The 300 Greatest Actors of All Time

1. Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...

Essential viewing: The Men (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1950) A Streetcar Named Desire (dir. Elia Kazan, 1951) Viva Zapata! (dir. Elia Kazan, 1952) Julius Caesar (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953) The Wild One (dir. László Benedek, 1953) On the Waterfront (dir. Elia Kazan, 1954) Sayonara (dir. Joshua Logan, 1957) The Godfather (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Last Tango in Paris (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972) Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

2. 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 ...

Essential viewing: The Immigrant (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1917) A Dog's Life (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1918) The Kid (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1921) The Gold Rush (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1925) The Circus (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1928) City Lights (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1931) Modern Times (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1936) The Great Dictator (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1940) Monsieur Verdoux (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1947) Limelight (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1952)

3. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Wuthering Heights (dir. William Wyler, 1939) Rebecca (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) Henry V (dir. Laurence Olivier, 1944) Hamlet (dir. Laurence Olivier, 1948) Richard III (dir. Laurence Olivier, 1955) The Entertainer (dir. Tony Richardson, 1960) Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1960) Sleuth (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972) Marathon Man (dir. John Schlesinger, 1976) The Boys from Brazil (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978)

4. Robert De Niro

Actor | Cape Fear

One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...

Essential viewing: The Godfather, Part II (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Taxi Driver (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1976) The Deer Hunter (dir. Michael Cimino, 1978) Raging Bull (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1980) The King of Comedy (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1983) Once Upon a Time in America (dir. Sergio Leone, 1984) Midnight Run (dir. Martin Brest, 1988) Goodfellas (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990) Awakenings (dir. Penny Marshall, 1990) Cape Fear (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1991)

5. 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 ...

Essential viewing: You Can't Take It with You (dir. Frank Capra, 1938) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (dir. Frank Capra, 1939) The Shop Around the Corner (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) The Philadelphia Story (dir. George Cukor, 1940) It's a Wonderful Life (dir. Frank Capra, 1946) Harvey (dir. Henry Koster, 1950) Rear Window (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) Vertigo (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Anatomy of a Murder (dir. Otto Preminger, 1959) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (dir. John Ford, 1962)

6. Jack Nicholson

Actor | Chinatown

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...

Essential viewing: Five Easy Pieces (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1970) The Last Detail (dir. Hal Ashby, 1973) Chinatown (dir. Roman Polanski, 1974) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (dir. Milos Forman, 1975) The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980) Terms of Endearment (dir. James L. Brooks, 1983) Batman (dir. Tim Burton, 1989) A Few Good Men (dir. Rob Reiner, 1992) As Good as It Gets (dir. James L. Brooks, 1997) The Departed (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2006)

7. Al Pacino

Actor | Serpico

Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.

He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...

Essential viewing: The Godfather (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Serpico (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1973) The Godfather, Part II (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Dog Day Afternoon (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1975) ...And Justice for All (dir. Norman Jewison, 1979) Scarface (dir. Brian De Palma, 1983) Glengarry Glen Ross (dir. James Foley, 1992) Scent of a Woman (dir. Martin Brest, 1992) Donnie Brasco (dir. Mike Newell, 1997) The Insider (dir. Michael Mann, 1999)

8. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

Essential viewing: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (dir. Richard Brooks, 1958) The Hustler (dir. Robert Rossen, 1961) Hud (dir. Martin Ritt, 1963) Cool Hand Luke (dir. Stuart Rosenberg, 1967) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (dir. George Roy Hill, 1969) The Sting (dir. George Roy Hill, 1973) The Verdict (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1982) The Color of Money (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1986) Nobody's Fool (dir. Robert Benton, 1994) Road to Perdition (dir. Sam Mendes, 2002)

9. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Angels with Dirty Faces (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1938) The Maltese Falcon (dir. John Huston, 1941) Casablanca (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942) To Have and Have Not (dir. Howard Hawks, 1944) The Big Sleep (dir. Howard Hawks, 1946) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (dir. John Huston, 1948) Key Largo (dir. John Huston, 1948) In a Lonely Place (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1950) The African Queen (dir. John Huston, 1951) The Caine Mutiny (dir. Edward Dmytryk, 1954)

10. Toshirô Mifune

Actor | Yôjinbô

Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...

Essential viewing: Rashomon (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1950) The Life of Oharu (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952) Seven Samurai (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Throne of Blood (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1957) The Hidden Fortress (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1958) Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1961) Sanjuro (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1962) High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963) Red Beard (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1965) Samurai Rebellion (dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 1967)

11. 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 ...

Essential viewing: The Awful Truth (dir. Leo McCarey, 1937) Bringing Up Baby (dir. Howard Hawks, 1938) Holiday (dir. George Cukor, 1938) His Girl Friday (dir. Howard Hawks, 1940) The Philadelphia Story (dir. George Cukor, 1940) Arsenic and Old Lace (dir. Frank Capra, 1944) Notorious (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1946) An Affair to Remember (dir. Leo McCarey, 1957) North by Northwest (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Charade (dir. Stanley Donen, 1963)

12. 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 ...

Essential viewing: One Week (dir. Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton, 1920) Cops (dir. Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton, 1922) Our Hospitality (dir. John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton, 1923) Sherlock, Jr. (dir. Buster Keaton, 1924) The Navigator (dir. Donald Crisp and Buster Keaton, 1924) Seven Chances (dir. Buster Keaton, 1925) The General (dir. Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1926) Steamboat Bill, Jr. (dir. Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton, 1928) The Cameraman (dir. Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick, 1928) Limelight (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1952)

13. Dustin Hoffman

Actor | Tootsie

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, ...

Essential viewing: The Graduate (dir. Mike Nichols, 1967) Midnight Cowboy (dir. John Schlesinger, 1969) Straw Dogs (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1971) Papillon (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973) Lenny (dir. Bob Fosse, 1974) All the President's Men (dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1976) Marathon Man (dir. John Schlesinger, 1976) Kramer vs. Kramer (dir. Robert Benton, 1979) Tootsie (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1982) Rain Man (dir. Barry Levinson, 1988)

14. Marcello Mastroianni

Actor | La dolce vita

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...

Essential viewing: White Nights (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1957) Big Deal on Madonna Street (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1958) La Dolce Vita (dir. Federico Fellini, 1960) La Notte (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) Divorce Italian Style (dir. Pietro Germi, 1961) 8 1/2 (dir. Federico Fellini, 1963) Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1963) Marriage Italian Style (dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1964) A Special Day (dir. Ettore Scola, 1977) Dark Eyes (dir. Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987)

15. Daniel Day-Lewis

Actor | There Will Be Blood

Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...

Essential viewing: A Room with a View (dir. James Ivory, 1986) The Unbearable Lightness of Being (dir. Philip Kaufman, 1988) My Left Foot (dir. Jim Sheridan, 1989) The Last of the Mohicans (dir. Michael Mann, 1992) The Age of Innocence (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1993) In the Name of the Father (dir. Jim Sheridan, 1993) Gangs of New York (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2002) There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007) Lincoln (dir. Steven Spielberg, 2012) Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)

16. 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, ...

Essential viewing: The Grapes of Wrath (dir. John Ford, 1940) The Lady Eve (dir. Preston Sturges, 1941) The Ox-Bow Incident (dir. William A. Wellman, 1943) My Darling Clementine (dir. John Ford, 1946) Mister Roberts (dir. John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, 1955) 12 Angry Men (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1957) Advise & Consent (dir. Otto Preminger, 1962) Fail-Safe (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1964) Once Upon a Time in the West (dir. Sergio Leone, 1968) On Golden Pond (dir. Mark Rydell, 1981)

17. Alec Guinness

Actor | Star Wars

Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...

Essential viewing: Great Expectations (dir. David Lean, 1946) Oliver Twist (dir. David Lean, 1948) Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hamer, 1949) The Lavender Hill Mob (dir. Charles Crichton, 1951) The Ladykillers (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1955) The Bridge on the River Kwai (dir. David Lean, 1957) The Horse's Mouth (dir. Ronald Neame, 1958) Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean, 1962) Doctor Zhivago (dir. David Lean, 1965) Star Wars (dir. George Lucas, 1977)

18. Jean Gabin

Actor | La grande illusion

Jean-Alexis Moncorgé started his career with 15 years at the theatre and debuted at the "Moulin Rouge" in Paris in 1929. Despite of his rude aspect he knew to be the gentleman of the French cinema in the time between the two World Wars. One of his most popular personalities was inspector Maigret. ...

Essential viewing: The Lower Depths (dir. Jean Renoir, 1936) Pépé le Moko (dir. Julien Duvivier, 1937) La Grande Illusion (dir. Jean Renoir, 1937) Port of Shadows (dir. Marcel Carné, 1938) La Bête Humaine (dir. Jean Renoir, 1938) Le Jour Se Lève (dir. Marcel Carné, 1939) Le Plaisir (dir. Max Ophüls, 1952) Touchez Pas au Grisbi (dir. Jacques Becker, 1954) French Cancan (dir. Jean Renoir, 1955) Les Misérables (dir. Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1958)

19. Jack Lemmon

Actor | The Apartment

Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Mildred Lankford Noel and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., the president of a doughnut company. His ancestry included Irish (from his paternal grandmother) and English. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers ...

Essential viewing: Mister Roberts (dir. John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, 1955) Some Like It Hot (dir. Billy Wilder, 1959) The Apartment (dir. Billy Wilder, 1960) Days of Wine and Roses (dir. Blake Edwards, 1962) The Great Race (dir. Blake Edwards, 1965) The Fortune Cookie (dir. Billy Wilder, 1966) The Odd Couple (dir. Gene Saks, 1968) The China Syndrome (dir. James Bridges, 1979) Missing (dir. Costa-Gavras, 1982) Glengarry Glen Ross (dir. James Foley, 1992)

20. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Stagecoach (dir. John Ford, 1939) Fort Apache (dir. John Ford, 1948) Red River (dir. Howard Hawks, 1948) The Quiet Man (dir. John Ford, 1952) The Searchers (dir. John Ford, 1956) Rio Bravo (dir. Howard Hawks, 1959) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (dir. John Ford, 1962) El Dorado (dir. Howard Hawks, 1967) True Grit (dir. Henry Hathaway, 1969) The Shootist (dir. Don Siegel, 1976)

21. Tom Hanks

Producer | Cast Away

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has ...

Essential viewing: Big (dir. Penny Marshall, 1988) Philadelphia (dir. Jonathan Demme, 1993) Forrest Gump (dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1994) Apollo 13 (dir. Ron Howard, 1995) Saving Private Ryan (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1998) The Green Mile (dir. Frank Darabont, 1999) Cast Away (dir. Robert Zemeckis, 2000) Road to Perdition (dir. Sam Mendes, 2002) Catch Me If You Can (dir. Steven Spielberg, 2002) Captain Phillips (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2013)

22. Gregory Peck

Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird

Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, to Bernice Mae (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. He had Irish (from his paternal grandmother), English, and some German, ancestry. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child...

Essential viewing: Spellbound (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1945) The Yearling (dir. Clarence Brown, 1946) Gentleman's Agreement (dir. Elia Kazan, 1947) Twelve O'Clock High (dir. Henry King, 1949) The Gunfighter (dir. Henry King, 1950) Roman Holiday (dir. William Wyler, 1953) The Big Country (dir. William Wyler, 1958) The Guns of Navarone (dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1961) Cape Fear (dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1962) To Kill a Mockingbird (dir. Robert Mulligan, 1962)

23. Sidney Poitier

Actor | In the Heat of the Night

Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal ...

Essential viewing: No Way Out (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Blackboard Jungle (dir. Richard Brooks, 1955) The Defiant Ones (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1958) Porgy and Bess (dir. Otto Preminger, 1959) A Raisin in the Sun (dir. Daniel Petrie, 1961) Lilies of the Field (dir. Ralph Nelson, 1963) A Patch of Blue (dir. Guy Green, 1965) To Sir, with Love (dir. James Clavell, 1967) In the Heat of the Night (dir. Norman Jewison, 1967) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1967)

24. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Wings (dir. William A. Wellman, 1927) Design for Living (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1933) Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (dir. Frank Capra, 1936) Beau Geste (dir. William A. Wellman, 1939) Meet John Doe (dir. Frank Capra, 1941) Sergeant York (dir. Howard Hawks, 1941) Ball of Fire (dir. Howard Hawks, 1941) The Pride of the Yankees (dir. Sam Wood, 1942) High Noon (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1952) Friendly Persuasion (dir. William Wyler, 1956)

25. 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 ...

Essential viewing: The Public Enemy (dir. William A. Wellman, 1931) Footlight Parade (dir. Lloyd Bacon, 1933) Angels with Dirty Faces (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1938) The Roaring Twenties (dir. Raoul Walsh, 1939) The Strawberry Blonde (dir. Raoul Walsh, 1941) Yankee Doodle Dandy (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942) White Heat (dir. Raoul Walsh, 1949) Love Me or Leave Me (dir. Charles Vidor, 1955) Mister Roberts (dir. John Ford en Mervyn LeRoy, 1955) One, Two, Three (dir. Billy Wilder, 1961)

26. Gérard Depardieu

Actor | Cyrano de Bergerac

Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along ...

Essential viewing: Going Places (dir. Bertrand Blier, 1974) 1900 (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976) My American Uncle (dir. Alain Resnais, 1980) The Last Metro (dir. François Truffaut, 1980) The Woman Next Door (dir. François Truffaut, 1981) Danton (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1983) Jean de Florette (dir. Claude Berri, 1986) Cyrano de Bergerac (dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990) Tous les Matins du Monde (dir. Alain Corneau, 1991) A Pure Formality (dir. Giuseppe Tornatore, 1994)

27. 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...

Essential viewing: Fury (dir. Fritz Lang, 1936) Captains Courageous (dir. Victor Fleming, 1937) Boys Town (dir. Norman Taurog, 1938) Adam's Rib (dir. George Cukor, 1949) Father of the Bride (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1950) Bad Day at Black Rock (dir. John Sturges, 1955) The Last Hurrah (dir. John Ford, 1958) Inherit the Wind (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1960) Judgment at Nuremberg (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1961) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1967)

28. Peter O'Toole

Actor | Lawrence of Arabia

A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a...

Essential viewing: Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean, 1962) Becket (dir. Peter Glenville, 1964) How to Steal a Million (dir. William Wyler, 1966) The Night of the Generals (dir. Anatole Litvak, 1967) The Lion in Winter (dir. Anthony Harvey, 1968) The Ruling Class (dir. Peter Medak, 1972) The Stunt Man (dir. Richard Rush, 1980) My Favorite Year (dir. Richard Benjamin, 1982) The Last Emperor (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987) Venus (dir. Roger Michell, 2006)

29. Gene Hackman

Actor | The French Connection

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Anna Lyda Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After ...

Essential viewing: Bonnie and Clyde (dir. Arthur Penn, 1967) I Never Sang for My Father (dir. Gilbert Cates, 1970) The French Connection (dir. William Friedkin, 1971) Scarecrow (dir. Jerry Schatzberg, 1973) The Conversation (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Superman (dir. Richard Donner, 1978) Hoosiers (dir. David Anspaugh, 1986) Mississippi Burning (dir. Alan Parker, 1988) Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992) The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson, 2001)

30. Michael Caine

Actor | The Dark Knight

Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of ...

Essential viewing: Zulu (dir. Cy Endfield, 1964) Get Carter (dir. Mike Hodges, 1971) Sleuth (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972) The Man Who Would Be King (dir. John Huston, 1975) Educating Rita (dir. Lewis Gilbert, 1983) Hannah and Her Sisters (dir. Woody Allen, 1986) The Muppet Christmas Carol (dir. Brian Henson, 1992) The Cider House Rules (dir. Lasse Hallström, 1999) Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2006) The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008)

31. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Red Dust (dir. Victor Fleming, 1932) It Happened One Night (dir. Frank Capra, 1934) Manhattan Melodrama (dir. W.S. Van Dyke, 1934) Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Frank Lloyd, 1935) San Francisco (dir. W.S. Van Dyke, 1936) Gone with the Wind (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939) Command Decision (dir. Sam Wood, 1948) Run Silent, Run Deep (dir. Robert Wise, 1958) Teacher's Pet (dir. George Seaton, 1958) The Misfits (dir. John Huston, 1961)

32. 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 ...

Essential viewing: My Cousin Rachel (dir. Henry Koster, 1952) Becket (dir. Peter Glenville, 1964) The Night of the Iguana (dir. John Huston, 1964) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (dir. Martin Ritt, 1965) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (dir. Mike Nichols, 1966) The Taming of the Shrew (dir. Franco Zeffirelli, 1967) Where Eagles Dare (dir. Brian G. Hutton, 1968) Anne of the Thousand Days (dir. Charles Jarrott, 1969) Equus (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1977) Nineteen Eighty-Four (dir. Michael Radford, 1984)

33. Max von Sydow

Actor | Flash Gordon

Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.

...

Essential viewing: The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957) The Virgin Spring (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1960) Through a Glass Darkly (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1961) Winter Light (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1963) Shame (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1968) The Emigrants (dir. Jan Troell, 1971) The New Land (dir. Jan Troell, 1972) The Exorcist (dir. William Friedkin, 1973) Pelle the Conqueror (dir. Bille August, 1987) Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2010)

34. Denzel Washington

Actor | Fences

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...

Essential viewing: Cry Freedom (dir. Richard Attenborough, 1987) Glory (dir. Edward Zwick, 1989) Malcolm X (dir. Spike Lee, 1992) Philadelphia (dir. Jonathan Demme, 1993) The Hurricane (dir. Norman Jewison, 1999) Training Day (dir. Antoine Fuqua, 2001) Inside Man (dir. Spike Lee, 2006) American Gangster (dir. Ridley Scott, 2007) Flight (dir. Robert Zemeckis, 2012) Fences (dir. Denzel Washington, 2016)

35. Burt Lancaster

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and ...

Essential viewing: The Killers (dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946) From Here to Eternity (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1953) Sweet Smell of Success (dir. Alexander Mackendrick) Elmer Gantry (dir. Richard Brooks, 1960) Judgment at Nuremberg (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1961) Birdman of Alcatraz (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1962) The Leopard (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1963) Seven Days in May (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1964) The Train (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1964) Local Hero (dir. Bill Forsyth, 1983)

36. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

Essential viewing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (dir. Sergio Leone, 1966) Where Eagles Dare (dir. Brian G. Hutton, 1968) Dirty Harry (dir. Don Siegel, 1971) High Plains Drifter (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1973) The Outlaw Josey Wales (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1976) Escape from Alcatraz (dir. Don Siegel, 1979) Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992) The Bridges of Madison County (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1995) Million Dollar Baby (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2004) Gran Torino (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2008)

37. Jean-Paul Belmondo

Actor | Pierrot le fou

The son of the renowned French sculptor Paul Belmondo, he studied at Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD); after the minor stage performances he made his screen debut in À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957) but the episodes with his participation were cut before ...

Essential viewing: Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) Two Women (dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1960) A Woman Is a Woman (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1961) Léon Morin, Priest (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961) A Monkey in Winter (dir. Henri Verneuil, 1962) Le Doulos (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1963) Pierrot le Fou (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) The Man from Acapulco (dir. Philippe de Broca, 1973) The Professional (dir. Georges Lautner, 1981) Les Misérables (dir. Claude Lelouch, 1995)

38. William Holden

Actor | Stalag 17

Billy Wilder proclaimed William Holden to be "the ideal motion picture actor". For almost four decades, the handsome, affable 'Golden Holden' was among Hollywood's most durable and engaging stars. He was born William Franklin Beedle Jr., one of three sons to a high school English teacher, Mary ...

Essential viewing: Sunset Boulevard (dir. Billy Wilder, 1950) Born Yesterday (dir. George Cukor, 1950) Stalag 17 (dir. Billy Wilder, 1953) Executive Suite (dir. Robert Wise, 1954) Sabrina (dir. Billy Wilder, 1954) Picnic (dir. Joshua Logan, 1955) The Bridge on the River Kwai (dir. David Lean, 1957) The Counterfeit Traitor (dir. George Seaton, 1962) The Wild Bunch (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1969) Network (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1976)

39. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Crossfire (dir. Edward Dmytryk, 1947) Out of the Past (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1947) The Lusty Men (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1952) The Night of the Hunter (dir. Charles Laughton, 1955) Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (dir. John Huston, 1957) Home from the Hill (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1960) Cape Fear (dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1962) El Dorado (dir. Howard Hawks, 1967) Ryan's Daughter (dir. David Lean, 1970) The Friends of Eddie Coyle (dir. Peter Yates, 1973)

40. Peter Sellers

Actor | Being There

Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his ...

Essential viewing: The Ladykillers (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1955) The Mouse That Roared (dir. Jack Arnold, 1959) I'm All Right Jack (dir. John Boulting, 1959) Lolita (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1962) The Pink Panther (dir. Blake Edwards, 1963) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1964) A Shot in the Dark (dir. Blake Edwards, 1964) The Party (dir. Blake Edwards, 1968) Murder by Death (dir. Robert Moore, 1976) Being There (dir. Hal Ashby, 1979)

41. Kirk Douglas

Actor | The Final Countdown

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. ...

Essential viewing: Out of the Past (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1947) A Letter to Three Wives (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949) Champion (dir. Mark Robson, 1949) Ace in the Hole (dir. Billy Wilder, 1951) The Bad and the Beautiful (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1952) Lust for Life (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1956) Paths of Glory (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1957) Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1960) Lonely Are the Brave (dir. David Miller, 1962) Seven Days in May (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1964)

42. Morgan Freeman

Actor | Driving Miss Daisy

With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mayme Edna (Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber. The young Freeman...

Essential viewing: Glory (dir. Edward Zwick, 1989) Driving Miss Daisy (dir. Bruce Beresford, 1989) Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992) The Shawshank Redemption (dir. Frank Darabont, 1994) Se7en (dir. David Fincher, 1995) Amistad (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1997) Million Dollar Baby (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2004) Gone Baby Gone (dir. Ben Affleck, 2007) The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008) Invictus (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2009)

43. Leonardo DiCaprio

Actor | Inception

Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...

Essential viewing: What's Eating Gilbert Grape (dir. Lasse Hallström, 1993) Titanic (dir. James Cameron, 1997) Catch Me If You Can (dir. Steven Spielberg, 2002) The Departed (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2006) Blood Diamond (dir. Edward Zwick, 2006) Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2010) Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2010) Django Unchained (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2012) The Wolf of Wall Street (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2013) The Revenant (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)

44. Vittorio Gassman

Actor | Sleepers

Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed him to his ...

Essential viewing: Bitter Rice (dir. Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) Big Deal on Madonna Street (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1958) The Great War (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1959) Il Sorpasso (dir. Dino Risi, 1962) L'Armata Brancaleone (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1966) Scent of a Woman (dir. Dino Risi, 1974) We All Loved Each Other So Much (dir. Ettore Scola, 1974) The Desert of the Tartars (dir. Valerio Zurlini, 1976) The Family (dir. Ettore Scola, 1987) Sleepers (dir. Barry Levinson, 1996)

45. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

Essential viewing: Citizen Kane (dir. Orson Welles, 1941) Jane Eyre (dir. Robert Stevenson, 1944) The Lady from Shanghai (dir. Orson Welles, 1947) Macbeth (dir. Orson Welles, 1948) The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed, 1949) Othello (dir. Orson Welles, 1952) Touch of Evil (dir. Orson Welles, 1958) Compulsion (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1959) Chimes at Midnight (dir. Orson Welles, 1965) A Man for All Seasons (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1966)

46. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Never Weaken (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer, 1921) Grandma's Boy (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer, 1922) Safety Last! (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1923) Why Worry? (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1923) Girl Shy (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1924) Hot Water (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1924) The Freshman (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1925) For Heaven's Sake (dir. Sam Taylor, 1926) The Kid Brother (dir. J.A. Howe and Ted Wilde, 1927) Speedy (dir. Ted Wilde, 1928)

47. Sean Connery

Actor | The Rock

The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he ...

Essential viewing: From Russia with Love (dir. Terence Young, 1963) Marnie (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1964) Goldfinger (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1964) The Hill (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1965) The Man Who Would Be King (dir. John Huston, 1975) A Bridge Too Far (dir. Richard Attenborough, 1977) The Name of the Rose (dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986) The Untouchables (dir. Brian De Palma, 1987) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1989) The Hunt for Red October (dir. John McTiernan, 1990)

48. Robert Duvall

Actor | The Apostle

Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a ...

Essential viewing: To Kill a Mockingbird (dir. Robert Mulligan, 1962) M*A*S*H (dir. Robert Altman, 1970) The Godfather (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) The Godfather, Part II (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Network (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1976) Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) The Great Santini (dir. Lewis John Carlino, 1980) Tender Mercies (dir. Bruce Beresford, 1983) The Natural (dir. Barry Levinson, 1984) The Apostle (dir. Robert Duvall, 1997)

49. Anthony Quinn

Actor | Alexis Zorbas

Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...

Essential viewing: The Ox-Bow Incident (dir. William A. Wellman, 1943) Viva Zapata! (dir. Elia Kazan, 1952) La Strada (dir. Federico Fellini, 1954) Lust for Life (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1956) The Guns of Navarone (dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1961) Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean, 1962) Zorba the Greek (dir. Michael Cacoyannis, 1964) The Secret of Santa Vittoria (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1969) The Message (dir. Moustapha Akkad, 1977) Lion of the Desert (dir. Moustapha Akkad, 1981)

50. 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 ...

Essential viewing: The Delicious Little Devil (dir. Robert Z. Leonard, 1919) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (dir. Rex Ingram, 1921) Camille (dir. Ray C. Smallwood, 1921) The Sheik (dir. George Melford, 1921) Beyond the Rocks (dir. Sam Wood, 1922) Blood and Sand (dir. Fred Niblo, 1922) Monsieur Beaucaire (dir. Sidney Olcott, 1924) The Eagle (dir. Clarence Brown, 1925) Cobra (dir. Joseph Henabery, 1925) The Son of the Sheik (dir. George Fitzmaurice, 1926)

51. George C. Scott

Actor | Patton

George C. Scott was an immensely talented actor, a star of the big screen, stage and television. He was born on October 18, 1927 in Wise, Virginia, to Helena Agnes (Slemp) and George Dewey Scott. At the age of eight, his mother died, and his father, an executive at Buick, raised him. In 1945, he ...

Essential viewing: Anatomy of a Murder (dir. Otto Preminger, 1959) The Hustler (dir. Robert Rossen, 1961) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1964) Petulia (dir. Richard Lester, 1968) Patton (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970) The Hospital (dir. Arthur Hiller, 1971) The Changeling (dir. Peter Medak, 1980) A Christmas Carol (dir. Clive Donner, 1984) 12 Angry Men (dir. William Friedkin, 1997) Inherit the Wind (dir. Daniel Petrie, 1999)

52. Robert Redford

Actor | The Natural

Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Charles Robert Redford, an accountant for Standard Oil, and Martha Redford, Charles Robert Redford, Jr. was a scrappy kid who stole hubcaps in high school and lost his college baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado because of ...

Essential viewing: The Chase (dir. Arthur Penn, 1966) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (dir. George Roy Hill, 1969) Jeremiah Johnson (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1972) The Way We Were (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1973) The Sting (dir. George Roy Hill, 1973) Three Days of the Condor (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1975) All the President's Men (dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1976) The Natural (dir. Barry Levinson, 1984) Out of Africa (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1985) The Old Man and the Gun (dir. David Lowery, 2018)

53. Montgomery Clift

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-...

Essential viewing: The Search (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1948) Red River (dir. Howard Hawks, 1948) The Heiress (dir. William Wyler, 1949) A Place in the Sun (dir. George Stevens, 1951) I Confess (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1953) From Here to Eternity (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1953) Suddenly, Last Summer (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959) Wild River (dir. Elia Kazan, 1960) The Misfits (dir. John Huston, 1961) Judgment at Nuremberg (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1961)

54. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

Essential viewing: The Lion in Winter (dir. Anthony Harvey, 1968) The Elephant Man (dir. David Lynch, 1980) The Silence of the Lambs (dir. Jonathan Demme, 1991) Howards End (dir. James Ivory, 1992) The Remains of the Day (dir. James Ivory, 1993) Shadowlands (dir. Richard Attenborough, 1993) Legends of the Fall (dir. Edward Zwick, 1994) Nixon (dir. Oliver Stone, 1995) Amistad (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1997) The World's Fastest Indian (dir. Roger Donaldson, 2005)

55. James Dean

Actor | East of Eden

James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to ...

Essential viewing: East of Eden (dir. Elia Kazan, 1955) Rebel Without a Cause (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1955) Giant (dir. George Stevens, 1956)

56. Alain Delon

Actor | Le samouraï

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Édith (Arnold) and Fabien Delon. His father was of French and Corsican Italian descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His parents divorced early on, and Delon had a stormy childhood, being ...

Essential viewing: Purple Noon (dir. René Clément, 1960) Rocco and His Brothers (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1960) L'Eclisse (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) The Leopard (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1963) Le Samouraï (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) The Sicilian Clan (dir. Henri Verneuil, 1969) Le Cercle Rouge (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970) Un Flic (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972) Two Men in Town (dir. José Giovanni, 1973) Monsieur Klein (dir. Joseph Losey, 1976)

57. Michel Piccoli

Actor | Le mépris

This suave, elegant character star was a ubiquitous presence in French cinema for nearly seven decades. His distinguished career extended to both stage and screen and his versatility was such that he could take on just about any persona (in his own words: "I do not put on an act... I slip away ...

Essential viewing: Le Doulos (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1963) Contempt (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) Diary of a Chambermaid (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1964) The Young Girls of Rochefort (dir. Jacques Demy, 1967) Belle de Jour (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1967) The Milky Way (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1969) The Things of Life (dir. Claude Sautet, 1970) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1972) Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (dir. Claude Sautet, 1974) La Belle Noiseuse (dir. Jacques Rivette, 1991)

58. Klaus Kinski

Actor | Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht

Klaus Kinski was born as Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland), to Susanne (Lutze), a nurse, and Bruno Nakszynski, a pharmacist. He grew up in Berlin, was drafted into the German army in 1944 and captured by British forces in Holland. After the war he began...

Essential viewing: The Counterfeit Traitor (dir. George Seaton, 1962) Doctor Zhivago (dir. David Lean 1965) For a Few Dollars More (dir. Sergio Leone, 1965) A Bullet for the General (dir. Damiano Damiani, 1967) The Great Silence (dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1968) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (dir. Werner Herzog, 1972) Nosferatu the Vampyre (dir. Werner Herzog, 1979) Woyzeck (dir. Werner Herzog, 1979) Fitzcarraldo (dir. Werner Herzog, 1982) Cobra Verde (dir. Werner Herzog, 1987)

59. Harrison Ford

Actor | Raiders of the Lost Ark

Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, ...

Essential viewing: The Conversation (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Star Wars (dir. George Lucas, 1977) The Empire Strikes Back (dir. Irvin Kershner, 1980) Raiders of the Lost Ark (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1981) Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982) Return of the Jedi (dir. Richard Marquand, 1983) Witness (dir. Peter Weir, 1985) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1989) The Fugitive (dir. Andrew Davis, 1993) Blade Runner 2017 (dir. Dennis Villeneuve, 2017)

60. Gene Kelly

Soundtrack | Singin' in the Rain

Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third son of Harriet Catherine (Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Irish and German ancestry.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in...

Essential viewing: For Me and My Gal (dir. Busby Berkeley, 1942) Anchors Aweigh (dir. George Sidney, 1945) The Three Musketeers (dir. George Sidney, 1948) On the Town (dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949) Summer Stock (dir. Charles Walters, 1950) An American in Paris (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1951) Singin' in the Rain (dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952) It's Always Fair Weather (dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1955) Inherit the Wind (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1960) The Young Girls of Rochefort (dir. Jacques Demy, 1967)

61. Peter Lorre

Actor | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy in the Slovak area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Hungarian Jewish parents. He learned both Hungarian and German languages from birth, and was educated in elementary and secondary schools in the Austria-Hungary capitol Vienna, but did ...

Essential viewing: M (dir. Fritz Lang, 1931) The Man Who Knew Too Much (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1934) Mad Love (dir. Karl Freund, 1935) The Maltese Falcon (dir. John Huston, 1941) Casablanca (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942) The Mask of Dimitrios (dir. Jean Negulesco, 1944) Arsenic and Old Lace (dir. Frank Capra, 1944) The Verdict (dir. Don Siegel, 1946) Der Verlorene (dir. Peter Lorre, 1951) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1954)

62. 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. ...

Essential viewing: The Gay Divorcee (dir. Mark Sandrich, 1934) Top Hat (dir. Mark Sandrich, 1935) Swing Time (dir. George Stevens, 1936) Shall We Dance (dir. Mark Sandrich, 1937) Broadway Melody of 1940 (dir. Norman Taurog, 1940) Holiday Inn (dir. Mark Sandrich, 1942) Easter Parade (dir. Charles Walters, 1948) The Band Wagon (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1953) Funny Face (dir. Stanley Donen, 1957) On the Beach (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1959)

63. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Little Caesar (dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 1931) Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (dir. William Dieterle, 1940) The Sea Wolf (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1941) Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944) The Woman in the Window (dir. Fritz Lang, 1944) Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (dir. Roy Rowland, 1945) Scarlet Street (dir. Fritz Lang, 1945) The Stranger (dir. Orson Welles, 1946) Key Largo (dir. John Huston, 1948) The Ten Commandments (dir. Cecil B. DeMille, 1956)

64. 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). ...

Essential viewing: The Private Life of Henry VIII (dir. Alexander Korda, 1933) Ruggles of Red Gap (dir. Leo McCarey, 1935) Les Misérables (dir. Richard Boleslawski, 1935) Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Frank Lloyd, 1935) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (dir. William Dieterle, 1939) This Land Is Mine (dir. Jean Renoir, 1943) Hobson's Choice (dir. David Lean, 1954) Witness for the Prosecution (dir. Billy Wilder, 1957) Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1960) Advise & Consent (dir. Otto Preminger, 1962)

65. Takashi Shimura

Actor | Shichinin no samurai

Japanese character actor Takashi Shimura was one of the finest film actors of the 20th century and a leading member of the "stock company" of master director Akira Kurosawa. A native of southern Japan, Shimura was a descendant of the samurai warrior class. Following university training, he founded ...

Essential viewing: Stray Dog (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1949) Rashomon (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1950) Ikiru (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1952) Seven Samurai (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Throne of Blood (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1957) The Hidden Fortress (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1958) The Bad Sleep Well (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1960) Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1961) Sanjuro (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1962) Kwaidan (dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 1964)

66. Sean Penn

Actor | Mystic River

Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.

Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...

Essential viewing: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (dir. Amy Heckerling, 1982) State of Grace (dir. Phil Joanou, 1990) Carlito's Way (dir. Brian De Palma, 1993) Dead Man Walking (dir. Tim Robbins, 1995) The Game (dir. David Fincher, 1997) The Thin Red Line (dir. Terrence Malick, 1998) Sweet and Lowdown (dir. Woody Allen, 1999) Mystic River (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2003) 21 Grams (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2003) Milk (dir. Gus Van Sant, 2008)

67. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actor | The Master

Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...

Essential viewing: Boogie Nights (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997) Happiness (dir. Todd Solondz, 1998) Magnolia (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) 25th Hour (dir. Spike Lee, 2002) Capote (dir. Bennett Miller, 2005) Charlie Wilson's War (dir. Mike Nichols, 2007) Synecdoche, New York (dir. Charlie Kaufman, 2008) Doubt (dir. John Patrick Shanley, 2008) Moneyball (dir. Bennett Miller, 2011) The Master (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

68. Dennis Hopper

Actor | Easy Rider

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a ...

Essential viewing: Rebel Without a Cause (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1955) Giant (dir. George Stevens, 1956) Easy Rider (dir. Dennis Hopper, 1969) The American Friend (dir. Wim Wenders, 1977) Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Rumble Fish (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) Blue Velvet (dir. David Lynch, 1986) Hoosiers (dir. David Anspaugh, 1986) True Romance (dir. Tony Scott, 1993) Speed (dir. Jan de Bont, 1994)

69. Max Linder

Actor | Seven Years Bad Luck

Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic ...

Essential viewing: Max Takes a Bath (dir. Lucien Nonguet, 1910) Max Takes Tonics (dir. Max Linder, 1911) The Water-Funker (dir. Max Linder, 1912) Entente Cordiale (dir. Max Linder, 1912) Max's Latest Hobby (dir. Max Linder, 1914) Le Mariage Forcé (dir. Max Linder, 1914) Seven Years Bad Luck (dir. Max Linder, 1921) Be My Wife (dir. Max Linder, 1921) The Three Must-Get-Theres (dir. Max Linder, 1922) Help! (dir. Abel Gance, 1924)

70. The Marx Brothers

Actor | Duck Soup

The zaniest of all madcap comedy teams were the Marx Brothers, namely Groucho (aka Julius Henry), Chico (aka Leonard), and Harpo (aka Adolph). There were also Zeppo (aka Herbert) -- who featured in their early comedies as a straight man and later became a theatrical agent -- and Gummo (aka Milton),...

Essential viewing: The Cocoanuts (dir. Robert Florey en Joseph Santley) Animal Crackers (dir. Victor Heerman, 1930) Monkey Business (dir. Norman Z. McLeod, 1931) Horse Feathers (dir. Norman Z. McLeod, 1932) Duck Soup (dir. Leo McCarey, 1933) A Night at the Opera (dir. Sam Wood, 1935) A Day at the Races (dir. Sam Wood, 1937) At the Circus (dir. Edward Buzzell, 1939) Go West (dir. Edward Buzzell, 1940) A Night in Casablanca (dir. Archie Mayo, 1946)

71. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Lady Windermere's Fan (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1925) Beau Geste (dir. Herbert Brenon, 1926) The Winning of Barbara Worth (dir. Henry King, 1926) A Tale of Two Cities (dir. Jack Conway, 1935) Lost Horizon (dir. Frank Capra, 1937) The Prisoner of Zenda (dir. John Cromwell, 1937) If I Were King (dir. Frank Lloyd, 1938) The Talk of the Town (dir. George Stevens, 1942) Random Harvest (dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) A Double Life (dir. George Cukor, 1947)

72. 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, ...

Essential viewing: When the Clouds Roll By (dir. Victor Fleming, 1919) The Mark of Zorro (dir. Fred Niblo, 1920) The Three Musketeers (dir. Fred Niblo, 1921) Robin Hood (dir. Allan Dwan, 1922) The Thief of Bagdad (dir. Raoul Walsh, 1924) Don Q, Son of Zorro (dir. Donald Crisp, 1925) The Black Pirate (dir. Albert Parker, 1926) The Gaucho (dir. F. Richard Jones, 1927) The Iron Mask (dir. Allan Dwan, 1929) The Taming of the Shrew (dir. Sam Taylor, 1929)

73. Tom Cruise

Actor | Top Gun

In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. ...

Essential viewing: Rain Man (dir. Barry Levinson, 1988) Born on the Fourth of July (dir. Oliver Stone, 1989) A Few Good Men (dir. Rob Reiner, 1992) Jerry Maguire (dir. Cameron Crowe, 1996) Magnolia (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) Minority Report (dir. Steven Spielberg, 2002) The Last Samurai (dir. Edward Zwick, 2003) Collateral (dir. Michael Mann, 2004) Edge of Tomorrow (dir. Doug Liman, 2014) Mission: Impossible - Fallout (dir. Christopher McQuarrie, 2018)

74. Tatsuya Nakadai

Actor | Seppuku

Japanese leading man, an important star and one of the handful of Japanese actors well known outside Japan. Nakadai was a tall handsome clerk in a Tokyo shop when director Masaki Kobayashi encountered him and cast him in The Thick-Walled Room (1956). Nakadai was subsequently cast in the lead role in...

Essential viewing: The Human Condition (dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 1959) When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (dir. Mikio Naurse, 1960) Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1961) Sanjuro (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1962) Harakiri (dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 1962) High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963) Samurai Rebellion (dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 1967) Kagemusha (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1980) Ran (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1985) Hachiko Monogatari (dir. Seijiro Koyama, 1987)

75. Johnny Depp

Actor | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one ...

Essential viewing: Edward Scissorhands (dir. Tim Burton, 1990) What's Eating Gilbert Grape (dir. Lasse Hallström, 1993) Ed Wood (dir. Tim Burton, 1994) Dead Man (dir. Jim Jarmusch, 1995) Donnie Brasco (dir. Mike Newell, 1997) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (dir. Terry Gilliam, 1998) Chocolat (dir. Lasse Hallström, 2000) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (dir. Gore Verbinski, 2003) Finding Neverland (dir. Marc Forster, 2004) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Tim Burton, 2007)

76. Ben Kingsley

Actor | Sexy Beast

Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during ...

Essential viewing: Gandhi (dir. Richard Attenborough, 1982) Bugsy (dir. Barry Levinson, 1991) Searching for Bobby Fischer (dir. Steven Zaillian, 1993) Schindler's List (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1993) Death and the Maiden (dir. Roman Polanski, 1994) Sexy Beast (dir. Jonathan Glazer, 2000) Anne Frank: The Whole Story (dir. Robert Dornhelm, 2001) House of Sand and Fog (dir. Vadim Perelman, 2003) Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2010) Hugo (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2011)

77. 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 ...

Essential viewing: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (dir. Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) Design for Living (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1933) Les Misérables (dir. Richard Boleslawski, 1935) A Star Is Born (dir. William A. Wellman, 1937) The Best Years of Our Lives (dir. William Wyler, 1946) Death of a Salesman (dir. László Benedek, 1951) The Desperate Hours (dir. William Wyler, 1955) Inherit the Wind (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1960) Seven Days in May (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1964) Hombre (dir. Martin Ritt, 1967)

78. Totò

Actor | Guardie e ladri

'Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis di Bisanzio' was a descendant of the 'Comneno di Bizanzio' and also one of the most popular Italian film stars in history. His genre was undoubtedly the comedy where he achieved world fame. From 1917 he was an actor...

Essential viewing: Cops and Robbers (dir. Mario Monicelli and Steno, 1951) Poverty and Nobility (dir. Mario Mattoli, 1954) The Gold of Naples (dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1954) The Band of Honest Men (dir. Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956) Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (dir. Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956) Big Deal on Madonna Street (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1958) The Law Is the Law (dir. Christian-Jaque, 1958) The Overtaxed (dir. Steno, 1959) The Passionate Thief (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1960) The Hawks and the Sparrows (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966)

79. Louis de Funès

Actor | Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob

Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza was born on July 31, 1914, in Courbevoie, France. His father, named Carlos Luis de Funes de Galarza, was a former lawyer of Seville, Spain, who became a diamond cutter. His mother, named Leonor Soto Reguera, was of Spanish and Portugese extraction.

Young Louis...

Essential viewing: La Traversée de Paris (dir. Claude Autant-Lara, 1956) Neither Seen Nor Recognized (dir. Yves Robert, 1958) The Troops of St. Tropez (dir. Jean Girault, 1964) Fantômas (dir. André Hunebelle, 1964) Le Corniaud (dir. Gérard Oury, 1965) La Grande Vadrouille (dir. Gérard Oury, 1966) Oscar (dir. Édouard Molinaro, 1967) Delusions of Grandeur (dir. Gérard Oury, 1971) The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (dir. Gérard Oury, 1973) The Wing or the Thigh (dir. Claude Zidi, 1976)

80. Robin Williams

Actor | Mrs. Doubtfire

Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford ...

Essential viewing: The World According to Garp (dir. George Roy Hill, 1982) Good Morning, Vietnam (dir. Barry Levinson, 1987) Dead Poets Society (dir. Peter Weir, 1989) Awakenings (dir. Penny Marshall, 1990) The Fisher King (dir. Terry Gilliam, 1991) Mrs. Doubtfire (dir. Chris Columbus, 1993) The Birdcage (dir. Mike Nichols, 1996) Good Will Hunting (dir. Gus Van Sant, 1997) What Dreams May Come (dir. Vincent Ward, 1998) Insomnia (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2002)

81. 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...

Essential viewing: The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928) La Chienne (dir. Jean Renoir, 1931) Boudu Saved from Drowning (dir. Jean Renoir, 1932) L'Atalante (dir. Jean Vigo, 1934) Drôle de Drame (dir. Marcel Carné, 1937) Port of Shadows (dir. Marcel Carné, 1938) Beauty and the Devil (dir. René Clair, 1950) It Happened in Broad Daylight (dir. Ladislao Vajda, 1958) The Train (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1964) The Two of Us (dir. Claude Berri, 1967)

82. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

Essential viewing: Play It Again, Sam (dir. Herbert Ross, 1972) Love and Death (dir. Woody Allen, 1975) The Front (dir. Martin Ritt, 1976) Annie Hall (dir. Woody Allen, 1977) Manhattan (dir. Woody Allen, 1979) Zelig (dir. Woody Allen, 1983) Broadway Danny Rose (dir. Woody Allen, 1984) Hannah and Her Sisters (dir. Woody Allen, 1986) Crimes and Misdemeanors (dir. Woody Allen, 1989) Husbands and Wives (dir. Woody Allen, 1992)

83. Philippe Noiret

Actor | Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

Philippe Noiret was one of French cinema's most familiar faces who appeared in more than 140 films in a career that spanned more than half a century.

He was born on October 1, 1930, in Lille, Nord, France, into a middle class family of shopkeepers. His father was fond of literature. Young Noiret ...

Essential viewing: Very Happy Alexander (dir. Yves Robert, 1968) My Friends (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1975) Le Vieux Fusil (dir. Robert Enrico, 1975) The Judge and the Assassin (dir. Bertrand Tavernier, 1976) The Desert of the Tartars (dir. Valerio Zurlini, 1976) Coup de Torchon (dir. Bertrand Tavernier, 1981) All My Friends Part 2 (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1982) Cinema Paradiso (dir. Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988) Life and Nothing But (dir. Bertrand Tavernier, 1989) Il Postino (dir. Michael Radford, 1994)

84. Bill Murray

Actor | Lost in Translation

Bill Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. The fifth of nine children, he was born William James Murray in Wilmette, Illinois, to Lucille (Collins), a mailroom clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II, who sold lumber. He is of Irish descent. Among his siblings are actors Brian Doyle-Murray, ...

Essential viewing: Caddyshack (dir. Harold Ramis, 1980) Ghostbusters (dir. Ivan Reitman, 1984) Groundhog Day (dir. Harold Ramis, 1993) Ed Wood (dir. Tim Burton, 1994) Rushmore (dir. Wes Anderson, 1998) The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson, 2001) Lost in Translation (dir. Sofia Coppola, 2003) Moonrise Kingdom (dir. Wes Anderson, 2012) St. Vincent (dir. Theodore Melfi, 2014) Olive Kitteridge (dir. Lisa Cholodenko, 2014)

85. Gary Oldman

Actor | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), ...

Essential viewing: Sid and Nancy (dir. Alex Cox, 1986) Prick Up Your Ears (dir. Stephen Frears, 1987) JFK (dir. Oliver Stone, 1991) Bram Stoker's Dracula (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1992) Immortal Beloved (dir. Bernard Rose, 1994) Léon: The Professional (dir. Luc Besson, 1994) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2004) The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2011) Darkest Hour (dir. Joe Wright, 2017)

86. Jeff Bridges

Actor | The Big Lebowski

Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...

Essential viewing: The Last Picture Show (dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) Fat City (dir. John Huston, 1972) Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (dir. Michael Cimino, 1974) Starman (dir. John Carpenter, 1984) The Fisher King (dir. Terry Gilliam, 1991) The Big Lebowski (dir. Joel Coen, 1998) Crazy Heart (dir. Scott Cooper, 2009) True Grit (dir. Ethan and Joel Coen, 2010) Hell or High Water (dir. David Mackenzie, 2016) Bad Times at the El Royale (dir. Drew Goddard, 2018)

87. Amitabh Bachchan

Actor | Black

Amitabh Bachchan was born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, British India (present-day Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India) to legendary poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan & Teji Bachchan. He also has a brother named Ajitabh. He completed his education from Uttar Pradesh and moved to Bombay to find work as a ...

88. 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 ...

89. Chishû Ryû

Actor | Tôkyô monogatari

What an amazing career! Few can boast a longer one (64 years of activity). Few have been able to have to relate to three generations. And it is pretty sure that no one can compare with him in terms of faithfulness to a director: Chishu Ryu indeed appeared in no fewer than fifty-two out of ...

90. Lon Chaney

Actor | He Who Gets Slapped

Although his parents were deaf, Leonidas Chaney became an actor and also owner of a theatre company (together with his brother John). He made his debut at the movies in 1912, and his filmography is vast. Lon Chaney was especially famous for his horror parts in movies like e.g. Quasimodo in The ...

91. Jean-Louis Trintignant

Actor | Amour

Born 1930 in Piolenc in south France as son of a wealthy industrialist. Studied law in Aix-en-Provence. Started theatrical acting in 1950, but was regarded untalented at first, until Roger Vadim discovered him for the movies. When the press stalked him 1956 because of rumors of an affair with ...

92. Stan Laurel

Actor | Saps at Sea

Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles ...

Collectively included with Oliver Hardy.

93. Jean-Pierre Léaud

Actor | Les quatre cents coups

Jean-Pierre Léaud is not everybody's cup of tea for sure, but will remain an important name in film history. As an actor he can be adored or hated for exactly the same reasons: he is one of those rare players that directors let improvise his dialogue, which gets on certain viewers' nerves while it ...

94. 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 ...

95. Albert Finney

Actor | Murder on the Orient Express

The son of a Lancashire bookmaker, Albert Finney came to motion pictures via the theatre. In 1956, he won a scholarship to RADA where his fellow alumni included Peter O'Toole and Alan Bates. He joined the Birmingham Repertory where he excelled in plays by William Shakespeare. A member of the Royal ...

96. Emil Jannings

Actor | The Last Command

His real name was Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, and in the early 1900s, he was already working in the theater under Max Reinhardt's company. Important movies where he defined himself as a convincing actor were Passion (1919) and Quo Vadis? (1924), followed by The Last Laugh (1924) (aka The Last ...

97. John Hurt

Actor | Nineteen Eighty-Four

One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend ...

98. Russell Crowe

Actor | Les Misérables

Russell Ira Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to Jocelyn Yvonne (Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom catered movie sets. His maternal grandfather, Stanley Wemyss, was a cinematographer. Crowe's recent ancestry includes Welsh (where his paternal grandfather was born, in Wrexham),...

99. Walter Matthau

Actor | The Odd Couple

Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.

He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York...

100. James Mason

Actor | Lolita

James Mason was born in Huddersfield and had a film career spanning over 50 years during which he appeared in over 100 films in England and America but never won an Oscar. Whatever role he played, from the wounded Belfast gunman in Odd Man Out to Rommel in The Desert Fox, his creamy velvet voice ...