Lots of comments and lists on our AFI Screen Legends page…..so we figured it was time to list all the rankings by some of our commenters. N/A means the actress did not make that person’s Top 25.
Actress AFI Bob bob cox UMR Flora Phil Steve
Lauren Bacall 20th N/A 17th N/A 16th N/A Top 25
Ingrid Bergman 4th 6th 2nd 3rd 5th 7th Top 25
Claudette Colbert 12th 17th 15th 10th 25th 13th Top 25
Joan Crawford 10th 2nd 3rd 8th 12th 4th Top 25
Bette Davis 2nd 3rd 6th 1st 2nd 1st Top 25
Doris Day N/A 7th N/A 19th 10th 18th Top 25
Olivia de Havilland N/A N/A 9th 17th N/A N/A N/A
Marlene Dietrich 9th 21st 22nd 7th 11th 9th Top 25
Irene Dunne N/A 18th 13th 22nd N/A N/A N/A
Greta Garbo 5th N/A 12th 4th 8th 8th Top 25
Ava Gardner 25th N/A 25th N/A N/A N/A Top 25
Judy Garland 8th 5th 19th 6th 4th 10th Top 25
Greer Garson N/A N/A 4th 24th N/A N/A N/A
Lillian Gish 17th N/A 21st 14th 20th 19th N/A
Jean Harlow 22nd 15th 14th N/A 9th 17th Top 25
Susan Hayward N/A N/A N/A 21st N/A N/A N/A
Rita Hayworth 19th 14th 16th 16th 15th 15th Top 25
Katharine Hepburn 1st 3rd 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Top 25
Audrey Hepburn 3rd 9th 8th N/A 7th 6th Top 25
Grace Kelly 13th 19th N/A N/A 17th 16th Top 25
Deborah Kerr N/A 13th 20th 23rd N/A 24th N/A
Hedy Lamarr N/A 25th N/A N/A N/A N/A Top 25
Dorothy Lamour N/A 24th N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Vivien Leigh 16th N/A 11th 13th 24th 21st Top 25
Carole Lombard 23rd 16th 24th 18th 22nd 22nd Top 25
Sophia Loren 21st N/A N/A N/A 19th 25th N/A
Myrna Loy N/A N/A 10th 20th N/A 20th Top 25
Marilyn Monroe 6th 1st N/A N/A 3rd 3rd Top 25
Mary Pickford 24th 10th 23rd 25th 21st 23rd N/A
Ginger Rogers 14th 12th N/A 11th 13th 11th Top 25
Jane Russell N/A 22nd N/A N/A 23rd N/A N/A
Norma Shearer N/A N/A 18th N/A N/A N/A N/A
Barbara Stanwyck 11th 20th 7th 9th 18th 12th Top 25
Elizabeth Taylor 7th 8th 5th 5th 6th 5th Top 25
Shirley Temple 18th 11th N/A 15th 14th 14th N/A
Lana Turner N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Top 25
Mae West 15th N/A N/A 12th N/A N/A Top 25
Esther Williams N/A 23rd N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Okay, it took a while, but here’s my list of favorite female movie stars in alphabetical order. Mostly classic actresses, but a few modern ones as well. I limited it to the top 20:
Julie Andrews
Joan Crawford
Bette Davis
Geena Davis
Joan Fontaine
Audrey Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Diane Keaton
Grace Kelly
Deborah Kerr
Carole Lombard
Shirley MacLaine
Marilyn Monroe
Lee Remick
Debbie Reynolds
Jean Simmons
Susan Saradon
Maggie Smith
Meryl Streep
Natalie Wood
Great list of current and classic stars. It was worth the wait. Glad to see Julie Andrews and Natalie Wood included. They were part of my master list.
As I did for the male legends, I made a top 35 list of classic actresses by taking into account the rankings of all who participated in this exercise (AFI, Bob, Bob Cox, Flora, Bruce/UMR, Steve, and myself), assigning weighted scores to each actress: 25 points for each #1 ranking, 24 points for each #2 ranking, and so one until 1 point for each #25 ranking. Since Steve provided no ranking, his picks just received 3 points each. Both Bob and Steve revised their list on April 19 (replacing the Lamars, Lamours etc..with others), so I used their new lists instead of the ones above.
In my view, like the weighted list of classic male stars, this is an excellent list as it reflects the combined, averaged views of some of the world’s top experts of classic stars 🙂
A few Interesting results: Doris Day, Deborah Kerr and Myrna Loy, who were not on the AFI list, occupy the # 17, 21, and 23 spots on the combined list, respectively; Joan Crawford, who was 10th on the AFI list moves up to #4; Lauren Bacall just squeezed in the top 25, and poor Ava Gardner ranks the lowest of the AFI-selected stars in the combined list (but she can rejoice in still showing up at #34).
1. Katharine Hepburn (149 points)
2. Bette Davis (144 points)
3. Elizabeth Taylor (123 points)
4. Joan Crawford (120)
5. Ingrid Bergman (111)
6. Judy Garland (107)
7. Audrey Hepburn (100)
8. Greta Garbo (96)
9. Marilyn Monroe (94)
10. Barbara Stanwyck (81)
11. Marlene Dietrich (79)
12. Ginger Rogers (72)
13. Claudette Colbert (67)
14. Rita Hayworth (64)
15. Shirley Temple (58)
16. Jean Harlow (54)
17. Doris Day (53)
18. Vivian Leigh (48)
19. Grace Kelly (42)
20. Lilian Gish (39)
21. Deborah Kerr (37)
22. Carole Lombard (34)
23. Myrna Loy (31)
24. Mary Pickford (30)
25. Lauren Bacall (28)
26. Olivia de Havilland (26)
27. Irene Dunne (25)
28. Greer Garson (24)
29. Mae West (17)
30. Sophia Loren (13)
31. Susan Hayward (10)
32. Lana Turner (9)
33. Norma Shearer (8)
34. Ava Gardner and Jane Russel (tied at 5)
Thank you again Phil for doing all that work to come up with a weighted Top Actress list from our lists. As you say, the changes in the names who are included and where names moved around are interesting.
Hopefully Bruce will take this post and create a new page for our UMR Top Actress List. 🙂
Thanks Flora, for the feedback on my two lists. Much appreciated. Glad that Andrews and Wood almost made your list as well!
yea, PhilHOF17. lot of work and very appreciated. all are legenday and I have no problems with the top 5 and the bottom 7. I enjoyed your favorites list also. I love geena davis. I find it fascinating how each of us has very personal selections and I often wonder why? I know even some movies and actresses I love change in my opinion over time and my circumstances . Julie Andrews ,what a talent , my first true love from mary poppins. a 7 year old dreams of that kind of governess . things change LOL. later It was Julia Roberts from pretty woman. go figure. soon it may be meryl streep in iron lady. in my dreams.
Hi Bob, I agree, our taste evolves over time and if we’re sufficiently open, we come to appreciate many movies, actors and actresses we did not initially pay much attention to. In the case of many of my favorite actresses, I’m sure there is also an element of physical attraction that influences my judgment, though it’s obviously more than that. In the case of Geena Davis, I find that in addition to being very pretty, there is something kind and frank in her expression that I like. Thanks for the feedback.
Hey Phil HOF17….you did another outstanding job of collecting all of the lists and making the combined list. I think as a group we have a pretty solid Top 50. As for Geena Davis…..she had a nice run…..but it was way to short to be included in the greats…..but I have always enjoyed her performances.
I agree about geena, a charming innocence that played its best in accidental tourist , and a league of their own. I also enjoyed Thelma and louise, the fly, speechless and commander in chief(TV), . I appreciated her comedic ability in beetlejuice, tootsie, fletch, earth girls are easy. my hidden favourite is Hero, if a dustin Hoffman film can be hidden/ under appreciated. yea geena, yea PhilHOF17. yea UMR, i sense a request for a page on Geena Davis. : ^ )