The Best Actresses and Actors - Born in the 1890s

1. Humphrey Bogart

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 ...

11506 points

2. Edward G. Robinson

Actor | Double Indemnity

Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began ...

8110 points

3. Thomas Mitchell

Actor | Stagecoach

Thomas Mitchell was one of the great American character actors, whose credits read like a list of the greatest American films of the 20th century: Lost Horizon (1937); Stagecoach (1939); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Gone with the Wind (1939); It's a ...

7437 points

4. 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 ...

7117 points

5. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

6835 points

6. 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). ...

6826 points

7. Walter Brennan

Actor | The Westerner

In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and ...

6273 points

8. Michel Simon

Actor | Le quai des brumes

The son of a sausage-maker, Michel Simon was conscripted into the Swiss Army at the start of World War I, but was thrown out through a combination of tuberculosis and general insubordination. He was variously a boxer, photographer, general handyman and right-wing anarchist, finally becoming a stage...

5977 points

9. Irving Bacon

Actor | Meet John Doe

A minor character actor who appeared in literally hundreds of films, actor Irving Bacon could always be counted on for expressing bug-eyed bewilderment or cautious frustration in small-town settings with his revolving door of friendly, servile parts - mailmen, milkmen, clerks, chauffeurs, cab ...

5836 points

10. William Demarest

Actor | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

A stocky, serious-looking character, Carl William Demarest started off in vaudeville in 1905 along with two older brothers. At one time he also performed in a stage act with his wife Estelle Collette (billed as 'Demarest and Collette') and then moved on to Broadway. He entered movies in 1926 and ...

5614 points

11. Henry Daniell

Actor | The Philadelphia Story

One of Hollywood's greatest screen villains, Charles Henry Pywell Daniell was born in London, England, the son of Elinor Mary (Wookey) and Henry Pyweh Daniell, L.R.C.P. He had the profound misfortune to make his professional theatrical debut on the eve of World War I. His life thus interrupted, he ...

5513 points

12. Takeshi Sakamoto

Actor | Ukikusa monogatari

Takeshi Sakamoto was born on September 21, 1899 in Hyogo, Japan. He was an actor, known for A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), Passing Fancy (1933) and An Inn in Tokyo (1935). He died on May 10, 1974 in Hyogo-ken, Japan.

5477 points

13. James Cagney

Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces

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

5232 points

14. John Qualen

Actor | Casablanca

One of the best and most familiar character actors of the first four decades of sound films, although few who knew his face also knew his name, John Qualen was born in Canada to Norwegian parents. His father was a minister. The family moved to the United States and Qualen (whose real name was ...

5090 points

15. Chôko Iida

Actress | Nagaya shinshiroku

Chouko Iida was born in 1897, in the old downtown of Tokyo, Asakusa.After dropping out of high school and working as a clerk at the Matsuzakaya Department Store, she joined the Nakamura Matsugoro Acting Company. In 1922, Iida entered Shochiku Kamata Productions. Her acting was soon recognized by a ...

4930 points

16. Eiko Miyoshi

Actress | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

Eiko Miyoshi was born on April 8, 1894 in Tokyo, Japan. She was an actress, known for The Hidden Fortress (1958), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) and Ikiru (1952). She died on July 28, 1963.

4820 points

17. Ian Wolfe

Actor | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Respected character actor whose on-screen work included everything from Shakespeare to Dick Tracy (1990) (his last film). After a long apprenticeship in the theatre, the 38-year-old Wolfe finally debuted in films in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), recreating his Broadway role. He then toiled...

4805 points

18. Wallace Ford

Actor | Freaks

A stocky, friendly-faced character actor, Ford was born Samuel Jones in England, where the brutality of his childhood rivaled anything that Charles Dickens ever dreamed up. He lived for a while in an orphanage after being separated from his parents. While still young, he was sent to a Toronto ...

4732 points

19. Herbert Marshall

Actor | Foreign Correspondent

Herbert Marshall had trained to become a certified accountant, but his interest turned to the stage. He lost a leg while serving in World War I and was rehabilitated with a wooden leg. This did not stop him from making good his decision to make the stage his vocation. He used a very deliberate ...

4690 points

20. Jerome Cowan

Actor | Miracle on 34th Street

Jerome Cowan was one of Hollywood's most prolific and instantly recognizable character actors. His trademark pencil-thin mustache and slicked back hair, immaculate suits and sophisticated manner were his stock-in-trade for impersonating an assortment of rejected husbands, shifty politicians, ...

4623 points

21. Alan Hale

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Alan Hale decided on a film career after his attempt at becoming an opera singer didn't pan out. He quickly became much in demand as a supporting actor, starred in several films for Cecil B. DeMille and directed others for him. With the advent of sound, Hale played leads in a few films but soon ...

4580 points

22. Charles Bickford

Actor | A Star Is Born

American character actor of gruff voice and appearance who was a fixture in Hollywood pictures from the earliest days of the talkies. The fifth of seven children, he was born in the first minute of 1891. He was a boisterous child, and at nine was tried and acquitted for attempted murder in the ...

4436 points

23. Cecil Kellaway

Actor | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Though a native of South Africa, Cecil Kellaway spent many years as an actor, author and director in Australian live theatre until he tried his luck in Hollywood in the 1930s. Finding he could get only gangster bit parts, he got discouraged and returned to Australia. Then William Wyler called and ...

4228 points

24. 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 ...

4222 points

25. Harry Shannon

Actor | Citizen Kane

Born and raised on a farm in Michigan in 1890, Irish-American character actor Harry Shannon had the credentials for becoming a staple player in westerns. He started off his career traveling around with repertory and stock companies and developed his musical abilities in tent shows, burlesque houses...

4157 points

26. Raymond Massey

Actor | Arsenic and Old Lace

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

4123 points

27. Lillian Gish

Actress | The Night of the Hunter

Lillian Diana Gish was born on October 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio. Her father, James Lee Gish, was an alcoholic who caroused, was rarely at home, and left the family to, more or less, fend for themselves. To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy Gish, and their mother, Mary Gish, ...

3901 points

28. Minna Gombell

Actress | The Thin Man

A doctor's daughter, the versatile actress Minna Gombell had a successful career on the stage from 1912 to the end of the 1920's, appearing often in comedic roles, almost always in leads. She had a reputation as a fast learner, capable of reading and comprehending a script in a matter of hours. This...

3901 points

29. Felix Bressart

Actor | The Shop Around the Corner

With his lanky frame, big nose, toothbrush moustache and horn-rimmed glasses he looked like someone had decided to cross Groucho Marx with Albert Einstein. The perennial scene-stealer Felix Bressart had two distinct careers as a comic actor: an earlier one, on stage and screen in his native Germany...

3860 points

30. Edward Arnold

Actor | You Can't Take It with You

Edward Arnold was born as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider in 1890, on the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of German immigrants, Elizabeth (Ohse) and Carl Schneider. Arnold began his acting career on the New York stage and became a film actor in 1916. A burly man with a commanding style ...

3855 points

31. George Macready

Actor | Gilda

George Macready--the name probably does not ring any bells for most but the voice would be unmistakable. He attended and graduated from Brown University and had a short stint as a New York newspaperman, but became interested in acting on the advice of colorful Polish émigré classical stage director ...

3793 points

32. Jay C. Flippen

Actor | The Killing

Jay C. Flippen could probably be characterized these days as one of those craggy, distinctive faces you know but whose name escapes you while viewing scores of old 1950s and 1960s films and television series. Playing both sides of the law throughout his career, his huge cranium, distinctive bulldog...

3786 points

33. Louis Calhern

Actor | Duck Soup

Tall, distinguished, aristocratic Louis Calhern seemed to be the poster boy for old-money, upper-crust urban society, but he was actually born Carl Vogt, to middle-class parents in New York City. His family moved to St. Louis when he was a child, and it was while playing football in high school ...

3783 points

34. Akim Tamiroff

Actor | Touch of Evil

Though born in Georgia and having a Russian-sounding name, Akim Tamiroff is actually of Armenian descent. At 19 he decided to pursue acting as a career and was chosen from among 500 applicants to the Moscow Art Theater School. There he studied under the great Konstantin Stanislavski, and launched a...

3755 points

35. Eitarô Shindô

Actor | Gion bayashi

Eitarô Shindô was born on November 10, 1899 in Fukuoka, Japan. He was an actor, known for A Geisha (1953), Onna no issho (1953) and Drunken Angel (1948). He died on February 18, 1977 in Tokyo, Japan.

3749 points

36. Ruth Donnelly

Actress | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Feisty, ebullient character comedienne who, for three decades, enlivened Hollywood films with her drollery and quick-fire repartee. The daughter of a newspaper editor and music critic, Ruth made her stage debut in the chorus of the touring production 'The Quaker Girl' in 1913. Four years later, she...

3665 points

37. Leslie Howard

Actor | Pygmalion

Leslie Howard Steiner was born in London to Lilian (Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and his English mother was of German Jewish and mostly English descent. Leslie went to Dulwich College, then worked as a bank clerk until the outbreak of World ...

3655 points

38. Marjorie Bennett

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Marjorie Bennett was an Australian actress, who spend most of her career working in the United Kingdom and the United States. She was born in York, Western Australia, a town that was an important stop for miners and travelers during the Australian gold rushes of the late 19th century. York is ...

3618 points

39. Orane Demazis

Actress | Angèle

Orane Demazis was born on September 4, 1894 in Oran, Oran, France [now Algeria]. She was an actress, known for Angele (1934), Marius (1931) and Les Misérables (1934). She died on December 25, 1991 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

3608 points

40. Cedric Hardwicke

Actor | The Ten Commandments

Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, ...

3606 points

41. Charles Vanel

Actor | Le salaire de la peur

Charles Vanel was a French actor. His film career lasted for 76 years, from 1912 to 1988. He appeared in over 200 films.

Vanel often worked under famous directors, such as Luis Buñuel, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Feyder, and Alfred Hitchcock. A career highlight was his role as truck driver Jo in ...

3606 points

42. Henry O'Neill

Actor | Calling Philo Vance

Suave, well-mannered, silvery-haired character actor Henry (Joseph) O'Neill played top supports in hundreds of films, often as a benign, wise, sensible father, judge, doctor, minister, general, executive or lawyer. Much of his patrician career was split between two studios: Warner Bros in the 1930s...

3596 points

43. Stanley Ridges

Actor | To Be or Not to Be

Born in England in 1891, Stanley Ridges would become a protégé of Beatrice Lillie, a star of musical comedies, and spent a great many years learning and honing his craft on the stage. He eventually would make his way over to America, and become a romantic leading man on Broadway. His first film ...

3555 points

44. Frank Morgan

Actor | The Wizard of Oz

Jovial, somewhat flamboyant Frank Morgan (born Francis Wuppermann) will forever be remembered as the title character in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but he was a veteran and respected actor long before he played that part, and turned in outstanding performances both before and after that film. One of ...

3485 points

45. 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 ...

3466 points

46. 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 ...

3441 points

47. Roscoe Karns

Actor | His Girl Friday

On stage since age 15, Roscoe Karns parlayed his machine-gun delivery and street-wise demeanor (although many thought of him as a New Yorker, he was actually from San Bernardino, California) into character roles in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1960s. His peak period, though, was in the ...

3413 points

48. Bokuzen Hidari

Actor | Shichinin no samurai

Bokuzen Hidari was born on February 20, 1894 in Saitama, Japan. He was an actor, known for Seven Samurai (1954), Ikiru (1952) and The Lower Depths (1957). He died on May 26, 1971 in Tokyo, Japan.

3377 points

49. 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 ...

3375 points

50. Adolphe Menjou

Actor | Paths of Glory

The words "suave" and "debonair" became synonymous with the name Adolphe Menjou in Hollywood, both on- and off-camera. The epitome of knavish, continental charm and sartorial opulence, Menjou, complete with trademark waxy black mustache, evolved into one of Hollywood's most distinguished of artists...

3339 points

51. Frank McHugh

Actor | All Through the Night

The parents of Frank McHugh ran their own stock company and he was on the stage as a child. When he was 10 he was part of an act that include his brother Matt McHugh and sister Kitty McHugh. After vaudeville and other stock companies, Frank debuted on Broadway "The Fall Guy" (1925). In 1930 he was ...

3307 points

52. Toranosuke Ogawa

Actor | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

Toranosuke Ogawa was born on December 1, 1897 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for The Hidden Fortress (1958), Seven Samurai (1954) and Sanjuro (1962). He died on December 29, 1967 in Japan.

3301 points

53. Basil Rathbone

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, ...

3262 points

54. Regis Toomey

Actor | The Big Sleep

Pittsburgh-born and -raised character actor Regis Toomey, of Irish descent, took an early interest in the performing arts and initially studied drama at the university of his home town. One of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, John Regis Toomey initially pondered a law career, but ...

3203 points

55. Conrad Veidt

Actor | Casablanca

Conrad Veidt attended the Sophiengymnasium (secondary school) in the Schoeneberg district of Berlin, and graduated without a diploma in 1912, last in his class of 13. Conrad liked animals, theater, cinema, fast cars, pastries, thunderstorms, gardening, swimming and golfing. He disliked heights, ...

3139 points

56. Melville Cooper

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Born George Melville Cooper on October 15, 1896, in Birmingham England, he was the son of non-professionals W.C.J. and Frances (Brennan) Cooper, and attended various English public schools, including King Edward's School in Birmingham. Attracted to the stage as a teenager, he made his debut at ...

3094 points

57. Nigel Bruce

Actor | Rebecca

Nigel was, from the beginning, typecast as bumbling English aristocrats, military types or drawing room society snobs and, within the narrow parameters of his range, he was very, very good at playing these parts. Nigel Bruce was born in Mexico, where his father, Sir William W. Bruce, worked as an ...

3045 points

58. Henry Hull

Actor | Lifeboat

Henry Hull, the actor who created the role of Jeeter on Broadway in "Tobacco Road," was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 13, 1890, the son of a drama critic. Originally intending to become an engineer, Hull became an actor and made his Broadway debut in "Green Stockings" less than two weeks...

2989 points

59. Russell Hicks

Actor | The Little Foxes

Tall, distinguished-looking Russell Hicks appeared in almost 300 films in his more than 40-year career (although his first known screen appearance was in 1915, he has screenwriting credits as early as 1913, so it's possible his screen debut was earlier than credited). His cultured bearing, ...

2909 points

60. Lucien Littlefield

Actor | Seven Keys to Baldpate

Lucien Littlefield was born on August 16, 1895 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929), The Little Foxes (1941) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). He was married to Constance Palmer. He died on June 4, 1960 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, ...

2906 points

61. Judith Anderson

Actress | Rebecca

Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There she established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway ...

2820 points

62. Dorothy Peterson

Actress | Saboteur

Dorothy Peterson was born on December 25, 1897 in Hector, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for Saboteur (1942), Dark Victory (1939) and Too Many Husbands (1940). She was married to Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams. She died on October 3, 1979 in New York City, New York, USA.

2811 points

63. Zasu Pitts

Actress | Greed

Classic comedienne Zasu Pitts, of the timid, forlorn blue eyes and trademark woebegone vocal pattern and fidgety hands, was born to Rulandus and Nellie (Shay) Pitts, the third of four children on January 3, 1894. Her aged New York-native father, who lost a leg back in the Civil War era, had settled...

2801 points

64. Aline MacMahon

Actress | Kind Lady

Aline MacMahon was born of Scottish-Irish and Russian-Jewish ancestry on May 3,1899, the daughter of William Marcus MacMahon and Jennie Simon MacMahon. Her father became editor-in-chief of Munsey's Magazine, while her mother pursued a theatrical acting career from middle-age and lived to age107. ...

2780 points

65. Gene Lockhart

Actor | His Girl Friday

Gene Lockhart was born on July 18, 1891, in London, Ontario, Canada, the son of John Coates Lockhart and Ellen Mary (Delany) Lockhart. His father had studied singing and young Gene displayed an early interest in drama and music. Shortly after the 7-year-old danced a Highland fling in a concert ...

2777 points

66. Paula Trueman

Actress | The Outlaw Josey Wales

The delightful twinkle in her eye and that elderly mischievous look coming from the tiniest of frames were unmistakable traits in 1970s and 1980s lightweight films. One of a slew of popular elderly ladies getting their "fifteen minutes" at the time, character actress Paula Trueman was born in 1897 ...

2716 points

67. J. Carrol Naish

Actor | Sahara

One of the most versatile character actors in the business, Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (pronounced Nash) was born of Irish descent in New York City. His illustrious ancestors hailed from county Limerick and were listed in Burke's Peerage. He had a Catholic education at St. Cecilia's Academy, but ...

2706 points

68. Morris Ankrum

Actor | In a Lonely Place

A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Law, Morris Ankrum was an attorney and an economics professor before switching careers and joining the theater. He was a veteran stage actor by the time he entered the film industry in the 1930s. His film career spanned 1933-64, during ...

2693 points

69. Fortunio Bonanova

Actor | Citizen Kane

Spanish-born Josep Lluis Moll studied music in Madrid and at the Paris Conservatoire. Having changed his name to Fortunio Bonanova (which, at the time, would have sounded more becoming of a budding musical star), he went on to make his international opera debut as a baritone in 1922. A protégé of ...

2680 points

70. John Laurie

Actor | The 39 Steps

John Laurie was a Scotsman who would play many character roles in his long career - a lot of Scotsmen to be sure - but an enthusiastic and skilled actor in nearly 120 screen roles. He was the son of a mill worker, and studied for a career in architecture which he indeed began. But with World War I ...

2672 points

71. Joseph Calleia

Actor | Touch of Evil

His full name was Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja - but he was better known as Joseph or Joe Calleia, one of Hollywood's most recognized bad guys. But Calleia's roots and talents ran much deeper than character actor. He was Maltese, born on that barren but historically important ...

2638 points

72. 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 ...

2635 points

73. Eijirô Yanagi

Actor | Meitô bijomaru

Eijirô Yanagi was born on September 16, 1895 in Hyogo, Japan. He was an actor, known for The Famous Sword Bijomaru (1945), Nakayama shichiri (1962) and Shinshû tenmakyô (1958). He died on April 24, 1984.

2622 points

74. 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). ...

2613 points

75. Carl Benton Reid

Actor | In a Lonely Place

Carl Benton Reid was a drama graduate from Carnegie Tech who had several years of stage experience performing at the Cleveland Playhouse in the 1920s, where he met his future wife, stage actress Hazel Harrison. After moving to New York, he became a noted actor on the Broadway stage with some ...

2597 points

76. Rhys Williams

Actor | How Green Was My Valley

Moviegoers can be forgiven if they thought that stocky, jaunty Rhys Williams was a jovial Irishman, as he often played that type of character, but his role as a Welsh miner in John Ford's classic How Green Was My Valley (1941) (his film debut) was much closer to home for him, as he was born and ...

2590 points

77. Fernand Ledoux

Actor | The Longest Day

Fernand Ledoux was born on January 24, 1897 in Tirlemont, Belgium. He was an actor, known for The Longest Day (1962), It Happened at the Inn (1943) and Monseigneur (1949). He was married to Fernande Thabuy. He died on September 21, 1993 in Villerville, Calvados, France.

2587 points

78. Stanley Holloway

Actor | My Fair Lady

Stanley Holloway was a British actor and singer, primarily known for comic monologues and songs. In 1890, Holloway was born in Manor Park, Essex. In 1965, Manor Park was incorporated into Greater London, as part of an administrative reform. It is now part of the London Borough of Newham, in East ...

2575 points

79. Paul Lukas

Actor | Watch on the Rhine

Oscar-winning actor Paul Lukas was born in Hungary and graduated from the School for Dramatic Arts. In 1916 he went to Kosice (Kassa) to be an actor; in 1918 he became an actor specializing in comedy. For ten years he was the most popular character player and romantic lead of the company. In 1918 ...

2551 points

80. Jonathan Hale

Actor | The Saint's Double Trouble

Canadian-born character actor Jonathan Hale had a long and distinguished film career, appearing in over 260 pictures and television programs.

He was a member of the diplomatic service prior to his film career, and his stately bearing stood him in good stead for the large variety of corporate ...

2546 points

81. Walter Abel

Actor | 13 Rue Madeleine

A familiar character face in movies and television, Walter Abel was a dedicated stage actor who had studied at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York before moving on to a progression of stage work that culminated in his first appearance on Broadway in the original play "...

2526 points

82. Alexander Granach

Actor | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Alexander Granach was born in the region of Galizia, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ukraine). Given the name Jessaja Szajko Gronish, he was one of a dozen children of a poor Jewish family eking out a living, first in a farming village, later in a series of small towns and ...

2507 points

83. 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...

2483 points

84. Alan Mowbray

Actor | My Darling Clementine

Alan Mowbray, the American film actor who was one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild, was born Ernest Allen on August 18, 1896, in London, England, to a non-theatrical family. He served in the British army during World War I and received the Military Medal and the French Croix De ...

2445 points

85. Jean Brochard

Actor | Les diaboliques

Jean Brochard was born on March 12, 1893 in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, Pays-de-la-Loire, France. He was an actor, known for Diabolique (1955), The Bullocks (1953) and Angel and Sinner (1945). He died on June 17, 1972 in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, Pays-de-la-Loire, France.

2438 points

86. Arthur Loft

Actor | The Woman in the Window

Arthur Loft was born on May 25, 1897 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He was an actor, known for The Woman in the Window (1944), Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944) and Should a Girl Marry? (1939). He was married to Daisy Loft. He died on January 1, 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

2428 points

87. Edith Evanson

Actress | Rope

During the Golden Age of Hollywood there were an array of character actors who came out and perfected their craft alongside some of the era's most popular stars. Within that category is one Edith Evanson.

She was born on April 28, 1896 in Tacoma, Washington, the daughter of a Protestant minister. In...

2424 points

88. Howard Smith

Actor | Death of a Salesman

Howard Smith was born on August 12, 1893 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Death of a Salesman (1951), Kiss of Death (1947) and Don't Go Near the Water (1957). He was married to Mildred A. Barker and Lillian Boardman. He died on January 10, 1968 in Hollywood, California, ...

2378 points

89. Hattie McDaniel

Actress | Gone with the Wind

After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George ...

2358 points

90. Kazimierz Opalinski

Actor | Teatr Telewizji

Kazimierz Opalinski was born on February 22, 1890 in Prömsel, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Przemysl, Podkarpackie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Television Theater (1953), Ludzie Wisly (1938) and Gangsterzy i filantropi (1963). He died on June 6, 1979 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.

2315 points

91. Marjorie Main

Actress | The Egg and I

Her father was a minister, and when she joined a local stock company as a youngster she changed her name to avoid embarrassing her family. She worked in vaudeville and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her film debut was in A House Divided (1931). She repeated her stage role in Dead End (1937) as Baby ...

2308 points

92. Warren William

Actor | The Wolf Man

Warren William, the stalwart leading man of pre-Production Code talkies, was born Warren William Krech on December 2, 1894 in Aitkin, Minnesota, the son of a newspaper publisher. William originally planned to become a journalist, but he had a change of heart, and instead went to the American ...

2306 points

93. Doris Lloyd

Actress | The Time Machine

Doris Lloyd was an English actress with a lengthy film career. She appeared in over 150 films between 1920 and 1960. She spent most of her life abroad in the United States.

In 1891, Lloyd was born in Walton, Liverpool. Her parents were Edward Franklin Lloyd and Hessy Jane McCappin. One of her ...

2294 points

94. Will Wright

Actor | The Blue Dahlia

One of those familiar character actors who seems to have been born old, Will Wright specialized in playing crusty old codgers, rich skinflints,crooked small-town politicians and the like. A former newspaper reporter in San Francisco, he switched careers and entered vaudeville, then took to the ...

2280 points

95. Esther Howard

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

Switching from Broadway to Hollywood in 1931, actress Esther Howard was an expert at portraying frumpy old crones, man-hungry spinsters and oversexed dowagers. Utilizing her wide, expressive eyes and versatile voice for both broad comedy and tense drama, Howard was equally at home portraying ...

2275 points

96. Chieko Higashiyama

Actress | Tôkyô monogatari

Chieko Higashiyama was born on September 30, 1890 in Chiba, Japan. She was an actress, known for Tokyo Story (1953), Sen-hime (1954) and The Idiot (1951). She died on May 8, 1980.

2266 points

97. Edward Brophy

Actor | The Thin Man

Edward S. Brophy was born on February 27, 1895 in New York City and educated at the University of Virginia. He became a bit and small-part in the movies starting in 1919, but switched to behind-the-scenes work for job security, though he continued appearing in small parts. While serving as a ...

2263 points

98. Fritz Rasp

Actor | Metropolis

Fritz Heinrich Rasp was the thirteenth child of a county surveyor. He was schooled from 1908-1909 at the Theaterschule Otto Königin in Munich where, due to a speech impediment, Rasp developed a Frankish dialect. Rasp debuted on the stage in 1909, as Amandus in Max Halbe's "Skandalstück Jugend" as ...

2253 points

99. Sig Arno

Actor | The Palm Beach Story

Sig Arno was born on December 27, 1895 in Hamburg, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Palm Beach Story (1942), Die Nacht ohne Pause (1931) and La gloire du régiment (1937). He was married to Kitty Mattern, Barbara Kiranoff and Caroline Dahms. He died on August 17, 1975 in ...

2247 points

100. Fay Bainter

Actress | Jezebel

Fay Bainter's career began as a child performer in 1898. For some time, she was a member of the traveling cast of the Morosco Stock Company in Los Angeles. In 1912, she made her Broadway debut in 'The Rose of Panama', but this and her subsequent play 'The Bridal Path' (1913), were conspicuous ...

2238 points