100 Greatest Movie On Screen Couples & Modern Old Hollywood Show Biz Families

by jordanhores | created - 28 Dec 2017 | updated - 11 months ago | Public

List based on Turner Classic Movies' "Leading Couples: The Most Unforgettable Screen Romances of the Studio Era" book. Only one repeated person added and excluding couples with only one movie credit together. Homorable Mentions Old Hollywood Screen Couples -IreneDunne/CaryGrant -JohnBarrymore/DoloresCostello -JohnPayne/RhondaFleming

-HedyLamarr/CharlesBoyer (Algiers 1938) They were the vision of doomed, exotic romance so vivid that their one film together would haunt these two onscreen lovers for the rest of their lives.

-IngridBergman/HumphreyBogart (Casablanca 1942) The cynic and his long-lost flame became a pair of lovers that would always have Paris in the screen's greatest romantic thriller.

-MaeWest/WCFields (My Little Chickadee 1940) There never was a high concept more stratospheric than the teaming of the screen's most bombastic con artist with the woman who cornered the market on sex appeal.

-VivienLeigh/ClarkGable (Gone With the Wind 1939) Theirs was the ultimate battle of masculine vs. feminine in an epic tale of love, war, and home that captivated fans from the moment the film was announced.

-GraceKelly/CaryGrant (To Catch a Thief 1955) The Riviera has never been as glamorous or as sexy as it was when these two went searching for a jewel thief and found romance along the way.

-GretaGarbo/RobertTaylor (Camille 1936) Through sheer physical presence, they turned a tale of doomed love into one of the screen's greatest romances.

-RitaHayworth/OrsonWelles (The Lady from Shanghai 1947) A unique marriage of beauty and brains reached the screen when Hollywood's greatest maverick placed one of the screen's most iconic screen sirens at the center of this cinematic hall of mirrors.

-AudreyHepburn/GregoryPeck (Roman Holiday 1953) The ethereal waif and the all-American Joe, they played out the perfect opposites-attract courtship in a tragicomic whirlwind romance against the backdrop of the Eternal City.

-ElizabethTaylor/PaulNewman (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958) Neither tragedy nor scandal could upstage two of Hollywood's biggest stars in what would be their only onscreen encounter.

-LanaTurner/JohnGarfield (The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946) As proclaimed "Their Love Was a Flame That Destroyed," a clear reflection of the obsessive and dangerous affair shared onscreen by the pair.

-FayWray/KingKong (King Kong 1933) As her blonde allure enslaved his sheer animal force, theirs was the definitive Hollywood version of Beauty and the Beast.

This list is a list of Old Hollywood actors with relatives that are in New Hollywood. ---Old Hollywood Memoirs -AdolpheMenjou AndyWilliams AngelaLansbury AliceFaye AnitaLoos AlecGuinness AvaGardner AnthonyQuinn AnneBaxter AnnMiller AudreyMeadows -ArthurMarx -AEHotchner AnnaLee BillieHoliday BarbaraSinatra -BetteDavis -BillieBurke -BasilRathbone BobHope BurgessMeredith -BusterKeaton BessieLove BrianAherne BuddyEbsen BrookeHayward BobColonna ChrisCostello C.H.Scott ChrisLemmon ChuckJones CoyWatsonJr CharltonHeston ColinBriggs ClaireBloom CarollSpinney CharlesBickford ChrisWellesFeder -CharlieChaplin CherylCrane ChollyAtkins ClaytonMoore CammieKingConlon CedricHardwicke ChristiannaRickard DonRickles DorothyLamour DickieMoore DinahShore DannyThomas -DianaSerraCaryBabyPeggy DizzyGillespie -DouglasFairbanksSr-Jr DorothyBridges DanFord -DianaBarrymore DebbieReynolds DeanaMartin DavidNiven DennisDevine -DorisEatonTravis EleanorKeaton -EstherRalston EveArden -EdithHead EdwardDmytryk ErrolFlynn ErnestBorgnine EdMcMahon EthelWaters -EdwardArnold -EdwardGRobinsonSr-Jr ElizabethTaylor EthelMerman EvelynKeyes -EthelBarrymore EstherWilliams -FayWray -FredAstaire FrankCoghlanJr FrancesMarion FredericaSagorMaas FrancesFarmer FarleyGranger FredAllen FrancisFord GeneAutry -GrouchoMarx GaleStorm GeorgiaHale GloriaStuart GeorgeMontgomery -GloriaSwanson -GingerRogers GeneTierney GeorgeSanders GeorgeBurns GypsyRoseLee GregoryPeck *GaryCrosby -HarpoMarx -HarryCarey -HaroldLloyd HowardKeel -HeddaHopper HarryBelafonte HughOBrian HenryFonda HumeCronynHenryWilcoxon IdaLupino IsabellaRossellini IronEyesCody -JackOakie JanePowell JaneRussell JosephCotten JanetLeigh -JackieCooper JamesArness -JessicaRains JamesCagney JanisPaige JuneAllyson -JulietBenitaColman JohnHuston JoanBenny -JudyLewis JamesGarner JenniferGrant JoanFontaine JonathanWinters -JoanBennett JimmyDean JohnLahr JohnnyWeissmullerJr JuneForay JamesMason JohnnyCash JimBackus JohnWayneEnterprises KarlMalden KirkDouglas KittyCarlisle KathleenWilliamsGable -KatharineHepburn -LillianGish LucilleBall -LitaGreyChaplin LucaDotti -LionelBarrymore LaurenceOlivier LornaLuft -LinaBasquette -EdwardFunkLorettaYoung -LouiseBrooks LeatriceGilbertFountain -LeslieRuthHoward LanaTurner LaurenBacall LindaBennett MelBlanc MarilynMonroe -MariaRiva -MaxineMarx -MackSennett -MaryPickford -MaryAstor MarthaHyerWallis MaeClarke -MarieDressler -MyrnaLoy MichaelSellersSarahSellers MadgeBellamy -MelvynDouglas -MaeWest -MarleneDietrich MaryCooperJanis -MarionDavies MiltonBerle MaureenO'Hara MarlonBrando MoeHoward -MiriamMarxAllen MichaelLindsayHogg MickeyRooney MargaretTalbot MarilynKnowlden MauriceChevalier MarciaLincolnRudolph 'MonikaHenreid NedWynn MaureenStapleton NathanielCrosby NancySinatra NormanLloyd NatashaGregson NellShipman OssieDavis OscarLevant OmarSharifJr OliviaDeHavilland PeterFord PatO'Brien PatsyRuthMiller PaulHenreid PeterUstinov PatriciaSeatonLawford PiperLaurie PolaNegri PaulEMix PriscillaPresley PatriciaNeal PhilSilvers PaulRobeson PaulNewman -PatriciaZiegfieldStephenson PatriciaMedinaCotten RockBrynner RoyRogers RubyDee RominaPower RoryFlynn 'RonChaney RicciMartin RichardArlen RobertMitchum RobertLHarned RosemaryClooney RayMilland RockHudson RitaMoreno RonaldReagan RayCharles RalphBellamy RobertStack RodneyDangerfield RicardoMontalbán ''RichardDJensen RaymondMassey SterlingHayden ShelleyWinters RosalindRussellChrisChase SidCaesar SidneyPoitier SusanRobertson SeanHepburnFerrer SophiaLoren StewartGranger SchuylerJohnson -ShirleyTempleBlack StephenHumphreyBogart SheldonLeonard StacyWebb TonyCurtis TinaSinatra TarquinOlivier TonyRandall TishaSterling -TallulahBankhead VirginiaMayo Vincent-VictoriaPrice VictoriaRiskin VeronicaLake VirginiaHoldenGaines WilliamGargan WoodyStrode WalterSlezak -WillRogers -WilliamWellmanJr -WC&RonaldJFields WyattMcCrea YvonneDeCarlo YehudiMenuhin SharonPrestonFolta 'AnthonyBalducci 'AxelNissen 'AllanREllenberger 'ArmondFields 'AlanKRode AnneHelenPetersen 'BenOhmart 'BeverlyLinet 'BettyLee 'BrianKellow 'BartlettLeeKassabaum 'BillCassara 'BrianHarker 'CharlesHigham 'BoFoxworthWilliamJMann 'ChristinaRice 'CliffAliperti 'CarltonJacksonJillWatts 'CharlesWinecoff 'CurtisNunn 'CharlesAffron 'CharlesTranberg "CamilleFForbes 'CharlotteChandler 'CharlesLEpting 'CooperCGraham 'ConstanceRosenblum 'ClaudiaSassen 'ConstanceValisHill 'CarolLynnScherling 'CharlesWinecoff 'CCourtneyJoyner ''DavidStenn 'DonaldSpoto 'DavidKoenig 'DavidBret 'DonGSmith 'DavidDalton 'DavidKaufman 'DavidWeddle 'DavidSoren 'DavidAFury 'DanVanNeste 'DavidRothel 'DavidLazar 'DavidRayvernAllen 'DesleyDeacon 'DonaldDewey 'DavidCTucker 'DavidBowers 'DwayneEpstein 'DennisMSpragg 'DerekSculthorpe 'DavidARedfern 'DavidWMenefee 'DavidASmithAudieMurphy DebraWarren 'EveGoldenJoanCraig 'EJFleming 'EricWoodard 'EdwardZEpstein 'EstelEforgan 'EdwardWatz 'FredrickTucker 'FrankCastelluccio 'FranklinJarlett 'GeneArceri 'GavinLambert 'GregoryWilliamMank 'GaryDonRhodesArthurLennig 'GaryKoca 'GaryFishgallKateBuford 'GeneFowlerJohnKobler 'GeorgeEells 'GaryCarey 'GrantHayterMenzies 'GiancarloStampalia 'GarryBerman 'HectorArceJeffreyMeyers 'HenryBushkin 'HollyVanLeuven 'HerbertGGoldman 'JayFultz 'JCAllen 'JonathanGould 'JohnOller 'JimHaskins 'JamesCurtis 'JamesSpada 'JohnPascoe 'JerryVermilye 'JeffCodori 'JimSteinmeyer 'JeffGordon 'JRJones -'JeromeLawrence 'JimManago 'JohnFranceschina 'JohnStangeland 'JordanYoung 'JoanWesterAnderson 'JohnMiller 'JaredBrown 'JamesEWiseJr 'JamesBawden 'KellyRBrown 'KateGaddis 'KathleenVestuto 'JoelBlumberg&SandraGrabman 'KennethBarrow 'LawrenceJQuirk 'KevinScottCollierMichaelFBlake 'LindaMWaggoner 'LeslieWolfson 'LarrySwindellRobertNott 'LainiGiles 'LindaBHall 'LynnKear 'LonDavis 'LarrySeanKinder 'LarryTelles 'LawrenceGrobel 'LouiseCarleyLewisson 'LauraWagner 'LauraPetersenBalogh LaraGabrielle 'MonaZSmith 'MichaelTroyan 'MarcEliot 'MarthaGilMontero 'MarioDeMarco 'MichaelSethStarr 'MarshaDaly 'MichelangeloCapua 'MichaelMunn 'MichaelBDruxman 'MaryAnnAnderson "MaggieMcCormick 'MilukaRivera 'MichelleVogel 'MiltMachlinJonBradshaw 'MichaelHPrice 'MichaelPhelps 'NilsHanson 'MichaelGAnkerich 'MichaelDRinella 'NeilPettigrew 'PeterJLevinson 'NeilGrantJeanGarceauWarrenGHarris 'PeterShelley 'RobEdelman 'PeterBogdanovich 'RaymondStrait 'RachelASchildgen 'RichardKirby 'RupertAlistair 'RichardBuller 'RobertJLentz 'RichardKoszarski 'RonaldLDavis 'RichardALertzman 'ShawnLevy 'SarahBaker 'ScottOBrien 'StephenMichaelShearer 'SimonCallow 'SharonRich 'StephenDYoungkin 'SamanthaBarbas 'SteveRydzewski 'SteveMassa 'ScottAllenNollenStephenJacobs 'StevenGlennOchoaKCMotsinger 'StephenBourne 'ScottMacGillivray 'SandraGrabman 'StoneWallaceLewisYablonsky 'ScottEyman 'TimothyDeanLefler 'TonyThomas 'TonyToranLouMiano 'TimLussier 'TheresaStRomain 'TomHutchinson 'TomBrokaw ToddHughes 'VincentCurcio 'VictoriaWilson VictoriaAmador 'WilliamDonati 'WesDGehring 'WilliamMacEwen 'WilliamHarper 'WhitneyStine 'WendyWarwickWhite JeanineBasingerSamWasson **BettyLynn ClaudeJarmanJr HayleyMills MimiGibson RonHoward --NancyOlsonLivingston --RobynCoburn --FMichaelMoore ~~ScreenClassics ~~HollywoodLegends ~~ScarewcrowFilmmakers --RitaHayworth-'AnnaMayWong-JosephineBaker-'CaroleLombard-'FattyArbuckle-'GretaGarbo-JackieGleason-JamesDean-JudyGarland-'RudolphValentino-RichardBurton-SammyDavisJr-SteveMcQueen-VivienLeigh-'MontgomeryClift-BuddyHolly-CharlieParker-MarioLanza JayneMansfield-'SalMineo-SamCooke-WillRogers-'RaymondBurr-'JeanHarlow-'LouisArmstrong-'ThedaBara-Laurel&Hardy-'ThelmaTodd -'PauletteGoddard-HattieMcDaniel-'GailRussell-AudreyHepburn-BarbaraStanwyck-BettyGrable-DorothyDandridge-GraceKelly-HedyLamarr-IngridBergman-MaryPickford-SusanHayward-ZasuPitts-VivienLeigh-HumphreyBogart-CaryGrant-JamesStewart-HenryFonda -ClarkGable-SpencerTracy-GaryCooper-GeneKelly-OrsonWelles-BurtLancaster-MarxBrothers-RobertMitchum-WilliamHolden-PaulNewman-WilliamPowell-JohnGarfield-FrankSinatra-BingCrosby-JoeEBrown-EddieCantor-JimmyDurante-DeanMartin-AlJolson-HarryLangdon-HaroldLloyd-BelaLugosi-TyronePower-ElvisPresley-3Stooges-WalterMatthau-StepinFetchit-ErnieKovacs- "BarryParis LucilleBall&DesiArnaz

1. Fred Astaire

Actor | The Towering Inferno

Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Johanna (Geilus) and Fritz Austerlitz, a brewer. Fred entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire. After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. ...

With Ginger Rogers

With a spin, a lift, and a burst of taps, they became the greatest dancing team in film, making ballroom dancing sexy, sophisticated, silly, and just downright fun.

Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

2. Ginger Rogers

Actress | Kitty Foyle

Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911, the daughter of Lela E. Rogers (née Lela Emogene Owens) and William Eddins McMath. Her mother went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he ...

With Fred Astaire

With a spin, a lift, and a burst of taps, they became the greatest dancing team in film, making ballroom dancing sexy, sophisticated, silly, and just downright fun.

Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

3. Humphrey Bogart

Actor | Casablanca

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, to Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon (who was secretly addicted to opium). Bogart was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy ...

With Lauren Bacall

The gruff cynic and the tough glamour girl were united by their freewheeling battle against anything that smacked of phoniness.

To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), Key Largo (1948)

4. Lauren Bacall

Actress | To Have and Have Not

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She was the daughter of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, and William Perske, who was born in New Jersey, to Polish Jewish parents. Her family was middle-class, with her father working as a ...

With Humphrey Bogart

The gruff cynic and the tough glamour girl were united by their freewheeling battle against anything that smacked of phoniness.

To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), Key Largo (1948)

5. Wallace Beery

Actor | A Date with Judy

In 1902, 16-year-old Wallace Beery joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer. He left two years later after a leopard clawed his arm. Beery next went to New York, where he found work in musical variety shows. He became a leading man in musicals and appeared on ...

With Marie Dressler

They were the anti-stars, a pair of authentic mugs who brought to life a gallery of outrageously funny, irresistibly touching characters with so much heart that glamour was unnecessary.

Min and Bill (1930), Dinner at Eight (1933), Tugboat Annie (1933)

6. Marie Dressler

Actress | Dinner at Eight

Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on...

With Wallace Beery

They were the anti-stars, a pair of authentic mugs who brought to life a gallery of outrageously funny, irresistibly touching characters with so much heart that glamour was unnecessary.

Min and Bill (1930), Dinner at Eight (1933), Tugboat Annie (1933)

7. Errol Flynn

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Errol Flynn was born to parents Theodore Flynn, a respected biologist, and Marrelle Young, an adventurous young woman. Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble. Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school in which he was enrolled. In his late teens ...

With Olivia de Havilland

They were the definitive swashbuckling couple, a striking combination of masculine swagger and feminist pluck.

Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Four's a Crowd (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

8. Olivia de Havilland

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her ...

With Errol Flynn

They were the definitive swashbuckling couple, a striking combination of masculine swagger and feminist pluck.

Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Four's a Crowd (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

9. 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 ...

With Jean Harlow

They were the hottest screen team of the 1930s, exhibiting a raw, unembarrassed sexuality that belied their inherent vulnerabilities.

The Secret Six (1931), Red Dust (1932), Hold Your Man (1933), China Seas (1935), Wife Vs. Secretary (1936), Saratoga (1937)

With Joan Crawford Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), Laughing Sinners (1931), Possessed (1931), Dancing Lady (1933), Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934), Love on the Run (1936), and Strange Cargo (1940). With Myrna Loy Wife vs Secretary (1936), Parnell (1937), Test Pilot (1938), and Too Hot to Handle (1938). With Lana Turner Honky Tonk (1941), Somewhere I'll Find You (1942), Homecoming (1948), and Betrayed (1954). With Ava Gardner The Hucksters (1947), Lone Star (1952), and Mogambo (1953). With Norma Shearer A Free Soul (1931), Strange Interlude (1932), and Idiot's Delight (1939).

10. Jean Harlow

Actress | China Seas

Harlean Carpenter, who later became Jean Harlow, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. She was the daughter of a successful dentist and his wife. In 1927, at the age of 16, she ran away from home to marry a young businessman named Charles McGrew, who was 23. The couple pulled up ...

With Clark Gable

They were the hottest screen team of the 1930s, exhibiting a raw, unembarrassed sexuality that belied their inherent vulnerabilities.

The Secret Six (1931), Red Dust (1932), Hold Your Man (1933), China Seas (1935), Wife Vs. Secretary (1936), Saratoga (1937)

11. John Gilbert

Actor | The Big Parade

John Gilbert was born into a show-business family - his father was a comic with the Pringle Stock Company. By 1915 John was an extra with Thomas H. Ince's company and a lead player by 1917. In those days he was assistant director, actor or screenwriter. He also tried his hand at directing. By 1919 ...

With Greta Garbo

They were the silent cinema's sexiest couple, drawing on their mutual offscreen passion to create some of the movies' greatest love scenes.

Flesh and the Devil (1926), Love (1927), A Woman of Affairs (1928), Queen Christina (1933)

12. Greta Garbo

Actress | Ninotchka

Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. She was fourteen when her father died, which left the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and ...

With John Gilbert

They were the silent cinema's sexiest couple, drawing on their mutual offscreen passion to create some of the movies' greatest love scenes.

Flesh and the Devil (1926), Love (1927), A Woman of Affairs (1928), Queen Christina (1933)

With Melvyn Douglas As You Desire Me (1932), Ninotchka (1939), and Two-Faced Woman (1942).

13. Walter Pidgeon

Actor | Forbidden Planet

Walter Pidgeon, a handsome, tall and dark-haired man, began his career studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He then did theater, mainly stage musicals. He went to Hollywood in the early 1920s, where he made silent films, including Mannequin (1926) and Sumuru (1927). ...

With Greer Garson

They created an indelible image of self-sacrifice that struck a powerful chord with audiences eager for hope in the midst of war.

Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950), Scandal at Scourie (1953)

14. Greer Garson

Actress | Pride and Prejudice

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was born on September 29, 1904 in London, England, to Nancy Sophia (Greer) and George Garson, a commercial clerk. Of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent, Garson displayed no early interest in becoming an actress. Educated at the University of London intending to become a ...

With Walter Pidgeon

They created an indelible image of self-sacrifice that struck a powerful chord with audiences eager for hope in the midst of war.

Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950), Scandal at Scourie (1953)

15. Charles Farrell

Actor | 7th Heaven

Popular Hollywood leading man of late silents and early talkies. He is best remembered for his teaming with Janet Gaynor in 12 screen romances between 1927 and 1934. He retired from films in the early 1940s, but TV audiences of the 1950s would see him as Gale Storm's widower dad in the popular ...

With Janet Gaynor

They represented the triumph of purity and innocence, becoming, in the words of the studio publicists, "America's Favorite Lovebirds."

Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), Lucky Star (1929), Sunny Side Up (1929), High Society Blues (1930), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Delicious (1931), The First Year (1932), Tess of the Storm Country (1932), Change of Heart (1934)

16. Janet Gaynor

Actress | A Star Is Born

Janet Gaynor was born Laura Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she & her parents moved to San Francisco, California, where she graduated from high school in 1923. She then moved to Los Angeles where she enrolled in a secretarial school. She got a job at a shoe ...

With Charles Farrell

They represented the triumph of purity and innocence, becoming, in the words of the studio publicists, "America's Favorite Lovebirds."

Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), Lucky Star (1929), Sunny Side Up (1929), High Society Blues (1930), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Delicious (1931), The First Year (1932), Tess of the Storm Country (1932), Change of Heart (1934)

17. Dan Dailey

Actor | The Governor & J.J.

Born in New York City, Dan Dailey started his career in vaudeville, later making his Broadway debut in the stage version of "Babes in Arms".

When signed to MGM, the studio initially casted him as a Nazi in The Mortal Storm (1940). The studio realized their mistake and cast him in musical films, ...

With Betty Grable

They amiably hoofed their way through a quartet of popular, escapist musicals as Hollywood's Golden Age was drawing to a close.

Mother Wore Tights (1947), When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948), My Blue Heaven (1950), Call Me Mister (1951)

18. Betty Grable

Actress | How to Marry a Millionaire

Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born on December 18, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Lillian Rose (Hofmann) and John Conn Grable, a stockbroker. She had German, English, Irish, and Dutch ancestry. Her mother was a stubborn and materialistic woman determined to make her daughter a star. Elizabeth, who ...

With Dan Dailey

They amiably hoofed their way through a quartet of popular, escapist musicals as Hollywood's Golden Age was drawing to a close.

Mother Wore Tights (1947), When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948), My Blue Heaven (1950), Call Me Mister (1951)

With John Payne College Swing (1938), Tin Pan Alley (1940), Footlight Serenade (1942), Springtime in the Rockies (1942) and The Dolly Sisters (1945)

19. Glenn Ford

Actor | Gilda

Legendary actor Glenn Ford was born Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford in Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne, Quebec, Canada, to Hannah Wood (Mitchell) and Newton Ford, a railroad executive. His family moved to Santa Monica, California when he was eight years old. His acting career began with plays at high school...

With Rita Hayworth

Most notably in the classic film noir Gilda, They created a surprisingly perverse sizzle, combining glamour with a touch of sadomasochism.

The Lady in Question (1940), Gilda (1946), The Loves of Carmen (1948), Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Money Trap (1965)

20. Rita Hayworth

Actress | Gilda

Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino Reina, was a dancer as was his father before him. He emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita's American mother, Volga Margaret (Hayworth), who was of mostly ...

With Glenn Ford

Most notably in the classic film noir Gilda, They created a surprisingly perverse sizzle, combining glamour with a touch of sadomasochism.

The Lady in Question (1940), Gilda (1946), The Loves of Carmen (1948), Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Money Trap (1965)

21. Rock Hudson

Actor | Giant

Rock Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. in Winnetka, Illinois, to Katherine (Wood), a telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer, an auto mechanic. He was of German, Swiss-German, English, and Irish descent. His parents divorced when he was eight years old. He failed to obtain parts in school ...

With Doris Day

They turned the battle of the sexes into good, clean, "come hither" fun in a pair of sparkling romantic comedies.

Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), Send Me No Flowers (1964)

22. Doris Day

Soundtrack | Love Me or Leave Me

One of America's most loved actresses was born Doris Mary Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died ...

With Rock Hudson

They turned the battle of the sexes into good, clean, "come hither" fun in a pair of sparkling romantic comedies.

Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), Send Me No Flowers (1964)

23. Alan Ladd

Actor | Shane

Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the only child of Ina Raleigh (aka Selina Rowley) and Alan Harwood Ladd, a freelance accountant. His mother was English, from County Durham. His father died when he was four. At age five, he burned his apartment playing with matches, and his ...

With Veronica Lake

When these two blonde, baby-faced stars came together onscreen, their scenes were like hot ice, a paradox as baffling and yet thrilling as the plots of their memorable film noirs.

This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), The Blue Dahlia (1946), Saigon (1948)

24. Veronica Lake

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

Veronica Lake was born as Constance Frances Marie Ockleman on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Constance Charlotta (Trimble) and Harry Eugene Ockelman, who worked for an oil company as a ship employee. Her father was of half German and half Irish descent, and her ...

With Alan Ladd

When these two blonde, baby-faced stars came together onscreen, their scenes were like hot ice, a paradox as baffling and yet thrilling as the plots of their memorable film noirs.

This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), The Blue Dahlia (1946), Saigon (1948)

25. Nelson Eddy

Soundtrack | Let Freedom Ring

The only career Nelson Eddy ever considered was singing. His parents, Isabel (Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy, were singers, his grandparents were musicians. Unable to afford a teacher, he learned by imitating opera recordings. At age 14 he worked as a telephone operator in a Philadelphia iron ...

With Jeanette MacDonald

Their exuberance and gentle humor, not to mention thrilling vocalizing, brought new life to the operetta and made them America's timeless singing sweethearts.

Naughty Marietta (1935), Rose-Marie (1936), Maytime (1937), Sweethearts (1938), The Girl of the Golden West (1940), Bitter Sweet (1940), New Moon (1940), I Married an Angel (1942)

26. Jeanette MacDonald

Soundtrack | Cairo

She was the third daughter of Daniel and Anne MacDonald, younger sister to Blossom (MGM's character actress Marie Blake), whom she followed to New York and a chorus job in 1920. She was busy in a string of musical productions. In 1928 Paramount tested and rejected her, but a year later Ernst ...

With Nelson Eddy

Their exuberance and gentle humor, not to mention thrilling vocalizing, brought new life to the operetta and made them America's timeless singing sweethearts.

Naughty Marietta (1935), Rose-Marie (1936), Maytime (1937), Sweethearts (1938), The Girl of the Golden West (1940), Bitter Sweet (1940), New Moon (1940), I Married an Angel (1942)

27. Groucho Marx

Actor | A Night at the Opera

The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers. With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love...

With Margaret Dumont

No audience laughed harder than when the perpetual trickster set his sights on the statuesque, unflappable woman who came to be called "The Fifth Marx Brother."

The Cocoanuts (1929), Animal Crackers (1930), Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935), A Day at the Races (1937), At the Circus (1939), The Big Store (1941)

28. 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 ...

With Groucho Marx

No audience laughed harder than when the perpetual trickster set his sights on the statuesque, unflappable woman who came to be called "The Fifth Marx Brother."

The Cocoanuts (1929), Animal Crackers (1930), Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935), A Day at the Races (1937), At the Circus (1939), The Big Store (1941)

29. 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 ...

With Jane Russell

They became the cult film couple of the ages when they teamed for a pair of devil-may-care film noir as offbeat as their own offscreen personalities.

His Kind of Woman (1951), Macao (1952)

30. Jane Russell

Actress | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her father was a United States Army lieutenant and her mother had been a student of drama and an actress with a traveling troupe. Once Mr. Russell was mustered out of the service, the family took up residence in ...

With Robert Mitchum

They became the cult film couple of the ages when they teamed for a pair of devil-may-care film noir as offbeat as their own offscreen personalities.

His Kind of Woman (1951), Macao (1952)

31. 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 ...

With Vivien Leigh

Their unrepentant passion, even while still married to others, pervaded the three films made at the height of their romance.

Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days Together (1940), That Hamilton Woman (1941)

32. Vivien Leigh

Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire

If a film were made of the life of Vivien Leigh, it would open in India just before World War I, where a successful British businessman could live like a prince. In the mountains above Calcutta, a little princess is born. Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is six years old the first time ...

With Laurence Olivier

Their unrepentant passion, even while still married to others, pervaded the three films made at the height of their romance.

Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days Together (1940), That Hamilton Woman (1941)

33. Dick Powell

Actor | Murder, My Sweet

Few actors ever managed a complete image transition as thoroughly as did Dick Powell: in his case, from the boyish, wavy-haired crooner in musicals to rugged crime fighters in film noirs. Powell grew up in the town of Little Rock, Arkansas, one of three brothers (one of them, Howard, ended up as ...

With Ruby Keeler

They were the king and queen of the all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza, providing the perfect anchors for some of the screen's most elaborate musical displays.

42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), Dames (1934), Flirtation Walk (1934), Shipmates Forever (1935), Colleen (1936)

34. Ruby Keeler

Actress | 42nd Street

Ruby Keeler started as a dancer on Broadway. After her marriage to Al Jolson she moved to Hollywood and become a star in Warners musicals opposite Dick Powell. After her divorce from Jolson she retired for almost 30 years, until she appeared in "No No Nanette" on Broadway in 1971 under the ...

With Dick Powell

They were the king and queen of the all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza, providing the perfect anchors for some of the screen's most elaborate musical displays.

42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), Dames (1934), Flirtation Walk (1934), Shipmates Forever (1935), Colleen (1936)

35. William Powell

Actor | The Thin Man

William Powell was on the New York stage by 1912, but it would be ten years before his film career would begin. In 1924 he went to Paramount Pictures, where he was employed for the next seven years. During that time, he played in a number of interesting films, but stardom was elusive. He did ...

With Myrna Loy

They made love between quips, insults, and martinis, proving that marriage could be sophisticated, passionate, and fun.

Manhattan Melodrama (1934), The Thin Man (1934), Evelyn Prentiss (1934), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Libeled Lady (1936), After the Thin Man (1936), Double Wedding (1937), Another Thin Man (1939), I Love You Again (1940), Love Crazy (1941), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1945), Song of the Thin Man (1947), The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947)

36. Myrna Loy

Actress | The Thin Man

Myrna Williams, later to become Myrna Loy, was born on August 2, 1905 in Helena, Montana. Her father was the youngest person ever elected to the Montana State legislature. Later on her family moved to Radersburg where she spent her youth on a cattle ranch. At the age of 13, Myrna's father died of ...

With William Powell

They made love between quips, insults, and martinis, proving that marriage could be sophisticated, passionate, and fun.

Manhattan Melodrama (1934), The Thin Man (1934), Evelyn Prentiss (1934), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Libeled Lady (1936), After the Thin Man (1936), Double Wedding (1937), Another Thin Man (1939), I Love You Again (1940), Love Crazy (1941), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1945), Song of the Thin Man (1947), The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947) With Clark Gable Wife vs Secretary (1936), Parnell (1937), Test Pilot (1938), and Too Hot to Handle (1938).

37. Tyrone Power

Actor | Witness for the Prosecution

Tyrone Power was one of the great romantic swashbuckling stars of the mid-twentieth century, and the third Tyrone Power of four in a famed acting dynasty reaching back to the eighteenth century. His great-grandfather was the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), a famed Irish comedian. His father, known ...

With Gene Tierney

They were the prettiest screen tam in history, a distinction that sometimes was more a curse than a blessing.

Son of Fury (1942), The Razor's Edge (1946), That Wonderful Urge (1948)

38. Gene Tierney

Actress | Laura

With prominent cheekbones, luminous skin and the most crystalline green eyes of her day, Gene Tierney's striking good looks helped propel her to stardom. Her best known role is the enigmatic murder victim in Laura (1944). She was also Oscar-nominated for Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Her acting ...

With Tyrone Power

They were the prettiest screen tam in history, a distinction that sometimes was more a curse than a blessing.

Son of Fury (1942), The Razor's Edge (1946), That Wonderful Urge (1948)

39. Mickey Rooney

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. ...

With Judy Garland

In four "backyard musicals" and three Andy Hardy films, they became America's favorite teen couple, creating an idealized image of youthful high spirits.

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Babes in Arms (1939), Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940), Strike Up the Band (1940), Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941), Babes on Broadway (1941), Girl Crazy (1943), Words and Music (1948)

40. Judy Garland

Actress | The Wizard of Oz

One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, Judy Garland was a much-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals.

She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in ...

With Mickey Rooney

In four "backyard musicals" and three Andy Hardy films, they became America's favorite teen couple, creating an idealized image of youthful high spirits.

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Babes in Arms (1939), Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940), Strike Up the Band (1940), Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941), Babes on Broadway (1941), Girl Crazy (1943), Words and Music (1948)

41. James Stewart

Actor | Vertigo

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...

With Margaret Sullavan

The delicacy of their onscreen love scenes mirrored one of Hollywood's most famous platonic romances.

Next Time We Love (1936), The Shopworn Angel (1938), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), The Mortal Storm (1940)

42. Margaret Sullavan

Actress | The Shop Around the Corner

Born in Norfolk, Virginia to wealthy stockbroker Cornelius Hancock Sullavan and heiress Garland Council Sullavan, Margaret Brooke overcame a muscle weakness in her childhood to go on to become a rebellious teenager at posh private schools. She went on to perform with the University Players at ...

With James Stewart

The delicacy of their onscreen love scenes mirrored one of Hollywood's most famous platonic romances.

Next Time We Love (1936), The Shopworn Angel (1938), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), The Mortal Storm (1940)

43. 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 ...

With Elizabeth Taylor

They were the screen team for the swinging 1960s, living so large that the headlines about their private lives often eclipsed their eleven films together.

Cleopatra (1963), The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Comedians (1967), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), Boom! (1968), Under Milk Wood (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972), Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1973)

44. 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 ...

With Richard Burton

They were the screen team for the swinging 1960s, living so large that the headlines about their private lives often eclipsed their eleven films together.

Cleopatra (1963), The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Comedians (1967), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), Boom! (1968), Under Milk Wood (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972), Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1973)

45. 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...

With Katharine Hepburn

They turned the battle of the sexes into high comedy, as the immovable male withstood the spirited attacks of the irresistible female.

Woman of the Year (1942), Keeper of the Flame (1942), Without Love (1945), The Sea of Grass (1947), State of the Union (1948), Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

46. 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 ...

With Spencer Tracy

They turned the battle of the sexes into high comedy, as the immovable male withstood the spirited attacks of the irresistible female.

Woman of the Year (1942), Keeper of the Flame (1942), Without Love (1945), The Sea of Grass (1947), State of the Union (1948), Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) With Cary Grant Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938), and The Philadelphia Story (1940).

47. 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 ...

With Maureen O'Hara

The macho man met his match when he teamed up with this fiery redhead for five films that were as boisterous as they were romantic.

Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), Big Jake (1971)

48. Maureen O'Hara

Actress | The Quiet Man

In America, the early performing arts accomplishments of young Maureen FitzSimons (who we know as Maureen O'Hara) would definitely have put her in the child prodigy category. However, for a child of Irish heritage surrounded by gifted parents and family, these were very natural traits. Maureen made...

With John Wayne

The macho man met his match when he teamed up with this fiery redhead for five films that were as boisterous as they were romantic.

Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), Big Jake (1971)

With John Payne To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), Sentimental Journey (1946), Tripoli (1950), and Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

49. Johnny Weissmuller

Actor | Tarzan the Ape Man

Johnny Weissmuller was born as Peter Johann Weißmüller in Freidorf, today a district of the city of Timisoara in Romania, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Weissmuller would later claim to have been born in Windber, Pennsylvania, probably to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of ...

With Maureen O'Sullivan

They were the screen's first great swingers, turning a studio jungle into the Garden of Eden.

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Tarzan and His Mate (1934), Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939), Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941), Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), The Phynx (1970)

50. Maureen O'Sullivan

Actress | The Thin Man

Of Irish, English, and Scottish descent, Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was born on May 17, 1911 in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland. Her father was Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in the Connaught Rangers, and his wife, the former Mary Fraser (or Frazer). She was educated at Catholic schools in ...

With Johnny Weissmuller

They were the screen's first great swingers, turning a studio jungle into the Garden of Eden.

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Tarzan and His Mate (1934), Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939), Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941), Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), The Phynx (1970)

51. Fred MacMurray

Actor | Double Indemnity

Fred MacMurray was likely the most underrated actor of his generation. True, his earliest work is mostly dismissed as pedestrian, but no other actor working in the 1940s and 50s was able to score so supremely whenever cast against type.

Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois, to ...

With Claudette Colbert

The Gilded Lily (1935), The Bride Comes Home (1935), Maid of Salem (1937), No Time for Love (1943), Practically Yours (1944), The Egg and I (1947) and Family Honeymoon (1948).

52. Claudette Colbert

Actress | It Happened One Night

One of the brightest film stars to grace the screen was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903, in Saint Mandé, France where her father owned a bakery at 57, rue de la République (now Avenue Général de Gaulle). The family moved to the United States when she was three. As Claudette ...

With Fred MacMurray

The Gilded Lily (1935), The Bride Comes Home (1935), Maid of Salem (1937), No Time for Love (1943), Practically Yours (1944), The Egg and I (1947) and Family Honeymoon (1948).

53. Don Ameche

Actor | Cocoon

Don Ameche was a versatile and popular American film actor in the 1930s and '40s, usually as the dapper, mustached leading man. He was also popular as a radio master of ceremonies during this time. As his film popularity waned in the 1950s, he continued working in theater and some TV. His film ...

With Alice Faye

In Old Chicago (1937), You Can't Have Everything (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Lillian Russell (1940), That Night in Rio (1941), The Egg and I (1947) and Family Honeymoon (1948).

54. Alice Faye

Soundtrack | Hello Frisco, Hello

As A&E's Biography put it, "She rose from the mean streets of New York's Hell's Kitchen to become the most famous singing actress in the world. When the pressures of fame became too much, she had the courage to leave Hollywood on her own terms". Alice Faye was born Alice Jeanne Leppert in NYC on ...

With Don Ameche

In Old Chicago (1937), You Can't Have Everything (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Lillian Russell (1940), That Night in Rio (1941), The Egg and I (1947) and Family Honeymoon (1948).

With John Payne Tin Pan Alley (1940), The Great American Broadcast (1941), Week-End in Havana (1941) and Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)

55. Harold Lloyd

Actor | Safety Last!

Born in Burchard, Nebraska, USA to Elizabeth Fraser and J. Darcie 'Foxy' Lloyd who fought constantly and soon divorced (at the time a rare event), Harold Clayton Lloyd was nominally educated in Denver and San Diego high schools and received his stage training at the School of Dramatic Art (San ...

56. Bebe Daniels

Actress | 42nd Street

Bebe Daniels already had toured as an actor by the age of four in a stage production of "Richard III". She had her first leading role at the age of seven and started her film career shortly after this in movies for Imperial, Pathe and others. At 14 she was already a film veteran, and was enlisted ...

57. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Actor | Coney Island

Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. His family moved to California when he was one year old. At age 8 he first appeared on the stage. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. From then until...

58. Mabel Normand

Actress | Mickey

Mabel Normand was one of the comedy greats of early film. In an era when women are deemed 'not funny enough' it seems film history has forgotten her contributions. Her films debuted the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the pie in the face gag. She co-starred with both Chaplin and Roscoe "...

59. 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 ...

60. Edna Purviance

Actress | A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate

Edna Purviance began working as a stenographer in San Francisco. Charles Chaplin invited her to join him at Essanay Studio in 1915, the year of her film debut in Chaplin's His Night Out. Over the next seven years she appeared as his leading lady in over 20 Chaplin films made by Essanay, Mutual, and...

61. Claude Rains

Actor | Casablanca

William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth...

With Bette Davis

Juarez (1939), Now, Voyager (1942), Mr. Skeffington (1944,) and Deception (1946).

62. 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...

With Claude Rains

Juarez (1939), Now, Voyager (1942), Mr. Skeffington (1944,) and Deception (1946).

With George Brent

Front Page Woman (1935), Special Agent (1935), The Golden Arrow (1936), Jezebel (1938), The Old Maid (1939), Dark Victory (1939), and The Great Lie (1941).

63. Charles Boyer

Actor | Gaslight

Charles Boyer studied philosophy before he went to the theater where he gave his debut in 1920. Although he had at first no intentions to pursue a career at the movies (his first movie was Man of the Sea (1920) by Marcel L'Herbier) he used his chance in Hollywood after several filming stations all ...

With Irene Dunne

Love Affair (1939), When Tomorrow Comes (1939), and Together Again (1944).

64. Irene Dunne

Actress | The Awful Truth

Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age...

With Charles Boyer

Love Affair (1939), When Tomorrow Comes (1939), and Together Again (1944).

With Cary Grant

The Awful Truth (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), and Penny Serenade (1941).

65. 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 ...

With Katharine Hepburn

Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938), and The Philadelphia Story (1940).

With Irene Dunne

The Awful Truth (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), and Penny Serenade (1941).

66. Gary Cooper

Actor | High Noon

Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper. Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (then called Iowa College). His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a ...

With Fay Wray The Legion of the Condemned (1928), The First Kiss (1928), The Texan (1930), and One Sunday Afternoon (1933). With Esther Ralston Children of Divorce (1927), Half a Bride (1928), and Betrayal (1929). With Mary Brian The Virginian (1929), Only the Brave (1930), and Paramount on Parade (1930). With Barbara Stanwyck Meet John Doe (1941), Ball of Fire (1941), and Blowing Wild (1953).

67. Fay Wray

Actress | King Kong

Canadian-born Fay Wray was brought up in Los Angeles and entered films at an early age. She was barely in her teens when she started working as an extra. She began her career as a heroine in westerns at Universal during the silent era. In 1926 the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers ...

With Gary Cooper

The Legion of the Condemned (1928), The First Kiss (1928), The Texan (1930), and One Sunday Afternoon (1933).

68. Esther Ralston

Actress | Shadows of the Orient

In 'Some Day We'll Laugh: An Autobiography', she says, "In 1902 the family moved to Bar Harbor, Maine. (...) At 9 p.m. on Wednesday, September 17, 1902, I was born at No. 1 Eden St. and Papa immediately dubbed me, 'Maid of Bar Harbor!'"

The child "born in a trunk" of parents who graced the carnival ...

With Gary Cooper Children of Divorce (1927), Half a Bride (1928), and Betrayal (1929).

69. Mary Brian

Actress | Peter Pan

Dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures", Mary Brian started life as Louise Byrdie Datzler. She was born in Corsicana, Texas, and went to high school in Dallas. Her widowed mother had big plans for young Louise and took her to California in 1923, with the intention of getting her into the film ...

With Gary Cooper The Virginian (1929), Only the Brave (1930), and Paramount on Parade (1930).

70. George Brent

Actor | Dark Victory

The favorite leading man of star Bette Davis was born George Brendan Nolan in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland (although his place of birth has also been variosuly given as Raharabeg, County Roscommon and Shannonbridge, County Offaly). He was the youngest of five children born to shopkeeper John...

With Bette Davis Front Page Woman (1935), Special Agent (1935), The Golden Arrow (1936), Jezebel (1938), The Old Maid (1939), Dark Victory (1939), and The Great Lie (1941). With Barbara Stanwyck So Big! (1931), The Purchase Price (1931), Baby Face (1933), The Gay Sisters (1942), and My Reputation (1946).

71. 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 ...

With Ricardo Cortez Illicit (1931), Ten Cents a Dance (1931), and A Lost Lady (1934). With Robert Taylor His Brother's Wife (1936), This Is my Affair (1937), and The Night Walker (1964). With Henry Fonda The Mad Miss Manton (1938), The Lady Eve (1941), and You Belong to Me (1941). With Gary Cooper Meet John Doe (1941), Ball of Fire (1941), and Blowing Wild (1953). With Joel McCrea Gambling Lady (1934), Banjo on My Knee (1936), Internes Can't Take Money (1937), Union Pacific (1939), The Great Man's Lady (1942), and Trooper Hook (1957). With George Brent So Big! (1931), The Purchase Price (1931), Baby Face (1933), The Gay Sisters (1942), and My Reputation (1946).

72. Joel McCrea

Actor | Sullivan's Travels

One of the great stars of American Westerns, and a very popular leading man in non-Westerns as well. He was born and raised in the surroundings of Hollywood and as a boy became interested in the movies that were being made all around. He studied acting at Pomona College and got some stage ...

With Barbara Stanwyck Gambling Lady (1934), Banjo on My Knee (1936), Internes Can't Take Money (1937), Union Pacific (1939), The Great Man's Lady (1942), and Trooper Hook (1957). With Miriam Hopkins The Richest Girl in the World (1934), Barbary Coast (1935), Splendor (1935), These Three (1936), and Woman Chases Man (1937).

73. Henry Fonda

Actor | 12 Angry Men

This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, ...

With Barbara Stanwyck

The Mad Miss Manton (1938), The Lady Eve (1941), and You Belong to Me (1941).

74. Robert Taylor

Actor | The Bribe

Born Spangler Arlington Brugh, Robert Taylor began displaying a diversity of talents in his youth on the plains of Nebraska. At Beatrice High School, he was a standout track athlete, but also showed a talent for using his voice, winning several oratory awards. He was a musician and played the cello...

With Barbara Stanwyck

His Brother's Wife (1936), This Is my Affair (1937), and The Night Walker (1964).

75. Ricardo Cortez

Actor | The Maltese Falcon

Ricardo Cortez was born Jacob Krantz in New York City, New York, the son of Sarah (Lefkowitz) and Moses/Morris Krantz, Austrian Jewish immigrants who moved to New York just before he was born. His brother was cinematographer Stanley Cortez, who also changed his surname. Cortez worked a number of ...

With Barbara Stanwyck

Illicit (1931), Ten Cents a Dance (1931), and A Lost Lady (1934).

76. Joan Crawford

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1906, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. It wasn't an easy life; ...

With Clark Gable

Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), Laughing Sinners (1931), Possessed (1931), Dancing Lady (1933), Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934), Love on the Run (1936), and Strange Cargo (1940).

77. Norma Shearer

Actress | The Divorcee

She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to ...

With Clark Gable A Free Soul (1931), Strange Interlude (1932), and Idiot's Delight (1939).

78. Ava Gardner

Actress | The Night of the Iguana

Ava Lavina Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in Grabtown, North Carolina, to Mary Elizabeth (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner. Born on a tobacco farm, where she got her lifelong love of earthy language and going barefoot, Ava grew up in the rural South. At age 18, her picture in the window ...

With Clark Gable The Hucksters (1947), Lone Star (1952), and Mogambo (1953).

79. Lana Turner

Actress | Madame X

Lana Turner had an acting ability that belied the "Sweater Girl" image MGM thrust upon her, and even many of her directors admitted that they knew she was capable of greatness (check out The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)). Unfortunately, her private life sometimes overshadowed her professional ...

With Clark Gable Honky Tonk (1941), Somewhere I'll Find You (1942), Homecoming (1948), and Betrayed (1954).

80. Melvyn Douglas

Actor | Being There

Two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas was one of America's finest actors, and would enjoy cinema immortality if for no other reason than his being the man who made Greta Garbo laugh in Ernst Lubitsch's classic comedy Ninotchka (1939), but he was much, much more.

Melvyn Douglas was born Melvyn Edouard...

With Greta Garbo

As You Desire Me (1932), Ninotchka (1939), and Two-Faced Woman (1942).

81. Robert Montgomery

Actor | Night Must Fall

Robert Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery Jr., the elder son of New York businessman Henry Montgomery and his wife, Mary Weed (Barney), a native of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Montgomery had a younger brother, Donald. He was not related to Belinda Montgomery.

As a child, he enjoyed a ...

With Rosalind Russell

Forsaking All Others (1934), Trouble for Two (1936), Live, Love and Learn (1937), Night Must Fall (1937) and Fast and Loose (1939).

82. 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 ...

With Robert Montgomery

Forsaking All Others (1934), Trouble for Two (1936), Live, Love and Learn (1937), Night Must Fall (1937) and Fast and Loose (1939).

83. Bobby Vernon

Director | For the Love of Fanny

Bobby Vernon was born in the U.S. in 1897, was trained in Vaudeville and became a talented comic in the silent era. He began working in 1913, appearing in Lon Chaney's Almost an Actress (1913) and later worked for Mack Sennett, who teamed him up with young Gloria Swanson in 9 comedies between 1916 ...

With Gloria Swanson

The Danger Girl (1916), The Sultan's Wife (1917), and Teddy at the Throttle (1917).

84. Gloria Swanson

Actress | Sunset Blvd.

Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on ...

With Bobby Vernon

The Danger Girl (1916), The Sultan's Wife (1917), and Teddy at the Throttle (1917).

85. 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 ...

With Miriam Hopkins

Design For Living (1933) and All of Me (1934).

86. Miriam Hopkins

Actress | Trouble in Paradise

Born into wealth in Savannah, Georgia, on October 18, 1902, Ellen Miriam Hopkins was able to attend the finest educational institutions, including Goddard Seminary in Plainfield, Vermont, and Syracuse University in New York State. Studying dance in New York, she received her first taste of show ...

With Fredric March

Design For Living (1933) and All of Me (1934).

With Joel McCrea The Richest Girl in the World (1934), Barbary Coast (1935), Splendor (1935), These Three (1936), and Woman Chases Man (1937).

87. John Barrymore

Actor | Twentieth Century

John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical ...

With Mary Astor

Beau Brummel (1924) and Don Juan (1926).

88. Mary Astor

Actress | The Maltese Falcon

Mary Astor was born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke on May 3, 1906 in Quincy, Illinois to Helen Marie Vasconcellos, an American of Portuguese and Irish ancestry from Illinois, and Otto Ludwig Langhanke, a German immigrant. Mary's parents were very ambitious for her and wanted something better for her...

With John Barrymore

Beau Brummel (1924) and Don Juan (1926).

89. Ronald Colman

Actor | A Double Life

British leading man of primarily American films, one of the great stars of the Golden Age. Raised in Ealing, the son of a successful silk merchant, he attended boarding school in Sussex, where he discovered amateur theatre. He intended to attend Cambridge and become an engineer, but his father's ...

With Vilma Banky

The Dark Angel (1925), The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), The Night of Love (1927), The Magic Flame (1927), and Two Lovers (1928).

90. Vilma Bánky

Actress | The Son of the Sheik

Vilma Bánky appeared in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies between 1920 and 1925, the year in which Samuel Goldwyn signed her, in Budapest, to a Hollywood contract. In Hollywood she was billed as the "The Hungarian Rhapsody". In the mid and late 1920s she was Goldwyn's biggest money maker, ...

With Ronald Colman

The Dark Angel (1925), The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), The Night of Love (1927), The Magic Flame (1927), and Two Lovers (1928).

91. Bob Hope

Actor | The Ghost Breakers

Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents...

With Dorothy Lamour

Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), They Got Me Covered (1943), My Favorite Brunette (1947), Road to Rio (1947), and Road to Bali (1952).

92. Dorothy Lamour

Actress | Creepshow 2

In addition to being Miss New Orleans in 1931, Dorothy Lamour worked as a Chicago elevator operator; band vocalist for her first husband, band leader Herbie Kaye; and radio performer. In 1936 she donned her soon-to-be-famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), and ...

With Bob Hope

Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), They Got Me Covered (1943), My Favorite Brunette (1947), Road to Rio (1947), and Road to Bali (1952).

93. Rudolph Valentino

Actor | The Eagle

Hollywood's original Latin Lover, a term that was invented for Rudolph Valentino by Hollywood moguls. Alla Nazimova's friend Natacha Rambova (nee Winifred Hudnut) became romantically involved with Rudy and they lived together in her bungalow from 1921 (during the filming of Camille) until they ...

With Nita Naldi

Blood and Sand (1922), A Sainted Devil (1924), The Hooded Falcon (1924) and Cobra (1925).

94. Nita Naldi

Actress | The Ten Commandments

Nonna Dooley, the future silent screen star, began her career as a showgirl in a Shubert revue in the Winter Garden, later went on to the famed Ziegfeld Follies.

After a successful career on the stage with the Follies, Nita decided to try her hand with films in Hollywood. Her rise to fame was very ...

With Rudolph Valentino

Blood and Sand (1922), A Sainted Devil (1924), The Hooded Falcon (1924) and Cobra (1925).

95. Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Actor | The Rise of Catherine the Great

Although he appeared in approximately 100 movies or TV shows, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. never really intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was born into and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian. Noblesse oblige.

He was born Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. in ...

With Loretta Young

Loose Ankles (1930), I Like Your Nerve (1931), and The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933).

96. Loretta Young

Actress | The Stranger

Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's Biography (1987) has stated that Young "remains a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in her ...

With Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Loose Ankles (1930), I Like Your Nerve (1931), and The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933).

97. Douglas Fairbanks

Actor | The Thief of Bagdad

Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, ...

With Mary Pickford

The Nut (1921), The Black Pirate (1926), The Gaucho (1927), and The Taming of the Shrew (1929).

98. Mary Pickford

Actress | Coquette

Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Elsie Charlotte (Hennessy) and John Charles Smith. She was of English and Irish descent. Pickford began in the theater at age seven. Then known as "Baby Gladys Smith", she toured with her family in a number of theater ...

With Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

The Nut (1921), The Black Pirate (1926), The Gaucho (1927), and The Taming of the Shrew (1929).

99. Charles Laughton

Actor | Witness for the Prosecution

Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...

With Elsa Lanchester

The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933), Tales of Manhattan (1942), The Big Clock (1948) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957).

100. 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 ...

With Charles Laughton

The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933), Tales of Manhattan (1942), The Big Clock (1948) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957).



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