Vinnie's Leading Ladies

101. Sandra Knight

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, brought up in Los Angeles from early childhood, Sandra Knight performed as a child - singing, dancing, acting and modeling. She had one of her first professional performances as the lead singer in her group, called, the "String Busters" playing Ukulele, with her ...

102. Nancy Kovack

Actress | Jason and the Argonauts

A native of Flint, Michigan, Nancy Kovack was a student at the University of Michigan at 15, a radio deejay at 16, a college graduate at 19 and the holder of eight beauty titles by 20. Her professional acting career began on television in New York, first as one of Jackie Gleason's "Glea Girls" and ...

103. June Kyoto Lu

Actress | Big Trouble in Little China

June Kyoto Lu is known for Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Blood Work (2002) and Lady in the Water (2006).

104. Hedy Lamarr

Actress | Samson and Delilah

Hedy Lamarr, the woman many critics and fans alike regard as the most beautiful ever to appear in films, was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Gertrud (Lichtwitz), from Budapest, and Emil Kiesler, a banker from Lemberg (now known as Lviv). Her parents were ...

105. Lenita Lane

Actress | The Bat

Lenita Lane was born on December 16, 1901 in Parnassus, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Bat (1959), The Mad Magician (1954) and While America Sleeps (1939). She was married to Crane Wilbur. She died on March 15, 1995 in Culver City, Los Angeles, California, USA.

106. Angela Lansbury

Actress | The Manchurian Candidate

Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar ...

107. Piper Laurie

Actress | The Hustler

Piper Laurie was a three-time Oscar nominee, nominated by BAFTA as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for best performance by an actress in 'The Hustler' with Paul Newman.

Laurie was born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, to Charlotte Sadie (Alperin) and Alfred Jacobs, a ...

108. Cloris Leachman

Actress | The Last Picture Show

The legendary actress set a record when at age 82, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005). Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926 in Des Moines, Iowa to Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and the former Cloris Wallace. Her father's family owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. She ...

109. China Lee

Actress | Medium Cool

Busty and lovely brunette stunner China Lee was born Margaret Lee on September 2, 1942, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her parents were Chinese immigrants who moved to America after getting married, and owned a laundry. The youngest of eight children, China has three brothers and four sisters. She ...

110. Uta Levka

Actress | Carmen, Baby

Uta Levka was born on May 26, 1942 in Cottbus, Germany. She is an actress, known for Carmen, Baby (1967), The Oblong Box (1969) and Scream and Scream Again (1970).

111. Fiona Lewis

Actress | Innerspace

Fiona Lewis was born on September 28, 1946 in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Innerspace (1987), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) and The Fury (1978). She has been married to Art Linson since 1995. She was previously married to William Hayward.

112. Pamela Lincoln

Actress | The Tingler

Pamela Lincoln was born on May 14, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Tingler (1959), Tootsie (1982) and One Step Beyond (1959). She was married to Darryl Hickman. She died on November 21, 2019 in Branford, Connecticut, USA.

113. Margaret Lindsay

Actress | Scarlet Street

Picture-pretty brunette Margaret Lindsay was one of a number of pleasant, sweet-natured ingénues who could do no wrong in a score of 1930s stylish Hollywood pictures. Such altruistic love interests were often overlooked in pictures that were carried by the flashy histrionics of a jaunty James Cagney...

114. Ida Lupino

Actress | High Sierra

Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was ...

115. Dorothy Malone

Actress | Written on the Wind

The blonde, sultry, dreamy-eyed beauty of Dorothy Malone, who was born Mary Maloney in Chicago on January 29, 1924, took some time before it made an impact with American film-going audiences. But once she did, she played it for all it was worth in her one chance Academy Award-winning "bad girl" ...

116. Adele Mara

Actress | Sands of Iwo Jima

She was born Adelaide Delgado on August 28, 1923 (some references list 1925) to Spanish-speaking parents. The future Adela Mara began dances lesson at age 6 and was discovered as a young teenager by the legendary Xavier Cugat. Singing and dancing with his in the Detroit area, Cugat took the ...

117. Mae Marsh

Actress | The Birth of a Nation

Mae Marsh's father was an auditor for the railroad who died when she was four. Her family moved to San Francisco, where her stepfather was killed in the 1906 earthquake. Her great-aunt then took Mae and her sister to Los Angeles. With her show business background, Mae's aunt took them to the ...

118. Marlyn Mason

Actress | Model Rules

Bright, vivacious leading lady Marlyn Mason was born on August 7, 1940, in San Fernando, California, and began performing at the age of 5. Encouraged and inspired by her parents, she was given singing and piano lessons while young and appeared on the local "Doye O'Dell Show" at age 9. As a young ...

119. Virginia Mayo

Actress | White Heat

Virginia Clara Jones was born on November 30, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a newspaper reporter and his wife. The family had a rich heritage in the St. Louis area: her great-great-great-grandfather served in the American Revolution and later founded the city of East Saint Louis, ...

120. Patricia Medina

Actress | Snow White and the Three Stooges

Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born on July 19, 1919 in Liverpool, England to a Spanish father and an English mother. She began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s and worked her way up to leading roles in the mid-1940s, then left for Hollywood. Medina teamed up with British actor Louis Hayward ...

121. Cathie Merchant

Actress | 77 Sunset Strip

Cathie Merchant was born on November 15, 1945 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The Untouchables (1959) and The Bob Cummings Show (1961). She died on February 2, 2013 in the USA.

122. Colleen Miller

Actress | The Las Vegas Story

The story goes that 19-year-old Colleen Miller was fishing in the California mountains when a resort photographer recruited her to pose with a prize trout; a movie scout saw the picture in print, and Colleen wound up with a small role in The Las Vegas Story (1952). A more noticeable role in Man ...

123. Yvette Mimieux

Actress | The Time Machine

An intelligent, slender leading lady of the 1960s and 70s, Yvette Carmen Mimieux was born in Hollywood, California, to Maria (Montemayor) and René Mimieux, an occasional movie extra. Her father was born in England, of French and German descent, and her mother was Mexican. While she was first ...

124. Julie Mitchum

Actress | House on Haunted Hill

Julie Mitchum was born on July 23, 1914 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. She was an actress, known for House on Haunted Hill (1959), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Hit and Run (1957). She was married to Elliot Sater. She died on February 21, 2003 in Sun City, Arizona, USA.

125. Sara Montiel

Actress | La violetera

Sara Montiel was born in the village of Campo de Criptana, province of Ciudad Real, in the region of Castille-La Mancha, Spain. Her parents were Isidoro Abad, a peasant, and Maria Vicenta Fernández, a door-to-door beautician. The future star was christened Maria Antonia Alejandra Abad Fernández. ...

126. Agnes Moorehead

Actress | The Magnificent Ambersons

Agnes was born of Anglo-Irish ancestry near Boston, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister (her mother was a mezzo-soprano) who encouraged her to perform in church pageants. Aged three, she sang 'The Lord is my Shepherd' on a public stage and seven years later joined the St. Louis Municipal Opera ...

127. Mary Murphy

Actress | The Wild One

This actress' two-decade career produced only one single stand-out film role but that one role as the "good girl" who redeems "bad boy" Marlon Brando's tough biker in the cult flick The Wild One (1953) put Mary Murphy at the head of the acting class for one brief shining moment. In others, she ...

128. Ruth Nelson

Actress | Awakenings

Stage actress Ruth Nelson's biggest claim to fame was as one of the founding members of the famed New York-based "Group Theatre" back in the 30s and was well-received playing the cabby's wife in Clifford Odets' short play "Waiting for Lefty" in 1935. This role would typify Ruth's career as the ...

129. Sheree North

Actress | Breakout

Sheree North was born on January 17, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Breakout (1975), Lawman (1971) and The Shootist (1976). She was married to Phillip Alan Norman, Dr. Gerhardt Ralph Sommer, John M. "Bud" Freeman and Frederick Arnold Bessire Jr.. She died on ...

130. Virginia North

Actress | On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The daughter of an American Army Officer and a British mother, Virginia Anne Northrop spent her childhood travelling and growing up in whatever country her father happened to be posted. By the age of twenty, she settled in London and became a fashion model with Europe's leading agency, Models 1. ...

131. Maureen O'Hara

Actress | The Quiet Man

In America, the early performing arts accomplishments of young Maureen FitzSimons (who we know as Maureen O'Hara) would definitely have put her in the child prodigy category. However, for a child of Irish heritage surrounded by gifted parents and family, these were very natural traits. Maureen made...

132. Carol Ohmart

Actress | House on Haunted Hill

She was one of a bevy of sexy blondes shuffled about in 50s films, thrust into the limelight by ambitious movie studios as possible contenders to Marilyn Monroe's uncooperative pedestal. Almost none of these ladies managed to even step up to the plate when it came to the powerful allure of "La ...

133. Barbara O'Neil

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Barbara O'Neil was an American actress, mostly remembered for playing Ellen O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" (1939). She was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress .

O'Neil was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a prominent family. Her father was businessman David O'Neil (1874-...

134. Vivienne Osborne

Actress | Two Seconds

Vivienne Osborne was born on December 10, 1896 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for Two Seconds (1932), Dragonwyck (1946) and Tomorrow at Seven (1933). She was married to Francis Worthington Hine. She died on June 10, 1961 in Malibu, California, USA.

135. Patricia Owens

Actress | The Fly

Patricia Owens was born in Golden, British Columbia, in 1925. When she was eight she moved to England, where she embarked on a number of stage plays. Later she was spotted by a Twentieth Century-Fox executive, who offered her a contract, and in 1956 she went to Hollywood. There she met Sy Bartlett,...

136. Debra Paget

Actress | The Ten Commandments

An acting career was always in the cards for Debra Paget (nee Debralee Griffin) and her siblings, coming from a show biz family and being the offspring of a "stage mother" anxious to get her kids into the movies. Paget's sister Teala Loring got her movie breaks in the 1940s, Lisa Gaye was a film ...

137. Julie Peasgood

Actress | House of the Long Shadows

Julie Peasgood was born on May 28, 1956 in Grimsby, Humberside, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for House of the Long Shadows (1983), The Snarling (2018) and This Year Next Year (1977). She has been married to Patrick Pearson since 1998. She was previously married to Dallas Smith...

138. Essy Persson

Actress | Therese and Isabelle

Essy Persson was born on June 15, 1941 in Gothenburg, Sweden, as Essy Ingeborg Vilhelmina Persson. She is an actress primarily known for the leading role as "Siv" in the world famous feature film, "Jag en kvinna" (I - a woman). She began working as a secretary studying acting at a private theatre ...

139. Mary Philips

Actress | Leave Her to Heaven

Brunette, convent-educated Mary Philips was an accomplished actress on the New York stage by the time she met the actor Humphrey Bogart in 1924 and became his 'speakeasy touring companion'. While both encouraged each other's prodigious affinity for alcohol, Mary proved beneficial in getting Bogie ...

140. Carmen Phillips

Actress | Easy Rider

Carmen Phillips was born on January 10, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Easy Rider (1969), One Step Beyond (1959) and It Started with a Kiss (1959). She was married to David Morin. She died on September 22, 2002 in Hollywood, California, USA.

141. Maggie Pierce

Actress | Tales of Terror

Maggie Pierce was born on October 24, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She was an actress, known for Tales of Terror (1962), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967). She was married to Jerry Minskoff. She died on April 5, 2010 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA.

142. Tina Pine

Writer | Claudine

Tina Pine was born on July 31, 1923 in New York, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Claudine (1974), Popi (1969) and The Baron of Arizona (1950). She was married to Lester Pine. She died on November 3, 1998 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.

143. Micheline Presle

Actress | If a Man Answers

Elegant, dark-haired Parisian Micheline Presle (billed in the U.S. as Micheline Prelle) was the daughter of a businessman whose surname was Chassagne. Taking acting classes as a teen, she was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and cast in Jeunes filles en détresse (1939) (portraying ...

144. Vici Raaf

Actress | The Red Skelton Show

Vici Raaf was born on June 30, 1921 in Wood River, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Red Skelton Hour (1951), He Ran All the Way (1951) and The Yellow Canary (1963). She died on April 6, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

145. Ella Raines

Actress | Phantom Lady

Ella Raines was born in Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, in 1920. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the University of Washington as a drama student and participated in many plays. Following graduation, she traveled to New York and the lights of Broadway. She was eventually signed by ...

146. Anne Revere

Actress | Gentleman's Agreement

Veteran character actress Anne Revere became another in the long line of talented artists whose careers would crash under the weight of the "Red Scare" hysteria that tore through Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Manhattan and a direct descendant of Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere, ...

147. Marjorie Reynolds

Actress | The Time of Their Lives

Bright, vivacious Marjorie Reynolds (née Goodspeed) was born in Idaho on August 12, 1917 to a homemaker and a doctor and raised in Los Angeles. She made her film debut at age 6, then "retired" after only a few years to pursue a regular education.

She returned in the mid-1930s as a teenager and began...

148. Diana Rigg

Actress | Last Night in Soho

British actress Dame Diana Rigg was born on July 20, 1938 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. She has had an extensive career in film and theatre, including playing the title role in "Medea", both in London and New York, for which she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Rigg made her ...

149. Maria Rohm

Actress | Ein Unbekannter rechnet ab

Maria Rohm was one of the rare gems in the movie business - acting, and in particular theatre and movies was truly her life's work. She started acting on-stage at the famous Vienna Burgtheatre as a child actor from ages 4 through 13. Having performed in such classics as William Shakespeare's "...

150. Riza Royce

Actress | The Bat

Riza Royce was born on July 18, 1903 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress and assistant director, known for The Bat (1959), Mission: Impossible (1966) and Lights Out (1946). She was married to Josef von Sternberg and Stanton MacDonald-Wright. She died on October 20, 1980 in Los ...

151. Jane Russell

Actress | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her father was a United States Army lieutenant and her mother had been a student of drama and an actress with a traveling troupe. Once Mr. Russell was mustered out of the service, the family took up residence in ...

152. Winona Ryder

Actress | Little Women

Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Ukrainian Jewish and ...

153. Martha Scott

Actress | The Ten Commandments

Martha Ellen Scott was born in Jamesport, Missouri, to Letha (McKinley) and Walter Alva Scott, an engineer and garage owner. She entered films in the early 1940s, following an initial appearance in stock. Her first film appearance was Our Town (1940), playing the same character as she played on the...

154. Anabel Shaw

Actress | Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

Anabel Shaw was born on June 24, 1921 in Oakland, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1947), Here Come the Waves (1944) and Killer at Large (1947). She was married to George Randolph Skopecek Jr. and Joseph Brandon Ford. She died on April 16, 2010 in Santa ...

155. Elizabeth Shepherd

Actress | The Tomb of Ligeia

Born in London to missionary parents, Elizabeth Shepherd first performed in public as a child, interpreting Burmese dances at mission-related events. Back in England, she studied drama at Bristol University and acted on stage with repertory companies in Manchester and Nottingham. Between 1961 and ...

156. Ann Smyrner

Actress | Reptilicus

Ann Smyrner was born on November 3, 1934 in Frederiksberg, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Reptilicus (1961), Kommissar X - Drei gelbe Katzen (1966) and Holiday in St. Tropez (1964). She died on August 29, 2016 in Benalmadena, Andalusia, Spain.

157. Elke Sommer

Actress | A Shot in the Dark

This gorgeous Teutonic temptress was one of Hollywood's most captivating imports of the 1960s. Blonde and beautiful, Berlin-born Elke Sommer, with her trademark pouty lips, high cheekbones and sky-high bouffant hairdos, proved irresistible to American audiences, whether adorned in lace or leather, ...

158. Ann Sothern

Actress | Lady Be Good

Ann Sothern's film career started as an extra in 1927. Originally a redhead, she began to bleach her hair blonde for comedy roles. After working at MGM and on Broadway, Ann was signed by Columbia Pictures for Let's Fall in Love (1933). The next year she would work with Eddie Cantor in his hit Kid ...

159. Barbara Steele

Actress | La maschera del demonio

The most beautiful star of the greatest horror masterpiece of Italian film, Black Sunday (1960): Barbara Steele was born on December 29, 1937 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. Barbara is loved by her fans for her talent, intelligence, and a dark mysterious beauty that is unique; her face epitomizes...

160. Pamela Stephenson

Actress | Superman III

Pamela Stephenson was born on December 4, 1949 in Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand. She is an actress and writer, known for Superman III (1983), History of the World: Part I (1981) and Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979). She has been married to Billy Connolly since December 20, 1989. They have three ...

161. Dodie Stevens

Soundtrack | The Glove

Dodie Stevens was born on February 17, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for The Glove (1979), Hound-Dog Man (1959) and Alakazam the Great (1960).

162. Naomi Stevens

Actress | The Apartment

Naomi Stevens was born on November 29, 1925 in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for The Apartment (1960), Valley of the Dolls (1967) and Hard Times (1975). She was married to Robert Burns Jr.. She died on January 13, 2018 in Reseda, California, USA.

163. Gale Storm

Actress | Between Midnight and Dawn

The youngest of five children, and born with the drab, unlikely name of Josephine Cottle on April 5, 1922, this pleasantly appealing, Texas-born, auburn-haired beauty was only seventeen months old when her father, William, passed away. The family moved from Bloomington (her home town) to McDade (...

164. Rose Stradner

Actress | The Last Gangster

Pretty, soulful-eyed Austrian actress Rose Stradner was a rising 30s ingénue on the Viennese stage and in a few German film romances and musicals when MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who was in Europe searching for exotic talent, discovered her. Along with Greer Garson, Ilona Massey and Hedy Lamarr, she ...

165. Lili St. Cyr

Actress | Cinderella's Love Lesson

Buxom, highly painted blonde Lili St. Cyr was a notorious striptease artist of the 1940s and 1950s who replaced Gypsy Rose Lee and Ann Corio on the burlesque queen pedestal. Lili actually took the stripper out of burlesque and put her squarely on the Las Vegas stage. She was also noted for her ...

166. Olive Sturgess

Actress | The Raven

Olive Sturgess was born on October 8, 1933 in Ocean Falls, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress, known for The Raven (1963), Matinee Theatre (1955) and Front Row Center (1955). She was previously married to Dale Anderson.

167. Jessica Tandy

Actress | Driving Miss Daisy

A beloved, twinkly blue-eyed doyenne of stage and screen, actress Jessica Tandy's career spanned nearly six and a half decades. In that span of time, she enjoyed an amazing film renaissance at age 80, something unheard of in a town that worships youth and nubile beauty. She was born Jessie Alice ...

168. Joyce Taylor

Actress | Twice-Told Tales

Born in Taylorville, Illinois, Joyce Taylor sang in amateur shows at age ten and turned professional when she was a very grown-up-looking 15, signing on with Mercury Records. She was under contract to Howard Hughes' RKO in the 1950s but the eccentric and enigmatic tycoon only allowed her to act in ...

169. Gene Tierney

Actress | Laura

With prominent cheekbones, luminous skin and the most crystalline green eyes of her day, Gene Tierney's striking good looks helped propel her to stardom. Her best known role is the enigmatic murder victim in Laura (1944). She was also Oscar-nominated for Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Her acting ...

170. Märta Torén

Actress | Rogues' Regiment

From an early age her dream was to become an actress. Her first application for acting studies at The Royal Dramatic Theater in 1944 was unsuccessful. After additional dramatic coaching she was finally accepted in 1947. But screenwriter Edwin Blum arranged a screen test for RKO which eventually led...

171. Lana Turner

Actress | Madame X

Lana Turner had an acting ability that belied the "Sweater Girl" image MGM thrust upon her, and even many of her directors admitted that they knew she was capable of greatness (check out The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)). Unfortunately, her private life sometimes overshadowed her professional ...

172. Susan Tyrrell

Actress | Cry-Baby

A bizarre, gloriously one-of-a-kind Hollywood gypsy and self-affirmed outcast, San Francisco-born actress Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian Creamer) was a teenager when she made her stage debut in "Time Out for Ginger" in 1962. A product of the entertainment industry, her father was a top agent at ...

173. Mamie Van Doren

Actress | Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

Mamie Van Doren was born on February 6, 1931 in Rowena, South Dakota, USA. She is an actress, known for Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), Teacher's Pet (1958) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966). She has been married to Thomas Dixon since June 26, 1979. She was previously ...

174. Joyce Van Patten

Actress | Grown Ups

Adept at both comedy and drama, veteran "second lead" and character actress Joyce Van Patten was born on March 9, 1934, in New York City. Prodded by a typically assertive magazine editor (stage) mother, Joyce and her equally famous older brother Dick Van Patten displayed natural talent and began ...

175. Mary Webster

Actress | The Twilight Zone

Mary Webster was born on March 13, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Twilight Zone (1959), Master of the World (1961) and Everglades! (1961). She died on January 23, 2017 in Dallas, Texas, USA.

176. Dianne Wiest

Actress | The Birdcage

One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1946. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on ...

177. Shelley Winters

Actress | The Poseidon Adventure

Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift of very humble beginnings on August 18, 1920 (some sources list 1922) in East St. Louis, Illinois. Her mother, Rose Winter, was born in Missouri, to Austrian Jewish parents, and her father, Jonas Schrift, was an Austrian Jewish immigrant. She had one sibling...