This page of Top 100 Movie Stars comes from two lists. The first list is the American Film Institute’s Top 50 Classic Stars. The second list is our list of the Top 50 Current Stars. Current at least compared to the AFI list. There are 50 Actors and 50 Actresses Listed Here. Yes some great performers were left off…but overall we feel this is an outstanding Top 100.
- AFI’s Top 50 Stars – stars before 1950
- UMR’s Top 25 Actors – actors who became stars after 1950
- UMR’s Top 25 Actresses – actresses who became stars after 1950
Top 100 Movie Stars by Category
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by the number of their movies in our database
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by career adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by career average critics and audience rating…all their movies combined
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by how many career Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins their combined movies earned
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by their career average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- The actor link takes you to our UMR page on that performer
Our Top 100 Stars Are Ranked By Using All The Stats In The Table – James Stewart is our “Best of the Best” while Sophia Loren is the “Worst of the Best”.
| Rank | Top 100 Star | Overall Rank | Movies | Total Adjusted Domestic Box Office | AVG Review % | Oscar Noms / Wins | AVG UMR Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Stewart | 1st | 76 | $10,571,600,000 | 70.3 % | 081 / 014 | 79.10 | |
| Cary Grant | 2nd | 65 | $9,373,000,000 | 72.6 % | 071 / 009 | 79.90 | |
| Gary Cooper | 3rd | 73 | $10,767,500,000 | 67.7 % | 101 / 018 | 79.50 | |
| Spencer Tracy | 4th | 62 | $9,606,156,000 | 68.4 % | 090 / 017 | 77.70 | |
| Tom Hanks | 5th | 50 | $8,355,000,000 | 68.8 % | 090 / 020 | 73.10 | |
| Gregory Peck | 6th | 53 | $7,875,800,000 | 67.2 % | 095 / 022 | 73.90 | |
| Humphrey Bogart | 7th | 70 | $8,624,000,000 | 69.8 % | 052 / 010 | 76.70 | |
| Fred Astaire | 8th | 39 | $5,850,000,000 | 69.7 % | 059 / 007 | 81.50 | |
| Clark Gable | 9th | 64 | $11,475,200,000 | 67.5 % | 047 / 017 | 82.70 | |
| Marlon Brando | 10th | 38 | $5,874,800,000 | 69.1 % | 092 / 023 | 72.60 | |
| Burt Lancaster | 11th | 69 | $7,010,400,000 | 69.5 % | 088 / 020 | 70.10 | |
| Harrison Ford | 12th | 52 | $11,996,400,000 | 67.0 % | 088 / 022 | 68.90 | |
| Judy Garland | 13th | 31 | $5,784,600,000 | 72.5 % | 039 / 006 | 87.60 | |
| Paul Newman | 14th | 60 | $7,512,000,000 | 66.7 % | 102 / 022 | 67.40 | |
| John Wayne | 15th | 94 | $12,154,200,000 | 64.5 % | 077 / 014 | 73.80 | |
| Olivia de Havilland | 16th | 48 | $7,483,200,000 | 65.4 % | 081 / 025 | 74.50 | |
| Ingrid Bergman | 17th | 32 | $4,899,200,000 | 72.3 % | 066 / 013 | 74.00 | |
| Clint Eastwood | 18th | 65 | $7,065,500,000 | 69.5 % | 049 / 013 | 74.30 | |
| Jack Nicholson | 19th | 51 | $5,599,800,000 | 69.9 % | 097 / 022 | 66.30 | |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | 20th | 26 | $3,842,800,000 | 71.1 % | 095 / 031 | 73.30 | |
| Tom Cruise | 21st | 42 | $7,047,600,000 | 66.7 % | 055 / 009 | 78.40 | |
| Robert Redford | 22nd | 47 | $7,256,800,000 | 67.6 % | 070 / 027 | 70.00 | |
| Daniel Day-Lewis | 23rd | 17 | $1,052,300,000 | 80.2 % | 082 / 021 | 78.10 | |
| Meryl Streep | 24th | 59 | $4,489,900,000 | 69.5 % | 119 / 028 | 67.30 | |
| Katharine Hepburn | 25th | 43 | $5,314,800,000 | 69.0 % | 063 / 014 | 71.30 | |
| Cate Blanchett | 26th | 47 | $4,577,800,000 | 69.9 % | 094 / 029 | 61.80 | |
| Dustin Hoffman | 27th | 55 | $7,067,500,000 | 66.5 % | 088 / 023 | 63.70 | |
| William Holden | 28th | 66 | $7,510,800,000 | 64.6 % | 088 / 028 | 66.60 | |
| Jack Lemmon | 29th | 53 | $5,225,800,000 | 67.9 % | 073 / 015 | 69.70 | |
| Brad Pitt | 30th | 45 | $4,315,500,000 | 68.3 % | 076 / 013 | 71.70 | |
| James Cagney | 31st | 61 | $6,801,500,000 | 66.8 % | 046 / 008 | 75.30 | |
| Myrna Loy | 32nd | 74 | $9,057,600,000 | 65.3 % | 041 / 013 | 73.40 | |
| Marlene Dietrich | 33rd | 32 | $3,952,000,000 | 70.1 % | 043 / 008 | 77.00 | |
| Gene Hackman | 34th | 76 | $7,083,200,000 | 65.7 % | 092 / 017 | 57.50 | |
| Deborah Kerr | 35th | 39 | $4,543,500,000 | 67.0 % | 071 / 022 | 71.10 | |
| Irene Dunne | 36th | 31 | $4,067,200,000 | 67.9 % | 042 / 007 | 79.40 | |
| Vivien Leigh | 37th | 15 | $3,196,500,000 | 71.6 % | 041 / 015 | 78.00 | |
| Claudette Colbert | 38th | 48 | $6,273,600,000 | 66.4 % | 041 / 008 | 74.60 | |
| Bette Davis | 39th | 79 | $6,351,600,000 | 65.2 % | 084 / 014 | 65.00 | |
| Henry Fonda | 40th | 83 | $8,690,100,000 | 64.2 % | 058 / 013 | 66.60 | |
| Grace Kelly | 41st | 11 | $2,338,600,000 | 77.2 % | 028 / 008 | 89.50 | |
| Audrey Hepburn | 42nd | 25 | $2,862,500,000 | 71.9 % | 058 / 015 | 69.50 | |
| Shirley Temple | 43rd | 37 | $5,072,700,000 | 67.6 % | 013 / 002 | 80.00 | |
| Charles Chaplin | 44th | 13 | $2,860,000,000 | 81.9 % | 007 / 001 | 83.00 | |
| James Dean | 45th | 3 | $930,300,000 | 85.5 % | 017 / 002 | 98.70 | |
| Edward G. Robinson | 46th | 72 | $7,365,600,000 | 66.6 % | 033 / 002 | 68.70 | |
| Gene Kelly | 47th | 40 | $5,140,000,000 | 64.8 % | 052 / 013 | 72.30 | |
| Ginger Rogers | 48th | 55 | $6,644,000,000 | 64.7 % | 039 / 003 | 72.30 | |
| Marilyn Monroe | 49th | 25 | $3,217,500,000 | 70.8 % | 030 / 007 | 73.40 | |
| Greta Garbo | 50th | 24 | $2,217,600,000 | 71.9 % | 014 / 001 | 80.00 | |
| Laurence Olivier | 51st | 49 | $3,856,300,000 | 67.2 % | 073 / 017 | 64.50 | |
| Doris Day | 52nd | 39 | $4,945,200,000 | 65.2 % | 029 / 004 | 78.20 | |
| Steve McQueen | 53rd | 26 | $3,400,800,000 | 69.7 % | 030 / 005 | 71.80 | |
| Robert DeNiro | 54th | 95 | $5,937,500,000 | 62.2 % | 099 / 019 | 51.50 | |
| Denzel Washington | 55th | 47 | $3,886,900,000 | 68.2 % | 035 / 007 | 71.10 | |
| Jean Harlow | 56th | 22 | $2,844,600,000 | 69.7 % | 004 / 000 | 80.20 | |
| Barbara Stanwyck | 57th | 81 | $7,484,400,000 | 64.8 % | 029 / 001 | 67.40 | |
| Elizabeth Taylor | 58th | 48 | $6,840,000,000 | 58.4 % | 076 / 023 | 61.20 | |
| Al Pacino | 59th | 46 | $4,117,000,000 | 65.6 % | 078 / 016 | 59.70 | |
| Morgan Freeman | 60th | 70 | $7,028,000,000 | 62.3 % | 061 / 018 | 58.00 | |
| Mary Pickford | 61st | 33 | $4,596,900,000 | 65.8 % | 001 / 001 | 79.70 | |
| Julie Andrews | 62nd | 28 | $5,862,920,000 | 64.7 % | 064 / 012 | 69.18 | |
| Barbra Streisand | 63rd | 19 | $4,005,200,000 | 59.1 % | 044 / 008 | 78.00 | |
| Michael Caine | 64th | 100 | $6,500,000,000 | 62.3 % | 072 / 013 | 48.80 | |
| Kirk Douglas | 65th | 71 | $5,580,600,000 | 64.1 % | 048 / 015 | 59.70 | |
| Lillian Gish | 66th | 31 | $3,865,700,000 | 68.6 % | 006 / 001 | 69.60 | |
| Robert Mitchum | 67th | 85 | $7,335,500,000 | 62.1 % | 037 / 006 | 58.50 | |
| Mel Gibson | 68th | 44 | $5,253,600,000 | 63.8 % | 038 / 011 | 66.20 | |
| Julie Christie | 69th | 34 | $3,002,200,000 | 67.8 % | 054 / 012 | 58.20 | |
| Natalie Wood | 70th | 44 | $4,822,400,000 | 61.7 % | 051 / 015 | 66.00 | |
| Shirley MacLaine | 71st | 51 | $4,411,500,000 | 61.1 % | 075 / 017 | 57.60 | |
| Sidney Poitier | 72nd | 46 | $4,140,000,000 | 63.6 % | 054 / 012 | 62.40 | |
| Diane Keaton | 73rd | 48 | $4,387,200,000 | 63.6 % | 067 / 017 | 54.80 | |
| Robin Williams | 74th | 66 | $6,923,400,000 | 57.1% | 056 / 010 | 54.59 | |
| Anne Bancroft | 75th | 50 | $3,495.000000 | 63.9% | 044 / 003 | 55.50 | |
| Sean Connery | 76th | 57 | $6,857,100,000 | 62.8 % | 034 / 007 | 57.00 | |
| Sally Field | 77th | 33 | $4,669,500,000 | 61.0 % | 046 / 013 | 63.30 | |
| Jane Fonda | 78th | 45 | $3,978,000,000 | 62.2 % | 063 / 013 | 58.80 | |
| Rita Hayworth | 79th | 35 | $3,790,500,000 | 64.0 % | 035 / 005 | 69.20 | |
| Lauren Bacall | 80th | 36 | $3,272,400,000 | 68.0 % | 018 / 005 | 62.60 | |
| Richard Burton | 81st | 47 | $4,032,600,000 | 61.0 % | 073 / 018 | 53.80 | |
| Joan Crawford | 82nd | 78 | $6,762,600,000 | 58.8 % | 032 / 003 | 60.50 | |
| Peter O'Toole | 83rd | 37 | $2,834,200,000 | 66.0 % | 054 / 021 | 57.30 | |
| Will Smith | 84th | 32 | $5,574,400,000 | 58.4 % | 012 / 003 | 69.50 | |
| Marx Brothers | 85th | 18 | $1,704,600,000 | 68.0 % | 001 / 000 | 67.70 | |
| Kate Winslet | 86th | 36 | $2,354,400,000 | 66.0 % | 054 / 016 | 52.10 | |
| Ava Gardner | 87th | 42 | $4,569,600,000 | 60.3 % | 030 / 003 | 61.70 | |
| Buster Keaton | 88th | 29 | $664,888,000 | 66.6% | 003 / 002 | 64.60 | |
| Orson Welles | 89th | 56 | $3,382,400,000 | 66.0 % | 034 / 009 | 50.50 | |
| Jodie Foster | 90th | 40 | $2,568,000,000 | 66.7 % | 027 / 007 | 59.00 | |
| Carole Lombard | 91st | 39 | $3,279,900,000 | 63.4 % | 008 / 000 | 68.30 | |
| Julia Roberts | 92nd | 46 | $4,926,600,000 | 58.1 % | 022 / 001 | 60.50 | |
| Faye Dunaway | 93rd | 43 | $3,186,300,000 | 60.3 % | 049 / 011 | 44.90 | |
| Susan Sarandon | 94th | 76 | $3,724,000,000 | 62.1 % | 034 / 002 | 47.00 | |
| Sandra Bullock | 95th | 37 | $3,977,500,000 | 54.2 % | 025 / 014 | 54.80 | |
| Mae West | 96th | 12 | $1,515,600,000 | 60.4 % | 002 / 000 | 67.60 | |
| Charlize Theron | 97th | 44 | $2,455,200,000 | 59.8 % | 029 / 010 | 48.30 | |
| Goldie Hawn | 98th | 30 | $2,649,000,000 | 57.1 % | 016 / 004 | 57.80 | |
| Angelina Jolie | 99th | 35 | $3,178,000,000 | 56.2 % | 016 / 001 | 53.10 | |
| Sophia Loren | 100th | 35 | $2,261,000,000 | 58.4 % | 018 / 001 | 51.20 |
So what do you think of our rankings? Look good? Think we are crazy? Left somebody out? Look forward to some feedback.
Want more stats? The following link takes you to a page that ranks over 500 Movie Stars…..because more people were involved in the database…the rankings are different. Ranking 564 Movie Stars.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Bob & Cogerson
The list of the top stars from Old Hollywood is interesting and not surprising. Why would anyone expect them not to be top-billed? They had been stars for decades and when being a movie star really meant the most. Seriously, why would any younger performer claim top billing over these performers? On any basis they had paid their dues. Box office. Prestige. Longevity. Great and memorable roles and movies. In fact I think the young leading ladies probably jumped at the opportunity to act opposite these legends.
Note that most of their leading ladies are young enough to be the daughters of these stars.
I didn’t look them all up, but I did check Gable, and he was old enough to be the father of all his leading ladies after co-starring with Barbara Stanwyck in 1950. (that is a factoid for Cogerson)
So I don’t dispute that these men had earned top billing because of their status as great and enduring movie stars.
What about the actresses who received top billing over these stars back before WWII. Crawford. Dunne. Whom you mentioned. Also, Shearer. Davies. Well, what stands out to me is that all of them were senior to these men when they received their top billing. Shearer, Davies, and Crawford went back to the silent days. Dunne had an academy award nomination as early as 1931.
But Dunne seems an old choice to make a top billing point as she was billed under Tracy in A Guy Named Joe and under William Powell in Life with Father. Tracy had won two academy awards. Powell had been a star longer.
Shearer was billed not only over Gable, but over Crawford. So she is the biggest star of them all?
Or is it Davies, who seems to have been billed over everyone right up to when her career collapsed?
You rebutted the seniority argument by pointing to Vivien Leigh being billed over Robert Taylor in Waterloo Bridge. But I think that is more an exception than the rule. Leigh was coming off carrying a four hour movie which was the biggest hit ever, and in which her role had been the most sought after ever, and she had just won the academy award. Plus MGM really wanted her as part of their star roster (they claimed her in a short I have seen). No surprise to me that she got top billing. Also, Robert Taylor was always a good company man, not likely to make a stink over billing.
As for Crawford, she clearly lasted longer than her silent female contemporaries and received top billing in movies which were built around her, but which after the forties were mainly programmers. Hepburn, by accepting reduced billing, did much better in getting into prestige productions.
John
1 Some good thinking as always but for brevity I listed only the FINAL films of the mega stars concerned and if you check matters out you will see that their long runs of top billing began when they were in their late thirties/early forties and often over stars of the same age or even older than themselves.
2 Seniority billing is I feel a fanciful notion as a look at the history of the following stars for openers will demonstrate Elizabeth Taylor/Montgomery Clift,Eddie Murphy/ Nick Nolte Harrison Ford/Mark Hamill Veronica Lake/Alan Ladd, Van Johnson/Esther Williams and many more. In all cases the one who was top billed in the first instance was leapfrogged in the billing when the star status changed.
3 However I spoke to a couple of people who were not movie buffs but simply generally in my view broadly sensible and asked them if they thought there was a corollary between an entertainer,s status and his/her billing and they simply laughed at me and said of course there was. I am genuinely puzzled as to why you seem to keep inventing all kinds of scenarios to keep yourself in denial about something that is common sense to most people. However I am resigned to the fact that “Although you can bring a horse to water you cannot get it to drink.”
Anyway thanks for your interest and I hope you are enjoying the New Year
Clark Gable Wallace Beery in China Seas 1935: Gable billed first but 16 years younger than Beery who had long been a leading MGM star
Clark Gable and William Powell in Manhattan Melodrama 1942:
Gable billed first but 9 years younger than Powell
Cary Grant and Ronald Colman in Talk of the Town 1942
Grant billed first but 13 years younger than Colman
Alan Ladd and Edward G Robinson in Hell on Frisco Bay 1955; Ladd billed first but 20 years younger than Robinson whose career as a top star was 12 years longer than Ladd’s at this point
Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford in Teahouse of the August Moon 1956: Brando billed first but 8 years younger than Ford who had been in films in starring roles 11 years longer than Brando at this point
In short age and seniority had nothing to do with claims for top billing. The great stars had been getting top billing since they were relatively young and the reasons for the males appearing with younger stars as they got older were largely twofold: Hollywood’s general practice of marginalising women as they aged and pairing off older males with young girls on screen and the fact that the likes of Cooper was not going to co-star with one of his great male contemporaries such as Grant, Gable, Tracy or Bogie because neither Cooper nor any one of them was ever going to accept 2nd billing and they had the power to resist making films with one and other. They all had had that power since their late thirties/early forties.
Great information!
Bob & Cogerson
No matter, I still don’t buy that just because one gets top billing, one is automatically the bigger star, even at the time. Do you consider that Marion Davies was a bigger star than Clark Gable in 1936? I don’t think that is realistic. Hollywood politics need not equal public perception.
There is a second issue. That is are we talking about some point in time, or over an entire career? The two are different. It is like rank in the army. Colonel Jones would have outranked Major Eisenhower in the 1930’s, but after WWII Major General Jones just had to salute and say “Yes, sir” to General of the Army Eisenhower.
Alan Ladd is interesting. Steve in his Ladd video has an original poster which has Veronica Lake & Robert Preston billed above the title in This Gun for Hire with Ladd given only featured billing. In a later poster, Ladd gets top billing even ahead of Lake. Why? Public reaction. But once that reaction set in, within a few weeks, Ladd was a bigger star than Preston regardless of billing. When they worked together a few years later, Ladd was top-billed. But this only reflected that from the instant that This Gun for Hire hit the screens, he was the real star of the two.
On the other hand, Brian Donlevy is actually the top billed star over both Ladd and Lake in The Glass Key. Would Paramount execs have let Ladd go to keep Donlevy? Not on your life. But Donlevy was the senior star and got top billing.
Williams-Johnson, Taylor-Clift, and Ladd-Lake started their careers about the same time. Did the person who dropped in billing lose status? Or did the other gain status? Note it isn’t a zero-sum situation. In The Secret Six Wallace Beery was billed over Gable and Harlow. In China Seas he was billed under them. Did he lose status during those four years? I don’t think so. The others simply gained more status than he did.
Still I don’t really disagree that billing matters a great deal. I just think you take what is usually true to be always true and thus distort things.
Bob
Beery as I mentioned is interesting. I don’t think he had lost status. He remained an MGM star to his death. It is just that Gable had gained so much status that he had moved past Beery.
Army rankings are a good analogy. If A is a colonel and B is a major, and after a few battles A is a three-star general and B is a four-star general, has A lost status? No. He only hasn’t reached the status B has now reached.
Except for perhaps Ladd & Robinson, all your examples are of stars who reached a higher status than the second star ever did. Gable to Powell or Beery. Grant to Colman. Brando to Ford. My guess is if you asked the casual fan, or the well-informed fan, who was the bigger star they would name Gable and Grant and Brando over the others.
It is far different to claim Davies as bigger than Gable in 1936.
Anyway, happy new year and it is fun exchanging viewpoints with you.
Funny that you guys are bringing up Wallace Beery…..he is our next UMR subject….actually in the process of writing the page….which is actually the least amount of time spent on a new page….the research takes the time…knocking out the writing is pretty quick…hoping to have it done by my dinner time.
FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT SENIORITY BILLING CANNOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AS A MODUS OPERANDI
1935 Katherine Hepburn & Cary Grant in SYLVIA SCARLET
1938 Katherine Hepburn & Cary Grant in BRINGING UP BABY
1938 Katherine Hepburn & Cary Grant in HOLIDAY
1940 Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn/James Stewart in PHILIDELPHIA STORY
Cary stipulated he would do this film only if he got billed before Katie & Jimmy
1935 Myrna Loy & Cary Grant in WINGS IN THE DARK
1947 Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple BACHELOR KNIGHT
1948 Cary Grant & Myrna Loy MR BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE
1931 Richard Dix & Irene Dunne in CIMARRON
1934 Irene Dunne & Richard Dix in STINGAREE
NOTE: I singled out Irene Dunne in a previous post because she had one of the best top billing records among women of the classic era in that she made 38 films between 1932 and 1952 and was billed second only once. Of course Joan Crawford who between 1939 and 1959 starred in 25 films in which she always got top billing and in the 30 years from 1929 until 1959 got top billing in all but 2 out of 54 movies. Astonishing! Paul Muni was NEVER billed other than first in the 22 movies he made in his entire career from 1929-1959
Bob & Cogerson
I am responding to the Katherine Hepburn-Cary Grant post.
This one really undercuts the whole billing argument. Katherine Hepburn (with the help apparently of Howard Hughes) had purchased the movie rights to the play The Philadelphia Story. If any actress ever had the whip hand in demanding top billing in any situation, it was Hepburn in this one. Nor was Cary Grant the obvious top-billed star. As you point out, he had been billed under Hepburn three times, twice only two years earlier, in movies that did so poorly at the box office that Hepburn got labeled box-office poison, but which Grant obviously didn’t have the pull to save.
So how did Grant get top billing? Hepburn yielded it. She could have demanded top billing and gotten it, but with someone like Robert Young playing her ex-husband. She opted for Grant and second billing. I have to say a great move as the movie is an all-time classic now on the National Film Registry. It is worth pondering what its rep would be with a co-star like Robert Young (not to knock him, but he was not Cary Grant). Hepburn put making the best possible movie for her comeback vehicle over a personal ego trip.
Nor was this unique for Hepburn. In the early to mid-thirties she certainly would have been billed over Bogart, and possibly also over Tracy. She made no fuss about yielding top billing to them in later years. The result–Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, and The African Queen on her resume.
As for Paul Muni always being top-billed. Was he also the top box-office star? Seems to me he proves the importance of prestige, another factor in billing.
Hey John …..good points through out this comment.
1 The boy in the grey flannel suit is bouncing about all over the place once again. A few weeks ago we were told of an accepted custom whereby seniority determined billing and when I pointed out that Vivien Leigh hadn’t observed that custom in co-starring with Robert Taylor I was assured that this was a rare exception. OK then why did Cary Grant not say to Katie H “Miss Hepburn you were a star before I was and in our previous 3 films you got billed above me so you will be aware of our Hollywood custom of seniority billing which means that you are entitled to first billing.”
2 Of course in the real world Cary said nothing of the sort and in fact demanded top billing and although that apparently annoyed Katie she gave way because not only did she not have the whip hand but she had in fact a very weak hand. The rights to Philadelphia Story had been bought to help her recover from a series of flops and the label”box office poison” which had caused her departure from RKO and she badly needed Philly to succeed to restore her fortunes. Cary on the other hand had just the year before been In Only Angels with Wing which had been the 3rd highest grossing film of 1939 and In Name Only with Cary and Carole Lombard had also been profitable that year, so Cary had broken through as a major star in his own right and was on the crest of a commercial wave whereas Katie had not had a hit since 1937 and as usual the bigger star at that time got top billing. So rather than standing my billing arguments on their head the matter does I feel reinforce my contentions about the corollary between box office, status and billing
Cogerson & Bob
I see this billing debate goes on. Crawford and Gable seems to me a bit distorting. Why not use Marion Davies. She was billed over Gable in Cain and Mabel in 1936. This proves she was at that point (or in retrospect) the bigger star? I think that is nonsense. Clearly a lot of factors went into billing. Seniority. Prestige-especially winning academy awards. Hollywood politics.
My take is that Davies got top billing over Gable because of Hollywood politics and the influence of Hearst and the Hearst press. He was by far the hotter star in 1936 and by far the more iconic over his whole career. Why did he accept second billing? It is true he might not have had any choice. It is also true it would have been foolish of him to anger Hearst. And Gable and Davies were friends.
Why should we in 2017 take the billing of Davies over Gable as definitive in proving who was the bigger star in 1936?
Crawford seems to have hit a bad patch in the late thirties and early forties. Had she not made her comeback at Warners she would in my judgment be on about the same level, (but perhaps a bit lower) than Shearer or Janet Gaynor. Her comeback elevated her to a higher plane and sustained her career through the fifties and into the sixties. Longevity is in retrospect her strongest asset in getting onto lists like the AFI top 25.
I don’t agree with Bob on “star psychology”–it is throwing everyone into the same basket. Yes, there are examples of Norma Desmond style “I am the biggest star of them all” with puerile demands for top billing at all costs. But many didn’t care that much. Fonda. Hepburn. Mitchum. March. Is Steve McQueen bigger than Burt Lancaster because he obsessed over billing and Burt didn’t. Not to me.
The flaw in obsessing on billing. In 1967 Dean Martin was billed under George Peppard in Rough Night in Jericho. In 1967 Robert Mitchum was billed under Dean Martin in Five Card Stud. So George Peppard was a bigger star than Robert Mitchum? Well, Peppard had his moments in the sixties, but no way can I see him as being in Mitchum’s class.
There is an MGM promo from the 1940’s on you tube, with clips of the MGM stars. The narrator remarks that the studios can’t make stars. The press can’t make stars. Executives can’t make stars. Only the public makes stars. I think the narrator made a good point.
HI JOHN
1 Some excellent points and a display of fine knowledge from you as always. Of course where human interaction is concerned nothing ever runs along a flat line and there will always be anomalies and exceptions in relation to any larger pattern. For example Barbra Streisand a far bigger star than Gene Hackman was obliged to take second billing to him in All Night Long [1981] as he was signed first and she badly wanted the part opposite him in that ultimate turkey.
2 However anybody who looks at the careers of the likes of Cooper Grant, Tracy, Gable, Peck, Crosby and all the other mega stars of the classic era from the moment they became superstars will see that never again did any of them take second billing in a full length role and that those same eternally top-billed stars are the ones at the top of Bruce’s career box office grosses column. If you were to say to me that all of this was just a coincidence I would have to say to you “Now tell me the one about the the three bears.”
3 Anyway happy new year to you John.
CARY GRANT’S FINAL 13 FILMS WITH STARS LISTED IN ORDER OF BILLING
1955/TO CATCH A THIEF – Cary Grant & Grace Kelly
1957/AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER – Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr
1957/THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION- Cary Grant. Frank Sinatra & Sophia Loren
1957/KISS THEM FOR ME -Cary Grant & Jayne Mansfield
1958/HOUSEBOAT Cary Grant & Sophia Loren
1958/INDISCREET-Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman
1959/OPERATION PETTICOAT–Cary Grant & Tony Curtis
1959/NORTH BY NORTHWEST – Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
1960/THE GRASS IS GREENER – Cary Grant, Deborah K err & Robert Mitchum
1962/THAT TOUCH OF MINK – Cary Grant & Doris Day
1963/CHARADE – Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn
1964/FATHER GOOSE-Cary Grant, Leslie Caron & Trevor Howard
1966/WALK DON’T RUN-Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar & Jim Hutton
The Last occasion on which Cary Grant was not first billed was a quarter of a century earlier in Penney Serenade [1941]with Irene Dunne.
CLARK GABLE’S FINAL 16 FILMS WITH STARS IN ORDER OF BILLING
1950/KEY TO THE CITY-Clark Gable & Loretta Young
1950/TO PLEASE A LADY –Clark Gable & Barbara Stanwyck
1951/ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI-Clark Gable [No other stars]
1952LONE STAR –Clark Gable, Ava Gardner & Broderick Crawford
1953/NEVER LET ME GO – Clark Gable & Gene Tierney
1953/MOGAMBO-Clark Gable, Ava Gardner & Grace Kelly
1954/BETRAYED-Clark Gable, Lana Turner & Victor Mature
1955/THE TALL MEN-Clark Gable, Jane Russell & Robert Ryan
1955/SOLFIER OF FORTUNE-Clark Gable & Susan Hayward
1956/THE KING AND FOUR QUEENS-Clark Gable & Eleanor Parker
1956/BAND OF ANGELS-Clark Gable & Yvonne De Carlo
1958/RUN SILENT RUN DEEP-Clark Gable & Burt Lancaster
1958/TEACHER’S PET-Clark Gable & Doris Day
1959/BUT NOT FOR MR –Clark Gable, Carrol Baker & Lili Palmer
1960/IT STARTED IN NAPLES-Clark Gable & Sophia Loren
1961/THE MISFITS-Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe & Montgomery Clift
The last time that Clark took second billing on screen was twenty one years earlier to Joan Crawford in Strange Cargo [1940]
HUMPHREY BOGART FINAL 15 FILMS WITH STARS IN BILLING ORDER
1950/CHAIN LIGHTNING-Humphrey Bogart & Eleanor Parker
1950/IN A LONELY PLACE-Humphrey Bogart & Gloria Graham
1951/SIROCCO-Humphrey Bogart & Lee J Cobb
1951/THE ENFORCER-Humphrey Bogart [No other stars]
1951/THE AFRICAN QUEEN-Humphrey Bogart & Katharine Hepburn
1952/DEADLINE USA-Humphrey Bogart [No other stars]
1953/BATTLE CIRCUS-Humphrey Bogart & June Allyson
1953/BEAT THE DEVIL-Humphrey Bogart & Jennifer Jones
1954/SABRINA-Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn & William Holden
1954/CAINE MUTINY-Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer & Van Johnson
1954/THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA-Humphrey Bogart & Ava Gardner
1955/LEFT HAND OF GOD Humphrey Bogart & Gene Tierney
1955/WE’RE NO ANGELS – Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray
1955/THE DESPERATE HOURS-Humphrey Bogart & Frederic March
1956/THE HARDER THEY FALL-Humphrey Bogart & Rod Steiger
Humphrey Bogart was a supporting actor from 1928 until 1941 and almost invariably took lower billing in that period particularly to the likes of Cagney, Robinson and Raft. However when he became a star in 1941 he ever after demanded and got top billing.
GARY COOPER’S FINAL 20 FILMS WITH STARS IN ORDER OF BILLING
1949/FOUNTAINHEAD- Gary Cooper & Patricia Neal
1950/BRIGHT LEAF-Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall & Patricia Neal
1950/DALLAS-Gary Cooper & Ruth Roman
1951/YOU’RE IN THE NAVY NOW-Gary Cooper & Jane Greer
1951/DISTANT DRUMS –Gary Cooper [No other stars]
1952/HIGH NOON-Gary Cooper & Grace Kelly
1952/SPRINGFIELD RIFLE-Gary Cooper [No other stars]
1953/BLOWING WILD-Gary Cooper & Barbara Stanwyck
1953/ RETURN TO PARADISE Gary Cooper [No other stars]
1954/VERA CRUZ-Gary Cooper & Burt Lancaster
1954/GARDEN OF EVIL-Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, & Richard Widmark
1955/ONE MAN MUTINY-Gary Cooper & Rod Steiger
1956/FRIENDLY PERSUASION-Gary Cooper & Dorothy Maguire
1957/LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON-Gary Cooper & Audrey Hepburn
1958/TEN NORTH FREDERICK- Gary Cooper [No other stars]
1958/MAN OF THE WEST –Gary Cooper, Julie London & Lee J Cobb
1959/THE HANGING TREE-Gary Cooper, Maria Schell & Karl Malden
1959/THEY CAME TO CORDURA-Gary Cooper & Rita Hayworth
1959/WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE- Gary Cooper & Charlton Heston
1961/THE NAKED EDGE-Gary Cooper & Deborah Kerr
Cooper’s death ended an unbroken run of 23 years wherein Gary always had 1st billing the last time he was second billed being to Claudette Colbert in Bluebeard’s 8th Wife way back in 1938. Cooper was one of just a handful of mega stars in the classic era who could command such a run for so long a period others among the men being the likes of Gable, Tracy, Bogart & Crosby and among the women the likes of Joan Crawford and Irene Dunne. These stars demonstrated time and time again how their box office power continuously guaranteed them top billing.
I still don’t think it’s fair that James Dean tops this list of 100 famous movie stars on the UMR and critics chart. It gives the casual reader the wrong impression that James Dean was the greatest of them all when he was far from being the great anything IMO.
He died young and his legend grew, if hadn’t died he would have faded away like Montgomery Clift. Dean probably would have ended up starring in Roger Corman horror films of the 1960s alongside Vincent Price and there would be no legend or icon.
It’s cool to see The Marx Brothers topping the likes of Olivier, Welles and Pacino!
I’m surprised Bob hasn’t raised a ruckus over his beloved Crawford listed way down in 84th position while Julie Andrews and her two popular musicals is listed way up, all the top billings in the world didn’t help that legendary Hollywood actress.
Grace Kelly tops all the actresses on this chart, she hasn’t done much compared to other much better actresses, so like Jimmy Dean this could be misleading. She definitely isn’t the best of the best. At the end of the day it’s a fun list and I’m happy to see so many of my favorites on there.
Hey Steve.
1. I agree….it does not seem fair that James Dean has the top spot when looking at critic/audience rating.
2. In the top table….I put a minimum to make that list…and Dean fell off the list….with Cary Grant getting the Top Spot.
3. Crawford’s less than 60% average score is one of the worst on these legends list. I think Bob probably sorted by other categories….if you sort by box office….Joan is sitting in a nice cofy 6th place.
4. I also agree about Grace Kelly…..she was also excluded in my top table.
5. Both Kelly and Dean made the list based on their AFI list….I would have probably not included them….especially Dean.
6. This list is the 50 AFI members and my 50 I came up with.
As always…thanks for the movie feedback.
1 By way of extracts from the internet I have been attempting to present evidence that billing has been a very important issue for most of the great movie stars, that it is indicative of perceived status and was the cause of many disputes within the film industry.
2 The evidence has suggested that those who normally emerged victorious in the billing battles were the ones with the strongest hands to play in terms of for example contract guarantees, ongoing prominence in popularity polls and/or buoyant historical or contemporary grosses.
3 To support one’s own standpoint in the matter it can be tempting to envisage arbitrary scenarios for which there is no evidence and indeed where there could be evidence to the contrary. For example suggesting that because Clark Gable was given second billing in a movie that demonstrated that he didn’t care about billing and ignoring the facts that (a) Gable had demanded a contract that guaranteed him first billing unless he consented otherwise (b) he never accepted second billing from 1940 onward.
4 Where another actor like Tracy insisted on top billing then BOTH Gable and Tracy would not be in the film concerned. Gable may have been the bigger star but Tracy was still big enough to successfully decline to be billed second, a point often overlooked.
4 However there is no need to rely on such arguments or even go into that type of detail if one simply looks at certain broad historical facts. When the 1940s emerged the males who became or who had already become the foremost mega movie stars were Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper and Clark Gable and in the late forties/early fifties they were joined by John Wayne, James Stewart and Greg Peck.
5 A read through the posters and cast lists in IMDB or on Wikipedia will demonstrate clearly that from the point where each of these actors was perceived as a mega star he never again was billed less than first with the exception of special supporting parts and cameos and ensemble, alphabetically billed roles or in the unique case of Wayne and Stewart where they agreed an arrangement for the alternation of top billing.
6 Bruce Cogerson’s list of Top 100 actors illustrates that the persons whom I have mentioned as those recognised as mega stars in the classic era and who always got top billing in normal circumstances were also the ones who sold the most tickets. Accordingly if someone does not accept the corollary between all of those factors and top billing as a crucial token of status and believes that it was just a coincidence that the likes of Grant and Tracy were never denied first billing in full length roles after they became stars then I am reminded of what Henry Fonda in Twelve Angry Men said to one juror who was becoming frustrated at arguing with another “He can’t hear you. He never will.”
Hey Bob….great comments as always. I agree with almost all of your thoughts. With regards to Crawford and Gable…..it is very possible that their personal relationship had more to do with the billing especially when it when Gable was on fire and Crawford was being labeled “box office poison”. Gable might have been a gentleman and let his “close personal friend” Joan have top billing ….if only as a thank you for getting his career started in the early 1930s.
You have named some of the greatest movie legends of all-time in your comment. I also enjoyed your quote from 12 Angry Men. Thanks for checking out this Top 100 star page.
1 Tracy and Hepburn had a much closer relationship that Gable and Crawford ever had but as Old Cantankerous would paraphrase it “It was not in a lifeboat.” However by all accounts Gable was a nicer more easy-going person than Tracy so there could be something in what you say.
2 One biography that I read reckoned that when they came to make Strange Cargo in 1940 Gable did not have in his contract the top billing guarantee clause and therefore had to continue to accept MGM’s dictates in the matter and although the studio wanted to bill Clark first to capitalise on his GWTW’s success Crawford made such a nuisance of herself about the matter that they gave in to her to keep the peace.
1 However the writer went on after being obliged to take 2nd billing to Norma Shearer the year before despite being a bigger box office draw than she the Strange Cargo billing arrangement was the final straw for Gable and around that time his contract was up for renewal so buttressed with the huge success of GWTW he was able to insist on the billing clause and that ended the Crawford/Gable pictures Maybe it was just as well because audiences were sure to become tired of them sooner or later and the final one was a box office success so they went out in a high.
4 However whatever the exact details of the Strange Cargo billing issue my central point remains that if billing wasn’t a consideration of the first importance within the movie industry you would have to accept that it was a massive coincidence that all the great stars whom I have named were never billed less than first in any full length role after they established themselves as mega stars. If it WAS a coincidence it should be in the Guinness Book of Records. However a new record has been set on this site as I think that for a while anyway we established the Crawford/Gable/Loy issue as a more contentious talking point than the Search for Scarlet!
Hey Bob…..it is true that Spencer always took top billing over Kate….but Gable got his first big break while appearing in Crawford’s movies. I think Gable could have been top billed if he wanted to…..but either from respect to Crawford giving him a break or that she had him wrapped around her finger…..he did not push the issue. I feel if Gable had said…I want top billing…MGM would have made sure he got it..especially during the end of the 1930s….Gale was the King….while Crawford was almost out the door. No way they would have made Gable mad by siding with Crawford on a billing issue. Just my thoughts… I do not think we will ever really know.
I always feel I am down playing Crawford’s greatness…..she is without a doubt one of the biggest stars of all-time…..a legend…..a legend that I proudly display her autograph on my wall. Good stats and comments as always.
1 Whilst it would be nice to think that Gable put friendship or sentiment before pride
in the Crawford billing issue there is no evidence of such that I’ve ever seen. What does seem certain from the reports available is –
(1) Gable was so keen to have his name first that he demanded a billing protection clause in his contract when GWTW strengthened his hand, that once he got that clause he never again took 2nd billing, and that brought to an abrupt end the Crawford/Gable movies.
(2) Prior to his securing the protection clause he always took 2nd billing to MGM’s three ‘prima donas’ Crawford, Garbo and Shearer and even as late as 1935 to Charles Laughton in Mutiny on the Bounty [see Wikipedia poster] because he had little choice in the matter and anyone who believes in the sentimental explanations must address the question of why the Gable/Crawford movies stopped once Gable could exercise clout in the matter of billing and why he was so insistent on the protection clause.
2 So in short that’s the direction in which the EVIDENCE points us. The other suggestion that Clark felt indebted to Joan because of early career breaks she gave him doesn’t really appeal to me either My personal take on of the psychology of movie stars brings me to believe that whilst for good PR they will pay lip service to help from others their ego is such that they see themselves as ‘self-made’. When it was put to Grant that he owed Mae West a debt of gratitude for putting him in his first two big hit movies he almost went ballistic; and even though Katie lived with Spence and even looked after his welfare when he was ill she never got to go first because they never needed to take to the lifeboats.
Hey Bob….I have read some behind the scene stories on Crawford and Gable that make me think that he did not fight her too hard. My understanding is this happened when a Gable was at the peak of his power and Crawford was almost out the door at MGM. After their 8th movie together they never made another movie together. Anyway….she had top billing…so I guess it does not matter which story is true. It is just good that these two legends left behind 8 movies. As always…thanks for your knowledge.
HI STEVE
Thanks for your response. I see that you have to an extent invoked Godwin’s Law governing Usenet discussion or debate. This Law holds that the longer a discussion goes on the nearer that discussion will come to someone giving in to an instinct to make a comparison involving Hitler or the Nazis. I am not sure if we are supposed to regard bad guys as icons but I would certainly try to avoid including the Fuhrer in any list with Mother Teresa [ with or without the H being included in her name ! ]
Best wishes BOB
PS My previous post on that other great Icon Russell brand is also for your particularattention
Hey Bob…good, funny and right on the button look at long disagreement conversations.