My favorite actresses
by mattleger | created - 10 Feb 2012 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicThe ladies I love watching in anything, any time.
1. Geena Davis
Actress | Thelma & Louise
As a child, Geena dreamed of being an actress. While in high school, she felt left out and had low self-esteem because, at 6 feet, she was the tallest girl in school. After high school graduation, Geena entered New England College in New Hampshire and then transferred the next year to Boston ...
Statuesque, totally hot even in middle age AND whip-smart. What's not to like? And what a range - from a Valley Girl-type bimbo in EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY to the President of the United States in COMMANDER IN CHIEF. And on top of all that, founder of her very own charity aimed at promoting showbiz opportunities for girls and women.
2. Cate Blanchett
Actress | Carol
Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...
From Galadriel to Elizabeth I, she's stolen my heart along with every picture she's been in.
3. Uma Thurman
Actress | Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Uma Karuna Thurman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a highly unorthodox and internationally-minded family. She is the daughter of Nena Thurman (née Birgitte Caroline von Schlebrügge), a fashion model and socialite who now runs a mountain retreat, and of Robert Thurman (Robert Alexander ...
The Bride rules! (And she didn't make a half-bad Poison Ivy, either...)
4. Famke Janssen
Actress | X-Men: The Last Stand
Famke Janssen was born November 5, 1964, in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, and has two other siblings. Moving to America in the 1980s, she modeled for Chanel in New York. Later, taking a break from modeling, she attended Columbia University, majoring in literature.
This model-turned-actress broke into...
One of my favorite show-biz redheads.
5. Kate Walsh
Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Kate Walsh was born in San Jose, California, on October 13, 1967. She grew up partly in San Jose and partly in Tucson, Arizona, later attending the University of Arizona, where she got involved in regional theater. She later moved to Chicago where she began working with the Piven Theatre Workshop ...
Actress and entrepreneur. And another great show-biz redhead.
6. Anne Hathaway
Actress | Les Misérables
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Kate McCauley Hathaway, an actress, and Gerald T. Hathaway, a lawyer, both originally from Philadelphia. She is of mostly Irish descent, along with English, German, and French. Her first major role came in the short-lived television series ...
Loved her in just about everything I've seen her in, from the recent film of GET SMART to LES MISERABLES to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. (A way better Catwoman than Michelle Pfeiffer ever was!)
7. Sigourney Weaver
Actress | Alien Resurrection
Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist to Gwen/Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently, 14-year-old Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. With a career spanning over 50 years, Weaver has ...
Pat Weaver's little girl has grown up quite nicely. She's been in dozens of great roles, but to me she will always and forever be Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley of the Nostromo.
8. Ellen Barkin
Actress | The Fan
Offbeat, unconventionally pretty, and utterly mesmerizing, Ellen Barkin was born on April 16, 1954 in the Bronx, New York, to Evelyn (Rozin), a hospital administrator, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman. Her parents were both from Russian Jewish families. Raised in the South Bronx and Queens, New ...
A crush of mine ever since BUCKAROO BANZAI.
9. Annie Potts
Actress | Ghostbusters
Annie Potts is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her roles in popular 1980s films such as Ghostbusters (1984) and Pretty in Pink (1986). She made her debut on the big screen in 1978 in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy film Corvette Summer (1978), with Mark Hamill, for ...
Redheaded, gorgeous, talented, smart AND Southern!
10. Tilda Swinton
Actress | We Need to Talk About Kevin
The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded ...
She got me to notice her in ORLANDO, but won my heart in the NARNIA films.
11. Kate Mulgrew
Actress | Star Trek: Voyager
Katherine Kiernan Mulgrew, or Kate Mulgrew, was born on April 29, 1955. She grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, the second oldest child (and oldest girl) in a large Irish Catholic family. When Kate expressed an interest in acting as a child, her mother, Joan, encouraged her to audition for local theater ...
Yep, STAR TREK: VOYAGER's Capt. Kathryn Janeway...and Mrs. Columbo too. Be sure to catch her in ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK as the bitchy Russian prison chef!
12. Gillian Anderson
Actress | The X Files
Gillian Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Rosemary Alyce (Lane), a computer analyst, and Homer Edward Anderson III, who owned a film post-production company. Gillian started her career as a member of an amateur actor group while at high school. In 1987, her love of the theatre took her to ...
Loved her ever since THE X-FILES, still love her in anything else she turns up in.
13. Julianne Moore
Actress | Far from Heaven
Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...
Yet another fab show-biz redhead...and a major talent, too.
14. Carol Burnett
Soundtrack | The Carol Burnett Show
The entertainment world has enjoyed a six-decade love affair with comedienne/singer Carol Burnett. A peerless sketch performer and delightful, self-effacing personality who rightfully succeeded Lucille Ball as the carrot-topped "Queen of Television Comedy," it was Burnett's traumatic childhood that...
The second-funniest lady TV ever saw, after Lucille Ball...and contemporaneous with her, even working on the same network (CBS). Plus a delightful singing voice and dramatic chops to boot, both most recently displayed on Fox's GLEE. The only person besides castmate Tim Conway who could make Harvey Korman break up laughing on camera.
15. Gina Torres
Actress | Serenity
Gina was born in New York City and is youngest of three children in a close-knit Cuban American family. Attended New York City's High School of Music and Art She is a gifted mezzo soprano and was trained in opera and jazz and also sang in a gospel choir.
Been a fan of this lady since I first saw her playing Nebula on HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS. Probably the only reason to have watched CLEOPATRA: 2525 and one of the biggest reasons to watch FIREFLY.
16. Amy Adams
Actress | Arrival
Amy Lou Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy, to American parents, Kathryn (Hicken) and Richard Kent Adams, a U.S. serviceman who was stationed at Caserma Ederle in Italy at the time. She was raised in a Mormon family of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado, and has English, as well as ...
Another talented showbiz redhead...and the best Lois Lane since the late Margot Kidder.
17. Scarlett Johansson
Actress | Lost in Translation
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Melanie Sloan is from a Jewish family from the Bronx and her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, ...
I think I first saw her in LOST IN TRANSLATION, and I've been in love (and lust) ever since.
18. Marisa Tomei
Actress | My Cousin Vinny
Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, to Patricia "Addie" (Bianchi), a teacher of English, and Gary Tomei, a lawyer, both of Italian descent. Marisa has a brother, actor Adam Tomei. As a child, Marisa's mother frequently corrected her speech as to eliminate her heavy ...
Aunt May Parker never looked so good! Another great talent who only seems to get hotter as she gets older.
19. Julie Andrews
Actress | The Sound of Music
Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her...
For six decades this lady has been charming audiences on stage, screen and TV with her songs, her looks and her acting chops. Even after cancer surgery took her singing voice, she's still been a force to be reckoned with in any role she takes.
20. Shirley MacLaine
Actress | Terms of Endearment
Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on ...
The "Little Sister" to the Rat Pack and the toast of Broadway.
21. Laura Dern
Actress | Jurassic Park
Laura Dern was born on February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Dern was exposed to movie sets and the movie industry from infancy, and obtained several bit parts as a child. Her parents divorced when Dern was two and Dern lost contact with her father for ...
She's had me hypnotized in everything she's been in at least since JURASSIC PARK. Looks like she got the good genes for both looks and talent from her famous parents, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd.
22. Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Actress | Seinfeld
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born on January 13, 1961, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, to Judith (LeFever), a special needs tutor and author, and Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, a billionaire businessman. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she spent her childhood in Washington, D.C., and New ...
Another talented lady who, Amy Schumer's sketch to the contrary notwithstanding, is still far from seeing her "last f***able day."
23. Goldie Hawn
Actress | Private Benjamin
Goldie Jeanne Hawn was born November 21, 1945 in Washington, D.C. and raised in Takoma Park, Maryland to Laura Hawn, a jewelry shop/dance school owner & Rut Hawn, a band musician. She has a sister, Patti Hawn, and a brother, Edward, who died in infancy before her birth. She was raised in the Jewish...
Whatever she and Marisa are using to just keep getting sexier with the years, if they could bottle & sell it they'd make a freaking mint!
24. Maggie Smith
Actress | Gosford Park
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...
The dean (deaness?) of British actresses, Dame Maggie classes up anything she's in, be it comedy or drama or fantasy.
25. Emma Thompson
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...
Another badass Brit lady I'll watch in just about anything.
26. Corinne Bohrer
Actress | Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
Corinne Bohrer was born on October 18, 1958 in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, USA. She is an actress, known for Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987), The Flash (1990) and Big Eden (2000).
Been crushing hard on this lady ever since she played an immortal (good) witch in a short-lived sitcom called "Free Spirit" back in the 1980s. And she's one of the very few actors from the 1990s superhero show "The Flash" to be invited to reprise their characters on the more recent show of the same name. Winsome, sexy, smart and talented.
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