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Julie Andrews

The 50 Greatest Actresses of All Time

Filmsite.org's Tim Dirks spotlights the top 50 actresses in Hollywood history. Which one is your favorite?
Rank Title Points Votes Your Vote
1
Bette Davis
She had offbeat looks and a quirky voice, but when Davis was onscreen everyone else disappeared.
Current Score:
 11670
Total Votes:
 83114
2
Ingrid Bergman
Soulful star Bergman made doomed romance look good in Casablanca and self-loathing even better in Notorious.
Current Score:
 10347
Total Votes:
 57607
3
Barbra Streisand
Her mother said she wasn't pretty enough, but brassy Barbra from Brooklyn won an Oscar for her first film, Funny Girl.
Current Score:
 9529
Total Votes:
 86419
4
Olivia de Havilland
Gone With the Wind made the dark-haired beauty a star, but ten years later she played a shy spinster in The Heiress.
Current Score:
 9234
Total Votes:
 60392
5
Jane Fonda
Fonda defied the Establishment, going from generic starlet (Walk on the Wild Side) to sex kitten (Barbarella) to Oscar winner (Klute).
Current Score:
 9088
Total Votes:
 35534
6
Audrey Hepburn
In a world of pneumatic blondes, Hepburn made smart, complicated brunette sprites sexy in Roman Holiday and Sabrina.
Current Score:
 8548
Total Votes:
 46230
7
Barbara Stanwyck
From Double Indemnity to The Lady Eve, Stanwyck was a lean live wire with an alluringly husky voice.
Current Score:
 996
Total Votes:
 55816
8
Katharine Hepburn
She made casual elegant and relocated the seat of sex appeal from the bosom to the brain in Bringing Up Baby and Adam's Rib.
Current Score:
 899
Total Votes:
 46257
9
Deborah Kerr
British beauty Kerr specialized in channeling the hidden heat beneath the brittle, high-strung facade.
Current Score:
 806
Total Votes:
 29972
10
Kate Winslet
At 17, Winslet wowed moviegoers as a sociopathic teen in Heavenly Creatures. She's never shied away from offbeat characters.
Current Score:
 804
Total Votes:
 34234
11
Greta Garbo
The Swedish-born Garbo had plenty of beauty and talent to spare, but her mystery made her a legend.
Current Score:
 798
Total Votes:
 18082
12
Jean Arthur
Arthur excelled at playing brisk, witty, no-nonsense career girls who could go toe-to-toe with any man.
Current Score:
 779
Total Votes:
 25015
13
Claudette Colbert
Colbert could do just about anything -- historical dramas, women's weepies, musicals -- but she was the quintessential runaway heiress.
Current Score:
 764
Total Votes:
 25288
14
Vivien Leigh
The Gone With the Wind star made fewer than two dozen movies, but the combination of icy beauty and inner fire made her unforgettable.
Current Score:
 512
Total Votes:
 34762
15
Joan Crawford
No one worked harder. From Our Dancing Daughters to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, she remained in the limelight.
Current Score:
 -2631
Total Votes:
 25827
16
Elizabeth Taylor
Taylor could act when she wanted to, as in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and even when she didn't her looks sufficed.
Current Score:
 -3440
Total Votes:
 25136
17
Cate Blanchett
Blanchett sexed up the queen in Elizabeth and turned men's blood to ice as a Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Current Score:
 -3452
Total Votes:
 21066
18
Shirley MacLaine
An energetic redhead with a saucy smile, MacLaine made hooking seem wholesome in Irma la Douce and Sweet Charity.
Current Score:
 -3461
Total Votes:
 17987
19
Judi Dench
Dench has been a woman for all seasons, equally able to steal 1998's Shakespeare in Love and put James Bond in his place.
Current Score:
 -3479
Total Votes:
 23011
20
Meryl Streep
Boss from hell, Holocaust survivor, and frustrated housewife -- is there anyone Streep can't play?
Current Score:
 -3485
Total Votes:
 50255
21
Judy Garland
Talented but insecure, Garland was the little girl with a voice big enough to inspire everyone who felt out of step with the world.
Current Score:
 -3492
Total Votes:
 66342
22
Lauren Bacall
In The Big Sleep, the young Bacall's sultry voice and tough-girl swagger captivated men and women alike.
Current Score:
 -3796
Total Votes:
 18616
23
Mary Pickford
Wholesomely pretty, America's Sweetheart was the first real movie star and co-founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Current Score:
 -3879
Total Votes:
 16671
24
Sophia Loren
An Italian bombshell with talent as generous as her curves, Loren could be sultry, funny, and heartbreaking.
Current Score:
 -3883
Total Votes:
 18525
25
Joan Fontaine
Olivia de Havilland's younger sister was the quintessential cool, classy Hitchcock blonde and won an Oscar for Suspicion.
Current Score:
 -3913
Total Votes:
 21705
26
Carole Lombard
She could have coasted on her platinum-blonde looks, but Lombard showed she had sublime comic timing in My Man Godfrey.
Current Score:
 -3964
Total Votes:
 19550
27
Marlene Dietrich
Louche, leggy, and decadently languid, Dietrich brought European sophistication to Hollywood and kissed a girl in thirties Morocco.
Current Score:
 -4089
Total Votes:
 20895
28
Julie Andrews
She sang like an angel in Mary Poppins and made fun of her sweetness-and-light image in S.O.B.
Current Score:
 -4173
Total Votes:
 34367
29
Myrna Loy
Witty and urbane, Loy excelled in the Thin Man movies, playing the brainier half of society sleuths Nick and Nora.
Current Score:
 -4298
Total Votes:
 22874
30
Maureen O’Hara
From The Quiet Man to Miracle on 34th Street, O'Hara brought a dash of color to every movie she made.
Current Score:
 -4354
Total Votes:
 17202
31
Natalie Portman
Portman gives her all to every role, from a 12-year-old assassin (The Professional) to a ballerina losing her grip on reality (Black Swan).
Current Score:
 -4691
Total Votes:
 17409
32
Natalie Wood
As a child star (Miracle on 34th Street), teen idol (Rebel Without a Cause), and ingenue (West Side Story), Wood always sparkled.
Current Score:
 -4733
Total Votes:
 17273
33
Diane Keaton
Often daffy but never dumb, Keaton was equally at home in Annie Hall and the Godfather trilogy.
Current Score:
 -4750
Total Votes:
 19710
34
Jodie Foster
Precocious child actress Foster matured into a brainy Oscar-winning beauty in dramas like The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.
Current Score:
 -4756
Total Votes:
 38644
35
Jean Harlow
"Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" asked the bombshell in Hell's Angels, and a bad-girl cliche was born.
Current Score:
 -4820
Total Votes:
 19200
36
Nicole Kidman
Kidman's range -- which includes comedy, action, and serious drama -- is as striking as her fiery red hair.
Current Score:
 -4820
Total Votes:
 17406
37
Mae West
The star of the sex farces She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel, the full-figured West was queen of the bawdy double entendre.
Current Score:
 -5091
Total Votes:
 19335
38
Ava Gardner
She wasn't much of an actress, but Gardner had the looks that transformed a tobacco farmer's daughter into a pop-culture goddess.
Current Score:
 -5679
Total Votes:
 55003
39
Susan Hayward
Modeling got Hayward to Hollywood, where she delivered wrenching performances in Smash-Up and I Want to Live!
Current Score:
 -5769
Total Votes:
 26009
40
Rita Hayworth
A Hollywood makeover turned Latina dancer Margarita Cansino into a red-haired pinup and erotic icon.
Current Score:
 -5776
Total Votes:
 40194
41
Sally Field
Refusing to be stereotyped as the perky star of TV's Flying Nun, Field reinvented herself as a gutsy movie actress in Norma Rae.
Current Score:
 -6571
Total Votes:
 21865
42
Reese Witherspoon
She may be tiny, but she can go from cute (Legally Blonde) to formidable (Walk the Line) in an instant.
Current Score:
 -6815
Total Votes:
 20601
43
Angelina Jolie
The Tesla roadster of actresses, Jolie is the rare woman who looks like Lara Croft and talks like Mother Teresa.
Current Score:
 -7028
Total Votes:
 24032
44
Halle Berry
A teenage beauty-pageant winner, Berry dressed down to star in Monster's Ball, proving she's more than a (very) pretty face.
Current Score:
 -7032
Total Votes:
 21406
45
Sandra Bullock
Bullock is the girl next door -- smart, nice, pretty, loyal, and fun. Who cares if her movies are forgettable?
Current Score:
 -7150
Total Votes:
 23524
46
Julia Roberts
Pretty Woman catapulted the coltish Roberts to stardom, and her megawatt smile continues to light up comedies and dramas.
Current Score:
 -7251
Total Votes:
 21797
47
Doris Day
Day's perky, fresh-faced image was the antithesis of her hard-knocks life, but she never broke character.
Current Score:
 -7690
Total Votes:
 23362
48
Ginger Rogers
Rogers could sing, dance, and had enough sex appeal that it rubbed off on Fred Astaire, with whom she starred in Top Hat.
Current Score:
 -7857
Total Votes:
 32373
49
Grace Kelly
Before becoming Princess Grace of Monaco, she was the impossibly elegant star of Rear Window and Dial M for Murder.
Current Score:
 -9212
Total Votes:
 24028
50
Marilyn Monroe
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, and Some Like it Hot showcased the buxom, blue-eyed blonde's comic gifts.
Current Score:
 -9240
Total Votes:
 53076