TheGolden Age of Hollywoodwas a period of Hollywood that lasted from the advent of talkies in 1927 until theNew Hollywood productions began in the 1960s.This includes the phasing out of the silent films, which remained popular for a few years even when sound cinema began, andfeatured everything from Westernsand gangster movies to musicals, horror movies, screwball comedies, and more. The stars in this era were often larger than life, bringing acting talent that once played on stages to the big screens of cinemas across the world.
This era includedmajor names for both actors and actresses, who delivered larger-than-life performances in movies that have stood the test of time, from black and white classics to the first color films in Hollywood history.Names like John Wayne became icons of Western movies, James Cagney helped popularize gangster movies, and Humphrey Bogart became a fixture of the film noir genre. Along the way, the first Oscars arrived in 1927, and they celebrated thebest of the best in the Golden Age of movie history.
1Charlie Chaplin
Years Active: 1899-1975
Charlie Chaplin was one of the best silent movie starsin history. When the sound era began, it marked the beginning of the end for Chaplin, but he wasn’t finished yet. While one of his best movies,The Gold Rush,arrived in 1925, he had several major hits after the sound era arrived. During the Golden Age of Hollywood,Chaplin released several huge films, includingCity Lights,Modern Times, and his first sound film,The Great Dictator,in 1940.
He was nominated for Best Actor at the first-ever Oscars forThe Circusand won a special Honorary Award for acting, writing, directing, and producing the movie. He wasn’t nominated again until 1940 forThe Great Dictator, where he received three nominations (Outstanding Production, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay). Chaplin ended up honored in 1972 with an Honorary Academy Award for his body of work and then won one last Oscar in 1972 for Best Original Score forLimelight.
2Olivia De Havilland
Years Active: 1933-2010
Olivia de Havilland got her start in 1933 and ended up as one of the most successful actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The biggest role in her early career came whenshe teamed with Errol Flynn in the adventure moviesCaptain BloodandThe Adventures of Robin Hood. However, her true breakout came as Melanie Hamilton inGone with the Wind, a movie she earned her first Oscar nomination and the only one for Best Supporting Actress.
Olivia De Havilland won two Oscars with five total nominations.
By the 1940s, she was a leading lady and one of Hollywood’s most celebrated female stars. She earned four more Oscar nominations forHold Back the Dawn,To Each His Own,The Snake Pit,andThe Heiress,winning forTo Each His OwnandThe Heiress. She also picked up a Golden Globe win many years later for Actress in a Supporting Role forAnastasia: The Mystery of Anna,which also earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
3Buster Keaton
Years Active: 1899–1966
While Charlie Chaplin is the name most people know when talking about silent era film stars, Buster Keaton was on the same level, and in some ways, he was even better than Chaplin.Like Chaplin, he had his biggest hits before the sound eraarrived, with Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The General (1926). However, he was still turning in great performances after the talkies began, withSteamboat Bill Jr.andThe Cameramanin the late 1920s. However, his career revived in the 1940s.
In 1950, Billy Wilder cast Buster Keaton in his noir classicSunset Boulevard,and he also appeared in Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight (1952). The Academy Awards awarded him an Honorary Oscar in 1959. His final run came with small roles in films likeThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1960) andIt’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963). Keaton remains a revered actor, withJohn Wickdirector Chad Stahelski sayinghe was an inspiration for that action franchise.
4Barbara Stanwyck
Years Active: 1923-1986
Barbara Stanwyck was one of the most versatile actresses of the Golden Hollywood era. After a successful Broadway career in plays likeBurlesque,she moved to Hollywood and wasa popular star in both dramas and screwball comedies. She earned her first Oscar nomination for the 1937 drama Stella Dallas. However, it was her screwball comedies that proved more successful, includingBall of Firewith Gary Cooper andThe Lady Evewith Henry Fonda.
Barbara Stanwyck earned four Oscar nominations and won two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Stanwyck earned an Oscar nomination forBall of Fire,butThe Lady Eveis the better remembered film. With that said, the best was still to come. In 1944, she earned her third Oscar nomination forDouble Indemnity,widely consideredone of the best film noirs of all time.In 1949, she earned one last Oscar nomination, this time forEast Side, West Side.She then moved on to television, where she won two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 1982, the Oscars awarded her an Honorary Award.
5James Cagney
Years Active: 1919-1961
James Cagney is an interesting actor because he was able to shake the role that seemed to pigeonhole him into one genre and then had even greater success doing something completely different. In 1931, Cagney was in one ofthe greatest gangster movies ever madeinThe Public Enemy.Every gangster and mobster movie made owes its existence to what Cagney broughtto this film, where he played tragic gangster Tom Powers. He then became an actor in several gangster movies, includingThe Roaring Twenties.
However, while he was one of the most recognizable gangster actors of his era, Cagney ended up winning an Oscar 11 years after he madeThe Public Enemyin a very different type of movie. Cagney won an Oscar for the musical filmYankee Doodle Dandy.Orson Welles said in an interview withBBCthat he felt Cagney was one of the greatest actors ever to appear on camera, and it is hard to argue with that sentiment.
6Vivien Leigh
Years Active: 1935-1967
Vivien Leigh remains one of the most beloved and revered actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood thanks to her role in the iconic movieGone with the Wind(1939), in which she won her first Oscar for Best Actress.She played Scarlet O’Hara in that filmalongside Clark Gable and solidified her status as a Hollywood icon from the start. However, she wasn’t finished there and won a second Oscar for Best Actress, this time as Blanche DuBois inA Streetcar Named Desire(1951).
Leigh did appear in the London theater production ofA Streetcar Named Desire.
That second film was a unique opportunity, as it was based on a stage play, and Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden all reprised their roles from the Broadway play for the movie. Leigh was the only non Broadway actor, replacing Jessica Tandy. However, Leigh did appear in the London theater production ofA Streetcar Named Desire. Brando was still an unknown at the time, but this movie made him a star, and much of it is thanks to Leigh’s performance alongside him in the film.
7Humphrey Bogart
Years Active: 1921-1956
Humphrey Bogart worked as a small-time supporting actor for almost a decade before he achieved his breakout performance. That came in 1941 with the film noirHigh Sierra,and atr that point, Bogart became the king of noir films for over a decade. The same year he appeared inHigh Sierra,he took on the role of Dashiell Hammett’s hero, Sam Spade, inThe Maltese Falcon,and then five years later he took on the role of Raymond Chandler’s hero Philip Marlowe inThe Big Sleep.
That could have been enough, but Bogart had his biggest role in between those two noir films. In 1942,he starred as Rick Blaine in the dramaCasablanca,a film that remains listed among the best ever made in Hollywood history. On top of those three classics, Bogart’s best roles came in the John Huston movieThe Treasure of Sierra Madreand in Nicholas Ray’sIn a Lonely Place.Add inThe African QueenandSabrina,and few actors could touch his career. He was a three-time Oscar nominee, winning forThe African Queen.
8Katharine Hepburn
Years Active: 1928-1995
Katharine Hepburn is a great story in the Golden Age of Hollywood because she appeared in some of the best movies of that generation, but she remained a valuable star even into the era of New Hollywood and was even still starring in movies in the 1980s.Hepburn earned her first Oscar in only her third movieappearance, winning forMorning Glory.While she followed this up with box office failures, one of those was one of her best comedies –Bringing Up Baby(1938).
Only Meryl Streep has more acting nominations than Katharine Hepburn.
SHe rebounded at the box office in 1939 when she starred inThe Philadelphia Storyand then worked with Spencer Tracy in nine films over 26 years. What is impressive is that almost no actor – man or woman – from the Golden Era of Hollywood was as successful as Hepburn, who earned 12 Oscar nominations for Best Actress. However, she didn’t win the second, third, and fourth until later in her career, when she won forGuess Who’s Coming to Dinner,The Lion in Winter,andOn Golden Pond.
9John Wayne
Years Active: 1926-1979
Some of the most popular movies in the Golden Age of Hollywood were in the Western genre. Of all the best Western actors of the era,no one was a bigger name than John Wayne.He got his start in the 1930s, but he became a superstar in 1939 thanks to his starring role in John Ford’s film,Stagecoach.This film made Wayne a Western star, and he carried that proudly from this film to the end of his career. While he took roles in war movies and dramas, he was the face of Western movies.
Over his career, Wayne appeared in 179 films and TV shows and was on top as a box office draw fromStagecoachuntil the 1970s. His biggest hits included titles likeThe Big Trail, Red River, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo,andTrue Grit.Despite his huge popularity, and his box office success over the years, he only won one Oscar (True Grit) with only three total nominations. However, there isn’t a bigger name in Western movies than The Duke.
10Bette Davis
Years Active: 1929-1989
While Katharine Hepburn earned more Oscar nominations for acting than any other star in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Bette Davis was right behind her. In fact, Davis had more Oscar nominations than Hepburn at one time, andshe was the first actress to ever receive 10 Oscar nominations.This was even more impressive since most women of the era saw one or two at the most, while Davis and Hepburn were picking up nominations for roles in a variety of genres for many years.
Bette Davis also earned five Oscar nominations in a row.
Davis ended up with one less Oscar nomination than Hepburn, sitting at 11 for her career, although she only won twice (Hepburn won four times). She won her first Oscar in 1935 for the movieDangerousand then won her second in 1938 for her role inJezebel.Bette Davis also earned five Oscar nominations in a row from 1938 to 1942. However, she didn’t win for what remains her greatest role – she starred as Margo Channing in the 1950 dramaAll About Eve,still considered one of Hollywood’s greatest films.
