like Lillian Gish, but ...
34. Grady Sutton
Actor | The Bank Dick
Grady Sutton was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He arrived in California in 1924. He got his first break in Hollywood from director William A. Seiter who used him as an extra in The Mad Whirl (1925) starring May McAvoy. Grady remained a Hollywood staple for the next 55 years.
He specialized in ...
35. Thomas Mitchell
Actor | Stagecoach
Thomas Mitchell was one of the great American character actors, whose credits read like a list of the greatest American films of the 20th century: Lost Horizon (1937); Stagecoach (1939); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Gone with the Wind (1939); It's a ...
36. Ruth Hussey
Actress | The Philadelphia Story
A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Drama, Ruth Hussey's first show-business job was as a fashion commentator on a local radio station. She journeyed to New York City, where she was signed as a model by the world-famous Powers agency. She obtained some stage roles with touring ...
37. Eve Arden
Actress | Our Miss Brooks
Eve Arden was born Eunice Mary Quedens in Mill Valley, California (near San Francisco), and was interested in show business from an early age. At 16, she made her stage debut after quitting school to join a stock company. After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice ...
38. Barry Fitzgerald
Actor | The Quiet Man
One of Hollywood's finest character actors and most accomplished scene stealers, Barry Fitzgerald was born William Joseph Shields in 1888 in Dublin, Ireland. Educated to enter the banking business, the diminutive Irishman with the irresistible brogue was bitten by the acting bug in the 1920s and ...
39. Ernest Torrence
Actor | Steamboat Bill, Jr.
He was the man you loved to hiss. This towering (6' 4"), highly imposing character star with cold, hollow, beady eyes and a huge, protruding snout would go on to become one of the silent screen's finest arch villains. Born Ernest Thayson Torrence-Thompson on June 26, 1878, in Edinburgh, Scotland, ...
40. 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,...
41. Ernie Hudson
Actor | Ghostbusters
As a child growing up in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Ernie Hudson wrote short stories, poems and songs, always thinking that his words might one day come to life on stage. After a short stint in the Marine Corps, he moved to Detroit where he became the resident playwright at Concept East, the oldest ...
42. Lewis Stone
Actor | The Mask of Fu Manchu
By the time that he was 20, Lewis Stone had turned prematurely grey. He enlisted to fight in the Spanish American War and when he returned, he returned to be a writer. This turned to acting and he began to appear in films during the middle teens. His career was again interrupted by war as he served...
43. Clarence Kolb
Actor | His Girl Friday
Contrary to his familiar image, Clarence Kolb started out as one half of a vaudeville comedy act, Kolb and Dill. He made a few shorts in 1916 and a feature in 1917, but went back to vaudeville and the stage immediately thereafter, and did not return to films until the late 1930s. His stern, ...
44. Charley Grapewin
Actor | The Wizard of Oz
This old codger film favorite, born in 1869 (some reports say 1875), got into the entertainment field at an early age, first as a circus performer (aerialist and trapeze artist). When acting sparked his interest, he worked in a series of stock companies while writing stage plays that he himself ...
45. George Irving
Actor | Bringing Up Baby
George Irving was born on October 5, 1874 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Bringing Up Baby (1938), Man Power (1927) and The Landloper (1918). He was married to Mary Katherine Gilman. He died on September 11, 1961 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
46. Frankie Faison
Actor | Coming to America
Frankie Faison was born on June 10, 1949 in Newport News, Virginia, USA. He is an actor, known for Coming to America (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989) and White Chicks (2004). He is married to Samantha Jupiter Faison. He was previously married to Jane Mandel.
47. Hobart Bosworth
Actor | The Sea Wolf
Hobart Bosworth--pioneering movie director, writer, producer and actor--was born Hobart Van Zandt Bosworth on August 11, 1867, in Marietta, OH. He was a direct descendant of Miles Standish and John and Priscilla Alden on his father's side and of New York's Van Zandt family, the first Dutch settlers...
48. Victor Moore
Actor | Swing Time
Victor Moore was born on February 24, 1876 in Hammonton, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Swing Time (1936), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947). He was married to Shirley Paige and Emma Littlefield. He died on July 23, 1962 in East Islip, Long ...
49. Luis Alberni
Actor | The Count of Monte Cristo
Spanish character actor Luis Alberni was born on October 4, 1886 in Cataluna Barcelona, Spain. His mother's maiden name was Malo, and his father was Judge John Alberni. Luis attended the University of Madrid and majored in Law. Bored with the prospects of long-winded trials, he ran away from home ...
50. Edward Brophy
Actor | The Thin Man
Edward S. Brophy was born on February 27, 1895 in New York City and educated at the University of Virginia. He became a bit and small-part in the movies starting in 1919, but switched to behind-the-scenes work for job security, though he continued appearing in small parts. While serving as a ...
51. 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 ...
52. Margaret Dumont
Actress | A Night at the Opera
Margaret Dumont would not consider it a tragedy that she is best-known for her performances as the ultimate straight woman in seven of the Marx Brothers' films (including most of their best). It is a popular myth that she never understood their jokes (offscreen and on); restored footage of ...
53. Lance Henriksen
Actor | Aliens
An intense, versatile actor as adept at playing clean-cut FBI agents as he is psychotic motorcycle-gang leaders, who can go from portraying soulless, murderous vampires to burned-out, world-weary homicide detectives, Lance Henriksen has starred in a variety of films that have allowed him to stretch...
54. Bert Woodruff
Actor | Speedy
Bert Woodruff was the son of non-professionals Hannah R. and William A. Woodruff of Peoria, Illinois. He was married to Hattie M. Sprague. He entered the theatrical profession in 1876 in Minstrels and toured for two years as a Minstrel. Toured on the stage from 1878 until 1882, and then entered ...
55. Halliwell Hobbes
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
Born at Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon, Halliwell Hobbes could perhaps not aspire to anything else but to be an actor. He made his stage debut in 1898 playing Shakespearean repertory with the famous acting company of Sir Frank Benson throughout England. Among others he played opposite ...
56. Ray Collins
Actor | Citizen Kane
Ray Bidwell Collins was an American actor in film, stage, radio and television. One of his best remembered roles was that of Lt. Arthur Tragg in the long-running series Perry Mason (1957). Collins was born in Sacramento, California, to Lillie Bidwell and William C. Collins, a newspaper drama editor...
57. Joseph Cawthorn
Actor | White Zombie
Cawthorn made his stage debut in 1872 at the age of four. At nine, he went to England and played in music halls for four years. In 1898, Cawthorn made his debut on Broadway and carried on a successful career for some twenty-five years. Moving to Hollywood in 1927, he began a career as a character ...
58. Otis Harlan
Actor | Show Boat
Otis Harlan was born on December 29, 1865 in Zanesville, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Show Boat (1929), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and Nine and Three-Fifths Seconds (1925). He was married to Nellie Harvey. He died on January 21, 1940 in Martinsville, Indiana, USA.
59. Ossie Davis
Actor | Do the Right Thing
Ossie Davis was born on December 18, 1917 in Cogdell, Georgia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Do the Right Thing (1989), Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). He was married to Ruby Dee. He died on February 4, 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
60. Herbert Standing
Actor | An International Marriage
Herbert Standing was born on November 13, 1846 in Peckham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for An International Marriage (1916), David Garrick (1916) and Peer Gynt (1915). He was married to Janet Grace Dalghesh Riddell and Emily Clementina Brown. He died on December 5, 1923 in Los ...
61. 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 ...
62. Faran Tahir
Actor | Iron Man
Faran Haroon Tahir was born in Los Angeles, California while his parents were studying acting and directing at UCLA Theatre Department. He comes from a theatre family well known in Pakistan and India. Both his parents are actors, directors and writers in Pakistan. Faran moved back to Los Angeles, ...
63. Mrs. George W. Walters
Actress | Granny
Mrs. George W. Walters was born in 1835 in England. She was an actress, known for Granny (1913), Romeo and Juliet (1911) and The Wolf (1914). She was married to George W. Walters. She died on February 21, 1916 in New York City, New York, USA.
64. Charles Manley
Actor | Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel
Charles Manley was born on September 25, 1830 in Ireland. He was an actor, known for Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel (1900), Uncle Josh's Nightmare (1900) and Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902). He was married to Amelia Badeau Marcher and Marie ?. He died on February 26, 1916 in Los Angeles,...
65. Mary Maurice
Actress | Les miserables (Part II)
Originally a schoolteacher, Mary Maurice caught the acting bug and joined the Pittsburgh (PA) Stock Company in 1868. After a long and distinguished stage career she signed with Vitagraph and made her film debut in 1909. She appeared in almost 150 films for the company, and played mothers or ...
66. Finlay Currie
Actor | Ben-Hur
Scottish-born Finlay Currie was a former church organist and choirmaster, who made his stage debut at 20 years of age. It took him 34 more years before making his first film, but he worked steadily for another 30 years after that. Although he was a large, imposing figure, with a rich, deep voice ...
67. Matt Frewer
Actor | Watchmen
Matt Frewer has been travelling all over North America in recent months filming recurring roles. Most recently, he worked in Los Angeles for HBO's Perry Mason and in Austin for AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. In Vancouver portrayed Carnage in Netflix's sci-fi drama Altered Carbon (2018); in Montreal (...
68. James Hong
Actor | Everything Everywhere All at Once
James Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He studied civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, but at some point along the way became interested in acting. He graduated from the University of Southern California and practiced for 1½ years as a road engineer with the County of Los ...
69. Ned Beatty
Actor | Network
Stocky, genial-looking supporting actor Ned Beatty was once hailed by Daily Variety as the "busiest actor in Hollywood."
Ned Thomas Beatty was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Margaret (Fortney) and Charles William Beatty. He grew up fishing and working on farms. His hometown of St. Matthews, ...
70. Michael Clarke Duncan
Actor | The Green Mile
Michael Clarke Duncan was born on December 10, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois. Raised on Chicago's South Side by his single mother, Jean, a house cleaner, Duncan grew up resisting drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let ...
71. 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...
72. Judith Anderson
Actress | Rebecca
Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There she established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway ...
73. Nigel Bruce
Actor | Rebecca
Nigel was, from the beginning, typecast as bumbling English aristocrats, military types or drawing room society snobs and, within the narrow parameters of his range, he was very, very good at playing these parts. Nigel Bruce was born in Mexico, where his father, Sir William W. Bruce, worked as an ...
74. Charlotte Greenwood
Actress | Oklahoma!
Charlotte Greenwood was born Frances Charlotte Greenwood on June 25, 1890, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a sickly child and her father left the family when she was very young. Charlotte grew into a healthy, six foot tall woman. She started her career dancing in vaudeville where she became ...
75. Guy Standing
Actor | Death Takes a Holiday
Guy Standing was born on September 1, 1873 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Death Takes a Holiday (1934), The Eagle and the Hawk (1933) and I'd Give My Life (1936). He was married to Dorothy Hammond, Blanche Burton and Isabelle Urquhart. He died on February 24, 1937 in Hollywood ...
76. Ned Sparks
Actor | 42nd Street
Ned Sparks proved himself a top character support whose style would be imitated for decades to come. Although less remembered now, he was an inimitable cinematic player back in 1930s Hollywood. The nasal-toned, deadpan comedian Sparks was born Edward A. Sparkman in Guelph, Canada, and was raised ...
77. Gus Leonard
Actor | Wurra-Wurra
Gus Leonard was born on February 4, 1859 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He was an actor, known for Wurra-Wurra (1916), Her Reputation (1923) and The Girl I Loved (1923). He died on March 27, 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
78. Michelle Yeoh
Actress | Everything Everywhere All at Once
Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss ...
79. J.T. Walsh
Actor | Breakdown
J.T. Walsh was born on September 28, 1943 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Breakdown (1997), Sling Blade (1996) and Needful Things (1993). He was married to Susan West. He died on February 27, 1998 in La Mesa, California, USA.
80. George Fawcett
Actor | His Children's Children
A grand, stoic presence of the silent screen, George Fawcett was an immensely popular stage thespian both here and in London at the turn of the century. During his heyday his eloquence rivaled that of both Lionel Barrymore and John Barrymore.
Born on August 25, 1860, in Alexandria Virginia, Fawcett ...
81. Robert Warwick
Actor | In a Lonely Place
A prominent matinée stage and silent-film star with handsome features offset only slightly by a prominent proboscis, Robert Warwick was born and raised in Sacramento, California, as Robert Taylor Bien. The gift of music was instilled at an early age (he sang in his church choir) and he initially ...
82. Yutaka Sada
Actor | Tengoku to jigoku
Yutaka Sada was born on March 30, 1911 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for High and Low (1963), Yojimbo (1961) and The Hidden Fortress (1958). He died in 2017.
83. Douglass Dumbrille
Actor | The Ten Commandments
Distinguished character villain Douglass (R.) Dumbrille, whose distinctive stern features, beady eyes, tidy mustache, prominent hook nose and suave, cultivated presence graced scores of talking films, was born on October 13, 1889, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was first employed as a bank clerk ...
84. Wilford Brimley
Actor | The Natural
Wilford Brimley was born on September 27, 1934 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for The Natural (1984), In & Out (1997) and Cocoon (1985). He was married to Beverly Berry and Lynne Brimley. He died on August 1, 2020 in St. George, Utah, USA.
85. Masako Motai
Actress | Soredemo boku wa yattenai
Born in Shibuya, Tokyo. A Japanese actress joined in Shasha Co.. Started acting in around 1972, created an acting band called Gekidan Sanjyumaru with Eri Watanabe in 1979. At the time she was directing, yet she began to act later on. In 1984, she played a role of a teacher in a TV drama called "...
86. Tony Todd
Actor | Candyman
Perhaps best known for his chilling performance as "Candyman", the charismatic 6' 5" actor Tony Todd has consistently turned in compelling performances since his debut in the fantasy film Sleepwalk (1986). Born in Washington, D.C., Todd spent two years on a scholarship at the University of ...
87. Satomi Kobayashi
Actress | Tenkôsei
Satomi Kobayashi was born on May 24, 1965 in Kyoto, Japan. She is an actress, known for I Are You, You Am Me (1982), Pale Moon (2014) and Riyû (2004). She was previously married to Kôki Mitani.
88. Gladys Cooper
Actress | My Fair Lady
Gladys Cooper was the daughter of journalist William Frederick Cooper and his wife Mabel Barnett. As a child she was very striking and was used as a photographic model beginning at six years old. She wanted to become an actress and started on that road in 1905 after being discovered by Seymour ...
89. Jack Weston
Actor | Dirty Dancing
In a 40-year stage, film, and television career, Weston played sleazy villains to hapless men going through midlife crises to clumsy comics. He was one of the bad guys who victimize a blind Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 cult classic Wait Until Dark (1967) but meets his end at the hands of the number ...
90. Edward McWade
Actor | Arsenic and Old Lace
Edward McWade was born on January 14, 1865 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), The Monster (1925) and Two Seconds (1932). He was married to Margaret McWade. He died on May 17, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
91. Kirin Kiki
Actress | Manbiki kazoku
She began acting after high school as part of a theatre troupe. Her stage name was Yuuki Chiho. Years later she would relay that she only started acting for the money. Her father had wanted her to become a pharmacologist, but she missed her examination due to a fractured foot. She changed her alias...
92. Graham Greene
Actor | The Green Mile
Graham Greene was born on June 22, 1952 in Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for The Green Mile (1999), Wind River (2017) and Dances with Wolves (1990). He has been married to Hilary Blackmore since December 20, 1990. They have two children.
93. Donald MacBride
Actor | The Seven Year Itch
Best known for his work in slapstick comedy and detective whodunits, character actor Donald MacBride lent his serious, craggy mug and determined professionalism to scores of 30s and 40s crimers. Born in Brooklyn, he first appeared on the vaudeville and Broadway stages as a teenage singer in such ...
94. Bill Erwin
Actor | Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Bill Erwin was born on December 2, 1914 in Honey Grove, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Somewhere in Time (1980) and Home Alone (1990). He was married to Lucy Frances MacLachlan. He died on December 29, 2010 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, ...
95. Ken Mitsuishi
Actor | Shin Gojira
Ken Mitsuishi was born on September 26, 1961 in Fukuoka, Japan. He is an actor, known for Shin Godzilla (2016), 13 Assassins (2010) and Audition (1999).
96. Armin Mueller-Stahl
Actor | Eastern Promises
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German actor with a relatively long film career. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as an abusive father in the biographical drama "Shine" (1996).
In 1930, Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. The town developed ...
97. Andrew Airlie
Actor | The Romeo Section
Andrew Airlie was born on September 18, 1961 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Romeo Section (2015), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and Reaper (2007).
98. Vincent Ventresca
Actor | The Invisible Man
Vincent Ventresca was born on April 29, 1966 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Invisible Man (2000), Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and Prey (1998). He has been married to Dianne Shiner since 1994. They have two children.
99. Roger Cross
Actor | Coroner
Roger Cross is known for Coroner (2019), Continuum (2012) and Dark Matter (2015).
100. Edmund Gwenn
Actor | Miracle on 34th Street
There are very few character actors from the 1930s, '40s or '50s who rose to the rank of stardom. Only a rare man or woman reached the level of renown and admiration, and had enough audience appeal, to be the first name in a cast's billing, a name that got marquee posting. Charles Coburn comes to ...
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