Actors of Note

1. Takashi Shimura

Japanese character actor Takashi Shimura was one of the finest film actors of the 20th century and a leading member of the "stock company" of master director Akira Kurosawa. A native of southern Japan, Shimura was a descendant of the samurai warrior class. Following university training, he founded ...

Best in seven samurai

2. Toshirô Mifune

Actor | Yôjinbô

Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...

The master

3. Richard Ayoade

Writer | Submarine

Richard Ellef Ayoade was born in Hammersmith, and grew up in Suffolk, in England, the son of a Norwegian mother, Dagny Amalie (Baassuik), and a Nigerian father, Layide Ade Laditi Ayoade. He studied Law at Cambridge university, and followed in the footsteps of British Comedy legends like Monty ...

Brilliant comedic timing and physical comedy

4. Song Kang-ho

Actor | Salinui chueok

Song Kang-ho never professionally trained as an actor, beginning his career in social theater groups after graduating from Kimhae High School. Later, he joined Kee Kuk-seo's influential theater company with its emphasis on instinctive acting and improvisation, which proved to be Song's training ...

Infectious smile and fun to watch

5. George Brent

Actor | Dark Victory

The favorite leading man of star Bette Davis was born George Brendan Nolan in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland (although his place of birth has also been variosuly given as Raharabeg, County Roscommon and Shannonbridge, County Offaly). He was the youngest of five children born to shopkeeper John...

Who Brent Isojima was named for

6. Yma Sumac

Soundtrack | No Time to Die

Known for her astonishing 4 1/2 octave vocal range, Yma Sumac (AKA Ima or Imma Sumack) is from Ichocán, Peru, a town high in the Andes. From an early age she performed in radio and movies and made recordings throughout South America. She came to the United States in the 1940s and performed with a ...

Bill Mies impressed by her range

7. Gael García Bernal

Actor | Mozart in the Jungle

Gael García Bernal was born in Guadalajara to Patricia Bernal, an actress/model & José Ángel García, an actor/director. His stepfather's cinematographer Sergio Yazbek. He began his acting career as a child, working w/ his parents in a variety of plays. At 14, he starred in a soap opera called El ...

8. Michael Dolan

Actor | Scrooge

Michael Dolan was born in 1884 in Ireland. He was an actor, known for A Christmas Carol (1951), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) and Talk of a Million (1951). He was married to Kathleen Fogarty. He died on October 21, 1954 in Dublin, Ireland.

9. Christopher Plummer

Actor | Beginners

Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps Canada's greatest thespian, delivered outstanding performances as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), the iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A ...

10. Christoph Waltz

Actor | Django Unchained

Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He is known for his work with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012). For each performance, he won...

11. Anya Taylor-Joy

Actress | The Queen's Gambit

Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy (born 16 April 1996) is a British-American actress. She is best known for her roles as Beth Harmon in The Queen's Gambit (2020), Thomasin in the period horror film The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015), as Casey Cooke in the horror-thriller Split (2016), and as ...

12. John Colicos

Actor | The Changeling

John Colicos was born on December 10, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Changeling (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). He was married to Mona McHenry. He died on March 6, 2000 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Memorable Klingon in An Errand of Mercy TOS Star Trek. Also from Toronto

13. Bill Pullman

Actor | Independence Day

William James Pullman was born in Hornell, New York, one of seven children of Johanna (Blaas), a nurse, and James Pullman, a doctor. He is of Dutch (mother) and English, Northern Irish, and Scottish (father) descent. After high school, Bill went into a building construction program at SUNY Delhi in...

Excellent

14. Mads Mikkelsen

Actor | Hannibal

Mads Mikkelsen's great successes parallel those achieved by the Danish film industry since the mid-1990s. He was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen, to Bente Christiansen, a nurse, and Henning Mikkelsen, a banker.

Starting out as a low-life pusher/junkie in the 1996 success Pusher (1996), he slowly grew ...

Always memorable

15. David Niven

Actor | Murder by Death

His mother was the French Lady Comynyplatt Henrietta de Gacher, his father was the British Lieutenant William Graham Niven, who died in the war when David was six years old. Niven was considered a difficult child to educate and had to change schools often until he finally went to Sandhurst Military...

16. Ian Wolfe

Actor | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Respected character actor whose on-screen work included everything from Shakespeare to Dick Tracy (1990) (his last film). After a long apprenticeship in the theatre, the 38-year-old Wolfe finally debuted in films in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), recreating his Broadway role. He then toiled...

Mr. AtoZ in All our yesterdays

17. Mark Lenard

Actor | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Mark Lenard was an American actor, primarily known for television roles. He is primarily known for playing Vulcan ambassador Sarek (Spock's father) in "Star Trek: The Original Series" and a number of its spin-offs.

In 1924, Lenard was born under the name "Leonard Rosenson" in Chicago Illinois. His ...

Favourite foe Sarek

18. Steve Coogan

Actor | Philomena

Steve Coogan was born on October 14, 1965 in Middleton, Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Philomena (2013), Alan Partridge (2013) and 24 Hour Party People (2002). He was previously married to Caroline Hickman.

Brilliant comedian

19. Laurence Olivier

Actor | Sleuth

Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...

20. Jim Cummings

Director | Thunder Road

Jim Cummings is known for Thunder Road (2018), The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) and The Beta Test (2021). Jim has been married to Julia Bales since September 10, 2022.

Thunder road,

21. Matt Berry

Actor | Toast of London

Matthew Charles Berry is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy series such as The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, The Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, What We Do in the Shadows, and Toast of London, the last of which he also co-created. The series ...

Best voice

22. David Cross

Actor | Arrested Development

David Cross is an American actor, writer and comedian who is known for playing Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development, Minion from Megamind, Crane from Kung Fu Panda, Ian Hawke from Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yivo from Futurama and Happy Time Harry from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He also acted in Grand ...

23. Temuera Morrison

Self | Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett

Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand actor.

After training in drama under the New Zealand Special Performing Arts Training Scheme. One of his earliest starring roles was in the 1988 film Never Say Die, opposite Lisa Eilbacher. In 1994, he received attention for his role as the violent and abusive...

24. Keith David

Actor | The Princess and the Frog

Keith David is a classically trained actor, winning 3 Emmys out of 6 nominations as well as being nominated for a Tony award. He starred in the recently concluded TV series "Greenleaf" for Oprah Winfrey's OWN network. Upcoming films include "Horizon Line" with Allison Williams ("Get Out") and "...

25. T'Nia Miller

Actress | The Peripheral

T'Nia Miller was born on March 2, 1985. She is an actress, known for The Peripheral (2022), Doctor Who (2005) and The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020).

26. Dave Bautista

Actor | Guardians of the Galaxy

David Michael Bautista, Jr. was born on January 18, 1969 in Washington, D.C., to Donna Raye (Mullins) and David Michael Bautista, a hairdresser. He has Filipino and Greek ancestry.

When WCW officials told him he'd never make it in sports entertainment, Bautista pushed himself to achieve his dream of...

27. Jodie Foster

Actress | The Silence of the Lambs

Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received ...

28. Sam Waterston

Actor | The Killing Fields

Sam Waterston was born on November 15, 1940 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Killing Fields (1984), The Great Gatsby (1974) and Law & Order (1990). He has been married to Lynn Louisa Woodruff since January 26, 1976. They have three children. He was ...

29. Meryl Streep

Actress | Out of Africa

Considered by many critics to be the greatest living actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 21 times, and has won it three times. Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, to Mary Wolf (Wilkinson), a commercial artist, and Harry William ...

30. Rachel Weisz

Actress | The Constant Gardener

Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...

31. Donald Pleasence

Actor | Halloween II

Balding, quietly spoken, of slight build and possessed of piercing blue eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses -- Donald Pleasence had the essential physical attributes which make a great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished playing the ...

32. Yul Vazquez

Actor | Severance

Yul Vazquez was born in Havana, Cuba. He is an actor and producer, known for Severance (2022), The Outsider (2020) and Russian Doll (2019). He has been married to Linda Larkin since May 18, 2002.

33. Wah Yuen

Actor | Kung fu

Wah Yuen was born on September 2, 1950 in Hong Kong, China. He is an actor, known for Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and The Way of the Dragon (1972).

34. Michael Redgrave

Actor | The Lady Vanishes

Sir Michael Redgrave was of the generation of English actors that gave the world the legendary John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, Britain three fabled "Theatrical Knights" back in the days when a knighthood for thespian was far more rare than it is today. A superb actor, Redgrave ...

35. Ralph Richardson

Actor | Doctor Zhivago

Sir Ralph Richardson was one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century English-language theater, ascending to the height of his profession in the mid-1930s when he became a star in London's West End. He became the first actor of his generation to be knighted. He became Sir Ralph in 1947, and was ...

36. Peter Cushing

Actor | Star Wars

Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was ...

37. Tom Courtenay

Actor | 45 Years

Acting chameleon Sir Tom Courtenay, along with Sir Alan Bates and Albert Finney, became a front-runner in an up-and-coming company of rebel upstarts who created quite a stir in British "kitchen sink" cinema during the early '60s. An undying love for the theatre, however, had Courtenay channeling a ...

38. Ricardo Montalban

Actor | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority...

39. Thomas Lennon

Actor | Reno 911!

Thomas Lennon is a writer and actor from Oak Park, Illinois. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he was a member of the influential sketch comedy group The State. The State's hit television series ran on MTV for three seasons and received an Ace Award nomination ...

40. Saffron Burrows

Actress | You

Saffron Burrows, known for her work in critically acclaimed films, this fall reprises her role in the hit Netflix show YOU, season 3. Burrows previously starred in the Golden Globe winning Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. In 2019 Burrows directed the short films: Michael & Indigo, starring Jason...

41. Malcolm McDowell

Actor | A Clockwork Orange

Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...

42. Nicholas Campbell

Actor | Da Vinci's Inquest

Nicholas Campbell was born on March 24, 1952 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and director, known for Da Vinci's Inquest (1998), Cinderella Man (2005) and The Dead Zone (1983).

43. Carrie Coon

Actress | Gone Girl

Originally from Copley, OH, Carrie Coon is a Chicago-based theatre, television and film actress. She received a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Mount Union, followed by her MFA in Acting at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Coon was nominated for a Tony Award in the Best ...

44. Morena Baccarin

Actress | Deadpool

Morena Baccarin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to actress Vera Setta and journalist Fernando Baccarin. Her uncle was actor Ivan Setta. She is of Italian as well as Lebanese and Portuguese/Brazilian descent. She moved to New York at the age of ten, when her father was transferred there. She ...

45. Ryan Reynolds

Actor | Deadpool 2

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the youngest of four children. His father, James Chester Reynolds, was a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tamara Lee "Tammy" (Stewart), worked as a retail-store saleswoman. He has Irish and Scottish ancestry. ...

46. Derek Jacobi

Actor | Gosford Park

Preeminent British classical actor of the first post-Olivier generation, Derek Jacobi was knighted in 1994 for his services to the theatre, and, in fact, is only the second to enjoy the honor of holding TWO knighthoods, Danish and English (Olivier was the other). Modest and unassuming in nature, ...

47. Fiona Shaw

Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

Shaw was already an accomplished theater actress when director Jim Sheridan awarded her a role in his film, My Left Foot (1989). The film is a telling of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irishman disgruntled with his confinement to a body horribly crippled by cerebral palsy but who found ...

48. Nicola Walker

Actress | Spooks

Nicola Jane Walker is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programs from the 1990s onward, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks from 2003 to 2011 and DCI Cassie Stuart in Unforgotten from 2015 to 2021. She has also worked in theatre, ...

49. Chukwudi Iwuji

Actor | Designated Survivor

Chuk Iwuji was born in Nigeria in 1975. When he was ten his parents began working for the United Nations Organization and moved to Ethiopia, sending their son to a boarding school in England. He got in to Yale University to major in Economics but was interested in acting and joined the university's...

50. Natasha Lyonne

Actress | Orange Is the New Black

Natasha Lyonne is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated producer, actor, writer, and director.

Lyonne co-created Netflix series Russian Doll (2019), which received three Emmy awards, a total of 13 Emmy nominations including Comedy Series and Lead Actress for Lyonne, a Gotham Award nomination, and a ...

51. Rick Pasqualone

Actor | NCIS: Los Angeles

Rick was born in New York and grew up on Long Island. After attending Boston College, he returned to the city to study acting and improv. He was soon cast as Tony in the off-broadway hit " Tony N' Tina's Wedding". Film and television roles followed as well as a move to LA. After a few years on the ...

52. Josh Keaton

Actor | The Spectacular Spider-Man

Joshua Luis Wiener or Josh Keaton is an American voice actor and musician. He is known for voicing young Hercules in the 1997 Disney film Hercules, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack: G'Day USA, Revolver Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 3, Spider-Man, Electro and Harry Osborn in several Spider-Man video ...

53. Jennifer Hale

Actress | Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American voice actress and singer who voiced Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, Samus Aran from Metroid Prime, Killer Frost from Injustice: Gods Among Us, Gladys from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Trinity from The Matrix: Path of Neo, Princess Morbucks, Sedusa ...

54. Courtenay Taylor

Actress | X-Men '97

Courtenay Taylor is an American actress. She is best known for voicing K.O. in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes (2017) (aside from the pilot and five other episodes, where he was voiced by Stephanie Nadolny instead), Jack in the Mass Effect series of video games, and the female Sole Survivor in Fallout 4 (...

55. Vanessa Marshall

Actress | Star Wars: The Bad Batch

A graduate of Princeton University with a Masters in acting from NYU, Vanessa Marshall plays Hera in "Star Wars: Rebels," Wonder Woman in DC's "Harley Quinn," Gamora in "Guardians of the Galaxy," and Black Canary in "Young Justice: Phantoms." In the world of video games, she is Sheeva in "Mortal ...

56. Darin De Paul

Actor | 3Below: Tales of Arcadia

Darin De Paul has performed as an actor on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theaters and on national tours. He has also done voice-overs for many national commercials. On film, Darin can be heard in "Shazam" as the voice of the Sins "Pride" and "Greed", as well as in "Goosebumps 2", "Ice Age" ...

57. Dolly Wells

Actress | Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Dolly Wells was born on December 5, 1971 in Merton, London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Doll & Em (2013). She has been married to Mischa Richter since 2000. They have two children.

58. Aisling Franciosi

Actress | The Nightingale

Aisling Franciosi is an Irish-Italian actress known for "The Fall" (2013), "Game of Thrones" (2011), and "The Nightingale" (2018). She was born in Dublin in 1993, moved with her family to Italy soon after, and returned to Ireland four years later with her mother. She attended acting classes as a ...

59. Dylan Llewellyn

Actor | Big Boys

Dylan Llewellyn was born on September 10, 1992 in Reigate, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Big Boys (2022), Frequencies (2013) and Finger Prick (2021).