Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Grace Kelly just 3 of the AFI Top 50 Screen Legends
Sometime in 2011 we decided it would be fun to do a Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) movie page on the AFI Top 50 Screen Legends. The AFI list of the top 50 greatest screen legends in American film history, included 25 male and 25 female stars. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 15, 1999. The American Film Institute defined an “American screen legend” as an actor or a team of actors during the classic film era with a significant screen presence in American feature-length films whose screen debut occurred in or before 1950, or whose screen debut occurred after 1950 but whose death has marked a completed body of work.
When we started doing these pages 6 of the 50 Screen Legends were still alive. Sadly Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple and Lauren Bacall passed away before we could finish our quest. Kirk Douglas, Sidney Poitier and Sophia Loren are still alive and well. Douglas will be 100 later this year…and just last week we received an autograph from that screen legend…but that is another story. After spending the last 5 years looking at the AFI list…we can say we like the list…BUT….there is one massive injustice. How Olivia de Havilland did not make the list makes no sense to us….ok done ranting.
The first AFI screen legend we researched and wrote about was Clark Gable….the last AFI screen legend we did was Mary Pickford. Between the Gable and Pickford pages….5 years passed, we changed our website home 2 times, we took a statistical look at 2,267 movies and we saw our classic movie pages become the most popular on our website….easily kicking our current movie star pages to the curb. So we decided to put all 50 of our AFI Screen Legends on one page. Each link below will take you to that star’s UMR page….where you will find box office grosses, reviews and awards for every single movie that star made during their career. John Wayne and Robert Mitchum are tied with the most movies (83) while James Dean has the least (3 movies).
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to our movie pages on the Screen Legend
1. Humphrey Bogart 58 Movies Ranked….from Casablanca (1942) to Swing Your Lady (1938)
2. Cary Grant 58 Movies Ranked… from North by Northwest (1959) to Born To Be Bad (1934)
3. James Stewart 73 Movies Ranked Mr. Smith Goes to Washington(1939) to Big Sleep(1978)
4. Marlon Brando 37 Movies Ranked….from The Godfather (1972) to Christopher Columbus (1992)
5. Fred Astaire 39 Movies Ranked The Towering Inferno (1974) to The Amazing Dobermans (1976)
6. Henry Fonda 81 Movies Ranked… On Golden Pond (1981) to City on Fire (1979)
7. Clark Gable 63 Movies Ranked….from Gone With The Wind (1939) to Parnell (1937)
8. James Cagney 61 Movies Ranked….from Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) to Boy Meets Girl (1938)
9. Spencer Tracy 53 Movies Ranked….from Boy’s Town (1938) to Up the River (1930)
10. Charles Chaplin 12 Movies Ranked….from The Kid (1921) to A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
11. Gary Cooper 67 Movies Ranked….from Sergeant York (1941) to Fighting Caravans (1931)
12. Gregory Peck 53 Movies Ranked To Kill a Mockingbird(1962) to Amazing Grace & Chuck(1987)
13. John Wayne 83 Movies Ranked….from True Grit (1969) to Brannigan (1975)
14. Laurence Olivier 48 Movies Ranked….from Rebecca (1940) to Inchon (1982)
15. Gene Kelly 40 Movies Ranked….from Anchors Aweigh (1945) to Viva Knievel! (1977)
16. Orson Welles 75 Movies Ranked….from Citizen Kane (1941) to Treasure Island (1972)
17. Kirk Douglas 71 Movies Ranked….from Spartacus (1960) to Diamonds (1999)
18. James Dean 3 Movies Ranked….from East of Eden (1955) to Giant (1956)
19. Burt Lancaster 67 Movies Ranked From Here to Eternity (1953) to Executive Action (1973)
20. Marx Brothers 18 Movies Ranked….from Horse Feathers (1932) to The Story of Mankind (1957)
21. Buster Keaton 28 Movies Ranked….from The Cameraman (1928) to The Intruder (1936)
22. Sidney Poitier 46 Movies Ranked….from In the Heat of the Night (1967) to Fast Forward (1985)
23. Robert Mitchum 83 Movies Ranked….from The Longest Day (1962) to Matilda (1978)
24. Edward G. Robinson 67 Movies Ranked 10 Commandments(1956) to BiggestBundleofAll(1968)
25. William Holden 66 Movies Ranked….from The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) to Ashanti (1979)
America Film Institutes’ Top 25 Screen Legend Actress and UMR’s Links That Rank All Of Their Movies.
1. Katharine Hepburn 43 Movies Ranked..On Golden Pond (1981) to Grace Quigley (1985)
2. Bette Davis 79 Movies Ranked…from All About Eve (1950) to Wicked Stepmother (1989)
3. Audrey Hepburn 24 Movies Ranked…from My Fair Lady (1964) to The All Laughed (1981)
4. Ingrid Bergman 32 Movies Ranked..Gaslight(1944) to Files of Mrs. Basil E.Frankweiler(1973)
5. Greta Garbo 24 Movies Ranked.. from Ninotchka (1939) to Torrent (1928)
6. Marilyn Monroe 23 Movies Ranked…from Some Like It Hot (1959) to Ladies of the Chorus (1948)
7. Elizabeth Taylor 47 Movies Ranked..Who’s Afraid of Va.Woolf?(1966) to A Little Night Music(1977)
8. Judy Garland 31 Movies Ranked…from A Star Is Born (1954) to I Could Go On Singing (1963)
9. Marlene Dietrich 30 Movies Ranked…from Shanghai Express (1932) to Just A Gigolo (1978)
10. Joan Crawford 72 Movies Ranked…from Mildred Pierce (1945) to The Law of the Range (1928)
11. Barbara Stanwyck 72 Movies Ranked.. Double Indemnity (1944) to The Bride Walks Out (1936)
12. Claudette Colbert 48 Movies Ranked..It Happened One Night(1934) to Royal Affairs(1954)
13. Grace Kelly 11 Movies Ranked.. from The Country Girl (1954) to Green Fire (1954)
14. Ginger Rogers 54 Movies Ranked.. from Kitty Foyle (1940) to The Groom Wore Spurs (1951)
15. Mae West 12 Movies Ranked.. from She Done Him Wrong (1933) to Sextette (1978)
16. Vivien Leigh 15 Movies Ranked.. from Gone With The Wind (1939) to Dark Journey (1937)
17. Lillian Gish 31 Movies Ranked.. from Intolerance (1916) to Hambone and Hillie (1983)
18. Shirley Temple 37 Movies Ranked.. from Since You Went Away (1944) to Honeymoon (1947)
19. Rita Hayworth 35 Movies Ranked.. from Gilda (1946) to The Naked Zoo (1970)
20. Lauren Bacall 36 Movies Ranked.. from To Have and Have Not (1944) to Diamonds (1999)
21. Sophia Loren 29 Movies Ranked.. from El Cid (1961) to Firepower (1979)
22. Jean Harlow 22 Movies Ranked.. from The Public Enemy (1931) to Riffraff (1936)
23. Carole Lombard 39 Movies Ranked from My Man Godfrey (1936) to It Pays To Advertise(1931)
24. Mary Pickford 31 Movies Ranked.. from The Little Princess (1917) to Rosita (1923)
25. Ava Gardner 40 Movies Ranked.. from The Killers (1946) to City on Fire (1979)
The amount of hours that went into this quest is mind boggling….but now that it is over….gotta admit…damn glad we did it. Of course that brings out the question…What Now?
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178 thoughts on “AFI Top 50 Screen Legends”
great discussion, great lists
big misses greer garson, norma shearer. need more recognition Olivia de haviland, Lillian gish
1 Katherine Hepburn
2ingrid bergman
3joan Crawford
4 greer garson
5 Elizabeth taylor
6 bette davis
7 Barbara stanwyck
8 Audrey Hepburn
9 Olivia de haviland
10 Myrna loy
11vivien leigh
12 greta garbo
13 Irene dunn
14 jean harlow
15 Claudette Colbert
16 rita Hayworth
17 lauren bacall
18 norma shearer
19 judy garland
20 Deborah kerr
21 Lillian gish
22 marlene dietrich
23 mary pickford
24 carol Lombard
25 ava gardner
1 I have been paying attention to your posts on the site index page and have just caught up with your female Legends list on this page.
2 I hope you don’t mind but I have copied to this page your other lists as it will be useful for any interested viewers to have all lists on the one page.. I had to do the same with some of my own posts after Steve pointed out that this page was the appropriate home for Legends lists
3 You certainly are your own man because you have made novel substitutions for a few of the “usual suspects” and I was pleased at Crosby and Heston being included in your male Legends list, and Fred March was of course one of only 4 actors to win more than one Oscar in the classic era [the other 3 being Cooper, Tracy and Brando].
4 Norma Shearer was certainly a reasonable candidate for the women’s list.as at one time she was MGM’s most prestigious actress getting billed above the likes of Joan Crawford, Tyrone Power and Robert Taylor and although Norma’s talkies career was relatively brief she was prolific in the silent era and that era has been largely overlooked on most professional as well as our own lists. I was delighted of course at Joan Crawford being placed a high 3rd on your list and your inclusion of Debs Kerr also pleased me. “Good thinking Batman,” I think is the well-worn cliche!.
please help me. why no love for Greer Garson? it is not being foreign because Bergman and Detrich are foreigners.
greer garson had 6 best picture nominations (Marylin Monroe had 1, a Bette Davis movie) to go with her best actress Oscar win. she beat MM by 1 billion box office in the same number of movies. greer garson is top 10 material.
please help me. why no love for Greer Garson? it is not being foreign because Bergman and Detrich are foreigners.
greer garson had 6 best picture nominations (Marylin Monroe had 1, a Bette Davis movie) to go with her best actress Oscar win. she beat MM by 1 billion box office in the same number of movies. greer garson is top 10 material.
Winston Churchill praised her effectiveness in helping England in WW2
Hi Bob (Cox},
Nothing personal against Greer Garson I assure you, very talented and successful actress. In terms of my list, I had explained that I am more familiar with classic male stars, so I would not be surprised if there are some holes in my top 25 actresses list. Generally, my impression was that Garson’s success did not go much beyond the 1940s, so that she had not had as much of a long-term impact as most of the others, but I’m happy to be corrected. Apart from that and a couple of others, I think our lists share many similarities and I welcome yours as the latest addition to this discussion. I hope the AFI is listening!
Bob, Flora, Phil. I’ve looked at your lists for Top 25 Legendary Actresses. all interesting, some funny (Bob’s inclusion of Jocelyn Brando and Dotty Lamour instead of screen goddesses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner gave me a chuckle).
Here is my list, based partly on your lists and with a couple of additions of my own.
In boring alphabetical order –
Lauren Bacall
Ingrid Bergman
Claudette Colbert
Joan Crawford
Bette Davis
Doris Day
Marlene Dietrich
Greta Garbo
Ava Gardner
Judy Garland
Jean Harlow
Rita Hayworth
Audrey Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Grace Kelly
Hedy Lamarr
Vivien Leigh
Carole Lombard
Myrna Loy
Marilyn Monroe
Ginger Rogers
Barbara Stanwyck
Elizabeth Taylor
Lana Turner
Mae West
I stuck with screen goddesses so Shirley Temple was out for being a famously talented tot. IMO Jane Russell was only really famous for her large mammaries, she wasn’t as beautiful as either Ava or Lana and they were better actresses too as well as legendary screen goddesses.
I was tempted to knock out Doris Day, very popular in her day but not in the same league as some of the others. Deborah Kerr and Jean Simmons both lovely and famous British actresses, just missed the chart, maybe I should drop Doris and… [cue Bob growling].
1 Lana would certainly be in my top 35 and I toyed with putting her in my 25/26 but chose Dorothy because (1) she was a big part of the historical Road series (2) she had a considerable number of stand-alone movies (3) she shaded Lana at the box office according to Bruce’s charts in terms of both total and average grosses
2 Ava had really ever one major stand-alone movie in which she was top billed and which made money, The Little Hut, her other film with Granger, Bhowani Junction losing money according to Wikipedia. Any film in which she was not teamed with another big star lost money and both her total grosses and average grosses were well down on Dorothy’s, over $2 billion less according to Bruce’s figures and such considerations are in my opinion important to the fine-tuning of ranking places.
3 Jocelyn was included because of her crystal-clear diction and the fact that into her films with the likes of Randy and Charlie Bill she carried with her the DNA of a legendary movies dynasty, her father having produced movies such as Cooper’s The Naked Edge and her little brother teaching even the English how to do Shakespeare. She was blacklisted for a long time by McCarthy and his boys or else she would probably would have made more films and justified a place near the top of the list – not above Myrna of course.
4 Anyway I think that for the greater part your own list reflects a nicely balanced selection and is therefore to be respected.
After I published my list, I went away and then looked at it later and realized that Lana Turner was not on my list and in fact wasn’t on the AFI list at all. I never realized that at all. She certainly deserved to be on the list. She did later become more famous for family scandal. You all know what that was, I do not have to say it.
Enjoyed your list. I respect you put it in alphabetical order .
Thanks Steve, good list. I nearly included Lana as well and agree to some extent on you point about Jane Russel. However, Flora and Bob feel she is a great legend, so I will have to think about that 🙂
Both Bob and yourself have included Hedy Lamarr, who I never thought as quite in the same league as the others but this Is probably due to my relative ignorance and it seems I will need to become more familiar with this leading lady.
1 Good way of working in the Gods but with all due respect to you both we on this site worship just one God, he is not a movie star, or directly connected with film-making and even Steve will concede who he is !! As for our Goddesses they would have to be W o C and Flora for respectively behind the scenes activity and prolific and informative provision of comments!
2 Glad Phil liked my comments about Laddie and I take it if Phil ever extends his list to 35 Ladd will be on the short list for consideration! Hey we’ll have to stop these puns or we’ll be getting as bad as Stevel.. In the past week I think I’ve twice used Cagney’s Top of the World Ma quote.but I’ve just read that it’s been used so often at for example promotion celebration parties and dinners that it is now regarded as a complete turn off. Still I find it great fun to use old movie and other emphasise if they underline a relevant point of discussion. Besides the professionals are better than I at formulating good quotes so as Liam Neeson said in The Dead Pool “It’s homage and not rip off,”
great discussion, great lists
big misses greer garson, norma shearer. need more recognition Olivia de haviland, Lillian gish
1 Katherine Hepburn
2ingrid bergman
3joan Crawford
4 greer garson
5 Elizabeth taylor
6 bette davis
7 Barbara stanwyck
8 Audrey Hepburn
9 Olivia de haviland
10 Myrna loy
11vivien leigh
12 greta garbo
13 Irene dunn
14 jean harlow
15 Claudette Colbert
16 rita Hayworth
17 lauren bacall
18 norma shearer
19 judy garland
20 Deborah kerr
21 Lillian gish
22 marlene dietrich
23 mary pickford
24 carol Lombard
25 ava gardner
HI BOB
1 I have been paying attention to your posts on the site index page and have just caught up with your female Legends list on this page.
2 I hope you don’t mind but I have copied to this page your other lists as it will be useful for any interested viewers to have all lists on the one page.. I had to do the same with some of my own posts after Steve pointed out that this page was the appropriate home for Legends lists
3 You certainly are your own man because you have made novel substitutions for a few of the “usual suspects” and I was pleased at Crosby and Heston being included in your male Legends list, and Fred March was of course one of only 4 actors to win more than one Oscar in the classic era [the other 3 being Cooper, Tracy and Brando].
4 Norma Shearer was certainly a reasonable candidate for the women’s list.as at one time she was MGM’s most prestigious actress getting billed above the likes of Joan Crawford, Tyrone Power and Robert Taylor and although Norma’s talkies career was relatively brief she was prolific in the silent era and that era has been largely overlooked on most professional as well as our own lists. I was delighted of course at Joan Crawford being placed a high 3rd on your list and your inclusion of Debs Kerr also pleased me. “Good thinking Batman,” I think is the well-worn cliche!.
BOB COX AND PHIL
My post of a few moments ago was meant for Bob Cox and not for Phil – apologies to you both
please help me. why no love for Greer Garson? it is not being foreign because Bergman and Detrich are foreigners.
greer garson had 6 best picture nominations (Marylin Monroe had 1, a Bette Davis movie) to go with her best actress Oscar win. she beat MM by 1 billion box office in the same number of movies. greer garson is top 10 material.
please help me. why no love for Greer Garson? it is not being foreign because Bergman and Detrich are foreigners.
greer garson had 6 best picture nominations (Marylin Monroe had 1, a Bette Davis movie) to go with her best actress Oscar win. she beat MM by 1 billion box office in the same number of movies. greer garson is top 10 material.
Winston Churchill praised her effectiveness in helping England in WW2
Hi Bob (Cox},
Nothing personal against Greer Garson I assure you, very talented and successful actress. In terms of my list, I had explained that I am more familiar with classic male stars, so I would not be surprised if there are some holes in my top 25 actresses list. Generally, my impression was that Garson’s success did not go much beyond the 1940s, so that she had not had as much of a long-term impact as most of the others, but I’m happy to be corrected. Apart from that and a couple of others, I think our lists share many similarities and I welcome yours as the latest addition to this discussion. I hope the AFI is listening!
Bob, Flora, Phil. I’ve looked at your lists for Top 25 Legendary Actresses. all interesting, some funny (Bob’s inclusion of Jocelyn Brando and Dotty Lamour instead of screen goddesses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner gave me a chuckle).
Here is my list, based partly on your lists and with a couple of additions of my own.
In boring alphabetical order –
Lauren Bacall
Ingrid Bergman
Claudette Colbert
Joan Crawford
Bette Davis
Doris Day
Marlene Dietrich
Greta Garbo
Ava Gardner
Judy Garland
Jean Harlow
Rita Hayworth
Audrey Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Grace Kelly
Hedy Lamarr
Vivien Leigh
Carole Lombard
Myrna Loy
Marilyn Monroe
Ginger Rogers
Barbara Stanwyck
Elizabeth Taylor
Lana Turner
Mae West
I stuck with screen goddesses so Shirley Temple was out for being a famously talented tot. IMO Jane Russell was only really famous for her large mammaries, she wasn’t as beautiful as either Ava or Lana and they were better actresses too as well as legendary screen goddesses.
I was tempted to knock out Doris Day, very popular in her day but not in the same league as some of the others. Deborah Kerr and Jean Simmons both lovely and famous British actresses, just missed the chart, maybe I should drop Doris and… [cue Bob growling].
HI STEVE
1 Lana would certainly be in my top 35 and I toyed with putting her in my 25/26 but chose Dorothy because (1) she was a big part of the historical Road series (2) she had a considerable number of stand-alone movies (3) she shaded Lana at the box office according to Bruce’s charts in terms of both total and average grosses
2 Ava had really ever one major stand-alone movie in which she was top billed and which made money, The Little Hut, her other film with Granger, Bhowani Junction losing money according to Wikipedia. Any film in which she was not teamed with another big star lost money and both her total grosses and average grosses were well down on Dorothy’s, over $2 billion less according to Bruce’s figures and such considerations are in my opinion important to the fine-tuning of ranking places.
3 Jocelyn was included because of her crystal-clear diction and the fact that into her films with the likes of Randy and Charlie Bill she carried with her the DNA of a legendary movies dynasty, her father having produced movies such as Cooper’s The Naked Edge and her little brother teaching even the English how to do Shakespeare. She was blacklisted for a long time by McCarthy and his boys or else she would probably would have made more films and justified a place near the top of the list – not above Myrna of course.
4 Anyway I think that for the greater part your own list reflects a nicely balanced selection and is therefore to be respected.
After I published my list, I went away and then looked at it later and realized that Lana Turner was not on my list and in fact wasn’t on the AFI list at all. I never realized that at all. She certainly deserved to be on the list. She did later become more famous for family scandal. You all know what that was, I do not have to say it.
Enjoyed your list. I respect you put it in alphabetical order .
Thanks Steve, good list. I nearly included Lana as well and agree to some extent on you point about Jane Russel. However, Flora and Bob feel she is a great legend, so I will have to think about that 🙂
Both Bob and yourself have included Hedy Lamarr, who I never thought as quite in the same league as the others but this Is probably due to my relative ignorance and it seems I will need to become more familiar with this leading lady.
PIERRE/PHIL
1 Good way of working in the Gods but with all due respect to you both we on this site worship just one God, he is not a movie star, or directly connected with film-making and even Steve will concede who he is !! As for our Goddesses they would have to be W o C and Flora for respectively behind the scenes activity and prolific and informative provision of comments!
2 Glad Phil liked my comments about Laddie and I take it if Phil ever extends his list to 35 Ladd will be on the short list for consideration! Hey we’ll have to stop these puns or we’ll be getting as bad as Stevel.. In the past week I think I’ve twice used Cagney’s Top of the World Ma quote.but I’ve just read that it’s been used so often at for example promotion celebration parties and dinners that it is now regarded as a complete turn off. Still I find it great fun to use old movie and other emphasise if they underline a relevant point of discussion. Besides the professionals are better than I at formulating good quotes so as Liam Neeson said in The Dead Pool “It’s homage and not rip off,”