Who do you feel are the Top 10 Golden Era actors and actresses?

[FedoraFan112390]

What's your personal Top Ten for each sex?

 

[Zachary]

I have quite a lot of favourites from the "good ol' times" (both sexes); I'm not sure about the ranking, but according to me, here's the way to go:

Male:
1 Humphrey Bogart
2 Clark Gable
3 Peter Ustinov
4 Richard Attenborough
5 Cary Grant
6 Rock Hudson
7 Orson Welles
8 Joseph Cotten
9 Alec Guinness
10 Omar Sharif
11 Peter O'Toole
12 Anthony Quinn
13 Terry Thomas
14 David Niven
15 Peter Sellers
16 Truman Capote
17 James Stewart
18 John Wayne

Female:
1 Audrey Hepburn
2 Doris Day
3 Marilyn Monroe
4 Greta Garbo
5 Geraldine Chaplin
6 Grace Kelly
7 ...

So much for now.

 

[Worf]

WTF MAN???? NO BETTY DAVIS????

Sorry to scream, but she should've been the top of the list!

Worf

 

[Worf]

What's your personal Top Ten for each sex?

First of all.... what do you define as the "Golden Era" of cinema? The 30's, 40's some say today!

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

Boys

Ned Sparks
Edgar Kennedy
Johnny Arthur
Billy Gilbert
William Demarest
Walter Catlett
Hugh Herbert
Eddie Anderson
Snitz Edwards

Girls

Patsy Kelly
Winnie Lightner
Una Merkel
Aline MacMahon
Marjorie Main
Mabel Todd
Mae Busch
Dot Farley
Blanche Payson

 

[GHT]

WTF MAN???? NO BETTY DAVIS????

Sorry to scream, but she should've been the top of the list!

Worf

And no Mae West either.

 

[Fading Fast]

Boys

Ned Sparks
Edgar Kennedy
Johnny Arthur
Billy Gilbert
William Demarest
Walter Catlett
Hugh Herbert
Eddie Anderson
Snitz Edwards

Girls

Patsy Kelly
Winnie Lightner
Una Merkel
Aline MacMahon
Marjorie Main
Mabel Todd
Mae Busch
Dot Farley
Blanche Payson

Since I only know about 10% of the names on this list - and I waste enormous amounts of time watching movies from the '30s - '60s - I assume this is a list of, mainly, silent era stars that you and Vitanola will passionately debate as I look on like I'm at a tennis match.

WTF MAN???? NO BETTY DAVIS????

Sorry to scream, but she should've been the top of the list!

Worf

Spot on - she might be the most talented of them all, ever.

And to Zachary's female list I'd add, Barbara Stanwyck, Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer, Katherine Hepburn and more when I have some more time.

 

[Zachary]

You're all totally right … I should have been adding "no claim to be complete" to my list. Well, we all have different tastes, and prefer different actors / actresses. That's the good thing in life: We're all different.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Since I only know about 10% of the names on this list - and I waste enormous amounts of time watching movies from the '30s - '60s - I assume this is a list of, mainly, silent era stars that you and Vitanola will passionately debate as I look on like I'm at a tennis match.

I deliberately chose supporting comedians, both male and female -- because I think it's character actors who really make or break a picture, especially the type of pictures I like the best. Whenever I see any of these performers show up in a cast list, I know the movie's worth my time. Many of these performers bridged silents and talkies, but most of them were at their peak during the 1930s, and you may not recognize all their names, but I bet you'd know their faces.

 

[Fading Fast]

I deliberately chose supporting comedians, both male and female -- because I think it's character actors who really make or break a picture, especially the type of pictures I like the best. Whenever I see any of these performers show up in a cast list, I know the movie's worth my time. Many of these performers bridged silents and talkies, but most of them were at their peak during the 1930s, and you may not recognize all their names, but I bet you'd know their faces.

Then I'd add to your list

Edward Everett Horton

Walter Connolly (plus the guy that looks like him but with a gravely voice)

C. Aubrey Smith

Donald Crisp

Charles Coburn

Edward Arnold

Jack Carson

James Gleason

Dean Jagger (later in the period - but almost always in good movies that he makes much better)

And

May Whitty (she ups every movie she's in)

Eve Arden

 

[LizzieMaine]

Gad, how could have left Jimmy Gleason off that list. One of my all-time favorite "New York Characters," and he wasn't always a sarcastic wise guy. Watch him as the sympathetic milk-wagon driver in "The Clock" and you'll see he was a first rate straight actor.

Carson is one of those actors you always expect to be a bigger star than he really was -- he got a big push on radio in the mid-forties, but didn't seem to catch on. But nobody played annoying press-agents, pushy brothers-in-law, or loudmouth old college pals better than he did. Well, maybe Jack Oakie, but for a long time as a kid I thought they were the same person.

The guy you're thinking of with the gravel voice is Eugene Pallette, another one I can't believe I left off. He was in the very first all-talking feature in 1928, and was the best thing in the picture, and I often get the feeling he was in 98 percent of all talkies made before WWII.

And for the ladies' list, I have to squeeze in Lyda Roberti somwhere, with her wacky Polish accent. The best leading lady Eddie Cantor ever had, and it's a shame she died so young.

 

[Fading Fast]

Gad, how could have left Jimmy Gleason off that list. One of my all-time favorite "New York Characters," and he wasn't always a sarcastic wise guy. Watch him as the sympathetic milk-wagon driver in "The Clock" and you'll see he was a first rate straight actor.

Carson is one of those actors you always expect to be a bigger star than he really was -- he got a big push on radio in the mid-forties, but didn't seem to catch on. But nobody played annoying press-agents, pushy brothers-in-law, or loudmouth old college pals better than he did. Well, maybe Jack Oakie, but for a long time as a kid I thought they were the same person.

The guy you're thinking of with the gravel voice is Eugene Pallette, another one I can't believe I left off. He was in the very first all-talking feature in 1928, and was the best thing in the picture, and I often get the feeling he was in 98 percent of all talkies made before WWII.

And for the ladies' list, I have to squeeze in Lyda Roberti somwhere, with her wacky Polish accent. The best leading lady Eddie Cantor ever had, and it's a shame she died so young.

Gleason is always outstanding and brings a wonderful whimsey to one of my favorite Christmas movies "The Bishop's Wife."

Carson used to bug me a bit - to much of a '40s version of a "he dude how's it going" guy - but the more I see of him, the more I'm impressed by his range (now I like him) which you see a lot of in "Mildred Pierce" and, then, later playing against type in "Tarnished Angels."

And, yes (thank you) - Pallette is the guy and simply love whenever he pops up in something (and, as you note, seems like it's in every other movie in the '30s). I can never, ever remember his name.

Also, must add, Walter Brennan, great in roles like Eddie in "To Have and Have Not," but also showed much more range than just good-hearted sidekick in movies like "Nobody Lives Forever." His sadness and, at times, coldness is visceral in that one.

 

[Harp]

Linda Darnell; Ingrid Bergman

 

[Fading Fast]

You're all totally right … I should have been adding "no claim to be complete" to my list. Well, we all have different tastes, and prefer different actors / actresses. That's the good thing in life: We're all different.

Hey, kudos to you, someone had to jump in there and get the lists going - well done and welcome to the Lounge.

 

[emigran]

Boys

Ned Sparks
Edgar Kennedy
Johnny Arthur
Billy Gilbert
William Demarest
Walter Catlett
Hugh Herbert
Eddie Anderson
Snitz Edwards

Girls

Patsy Kelly
Winnie Lightner
Una Merkel
Aline MacMahon
Marjorie Main
Mabel Todd
Mae Busch
Dot Farley
Blanche Payson

I LOVE this list...

 

[Zachary]

Thank you so much!

 

[emigran]

I deliberately chose supporting comedians, both male and female -- because I think it's character actors who really make or break a picture, especially the type of pictures I like the best. Whenever I see any of these performers show up in a cast list, I know the movie's worth my time. Many of these performers bridged silents and talkies, but most of them were at their peak during the 1930s, and you may not recognize all their names, but I bet you'd know their faces.

One I know you'd include Ms Liz is the hilarious and wry Charles Butterworth...along with Marie Dressler... and how about Mary Wickes and Roland Young...!?!?

 

[emigran]

Spring Byington, Mildred Natwick, Gladys George, Eve Arden, Zasu Pitts, marie Windsor Edna mae Oliver Agnes Moorehead
Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore,Thomas Mitchell Charles Coburn, Akim Tamiroff, Alan Jenkins. Chill Willa Donals meek, Douglas Dumbrille...

 

[emigran]

Alan mowbray Cecil kellaway, Clifton Webb, Frank mc Hugh, Frank Morgan, Franklin Pangborn, George Tobias, Gilbert Roland ,Jack Elam, Joseph Calleia, Lewis Stone, Louis Calhern, Lew Ayers, Lyle Talbot, Millard Mtichell, Nat pendelton, Paul Douglas Ray Collins, Raymond Walburn, Regis Toomey, Roscoe Karns, Thomas Gomez, Victor Jory...

All great and familiar faces...

 

[HanauMan]

This is a hard one....but here my list (in no particular order and liable to change again tomorrow):

Ladies:

Ida Lupino
Margaret Rutherford
Claire Trevor
Bette Dais
Diahann Carroll
Gene Tierney
Lauren Bacall
Doris Day
Lana Turner
Ingrid Bergman

Guys:

Robert Ryan
Sterling Hayden
Alastair Sim
John Mill
John Wayne
Randolph Scott
Basil Rathbone
James Stewart
Humphrey Bogart
Sydney Greenstreet