The Golden Age of Hollywood lasted for roughly 40 years after the transition toward “talkies” in the 1920s and cinema became one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Movies became larger than life thanks to intricate musical sequences, sweeping dramas, and laugh-out-loud hijinks. Many of the stars who rose to prominence during that time period are seen as the best of the best, even by modern standards.
- Who are Matt Iseman Parents? Meet Michael Dee and Joan Iseman
- Is James Halliday Really Dead? Who Plays Halliday in Ready Player One?
- Where to Find a Elden Ring Somber Smithing Stone 1?
- Where to Find Purradise Meowscles in Fortnite? How to Get Purradise Meowscles?
- 15 Great Transitional Movies & TV Shows To Help Get Kids Into Horror
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Many old Hollywood stars were pigeonholed into specific roles. If an actress had a certain look, there was a good chance she would be playing femme fatales for a large part of her career. If she could sing, dance, and act all at the same time, she would be thrown into one musical after the other. Actors were treated as property by studios trying to sell a product. These actresses rose above all of the hardship to allow their talent to shine through and leave a lasting legacy on screen.
Related 10 Classic Movies That Bombed At The Box Office (But Are Considered Masterpieces)
Some of the greatest movies ever produced were not always as acclaimed, in fact, some films now regarded as masterpieces were box office bombs.
Posts
25 Sophia Loren
Known For It Started In Naples, Two Women, And Marriage Italian Style
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Sophia Loren is actually one of the last surviving actresses active during Hollywood’s golden era. She got her start in the 1950s in her native Italy after competing in beauty pageants, and she has been active in both Italy and the US throughout her career.
In her early career, Loren often appeared in bit parts as young women in peril or dancers in the background of scenes. As she gained more experience in the industry and became better at her craft, she began fighting for the roles she wanted. For Two Women, the studio originally wanted to cast her as the daughter, but she fought to play the mother in the movie who is trying to get her daughter out of war-torn Italy. She won the role and an Oscar for her work.
She’s known for her tenacity and her commitment to the work. Loren has gone on to record albums and write books as well.
24 Angela Lansbury
Known For Gaslight, Harvey Girls, And The Manchurian Candidate
Close
✕ Remove Ads
Angela Lansbury became known for her roles in the ‘90s as an older woman, like Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast and Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. Long before she was the sweet older woman solving crimes, however, she was an acclaimed actress in the Golden Age.
Her first screen role was just at the age of 17 as a maid in the movie Gaslight, and right out of the gate she earned an Oscar nomination for her work. For a lot of her early career, she was placed into smaller character roles, but she kept up the hard work and has become one of the most critically lauded actresses of the era.
Lansbury transitioned from the screen to the stage during her career, and she was equally at home there. She won six Golden Globes and five Tonys during her career as well as being nominated for three Oscars.
23 Rita Moreno
Known For Singin’ In The Rain, West Side Story, And The Deerslayer
Close
✕ Remove Ads
Today, Rita Moreno is a national treasure who is great at sinking her teeth into comedic roles. During Hollywood’s golden years, she was often relegated to supporting roles instead of allowing to play any leads. So many smaller parts, however, built up into an impressive profile of character work that led to Gene Kelly requesting her to appear as a silent film star in Singin’ In The Rain.
Her breakout role is easily that of Anita in West Side Story. Moreno won an Oscar for the role – and was the first Latina to do so. She has not slowed down in the acting world since that 1961 win and she’s been paving the way for Latin actors ever since, striving to play roles that are not stereotypes on the screen or the stage.
In her career, she has won that Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Tony, a Grammy, and two Emmys. She’s one of the few actors to have an EGOT.
22 Lillian Gish
Known For Broken Blossoms, Birth Of A Nation, And Duel In The Sun
✕ Remove Ads
Lillian Gish got her start in the silent era of movie-making. Most of the actresses who rose to prominence during Hollywood’s Golden Age did so as silent film stars were phased out. Gish, however, did not let that happen to her. Her career in movies spanned more than seven decades from 1912 to 1987.
Gish’s best-known movies of the silent film era were made under the direction of D.W. Griffiths. She liked working with him so much that she only broke up their partnership when MGM offered her a six-movie deal and more creative control over her projects. Of course, that partnership with Griffiths also made way for one of her most-remembered films and one of the most controversial of all time, Birth of a Nation.
Despite that, Gish was honored with numerous awards during her time as an actress on screen and stage, including the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
21 Rita Hayworth
Known For Only Angels Have Wings, Circus World, And Gilda
Rita Hayworth was one of the first “bombshells” of American cinema. She rose to popularity during the 1940s and became a popular pinup girl for American soldiers stationed in Europe during World War II. Her face was even painted on bombs, which is rumored to have disturbed her, though the military men who did it meant to flatter her.
Hayworth is often known for her looks. Even Madonna’s “Vogue” features a line saying, “Rita Hayworth gave good face.” Hayworth, however, was more than just a pretty face. She made an astonishing 61 films in just 37 years while also making public appearances and modeling. She was one of the hardest-working women in show business at the time.
Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers in the 1980s. Her being open about her diagnosis with the public led to more awareness of the illness. The Rita Hayworth Gala has been held annually since 1985 to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
20 Hattie McDaniel
Known For Gone With The Wind, Song of the South, And Since You Went Away
Hattie McDaniel was a powerhouse of a performer who did not get enough recognition in her lifetime. She was a comedian, a radio performer, a singer, and a writer. Segregation and ever-prevalent racism during her career prevented her from truly breaking into Hollywood the way that lighter-skinned women could.
McDaniel did not let that stop her though. She became the first Black woman to sing on the radio in the United States and the first African-American to win an Oscar when she won for her supporting role in Gone With The Wind.
Though historians have estimated that McDaniel appeared in over 300 films during her lifetime, she is only credited for her work in 83 of them. She has left a lasting Hollywood legacy behind her with many Black actresses crediting McDaniel with paving the way for them. Mo’Nique even thanked McDaniel in her Oscar acceptance speech when she won for Precious.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Related 30 Best Gone With The Wind Movie Quotes, Ranked
Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Lee, is considered one of the greatest films ever made. Here are the 30 best quotes, ranked.
Posts
19 Clara Bow
Known For Dancing Mothers, Mantrap, And It
Though the term “it girl” existed before Clara Bow, it become more widely used as a result of her acting career. Clara Bow become known as “the it girl” of Hollywood after appearing in the movie It and successfully transitioning from silent films to talkies. She was one of the few actresses able to do so, and she was a huge box office draw at the time. In the Turner Classic Movies documentary Discovering the It Girl, film historian Leonard Maltin makes the remark:
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
See more : Scarlett Johansson Religion What Religion is Scarlett Johansson? Is Scarlett Johansson a Judaism?
You think of Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, all these great names, great actresses. Clara Bow was more popular in terms of box-office dollars, in terms of consistently bringing audiences into the theaters. She was right on top.
Of course, today, people might be digging more into who Clara Bow was thanks to Taylor Swift referencing her in the song named for the actress. Swift sings about how people in the entertainment industry are constantly comparing women to those who came before them, tracing a time line from Bow’s career to her own.
18 Elizabeth Taylor
Known For Suddenly Last Summer, Cleopatra, And Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Elizabeth Taylor started her career in the movie industry at just seven years old in minor roles. She grew into a solid performer and a woman who could hold her own on screen against some of the best dramatic actors of the era.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
While her work is sometimes overshadowed by scandal, like her affair with Richard Burton, she exemplified the grace and glamor of Hollywood during her heyday. She is really the world’s first movie star on an international scale. Audiences all over the world were interested in her personal life as much as they were in seeing her on screen.
Taylor won two Oscars during her career. Beyond acting, she also founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, committed to helping people afflicted with a disease that many others in Hollywood wanted to sweep under the rug.
17 Marilyn Monroe
Known For Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, And The Seven Year Itch
If Rita Hayworth was the first woman to see bombshell get prolific use alongside her name, Marilyn Monroe was the next. Known as the “blonde bombshell” for her roles that combined her talent with her sex appeal, Marilyn Monroe has been one of the most heavily scrutinized stars of all time.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Much like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe’s personal life has been one that has fueled gossip even long after her death. It’s unfortunate for her legacy because she has also become one of the most often subjects of modern biopics (or making an appearance in someone else’s). That means her personal life has been dissected and debated time and again instead of audiences focusing on how great her comedy chops were.
Monroe, beyond her movie appearances, has become one of the most popular pop culture figures of all time. Her name and her image have been licensed for use by various brands long after her death. Her home in Los Angeles has even been named a historical monument.
16 Lauren Bacall
Known For: To Have And Have Not, The Big Sleep, And How To Marry A Millionaire
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Lauren Bacall got her start in the industry as a model. It was at 20 that she transitioned to film roles with To Have And Have Notopposite Humphrey Bogart. Bacall and Bogart’s chemistry was a big part of what propelled her into stardom as the two were magical on screen together, but he was not the only reason she was a great actress. She trained to make her voice deeper and learned to recite Shakespeare, taking her foray into acting very seriously (via The New Yorker).
Her famous “Look” in which she tilted her chin down and looked up at the camera through her hair was actually born from her first screen test out of nerves. She was trying to get herself to stop shaking (via Harper’s Bazaar). Simple choices like that, made to make her more comfortable on camera, were worked into her screen persona and allowed her to forge a path in noir films at the time. It was hard for her to transition from noir to comedy, but she did.
Bacall was nominated for three Emmys and an Oscar and won two Golden Globes. She was also awarded an honorary Oscar in 2010.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Related Top 10 Lauren Bacall Films, Ranked (According To IMDb)
Lauren Bacall instantly made her mark with her debut in To Have and Have Not. these are by far her best films according to IMDb ratings!
Posts
15 Mae West
Known For I’m No Angel, She Done Him Wrong, And Klondike Annie
Before other actresses made their careers out of boosting their sex appeal on screen and doing things just shy of what the censors would allow, Mae West was doing it first. She was even jailed for a week for obscenity after penning and starring in the stage play “Sex” while living in New York. She made her living as a vaudeville performer before becoming a silver screen star and was an actor, singer, comedian, and writer.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
West was known for pushing the buttons of studio executives and the censorship board alike. She preferred to make her comedy appeal to the common audience instead of those in charge of censoring her, which resulted in her being known for a lot of double entendres in her work.
West was one of the few women at the time to be credited as a screenwriter. She penned many of the scripts for the movies she starred in.
14 Claudette Colbert
Known For It Happened One Night, Cleopatra, And Since You Went Away
Close
Claudette Colbert is one of the few women acting in the 1930s and 1940s that studios did not pigeonhole into appearing in one type of movie or as one type of woman. She seemed to have her pick of the parts when it came to her studio deals. That might be because she was also one of the few actresses to make her way to Hollywood from the New York stage who worked as a freelance artist.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
In the 1930s, most actors were contracted to one of the big five studios for a specific number of movies before they were allowed to work on a movie for another. Colbert did not have that tying her down. Colbert appeared in everything from musicals to epics to dramas to romantic comedies on the big screen. Her best-known romantic comedy, It Happened One Night, even earned her an Oscar.
13 Barbara Stanwyck
Known For Baby Face, The Lady Eve, And Double Indemnity
Barbara Stanwyck earned her fame in Hollywood’s Pre-Code days. That is to say that she was already a star before censorship boards were put in place to check movies and rate them for the public. As a result, the cunning women she played in the 1920s allowed her to transition to femme fatale roles in noir films very easily. In fact, many historians would likely label her as the best femme fatale of the noir genre.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Beyond the noir roles she is best known for, however, Stanwyck was also proficient in comedy. She appeared in several screwball comedies during her career, though they do not get as much love as her noir work.
Throughout her career, Stanwyck was nominated for four Oscars, though she did not win one then. The Academy did award her an Honorary Oscar in 1982 for her contribution to cinema though.
12 Grace Kelly
Known For: Country Girl, Dial M For Murder, And Rear Window
Close
Grace Kelly being considered one of the best actresses of the old Hollywood era might be a divisive decision. After all, her acting career only spans five years. Those six years, however, left a huge mark on pop culture.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
She made her big screen debut in 1951, only to become an international superstar by 1952. That was quite the achievement for an actress, even one who would go on to win an Oscar in 1954. Audiences were captivated by her, and even more so when she became Alfred Hitchcock’s leading lady for three movies, cementing the idea of the “Hitchcock blonde” in pop culture.
Kelly also won three Golden Globes during her short acting career and received recognition from several different critics’ organizations, particularly for her work in Hitchcock’s movies. Just five years after she made her screen debut, Kelly retired from acting. She became a princess instead when she married Prince Ranier III of Monaco.
11 Marlene Dietrich
Known For Morocco, Shanghai Express, And Judgment At Nuremberg
Though Marlene Dietrich was born in Germany, she rose to fame as an actress in the United States. She worked on the stage and in silent films before being offered a contract with Paramount Pictures and becoming a bona fide movie star. Like many of the actresses at the time, she used her looks and her sex appeal to get people to pay attention to her at first, but then blew them all away with her talent.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Early in her career, Dietrich collaborated with director Josef von Sternberg. It’s her role in his Morocco that earned her her only Oscar nomination, which is surprising since her career continued long beyond her work with him and spanned 70 years.
While most of Dietrich’s best known movies are from the 1930s and her work during World War II, she also became an advocate for refugees and those who sought US citizenship. She even provided financial support to German and French citizens seeking new life outside of Europe.
10 Anna May Wong
Known For The Silk Bouquet, Piccadilly, And Shanghai Express
Like many women of color during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Anna May Wong was stymied by racist attitudes. She was a second-generation American to Chinese parents, but studio casting directors simply saw her as someone “other.” Though she was incredibly talented and repeatedly cast in supporting roles in silent movies (and then, transitioning to talkies), she was often passed over in favor of leading roles.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Wong saved up her money in many of those smaller roles, embraced the flapper style, and became a fashion icon. She was more popular than some of the leading ladies being employed at the time. She also started her own production company, and when she found out the man she had partnered with had been engaged in illegal practices, she sued him. Wong did not take being pushed aside lying down.
When Hollywood would not cast her in the movie roles she wanted, she sought out new roles in European cinema, traveling back and forth between the two. She maintained her career that way. Though there were doubtless other Chinese-American talents working in Hollywood at the time, Wong is often credited as the first Chinese-American actress.
Her legacy lives on in the Asian-American community working in the arts today. The Anna May Wong Award of Excellence is given annually at the Asian-American Arts Awards.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
9 Shirley Temple
Known For Bright Eyes, Heidi, And A Little Princess
Shirley Temple might not have been a femme fatale or the girl next door or the many other character types studios wanted to fit women into during Hollywood’s golden years, but she was one of the biggest stars of the era. She is one of the first recognizable child stars and many projects built around the performances of children likely owe their existence to her talent.
Shirley Temple was a toddler when her mother put her in dance classes, and it was at one of those classes that she was discovered. She became one of the preschoolers in the “Baby Burlesks” lineup that had children parody current movies. Her role as a saloon singer parodying Mae West is what started to really get the attention of Hollywood.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Temple went on to tap dance her way into the hearts of America singing “On The Good Ship Lollipop,” but she never fully transitioned into teen or adult roles. Instead, Temple eventually went into politics, serving as the ambassador to the United Nations for the US, and later Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
Related Shirley Temple’s 10 Best Movies, Ranked
As the biggest child star of the 1930s, Shirley Temple was a Hollywood sensation whose comedies, dramas, and musicals have stood the test of time.
Posts
8 Ginger Rogers
Known For Kitty Foyle, Top Hat, And The Barkleys Of Broadway
Close
The saying goes that Rogers did everything Astaire did, but she did it backward and in heels.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Ginger Rogers first rose to prominence in Hollywood for her dancing. Specifically, her dancing opposite Fred Astaire. The two appeared in nine movies together over the course of her career, all of them placing them as dance partners, and some of the movies even centering on ballroom dancing competitions. The saying goes that Rogers did everything Astaire did, but she did it backward and in heels. That helped endear her to the public.
Rogers also sought to prove her acting ability outside of her chemistry with Astaire though. She did just that when she appeared in the drama Kitty Foyle in 1940. Her career stalled somewhat on the screen in the 1950s though. That did not stop Rogers who also worked on the Broadway stage and became a director after leaving Hollywood mostly behind.
7 Joan Crawford
Known For The Women, Mildred Pierce, And What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Joan Crawford got her start in the 1920s in several uncredited roles as body doubles and dancers. In order to secure larger roles, she realized she had to make herself more popular with the public, so she cultivated the image of the 1920s flapper, which earned her a few roles as flappers in movies and set her on the path to rival It Girl Clara Bow (via A Feminist Reader In Early Cinema).
When her star began to wane in these types of roles, Crawford reinvented herself again with the drama Mildred Pierce. She won an Oscar for the role. Crawford was able to reinvent herself or change genres every time it seemed the public started to lose interest in her work, keeping her career alive until the 1970s.
Some of Crawford’s career accomplishments have since been overshadowed by her personal life. Her feuds with other actresses are now well known, and her daughter published a tell-all about their relationship, Mommie Dearest, which painted Crawford in a different light for a lot of classic movie fans.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
6 Greta Garbo
Known For A Woman Of Affairs, Grand Hotel, And Ninotchka
Greta Garbo actually got her acting start in Sweden. Her work in Swedish cinema caught the attention of MGM and saw her signed to a silent film contract with them. She worked steadily in silent films until 1929, and actually starred in MGM’s last silent film, The Kiss, before appearing in her first talkies in 1930.
Garbo became known for playing mysterious and often somber women on screen. Her performances were rumored to mirror her real aloof or even icy real-life personality. Throughout her career, she was nominated for three Oscars, but she made the decision to retire from acting at just 35, leaving Hollywood behind. When the Oscars awarded her an Honorary Oscar after she left Hollywood, she did not even come to the ceremony to receive the award, only furthering her image as one of the most aloof and mysterious women of the era.
See more : Is the Black Demon Based on a True Story? The Black Demon Release Date and Plot
✕ Remove Ads
You are watching: The 25 Best Actresses Of Old Hollywood
Source: https://truongnguyenbinhkhiem.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment