The 30 Greatest Actors And Actresses In Hollywood History

Great actors jump off the screen and connect with audiences on an emotional level. There is a reason that actors and actresses have been cultural icons since the conception of celebrity. Before there were films, stage actors, vaudeville performers and opera singers gained renown. Before films had sound, actors like Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Theda Bara captivated audiences. The greatest actors take time to hone their craft. There are many ways to approach the craft of acting, from method acting to Stanislavsky’s System to the Meisner Technique, but the end result should be the same: delivering reality through a facsimile. All of the actors in this do just that.

Top Actors And Actresses

This list comes with a few parameters simply because of how many great actors there truly are. For this list, the actors chosen have made contributions to films with sound. This doesn’t mean they haven’t worked on stage, TV or silent film. Many on this list have especially appeared in theater and TV as well. However, all of these actors could be considered “film actors.”

This list also focuses on actors who have acted in films that use English as a primary language. World cinema has many great actors, including names like Shah Rukh Khan, Toshirô Mifune, Dolores Del Río, Brigitte Bardot and many others. However, to keep the list focused, all of the actors chosen have contributed to the American and “Hollywood” film industry.

30. Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe is often remembered more as a bombshell than an actress, which in many ways discredits her. Monroe’s career was cut short by her tragic death in 1962 at age 36. However, during her life, she cared deeply about the craft of acting. She studied method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and started her own film production company in the 1950s.

Monroe started with bit parts in movies in the 1940s before breaking through in 1950s comedies and musicals. She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for 1959’s Some Like it Hot and is remembered for films like Niagara, How to Marry a Millionaire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Misfits and The Seven Year Itch. Monroe isn’t appreciated enough for her sharp comic timing. If you think she is just a “dumb blonde,” it is because she was that convincing.

29. Michelle Yeoh

Michelle has been recently reintroduced to American audiences, with roles hits like Crazy Rich Asians and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. However, Yeoh has been acting in films since the 1980s. She started acting after being crowned Miss World Malaysia. While she began her career in Hong Kong films, she was introduced to American audiences in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.

She is known for films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha and A Haunting in Venice, as well as TV shows like Star Trek: Discovery. In 2023, she became the first Asian actress to win a Best Actress Oscar.

28. Raul Julia

While many millennials will remember Raul Julia as Gomez from the 1990s The Addams Family movies, Julia initially rose to prominence as a Shakespearean actor in New York’s theater scene. He worked in theater and on Broadway before his film debut in 1971’s The Panic in Needle Park.

He acted in films in Hollywood and his native Puerto Rico and was active in New York’s theater scene through the early 1990s. His filmography includes Kiss of the Spider Woman, Tempest, One From The Heart, Romero and Mack the Knife. Julia is notable for his commitment to roles. While his final film, 1994’s Street Fighter, was critically panned, his performance has been praised for his steadfast presence and control.

27. Cicely Tyson

While Cicely Tyson appeared in TV shows and movies since the late 1950s, she earned acclaim for her performance in 1972’s Sounder, which earned her an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination.

She went on to appear in movies and series like Roots, Fried Green Tomatoes, A Lesson Before Dying, Because of Winn-Dixie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Help and House of Cards. During her 70-year career, she received a Tony, SAG Award, Emmy, Academy Honorary Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Career Achievement Peabody and Kennedy Center Honor.

26. Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley might be best known to young audiences for his appearances in Marvel films like Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, he has appeared in over 90 films in his five-decade-long career. He started his acting career at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 before making his film debut in 1972’s Fear Is the Key.

He would go 10 years before returning for a film with 1982’s Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. While his performance was praised, he was also criticized for his use of brownface. While Kingsley is of Indian descent, he wore dark make-up for the film. He has since appeared in films like Steven Spielberg’s Schindler's List, Bugsy, Sexy Beast, House of Sand and Fog, Hugo and Shutter Island.

25. Rita Moreno

A true triple threat, Rita Moreno made her Broadway debut at age 13. While Moreno had small parts in 1950s musicals like Singin' in the Rain and The King and I, she got her big break as Anita in 1961’s film adaptation of West Side Story, for which she also received an Oscar.

She would go on to win the EGOT suite of wards, as well as receive a Peabody Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She has appeared in over 150 movies and TV shows, including cult hits like The Slums of Beverly Hills, kids programming like voicing Carmen Sandiego and The Electric Company, and TV shows like Oz and Jane the Virgin. In 2021, a documentary about her life, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

24. Lauren Bacall

Born to Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, Lauren Bacall started her career as a teenage model before making her film debut alongside her future husband Humphrey Bogart in 1944’s To Have and Have Not.

Early in her career, she had to train her voice to lose its nasal quality by shouting Shakespeare passages for hours a day. Bacall went on to star in many films alongside Bogart, including The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo. She also made several classic comedy films such as Designing Woman, Sex and the Single Girl and How to Marry A Millionaire. She appeared in many plays and TV shows and worked well into the 2000s. Her last role was as a guest star on a 2014 episode of Family Guy before her passing later that year.

23. Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker graduated from USC with a BFA in 1982; that same year, he appeared in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In the 1980s, he made a name for himself, appearing in films like The Color of Money, Platoon and Good Morning, Vietnam. By the 1990s, Whitaker wasn’t only a well-respected actor but also a working director with films like Strapped, Waiting to Exhale and Hope Floats. He also directed ​​Whitney Houston’s music video for "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" in 1995.

In 1988, he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Bird. He would go on to win an Academy Award for The Last King of Scotland in 2007. He has also won a BAFTA, Emmy Golden Globe and two SAG Awards. He has appeared in films like The Butler, Arrival, Panic Room, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Black Panther.

22. Jason Robards

Jason Robards isn’t a household name, but that is kind of the point. Many great actors are not celebrities. So many character actors have delivered iconic performances, including actors like Margo Martindale, James Hong, Denis O’Hare, Karl Malden, Keith David and Stephen Root, to name a few. However, Robards is probably one of the most celebrated character actors of all time. He was one of only 24 performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, a.k.a. a competitive Academy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award. He was also inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979.

Robards started on stage and radio in the late 1940s. He made his film debut in 1959’s The Journey. He would go on to win an Academy Award for All the President's Men in 1976. The following year, he won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Julia. He can also be seen in films like Once Upon a Time in the West, Magnolia, The Day After and Philadelphia. He also appeared in many plays and TV shows, including his final performance in 2000’s Going Home.

21. Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett did the thing if the “thing” is a four-decade-plus career as an actress. She studied acting at the Yale School of Drama before working in theater in NYC and moving to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to pursue acting. She made a splash in the early 1990s with films like Boyz n the Hood and Malcolm X.

Bassett went on to appear in What's Love Got to Do with It, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Akeelah and the Bee and Black Panther. She also worked in TV, including a current starring role and being an executive producer on 9-1-1. She has been nominated for two Oscars and given an Academy Honorary Award. She has also won two Golden Globe Awards, most recently for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

20. Michael Shannon

Michael Shannon isn’t entirely a household name, but most audiences have seen his work. Werner Herzog once called Shannon “the best actor of his generation.” Shannon has appeared in over 70 films, including 8 Mile, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Night Before, Elvis & Nixon, The Shape of Water, Nocturnal Animals, Knives Out and Bullet Train. A frequent collaborator of director Jeff Nichols, Shannon often shines in unlikeable roles.

While Shannon appeared in some plays in Chicago in the early 1990s, his first “filmed” role was in the 1993 music video for the song "House of Pain" by the rock band Every Mother's Nightmare. However, his film debut was later that year as a small part in Groundhog Day. He has since been nominated for two Oscars and won two SAG awards.

19. Morgan Freeman

Currently, at 86, Morgan Freeman is still acting. Freeman made his film debut (as an uncredited character) in Sidney Lumet’s The Pawn Broker in 1964. He made his stage debut the same year on the West End in Hello, Dolly! In the 1970s, he appeared on the children’s TV show The Electric Company.

However, most audiences will recognize him from his prolific film career, which picked up after his Oscar-nominated performance in 1987’s Street Smart. He then starred in Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Seven, Million Dollar Baby, The Dark Knight and Invictus. In 2018, eight women accused Freeman of inappropriate behavior on set; however, SAG decided not to take any action and let the actor keep his achievement award. Freeman has been nominated for four Oscars, winning one, as well as seven NAACP Image Awards and the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

18. Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the highest-paid actors working today. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before acting in films in the early 1990s. He broke through with 1993’s What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Since then, he has starred in movies like Romeo + Juliet, Titanic, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Killers of the Flower Moon.

A frequent collaborator of Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning one for 2015’s The Revenant. However, he is also the only actor on this list to win a Golden Raspberry Award and be nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for 2000’s The Beach. While his personal life has been criticized for publicly dating very young women in the 2000s, DiCaprio’s commitment to acting and ability to disappear into roles has cemented him as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

17. Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen is a lot more than just Gandalf or Magneto. The veteran actor got his start in theater in the 1960s. While he won his first of six Laurence Olivier Awards in 1977 and acted in many films, TV shows and theater productions since the mid-1960s, it wasn’t until the 1990s that he became celebrated in cinema.

He was nominated for his first BAFTA in 1996 for Richard III, and nominated for his first Oscar in 1999 for Gods and Monsters, becoming the first gay actor to be nominated for an LGBTQ role (Coleman Domingo would become the second in 2024.) McKellen publicly came out as gay in 1988 and has been a long-time advocate for LGBTQ rights. At 84, he is still working. McKellen is known for his roles in A Touch of Love, Plenty, Six Degrees of Separation, Restoration, Mr. Holmes and, of course, Lord of the Rings.

16. Frances McDormand

Frances McDormand has been acting since the 1980s but has garnered widespread critical acclaim more recently. Keaton Bell wrote for Vogue Magazine in 2021, "long considered one of our greatest living performers… McDormand makes you believe every person she plays is a flesh-and-blood human who continues living out their life once the cameras stop rolling."

Frances McDormand debuted in the film Blood Simple, her husband Joel Coen's first film, in 1984. Since then, she has appeared in films such as Fargo, Almost Famous, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Nomadland. She earned her first Oscar nomination for 1988’s Mississippi Burning. She went on to win four Oscars, three BAFTAs, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, four SAG Awards and a Tony. She still often appears in her husband's films and has been in nine Coen Brothers films.

15. Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin wore many hats during his over 60-year career. In the 1950s, he was a singer and guitarist for the band The Tarriers. In the 1960s, he performed sketch comedy at Chicago’s Second City. In the 1970s, he appeared on four episodes of Sesame Street and directed two comedy films, Little Murders and Fire Sale. He received his first Oscar nomination in 1967 for The Russians Are Coming and won his first Oscar 40 years later in 2007 for Little Miss Sunshine.

He is known for roles in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Argo, Wait Until Dark, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross and The Kominsky Method. From Tony-winning Broadway performances to voice acting on BoJack Horseman, Arkin appeared in over 110 projects. While he passed in 2023, his last movie, The Smack, is set to be released posthumously in 2024.

14. Ingrid Bergman

Roger Ebert said of Ingrid Bergman, “She doesn't simply gaze... she peers into the eyes, searching for meaning and clues, and when she is in a close two-shot with an actor, watch the way her own eyes reflect the most minute changes in his expression." Her expressiveness is one of the things that set her apart as an actor.

Bergman started in Swedish and German films in her native Sweden. She was introduced to American audiences in 1939’s Intermezzo. She went on to star in movies like For Whom the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, Anastasia, Casablanca and Notorious. She won many awards during her career, including three Oscars, two Emmys, a Tony Award and four Golden Globes.

13. Cate Blanchett

While Cate Blanchett’s first film role was as an unnamed cheerleader in the 1990 Egyptian boxing film Kaboria, she had already made a splash in Australia’s theater scene. She landed her first supporting film role in 1997’s WWII film Paradise Road. The following year, she gained notoriety and an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth in 1998’s Elizabeth.

Since then, she has appeared in films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Aviator, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Carol and Tár. Even in her less serious work, like Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnarok or Cinderella, Blanchett brings gravitas and realization to her characters. She has been nominated for eight Oscars, winning two, along with four BFTAs and four Golden Globes.

12. Humphrey Bogart

While Humphrey Bogart is usually remembered for his work in noirs and dramas like The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and Casablanca, he started his career on Broadway. He made the leap to film in 1928’s The Dancing Town, and later rose to prominence with his role in 1941’s High Sierra.

During his career, he was nominated for three Best Actor Academy Awards, winning one for his role in The African Queen. He is also remembered for his frequent collaborations with his fourth wife, Lauren Bacall. The two met on the set of 1944’s To Have and Have Not when Bacall was only 19 years old (Bogart was 44 at the time.) The two appeared in five films together before Bogart’s death in 1957 from esophageal cancer.

11. Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington got his big break in the medical drama St. Elsewhere in the early 1980s. However, he is mainly known for his work in films like Glory, Malcolm X, Philadelphia, Inside Man, American Gangster and The Tragedy of Macbeth.

He has won two Oscars, three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award), a SAG, and a Tony Award. In 2022, Washington was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Washington is also a favorite of director Spike Lee. He directed his first film, Antwone Fisher, in 2002 and has since taken on director and producer roles, including for the award-winning 2016 film Fences.

10. Cary Grant

Cary Grant is as notable for his drama performances as his comedic work. Grant started his career as a vaudeville performer and comedian in the early 1920s. In 1932, he made eight movies, including his film debut, This Is the Night. He went on to appear in over 40 films before retiring from acting in 1966.

Notably, Grant appeared in films like To Catch a Thief, Indiscreet, North by Northwest, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Charade, His Girl Friday, Arsenic and Old Lace and That Touch of Mink. Grant was a favorite of director Alfred Hitchcock and was often noted for treating his female costars with respect. His biographer, Graham McCann, said of Grant, “No other man seemed so classless and self-assured ... at ease with the romantic as the comic ... aged so well and with such fine style ... in short, played the part so well: Cary Grant made men seem like a good idea.”

9. Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro has been in many iconic films and also some really bad ones. He probably has the most varied track record of anyone on this list. However, even in movies like Dirty Grandpa or New Year’s Eve, there is something electric about De Niro. The actor is probably better remembered for his roles in Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Killers of the Flower Moon, Cape Fear and The Godfather Part II (but you have to admit, he is great in Meet the Fockers).

De Niro became a frequent collaborator of Martin Scorsese after being introduced to him by director Brian De Palma in the 1970s. In the mid-2000s, De Niro’s career took a dip; however, he experienced a resurgence in 2017 after playing Bernie Madoff in HBO’s The Wizard of Lies. The Kennedy Center honored him saying, “One of America's greatest cinematic actors, Robert De Niro has demonstrated a legendary commitment to his characters.” Notably, De Niro also co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival.

8. Katharine Hepburn

Katherine Hepburn started her over 60-year film career in 1932’s A Bill of Divorcement after starting in theater in the late 1920s. She holds the record for most Oscars won by a performer for her roles in Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond.

Other notable films starring Hepburn include The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen, Suddenly, Last Summer and Bringing Up Baby. Hepburn brought the same acting chops to screwball comedies and Shakespeare plays alike. However, she was shunned by many in Hollywood for her unconventional lifestyle, which included wearing pants and being outspoken.

7. Viola Davis

Viola Davis started her career in theater and TV in the late 1990s and early 2000s before her breakthrough film performance in 2008’s Doubt. Since then, she has starred in The Help, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Woman King and How to Get Away With Murder.

Davis has become known for her emotionally powerful acting performances. She has been nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one for 2016’s Fences. The win made Davis the first black actor to win the Triple Crown of Acting. She is also only the third performer to achieve both EGOT and Triple Crown of Acting, after Rita Moreno and Helen Hayes.

6. Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier kind of needs to be on this list. While he has a complicated legacy (especially when it comes to his use of blackface), the highest honor in British theater, the Laurence Olivier Award, is literally named after him. Aside from his accomplishments in theater, he was nominated for eleven Oscars, won one competitive Academy Award (and received two Academy Honorary Awards).

Olivier was a classically trained actor who disliked method acting. During filming Marathon Man, he told a method acting Dustin Hoffman, "Why don't you just try acting?” Olivier appeared in films such as Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Spartacus and The Boys from Brazil. He also directed himself in a trilogy of Shakespeare films: Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III. While many of his best performances came from the 1940s and 50s, he worked into the 1980s in theater, film and TV.

5. Anthony Hopkins

One of Britain’s most prolific actors, Sir Anthony Hopkins, started his career in theater in 1960. In 1965, Laurence Olivier chose Hopkins to act as his understudy at the Royal National Theatre in London. Hopkins filled in for Olivier when he had appendicitis in 1967 during a production of The Dance of Death. Hopkins would go on to win the Olivier Award for Pravda in 1985.

While he made film appearances in the early 1960s, his big break came with 1968’s The Lion in Winter. Hopkins went on to star in films like The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, Nixon, Amistad and The Two Popes. Hopkins became the oldest Oscar winner after he won for Best Actor for 2020’s The Father at age 83. Hopkins is still currently working as an actor at age 86.

4. Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier was more than an actor; he was a director, diplomat and one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s golden age. In his over 60-year career, he starred in films like Porgy and Bess, A Raisin in the Sun, To Sir, with Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night.

Poitier was the first black and first Bahamian actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for 1963’s Lilies of the Field. He also received two Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an honorary knighthood. Many have called Poitier the first African American movie star.

3. Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep is often credited as the “greatest actress of her generation.” While she started in New York’s theater scene, she quickly made the jump to film and made her film debut in 1977’s Julia. By 1980, she had already been nominated for two Oscars and won her first for Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer.

She would go on to win two more Oscars for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady and become the most nominated performer in Golden Globes history. While she is mainly known as a film actor, she has also played TV roles on shows like Only Murders in the Building and Big Little Lies. Streep has also flexed her singing and Broadway talents in movie musicals like Mamma Mia!, Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns.

2. Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando is remembered for many things, including his love affairs with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Rita Moreno, his rebellious attitude, controversial statements about the Jews, possible homosexuality, participation in the civil rights and Native rights movements and activism against apartheid. However, his contributions to acting may be his largest legacy.

Brandon is credited with being an early adopter of Stanislavski's system and in so doing popularizing method acting. He worked with Stella Adler in the 1940s and spent most of the ‘40s on Broadway before appearing in his first film, The Men, in 1950. His second film, 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire, earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He went on to win two Oscars for On the Waterfront and The Godfather. However, he refused his Oscar for The Godfather and had Sacheen Littlefeather use his allotted speech time to make a statement on Native mistreatment. While he was supposed to appear in Scary Movie 2, he had to leave the production due to illness, making his last released film, 2001’s The Score, before his death in 2004. Other notable Brando films include Mutiny on the Bounty, 1978’s Superman, Last Tango In Paris and Apocalypse Now.

1. Bette Davis

Bette Davis was an icon of classic Hollywood. In her 60-year career, she won the Oscar for Best Actress twice and was the first person to be nominated for 10 Academy Award nominations for acting. Davis is remembered for All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Now, Voyager, Jezebel, Mr. Skeffington and The Star. She was also the first woman to receive the AFI’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1977.

While Davis appeared in several films in the early 1930s, she made a splash in 1934’s Of Human Bondage. As early as 1936, reviewers like Graham Greene sang Davis’ praises. Greene wrote, “Even the most inconsiderable film... I would rather watch Miss Davis than any number of competent pictures.” Davis was famous for taking complex and unsympathetic roles and didn’t shy away from playing a villain. She worked up until her death. Davis collapsed during the American Cinema Awards in 1989 after her breast cancer returned and passed later that year.

Bottom Line

There are so many amazing actors: far too many to fit on one list. However, these are just some of the actors who have left a lasting mark on Hollywood and film history itself. From comedy to drama, these actors approach roles with excitement, dedication and mastery of their craft, making them the greatest actors and actresses of all time.