Actresses

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) was an American actress. Early life Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a school teacher, and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's. She moved to Los Angeles, California, as a young child. An excellent ice skater, Crain first attracted attention when she was crowned Miss Pan Pacific at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. Later, while still in high school, she was asked to make a screen test opposite Orson Welles. She did not get the part, but in 1943, at age 18, she appeared in a bit part in the film T…

Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress, known for her work on stage, screen and television. Early life Kane was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Joy, a jazz singer, teacher, dancer, and pianist, and Michael Kane, an architect who worked for the World Bank. Her family is Jewish, her grandparents having emigrated from Russia. Her parents divorced when she was 12 years old. She attended the Cherry Lawn School, a progressive boarding school in Darien, Connecticut, until 1965. She attended the Professional Children's School, in New York City, and made her professional theatre debut in a 1966 production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodi…

Stockard Channing (born February 13, 1944) is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role in both the stage and screen versions of Six Degrees of Separation. Early life Channing was born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard in New York City, the daughter of Mary Alice, who came from a large Brooklyn-based Irish Catholic family, and Lester Napier Stockard, who was in the shipping business and died in 1960. She grew up on the Upper East Side. She is an alumna of The Madeira School, a Virginia boarding school for…

Claudette Colbert (September 13, 1903 — July 30, 1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress. Born in Saint-Mandé, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures. She established a successful film career with Paramount Pictures and later, as a freelance performer, became one of the highest paid entertainers in American cinema. Colbert was recognized as one of the leading female exponents of screwball comedy; she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her comedic performance in It Happened One Night (1934), and also received Academy Award nominat…

Christine Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film director. Early life Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret, a painter, homemaker and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. Lahti has Finnish ancestry. Her surname means "a gulf", "a bay" or "a cove" in Finnish and Lahti is also a city in Finland. Lahti studied fine arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority. She then toured Europe as part of a pantomime acting troupe. Career After college, Lahti headed to New York City, where she worked as a waitress and …

Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (January 8, 1911 - December 22, 1995) was an American actress. Originally a dancer, McQueen appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind Born Thelma McQueen January 7, 1911 Tampa, Florida, U.S. Died December 22, 1995 (aged 84) Augusta, Georgia, U.S. Occupation Actress Years active 1939-1989 Early life Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida, she had planned to become a nurse until a high school teacher suggested that she try acting. McQueen initially studied with Janet Collins and went on to dance with the Venezuela Jones Negro Youth Group. Around this time she acquired the nickname "Butterfly"—a trib…

Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959[1]) is an American actress known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. Biography Blair was raised in Westport, Connecticut. She began her career as a six year old child model and started acting with a regular role on the short-lived "Hidden Faces" in 1968. Her first film role was in 1971's The Sporting Club. Blair was selected from a field of 600 applicants for her most notable role as Regan in The Exorcist. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination. …

Sarah Bernhardt (born circa October 23, 1844 – March 26, 1923) was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah." Early life Bernhardt was born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt, the illegitimate daughter of Julie Bernardt (1821, Amsterdam – 1876, Paris) and an unknown father. Julie was one of six children of a widely traveling Jewish spectacle merchant, "vision specialist" and petty criminal, Mo…

Mary Brian (February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002) was an American actress and movie star who made the transition from 'silents' to 'talkies' Early life She was born Louise Byrdie Dantzler in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Taurrence J. Dantzler (December 1869 – March 18, 1906) and Louise B. (August 12, 1876 – April 3, 1973). Her brother was Taurrence J. Dantzler, Jr. (August 9, 1903 – April 6, 1973). Her father died when she was one month old and the family later moved to Dallas. In the early 1920s, they moved to Long Beach, California. She had intended becoming an illustrator but that was laid aside when at age 16 she was discovered in a local bathing beauty contes…

Evelyn Brent (October 20, 1899 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress. Early life Born Mary Elizabeth Riggs in Tampa, Florida and known as Betty, she was a child of ten when her mother died, leaving her father to raise her alone. After moving to New York City as a teenager, her good looks brought modeling jobs that led to an opportunity to become involved in the still relatively new business of making motion pictures. She originally studied to be a teacher. While attending a normal school in New York she visited the World Film Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Two days later she was working there as an extra making $3 a day. Career She began her film car…

Madge Bellamy (June 30, 1899 – January 24, 1990) was an American film actress who was a popular leading lady in the 1920s and early 1930s. Her career declined in the sound era, and ended following a romantic scandal in the 1940s. Early life Madge Bellamy was born in Hillsboro, Texas in 1899 as Margaret Derden Philpott to William Bledsoe Philpott (1864-19??), a professor of English and Annie Margaret Derden (1880–1960). The family was of English and Irish heritage. Her father was an 1884 graduate of Texas A&M University. Besides teaching English, he taught history and languages, and he also edited many scholarly works. Her parents were married on June 22, 1898 in Hi…

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American expatriate entertainer and actress. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker also was a celebrated dancer in her early career. She was given the nicknames the "Bronze Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations. In France, she has always been known as "Joséphine Baker". Baker was the first African American to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial lead…

Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz and her Academy Award nominated performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live. Early life Known as Billie Burke, she toured the U.S. and Europe with a circus because her father, Billy Burke, was employed with them as a singing clown. Her family ultimately settled in London where she was fortunate to see plays in London's historic West End. She wanted to be a stage actress. In 1903, she began acting on stage, making her debut in London, eventually returnin…

Bebe Daniels (January 14, 1901 – March 16, 1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, and later gained fame on radio and television in England. Throughout her life, Bebe Daniels made over 230 films. Early life and career Daniels was born Phyllis Virginia Daniels (Bebe was a childhood nickname) in Dallas, Texas. Her father was a theater manager and her mother a stage actress. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in her childhood and she began her acting career at the age of four in the first version of The Squaw Man. That same year she also went on tour in a stage produ…

Billie Dove (May 14, 1903 – December 31, 1997) was an American actress. Early life and career She was born as Bertha Bohny in New York City to Charles and Bertha Bohny who were Swiss immigrants. As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired at the age of 15 by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld Follies Revue. She legally changed her name to Lillian Bohny in the early 1920s. and migrated to Hollywood, where she began appearing in silent films. She soon became one of the most popular actresses of the 1920s, appearing in Douglas Fairbanks' smash hit Technicolor film The Black Pirate (1926), as Rodeo West in The Painted Angel (1929), and …

Olive Borden (July 14, 1906 – October 1, 1947) was an American actress in silent and early talkies. Nicknamed "The Joy Girl", Borden was known for her jet-black hair and overall beauty. Early life Olive Borden was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1906. Her birth name was often reported erroneously as Sybil Tinkle until the 1990s when it was discovered that another woman with the same name had been confused with Borden. Borden's father died when she was a baby and she was raised by her mother, Sibbie, in Norfolk and Baltimore, Maryland where she also attended Catholic boarding schools. She was a distant relative of Lizzie Borden. As a teenager, she persuaded her mother to t…

Name: Cleo Pires Ayrosa Galvão Date of birth: 02/10/1982 Place of birth: Rio de janeiro, Brazil Daughter of actress Glória Pires and singer-songwriter Fábio Júnior, Cléo Pires is also half-sister of the actor and singer-songwriter Filipe Galvão. She first gained notoriety for her roles in the 2003 film Benjamim and in the 2005 telenovela América. Cléo Pires was awarded Best Actress in the 2003 International Rio Film Festival for her role in Benjamim. Cléo Pires was also cover of the Brazilian edition of Playboy magazine in August 2010. It was a special edition that celebrates the 35th anniversary of the magazine in Brazil. Soap operas * 2009: Caminho das Índi…

Florence La Badie (April 27, 1888 – October 13, 1917) was an American actress in the early days of Hollywood, during the silent film era. Though little known today, she was a major star between 1911 and 1917, her career was at its height and climbing when she died unexpectedly due to injuries sustained during an automobile accident. Early life While her film career is well documented, her early life is somewhat clouded in mystery, from who her real parents were to what her birth name actually was. She was said to be the daughter of Joseph E. La Badie and his wife Amanda from Montreal, Quebec. However, it has also been said that she was born in Austin, Texas and adopted…

Barbara La Marr (July 28, 1896 – January 30, 1926) was an American stage and film actress, cabaret artist and screenwriter. Early life She was born Reatha Dale Watson to William Wallace and Rosana "Rose" Watson in Yakima, Washington. Her father was an editor for a newspaper, and her mother had a son, Henry, born in 1878, and a daughter, Violet, born in February 1881, from a previous marriage. The couple wed some time during 1884, and they had William Watson, Jr., born in June 1886 in Washington. He would later, in the 1920s, become a vaudeville comedian under the stage name of "Billy Devore". The Watsons lived in various locations during La Marr's formative years. By 19…

Betty Bronson (November 17, 1906 – October 19, 1971) was an American television and film actress who began her career during the silent film era. She was a famous actress in silent and sound films. Film career She was born Elizabeth Ada Bronson in Trenton, New Jersey to Frank and Nellie Smith Bronson. She began her film career began at age of sixteen with a bit part in the film Anna Ascends. At seventeen, after she had pleaded with every friend she had at Paramount Pictures, she finally got an interview with J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan. Barrie personally chose her to play the lead in a film of his work Peter Pan which would be released in 1924. This film role ha…

Chili Bouchier (September 12, 1909 – September 9, 1999) later known as Dorothy Bouchier was a British film actress who achieved success during the silent film era, and who made occasional film appearances with the advent of sound films, before progressing to theatre. She made her first appearance as a child dancer at a charity performance. She became a typist on leaving school and later a mannequin. Her first appearance was as a bathing belle in Shooting Stars. Bouchier won a contest run by the Daily Mail in 1927 to become a film star. She combined her film career with a great deal of stage work in the U.K. From 1950 onwards most of her appearances were on stage in drama…

Eleanor Boardman (August 19, 1898 – December 12, 1991) was an American film actress, popular during the era of silent movies. Early life and career Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boardman was originally on stage but she temporarily lost her voice so entered silent films in 1922. There followed months of fruitless effort until one day Rupert Hughes saw her riding a horse and gave her a part in a film and she quickly began to attract audiences. She was chosen by Goldwyn Pictures as their "New Face of 1922," through which she signed a contract with the company. After several successful supporting roles, she played the lead in 1923's Souls for Sale. Her growing popular…

Vilma Bánky (January 9, 1901 – March 18, 1991) was a Hungarian-born American silent film actress, although the early part of her acting career began in Budapest, spreading to France, Austria, and Germany. Early life She was born Vilma Koncsics on January 9, 1901 to János Koncsics and Katalin Ulbert in Nagydorog, Austria-Hungary. Her father was a bureau chief under Franz Joseph's Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shortly after her birth, her father was transferred to Budapest, and the family relocated. She had two siblings - an older brother, Gyula (who would later go on to work in Berlin as a writer and cinematographer), and a younger sister, Gisella. After graduation from seco…

Ísis Nable Valverde (Belo Horizonte,17th February 1987) is Brazilian actress and model. Filmography: 2006 Sinhá Moça 2007 Paraíso Tropical 2008 Beleza Pura 2009 Caminho das Índias 2010 Ti Ti Ti

Olga Vladimirovna Baclanova, or Baklanova, (19 August 1896 or 1900 – 6 September 1974) was a Russian-born actress, who achieved prominence during the silent film era. She was billed as the Russian Tigeress. Born in Moscow, Russia, Baclanova was the daughter of Vladimir Baklanoff and his wife Alexandra, herself an actress in early Russian films. Baclanova studied drama at the Cherniavsky Institute before being accepted into the prestigious Moscow Art Theatre in 1912. Over the next decade she appeared in Russian films, and also performed extensively on stage, touring and performing in many countries of the world. After a 1925 performance in New York she decided to follow …