Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Grace Kelly just 3 of the AFI Top 50 Screen Legends
Sometime in 2011 we decided it would be fun to do a Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) movie page on the AFI Top 50 Screen Legends. The AFI list of the top 50 greatest screen legends in American film history, included 25 male and 25 female stars. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 15, 1999. The American Film Institute defined an “American screen legend” as an actor or a team of actors during the classic film era with a significant screen presence in American feature-length films whose screen debut occurred in or before 1950, or whose screen debut occurred after 1950 but whose death has marked a completed body of work.
When we started doing these pages 6 of the 50 Screen Legends were still alive. Sadly Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple and Lauren Bacall passed away before we could finish our quest. Kirk Douglas, Sidney Poitier and Sophia Loren are still alive and well. Douglas will be 100 later this year…and just last week we received an autograph from that screen legend…but that is another story. After spending the last 5 years looking at the AFI list…we can say we like the list…BUT….there is one massive injustice. How Olivia de Havilland did not make the list makes no sense to us….ok done ranting.
The first AFI screen legend we researched and wrote about was Clark Gable….the last AFI screen legend we did was Mary Pickford. Between the Gable and Pickford pages….5 years passed, we changed our website home 2 times, we took a statistical look at 2,267 movies and we saw our classic movie pages become the most popular on our website….easily kicking our current movie star pages to the curb. So we decided to put all 50 of our AFI Screen Legends on one page. Each link below will take you to that star’s UMR page….where you will find box office grosses, reviews and awards for every single movie that star made during their career. John Wayne and Robert Mitchum are tied with the most movies (83) while James Dean has the least (3 movies).
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to our movie pages on the Screen Legend
1. Humphrey Bogart 58 Movies Ranked….from Casablanca (1942) to Swing Your Lady (1938)
2. Cary Grant 58 Movies Ranked… from North by Northwest (1959) to Born To Be Bad (1934)
3. James Stewart 73 Movies Ranked Mr. Smith Goes to Washington(1939) to Big Sleep(1978)
4. Marlon Brando 37 Movies Ranked….from The Godfather (1972) to Christopher Columbus (1992)
5. Fred Astaire 39 Movies Ranked The Towering Inferno (1974) to The Amazing Dobermans (1976)
6. Henry Fonda 81 Movies Ranked… On Golden Pond (1981) to City on Fire (1979)
7. Clark Gable 63 Movies Ranked….from Gone With The Wind (1939) to Parnell (1937)
8. James Cagney 61 Movies Ranked….from Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) to Boy Meets Girl (1938)
9. Spencer Tracy 53 Movies Ranked….from Boy’s Town (1938) to Up the River (1930)
10. Charles Chaplin 12 Movies Ranked….from The Kid (1921) to A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
11. Gary Cooper 67 Movies Ranked….from Sergeant York (1941) to Fighting Caravans (1931)
12. Gregory Peck 53 Movies Ranked To Kill a Mockingbird(1962) to Amazing Grace & Chuck(1987)
13. John Wayne 83 Movies Ranked….from True Grit (1969) to Brannigan (1975)
14. Laurence Olivier 48 Movies Ranked….from Rebecca (1940) to Inchon (1982)
15. Gene Kelly 40 Movies Ranked….from Anchors Aweigh (1945) to Viva Knievel! (1977)
16. Orson Welles 75 Movies Ranked….from Citizen Kane (1941) to Treasure Island (1972)
17. Kirk Douglas 71 Movies Ranked….from Spartacus (1960) to Diamonds (1999)
18. James Dean 3 Movies Ranked….from East of Eden (1955) to Giant (1956)
19. Burt Lancaster 67 Movies Ranked From Here to Eternity (1953) to Executive Action (1973)
20. Marx Brothers 18 Movies Ranked….from Horse Feathers (1932) to The Story of Mankind (1957)
21. Buster Keaton 28 Movies Ranked….from The Cameraman (1928) to The Intruder (1936)
22. Sidney Poitier 46 Movies Ranked….from In the Heat of the Night (1967) to Fast Forward (1985)
23. Robert Mitchum 83 Movies Ranked….from The Longest Day (1962) to Matilda (1978)
24. Edward G. Robinson 67 Movies Ranked 10 Commandments(1956) to BiggestBundleofAll(1968)
25. William Holden 66 Movies Ranked….from The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) to Ashanti (1979)
America Film Institutes’ Top 25 Screen Legend Actress and UMR’s Links That Rank All Of Their Movies.
1. Katharine Hepburn 43 Movies Ranked..On Golden Pond (1981) to Grace Quigley (1985)
2. Bette Davis 79 Movies Ranked…from All About Eve (1950) to Wicked Stepmother (1989)
3. Audrey Hepburn 24 Movies Ranked…from My Fair Lady (1964) to The All Laughed (1981)
4. Ingrid Bergman 32 Movies Ranked..Gaslight(1944) to Files of Mrs. Basil E.Frankweiler(1973)
5. Greta Garbo 24 Movies Ranked.. from Ninotchka (1939) to Torrent (1928)
6. Marilyn Monroe 23 Movies Ranked…from Some Like It Hot (1959) to Ladies of the Chorus (1948)
7. Elizabeth Taylor 47 Movies Ranked..Who’s Afraid of Va.Woolf?(1966) to A Little Night Music(1977)
8. Judy Garland 31 Movies Ranked…from A Star Is Born (1954) to I Could Go On Singing (1963)
9. Marlene Dietrich 30 Movies Ranked…from Shanghai Express (1932) to Just A Gigolo (1978)
10. Joan Crawford 72 Movies Ranked…from Mildred Pierce (1945) to The Law of the Range (1928)
11. Barbara Stanwyck 72 Movies Ranked.. Double Indemnity (1944) to The Bride Walks Out (1936)
12. Claudette Colbert 48 Movies Ranked..It Happened One Night(1934) to Royal Affairs(1954)
13. Grace Kelly 11 Movies Ranked.. from The Country Girl (1954) to Green Fire (1954)
14. Ginger Rogers 54 Movies Ranked.. from Kitty Foyle (1940) to The Groom Wore Spurs (1951)
15. Mae West 12 Movies Ranked.. from She Done Him Wrong (1933) to Sextette (1978)
16. Vivien Leigh 15 Movies Ranked.. from Gone With The Wind (1939) to Dark Journey (1937)
17. Lillian Gish 31 Movies Ranked.. from Intolerance (1916) to Hambone and Hillie (1983)
18. Shirley Temple 37 Movies Ranked.. from Since You Went Away (1944) to Honeymoon (1947)
19. Rita Hayworth 35 Movies Ranked.. from Gilda (1946) to The Naked Zoo (1970)
20. Lauren Bacall 36 Movies Ranked.. from To Have and Have Not (1944) to Diamonds (1999)
21. Sophia Loren 29 Movies Ranked.. from El Cid (1961) to Firepower (1979)
22. Jean Harlow 22 Movies Ranked.. from The Public Enemy (1931) to Riffraff (1936)
23. Carole Lombard 39 Movies Ranked from My Man Godfrey (1936) to It Pays To Advertise(1931)
24. Mary Pickford 31 Movies Ranked.. from The Little Princess (1917) to Rosita (1923)
25. Ava Gardner 40 Movies Ranked.. from The Killers (1946) to City on Fire (1979)
The amount of hours that went into this quest is mind boggling….but now that it is over….gotta admit…damn glad we did it. Of course that brings out the question…What Now?
174 thoughts on “AFI Top 50 Screen Legends”
By all counts and measures, Cary Grant should have been number 1 and on top but the fact that he decided to end his career as an actor earlier than expected ( turning down many movie roles such as James Bond and so on) and dedicate his life to his newborn, Jennifer plays a big part in him being number 2 on this list!
How Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly can be ahead of Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers and others of that caliber is beyond me! Especially Stanwyck not being in the top 10.
Marilyn Monroe would be lucky to even be on the list but has no business at or near the top. Her body of work pales in comparison to the top actresses and her career, which was also relatively short, was on the wane at the time of her death. The main reason she is so remembered is that she died young, but to equate the importance of her place in cinema history with those of the true greats (Hepburn, Davis, Crawford, Garland, Bergman) is pure nonsense.
Hey George. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the AFI list and Marilyn Monroe. I agree her resume does not compare favorably to other actresses, but she is one of the most famous actresses of all-time. As far as I know, the AFI has never explained how they picked their 50. I do know Monroe is one of the few they picked that never got an Oscar nomination. Good stuff.
Apparently, the criteria for AFI’s Star Legends selection were as follows:
– Star Quality: An actor’s charisma and unique personal characteristics that create a strong on- and off-screen presence which is often embraced by audiences as a separate, mythic persona.
– Craft: An actor’s ability to embody distinctly different characters through the use of strong acting techniques and other creative methods.
– Legacy: An actor’s body of work that enriches American film heritage and continues to inspire artists and audiences today.
– Popularity: An actor’s public following over time.
– Historical Context: The role of world events, politics, and changing social mores in shaping, promoting or curtailing a legend’s status and career.
Hey Phil….I wrote a book called the Top 50 Movie Stars…Statistically Speaking….and Wayne got the 7th place overall…his lack of Oscar nominations hurt him compared to the few that topped him in the rankings. Good comment.
Hey Bob
1. The “rules” were only for my/UMR picks only.
2. There are no rules.
3. My list, which I put together over two years ago tried to put the actors in their correct eras. So in my lists, stars that became famous after 1950 did not make my list. So Brando, Monroe, A. Hepburn, Poitier, Loren and others legends would make my 1950-2010.
4. As for Joel, I value his 35 year old thoughts, are they 100% the accurate? No!
5. This website allows pretty much any opinion that is shared in the comment section…whether it is one that says ……your website is dumb….your website is great…..or in one case that we are racists.
6. Essentially, unless a comment is filled with profanity or X rated material….we are not going to censor it…..in this case, sorry John Wayne did not make the Top 25….I agree it makes no sense….but it is what Joel thinks. Wayne has a huge fan base (me included) but some think he was a one note actor who never improved over 5 decades of acting.
7. I value Joel’s opinion as well as yours, Steve’s, bob cox’s, Flora’s, Phil’s Dan’s and all the other commenters. The day I start deleting comments I disagree with,will probably be the last days of this website.
STEVE: Regardless of what anybody else says please carefully check out for YOURSELF, by reading in detail all of the material on the Cogerson pages concerned, what I am saying below and in the next post.
1 GENERAL CRITERIA OF THE COGERSON LISTS 1950-2010 All of the stars admitted to these lists must have become stars WITHIN that period regardless of actual debut debate and whilst there is room for argument about EXACTLY when someone became a star it is marginal and probably subjective.
2 25 MALE STARS SELECTED. It is stated that a male star who was included could not be on the AFI Legends list and Brando was highlighted by Bruce There are only 3 AFI stars whom that stipulation seems to have excluded from the Cogerson list
Brando – debut 1950
Poitier-debut 1947
Dean – debut 1951
3 25 FEMALE STARS SELECTED – It was stated that 4 of these COULD come from the AFI Lists. However it seems to me THEY were the ONLY ONES who were time qualified for the Cogerson lists anyway. In short whilst 3 males were apparently disadvantaged by Bruce’s AFI stipulation no female seemingly was. The 4 females concerned are-
Audrey Hepburn – debut 1948 – Cogerson No 2
Grace Kelly –debut 1951 – Cogerson No 7
Sophia Loren – debut 1950 – Cogerson No 16
Marilyn Monroe – debut 1947 – Cogerson No 9
PART TWO – THE RECENT LISTS/GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
1 The recently published Cogerson lists don’t involve Joel Hirschhorn for the females but do give his rather subjective opinions a say in the male list and Bruce will not recognise in his own UMR scores in these lists anyone who did not become stars before 1950 – again Brando was one of those Bruce highlighted for exclusion so Mr M seems to be one of the big common denominators of those that have apparently been disadvantaged by Bruce’s criteria..
2 So one effect of the combination of Bruce’s cut-off date and the involvement of Joel Hirschhorn in the male list is that in any comparisons of ranking totals John Wayne will be denied one credit and Marlon Brando two.
3 Without the criteria that the Cogerson lists have imposed now or before it would probably be difficult to deny The Duke and ole Mumbles full credit where they were otherwise entitled to such, the first being maybe the most popular star ever and the second being voted one of the greatest 100 people of the 20th century and both being AFI legends.
4 Accordingly it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that there is a possibility that the criteria was designed in all cases to give women a greater advantage than men and/or else there might have been a desire to exclude certain stars.
5 How for example can logic and consistency justify including in a list of the greatest stars between 1950 and 2010 Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren but excluding Brando arguably their greatest male counterpart of the 1950s whose career as a star lasted far long than theirs overall? And why impose Hirschhorn on the recent male Cogerson list but not on the female one, on top of allowing onto Cogerson lists 1950-2010 AFI females but not AFI males ALL of whom of both genders became massive stars within that stipulated? period?
STEVE
To get away from Joel, Bruce and AFI as well as ourselves I thought you might be interested in the 20 movie stars whom IMDB regard as “The greatest male legends who have ever lived” –
1/Marlon Brando – the guy Cogerson and Hirschhorn airbrushed out
2/James Dean – Ouch!
3/Humphrey Bogart- I can live with that.
4/Charlie Chaplin- no quarrel there but maybe should have be No 1.
5/John Wayne – does this guy really deserve to be so high up?
6/Jimmy Stewart – suits me
7/Clark Gable – OK but another candidate for certainly the Top 3
8/Kirk Douglas – I give up – you win! ***
9/Laurence Olivier – can his Lordship ever get enough accolades?
10/Gary Cooper – Yup! – gotta agree
11/Cagney – I’ll resist saying Made it Ma etc!
12/Spencer Tracy –would never have been high enough billing for him
13/Cary Grant – only because Mae West discovered him in 1st place.
14/Gregory Peck – if I still drank I’d break out the champagne.
15/Steve McQueen – he would be pleased to be above Newman
16/Paul Newman – Modest man probably content with Top 20 place
17/Errol Flynn – would be sorry only males in his company here
18/Randolph Scott – a very nostalgic entry from my viewpoint
19/Douglas Fairbanks Sr – only Phil and I had him on our Legends lists
20/Charlton Heston – There IS a God in Heaven! Realism at last.
*** NB: Lancaster was 27th and Laddie 28th with Eastwood 30th – list went up to jus 30
Bob, I like that list. No it’s got nothing to do with Heston’s inclusion I swear! 🙂
It is a good list. I would have added Burt Lancaster somewhere in the top 25 though, maybe get rid of Fairbanks Sr, no one would miss him. 😉
And replace Dean with Mitchum or Widmark.
Hi, Bruce.
Thanks for further details about how you put together your list of top stars. You do a lot of work and I do appreciate it. No offence intended by my not being familiar with Joel before you started quoting him. I was surprised that he was not on the chart for the actress list as well rather than one or the other..
Regarding the rules of the list inclusions, I will have to decide mine for any look at modern stars – should there be a discussion about Top 25 Actors or Actresses from the second half of the 20th Century.
By all counts and measures, Cary Grant should have been number 1 and on top but the fact that he decided to end his career as an actor earlier than expected ( turning down many movie roles such as James Bond and so on) and dedicate his life to his newborn, Jennifer plays a big part in him being number 2 on this list!
How Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly can be ahead of Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers and others of that caliber is beyond me! Especially Stanwyck not being in the top 10.
Marilyn Monroe would be lucky to even be on the list but has no business at or near the top. Her body of work pales in comparison to the top actresses and her career, which was also relatively short, was on the wane at the time of her death. The main reason she is so remembered is that she died young, but to equate the importance of her place in cinema history with those of the true greats (Hepburn, Davis, Crawford, Garland, Bergman) is pure nonsense.
Hey George. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the AFI list and Marilyn Monroe. I agree her resume does not compare favorably to other actresses, but she is one of the most famous actresses of all-time. As far as I know, the AFI has never explained how they picked their 50. I do know Monroe is one of the few they picked that never got an Oscar nomination. Good stuff.
Apparently, the criteria for AFI’s Star Legends selection were as follows:
– Star Quality: An actor’s charisma and unique personal characteristics that create a strong on- and off-screen presence which is often embraced by audiences as a separate, mythic persona.
– Craft: An actor’s ability to embody distinctly different characters through the use of strong acting techniques and other creative methods.
– Legacy: An actor’s body of work that enriches American film heritage and continues to inspire artists and audiences today.
– Popularity: An actor’s public following over time.
– Historical Context: The role of world events, politics, and changing social mores in shaping, promoting or curtailing a legend’s status and career.
Marilyn Monroe is the only one anybody remembers. The rest just faded into history but she is an icon that will live forever.
Hey Don…she was a legend for sure.
George – the ladies you mentioned as surpassing Marilyn Monroe was one short – Barbara Stanwyck!
John Wayne not number 1!!! What an insult!!!
Hey Phil….I wrote a book called the Top 50 Movie Stars…Statistically Speaking….and Wayne got the 7th place overall…his lack of Oscar nominations hurt him compared to the few that topped him in the rankings. Good comment.
Hey Bob
1. The “rules” were only for my/UMR picks only.
2. There are no rules.
3. My list, which I put together over two years ago tried to put the actors in their correct eras. So in my lists, stars that became famous after 1950 did not make my list. So Brando, Monroe, A. Hepburn, Poitier, Loren and others legends would make my 1950-2010.
4. As for Joel, I value his 35 year old thoughts, are they 100% the accurate? No!
5. This website allows pretty much any opinion that is shared in the comment section…whether it is one that says ……your website is dumb….your website is great…..or in one case that we are racists.
6. Essentially, unless a comment is filled with profanity or X rated material….we are not going to censor it…..in this case, sorry John Wayne did not make the Top 25….I agree it makes no sense….but it is what Joel thinks. Wayne has a huge fan base (me included) but some think he was a one note actor who never improved over 5 decades of acting.
7. I value Joel’s opinion as well as yours, Steve’s, bob cox’s, Flora’s, Phil’s Dan’s and all the other commenters. The day I start deleting comments I disagree with,will probably be the last days of this website.
STEVE: Regardless of what anybody else says please carefully check out for YOURSELF, by reading in detail all of the material on the Cogerson pages concerned, what I am saying below and in the next post.
1 GENERAL CRITERIA OF THE COGERSON LISTS 1950-2010 All of the stars admitted to these lists must have become stars WITHIN that period regardless of actual debut debate and whilst there is room for argument about EXACTLY when someone became a star it is marginal and probably subjective.
2 25 MALE STARS SELECTED. It is stated that a male star who was included could not be on the AFI Legends list and Brando was highlighted by Bruce There are only 3 AFI stars whom that stipulation seems to have excluded from the Cogerson list
Brando – debut 1950
Poitier-debut 1947
Dean – debut 1951
3 25 FEMALE STARS SELECTED – It was stated that 4 of these COULD come from the AFI Lists. However it seems to me THEY were the ONLY ONES who were time qualified for the Cogerson lists anyway. In short whilst 3 males were apparently disadvantaged by Bruce’s AFI stipulation no female seemingly was. The 4 females concerned are-
Audrey Hepburn – debut 1948 – Cogerson No 2
Grace Kelly –debut 1951 – Cogerson No 7
Sophia Loren – debut 1950 – Cogerson No 16
Marilyn Monroe – debut 1947 – Cogerson No 9
PART TWO – THE RECENT LISTS/GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
1 The recently published Cogerson lists don’t involve Joel Hirschhorn for the females but do give his rather subjective opinions a say in the male list and Bruce will not recognise in his own UMR scores in these lists anyone who did not become stars before 1950 – again Brando was one of those Bruce highlighted for exclusion so Mr M seems to be one of the big common denominators of those that have apparently been disadvantaged by Bruce’s criteria..
2 So one effect of the combination of Bruce’s cut-off date and the involvement of Joel Hirschhorn in the male list is that in any comparisons of ranking totals John Wayne will be denied one credit and Marlon Brando two.
3 Without the criteria that the Cogerson lists have imposed now or before it would probably be difficult to deny The Duke and ole Mumbles full credit where they were otherwise entitled to such, the first being maybe the most popular star ever and the second being voted one of the greatest 100 people of the 20th century and both being AFI legends.
4 Accordingly it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that there is a possibility that the criteria was designed in all cases to give women a greater advantage than men and/or else there might have been a desire to exclude certain stars.
5 How for example can logic and consistency justify including in a list of the greatest stars between 1950 and 2010 Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren but excluding Brando arguably their greatest male counterpart of the 1950s whose career as a star lasted far long than theirs overall? And why impose Hirschhorn on the recent male Cogerson list but not on the female one, on top of allowing onto Cogerson lists 1950-2010 AFI females but not AFI males ALL of whom of both genders became massive stars within that stipulated? period?
STEVE
To get away from Joel, Bruce and AFI as well as ourselves I thought you might be interested in the 20 movie stars whom IMDB regard as “The greatest male legends who have ever lived” –
1/Marlon Brando – the guy Cogerson and Hirschhorn airbrushed out
2/James Dean – Ouch!
3/Humphrey Bogart- I can live with that.
4/Charlie Chaplin- no quarrel there but maybe should have be No 1.
5/John Wayne – does this guy really deserve to be so high up?
6/Jimmy Stewart – suits me
7/Clark Gable – OK but another candidate for certainly the Top 3
8/Kirk Douglas – I give up – you win! ***
9/Laurence Olivier – can his Lordship ever get enough accolades?
10/Gary Cooper – Yup! – gotta agree
11/Cagney – I’ll resist saying Made it Ma etc!
12/Spencer Tracy –would never have been high enough billing for him
13/Cary Grant – only because Mae West discovered him in 1st place.
14/Gregory Peck – if I still drank I’d break out the champagne.
15/Steve McQueen – he would be pleased to be above Newman
16/Paul Newman – Modest man probably content with Top 20 place
17/Errol Flynn – would be sorry only males in his company here
18/Randolph Scott – a very nostalgic entry from my viewpoint
19/Douglas Fairbanks Sr – only Phil and I had him on our Legends lists
20/Charlton Heston – There IS a God in Heaven! Realism at last.
*** NB: Lancaster was 27th and Laddie 28th with Eastwood 30th – list went up to jus 30
Bob, I like that list. No it’s got nothing to do with Heston’s inclusion I swear! 🙂
It is a good list. I would have added Burt Lancaster somewhere in the top 25 though, maybe get rid of Fairbanks Sr, no one would miss him. 😉
And replace Dean with Mitchum or Widmark.
Hi, Bruce.
Thanks for further details about how you put together your list of top stars. You do a lot of work and I do appreciate it. No offence intended by my not being familiar with Joel before you started quoting him. I was surprised that he was not on the chart for the actress list as well rather than one or the other..
Regarding the rules of the list inclusions, I will have to decide mine for any look at modern stars – should there be a discussion about Top 25 Actors or Actresses from the second half of the 20th Century.
John Wayne not number 1!!! What an insult!!!
Hey Phil….he is one of my all-time favorites. Thanks for stopping by.