Amazing Actresses

1. Colleen Dewhurst

Tall, luminous and leonine, the legendary Colleen Dewhurst must go down as one of the theater's finest contemporary tragediennes of the late 1900s. With trademark dusky tones and a majestically careworn appearance, she possessed an inimitable down-to-earth fierceness that not only earned her the ...

2. Angela Lansbury

Actress | The Manchurian Candidate

Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar ...

3. Pamela Bellwood

Actress | Airport '77

Pamela Bellwood was born on June 26, 1944 in the USA. She is an actress, known for Airport '77 (1977), Dynasty (1981) and Serial (1980). She has been married to Nik Wheeler since December 30, 1984. They have one child. She was previously married to Peter Bellwood.

4. Lorna Patterson

Actress | Airplane!

Lorna Patterson was born on July 1, 1956 in Whittier, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Airplane! (1980), Goodtime Girls (1980) and Beane's of Boston (1979). She has been married to Michael Lembeck since April 13, 1990. They have two children. She was previously married to Robert Ginty.

5. Vanessa Brown

Actress | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The attractive daughter of Austrian-Jewish émigrés who fled their homeland to Paris in 1937 before coming to the United States, "B" actress Vanessa Brown grew up exceptionally fluent in German, French, Italian and English. She developed an early interest in acting.

Auditioning for Lillian Hellman at...

6. Dee Wallace

Actress | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

This attractive, happy go lucky blonde actress, educated at the University of Kansas and a former ballet soloist, first broke into both TV and cinema screens in the mid 1970s and through her appearances in several well remembered horror and sci-fi films, and Dee quickly gained a cult following ...

7. Judy Parfitt

Actress | Girl with a Pearl Earring

Of regal bearing and imposing stance, flame-haired British classical actress Judy Parfitt is the possessor of the chilliest blue orbs in all of London and has used them to her advantage over the years with her clever portrayals of haughty, bossy, imperious, deliciously malevolent patricians. Born ...

8. Jean Simmons

Actress | Guys and Dolls

Demure British beauty Jean Simmons was born January 31, 1929, in Crouch End, London. As a 14-year-old dance student, she was plucked from her school to play Margaret Lockwood's precocious sister in Give Us the Moon (1944). She had a small part as a harpist in the high-profile Caesar and Cleopatra (...

9. June Havoc

Actress | Gentleman's Agreement

Musical theater devotees will undoubtedly know that the song "Let Me Entertain You" was from the classic musical "Gypsy", the born-in-a-trunk story of resilient kid troopers Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc who were mercilessly pushed into vaudeville careers by an unbearably headstrong mother. While ...

10. Lila Kaye

Actress | An American Werewolf in London

Lila Kaye was born on November 7, 1929 in Middlesex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Invisible Man (1984) and See No Evil (1971). She died on January 10, 2012 in England, UK.

11. Holland Taylor

Actress | Legally Blonde

Holland Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the third-born (and last) daughter of her mother, Virginia (Davis), a painter, and the only child of her father, C. Tracy Taylor, an attorney. She spent her teen years in nearby Allentown, PA, where Holland got the nickname, "Penny Taylor" ...

12. Brenda Vaccaro

Actress | Midnight Cowboy

A leading lady on screen, stage and sometimes television, Brenda Vaccaro, was born in Brooklyn but was actually raised in Dallas, Texas.

Her appetite for acting increased following several appearances in high school productions, and she finally started a professional career in the 1960s. Memorable ...

13. Kim Hunter

Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire

Her father, Donald Cole, was a consulting engineer, and died in 1926 when Kim was only three years old. Her mother, Grace Lind, once performed as a concert pianist. She had one brother who was eight years older than she, and she was educated at Miami Beach High.

According to an in-depth article on ...

14. Vera Miles

Actress | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won her the title of "Miss Kansas" in 1948, leading soon to small roles in Hollywood films and television series. Fame came to the forthright, spirited Miles when she ...

15. Margaret O'Brien

Actress | Meet Me in St. Louis

Born Angela Maxine O'Brien on January 15, 1937 in San Diego, California. Her film debut was one-minute shot in MGM's Babes on Broadway (1941). Her big moment came when she was cast in Journey for Margaret (1942). This film shot her into instant stardom and also resulted in Angela changing her name ...

16. Kate Mulgrew

Actress | Star Trek: Voyager

Katherine Kiernan Mulgrew, or Kate Mulgrew, was born on April 29, 1955. She grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, the second oldest child (and oldest girl) in a large Irish Catholic family. When Kate expressed an interest in acting as a child, her mother, Joan, encouraged her to audition for local theater ...

17. Shirley Anne Field

Actress | The Damned

Shirley Anne Field was one of Britain's most highly respected actresses. She starred opposite Laurence Olivier, Albert Finney, Steve McQueen, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis and Ned Beatty in such classic films as The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The War Lover, Alfie, My ...

18. Sally Kellerman

Actress | MASH

Sally Kellerman arrived quite young on the late 1950s film and television scene with a fresh and distinctively weird, misfit presence. It is this same uniqueness that continued to make her such an attractively offbeat performer. The willowy, swan-necked, flaxen-haired actress shot to film comedy ...

19. Jean Marsh

Actress | Willow

Born in London, Jean Marsh became interested in show business while taking dancing and mime classes as therapy for a childhood illness. After attending a charm school and working as a model, she started acting in repertory and took voice lessons. Her repertory work was supplemented by a number of ...

20. Maggie Steed

Actress | The Painted Veil

Born Margaret Baker in Plymouth, Devon, in 1946, Maggie Steed studied drama with the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, graduating in the late 1960s. However, her first professional engagements were as an assistant stage manager, working behind the scenes in a somewhat lowly capacity, because, she ...

21. Marian McLoughlin

Actress | Spice World

Marian McLoughlin was born on December 9, 1952 in Croydon, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Spice World (1997), Party Animals (2007) and The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson (2009).

22. Selina Cadell

Actress | Wild Child

Selina Cadell was born on August 12, 1953 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Wild Child (2008), Match Point (2005) and Doc Martin (2004). She was previously married to Michael Thomas.

23. Lucy Cohu

Actress | Becoming Jane

Lucy Cohu was born on October 2, 1968 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Becoming Jane (2007), Gosford Park (2001) and The Queen's Sister (2005). She was previously married to Corey Johnson.

24. Lorraine Ashbourne

Actress | King Kong

Lorraine Ashbourne was born on January 7, 1961 in Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for King Kong (2005), Child 44 (2015) and Breathe (2017). She has been married to Andy Serkis since July 22, 2002. They have three children.

25. Joan Sims

Actress | Carry on Up the Khyber

Joan Sims, the "First Lady of Carry On", was born Irene Joan Marion Sims on 9 May 1930. The daughter of an Essex railway station master, Joan was interested in pursuing show-business, and soon became a familiar face in a growing number of amateur productions. In 1946, Joan first applied to RADA, ...

26. Phyllis Logan

Actress | Secrets & Lies

Phyllis Logan was born on January 11, 1956 in Paisley, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Another Time, Another Place (1983) and Downton Abbey (2010). She has been married to Kevin McNally since August 15, 2011. They have one child.

27. Nicola Walker

Actress | Spooks

Nicola Jane Walker is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programs from the 1990s onward, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks from 2003 to 2011 and DCI Cassie Stuart in Unforgotten from 2015 to 2021. She has also worked in theatre, ...

28. Renée Asherson

Actress | Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced

A beautiful and durable actress of screen, stage and television, Asherson was born Renée Ascherson in London (dropping the "c" early in her acting career), the younger daughter of Charles Ascherson, a businessman and bibliophile of German-Jewish extraction, and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman, who...

29. Rosalie Crutchley

Actress | The Haunting

Acclaimed actress Rosalie Crutchley originally trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She made her acting debut in repertory in 1938 at the Liverpool Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut in 1950. The Guild of Television named her best actress of the year in 1956 for Armchair Theatre: Black ...

30. Anna Massey

Actress | Peeping Tom

Anna Massey was born on August 11, 1937 in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Peeping Tom (1960), Frenzy (1972) and The Machinist (2004). She was married to Dr. Uri Andres and Jeremy Brett. She died on July 2, 2011 in London, England, UK.

31. Joanna David

Actress | Pride and Prejudice

Joanna David was born on January 17, 1947 in Lancaster, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Pride and Prejudice (1995), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) and Rogue Trader (1999). She has been married to Edward Fox since 2004. They have two children.

32. Janine Duvitski

Actress | The New World

Janine Drzewicki was born in the Lancashire town of Lancaster to an English mother and a Polish father. She attended school in Nottingham and later moved to London to train as an actress at the E 15 theatre school. Shortly after leaving she was given a couple of small roles in television dramas but...

33. Sarah Badel

Actress | Not Without My Daughter

Sarah Badel was born on March 30, 1943 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Not Without My Daughter (1991), Just Visiting (2001) and Mrs Dalloway (1997).

34. Tessa Peake-Jones

Actress | Only Fools and Horses

Tessa Peake-Jones was born on May 9, 1957 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), Pride and Prejudice (1980) and Grantchester (2014).

35. Judy Cornwell

Actress | Santa Claus: The Movie

Most famous for her supporting role as Daisy, the sister of Patricia Routledge's Hyacinth Bucket in the hugely popular BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990), Judy Cornwell's grandmother was the music hall singer Sarah Bonner. The London-born actress grew up in England, where she attended a ...

36. Kathleen Byron

Actress | Black Narcissus

Kathleen Byron trained for the stage at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, beginning her work in the movies soon after she finished her training. Her early work with Michael Powell made her name in the UK. She went to Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s but found it difficult to break into the US ...

37. Imelda Staunton

Actress | Vera Drake

Imelda Staunton is an English actress and singer from Archway, London. Her ancestry is primarily Irish. She has worked extensively in theater, and has won 4 Laurence Olivier Awards; 3 for leading roles and one for a supporting role. Her best known role in films has been the recurring villain ...

38. Phyllida Law

Actress | The Time Machine

Phyllida Law was born on May 8, 1932 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for The Time Machine (2002), Much Ado About Nothing (1993) and The Winter Guest (1997). She was previously married to Eric Thompson.

39. Tricia George

Actress | American Playhouse

Tricia George was born in 1957 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress, known for American Playhouse (1980), Uncle Jack and the Dark Side of the Moon (1992) and Testament of Youth (1979).

40. Phyllis Calvert

Actress | Mandy

Phyllis Hannah Bickle was born in Chelsea in 1915 and studied dancing at the Margaret Morris school of dance, until an injury forced her to give up dancing and turn instead to acting. Her 70 year film career began with a bit part in The Arcadians (1927) when she was just 12 years old. Along with ...

41. Deborah Findlay

Actress | Vanity Fair

Deborah Findlay was born in Surrey and studied English at Leeds University. She worked in Leeds with a theatre group touring plays, music, community theatre and cabaret before coming to London to work at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She was in the original production of 'Top Girls' by Caryl ...

42. Cheryl Campbell

Actress | Pennies from Heaven

Cheryl Campbell is an English actress, probably best known in the United States for her role as Eileen in Dennis Potter's Pennies from Heaven (1978), for which she received a BAFTA nomination as Best Television Actress. The following year, she won the award for her roles in three shows: Testament ...

43. Sylvestra Le Touzel

Actress | Happy-Go-Lucky

Le Touzel was born in London to a prominent family from Jersey, Channel Islands. She showed an interest in acting at an early age, enrolling at a Stage School. Subsequent television roles followed, including as Fanny Price in a 1983 adaptation of Mansfield Park (1983), though, in cult television ...

44. Belinda Lang

Actress | 2point4 Children

Belinda Lang was born on December 23, 1953 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for 2point4 Children (1991), Sister Boniface Mysteries (2022) and This England (2022). She has been married to Hugh Fraser since October 15, 1988. They have one child.

45. Samantha Bond

Actress | GoldenEye

Samantha's early theatre work includes repertory seasons at Coventry, Edinburgh, Derby, and Bristol and 'Never in My Life 'at the Soho Poly in London. After appearing in Kenneth Branagh's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' she went on to West End productions of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses', 'Man of the...

46. Rosemary Leach

Actress | A Room with a View

English character actress with a penchant for genteel aristocrats and kindly mothers. The daughter of teachers, she "spent some time selling shoes in Reading" before entering the acting profession. Aged eighteen, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her debut in repertory ...

47. Jane Lapotaire

Actress | Lady Jane

Jane Lapotaire was born on December 26, 1944 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Lady Jane (1986), Blind Justice (1988) and Rebecca (2020). She was previously married to Roland Joffé.

48. Celia Imrie

Actress | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Celia Imrie is an Olivier award-winning and Screen Actors Guild-nominated actress, a Variety magazine 'Icon' and Women in Film and Television 'Lifetime Achievement award' winner. As well as her acclaimed film, television and theatre work, she is also a Sunday Times best-selling author. Celia is ...

49. Gillian Kearney

Actress | The Forsyte Saga

Gillian began acting at school and at the Liverpool Everyman Youth Theatre. Whilst attending, as a fourteen-year-old in 1986, she landed the role of Damon Grant's girlfriend, Debbie McGrath, in Brookside (1982). The character was originally intended to appear in just three episodes, but Debbie ...

50. Claire Price

Actress | Jump

Claire Price was born on July 4, 1972 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Jump (2012), Hereafter (2010) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015).

51. Beatie Edney

Actress | Highlander

Beatie Edney was born on October 23, 1962 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Highlander (1986), In the Name of the Father (1993) and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008).

52. Claire Goose

Actress | Casualty

Claire Goose was born in Edinburgh and lived there 'til she was two and a half. She grew up in Norfolk. Her parents are mother, Joy, and father, David, who is a GP in Kings Lynn and has also looked after the Royals. Claire also has an elder sister, Caroline, a nursery nurse, and an elder brother, ...

53. Caroline Harker

Actress | The Madness of King George

Caroline Harker was born in 1966 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Madness of King George (1994), Middlemarch (1994) and A Touch of Frost (1992). She is married to Anthony Calf. They have three children.

54. Wendy Craig

Actress | The Nanny

Her parents, George and Anne were originally farmers in the Sacriston area of County Durham where she started her education at a village school and eventually attended Durham High School. Her family eventually gave up farming and became haulage contractors in Darlington where she then attended ...

55. Clare Holman

Actress | Blood Diamond

Clare Holman was born on January 12, 1964 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Blood Diamond (2006), Suite Française (2014) and Inspector Lewis (2006). She was previously married to Howard Davies.

56. Gemma Jones

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Gemma Jones was born on December 4, 1942 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010).

57. Gwen Taylor

Actress | Life of Brian

Gwen Taylor was born on February 19, 1939 in Derby, Derbyshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Life of Brian (1979), The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978) and A Bit of a Do (1989). She has been married to Graham Reid since 1996. She was previously married to Frederick Blount.

58. Honor Blackman

Actress | Goldfinger

One of four children, Blackman was born in London's East End, to Edith Eliza (Stokes), a homemaker, and Frederick Thomas Blackman, a statistician employed with the Civil Service. She received elocution lessons for her 16th birthday (at her own request), and later attended the Guildhall School of ...

59. Suzanne Burden

Actress | Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Suzanne Burden was born in 1958. She is an actress, known for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), Great Performances (1971) and Mark Gertler: Fragments of a Biography (1981).

60. Isla Blair

Actress | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Isla Blair was born in Bangalore, British India, to Scottish expat tea planter Ian Baxter Blair-Hill and his wife Violet Barbara (née Skeoch). After graduating from RADA, Blair made her stage debut at London's Strand Theatre as Philia in a 1963 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the...

61. Denise Black

Actress | Rivals

Denise is an English actress probably best known for her iconic TV character Hazel, the mum all gay men wanted in Russell T Davies' 'Queer as Folk' and 'Cucumber'. Also siren soap characters Denise Osbourne in 'Coronation Street', Joanie in 'Emmerdale' and Denny's mad, bad mum in 'Bad Girls'. She ...

62. Anne Reid

Actress | Hot Fuzz

Anne was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne but the family moved to Redcar when the WWII started. She was educated at White House School where she acted in a school play of Romeo and Juliet with June Laverick, who when older would also take to the stage. When Anne got older she was sent to a boarding ...

63. Rosalind Knight

Actress | About a Boy

Born in Marylebone, London, versatile character actress Rosalind Marie Knight was born to theatrical parentage. Her father was the accomplished thespian Esmond Knight. Her mother, the comedienne Frances Clare, often featured in Ivor Novello operettas. Rosalind's interest in theatre was first ...

64. Helen Lindsay

Actress | Mission: Impossible

Character actress Helen Lindsay was born of British parentage as Helen Jane Charley in Coimbatore, a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Little is known about her early life, but she made her stage debut as a snake charmer in a 1952 production of Pinocchio at the Library Theatre in Manchester. ...

65. Lynda Bellingham

Actress | Romanovy: Ventsenosnaya semya

Lynda Bellingham played many roles during her five-decade professional career, but became synonymous with one. "Being a mum making gravy was not quite how I had seen my career advancing," she said once. But between 1983 and 1999 that's what she did in 42 "episodes" of an award-winning TV ad. Since ...

66. Stella Gonet

Actress | Nicholas Nickleby

Stella Gonet was born on May 8, 1960 in Greenock, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Spencer (2021) and How I Live Now (2013). She has been married to Nicholas Farrell since 2005. They have two children.

67. Rachel Bell

Actress | The Darling Buds of May

Rachel Bell was born in 1950 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Darling Buds of May (1991), Doctor Who (1963) and Dear John.... (1986). She was previously married to Mike O'Neill.

68. Maggie O'Neill

Actress | Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey

Maggie O'Neill was born on November 15, 1962 in Buckinghamshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Friday on My Mind (1992) and Mystery!: Cadfael (1994).

69. Richenda Carey

Actress | Colonia

Richenda Carey (born in Bitton, South Gloucestershire, England) is an English theatre, television and film actress, who is mostly known for her roles in Monarch of the Glen, Jeeves and Wooster, Crush and later, Separate Lies and Criminal Justice. She appeared in an episode of the sitcom Chalk as ...

70. Margery Mason

Actress | The Princess Bride

Margery Mason was born on September 27, 1913 in Hackney, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Princess Bride (1987), Love Actually (2003) and Les Misérables (1998). She was married to Peter Daminoff. She died on January 26, 2014 in Swiss Cottage, Camden, London, England, UK.

71. Harriet Walter

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Dame Harriet Mary Walter DBE is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations including for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) ...

72. Caroline Blakiston

Actress | Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Incisive, classically-trained English stage and screen actress, latterly often seen on TV as imperious titled ladies or dowagers. She was born Caroline Georgiana Blakiston in Chelsea, London, the daughter of archivist Hugh Noel Blakiston (1905-1984) and non-fiction author Rachel Georgiana Russell (...

73. Wanda Ventham

Actress | UFO

Wanda Ventham was born on August 5, 1935 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for UFO (1970), Invasion: UFO (1974) and Sherlock (2010). She has been married to Timothy Carlton since April 1976. They have one child. She was previously married to James Tabernacle.

74. Tracie Bennett

Actress | Shirley Valentine

Tracie Bennett was born on June 17, 1961 in Leigh, Lancashire, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Shirley Valentine (1989), Coronation Street (1960) and Making Out (1989).

75. Sara Kestelman

Actress | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords

Sara Kestelman was born on May 12, 1944 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (2004), Lady Jane (1986) and Zardoz (1974).

76. Annette Crosbie

Actress | The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella

Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, to Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actress. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens. Her big break came in 1970 when she was cast as Catherine of Aragon in the BBC television ...

77. Lucy-Ann Holmes

Actress | Midsomer Murders

Lucy-Ann Holmes is known for Midsomer Murders (1997), Foyle's War (2002) and ROFLMAO (2012).

78. June Whitfield

Actress | Absolutely Fabulous

June Whitfield had a long and successful career that has included musical theatre, films and numerous radio and television performances. Her mother was into amateur dramatics and June had elocution and dancing lessons from an early age. She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in ...

79. Ruth Gemmell

Actress | Fever Pitch

Ruth Gemmell was born in October 1967 in Bristol, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Fever Pitch (1997), Primeval (2007) and Bridgerton (2020). She was previously married to Ray Stevenson.

80. Sophie Thompson

Actress | Gosford Park

Sophie Thompson is a British actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. A six-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the London revival of Into the Woods. Her other nominations were for Wildest Dreams (1994), Company (1996), ...

81. Elizabeth Spriggs

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Elizabeth Spriggs was born on September 18, 1929 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Sense and Sensibility (1995), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Paradise Road (1997). She was married to Murray Manson, Marshall Jones and Kenneth Spriggs. ...

82. Siân Phillips

Actress | Dune

Welsh-born stage veteran Dame Siân Phillips is forever identified on television as the tarantula mother/empress Livia in the classic BBC miniseries I, Claudius (1976) (for which she won a BAFTA-TV award), and as the Reverend Mother in the science fiction epic film Dune (1984). Her broad range of ...

83. Julia McKenzie

Actress | Notes on a Scandal

Julia McKenzie was born on February 17, 1941 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Notes on a Scandal (2006), Bright Young Things (2003) and Cranford (2007). She was previously married to Jerry Harte.

84. Sandra Voe

Actress | Local Hero

Sandra Voe (born in the Shetland Islands) is a Scottish actress of film, television and theatre.

Voe began her on screen career in 1966, appearing in an episode of Dr. Finlay's Casebook. She has also appeared in Coronation Street (1960), London's Burning, Taggart, Casualty, Monarch of the Glen, The ...

85. Josette Simon

Actress | Wonder Woman

Josette Simon was born on January 1, 1960 in Leicester, England. She is an actress, known for Wonder Woman (2017), Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) and Red Lights (2012). She was previously married to Mark Padmore.

86. Harriet Thorpe

Actress | Calendar Girls

Harriet Thorpe was born on June 8, 1957. She attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama before having success in television, playing the depressed and emotionally-unfit mother in The Brittas Empire (1991), and Fleur in Absolutely Fabulous (1992); the character first seen in Season One ...

87. Linda Bassett

Actress | East Is East

Linda Bassett was born in the Kentish village of Pluckley - location for the television series The Darling Buds of May (1991). She was brought up in Pimlico, South London, by her typist mother and police officer father. She became interested in acting as a child when she was frequently taken to see...

88. Suzi Quatro

Soundtrack | Cruella

Born in Detroit and grew up in the nearby suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Moved to England to pursue music career. Had tremendous success as a rock singer in Britain and worldwide, but only managed one hit in her native America. Was reportedly asked to audition for the part of Happy Days (1974)'...

89. Stephanie Cole

Actress | Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Stephanie Cole was born in Warwickshire, England, UK. At the age of 15 she auditioned for, and was accepted to, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She began her career at the age of 17 playing a 90-year-old woman. She went on to play notable television roles, which included appearing in all 30 ...

90. Marcia Warren

Actress | Leap Year

Marcia was born on 26 November 1943 and trained as an actress at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1963. From there on she took the path of many of her performing contemporaries, acting in repertory throughout the country - beginning as a assistant stage manager in 'David ...

91. Blythe Danner

Actress | Meet the Parents

Blythe Danner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Katharine (Kile) and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has German, as well as English and Irish, ancestry. Danner studied acting and got her degree from Bard College and began her career in Boston theater companies. By 25, she won the ...

92. Tamsin Greig

Actress | Green Wing

Tamsin Margaret Mary Greig is an English actress, narrator, and comedian. She played Fran Katzenjammer in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, Dr. Caroline Todd in the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing, Beverly Lincoln in British-American sitcom Episodes, and Jackie Goodman in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday ...

93. Frances Cuka

Actress | Oliver Twist

Frances Cuka was born in 1936 in London, to Joseph and Letitia Cuka. The family eventually moved to Hove, where Frances was educated at Brighton and Hove High School. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, then made her stage debut in 1955 in 'Meet Mr. Callaghan' in Warrington. ...

94. Maggie Ollerenshaw

Actress | War Horse

Maggie Ollerenshaw, proud Mancunian and supporter of Manchester City football club since childhood, made her television debut in 1974. She is especially famous for playing comedic Northerners, particularly in the sitcoms 'Last of the Summer Wine' and its prequel 'First of the Summer Wine' and 'Open...

95. Olivia Colman

Actress | The Favourite

Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lost Daughter (2021). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.

96. Monica Dolan

Actress | Eye in the Sky

Monica was born in March 1969 into an Irish family and has a sister Gabrielle. She studied drama at the Guildhall School in London, graduating in 1991 and soon afterwards went into television. A supremely versatile character actress, she has tended to specialize in stunning portrayals of the darker...

97. Paola Dionisotti

Actress | Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced

Paola Dionisotti was born in 1946 in Turin, Italy. She is an actress, known for Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced (1985), Les Misérables (1998) and Florence Foster Jenkins (2016).

98. Nancy Carroll

Actress | An Ideal Husband

Nancy Carroll was born on November 28, 1974 in Bristol, UK. She is an actress, known for An Ideal Husband (1999), Will (2017) and Midsomer Murders (1997). She has been married to Jo Stone-Fewings since 2003. They have two children.

99. Janet Suzman

Actress | Nicholas and Alexandra

This alert and classy actress seemed poised for Hollywood stardom in the early 1970s. Although it wasn't meant to be, Janet Suzman has remained one of the more respected classical stage players of her time. Born in 1939, she was raised in a staunchly liberal household in South Africa at a time when...

100. Frances Barber

Actress | Goal!

Frances Barber has worked in a string of award-winning productions for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking roles as diverse as Eliza in Pygmalion and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. Among her film appearances are roles in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and Sammy and ...