Best WOMEN actors
by kim-jodoin67 | created - 29 Dec 2022 | updated - 3 weeks ago | PublicWomen acto
1. Helen McCrory
Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Award-winning actress Helen Elizabeth McCrory was born in London, England, to Welsh-born Anne (Morgans) and Scottish-born Iain McCrory, a diplomat from Glasgow. After training at the Drama Centre London, Helen began her career on stage in the UK and won the Manchester Evening News' Best Actress ...
2. Glenn Close
Actress | Fatal Attraction
Eight time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Mary H. "Bettine" (Moore) and William Taliaferro Close (William Close), a prominent doctor. Both of her parents were from upper-class families.
Glenn was a noted ...
3. Jill Baker
Actress | John Carter
Jill Baker is a British actress who has appeared on stage, movies and television Born Gillian Mary Baker in Britain in 1951, she made her debut in the TV movie Savages (1975) in 1975 and has worked steadily on television ever since. She appeared as a regular on the TV series Tales of Sherwood Forest...
4. Amelia Bullmore
Actress | Scott & Bailey
Amelia Bullmore was born on January 31, 1964 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Scott & Bailey (2011), This Life (1996) and Big Train (1998). She is married to Paul Higgins. They have two children.
5. Eve Best
Actress | The King's Speech
Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
She was nominated for the 2008 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Actress in a Drama for "The Homecoming".
She was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Actress in a Drama for "A Moon for the Misbegotten".
She won the 2005 Olivier Award...
6. 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) ...
7. Emily Watson
Actress | Gosford Park
Emily Watson was born and raised in London, the daughter of Katharine (Venables), an English teacher, and Richard Watson, an architect. After a self-described sheltered upbringing, Watson attended university for three years in Bristol, studying English literature. She applied to drama school and ...
8. Keeley Hawes
Actress | Bodyguard
Keeley Hawes was born on 10 February 1976 at St Mary's Hospital, London, England as Clare Julia Hawes. She is an actress and producer, known for The Bank Job (2008), High-Rise (2015) and Death at a Funeral (2007). She has been married to Matthew Macfadyen since 8 October 2004. They have two ...
9. Kyra Sedgwick
Actress | The Closer
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick was born on August 19, 1965 in New York City to Patricia (Rosenwald), a family and speech therapist, and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, a venture capitalist. Her mother was from an upper-class German Jewish family, and her father was from a wealthy Massachusetts clan of English ...
10. Helen Mirren
Actress | The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...
11. Dianne Wiest
Actress | The Birdcage
One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1946. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on ...
12. Gina McKee
Actress | Notting Hill
She was born in Sunderland but raised just down the coast in Peterlee where she was educated at Peterlee Comprehensive. At 14 she joined the local drama group which led to a part in the children's tv series 'Quest of Eagles' and appeared in some television commercials including one as a shop ...
13. Sarah Lancashire
Actress | Happy Valley
Sarah Lancashire was born on October 10, 1964 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Happy Valley (2014), Yesterday (2019) and Clocking Off (2000). She has been married to Peter Salmon since August 22, 2001. They have one child. She was previously married to ...
14. Judy Davis
Actress | Husbands and Wives
Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best...
15. Mary McDonnell
Actress | Battlestar Galactica
Mary McDonnell is a two-time Oscar®-nominated actress, who is known for her character portrayals in both period and present-day screen roles, as well as a long history of stage and film roles.
Mary Eileen McDonnell was born on April 28, 1952 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Eileen (Mundy) and John ...
16. Marcia Gay Harden
Actress | Mystic River
Marcia Gay Harden was born on August 14, 1959, in La Jolla, California, the third of five children. Her mother, Beverly (Bushfield), was a homemaker, and her father, Thad Harold Harden, was in the military. The family relocated often -- she first became interested in the theatre when the family was...
17. 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, ...
18. Jeanne Tripplehorn
Actress | Basic Instinct
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 10, 1963, Jeanne Marie Tripplehorn developed an interest in performing through her father, guitarist Tom Tripplehorn, who at one time recorded with the pop group Gary Lewis & The Playboys on such hits as "This Diamond Ring". (Note: many references list Jeanne's ...
19. Maxine Peake
Actress | The Theory of Everything
Maxine Peake is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton ...
20. Frances Fisher
Actress | Titanic
Frances Fisher began by apprenticing at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. She spent 14 years based in New York City, playing leads in over 30 productions of plays by such noted writers as John Arden, Noël Coward, Emily Mann, Joe Orton, Sam Shepard, William Shakespeare, Jean-Claude van ...
21. Caroline Goodall
Actress | Disclosure
Born in Britain to Australian parents, Caroline Goodall is internationally known as a leading actress who has starred in some of the biggest blockbusters of the 90's, including Schindler's List (1993), Hook (1991), Cliffhanger (1993), Disclosure (1994), White Squall (1996) and The Princess Diaries ...
22. Eva Birthistle
Actress | Imagine Me & You
Eva Birthistle was born on April 16, 1974 in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. She is an actress and director, known for Imagine Me & You (2005), A Fond Kiss (2004) and Brooklyn (2015). She is married to Ross John Barr. They have two children. She was previously married to Raife Patrick Burchell.
23. Jayne Atkinson
Actress | Free Willy
Jayne Atkinson was born on February 18, 1959 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Free Willy (1993), The Village (2004) and 24 (2001). She has been married to Michel Gill since October 3, 1998. They have one child. She was previously married to Joe Urla.
24. Fiona Shaw
Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
Shaw was already an accomplished theater actress when director Jim Sheridan awarded her a role in his film, My Left Foot (1989). The film is a telling of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irishman disgruntled with his confinement to a body horribly crippled by cerebral palsy but who found ...
25. Sian Brooke
Actress | Sherlock
Sian Brooke is a British actress, known for portraying Laura in All About George, Lori in Cape Wrath, and Eurus Holmes in Sherlock. Sian Elizabeth Phillips was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England and is the youngest of three siblings. She took on a stage name to avoid confusion with fellow ...
26. Victoria Hamilton
Actress | Mansfield Park
Victoria Hamilton is an English actress. After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Hamilton began her career in classical theatre, appearing in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 2002, she appeared in the London stage play A Day in the ...
27. Anastasia Hille
Actress | Snow White and the Huntsman
Anastasia Hille was born in 1965 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), The Awakening (2011) and The Hole (2001).
28. Nina Hoss
Actress | Phoenix
Nina Hoss was born on July 7, 1975 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is an actress, known for Phoenix (2014), Tár (2022) and A Most Wanted Man (2014). She has been married to Alex Silva since 2015.
29. Rebecca Gibney
Actress | Wanted
Rebecca Gibney is one of Australia's most beloved and respected actors. Born in Levin, New Zealand she is the youngest of six children. Before crossing the Tasman Sea at age 19, Rebecca appeared in several New Zealand television series including Inside Straight, Pioneer Women and Sea Urchins. Her ...
30. Samantha Morton
Actress | Minority Report
Samantha Morton has established herself as one of the finest actors of her generation, winning Oscar nominations for her turns in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and Jim Sheridan's In America (2002). She has the talent to become one of the major performers in the cinema of this young century.
...
31. Kristin Scott Thomas
Actress | Gosford Park
The acclaimed Cornish actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, to Deborah (Hurlbatt) and Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas. Her father was a pilot for the British Royal Navy and died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather, Lt. Cdr Simon Idiens, was also a pilot, ...
32. Clémence Poésy
Actress | In Bruges
Clémence Poésy was born Clémence Guichard in Paris in 1982. She took her mother's maiden name, Poésy, as her stage name. She attended an alternative school for most of her education, but spent her last year at L'École alsacienne.
She trained at the "Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique",...
33. Kate Beckinsale
Actress | Underworld: Evolution
Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in Hounslow, Middlesex, England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her ...
34. Juliet Stevenson
Actress | Bend It Like Beckham
With her father being in the army much of her early life was spent in boarding school from the age of 9. Initially she was turned down for RADA but got in and won a prize for Best Student. She had to turn down a role in Schindler's List (1993) as his wife due to already being committed to a theatre...
35. Frances McDormand
Actress | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She ...
36. Anna Maxwell Martin
Actress | Becoming Jane
The striking actress Anna Maxwell-Martin is a rising star on both stage and screen. Anna had dreamed all her life of becoming an actress even though her family had no background in the arts. She starred in school plays and an acclaimed production of "Breezeblock Park" in the role of Betty.
At the ...
37. Leah Purcell
Actress | The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
Multi talented Leah Purcell is a Theatre, Film and Television Actress, Singer, Director, Playwright and Author. She is the youngest of seven children of Aboriginal Australian descent. Her father was a butcher and a boxing trainer. After a difficult adolescence, looking after her sick mother who ...
38. Tammy Macintosh
Actress | Wentworth
Tammy Macintosh is an Australian TV actress, who was born in Perth, Western Australia. Tammy is best known for her roles in Australian TV drama Police Rescue (1989), mystery series Jeopardy (2002), alien adventure series Farscape (1999), Tammy was also apart of Australia's most followed drama ...
39. Susie Porter
Actress | The Monkey's Mask
Susie Porter is an Australian Actress whose career has also encompassed film and theatre, Porter is also a NIDA graduate. Porter is best known for her roles on Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), RAN: Remote Area Nurse (2006), East of Everything (2008), Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms (2012), Puberty Blues (...
40. Paula Malcomson
Actress | The Hunger Games
Born in 1970 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Paula Malcomson is an extremely prolific film and television actress with numerous credits to her name. Malcomson began her career in the early 1990s with small parts primarily in film before scoring higher-profiles roles in the Oscar-nominated film The ...
41. Robyn Malcolm
Actress | Outrageous Fortune
Robyn Malcolm is a New Zealander actress known for her work in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. She has worked in film, television and theatre, in a wide range of roles in both comedies and dramas.
Malcolm became widely known and loved as the tough matriarch Cheryl ...
42. Gillian Anderson
Actress | The X Files
Gillian Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Rosemary Alyce (Lane), a computer analyst, and Homer Edward Anderson III, who owned a film post-production company. Gillian started her career as a member of an amateur actor group while at high school. In 1987, her love of the theatre took her to ...
43. Rosamund Pike
Actress | Gone Girl
Born in 1979 in London, England, actress Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Pike is the only child of a classical violinist mother, Caroline (Friend), and an opera singer father, Julian Pike. Due to her parents' work, she spent her early childhood traveling around Europe. Pike attended Badminton School in ...
44. Kate Fleetwood
Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
Kate Fleetwood is an English actress. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as Lady Macbeth in Chichester Festival Theatre's Macbeth, which transferred to the West End and Broadway. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance as Julie in London Road at the National ...
45. Michelle Fairley
Actress | Game of Thrones
Michelle was born in July 1965, the second child of publican Brian and nurse Theresa Fairley. As a teenager she attended the Ulster Youth Theatre before moving to Belfast , where she was a member of Fringe Benefit, a repertory company where she acted alongside Conleth Hill, with whom she would ...
46. Sigourney Weaver
Actress | Alien Resurrection
Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist to Gwen/Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently, 14-year-old Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. With a career spanning over 50 years, Weaver has ...
47. Kate Dickie
Actress | Red Road
Kate Dickie was born on April 24, 1971 in East Kilbride, Scotland, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Red Road (2006), Prometheus (2012) and Filth (2013).
48. Melissa McBride
Actress | The Walking Dead
Melissa Suzanne McBride (born May 23, 1965) is an American actress and former casting director, best known for her role as Carol Peletier on the AMC series The Walking Dead. McBride has garnered critical acclaim and received multiple awards and nominations for her role on the show.
McBride was born ...
49. Genevieve O'Reilly
Actress | The Dry
Genevieve O'Reilly (born 6 January 1977) is an Irish actress known for her work in the Star Wars franchise as Mon Mothma, having portrayed the character in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One, as well as her voice role as Moira in Overwatch.
In television, O'Reilly's first appearance was in...
50. Julie Dretzin
Actress | Beastly
Julie Dretzin was born on May 24, 1968. She is an actress, known for Beastly (2011), Bamboozled (2000) and Six Feet Under (2001). She is married to Sam Catlin. They have two children.
51. Ruth Wilson
Actress | Luther
Ruth Wilson, born on 13 January 1982, is an English actress. She is known for her performances in Suburban Shootout (2006), Jane Eyre (2006), and as "Alice Morgan" in the BBC-TV psychological crime drama, Luther (2010), since 2010. She has also appeared in Anna Karenina (2012), The Lone Ranger (...
52. Sharon Lawrence
Actress | NYPD Blue
Sharon Lawrence grew up in North Carolina (Charlotte and Raleigh), graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Journalism and spent her college summers doing musicals in summer stock. She became an Actors Equity Member in 1984 and a SAG-AFTRA member in 1987. She may be best known for her ...
53. Angeline Ball
Actress | The Commitments
Angeline Ball was born on June 28, 1969 in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. She is an actress, known for The Commitments (1991), Bloom (2003) and The General (1998).
54. Patricia Clarkson
Actress | The Station Agent
This remarkable, one-of-a-kind actress has, since the early 1990s, intrigued film and TV audiences with her glowing, yet careworn eccentricity and old world-styled glamour. Very much in demand these days as a character player, Patricia Clarkson nevertheless continues to avoid the temptation of ...
55. Olivia Williams
Actress | The Ghost Writer
Olivia began her career on the stage at the RSC and The National Theatre, breaking into TV with the Andrew Davies adaptation of Emma (1996).
From a damp basement in Camden Town she won the role of Abby in the $120 million blockbuster The Postman (1997) starring alongside Kevin Costner. In the ...
56. Lindsay Duncan
Actress | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Lindsay Duncan was born on November 7, 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), About Time (2013) and Under the Tuscan Sun (2003). She is married to Hilton McRae. They have one child.
57. Anna Friel
Actress | Land of the Lost
Anna Friel is an English actress, born in Rochdale. She has been acting since the age of 13, appearing in a number of British television programmes. She made her West End stage debut in London in 2001, and has subsequently appeared on stage in several productions, including an adaptation of ...
58. Lesley Manville
Actress | Phantom Thread
Lesley Manville was born on March 12, 1956 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. She is a multi award-winning actress of theatre, film, and television, and has worked extensively with director Mike Leigh. She is known for Another Year (2010), All or Nothing (2002), Topsy-Turvy (1999) and Secrets &...
59. 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 ...
60. Maggie Smith
Actress | Gosford Park
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...
61. Julia Ormond
Actress | Sabrina
The dark and classically beautiful British actress and social activist Julia (Karin) Ormond was born on January 4, 1965, in Surrey, into England, the second of five children. Born of privilege as the daughter of a well-to-do laboratory technician, her parents divorced when she was young. Julia ...
62. 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...
63. Charlotte Rampling
Actress | 45 Years
Tessa Charlotte Rampling was born 5 February 1946 in Sturmer, England, to Isabel Anne (Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Lionel Rampling, an Olympic gold medalist, army officer, and colonel, who became a NATO commander. She was educated at Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles, ...
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