World's Greatest Screen Femmes Fatales of All Time
by tanselartun-759-220845 | created - 01 Sep 2013 | updated - 04 Sep 2013 | Public1. Marilyn Monroe
Actress | Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. Monroe is of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and ...
2. 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 ...
3. Brigitte Bardot
Actress | Le mépris
Brigitte Bardot was born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, France. Her father had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance, and she proved to be very adept at it. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was ...
4. Raquel Welch
Actress | The Three Musketeers
A new reigning 1960s international sex symbol took to the cinematic throne as soon as Raquel Welch emerged from the sea in her purposely depleted, furry prehistoric bikini. Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, ...
5. Jayne Mansfield
Actress | The Girl Can't Help It
One of the leading sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, film actress Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only child of Vera J. (nee Palmer; later Peers) and Herbert W. Palmer. Her parents were well-to-do, with her father a successful attorney ...
6. Sharon Stone
Actress | Basic Instinct
Sharon Stone was born and raised in Meadville, a small town in Pennsylvania. Her strict father was a factory worker, and her mother was a homemaker. She was the second of four children. At the age of 15, she studied in Saegertown High School, Pennsylvania, and at that same age, entered Edinboro ...
7. Ursula Andress
Actress | Dr. No
The quintessential jet-set Euro starlet, Ursula Andress was born in the Swiss canton of Berne on March 19, 1936, one of six children in a strict German Protestant family. Although often seeming icily aloof, a restless streak early demonstrated itself in her personality, and she had an impetuous ...
8. 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 ...
9. 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 ...
10. Ann-Margret
Actress | Carnal Knowledge
Actress and singer Ann-Margret is one of the most famous sex symbols and actresses of the 1960s and beyond. She continued her career through the following decades and into the 21st century.
Ann-Margret was born Ann-Margret Olsson in Valsjöbyn, Jämtland County, Sweden, to Anna Regina (Aronsson) and ...
11. 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 ...
12. Julia Voth
Actress | Bitch Slap
Julia Anne Voth (born May 16, 1985) is a Canadian actress and model. She is best known for her roles in the 2009 film Bitch Slap and the TV series Package Deal, as well as for being the character model for Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil video games.
Voth's modeling career has included photo ...
13. 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 ...
14. Linda Fiorentino
Actress | The Last Seduction
Linda Fiorentino is an American actress. She has starred in the films Vision Quest (1985), Gotcha! (1985), After Hours (1985), Jade (1995), Men in Black (1997) and Dogma (1999). For her performance in The Last Seduction (1994), she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, the ...
15. 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 ...
16. Angelina Jolie
Actress | Maleficent
Angelina Jolie is an Academy Award-winning actress who rose to fame after her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999), playing the title role in the "Lara Croft" blockbuster movies, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010) and Maleficent (2014). Off-screen, Jolie has become ...
17. 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 ...
18. Kim Novak
Actress | Vertigo
Kim Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933 with the birth name of Marilyn Pauline Novak. She was the daughter of a former teacher turned transit clerk and his wife, also a former teacher. Throughout elementary and high school, Kim did not get along well with teachers. She even ...
19. Diana Dors
Actress | The Long Haul
Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on October 23, 1931 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. She and her mother both nearly died from the traumatic birth. Because of the trauma, her mother lavished on Diana anything and everything she wanted--clothes, toys and dance lessons were the order of the day. ...
20. 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 ...
21. Dorothy Malone
Actress | Written on the Wind
The blonde, sultry, dreamy-eyed beauty of Dorothy Malone, who was born Mary Maloney in Chicago on January 29, 1924, took some time before it made an impact with American film-going audiences. But once she did, she played it for all it was worth in her one chance Academy Award-winning "bad girl" ...
22. Alexandra Daddario
Actress | Baywatch
Alexandra Anna Daddario was born on March 16, 1986 in New York City, New York, to Christina, a lawyer, and Richard Daddario, a prosecutor. Her brother is actor Matthew Daddario, her sister is actor Catharine Daddario, and her grandfather was congressman Emilio Daddario (Emilio Q. Daddario), of ...
23. 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 ...
24. Katie Cassidy
Actress | A Nightmare on Elm Street
Katie Cassidy was born Katherine Evelyn Anita Cassidy on November 25, 1986, in Los Angeles, California. Her father, David Cassidy, was a pop star in the 1970s. Her famous relatives include uncles Shaun Cassidy, Patrick Cassidy and Ryan Cassidy, the sons by her grandfather Jack Cassidy's marriage to ...
25. Ida Lupino
Actress | High Sierra
Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was ...
26. Emilia Clarke
Actress | Game of Thrones
British actress Emilia Clarke was born in London and grew up in Oxfordshire, England. Her father was a theatre sound engineer and her mother is a businesswoman. Her father was working on a theatre production of "Show Boat" and her mother took her along to the performance. This is when, at the age ...
27. Ashley Benson
Actress | Spring Breakers
Ashley Victoria Benson was born on December 18, 1989 in Anaheim Hills, California, to Shannon (Harte) and Jeff Benson. She has Irish, English, and German ancestry. She has been dancing competitively since she was 2 with hip hop, jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical. She has been singing since she was ...
28. Anita Ekberg
Actress | La dolce vita
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born on September 29, 1931 in Malmo, Sweden. Growing up with seven brothers and sisters was not an adventure, but Anita's adventure began when she was elected Miss Sweden in 1950. She did not win the Miss Universe contest but she got a modeling contract in the ...
29. Barbora Bobulova
Actress | Cuore sacro
Born in Martin, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) in 1974, Barbora Bobulova graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts of Bratislava and briefly studied in New York before moving to Italy in the mid-1990s. Her first major role was in Marco Bellocchio's The Prince of Homburg (1997) but her breakthrough...
30. Yvonne De Carlo
Actress | The Ten Commandments
Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of ...
31. Megan Fox
Actress | Transformers
Megan Denise Fox was born on May 16, 1986 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and raised in Rockwood, Tennessee to Gloria Darlene Tonachio (née Cisson), a real estate manager and Franklin Thomas Fox, a parole officer. She began her drama and dance training at age 5 and at age 10, she moved to Port St. Lucie, ...
32. Susan Hayward
Actress | With a Song in My Heart
Susan Hayward was born Edythe Marrener in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1917. Her father was a transportation worker, and Susan lived a fairly comfortable life as a child, but the precocious little redhead had no idea of the life that awaited her. She attended public school in Brooklyn, where she...
33. Virginia Madsen
Actress | Sideways
One of the hottest stars of the mid-1980s, Virginia Madsen has since played a variety of roles that have cemented her reputation as a fantastic actress who can adapt to any part.
Virginia was born in Chicago, Illinois, and belongs to an acting family -- with her brother, Michael Madsen, also an ...
34. Mylène Jampanoï
Actress | Martyrs
Mylène Jampanoï is a French actress and model.
She was born on 12 July 1980 in Aix-en-Provence, France, to a Chinese father and a French Breton mother. She married Indian supermodel and actor Milind Soman in Goa in 2006. They met during the shooting of their film Valley of Flowers (2006). The two ...
35. Charlize Theron
Producer | Monster
Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg area, in South Africa, the only child of Gerda Theron (née Maritz) and Charles Theron. She was raised on a farm outside the city. Theron is of Afrikaner (Dutch, with some French Huguenot and German) descent, and Afrikaner ...
36. 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...
37. Laetitia Casta
Actress | Arbitrage
Born in Pont-Audemer, France, Laetitia Casta spent her childhood in the lush countryside of Normandy. At age 15, she was approached by an agent of Paris' Madison Models while building sand castles on a beach in Corsica. After her father agreed to let the agency take some test photographs, ...
38. Marlene Dietrich
Soundtrack | Witness for the Prosecution
Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator ...
39. Sophia Bush
Actress | John Tucker Must Die
Sophia Bush has captured film and television audiences with her range of roles and diverse characters She was born on July 8, 1982, in Pasadena, California, and is an only child. Her father, Charles William Bush, is a renowned advertising and celebrity photographer, and her mother, Maureen E. (...
40. Anne Bancroft
Actress | The Graduate
Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared...
41. Kristen Bell
Actress | Frozen
Kristen Anne Bell (born 1980) is an American actress and singer. She was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and is the daughter of Lorelei (Frygier), a nurse, and Tom Bell, a television news director. Her ancestry is Polish (mother) and German, English, Irish, and Scottish (father). ...
42. Ksenia Solo
Actress | Black Swan
Ksenia Solo is a Latvian-Canadian actress. She was born in Riga, Latvia in to an artistic family. She is a recipient of many prestigious Canadian awards, including 3 Gemini Awards and a nominee of the first ever Canadian Screen Awards. Ksenia was the youngest actor in Canadian television history to...
43. Kathleen Turner
Actress | Romancing the Stone
Kathleen Turner was born June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri, to Patsy (Magee) and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer. She graduated from American School in London in 1972. After the death of her father, the Turner family moved back to the United States where Kathleen later ...
44. Michelle Pfeiffer
Actress | The Fabulous Baker Boys
Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their lives' work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High ...
45. Dianna Agron
Actress | The Family
Dianna Elise Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia to Mary and Ronald Agron and grew up in a middle-class family in Savannah before moving to Texas and, later, San Francisco, California, because her father was a general manager for Hyatt. Dianna and her brother Jason were raised Jewish and she ...
46. Katja Riemann
Actress | Fack ju Göhte
Katja Riemann was born on November 1, 1963 in Kirchweyhe, Weyhe, Lower Saxony, Germany. She is an actress and director, known for Suck Me Shakespeer (2013), Rosenstrasse (2003) and Bandits (1997).
47. Taylor Cole
Actress | Dumbbells
Taylor Cole is best known for her recurring roles in THE ORIGINALS on the CW in addition to TV Land's IMPASTOR, the CW's SUPERNATURAL, and A&E's THE GLADES. She was a series regular on the NBC hit series, THE EVENT. She has since appeared in numerous shows, including SECOND CHANCE, BALLERS, CASTLE,...
48. Evan Rachel Wood
Actress | Thirteen
Evan Rachel Wood was born September 7, 1987, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a theatre actor, writer and director, and her mother, Sara Wood, is an actress and acting coach. She has two older brothers--Dana Wood, a musician, and Ira David Wood IV, who has also acted. ...
49. Megan Park
Actress | The F Word
Megan Marie Park is a Canadian actress and singer. She is known for her work in the ABC Family television series The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008), and romantic comedy film What If (2013) and Charlie Bartlett (2007). Her first major roles came with a guest spot on the Lifetime series ...
50. Elizabeth Banks
Actress | The Hunger Games
Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. She is the daughter of Anne Marie (Wallace), who worked in a bank, and Mark Phineas Mitchell, a factory worker. Elizabeth describes ...
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