LOL, I guess I should have put mine...

1. Maureen O'Hara - The Quite Man
2. Gene Tierney - Laura
3. Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday

There is no way I can list only 3. But I will keep it manageable. Depending on the day & the movie the order might change.

Bette Davis (almost all of her movies, not fond of most of the ones after the late 50's)

Katherine Hepburn (too hard to pick just one)

Norma Shearer - The Women

Irene Dunne - The Awful Truth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eKjSUvszv4)

Myrna Loy - All of the Thin Man movies

There are others, but these are the ones at the top.

@bratface said:

There is no way I can list only 3. But I will keep it manageable. Depending on the day & the movie the order might change.

Bette Davis (almost all of her movies, not fond of most of the ones after the late 50's)

Katherine Hepburn (too hard to pick just one)

Norma Shearer - The Women

Irene Dunne - The Awful Truth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eKjSUvszv4)

Myrna Loy - All of the Thin Man movies

There are others, but these are the ones at the top.

Nice list, Myrna Loy was almost my #3, love the Thin Man series, also just watched The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer a couple weeks ago...cute! I'll have to check out Norma Shearer, I'm completely void of any knowledge of seeing her movies.

@HarrisonHanksHackman said:

@bratface said:

There is no way I can list only 3. But I will keep it manageable. Depending on the day & the movie the order might change.

Bette Davis (almost all of her movies, not fond of most of the ones after the late 50's)

Katherine Hepburn (too hard to pick just one)

Norma Shearer - The Women

Irene Dunne - The Awful Truth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eKjSUvszv4)

Myrna Loy - All of the Thin Man movies

There are others, but these are the ones at the top.

Nice list, Myrna Loy was almost my #3, love the Thin Man series, also just watched The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer a couple weeks ago...cute! I'll have to check out Norma Shearer, I'm completely void of any knowledge of seeing her movies.

Start with 'The Women', you will see her & a host of others: Crawford, Russell, Goddard, Joan Fontaine, & many stars from that era. The majority of her films are from the 30's, she retired in 1942. I didn't much care for her 'period' films, I much preferred her in 'modern' films. She was also married to Irving Thalberg.

OMG, Harrison: Your 50 Actresses list doesn't name Mary Astor as a prospect! lol

Guess who my list includes? As #1.

I have to go with 5 actresses, as there's no way I can leave off either two of the following awesome women:

1. Mary Astor - every single part of her career, very start to very finish; can do no wrong
2. Joan Blondell - I'm primarily crazy about all her movies of the first half of the '30s
3. Barbara Stanwyck - pretty much the full run of her career, though especially '30s & '40s films
4. Joan Crawford - especially first 1/2 of the '30s, then jump forward into the '40s; etc.
5. Bette Davis - esp. 1st 1/2 of '30s, then continue onward thru rest of the '30s & '40s; spotty after that

As listed is, I think, my order of favouritism, though putting Joan and Bette at the bottom of the list in no way reflects negatively on them, nor should it at all suggest I like them less than the others. Meanwhile, I'm highly tempted to reverse listing order of Stanwyck and Crawford, but for now will resist. The only reason I'll stick with keeping things as is is that Stanwyck overall had more variety to her films, whereas Joan tended to be in the same types of roles and films over and over.

I'm a fan of Astor and Crawford to dating back into Silent films. It's neat seeing the evolution of each of those two actresses, from what type roles they were playing when they were starting out, vs. what they eventually were doing when they were savvy longtime veterans.

I'm not able to decide on favourite movies for either of the 5 actresses, as there are so many I like for each.

Mr./Ms. HarrisonHanksHackman, I thought you might be interested in the threads in the links below?

1930s

1940s

1950s

The '30s and '50s lists include the links to the earlier (Silent era) and later ('60s) decades lists.

@genplant29 said:

OMG, Harrison: Your 50 Actresses list doesn't name Mary Astor as a prospect! lol

Guess who my list includes? As #1.

I have to go with 5 actresses, as there's no way I can leave off either two of the following awesome women:

1. Mary Astor - every single part of her career, very start to very finish; can do no wrong
2. Joan Blondell - I'm primarily crazy about all her movies of the first half of the '30s
3. Barbara Stanwyck - pretty much the full run of her career, though especially '30s & '40s films
4. Joan Crawford - especially first 1/2 of the '30s, then jump forward into the '40s; etc.
5. Bette Davis - esp. 1st 1/2 of '30s, then continue onward thru rest of the '30s & '40s; spotty after that

As listed is, I think, my order of favouritism, though putting Joan and Bette at the bottom of the list in no way reflects negatively on them, nor should it at all suggest I like them less than the others. Meanwhile, I'm highly tempted to reverse listing order of Stanwyck and Crawford, but for now will resist. The only reason I'll stick with keeping things as is is that Stanwyck overall had more variety to her films, whereas Joan tended to be in the same types of roles and films over and over.

I'm a fan of Astor and Crawford to dating back into Silent films. It's neat seeing the evolution of each of those two actresses, from what type roles they were playing when they were starting out, vs. what they eventually were doing when they were savvy longtime veterans.

I'm not able to decide on favourite movies for either of the 5 actresses, as there are so many I like for each.

Believe it or not as I kept adding actresses from the top of my head I looked at the list and had 57. I thought do I go on to 100 or lop off 7 back to 50 (I'm a little OCD that way)? So the 7 who got lopped off were your Mary Astor and to be honest I just have not seen her in much (Maltese Falcon, Prisoner of Zenda), so that's on me. I've been wanting to see The Great Lie, but have yet to find it to record.

Shirley Temple (sentimental), Veronica Lake (overrated looker IMO), Rosalind Russell (probably could have kept her), Jane Mansfield (I'm a man, so I thought about keeping her), Jean Harlow (regret not keeping her), and Lucile Ball (can't get past the TV character).

I also wanted to include some who were IMO awesome in supporting roles, such as Thelma Ritter, Agnes Moorhead, and Eve Arden. All 10 of those would have been in the second 50 for sure.

Shelly Winters, June Allyson, Ann Sothren, Ann Blyth, Donna Reed, and Kay Francis all come to mind as I type as well. Plus bratface mentioned Norma Shearer...so now we are already up to 67 LOL

Keeping with the 1930-59 "talkies" theme, who would you have bumped and added to get to 50 (besides Ms Astor)?

Besides names that have already been mentioned by yourself, brat, or myself, some other 1930-1959 screen actresses, either star or supporting, I like a lot and am able to think of (listed in alphabetical order), of a broad range of types, ages, and degrees of familiarity in movies - but all whom I like a lot (not enough to be in my Top 10s, but in solid standing nonetheless):

• Beulah Bondi
• Ruth Chatterton
• Gladys Cooper
• Marion Davies
• Frances Dee
• Ann Dvorak
• Miriam Hopkins
• Elsa Lanchester
• Janet Leigh
• Aline MacMahon
• Lee Patrick
• Anne Shirley
• Genevieve Tobin
• Marie Windsor
• Natalie Wood

I initially had a much longer list of possible additions, though many prospects were lesser-known individuals than the women listed above, or I love them in a film or two, but haven't really seen, or don't remember, their other films, therefore I removed them from the running.

Btw, fun anecdotal note: In the OP portion of this thread, Harrison, Grace Kelly is one of the listed names. One of my sisters, who's 12 years my senior, dated Grace's brother Jack Kelly (John B. Kelly Jr.) [he comes up readily on Wikipedia, though for some reason the link to his article there won't successfully post here], who was a Philadelphia City Councilman at the time, and earlier had been an Olympic Gold Medalist, then was President of the US Olympic Committee. My sister and Jack off and on dated something like 1969-1972. She now and then, throughout the years, has mentioned she enjoyed leafing through Kelly Family photo albums, and hearing family stories and recollections by Jack, though she never personally met Princess Grace.

@genplant29 said:

Besides names that have already been mentioned by yourself, brat, or myself, some other 1930-1959 screen actresses, either star or supporting, I like a lot and am able to think of (listed in alphabetical order), of a broad range of types, ages, and degrees of familiarity in movies - but all whom I like a lot (not enough to be in my Top 10s, but in solid standing nonetheless):

• Beulah Bondi
• Ruth Chatterton
• Gladys Cooper
• Marion Davies
• Frances Dee
• Ann Dvorak
• Miriam Hopkins
• Elsa Lanchester
• Janet Leigh
• Aline MacMahon
• Lee Patrick
• Anne Shirley
• Genevieve Tobin
• Marie Windsor
• Natalie Wood

I initially had a much longer list of possible additions, though many prospects were lesser-known individuals than the women listed above, or I love them in a film or two, but haven't really seen, or don't remember, their other films, therefore I removed them from the running.

Btw, fun anecdotal note: In the OP portion of this thread, Harrison, Grace Kelly is one of the listed names. One of my sisters, who's 12 years my senior, dated Grace's brother Jack Kelly (John B. Kelly Jr.) [he comes up readily on Wikipedia, though for some reason the link to his article there won't successfully post here], who was a Philadelphia City Councilman at the time, and earlier had been an Olympic Gold Medalist, then was President of the US Olympic Committee. My sister and Jack off and on dated something like 1969-1972. She now and then, throughout the years, has mentioned she enjoyed leafing through Kelly Family photo albums, and hearing family stories and recollections by Jack, though she never personally met Princess Grace.

Cool Story! Thanks for the list. I'm embarrassed that I didn't include Natalie Wood. Janet Leigh, Miriam Hopkins, Marion Davies, and of course Beulah Bondi I have seen movies with them. I'm sure I know some of the others and will have to check out some of the movies they have been in to jog my memory.

Btw, Jack Kelly was a couple decades older than my sister.

I tend to be very familiar with movies and performers of the '20s, '30s, and '40s (particularly the first half thereof), but am strictly hit or miss with my film knowledge and familiarity regarding after that.

Well, without looking at everybody's answers, I'll just jot down about 25 or 26, and then turn in an incomplete paper for now (because some more names are liable to come up next time), right?

• Ann Dvorak
• Ann Sothern
• Ava Gardner
• Barbara Stanwyck

• Claudette Colbert

• Deborah Kerr

• Donna Reed

• Eve Arden

• Frances Dee

• Gale Storm

• Ginger Rogers

• Irene Dunne

• Jan Clayton

• Jean Harlow

• Joan Bennett

• Joan Leslie

• Lucille Ball

• Miriam Hopkins

• Myrna Loy

• Norma Shearer

• Paulette Goddard

• Susan Hayward

• Teresa Wright

• Vivian Vance

• Vivien Leigh

• Yvonne De Carlo