Best European actors of all time
by marko-dubrava1981 | created - 09 Aug 2011 | updated - 09 Aug 2011 | Public
1. Anthony Hopkins
Actor | The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...
2. Michael Caine
Actor | The Dark Knight
Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of ...
3. Sean Connery
Actor | The Rock
The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he ...
4. 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 ...
5. Laurence Olivier
Actor | Sleuth
Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...
6. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
7. 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 ...
8. Peter Ustinov
Actor | Spartacus
Peter Ustinov was a two-time Academy Award-winning film actor, director, writer, journalist and raconteur. He wrote and directed many acclaimed stage plays and led numerous international theatrical productions.
He was born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinow on April 16, 1921 in Swiss Cottage, ...
9. Gérard Depardieu
Actor | Cyrano de Bergerac
Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along ...
10. Roberto Benigni
Actor | La vita è bella
Roberto Benigni was born on October 27, 1952 in Manciano La Misericordia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and Down by Law (1986). He has been married to Nicoletta Braschi since December 26, 1991.
11. 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 ...
12. Marcello Mastroianni
Actor | La dolce vita
Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...
13. Alain Delon
Actor | Le samouraï
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Édith (Arnold) and Fabien Delon. His father was of French and Corsican Italian descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His parents divorced early on, and Delon had a stormy childhood, being ...
14. Ralph Fiennes
Actor | The Constant Gardener
Actor Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus ...
15. Liam Neeson
Actor | Kinsey
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an ...
16. Franco Nero
Actor | John Wick: Chapter 2
Blue-eyed and well-built Italian actor in international cinema, Franco Nero, was a painting photographer when he was discovered as an actor by director John Huston. He has since appeared in more than 200 movies around the world, working with Europe's top directors, such as Luis Buñuel, Rainer ...
17. Rade Serbedzija
Actor | The Saint
Rade Serbedzija was born in Bunic (Korenica) in 1946. Graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. Still a student, he started to play the leading roles in films and theater productions. He is remembered as an outstanding Peer Gynt, Don Juan, Georgij, Melkior, Oedipus, Hamlet, Leon and ...
18. Dragan Bjelogrlic
Actor | Cuvari formule
Dragan Bjelogrlic is one of the greatest Serbian actors, directors, and producers. Apart from a successful acting career that lasts 40 years, in the last two decades, he also devoted to producing and directing movies and TV shows, consequently becoming one of the most recognized and successful ...
19. Sergej Trifunovic
Actor | Srpski film
Sergej Trifunovic was born on September 2, 1972 in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. He is an actor, known for A Serbian Film (2010), Next (2007) and War, Inc. (2008).
20. Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic
Actor | Valter brani Sarajevo
Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic was born on June 5, 1933 in Koracica near Mladenovac, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He was an actor, known for Walter Defends Sarajevo (1972), I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967) and Moment (1978). He was married to Julijana 'Lula' Zivojinovic. He died on May 22, 2016 in Belgrade, ...
21. Fabijan Sovagovic
Actor | Ritam zlocina
Fabijan Sovagovic was born on January 4, 1932 in Ladimirevci, Croatia, Yugoslavia. He was an actor and writer, known for Rhythm of a Crime (1981), Covjek koji je volio sprovode (1989) and Handcuffs (1970). He was married to Maja Blaskov-Sovagovic. He died on January 1, 2001 in Zagreb, Croatia.
22. Pavle Vuisic
Actor | Ko to tamo peva
Pavle Vuisic was born on July 10, 1926 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He was an actor, known for Who's Singin' Over There? (1980), The Written Off Return (1976) and Maratonci trce pocasni krug (1982). He died on October 1, 1988 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia.
23. Boris Dvornik
Actor | Dvostruki obruc
Boris Dvornik was born to the family of a carpenter. His acting experience started at the age of 8 when he took parts in plays for children. In his high school days he was learning to be electrician, but soon decided to pursue full-time acting career instead. After finishing National Acting School ...
24. Srdjan 'Zika' Todorovic
Actor | Srpski film
Srdjan 'Zika' Todorovic was born on March 28, 1965 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He is an actor, known for A Serbian Film (2010), Black Cat, White Cat (1998) and Underground (1995). He has been married to Ana Todorovic since 2004. They have one child.
25. Nikola Djuricko
Actor | In the Land of Blood and Honey
Nikola Djuricko was born on July 9, 1974 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He is an actor and director, known for In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), World War Z (2013) and The Machine (2023). He has been married to Ljiljana Nesic since June 7, 2002.
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