The Bad Boys of Film Noir

1. Luther Adler

The actor and Broadway director Luther Adler was born into a Yiddish theatrical dynasty. One of the six children born to Jacob P. and Sara Adler, he made his debut in the world in New York City, originally billed as Lutha J. Adler. His full siblings Charles, Jay, Julia, and Stella (the famous ...

Film Noir Filmography

Cornered (1945) House of Strangers (1949) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) D.O.A (1950) M (1951)

2. Leon Ames

Actor | Peggy Sue Got Married

Leon Ames was born Harry Wycoff in Portland, Indiana, to Cora Alice (DeMoss) and Charles Elmer Wycoff. He had always wanted to be an actor and he did it the hard way, serving a long apprenticeship in touring amateur theatre companies -- even selling shoes for a while on 42nd Street in the 1920s. It...

Film Noir Filmography

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Lady in the Lake (1947) The Velvet Touch (1948) Scene of the Crime (1949) Angel Face (1953)

3. Dana Andrews

Actor | Laura

American leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on New Years Day 1909 on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi. One of thirteen children, including fellow actor Steve Forrest, he was a son of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a ...

Film Noir Filmography

Laura (1944) Fallen Angel (1946) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) Edge of Doom (1950) While the City Sleeps (1956) Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)

4. Ed Begley

Actor | 12 Angry Men

Charismatic character star Edward James Begley was born in Hartford, Connecticut of Irish parents and educated at St.Patrick's school. His interest in acting first surfaced at the age of nine, when he performed amateur theatricals at the Hartford Globe Theatre. Determined to make his own way, he ...

Film Noir Filmography

Street with No Name (1948) Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) Convicted (1950) Dark City (1950) On Dangerous Ground (1952) The Turning Point (1952) Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

5. William Bendix

Actor | Lifeboat

William Bendix was not a son of Brooklyn, New York, although because of his stereotypical "Brooklyn accent" it has been widely supposed that he was. Bendix was actually born in the Borough of Manhattan (New York City proper), in a midtown flat hard by the tracks of the long-since defunct ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Glass Key (1942) The Dark Corner (1946) The Blue Dahlia (1946) Calcutta (1947) Detective Story (1951) Macao (1952)

6. Bruce Bennett

Actor | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Herman Brix was a star shot-putter in the 1928 Olympics. After losing the lead in MGM's Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) due to a shoulder injury, he was contracted by Ashton Dearholt for his independent production of The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935), a serial and the only Tarzan film between the ...

Film Noir Filmography

Mildred Pierce (1945) Danger Signal (1945) Nora Prentiss (1947) Dark Passage (1947) Mystery Street (1950) Shakedown (1950) Sudden Fear (1952)

7. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

High Sierra (1941) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Conflict (1945) The Big Sleep (1946) Dark Passage (1947) Dead Reckoning (1947) Key Largo (1948) Knock on Any Door (1949) In a Lonely Place (1950) The Enforcer (1951) The Harder They Fall (1956)

8. Neville Brand

Actor | Stalag 17

Neville Brand joined the Illinois National Guard in 1939, bent on a career in the military. His National Guard unit was activated into federal service shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. It was while he was in the army that he made his acting debut, in Army training films, ...

Film Noir Filmography

D.O.A. (1950) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) The Mob (1951) The Turning Point (1952) Kansas City Confidential (19520

9. Steve Brodie

Actor | Out of the Past

Primarily known as a "B" movie bad guy of hundreds of films, husky actor Steve Brodie was born John Daugherty Stephens on November 25, 1919, in El Dorado, Kansas. Raised in Wichita, he dropped out of school and raced cars, boxed and worked on oil rigs to get by. He initially entertained a criminal ...

Film Noir Filmography

Desperate (1947) Crossfire (1947) Out of the Past (1947) Armored at Robbery (1950) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) M (1951)

10. Raymond Burr

Actor | Rear Window

Born Raymond William Stacy Burr on May 21, 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia, he spent most of his early life traveling. As a youngster, his father moved his family to China, where the elder Burr worked as a trade agent. When the family returned to Canada, Raymond's parents separated. He ...

Film Noir Filmography

Desperate (1947) Pitfall (1948) Sleep, My Love (1948) Raw Deal (1948) Abandoned (1949) Red Light (1950) M (1951) His Kind of Woman (1951) The Blue Gardenia (1953) Crime of Passion (1957)

11. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

White Heat (1949) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1959)

12. Morris Carnovsky

Actor | Cyrano de Bergerac

Morris Carnovsky was one of the more prominent victims of the Hollywood blacklist, being named as a Communist party member by both Elia Kazan -- the most infamous of the informers who sang before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the era blacklistee Lillian Hellman called the "Scoundrel...

Film Noir Filmography

Cornered (1945) Thieves Highway (1949) Gun Crazy (1950) The Second Woman (1951)

13. Fred Clark

Actor | Sunset Blvd.

This popular, baggy-eyed, bald-domed, big lug of a character actor had few peers when called upon to display that special "slow burn" style of comedy few others perfected. But perfect he did -- on stage, film and TV. In fact, he pretty much cornered the market during the 50s and 60s as the dour, ...

The Unsuspected (1947) Ride the Pink Horse (1947) Cry of the City (1948) White Heat (1949) Sunset Boulevard (1950)

14. Lee J. Cobb

Actor | 12 Angry Men

Lee J. Cobb, one of the premier character actors in American film for three decades in the post-World War II period, was born Leo Jacoby in New York City's Lower East Side on December 8, 1911. The son of a Jewish newspaper editor, young Leo was a child prodigy in music, mastering the violin and the...

Film Noir Filmography

Johnny O'clock (1947) The Dark Past (1948) Call Northside 777 (1948) Thieves Highway (1949) The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951) The Garment Jungle (1957) Party Girl (1958)

15. Steve Cochran

Actor | White Heat

Born Robert Alexander Cochran, son of a California lumberman, he worked mostly in the theatre before landing a contract with Samuel Goldwyn in 1945. His debut was Wonder Man (1945) with Virginia Mayo and Danny Kaye. From 1949 to 1952, he was signed to Warner Brothers, then started up his own ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Chase (1946) White Heat (1949) The Damned Don't Cry (1950) Private Hell 36 (1954) The Beat Generation (1959)

16. William Conrad

Actor | Cannon

William Conrad became a television star relatively late in his career. In fact, the former Army Air Corps World War II fighter pilot began his screen career playing heavies. He was Max, one of The Killers (1946) hired to finish off Burt Lancaster in his dingy lodgings. He was the corrupt state ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Killers (1946) Body and Soul (1947) Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) Tension (1950) Cry Danger (1951) The Racket (1951)

17. Richard Conte

Actor | The Godfather

Richard Conte was born Nicholas Richard Conte on March 24, 1910, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of an Italian-American barber. He held a variety of jobs before becoming a professional actor, including truck driver, Wall Street clerk and singing waiter at a Connecticut resort. The gig as a ...

Film Noir Filmography

Somewhere in the Night (1946) Call Northside 777 (1947) Cry of the City (1948) House of Strangers (1949) Thieves' Highway (1949) The Sleeping City (1950) The Blue Gardenia (1953) New York Confidential (1955) The Big Combo (1955) The Brothers Rico (1957)

18. Elisha Cook Jr.

Actor | House on Haunted Hill

Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty Gloria Stuart or a young, pre-"Oz" Judy Garland, casting directors would soon enough discover his flair for portraying intense neurotics or ...

Film Noir Filmography

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) I Wake Up Screaming (1942) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Phantom Lady (1944) The Big Sleep (1946) The Gangster (1947) Born to Kill (1947) Fall Guy (1947) Don't Bother to Knock (1953) The Killing (1956) Baby Face Nelson (1957) Plunder Road (1957)

19. Jeff Corey

Actor | Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Jeff Corey was a film and television character actor, as well as one of the top acting teachers in America.

Corey was born Arthur Zwerling on August 10, 1914 in New York City, New York, to Mary (Peskin), a Russian Jewish immigrant, and Nathan Zwerling, an Austrian Jewish immigrant. He was an ...

Film Noir Filmography

Somewhere in the Night (1946) The Killers (1946) The Gangster (1947) Brute Force (1947) Canon City (1948) Follow Me Quietly (1949)

20. Wendell Corey

Actor | Rear Window

Wendell Corey was a hard-working American character actor who appeared in numerous movies and television productions in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Born on March 20, 1914 in Dracut, Massachusetts, in the northeastern part of the Commonwealth near the New Hampshire border, Corey was the son of a ...

Film Noir Filmography

I Walk Alone (1948) Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) The Accused (1949) The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) The Big Knife (1955) The Killer is Loose (1956)

21. Joseph Cotten

Actor | The Third Man

Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, into a well-to-do Southern family. He was the eldest of three sons born to Sally Whitworth (Willson) and Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster.

Jo (as he was known) and his brothers Whit and Sam spent their summers at their...

Film Noir Filmography

Journey into Fear (1943) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) The Third Man (1949) Niagara (1953) The Killer is Loose ( 1956) Touch of Evil (1958)

22. James Craig

Actor | All That Money Can Buy

Tall, rugged James Craig's career as an MGM contract player blossomed in the 1940s. This was due in large part to his strong physical and vocal resemblance to the studio's top leading man, Clark Gable (who was -- by the time Craig was signed to MGM -- serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces). The Rice ...

Film Noir Filmography

Side Street (1950) A Lady Without Passport (1950) The Strip (1951) While the City Sleeps (1956)

23. Broderick Crawford

Actor | All the King's Men

Broderick Crawford is best remembered for two roles: his Oscar-winning turn as Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949) and as Chief Dan Mathews on the syndicated TV series Highway Patrol (1955). He was also memorable as Judy Holliday's vulgar partner in Born Yesterday (1950), roles both actors ...

Film Noir Filmography

Black Angel (1946) Convicted (1950) The Mob (1951) Scandal Street (1952) Human Desire (1954) New York Confidential (1955)

24. John Dall

Actor | Rope

John Dall was born John Dall Thompson on May 26, 1920, the younger son of Mr. Charles Jenner Thompson and Mrs. Henry (née Worthington) Thompson. He made his Broadway debut in Norman Krasna's comedy, 'Dear Ruth', directed by Moss Hart, in 1944. The show was a hit, running for over a year and a half ...

Film Noir Filmography

Gun Crazy (1950) The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951)

25. Howard Da Silva

Actor | The Lost Weekend

Howard da Silva was one of 324 actors, writers and directors who fell victim to the Hollywood blacklisting of the early 1950s, and had his career halted in the blink of an eye. Originally was a steelworker before making his stage debut at age 20 in New York. He made a name for himself on Broadway ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Blue Dahlia (1946) They Live by Night (1948) Border Incident (1949) M (19511)

26. Ted de Corsia

Actor | The Lady from Shanghai

A big, brawny villain of many 1940s and 1950s films, Ted de Corsia was an actor in touring companies and on radio before making a memorable film debut as the killer in The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Although he occasionally played such sympathetic roles as a judge or prison warden, de Corsia's ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Naked City (1948) The Lady from Shanghai (1948) The Enforcer (1951) The Turning Point (1952) Crime Wave (1954) The Big Combo (1955) Slightly Scarlet (1956) The Killing (1956) Baby Face Nelson (1957)

27. Albert Dekker

Actor | The Wild Bunch

A stage actor from 1927, Albert Dekker was an established Broadway star when he made his film debut ten years later. Tall and with rugged good looks, he often played aggressive character roles, a prime example being his double-crossing gang leader in the classic The Killers (1946). From 1944-46 he ...

Film Noir Filmography

Among the Living (1941) Suspense (1946) The Killers (1946) The Pretender (1947) Destination Murder (1950) Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

28. Brad Dexter

Actor | The Magnificent Seven

American supporting player specializing in tough guys. Of Serbian extraction, he was born in Nevada in 1917. As a young man, he boxed in amateur bouts and had early training in theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse. He joined the Air Corps during World War II and was assigned to the troupe performing ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) The Las Vegas Story (1952) Macao (1952) 99 River Street (1953) House of Bamboo (1955)

29. Brian Donlevy

Actor | Beau Geste

It seems that Brian Donlevy started out life as colorfully as any character he ever played on the stage or screen. He lied about his age (he was actually 14) in 1916 so he could join the army. When Gen. John J. Pershing sent American troops to invade Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa--Mexican ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Glass Key (1942) Kiss of Death (1947) Shakedown (1950) Impact (1949) The Big Combo (1955)

30. 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. ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers (1946) Out of the Past (1947) I Walk Alone (1948) Champion (1949) The Big Carnival (1951) Detective Story (1951)

31. Howard Duff

Actor | The Naked City

Tough, virile, wavy-haired and ruggedly handsome with trademark forlorn-looking brows that added an intriguing touch of vulnerability to his hard outer core, actor Howard Duff and his wife-at-the-time, actress Ida Lupino, were one of Hollywood's premiere film couples during the 1950s "Golden Age". ...

Film Noir Filmography

Brute Force (1947) The Naked City (1948) Shakedown (1950) Private Hell 36 (1954) While the City Sleeps (1956)

32. Dan Duryea

Actor | Too Late for Tears

Dan Duryea was educated at Cornell University and worked in the advertising business before pursuing his career as an actor. Duryea made his Broadway debut in the play "Dead End." The critical acclaim he won for his performance as Leo Hubbard in the Broadway production of "The Little Foxes" led to ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Woman in the Window (1945) Ministry of Fear (1945) Scarlet Street (1946) Black Angel (1946) Criss Cross (1949) Manhandled (1949) Too Late for Tears (1949) World for Ransom (1954) Storm Fear (1956) The Burglar (1957)

33. Jay C. Flippen

Actor | The Killing

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

Film Noir Filmography

Brute Force (1947) They Live by Night (1948) The People Against O'Hara (1951) The Las Vegas Story (1952) The Killing (1956)

34. Glenn Ford

Actor | Gilda

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

Film Noir Filmography

Gilda (1946) Framed (1947) The Undercover Man (1949) Convicted (1950) Affair in Trinidad (1952) The Big Heat (1953) Human Desire (1954)

35. Wallace Ford

Actor | Freaks

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

Film Noir Filmography

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Black Angel (1946) Crack-Up (1946) Dead Reckoning (1947) T-Men (1948) The Set-Up (1949) The Breaking Point (1950) He Ran All the Way (1951)

36. Douglas Fowley

Actor | Singin' in the Rain

He was born in the Bronx, New York. As a young man, he moved to Los Angeles and studied at Los Angeles City College. He served in the Navy during World War II. Fowley played everything from cowboys to gangsters, appearing alongside stars like Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly ...

Film Noir Filmography

Fall Guy (1947) Desperate (1947) Behind Locked Doors (1948) Edge of Doom (1950) Armed Car Robbery (1950)

37. John Garfield

Actor | Four Daughters

John Garfield was born Jacob Julius Garfinkle on the Lower East Side of New York City, to Hannah Basia (Margolis) and David Garfinkle, who were Jewish immigrants from Zhytomyr (now in Ukraine). Jules was raised by his father, a clothes presser and part-time cantor, after his mother's death in 1920,...

Film Noir Filmography

Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Nobody Lives Forever (1946) Body and Soul (1947) Force of Evil (1948) The Breaking Point (1950) He Ran All the Way (1951)

38. Thomas Gomez

Actor | Key Largo

After graduating from high school in 1923, Thomas Sabino Gomez answered a help wanted ad, which resulted in his joining the Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne theater group. Prior to that time he had not considered acting as a career. He continued working as an actor with the Lunts, traveling across ...

Film Noir Filmography

Phantom Lady (1944) Johnny O'clock (1947) Ride the Pink Horse (1947) Key Largo (1948) Force of Evil (1948) Macao (1952)

39. Farley Granger

Actor | Strangers on a Train

Farley Earle Granger was born in 1925 in San Jose, California, to Eva (Hopkins) and Farley Earle Granger, who owned an automobile dealership. Right out of high school, he was brought to the attention of movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, who cast him in a small role in The North Star (1943). He followed...

Film Noir Flimography

Edge of Doom (1950) They Live by Night (1948) Side Street (1950) Strangers on a Train (1951)

40. Sydney Greenstreet

Actor | The Maltese Falcon

Sydney Greenstreet's father was a leather merchant with eight children. Sydney left home at age 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought forced him out of business and back to England. He managed a brewery and, to escape boredom, took acting lessons. His stage debut was as a ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) Conflict (1945) The Velvet Touch (1948)

41. Sterling Hayden

Actor | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Born to George & Frances Simonson Walter, and named Sterling Relyea Walter. Father died in 1925. Adopted by stepfather 'James Hayden' renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. Grew up in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Maine. Though very poor, attended prep school at ...

Film Noir Filmography

Manhandled (1949) The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Crime Wave (1954) Suddenly (1954) The Killing (1956) Crime of Passion (1957)

42. Van Heflin

Actor | Shane

Craggy-faced, dependable star character actor Van Heflin never quite made the Hollywood "A" list, but made up for what he lacked in appearance with hard work, charisma and solid acting performances. He was born Emmett Evan Heflin in Oklahoma in December 1908, the son of Fanny Bleecker (Shippey) and...

Film Noir Filmography

Johnny Eager (1942) The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers (1946) Possessed (1947) Act of Violence (1949) The Prowler (1951)

43. John Hodiak

Actor | Lifeboat

Pittsburgh-born John Hodiak was one of several up-and-coming male talents who managed to take advantage of the dearth of WWII-era superstars (MGM's Clark Gable, Van Johnson, Robert Taylor and James Stewart, among others) who were off serving their country. John's early death at age 41, however, ...

Film Noir Filmography

Somewhere in the Night (1946) The Bribe (1949) A Lady Without Passport (1950) The People Against O'Hara (1951)

44. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Dark Past (1948) Union Station (1950) Sunset Boulevard (1950) The Turning Point (1952)

45. John Hoyt

Actor | When Worlds Collide

John Hoyt was born on October 5, 1905 in Bronxville, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for When Worlds Collide (1951), Spartacus (1960) and Brute Force (1947). He was married to Dorothy Marion Oltman and Marion Virginia Burns. He died on September 15, 1991 in Santa Cruz, California, ...

Film Noir Filmography

Brute Force (1947) The Bribe (1949) Loan Shark (1952) The Big Combo (1955) Baby Face Nelson (1957)

46. John Ireland

Actor | All the King's Men

Born in Canada, John Ireland was raised in New York. Performing as a swimmer in a water carnival, he moved into the legitimate theater, often appearing in minor roles in Broadway plays. His first big break in pictures came in 1945 when he appeared as Windy the introspective letter-writing G.I. in ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Gangster (1947) Railroaded (1947) Raw Deal (1948) Party Girl (1958)

47. Paul Kelly

Actor | Flying Tigers

Lean, red/auburn-haired, athletically-inclined Paul Michael Kelly grew up on the tough streets of Brooklyn, New York. Born August 9, 1899, the ninth of ten children in a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent. The siblings' father, Michael, owned a bar called Kelly's Cafe. He died while Paul was ...

Film Noir Filmography

Fear in the Night (1947) Crossfire (1947) The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) Side Street (1950)

48. Arthur Kennedy

Actor | Lawrence of Arabia

Arthur Kennedy, one of the premier character actors in American film from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, achieved fame in the role of Biff in Elia Kazan's historic production of Arthur Miller's Pultizer-Prize winning play "Death of a Salesman." Although he was not selected to recreate the ...

Film Noir Filmography

High Sierra (1941) The Window (1949) Champion (1949) Too Late for Tears (1949) Chicago Deadline (1949)

49. Berry Kroeger

Actor | Gun Crazy

Born and educated in the well-to-do Alamo Heights area of San Antonio, Texas, Berry Kroeger first acted in local theatrical productions at the San Pedro Playhouse. His silky voice seemed tailor-made for a lengthy career on radio. By 1931, he was active both as announcer and purveyor of dramatic ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Dark Past (1948) Cry of the City (1948) Chicago Deadline (1949) Act of Violence (1949) Gun Crazy (1950)

50. Alan Ladd

Actor | Shane

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

Film Noir Filmography

Gun for Hire (1942) The Glass Key (1942) The Blue Dahlia (1946) Calcutta (1947) Chicago Deadline (1949) Appointment with Danger (1951)

51. Jack Lambert

Actor | The Killers

American character actor specializing in tough guys and heavies. A native of Yonkers, New York. He worked on the Broadway stage and then became an increasingly familiar figure in Westerns and crime dramas, after World War II. Although almost as familiar a presence in films as his contemporaries ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Killers (1946) The Unsuspected (1947) Border Incident (1949) The Enforcer (1951) 99 River Street (1953) Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Party Girl (1958)

52. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Killers (1946) Brute Force (1947 I Walk Alone (1948) Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) Kiss the Blood Off Your (1948) Criss Cross (1949) Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

53. Sheldon Leonard

Producer | Make Room for Daddy

Sheldon Leonard was born in New York City's lower Manhattan, the son of Jewish parents. He studied acting at Syracuse University and, after graduating, landed a job on Wall Street. Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, he found himself unemployed and resolved to become a professional actor on ...

Film Noir Filmography

Street of Chance (1942) Somewhere in the Night (1946) Decoy (1946) The Gangster (1947)

54. Sam Levene

Actor | After the Thin Man

Sam Levene was the actor who originated "craps-shooter extraordinaire" Nathan Detroit in the seminal American musical "Guys and Dolls" on the Great White Way in the original 1950 production. Levene was not a good singer and had trouble staying in key, so his solo number "Sue Me" had to be written ...

Film Noir Flimography

The Killers (1946) Brute Force (1947) Crossfire (1947) Guilty Bystander (1950) Sweet Smell of Success

55. Gene Lockhart

Actor | His Girl Friday

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

Film Noir Filmography

House on 92nd Street(1945) Leave Her to Heaven (1945) Red Light (1950) World of Ransom (1954)

56. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) Black Angel (1946) The Chase (1946) Quicksand (1950)

57. Frank Lovejoy

Actor | In a Lonely Place

Square-jawed, intense, no-nonsense Frank Lovejoy played a succession of detectives, street cops, reporters, soldiers and such over his career. Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1912, he worked on Wall Street as a teenager, but the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 cost him his job, and to make ends ...

Film Noir Filmography

In a Lonely Place (1950) Try and Get Me (1950) I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951) The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

58. Barton MacLane

Actor | The Maltese Falcon

Barton MacLane graduated from Wesleyan University, where he displayed a notable aptitude for sports, in particular football and basketball. Not surprisingly, his physical prowess led to an early role in The Quarterback (1926) with Richard Dix. MacLane once commented that, as an actor, he needed to ...

Film Noir Filmography

High Sierra (1941) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Red Light (1950) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)

59. Fred MacMurray

Actor | Double Indemnity

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

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

Film Noir Filmography

Double Indemnity (1944) Pushover (1954)

60. George Macready

Actor | Gilda

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

Film Noir Filmography

My Name is Julia Ross (1945) Gilda (1946) The Big Clock (1948) Knock on Any Door (1949) A Lady Without Passport (1950) Detective Story (1951)

61. Herbert Marshall

Actor | Foreign Correspondent

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

Film Noir Filmography

The Letter (1940) Crack-Up (1946) The High Wall (1947) Angel Face (1953)

62. Victor Mature

Actor | The Robe

American leading man Victor John Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Clara P. (Ackley) and Marcellus George Mature, a cutler and knife sharpener. His father, born Marcello Gelindo Maturi in Pinzolo, Trentino, was Italian, and his mother was of Swiss-German and German descent. Mature worked ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Shanghai Gesture (1941) I Wake Up Screaming (1942) Kiss of Death (1947) Cry of the City (1948) The Las Vegas Story (1952)

63. Mike Mazurki

Actor | Some Like It Hot

With an intimidating face like craggy granite and a towering 6'5" solid frame, Mike Mazurki (born Mikhail Mazuruski or Mikhail Mazurkiewicz) was one of cinema's first serial thugs and specialized in playing strongarm men, gangsters and bullies for over 50 years on screen. Nearly always portrayed as...

Film Noir Filmography

The Shanghai Gesture (1941) Murder, My Sweet (1944) Nightmare Alley (1947) I Walk Alone (1948) Abandoned (1949) Night and the City (1950) Dark City (1951) New York Confidential (1955)

64. Charles McGraw

Actor | Spartacus

Stony-faced, grizzled-looking tough guy Charles McGraw (real name Charles Butters) notched up dozens of TV and film credits, usually portraying law enforcement figures or military officers, plus the odd shifty gangster. While at high school he worked as a theatre usher and was nicknamed "Chick" by ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Killers (1946) Brute Force (1947) The Gangster (1947) T-Men (1948) Berlin Express (1948) Border Incident (1949) Side Street (1950) Armored Car Robbery (1950) Roadblock (1951) His Kind of Woman (1951) The Narrow Margin (1952) Loophole (1954)

65. Ralph Meeker

Actor | Paths of Glory

Burly American character actor Ralph Meeker first acted on stage at his alma mater, Northwestern University, alongside other budding performers Charlton Heston and Patricia Neal. He graduated as a music major because his dean had discouraged him from pursuing a theatrical career. Ignoring that ...

Film Noir Filmography

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

66. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

When Strangers Marry (1944) Undercurrent (1946) The Locket (1947) Crossfire (1947) Out of the Past (1947) Where Danger Lives (1950) His Kind of Woman (1951) The Racket (1951) Macao (1952) Angel Face (1953)

67. Harry Morgan

Actor | M*A*S*H

Harry Morgan was a prolific character actor who starred in over 100 films and was a stage performer. Known to a younger generation of fans as "Col. Sherman T. Potter" on M*A*S*H (1972). Also known for his commanding personality throughout his career, he tackled movies and television in a way no ...

Film Noir Filmography

Somewhere in the Night (1946) The Gangster (1947) Appointment with Danger (1951) The Big Clock (1948) Moonrise (1949) Red Light (1950) Dark City (1950) Scandal Sheet (1952)

68. Tom Neal

Actor | Detour

Tom Neal is best remembered for his off-screen exploits, which involved scandal, mayhem and a charge of murder. Before his 1938 screen debut in MGM's Out West with the Hardys (1938), Neal had been a member of the boxing team at Northwestern University, had debuted on the Broadway stage in 1935 and ...

Film Noir Filmography

Detour (1945)

69. Lloyd Nolan

Actor | Hannah and Her Sisters

It would no doubt be a real shock to most people to discover that the rich baritone Bronx-like accent of great veteran character actor Lloyd Nolan was a product of the San Francisco streets--not the urban jungle of New York City. Nolan was born in the City by the Bay, and his father, James Nolan, ...

Film Noir Flimography

Somewhere in the Night (1946) The House on 92nd Street (1945) Lady in the Lake (1947) The Street with No Name (1948)

70. Edmond O'Brien

Actor | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Oscar-winner Edmond O'Brien was one of the most respected character actors in American cinema, from his heyday of the mid-1940s through the late 1960s. Born on September 10, 1915, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, O'Brien learned the craft of performance as a magician, reportedly tutored by...

Film Noir Filmography

The Killers (1946) A Double Life (1947) White Heat (1949) D.O.A. (1950) 711 Ocean Drive (1950) Between Midnight and Dawn (1950) The Turning Point (1952) The Hitch-Hiker (1953) Shield for Murder (1954)

71. Jack Palance

Actor | City Slickers

Jack Palance quite often exemplified evil incarnate on film, portraying some of the most intensely feral villains witnessed in 1950s westerns and melodrama. Enhanced by his tall, powerful build, icy voice, and piercing eyes, he earned two "Best Supporting Actor" nominations early in his career. It ...

Film Noir Filmography

Panic in the Streets (1950) Sudden Fear (1952) The Big Knife (1955) I Died a Thousand Times (1955)

72. John Payne

Actor | Miracle on 34th Street

Perhaps not so surprisingly, John Payne maintained that his favorite movie of all time was one of his own -- Miracle on 34th Street (1947) -- simply because it reflected his own strong and spiritual belief system. Today, of course, the film, which co-stars beautiful Maureen O'Hara, Oscar-winning ...

Film Noir Flimography

The Crooked Way (1949) Kansas City Confidential (1952) 99 River Street (1953) Hell's Island (1955) Slightly Scarlet (1956)

73. Dick Powell

Actor | Murder, My Sweet

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

Film Noir Flimography

Murder, My Sweet (1944) Cornered (1945) Johnny O'clock (1947) Pitfall (1948) Cry Danger (1951)

74. Vincent Price

Actor | The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Actor, raconteur, art collector and connoisseur of haute cuisine are just some of the attributes associated with Vincent Price. He was born Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb "Daisy" (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, who was President of the National Candy ...

Film Noir Filmography

Laura (1944) Leaver Her in Heaven (1945) The Bribe (1949) His Kind of Woman (1951) The Las Vegas Story (1952) While the City Sleeps (1956)

75. George Raft

Actor | Some Like It Hot

George Raft was born and grew up in a poor family in Hell's Kitchen, at the time one of the roughest, meanest areas of New York City. He was born George Ranft, and was the son of Eva (Glockner) and Conrad Ranft, a department store deliveryman. His parents were both of German descent. In his youth, ...

Film Noir Filmography

Johnny Angel (1945) Nocturne (1946) Red Light (1950) Loan Shark (1952) Rogue Cop (1954)

76. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

Double Indemnity (1944) Woman in the Window (1945) Scarlet Street (1945) The Stranger (1946) Key Largo (1948) Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) House of Strangers (1949) Nightmare (1956)

77. Mickey Rooney

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

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

Film Noir Filmography

Quicksand (1950) The Strip (1951) Drive a Crooked Road (1954) Baby Face Nelson (1957)

78. Robert Ryan

Actor | The Wild Bunch

Distinguished U.S. actor and longtime civil rights campaigner Robert Bushnell Ryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Mable Arbutus (Bushnell), a secretary, and Timothy Aloysius Ryan, whose wealthy family owned a real estate firm. His father was of Irish ancestry, and his mother was of English and ...

Film Noir Filmography

Crossfire (1947) Berlin Express (1948) Act of Violence (1949) Caught (1949) The Set-Up (1949) The Racket (1951) On Dangerous Ground (1952) Clash at Night (1952) Beware, My Lovely (1952) House of Bamboo (1955) Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

79. Zachary Scott

Actor | Mildred Pierce

American leading man of suave or sinister roles. A collateral relative of George Washington and William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson, Scott was the son of a wealthy surgeon. Intending to follow his father into medicine, Scott studied at the University of Texas, but found he preferred the theater. He ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) Mildred Pierce(1945) Danger Signal (1945) Guilty Bystander (1950)

80. Everett Sloane

Actor | Citizen Kane

Everett Sloane, the actor most known for playing Mr. Bernstein in Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane (1941) as a member of Welles' Mercury Players, was born in New York, New York on October 1, 1909. Sloane was bitten by the acting bug quite early, and first went on-stage when he was seven years old....

Film Noir Filmography

Journey into Fear (1943) The Lady from Shanghai (1948) The Enforcer (1951) The Big Knife (1955)

81. Mark Stevens

Actor | Between Midnight and Dawn

Mark Stevens, a good-looking, second-tier star during the 1940s and 1950s, was born Richard William Stevens in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 13, 1916 (the dates in reference books seem to vary between 1915-20). Of Scottish and English heritage, the freckle-faced boy with the reddish hair had a ...

Film Noir Filmography

Dark Corner (1946) The Street with No Name (1948) Between Midnight and Dawn (1950) Cry Vengeance (1954)

82. Paul Stewart

Actor | Citizen Kane

Esteemed character actor Paul Stewart had a pair of the coldest orbs in town and made his living for decades playing dark, callous, shiftless villains, including a vast number of mobsters. Not a well-known name per se, he was nevertheless a reliable actor who seemed to have been born for the film ...

Film Noir Filmography

Johnny Eager (1942) Champion (1949) The Window (1949) Edge of Doom (1950) Appointment with Danger (1951) Loan Shark (1952) Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

83. Barry Sullivan

Actor | Cause for Alarm!

Patrick Barry Sullivan was born on August 29, 1912 in New York City. While never a major movie star, he established himself as a well-known and highly regarded character lead and second lead in motion pictures and television in a career that lasted 50 years. Legend has it that Sullivan was ...

Film Nolr Filmography

Suspense (1946) The Gangster (1947) Framed (1947) Tension (1950) Cause for Alarm (1951) Loophole (1954)

84. William Talman

Actor | The Hitch-Hiker

William Talman is best known for his role as Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who perpetually lost to Perry Mason in the long-running series Perry Mason (1957). Talman was an accomplished screenwriter and stage and screen actor, and appeared in numerous roles on television as a character ...

Film Noir Flimography

Armored Car Robbery (1950) The Racket (1951) City That Never Sleeps (1953) The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

85. Robert Taylor

Actor | The Bribe

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

Film Noir Flimography

Johnny Eager (1942) Undercurrent (1946) The High Wall (1947) The Bribe (1949) Rogue Cop (1954) Party Girl (1958)

86. Lawrence Tierney

Actor | Reservoir Dogs

Legendary Hollywood "tough guy", on screen and off. Remembered as the title character in Dillinger (1945) and as the consummately brutal lover of Claire Trevor in Born to Kill (1947). Notorious for his frequent, well-publicized barroom brawls and the like, including being stabbed in 1973. In his ...

Film Noir Filmography

Born to Kill (1947) The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) Shakedown (1950) Female Jungle (1956)

87. George Tobias

Actor | Sergeant York

American character actor who specialized in none-too-bright pals of the lead, though his range included villains and ethnic types. A native of New York City, he began acting at 15. He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and played on Broadway with the Theatre Guild, and with the Provincetown ...

Film Noir Filmography

Nobody Lives Forever (1946) The Set-Up (1949) Southside 1-1000 (1950) The Tattered Dress (1957)

88. Regis Toomey

Actor | The Big Sleep

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

Film Noir Filmography

Phantom Lady (1944) Strange Illusion (1945) The Big Sleep (1946) The Guilty (1947) I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948) Beyond the Forest (1949) Cry Danger (1951) The People Against O'Hara (1951)

89. Harold Vermilyea

Actor | The Emperor Waltz

Very active in the theater (he performed on Broadway from 1917 to 1957), Harold Vermilyea occasionally worked in television and in the movies, where after a false start in the nineteen tens, he landed a few interesting parts in a series of post-Second-World-War film-noirs for Paramount, RKO and ...

Film Noir Filmography

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) The Big Clock (1948) Manhandled (1949) Chicago Deadline (1949) Edge of Doom (1950)

90. Clifton Webb

Actor | Laura

Already trained in dance and theater, he quit school at age 13 to study music and painting. By 19 he was a professional ballroom dancer in New York, and by his mid-twenties he was performing in musicals, dramas on Broadway and in London, and in silent movies. His first real success in film came in ...

Film Noir Filmography

Laura (1944) The Dark Corner (1946)

91. Jack Webb

Writer | Dragnet

John Randolph Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, to Margaret (Smith) and Samuel Chester Webb. His father left home before he was born; Webb would never know him. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother in dire poverty that preceded the Depression. Making things worse, Webb ...

Film Noir Filmography

The Scar (1948) He Walked by Night (1949) Dark City (1950) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Appointment with Danger (1951)

92. 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 ...

Film Noir Filmography

Journey Into Fear (1943) The Stranger (1946) The Lady from Shanghai (1948) The Third Man (1949) Touch of Evil (1958)

93. Richard Widmark

Actor | Kiss of Death

Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new ...

Film Noir Filmography

Kiss of Death (1947) The Street with No Name (1948) Road House (1948) Night and the City (1950) Panic in the Street (1950) Don't Bother to Knock (1952) Pickup on South Street (1953)

94. Cornel Wilde

Actor | The Greatest Show on Earth

Cornel Wilde was born Kornel Lajos Weisz on October 13, 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary (now part of Slovakia) to a Jewish family. In 1920, he immigrated to New York City with his parents, Rayna (Vid) and Vojtech Béla Weisz, and elder sister, Edith. His family Anglicized their names. Kornel took the ...

Film Noir Filmography

High Sierra (1941) Leave Her to Heaven (1945) Road House (1948) Shockproof (1949) The Big Combo (1955) Storm Fear (1956)

95. Moroni Olsen

Actor | Mildred Pierce

Even his more courteous, somewhat friendlier types gave one pause for concern. The tall, beefy, balding, icy-eyed character actor Moroni Olsen was one of Hollywood's more popular and imposing performers of film during the late 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.

The versatile player was born Moroni Olsen ...

Film Noir Filmography

1948)Glass Key (1942) Mildred Pierce (1945) Possessed (1947) The High Wall (1947) Call Northside 777 (1948)