I Once Played...Cleopatra
by FuturisticBowWow | created - 18 Sep 2013 | updated - 18 Sep 2013 | PublicActresses who have played the legendary queen on film and TV.
1. Florence Lawrence
Actress | Not Like Other Girls
Florence Lawrence was the first film player whose name was used to promote her films and the studio (Independent Moving Pictures Company [IMP]) for which she worked. Before her, actors and actresses worked anonymously, partly out of fear that stage managers would refuse to hire them if they were ...
2. Helen Gardner
Actress | Cleopatra
A stage actress who was an alumni of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Helen Gardner made her film debut with Vitagraph Pictures in 1911. In that year she appeared in Vanity Fair (1911), to critical acclaim. The next year she formed her own film production company, Helen Gardner Productions--...
3. Theda Bara
Actress | A Fool There Was
Theda Bara was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Theodosia Goodman, on July 29, 1885. She was the daughter of a local tailor and his wife. As a teenager Theda was interested in the theatrical arts and once she finished high school, she dyed her blond hair black and went in pursuit of her dream. By 1908 ...
4. Ethel Teare
Actress | Anthony and Cleopatra
Ethel Teare was born on January 11, 1894 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. She was an actress, known for Anthony and Cleopatra (1924), Ham at the Beach (1915) and In Dutch (1914). She was married to Frank F. Risso. She died on March 4, 1959 in San Mateo, California, USA.
5. 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 ...
6. Aminah Rizq
Actress | Cleobatra
Aminah Rizq was born on April 13, 1910 in Tanta, Egypt. She was an actress, known for Cleobatra (1943), Al-mouled (1989) and Saut min el madi (1956). She died on August 24, 2003 in Cairo, Egypt.
7. 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 ...
8. Rhonda Fleming
Actress | Out of the Past
A native-born Californian, Rhonda Fleming attended Beverly Hills public and private schools. Her father was Harold Cheverton Louis (1896-1951). Her mother, Effie Olivia Graham (1891-1985), was a famous model and actress in New York. She has a son (Kent Lane), two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly)...
9. Sophia Loren
Actress | La ciociara
Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...
10. Virginia Mayo
Actress | White Heat
Virginia Clara Jones was born on November 30, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a newspaper reporter and his wife. The family had a rich heritage in the St. Louis area: her great-great-great-grandfather served in the American Revolution and later founded the city of East Saint Louis, ...
11. Kim Stanley
Actress | Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Kim Stanley's movie roles were few and far between; she is perhaps best known for her stellar performances on stage, including successes on Broadway. But when she did step in front of the camera, nothing short of memorable resulted. Her repertoire in movies and on stage covered such diversity from ...
12. Pascale Petit
Actress | Una regina per Cesare
Pascale Petit hailed from Paris and was 'discovered' while working as a hairdresser in a Carita salon by Françoise Lugagne, the actress-wife of director Raymond Rouleau. Rouleau proceeded to direct Petit's screen debut as Mary Warren, erstwhile accuser at the Salem witch trials of 1692 and later ...
13. 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 ...
14. Mary Morris
Actress | The Prisoner
Mary first appeared on stage aged just 10. She received her formal training at the royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and went on to a long and distinguished career in film, television and the theatre. She toured Britain with her own theatrical touring company.
15. Ann Blyth
Actress | Mildred Pierce
The dark, petulant beauty of this petite American film and musical star worked to her advantage, especially in her early dramatic career. Anne Marie Blythe was born of Irish stock to Harry and Annie (nee Lynch) Blythe on August 16, 1928 in Mt. Kisco, New York. Her parents split while she was young ...
16. Amanda Barrie
Actress | Carry on Cleo
This feisty and very funny British comedienne and musical revue vet with the trademark 60s brunet page-boy haircut, pronounced jaw, and arguably the largest, Bette Davis-like eyes in London was born Shirley Anne Broadbent in Ashton-under-Lyne, Cheshire on September 14, 1935. The daughter of Hubert ...
17. Hildegard Neil
Actress | Antony and Cleopatra
Hildegard Neil was born on May 20, 1939 in Cape Town, South Africa. She was an actress, known for Antony and Cleopatra (1972), Macbeth (1997) and King Lear (1999). She was married to Brian Blessed, John Cartmel-Crossley and Barry Wenn. She died on September 19, 2023.
18. Janet Suzman
Actress | Nicholas and Alexandra
This alert and classy actress seemed poised for Hollywood stardom in the early 1970s. Although it wasn't meant to be, Janet Suzman has remained one of the more respected classical stage players of her time. Born in 1939, she was raised in a staunchly liberal household in South Africa at a time when...
19. Loray White
Actress | The Notorious Cleopatra
Loray White is known for The Notorious Cleopatra (1970), Miss Nymphet's Zap-In (1970) and Lionel Hampton and Herb Jeffries (1956). She was previously married to Sammy Davis Jr..
20. Michelle Newell
Actress | The Contract
Michelle Newell was born on June 18 1951. She made her television debut in 1972. Four years later she played the ill-fated Mary Seaton in When the Boat Comes In (1976) and in 1983 played Cleopatra, the queen of the Nile, in the BBC series The Cleopatras (1983). She was also the rape victim daughter...
21. Lynn Redgrave
Actress | Gods and Monsters
Actress of both the English and American stage and screen, Lynn Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, England, into one of the world's most famous acting dynasties. As the daughter of Rachel Kempson and Sir Michael Redgrave, sister of Vanessa Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, and granddaughter of Roy...
22. Amy Stiller
Actress | Inside Amy Schumer
Amy Stiller was born on September 8, 1961 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Inside Amy Schumer (2013), Divorce (2016) and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017).
23. Gina Torres
Actress | Serenity
Gina was born in New York City and is youngest of three children in a close-knit Cuban American family. Attended New York City's High School of Music and Art She is a gifted mezzo soprano and was trained in opera and jazz and also sang in a gospel choir.
24. Leonor Varela
Actress | Blade II
Leonor Varela was born on December 29, 1972 in Santiago de Chile, Chile, the daughter of Leonor Palma, a massage therapist, and Francisco Varela (Francisco Javier Varela Garcia), a biologist, neuroscientist, and philosopher. Her family fled to Costa Rica, leaving behind the dictatorship of Augusto ...
25. Monica Bellucci
Actress | Malèna
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci. She originally pursued a career in the legal profession. While attending the University of Perugia, she modeled on the side to ...
26. Anna Valle
Actress | Carnera: The Walking Mountain
Elected as Miss Italy in 1995, she started acting in a lot of TV movies and Tv series that gave her such a big audience: "Commesse", "Per amore", "Papa Giovanni", and many others. She has even starred in some international projects like "Augustum" with Peter O'Toole and Charlotte Rampling, in which...
27. Lyndsey Marshal
Actress | Rome
Lyndsey Marshal was born on June 16, 1978 in Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Rome (2005), Trespass Against Us (2016) and Hereafter (2010).
28. Alex Kingston
Actress | ER
Alex Kingston was born on March 11, 1963 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for ER (1994), Doctor Who (2005) and Alpha Dog (2006). She has been married to Jonathan Stamp since July 18, 2015. She was previously married to Florian Haertel and Ralph Fiennes.
Tell Your Friends