Great Performance

1. Warren Oates

Warren Oates was an American character actor of the 1960s and 1970s and early 1980s whose distinctive style and intensity brought him to offbeat leading roles.

Oates was born in Depoy, a very small Kentucky town. He was the son of Sarah Alice (Mercer) and Bayless Earle Oates, a general store owner. ...

Two Lane Blacktops' GTO

2. 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 ...

True Grit's Rooster Cogburn

3. Rosalind Russell

Actress | Auntie Mame

The middle of seven children, she was named, not for the heroine of "As You Like It" but for the S.S. Rosalind on which her parents had sailed, at the suggestion of her father, a successful lawyer.

After receiving a Catholic school education, she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New ...

Auntie Mame's Mame Dennis

4. Raymond Massey

Actor | Arsenic and Old Lace

Educated at the University of Toronto & Balliol College, Oxford, he joined the Canadian Field Artillery in World War I, served in France & was wounded. His first appearance was in a stage production in Siberia, during the multi-nation intervention of 1918 - 1919. Raymond returned to Canada & his ...

Abe Lincoln in Illinois' Abraham Lincoln

5. Isabelle Adjani

Actress | Possession

Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school ...

Possession's Anna Helen

6. Richard Burton

Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.

Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in ...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's George

7. Elizabeth Taylor

Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's Martha

8. Scarlett Johansson

Actress | Lost in Translation

Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Melanie Sloan is from a Jewish family from the Bronx and her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, ...

Lucy's Lucy

9. 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 ...

Apocalypse Now's Bill Kilgore and Network's Frank Hackett and M.A.S.H.'s Frank Burns and Convicts' Soll Gautier and Sling Blade's Frank Childers

10. Robert Mitchum

Actor | Out of the Past

Robert Mitchum was an underrated American leading man of enormous ability, who sublimated his talents beneath an air of disinterest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. His father died in a ...

The Friends of Eddie Coyle's Eddie Coyle

11. 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, ...

The Night of the Hunter's Rachel Cooper

12. Walter Huston

Actor | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

For many years Walter Huston had two passions: his career as an engineer and his vocation for the stage. In 1909 he dedicated himself to the theatre, and made his debut on Broadway in 1924. In 1929 he journeyed to Hollywood, where his talent and ability made him one of the most respected actors in ...

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre's Howard

13. 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.

The More the Merrier's Benjamin Dingle

14. James Cagney

Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces

One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur ...

One, Two, Three's C.R. MacNamara

15. 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 ...

Cool Hand Luke's Lucas Jackson and Hud's Hud Bannon

16. Clark Gable

Actor | It Happened One Night

William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle ...

Gone With The Wind's Rhett Butler and It Happened One Night's Peter Warne

17. Terence Stamp

Actor | The Limey

Terence was born in London and spent his early years watching American films and dreamed of being like the stars on the screen, He was awarded a scholarship for the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art. In his second year, during an audition, Peter Ustinov signed him for the title role in Billy ...

Billy Budd's Billy Budd

18. Joanne Woodward

Actress | Rachel, Rachel

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward was born on February 27, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, to Wade Woodward and Elinor Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward in a modest household. Her one older brother, Wade Jr., who was the favorite of her father, eventually became an architect. Elinor Woodward was a ...

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds' Beatrice Hunsdorfer

19. Barbara Stanwyck

Actress | Double Indemnity

Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985). But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the ...

Stella Dallas' Stella Dallas and Ball of Fire's Sugarpuss O'Shea and The Lady Eve's Jean Harrington/Lady Eve Sidwich

20. Rudy Vallee

Actor | The Palm Beach Story

Rudy Vallee started his career as a saxophone player and singer and later became a bandleader. In the 1920s and early '30s he had a hit radio program, The Fleishmann's Yeast Hour (although his explosive, ego-driven personality made his cast and crew hate him). In the early 1930s he was ranked with ...

The Palm Beach Story's John D. Hackensacker III and How To Succeed in Business Without Trying's J.B. Biggley

21. Jeff Bridges

Actor | The Big Lebowski

Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...

Starman's ?

22. John C. Reilly

Actor | Chicago

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

The fifth of six ...

Stan and Ollie's Oliver Hardy and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story's Dewey Cox

23. Steve Coogan

Actor | Philomena

Steve Coogan was born on October 14, 1965 in Middleton, Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Philomena (2013), Alan Partridge (2013) and 24 Hour Party People (2002). He was previously married to Caroline Hickman.

Stan and Ollie's Stan Laurel

24. Jon Voight

Actor | Midnight Cowboy

Jon Voight is an American actor of German and Slovak descent. He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Luke Martin in the war film "Coming Home" (1978). He has also been nominated for the same award other two times. He was first ...

Midnight Cowboy's Joe Buck and Conrack's Pat Conroy

25. Dustin Hoffman

Actor | Tootsie

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

Midnight Cowboy's Enrico Salvatore Rizzo and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer's Giuseppe Baldini

26. Billy Bob Thornton

Actor | Sling Blade

Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in ...

Sling Blade's Karl Childers and Intolerable Cruelty's Howard D. Doyle

27. George Clooney

Actor | The Ides of March

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nina Bruce (née Warren), a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and television host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). He has Irish, English, and German ancestry. Clooney ...

Intolerable Cruelty's Miles Massey and O Brother, Where Art Thou's Ulysses Everett McGill

28. Susan Tyrrell

Actress | Cry-Baby

A bizarre, gloriously one-of-a-kind Hollywood gypsy and self-affirmed outcast, San Francisco-born actress Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian Creamer) was a teenager when she made her stage debut in "Time Out for Ginger" in 1962. A product of the entertainment industry, her father was a top agent at ...

Fat City's Oma Lee Greer

29. Stacy Keach

Actor | Escape from L.A.

Stacy Keach has played to grand success a constellation of the classic and contemporary stage's greatest roles, and he is considered a pre-eminent American interpreter of Shakespeare. His SRO run as "King Lear" at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. received the best reviews any ...

Fat City's Billy Tully

30. Malcolm McDowell

Actor | A Clockwork Orange

Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...

If....'s and O Lucky Man!'s and Britannia Hospital's Mick Travis and A Clockwork Orange's Alex DeLarge and Time After Time's H.G. Wells

31. Nicholas Colasanto

Actor | Cheers

Nicholas Colasanto, the actor and television director who achieved his greatest success as "Coach" on the TV series Cheers (1982) at the end of his career, was born January 19, 1924 in Providence, Rhode Island, one of seven children. He attended Providence's Central High School but did not graduate...

Fat City's Ruben

32. 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 ...

Bringing Up Baby's Dr David Huxley aka David Bone and Arsenic and Old Lace's Mortimer Brewster

33. Katharine Hepburn

Actress | The Lion in Winter

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

Bringing Up Baby's Susan Vance and Desk Set's Bunny Watson and Suddenly Last Summer's Violet Venable and The African Queen's Rose Sayer and The Rainmaker's Lizzie Curry and Long Day's Journey into Night's Mary Tyrone and The Lion in Winter's Eleanor of Aquitaine and On Golden Pond's Ethel Thayer

34. Spencer Tracy

Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg

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

Inherit the Wind's Henry Drummond and Desk Set's Richard Sumner and Captain's Courageous' Manuel Fidello and Father of the Bride's and Father Little Dividend's Stanley T. Banks and The Last Hurrah's Frank Skeffington

35. 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...

The Petrified Forest's Gabrielle Maple and The Little Foxes' Regina Giddens and The Bride Came C.O.D.'s Joan Winfield and The Man Who Came to Dinner's Maggie Cutler and The Corn is Green's Lily Moffat and Jezebel's Julie Marsden and The Catered Affair's Agnes Hurley and The Star's Margaret Elliot and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'s Baby Jane Hudson

36. Willem Dafoe

Actor | Spider-Man

Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large ...

Platoon's Elias Grodin and Mississippi Burning's archtype Alan Ward and The Boondock Saints' Paul Smecker and Shadow of the Vampire's Max Schreck and Autofocus' John Henry Carpenter and The Clearing's Arnold Mack and The Florida Project's Bobby and Poor Things' Dr. Godwin Baxter

37. Fredric March

Actor | Inherit the Wind

Fredric March began a career in banking but in 1920 found himself cast as an extra in films being produced in New York. He starred on the Broadway stage first in 1926 and would return there between screen appearances later on. He won plaudits (and an Academy Award nomination) for his send-up of ...

Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde's Jekyl and Hyde and A Star is Born's Norman Maine and Les Miserables' Jean Valjean and The Bucaneer's Jean Lafitte and One Foot in Heaven's Rev. William Spence and I Married a Witch's Jonathan Wooley and The Best Years of Our Lives' Al Stephenson and Another Part of the Forest's Marcus Hubbard and Man on a Tightrope's Karel Cernik and The Desperate Hours' Dan C. Hilliard and Inherit the Wind's Matthew Harrison Brady and Seven Days in May's Jordan Lyman and Hombre's Dr. Alex Favor

38. 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. ...

My Dear Secretary's Owen Waterbury and A Letter for Three Wives' George Phipps and Champion's Michael Kelly and The Glass Menagerie's Jim O'Connor and Ace in the Hole's Chuck Tatum and Detective Story's Jim McLeod and The Bad and the Beautiful's Jonathan Shields and Lust for Life's Vincent Van Gogh and Paths of Glory's Colonel Dax and Lonely Are the Brave's Jack Burns and The Hook's Sgt. P.J. Briscoe and In Harm's Way's Commander Paul Eddington and There Was a Crooked Man's Paris Pitman Jr. and Posse's Howard Nightingale and Spartacus' Spartacus and The Devil's Disciple's Richard Dudgeon and The Fury's Peter Sandza

39. 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...

Kind Hearts and Coronets' various D'Ascoynes and Oliver Twist's Fagin and The Lavender Hill Mob's Henry "Dutch" Holland and The Bridge on the River Kwai's Colonel Nicholson and The Horse's Mouth's Gulley Jimson and Tunes of Glory's Major Jock Sinclair, D.S.O., M.M.

40. 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 ...

The Mouse That Roared's Grand Duchess Gloriana XII / Prime Minister Count Rupert of Mountjoy / Tully Bascombe and Only Two Can Play's John Lewis and Lolita's Clare Quilty and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb's Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove and The World of Henry Orient's Henry Orient and The Wrong Box's Dr. Pratt and The Pink Panther Strikes Back's Chief Inspector Clouseau

41. 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 ...

The Asphalt Jungle's Dix Handley and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb's Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper and and The Godfather's Capt. Mark McCluskey

42. Rutger Hauer

Actor | Hobo with a Shotgun

Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.

He was the son of Teunke ...

Blade Runner's Batty and The Hitcher's John Ryder and Turkish Delight's Eric Vonk

43. Walter Matthau

Actor | The Odd Couple

Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.

He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York...

A Face in the Crowd's Mel Miller and Onionhead's Red Wildoe and Charade's Hamilton Bartholomew and Fail Safe's Dr Groeteschele and Mirage's Ted Casselle and A New Leaf's Henry Graham and Charley Varrick's Charley Varrick and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three's Lieutenant Zachary Garber and The Sunshine Boys' Willy Clark

44. Clifton Webb

Actor | Laura

Already trained in dance and theater, he quit school at age 13 to study music and painting. By 19 he was a professional ballroom dancer in New York, and by his mid-twenties he was performing in musicals, dramas on Broadway and in London, and in silent movies. His first real success in film came in ...

Laura's Waldo Lydecker and Sitting Pretty's Lynn Belvedere and The Razor's Edge's Elliott Templeton and Cheaper By the Dozen's Bunker Gilbreth