For as long as movies have existed, audiences have been captivated by the women who brought unforgettable characters to life on screen. Fans have argued over one question: who’s the greatest actress of all time? Actresses are more than performers—they’re cultural touchstones, shaping eras, sparking trends, and sometimes changing Hollywood itself. But who truly belongs in the conversation? We’ve ranked the best of the best, even if it meant making some tough choices and leaving a few icons on the cutting-room floor. And the crown goes to… well, it’s probably not who you expect.
50. Rita Moreno
Kicking off this list, she’s got an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony—yes, Rita Moreno is an EGOT legend. And she did it all while Hollywood kept trying to shove her into “fiery maid” roles.
Her breakout in West Side Story (1961) wasn’t just a performance; it was a slap in the face to an industry that underestimated her. Rita didn’t just open doors—she kicked them off their hinges.
And if you think she’s too low at #50, don’t worry—this list is here to fight with you. Up next? A woman who went from quirky indie darling to pink-powered billionaire Barbie boss.
49. Kate Winslet
That moment in Titanic (1997) where she stretches her arms and shouts, “I’m flying”? Turns out she wasn’t kidding. Kate Winslet launched herself out of blockbuster stardom straight into decades of daring choices.
Her Oscar-winning turn in The Reader (2008) was fearless, while Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Revolutionary Road (2008) showed her delight in subverting expectations. Her portrayals perfectly demonstrated how breakups look in real life.
Winslet has built a career on pushing past comfort zones, proving that lasting greatness comes from taking risks, not repeating the same patterns. And speaking of challenging one’s comfort zones, let’s talk about America’s sweetheart, long before anyone believed she could pull off serious drama.
48. Sally Field
Sally Field was the perky little Gidget of the 1960s, then a flying nun. Nobody thought she’d grow into one of Hollywood’s most respected actresses. Surprise—she proved everyone spectacularly wrong.
By the late ’70s, she was unionizing factory workers in Norma Rae (1979) and collecting Oscars like coupons. Then came Places in the Heart (1984), Forrest Gump (1994) as Tom Hanks’ ever-quotable mother, and later Lincoln (2012), just to remind us she’s not here to play.
And yes, that “You like me!” speech lives in pop culture forever. But sweetness aside, Sally’s got steel. Now, the next actress didn’t need decades of reinvention—she arrived in Hollywood already holding an Oscar.
47. Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o walked into Hollywood in 2013, said “Hi,” and walked out with an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. That’s called setting the bar impossibly high!
She’s since proved she’s not a one-hit wonder. From terrifying us in Us to ruling Wakanda in Black Panther, Lupita has elegance, intensity, and the kind of screen presence you can’t fake. It was innate for her.
Her career’s still unfolding, but it already feels historic. In contrast, the next actress was already a global superstar before she lost her baby teeth, and during the Great Depression, her smile practically held America together.
46. Emma Stone
Emma Stone could’ve coasted on big eyes and sarcasm after Easy A (2010). Instead, she sang and danced her way into La La Land (2016), grabbed an Oscar, and then casually played one of history’s most deranged heroines in Poor Things (2023). Plot twist: she won another Oscar for that!
She’s America’s sweetheart with a feral streak. In The Favourite (2018), she made court intrigue look like a playground fight. She smiles sweetly, then slaps you with a performance you didn’t see coming.
Stone thrives on unpredictability, balancing wit with daring. She may be one of the youngest on this list, but her trajectory is already undeniable. Next, though? Time to leave wholesome America for Parisian cool, courtesy of a woman who defined French cinema chic.
45. Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is French cinema royalty, the ultimate cool blonde who made icy detachment look like an Olympic sport. In The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Belle de Jour, she became the definition of screen elegance.
But don’t mistake elegance for blandness. Deneuve was the queen of psychological complexity, pulling audiences into roles where glamour and danger collided. Her face was on posters, but her acting gave those posters bite.
And while she embodied French chic, our next actress is anything but icy—she’s a modern talent who built an entire career on unpredictability, danger, and a killer smirk.
44. Judi Dench
Judi Dench doesn’t do “supporting roles.” She does “give me five minutes and I’ll take the Oscar.” Shakespeare in Love (1998) was basically a drive-by robbery, and she walked off with the statue.
Her Bond run, starting with GoldenEye (1995), turned her into the only character capable of making 007 feel like a schoolboy. She glared, and global audiences shivered.
Dench has two modes: terrifying monarch and mischievous grandma. Either way, she’s in charge. And heaven help the fool who forgets it.
43. Olivia Colman
She giggles through interviews like she can barely believe her luck—then devastates you in The Favourite (2018) and takes home an Oscar. That’s Olivia Colman’s brand: chaos disguised as charm.
She’s played royalty in The Crown (2019–2020), grief incarnate in Broadchurch (2013–2017), and comic disaster in Peep Show (2003–2015). You never know which Colman you’re getting, but you’re guaranteed brilliance.
Her career is proof that the element of surprise is sometimes the sharpest weapon an actress can wield. And while we’re talking about surprises, the next actress leapt from Hong Kong martial arts stardom to Oscar-winning queen of everything, proving action stars can absolutely act.
42. Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh spent years flipping through the air in Hong Kong action films before Hollywood finally realized, “Oh wait, she can actually act too.” Took them long enough.
She was dazzling in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, commanding in Memoirs of a Geisha, and iconic in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which finally earned her an Academy Award in 2023.
It’s not just about the kicks—though those are flawless—it’s the grace and depth she brings to every role. And speaking of grace, our next star had it written into her very name…
41. Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood started acting before most kids could read and never really stopped. By her teens, she was stealing scenes in Rebel Without a Cause alongside James Dean.
She went on to lead West Side Story and Splendor in the Grass, bringing emotional rawness that few actresses of her era dared to show. She was Hollywood’s perfect mix of vulnerability and magnetism.
But her story ended tragically on a yacht in 1981, fueling decades of speculation. From tragedy, though, we move to transformation—the next actress literally shapeshifted her way into an Oscar, and then into action-hero immortality.
40. Charlize Theron
Breaking into the list at #40, she shaved her head for Mad Max: Fury Road, packed on pounds for Monster, and still somehow found time to anchor rom-coms. Talk about range—or maybe Hollywood just likes seeing Charlize Theron suffer for art.
South African-born and impossibly tall, she exploded onto the scene in the late ’90s, but it was her terrifying turn as serial killer Aileen Wuornos that won her an Oscar.
Theron proved she could do action, comedy, drama, and even a Fast & Furious cameo without blinking. But if Charlize is all grit and transformation, our next actress built her reputation on elegance and restraint.
39. Deborah Kerr
There’s a certain actress whose kiss on a Hawaiian beach in From Here to Eternity basically redefined movie romance. Yes, that was Deborah Kerr, the Scottish-born star who made poise her superpower.
She held her own opposite the likes of Cary Grant and Yul Brynner, and while she never won a competitive Oscar (six nominations, though!), her career defined the Golden Age of cinema.
Where Kerr epitomized dignity, the next actress represents fire—commanding presence, powerhouse performances, and a voice that can cut glass.
38. Angela Bassett
Hollywood has a bad habit of underestimating Angela Bassett. But put her on screen, and she will out-act, out-glare, and out-command everyone in the room. What’s Love Got to Do With It? Everything.
She’s been Tina Turner, Coretta Scott King, and even a Marvel queen mother (Black Panther), proving her range across decades. Bassett doesn’t just play roles—she embodies legends with spine-tingling authority.
And speaking of queens, the next actress has spent her career balancing regality and mischief—winning Oscars while making audiences wonder if she was secretly having the time of her life.
37. Tilda Swinton
There’s a reason people joke that Tilda Swinton might secretly be an alien. Who else could convincingly play both an androgynous rock star (Velvet Goldmine) and a literal ancient sorcerer (Doctor Strange)?
The Scottish actress thrives in roles that feel unplayable—icy corporate devils, grieving mothers, cloned pop stars. She’s weird, ethereal, and refuses to fit into any Hollywood box, which only makes her more fascinating.
If Tilda is the high priestess of strange, our next actress proves you don’t always need to be peculiar—sometimes you can build an entire legacy out of a single unforgettable smirk.
36. Sophia Loren
Before Instagram, there was Sophia Loren—effortlessly glamorous, unapologetically bold, and very aware of her own power. She once said, “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti,” and honestly? Iconic.
The Italian legend was the first actress to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance (Two Women, 1962), proving beauty and serious dramatic chops can go hand in hand.
From Rome to Hollywood, Loren commanded attention wherever she went. But while her smirk charmed the world, our next actress terrified audiences by tying up one unlucky novelist in a remote cabin…
35. Kathy Bates
It only took a sledgehammer and a couple of broken ankles for Kathy Bates to secure her place in film history. Misery (1990) turned her from a stage veteran into Hollywood’s scariest nurse.
She’s since built a career as one of the most reliable scene-stealers in the business—whether in Fried Green Tomatoes, Titanic, or American Horror Story, Bates always brings a mix of warmth and menace.
But suppose Kathy is Hollywood’s ultimate character actress. In that case, the next name is something else entirely—a pure French fire, an untamed, volcanic force who made vulnerability look terrifying.
34. Isabelle Huppert
If icy cruelty had a face, it would be Isabelle Huppert. The French icon has built her career playing women who are terrifyingly unreadable—and sometimes just terrifying.
From The Piano Teacher to Elle, she’s mastered the art of psychological warfare onscreen, rarely raising her voice but always commanding your full, uneasy attention. Critics don’t call her Europe’s finest actress for nothing.
Her subtle ferocity earned her dozens of awards, but it also divides audiences. Cold brilliance or overrated chill? Well, for those craving something more challenging, our next actress built her career playing hard-boiled dames and noir survivors.
33. Barbara Stanwyck
Before there was “strong female lead” as a cliché, there was Barbara Stanwyck. From Double Indemnity to Stella Dallas, she played women who knew exactly what they wanted—and often how to get it.
She thrived in film noir, Westerns, and melodramas, moving from scrappy working-class roles to dangerous femme fatales with ease. Her career spanned from the 1920s all the way to the ’80s on television.
Stanwyck was sharp, independent, and never sentimental. And if she was the tough-as-nails pioneer, our next actress took toughness into the 21st century, becoming the first Black woman to score Hollywood’s “Triple Crown of Acting.”
32. Viola Davis
When Viola Davis cries on screen, you believe it down to your bones. From Doubt, Fences, to How to Get Away with Murder, she doesn’t just act; she can be all you want. What do you mean Annalise Keating was fictional?!
Davis is the first Black actress to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony. She has spent her career demanding—and delivering—the kind of roles Hollywood tried to deny her.
Her intensity has made her a modern legend. But from modern power, we pivot back to vintage perfection—the next actress was so glamorous she literally became a princess.
31. Grace Kelly
Hollywood adored Grace Kelly, but Monaco loved her more—so much that she gave up her film career to become a real-life princess. Try topping that on your résumé!
In her short but dazzling run, Kelly starred in Alfred Hitchcock classics like Rear Window and To Catch a Thief, balancing elegance with subtle emotional weight. She snagged an Oscar before walking away.
Her fairy-tale ending cemented her as an eternal icon. But where Grace embodied refinement, the next actress carved her legacy with volatility, intensity, and some of the wildest performances of the late 20th century.
30. Jessica Lange
Snatching a place in the Top 30, while some actresses fade after winning an Oscar, Jessica Lange collected two and then reinvented herself as a TV queen decades later. If you had the range like Lange, would you even stop?
She went from Tootsie to Blue Sky to chewing the gothic wallpaper in American Horror Story, proving she can do restrained brilliance or unhinged camp without breaking a sweat.
Lange is proof that Hollywood comebacks aren’t just for men. But if her power lies in reinvention, our next actress doesn’t reinvent—she mutates, slipping into characters so strange you wonder if she’s even human.
29. Jane Fonda
Few actresses have ever been arrested at a protest while simultaneously headlining a Netflix comedy. Jane Fonda has, because of course she has.
Her career runs the gamut: Oscar wins for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978), fitness tapes that haunted every living room in the ’80s, and a comeback in Grace and Frankie (2015–2022) that proved her timing is still lethal.
Fonda refuses to adapt. She would always demand change, just like our next star, who took a spicier approach, making herself America’s Babygirl.
28. Nicole Kidman
Remember when people thought Nicole Kidman was just Tom Cruise’s pretty wife? Yeah, she’s spent the past 25 years smashing that narrative into dust. Oscar? Check. Emmy? Check. Total domination? Double check.
From Moulin Rouge! to The Hours to Big Little Lies, Kidman has shown she can be operatic, chilling, or heartbreakingly vulnerable. She’s a risk-taker, never afraid to look strange, fragile—or downright shocking, like last year’s much-discussed Babygirl.
That steamy, provocative role had everyone fanning themselves while George Michael’s Father Figure plays in the background. Kidman thrives on transformation, but our next actress challenged it and said, “Wait, hold my beer.”
27. Penélope Cruz
A single look in Volver (2006) told you everything: Penélope Cruz doesn’t need words to dominate a film. By the time Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) rolled around, she was screaming, seducing, and snatching an Oscar.
Her career moves easily between Almodóvar’s intimate dramas and glossy Hollywood fare like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). Fire in one language, elegance in another.
Cruz can effortlessly bend Hollywood and Europe to her will while making it look like a casual stroll. But even international branding would kneel to an actress who grew up on camera, survived Hollywood’s spotlight, and became one of the most respected women in the business.
26. Jodie Foster
Some child stars flame out before they hit 18. Jodie Foster? She was giving Oscar-worthy performances in Taxi Driver at 12 years old, and then just kept leveling up from there. Apparently, she didn’t know how to stop.
By her early 30s, she had two Academy Awards—one for The Accused and another for The Silence of the Lambs. Not bad for someone who started in Coppertone commercials and Disney flicks.
Foster has always balanced brilliance with mystery. She keeps her private life locked up tighter than Hannibal Lecter’s cell, which only makes her more fascinating. But where she plays things close to the chest, our next actress has always thrived on grand, theatrical flair.
25. Maggie Smith
For some people, Maggie Smith will always be Professor McGonagall. But theatergoers knew her decades earlier, when she won her first Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and a second nearly a decade later for California Suite (1978).
Her recent resurgence in Downton Abbey turned her into a meme machine—Lady Violet’s savage one-liners practically kept Tumblr in business for years. She’s living proof that career peaks can happen anytime.
Smith is the master of timing, whether in Shakespeare or in a scathing tea-time insult. But if she’s Britain’s grande dame, the next actress is China’s global export—a legend who carried entire generations of cinema on her back.
24. Gong Li
Long before Hollywood claimed to care about “diversity,” Gong Li was already dominating international cinema. She’s been the face of Zhang Yimou’s masterpieces like Raise the Red Lantern and To Live, bringing grace and fire in equal measure.
Her comeback was quieter but powerful—roles in Coming Home and Saturday Fiction reminded everyone why she’s often called China’s greatest living actress. She has the screen presence of someone who doesn’t need to try.
If Gong Li is global elegance, the next actress represents American intensity—an Oscar winner who returned with a vengeance to remind us she could still obliterate audiences decades later.
23. Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn scared the daylights out of the world in The Exorcist, then wrecked us emotionally in Requiem for a Dream. She’s been fearless since the 1970s, never afraid to go too far.
Her recent comeback in Pieces of a Woman (2020) proved she hasn’t mellowed with age—her monologue about sacrifice and suffering went viral for a reason. She’s still a force to be reckoned with.
Burstyn’s strength is in stripping away glamour and leaving raw humanity. But where she tears things down, the next actress built her career on smoldering allure and a voice like smoke.
22. Lauren Bacall
“Whistle, and I’ll come running,” she teased Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. That was Lauren Bacall’s debut at 19. Imagine kicking off your career with a line that iconic.
Her career slowed after Bogart’s death, but Bacall roared back in later years with The Mirror Has Two Faces, earning an Oscar nomination at 72. Now, that’s a comeback story!
Bacall never played nice—she was sultry, sharp, and impossible to forget. As KYK on Letterboxd perfectly described, “I’m not new to Lauren Bacall, but every time she appeared I got hella goosebumps like I was discovering her screen presence for the first time?”
21. Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is the only person alive who can play a witty Jane Austen heroine and a cutthroat Hogwarts professor without breaking character. Call it the British range at its finest.
Her early triumphs with Howard’s End and Sense and Sensibility made her an Oscar darling. But recently, her bold and vulnerable turn in Cruella (2021) and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) reminded us she’s still breaking new ground.
Thompson’s never been afraid to poke fun at herself while delivering gut-punch performances. And that’s what makes her special. But where she thrives on intelligence and warmth, the next actress built her reputation on eerie intensity—and buckets of fake blood.
20. Sissy Spacek
Carrie White may have burned down her prom in Carrie (1976), but Sissy Spacek had already burned her way into film history with her haunting debut in Badlands (1973). That mix of fragility and quiet menace made her unforgettable from the start.
She wasn’t a one-hit wonder, either. Spacek won an Oscar for Coal Miner’s Daughter and kept audiences hooked with her soulful presence in films across four decades. She recently turned heads again in Homecoming and Castle Rock.
Her career has been a slow-burning masterpiece. But if Sissy’s legacy is quiet devastation, the next actress is pure spectacle—equal parts icon, sex symbol, and tragic enigma.
19. Julianne Moore
Nobody crumbles quite like Julianne Moore. In Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999), she unraveled so convincingly that it felt invasive to watch.
By Far from Heaven (2002), she was dismantling the picture-perfect housewife façade with devastating precision. And Still Alice (2014) finally gave her the Oscar her career had long deserved.
Moore’s performances sneak up on you, dismantle you, and then politely leave you wrecked. She will question the limits of your emotions. And if she were soul-stirring, our next actress was her opposite—hard-edged, fierce, and determined to outlast everyone.
18. Joan Crawford
Wire hangers aside, Joan Crawford was the definition of survival in Hollywood. She started in the silent era, thrived in talkies, and reinvented herself again in the 1940s.
Her Oscar-winning role in Mildred Pierce cemented her as a star who could match grit with glamour. And her later comeback in horror films like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1991) kept her relevant—and terrifying.
Crawford fought the system and her rivals with equal ferocity. While we’re still at ferociousness, this is why this next actress starts her name with an F. Ready to get more feral?
17. Faye Dunaway
Lightning in a trench coat—that’s Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974). Add Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Network (1976), and you have one of the most ferocious runs in Hollywood history.
She was magnetic, mercurial, and impossible to tame. Dunaway carried a dangerous energy that made audiences lean closer, even when they knew they might get burned. Her volatility wasn’t a flaw—it was fuel. “Don’t f*** with me, fellas!!” Who wants their stars to be boring? No one.
Dunaway remains proof that danger makes icons. For her, performances are not just her roles. They were warnings: enter at your own risk! But as much as she makes danger fascinating, nothing beats the actress who showed us what dignity truly means.
16. Olivia de Havilland
If you’ve ever griped about a bad Hollywood contract, thank Olivia de Havilland. In the 1940s, studios could suspend you if you turned down a role—then tack that suspension time onto your contract. Translation: actors were trapped forever.
De Havilland said nope. In 1943, she sued Warner Bros., fought them in court for two years, and won. The “De Havilland Decision” freed actors from endless contracts and changed Hollywood labor law forever.
Of course, she wasn’t just a courtroom warrior. Her turns in Gone with the Wind and The Heiress proved she could match the biggest stars, and sometimes outshine them. But even if you had all the fortune as the heiress, could you compete with the literal queen?
15. Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren had been working steadily for decades, but it was The Queen (2006) that catapulted her into global superstardom at 61. Talk about a late-career coronation.
That role won her an Oscar, cementing her as royalty both onscreen and off. Since then, she’s had fun with action (Red), Shakespeare, and even Fast & Furious cameos, because why not? If you’re the Helen Mirren, you can do everything.
Mirren’s comeback proved that serious talent doesn’t fade with age—it just gets more fun. And while she reclaimed her crown, the next actress returned from scandal and exile to remind everyone she was irreplaceable.
14. Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman had it all: Casablanca, Oscars, and a flawless reputation. Then came the scandal—an affair with Roberto Rossellini that made her persona non grata in Hollywood.
She vanished from the American screen for years, but when she came back in Anastasia (1956), she took home an Oscar. Later, she delivered another late-career triumph in Autumn Sonata (1978).
Her return was the stuff of legend: from exile to redemption. But while Bergman fought scandal, the next actress has battled something else—Academy Award snubs that practically define her career.
13. Glenn Close
Glenn Close has been nominated for eight Oscars and won… exactly zero. That “biggest snubbed actress ever” reputation could have buried her, but she’s turned it into a bizarre badge of honor.
She terrified audiences in Fatal Attraction (1987), dripped venomous charm in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and even stole the spotlight in Disney villainy with 101 Dalmatians (1996). Her supposed “comeback” with The Wife (2017) had critics certain the Oscar was finally hers—until she lost to Olivia Colman in one of the night’s biggest shocks.
Even her flop of a movie-musical (Hillbilly Elegy) got her another nomination. Close keeps bouncing back, proving she’s too good to ignore, but before all of that— there was an international fashion icon who somehow convinced everyone that breakfast outside Tiffany’s was the height of sophistication.
12. Audrey Hepburn
Few stars are as instantly recognizable as Audrey Hepburn. The Belgian-born actress wasn’t just Breakfast at Tiffany’s chic—she was Roman Holiday charm and The Nun’s Story subtlety, redefining screen femininity in the 1950s and ’60s.
Beyond her style, Hepburn was a serious actress, winning an Oscar for her very first major film. Off-screen, she became just as famous for her humanitarian work with UNICEF.
Still, Audrey’s polished grace wasn’t for everyone—some find her too precious. And with that, another actress would like to challenge that precious on-screen presence. Apparently, she finds the storm quite comforting.
11. Gena Rowlands
Don’t just expect glamour once you see Gena Rowlands act. She can make you doubt reality with her raw nerve. A Woman Under the Influence (1974) left audiences shaken. Was that acting, or had she really gone insane?
Her collaborations with John Cassavetes, from Opening Night (1977) to Gloria (1980), turned chaos into art and rewrote what screen acting could be. She was fearless, messy, and brilliant.
Watching her was like standing too close to lightning: dangerous and electrifying. Rowland’s on-screen volatility tells you a harsh truth. If not, it could definitely turn heads. And if you like head-turners? Then, meet this next actress. You will never understand the word ‘dedication’ until her.
10. Halle Berry
Beating out legends to grab #10, “Make me feel good!” Halle Berry screamed in Monster’s Ball (2001), and Hollywood actually listened—for once. The role won her an Oscar, making her the first (and still only) Black woman to win Best Actress.
Years earlier, she infamously skipped bathing (when playing a crack-addicted woman in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever) to channel desperation and grit. Then came a rough patch: Catwoman, anyone? Berry became a punchline for bad scripts.
But John Wick: Chapter 3 and Bruised proved she could still kick and claw her way back into relevance. Berry’s highs and lows make her endlessly debated. And if she shattered barriers, the next actress thrives on grit, grit, and more grit.
9. Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand is the queen of no-frills, no-nonsense acting. She won her first Oscar in 1996 for Fargo and could have coasted forever. Instead, she came roaring back decades later.
Her “second act” began with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), then another Oscar for Nomadland (2020). Oh, and she picked up a fourth as a producer because apparently three weren’t enough.
McDormand’s comeback proved you don’t need glamour or PR polish to dominate—just raw, unfiltered brilliance. And what makes brilliance better? Add it with guts! The next actress has spent her career balancing regality and mischief. You want her to play a man? She’d be the man!
8. Cate Blanchett
When Cate Blanchett played Queen Elizabeth, critics said she was born to wear the crown. Then she went and played Bob Dylan. Yes, that Bob Dylan. Talk about whiplash.
The Australian actress has made a career out of defying expectations, from The Aviator (2004) to Blue Jasmine (2013) to TÁR (2022). She’s regal one moment, unhinged the next, always impossible to pin down.
With 8 Oscar nominations and two wins under her belt, Blanchett is the definition of modern versatility. And yet, there’s a deadly combo that one actress had: versatile and violet-eyed.
7. Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor didn’t just dominate tabloids—she controlled Hollywood. With violet eyes and eight marriages, she was as famous for her personal life as for her acting, which says a lot.
Her performances in Cleopatra (1963) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) proved she was more than beauty; she was a powerhouse capable of ripping her heart out onscreen and throwing it at you.
After health struggles, she reinvented herself as an activist, becoming one of the earliest high-profile AIDS campaigners. But if Taylor embodied principle, the next actress embodied fragility and chaos.
6. Vivien Leigh
No one else could have played Scarlett O’Hara. Vivien Leigh’s performance in Gone with the Wind was so fiery, it burned itself into American cinema forever.
She followed it with another Oscar in A Streetcar Named Desire, where her unraveling Blanche DuBois blurred the line between role and reality. Behind the camera, her struggles with mental illness only made her legend more tragic.
Leigh lived fast, acted brilliantly, and left too soon. But while her fire flickered out, the next actress built her legend on breaking rules—Hollywood’s most decorated rebel.
5. Katharine Hepburn
Hollywood told women to be soft, polite, and pretty. Katharine Hepburn wore trousers, shot her mouth off, and collected a record four Oscars—the most any actor has ever won—while doing it. The studios called her “box office poison.”
From Bringing Up Baby (1938) to The Philadelphia Story (1940), Hepburn made brilliance magnetic. Later triumphs like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) and On Golden Pond (1981) reinvented the idea of the female lead—not an accessory, but the story itself.
She never had to stage a comeback because she never left, like this next actress who carried French cinema into the future with cigarette smoke, danger, and an unshakable smirk.
4. Jeanne Moreau
There’s cool, and then there’s Jeanne Moreau cool—lounging in a French café with a cigarette, half-smirking like she knew secrets you didn’t. She was the face of French New Wave cinema.
She starred in Jules and Jim, The Lovers, and countless arthouse gems, becoming the muse of European auteurs. Yet her longevity kept her relevant well into the 21st century, a true survivor of cinematic evolution.
If Moreau is the definition of European sophistication, the next icon… everyone would kill for her approval. And if the God of Acting exists, it would be her.
3. Meryl Streep
The joke goes that Meryl Streep could play Batman and still be the right choice. Entirely true. And you know what? She probably could snag an Oscar nomination! Her rise began with The Deer Hunter (1978) and quickly followed with Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), earning her first Oscar.
Then comes Sophie’s Choice (1982), Out of Africa (1985), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Doubt (2008), and The Iron Lady (2011). Twenty-one Oscar nominations later, she’s the actress everyone expects to top lists like this!
But that’s exactly why she lands here instead of #1. Great? Absolutely. Predictable? Also yes. Sometimes the crown belongs to someone willing to fight dirtier, burn brighter, or scare Hollywood itself.
2. Anna Magnani
Clinching the 2nd slot, Anna Magnani didn’t act; she tore the screen apart. In Rome, Open City (1945), she embodied war-torn despair so viscerally that it felt like you were watching a documentary.
She wasn’t glamorous, and she didn’t care. Wrinkles, fire, rage—Magnani turned raw humanity into spectacle. In The Rose Tattoo, she won an Oscar for playing a woman so passionate it bordered on dangerous.
Her performances were volcanic: unpredictable, overwhelming, unforgettable. Magnani made vulnerability look violent. But while she burned fast and hot, the #1 spot belongs to the woman who practically invented the modern idea of “movie star.”
1. Bette Davis
Proving herself against every contender, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” More than a line from All About Eve, it was Bette Davis’s personal manifesto. Sharp-tongued, fearless, and mercilessly talented, Davis flipped the world of screen acting.
She fought Warner Bros. in court for better roles, feuded with Joan Crawford in a rivalry so juicy it inspired an entire TV series, and carved out a career of razor-edged performances in Jezebel, Now, Voyager, and Baby Jane.
And here’s the clincher—even Meryl Streep, the “safe” choice for #1 on most lists, has publicly paid tribute to Davis’s audacity and influence. When the greatest actress of our time bows to you, that’s why you top the list!
