92 thoughts on “UMR Screen Legends 1950-2010 Actresses”

1. Steve Lensman
   December 28, 2016 at 8:44 am
   Hi Bob, I’ve looked at Bruce’s top 25 modern actresses list, what are the 7 that you and Bruce agree on in your post?

   Cameron Diaz was cute in her day but I can’t consider as her one of the ‘greatest’ and where is she now? In fact while I agreed on most of the choices, some I disagreed with. Here’s a quote from my comment on the top 25 modern actresses as chosen by Bruce –

   “Actresses I wouldn’t have included on this list are Julie Andrews, Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds and Goldie Hawn, attractive, bubbly actresses famous for being in 2 maybe 3 popular movies. But then you have to make it 25 actresses and you’ve ruled out one of the greatest, Elizabeth Taylor. Deborah Kerr? Jean Simmons? Michelle Pfeiffer? Sigourney Weaver?”

   Reply

   1. STEVE
      1 You will see that I have followed your advice and have copied to this site my comments about the Greatest Actresses whose debuts began, or careers have been largely conducted in, the modern era which is officially described as being from 1961 until the present. I will use this site to continue the exchanges in my next post with the list of the 7 of those actresses who Bruce considers have been the greatest from the modern era in the larger period from 1950- 2010 an opinion with which I concur in all 7 cases and for which I will give my reasons

      2 However you should note that as the careers of the likes of Deborah Kerr and Elizabeth Taylor whom you mention began way back in the forties they do not enter the equation. Also Bruce’s cut-off point is 2010 whereas I would argue that the same 7 from the modern era are the greatest from that era in the period from 1950 until the PRESENT DAY. Since 2010 other modern actresses have come to the forefront but in my opinion it is too soon to rank them. For example the biggest commercial successes of Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson are centred round a few large well-hyped franchises and we must bear in mind Bette Davis’ comments about the modern tendency to overrate any star with even a modicum of success That tendency can often be attributed to the clamour and hype from the morass of fan magazines and the publicity agents going into overdrive and to the large fees instantly paid out to the latest ‘flavour of the month’ that would not in numerous cases have been available in the classic era when salaries were more tightly controlled. Remember the Sharon Stone hype after Basic Instinct or the Gimme More hype until she had to carry a few films on her own?

      Reply

      1. 1. Listed below are the 7 actresses who Bruce thinks have been the most successful ones from the modern era over the period 1950-2010 I agree with him only for now I would extend that period until the present day for the 7 concerned.

         MERYL STREEP 2 Oscars for best actress, 1 for best supporting actress and a record 19 Oscar nominations more than any other star in history. She has had 14 Cogerson $100 million crashers.
         JULIA ROBERTS An Oscar winner with a continual stream of hits from 1989 until 2012, 17 Cogerson 100 million dollar crashers and an estimate adjusted worldwide gross of some $9 billion.
         JANE FONDA Double Oscar winner with a constant string of hits from 1962 until 1985 and 16 Cogerson 100 million dollar crashers including 2 in 2005 and 2013 so great career longevity
         JULIE ANDREWS Oscar win and 2 Oscar nominations for best actress. Great career longevity with estimated adjusted worldwide gross of $10.7 billion Total Cogerson adjusted domestic gross of around $6 billion with hits stretching from 1964 until 2010 including voice roles.
         DIANE KEATON Classy lady Oscar winner with great career longevity. A string of critical and commercial hits between 1972 and 2003 and even this year at age 71 next week of had voice role in the $1 billion worldwide hit Finding Dory this year.
         SANDRA BULLOCK String of hits from 1993 until last year when one movie Minions grossed over $1 billion actual worldwide and also as recently as 2013 two movies Gravity and The Heat grossed around 1 billion in actual dollars. Sandra has 13 Cogerson $100 million crashers
         BARBARA STREISAND Great fame in both movies and wider musical entertainment. Made only 19 movies but 13 of them crashed the Cogerson 100 million barrier and the 19 were spread over a 44 year period, their average adjusted gross is a magnificent $188 million and she dominated most of them. Another great career longevity.

         1 For me CAMERON DIAZ is so far the 8th most successful actress from the modern era. She was in a string of big hits from 1994 until 2011 and even her more modest recent grossers have made money. For example Sex Tape on a budget of $40 million grossed around $130 million globally and The Other Woman on the same size of budget amassed nearly $200 million worldwide.Both were in 2014. In 2010 Forbes Rich List which evaluates the world’s wealthiest people declared her the “wealthiest female celebrity” at that time and said she was overall the 60th wealthiest person in the world. If that is not outstanding success I am at a loss to define what is.

         Reply

         1. Let’s be honest here Bob most of the ladies listed here aren’t in any way ‘legendary’ and the topic title is Screen Legends 1950-2010, and how many are genuinely ‘great’ or ‘iconic’? Maybe 1 or 2? I think a more accurate label is Successful Screen Actresses 1950-2010. And only a handful are genuinely good Oscar-calibre actresses though that doesn’t really matter anymore.

            Reply

            1. 1 You will note that I generally referred to my preferred 8 as the “most successful” actresses in the modern era and I was comparing them with just their contemporaries and not with the AFI ‘Greats.

               2 However I think that we could be in danger of becoming embroiled in semantics by being hair-splitting about definitions. For example all of the 8 have been around for nearly a quarter of a century now and to a young person who has just become a moviegoer the likes of Streep and Bullock might be perceived as legendary figures whereas those such as Davis and Katie Hepburn possibly belong to the ‘dark ages’ and could mean little to newcomers. Don’t forget that a survey done about 20 years ago among university students revealed that some half of them didn’t know who Clark Gable was whilst Elizabeth Hurley emerged as No 1 in a recent poll of young people that asked them to name the greatest actress of all time.

               3 In short each generation and not just yours and mine has its own ‘legends’ I started watching movies in 1950 and one of the first films I saw was Winchester 73 and I was told that Jimmy Stewart had made many films before that of which I had been oblivious so I regarded Jimmy as a legendary figure who had been almost around since time began. However in 1950 Stewart had been in films for just 15 years but that was a very long time to me in 1950 and the likes of Streisand and Julie Andrews have been active in movies for more than thrice that length of time, and of course those actresses from the classic era whom Bruce has named in his Top 25 such as Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day would probably be regarded by people of most generations as legends. .

               4 Accordingly I wouldn’t get too hung up on precise definitions and whether we call the people in Bruce’s 25 selections legends, Greats, or simply the most successful the 7 about whom I am in agreement with Bruce plus Cameron Diaz were in my personal opinion the greatest achievers from the modern era in the period from 1950 until today. That said I think that whether or not YOU would have a different 25 all of the people who are in Bruce’s 25 and whom he has described as legends do comply with official definitions –

               “LEGEND A person who is very well known or extremely famous especially in a particular field such as a movie star” Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries.

               In short to say that Bruce’s 25 are not legends is to deny their fame.

               5 Anyway I’ll be writing to you separately about the ‘legendary’ Shirley MacLaine !

            2. I remember a few years ago when Lauren Bacall was being interviewed and was told how she felt “working alongside another screen legend – Nicole Kidman” –

               Then GMTV’s Jenni Falconer asked Lauren Bacall a seemingly innocuous question. “And now you’ve worked alongside another screen legend, Nicole Kidman … ” she began. Interrupting her in mid-sentence, Bacall snapped: “She’s not a legend. She’s a beginner. What is this ‘legend?’ She can’t be a legend at whatever age she is. She can’t be a legend – you have to be older.”

               I think she has a point, for instance Elvis is a legendary rock n roll singer while the hugely popular Justin Bieber isn’t remotely a legend, maybe in 50 years time.

               https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/09/film.venicefilmfestival2004

            3. 1 The dictionary says you and Bacall are wrong. Kidman IS a legend by dictionary definition, just not as great a one as for example Bette Davis.

               2 Bacall was applying her own definition of the term just as I could decide to start regarding my left hand as my right one but would be quite wrong.

               3 Officially time has no relevance to legendary status in a person which is determined by level of fame or ability Its use can cause annoyance when that is perceived as an attempt to make unjustified comparisons between people of different levels of achievement.

               4 Of course there is a corollary between time and legendary status in that it usually takes time to become one of the GREATER legends. However Elvis for example could be regarded as having been a foremost legend within a few years of his appearance on the musical scene so famous had he become.

               5 Possibly Bacall’s interviewer was implying that Kidman was another Katie Hepburn or Ingrid Bergman or Bacall thought that that was being implied. Kidman is a modern minor legend and is not in the same league as Hepburn/Bergman but then neither is Bacall.

               6. In my opinion the likes of Streisand and Streep are foremost current legends within the dictionary meaning of the word as are the others in Bruce’s Top 25 to a greater or lesser degree. Conversely it’s possible that many of the past ‘Greats’ are no longer legends because they are not famous anymore.

            4. Hey Steve…..just curious which actresses were left off this list? In 50 years many of these listed stars will be considered the legends of this era. I would be real curious for you to name 25 actresses that debut from 1950 to 2010….that would bump Julie Andrews off the list.

               *** Getting the tone right in an internet comment is hard……I ask this question not in anger…..but more in confused tone.

            5. Bob, Nicole Kidman isn’t a legend in my book. Have you read my book? “Legends They Are Not” by Steve Lensman, it’s available at Amazon, £7.99.

               Lauren Bacall is the Hollywood legend who starred with Bogart in The Big Sleep and other films, while Nicole Kidman is an Australian actress who was once married to Tom Cruise.

               Bruce, if I were nasty enough to bump Julie Andrews of the list, Deborah Kerr or Jean Simmons might be better replacements. Julie is chiefly remembered for 2 very successful musicals and one of Hitchcock’s worst thrillers.

         2. Hey Bob…7 out of 25 is only 28%…..which actresses would bump the other 18? Diaz is sort of like Loy…..never a “top biller” but always a second lead with a top notch lead actor. Seems she is barely in movies now….the curse of 39 strikes again?

            Reply

      2. I forgot about the ‘cut-off’ point for this thing. That’s why I was shocked that Julie Andrews made the list but not Liz Taylor. I still think Bruce should make it a top 100 and have the cut-off point in 1929. 😉

         Reply

2. BOB
   December 28, 2016 at 5:27 am
   BRUCE

   1 My previous post refers. My faith in my TOTAL judgement is partially vindicated as on again reading over your Top 25 I see that Cameron Diaz was one of those who nearly made your list.

   2 Indeed whilst I confined my previous comments to your Top 10 I agree also with Keaton being 11th and Bullock 12th. I had my doubts initially about Diane K but on reflection she has had such longevity, is a marvellous actress and has the CLASS of actresses from the classic era that I think she deserves her 11th placing – and could you really have left out Godpop’s daughter in law?

   3 Anyhow as it stands you and I agree on all 7 of the greatest modern era actresses of all time – did Steve ever reach that number in the comparisons between your critic/audience rankings and his?

   Reply

3. Thank you for the inclusion of Faye Dunaway. I would list her higher but I am still glad she is listed among these fabulous performers. A easy to read paper.

   Reply

   1. Her ten year run from 1967 to 1976 was one of the best of all-time. She was well deserving of making this page. Thanks for checking this one out.

      Reply

4. BRUCE:

   1 I have now gone over your Top 25 MALES list and overall it’s a good reflection of the status of male stars between 1950 and 2010. I was a bit surprised though at the absence of Willis and the relatively low placings of Sir Maurice and Sir Sean. [Sir M looked wonderfully young in your picture of him – would definitely not have been the perfect Alfred in those days !]

   2 It does illustrate your objectivity in drawing up the list but I would have though that even indeed perhaps especially objectivity would have given Sean a higher placing. If you look at the list that I quote above you you will see that Sean was regarded as not just one of the greatest stars of the period that your list covers but as also the 9th biggest Male star of ALL TIME..

   3 However perceptions and opinions can shift over the years. A close inspection of IMDB will show that in 2012 IMDB had Bud as the greatest actor ever and Jack N as 2nd . In IMDB’s new, ‘definitive, list those placings are reversed.

   4 About 40 years ago critics and film historians were agreed that the 4 greatest male performers on stage and/or screen were in no particular order Olivier, Brando, Paul Scofield and wait for it —- Alan Arkin ! Whatever happened to HIM?

   5 It was good to see you giving recognition to Burton as often his achievements tend to be over-shadowed by his association with Liz. By the way lest you think that I have contradicted myself I should explain that whilst I did not particularly like Liz as a person I do enormously admire the career that she carved out for herself and I would be objective like you and place her high on any ALL TIME great star/actress list that I drew up.

   6 Thanks for again giving us all a feast of wonderful stats to chew upon. The two companion lists should delight your more modern readers who will most likely be able to identify with virtually every performer in the lists.

   7 In old days of Crawford and Tracy though whilst Oscars and nominations were prestigious the only thing that determined one star’s status in relation to another was simply box office. It was reported that when Harry Cohn over at Columbia was deciding on final casting or the order of billing he would “check the last few grosses”. The beauty of your site though is that your 100 greatest stars list with a few omissions does also give the pecking order based solely on box office grosses.

   8 If I have understood you properly your idea of an average gross table based on the 100 million threshold seems a very good idea as it would illustrate the ‘cream of the cream’ . Looking at overall grosses is fine when it comes to the likes of Gable or Wayne who had very few serious flops but 41 exactly 50% of Robert Mitchum’s films were below a total gross of 60 million and those 41 films amount to slightly more than a billion dollars which in the fine tuning of things is a lot.

   9 However such a list should in my view have a minimum number of entries threshold – say at least ten 100 million dollar movies.for a star to qualify for the list. Certainly it would be ludicrous for James Dean for example to come out best with just 3 films and in one of which he was just the 3rd star.

   Best wishes BOB

   BOB

   Reply

   1. Hey Bob.
      1. When I started out looking for the 25…..we did some fun stuff with our database…..in efforts to statistically pull out the Top 25. One study gave credit for a long career….so people like Caine and DeNiro ranked high….the other study took an average per movie…and people like Daniel Day-Lewis jumped up to the top. So the question which was most important….quantity or quality. In the end….we took the middle….so it is a combo of both quantity and quality.
      2. No matter how we did the stats….Bruce Willis did not even come close to reaching the Top 25…and trust me ….I looked hard to find a way for him to make this page.
      3. I love Sean Connery…..but his career is filled with huge voids of bad movies. For the first 25 years it was James Bond and Bond’s shadow. If you take away his 7 Bond movies you take away over a 1/3 of his total career box office. When looking at $100 million dollar movies…..his non Bond movies….only reached that level 25% of the time….when looking at the greats…that is one of the fewest % out there. Still….he got a spot in the Top 20.
      4. Like baseball stars…each generation has it’s legends….Brando owned the 1950s…Jack owned the 1970s……with DeNiro. Tom Hanks owned the 1990s. Adam Sandler owned the 2000s. It just lots of people lots of ammo to make their own opinion seem right.
      5. Olivier and Brando still stand tall…Paul Schofield is rarely mentioned anymore…at least Arkin got an Oscar recently….he will be in Michael Caine’s next movie…Going In Style.
      6. Burton probably was in the running for owning the 1960s….and those 8 Oscar nominations go a long way….too bad the 1970s were to him what the 1960s were to Brando. I understand your Taylor thinking.
      7. I have thought by combining these 4 lists….I have a good case to self publish a book about the Top 100 stars of all-time. We were actually looking at doing that when we decided to change the box office and UMR formulas…so that idea is back on the back burner.
      8. That is what UMR is about…..taking the three things important to a movie…box office, reviews and awards…..and jamming them into one number. Hopefully these lists reflect that….even Bruce Willis did not make it.
      9. WoC says $100 million is no longer important….but I still think it is a measure of success….recently The Legend of Tarzan was labeled dead on arrival….yet it stayed around…and eventually hit $100 million…..and now it has gone from being considered a studio killer….to be viewed as a decent hit. One of my stat pages shows that by using our new box office numbers….that the amount of $100 million hits is about the same in most years (the exception being 1944 to 1952 when theaters broke attendance records).
      10. Interesting about Mitchum…..my focus has always been $100 million…..but your view of looking at other thresholds is interesting.
      11. I think you will look some of the lists I come out when I get all of these movie stars updated…McQueen is now on the completed list….one more down.
      Thanks for a thought provoking comment. PS I was joking about Sandler owning the 2000s.

      Reply

5. BRUCE:

   1 I now have had a chance to study your 25 actresses and I think you are spot on for the period concerned with one exception; Liz Taylor’s top star years were between 1956 (Giant) and 1966 (Virginia Woolf) and she made many other successful films outside that period but within your selected time-frame.I would therefore have had her near the top of the list ?

   2 As late as 1949 Liz was not yet a star and was mainly in supporting roles. Even in National Velvet Mickey Rooney was THE star. So it could be argued that Liz became a star when she reached adulthood in the 50s

   3. However if we take a woman’s debut date as the one in which she ‘became a star’, Doris should be excluded as her debut was in the 1948 Romance on the High Seas [It’s Magic in GB]
   Don’t you dare exclude my Doris !!!

   4 However if we think of just those actresses who reached stardom from 1990 onward is it your opinion that with a few exceptions such as Julia Roberts those actresses could open and carry a string of successes the way female stars of the Classic Era such as Crawford, Davis, Stanwyck used to do? Even in the 50s people used to talk about a ‘Crawford picture’ but today I never hear anyone mention for example a ‘Charlize Theron’ picture.

   5 Still all and all a very informative and comprehensive list which should delight many fans of modern films who don’t have their own AFI Legends list. About a year ago I saw one list that amalgamated old and new stars in a supposed “top 10 Greatest MALE Movie” Stars ever. I am not sure what standing it had and its criteria included things such as FAVOURABLE press publicity along with the usual stuff about box office, Oscars, etc. I can remember only 7 of the 10 names on it but for what it’s worth here they are:

   1) Paul Newman
   2) Tom Hanks
   3) Harrison Ford
   4) James Stewart
   5) Marlon Brando
   6) –
   7) –
   8)
   9) Sir Sean Connery
   10) Gary Cooper

   4 Anyway thanks again for your own entertaining list.

   Best Wishes

   BOB

   Reply

   1. Hey Bob.
      1. I agree Elizabeth Taylor would be a good one for this page…and she would be pretty high……the reason I left her on the AFI 25 versus this one is that she actually became a star…granted a child star before 1950…the ones I moved from the AFI list to this list all became stars after 1950….I know crazy rules….basically I did not want to move many people off the AFI list….but if you combine the AFI list and this one it puts together an impressive 50.
      2. From one of the biographies I read…Taylor became a star with her Lassie movie and then hit a home run with National Velvet…by the end of the 1940s she was American’s Sweetheart as everybody had watched her grow up from a girl to a woman in one hit movie after hit movie.
      3. Good point about Doris Day….AFI’s rule of 1950 or before….seemed to be ones they were very willing to break…..in my “rules”..Day’s first movie might have been in 1940…but she did not become a movie star until the early 1950s….. laughed when I read…”Don’t you dare exclude my Doris!!!…..because when I was writing this page…Day was always near the top….always in the Top 10….yet somehow….I forgot to include her when I first published the page….a reader blasted me for not including her….and I was like “what are you talking about….she is near the top”….then I looked and she was not on the page…..a big Ooooopppppppssssss there.
      4. Good point about Charlize Theron…though I imagine the younger you are the more you hear about her…..though her last movie to make my UMR page was found when I was in a store and I saw her face and name on a DVD cover….and I was like what movie is this….I got home and was shocked that it had opened in theaters, earned a little money…yet me the movie buff never even heard of it….not thinking that happened to Joan or Bette.
      5. Well the companion piece to this is my Screen Legend Actors 1950-2010…I listed the top 10 as 1. Nicholson 2. Newman 3. Hanks 4. Eastwood 5. Hoffman 6. Lemmon 7. McQueen 8. Washington 9. H. Ford 10. Cruise….because the AFI actor list was good…I left Brandon in that one….but he probably should have been moved….along with Poitier from that list to this list.
      As always….great to talk movies with you.

      Reply

      1. BRUCE
         1 Thanks for your explanation I see where you’re coming from about Day and Taylor.
         Anyway the list was so comprehensive and detailed that the line obviously had to be drawn somewhere..

         2 For the record I am not a big Liz fan and I know that in your list of 100 greatest stars of all time she lies round about 5th among women regarding total box office gross. However objectivity obliges me to opine that when an in-depth analyses is conducted of the figures for all actresses in contention for Greatest Female Box Office Star of All Time I think that Liz wins the prize.

         3 By a detailed analyses I mean the taking into account of such factors as stand-alone movies, supporting parts, purchasing power of grosses, number of films made and also having regard to Quigley etc.

         4 I saw an old interview with Burton when he was married to Liz – on one of those occasions ! – and he said that his Liz and Bud were two of Hollywood’s most exceptional stars. Now there’s an unbiased opinion for you!

         5 However she duly returned the loyalty when they sat for a joint interview in which Burton was in effect accused of prostituting his talent by forsaking the stage for Hollywood films; and Paul Scofield was made out to be the Good Guy for staying loyal to the stage despite the success of A Man for All Seasons. Liz savaged both the interviewer and Scofield even though poor old Paul was not present whilst Burton sat sheepishly in silence.

         6 Thanks for listing for me your companion piece Male top 10 which is about as sensible as anyone could come up with Indeed I have transcribed it into my database only there it becomes a Top 11 with George slotted in as No 11 after Cruise !!!

         Reply

         1. Hey Bob
            1. I spent so much time working on the 50 AFI Legends….I think I put together the next 50 in my head as I was working through all the legends….so when I finally finished the 50…I felt obligated to get out the modern stars as well….but my rules are different than their rules. They did their list in 1999….seems enough time has gone by for them to name their other 50.
            2. Well career box office for Taylor is huge…her average per movie is good but not great….the late 1960s and 1970s killed that average….I think when I get done with all the updates…I am going to add in average per movie on the $100 million box office hit movie page.
            3. That is one of the many flaws in my collection….the star of a movie gets the same points that a supporting one does..with the exception of Oscar nominations and wins. I have done a few calculations but they never look good to me.
            4. & 5. Burton and Liz were the Pitt/Jolie of that generation…I am sure with all the media hanging on every word that spoke and every action they took…it would be easy to think the way they did back then.
            5. George in your Top 10….sorry poor George did not even make my Top 25…if Bruce Willis did not make…no way Mr Clooney would.
            As always…thanks for the visit and the great comment.

            Reply

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