Curated category
20th-century American actresses
- MadonnaMadonna Louise Ciccone arrived in New York City in 1978 with thirty-five dollars in her pocket. It was the first time she had ever flown on a plane or ridden…
- Katharine HepburnKatharine Hepburn won four Academy Awards for Best Actress, a record no one else has matched. She wore trousers before women commonly did.
- Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on the 1st of June 1926, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, at a city hospital.
- Meryl StreepMeryl Streep walked into a casting meeting with Dino De Laurentiis in 1976, hoping to audition for his King Kong remake.
- Ella FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald walked onto the stage of the Apollo Theater on the 21st of November 1934, planning to dance. She was 17 years old, and she had recently…
- Elizabeth TaylorElizabeth Taylor was born on the 27th of February 1932 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, northwest London, in a family home called Heathwood.
- Joan CrawfordJoan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, built one of the most tenacious careers in Hollywood history from a foundation of almost…
- Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Kate Paltrow was born on the 27th of September 1972 into a family already at home in Hollywood: her mother, Blythe Danner, was a stage and screen…
- Judy GarlandJudy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on the 10th of June 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to a family that lived and breathed performance.
- Mary Elizabeth McGlynnMary Elizabeth McGlynn was born on the 16th of October 1966, and over the decades that followed she became one of the most versatile figures in…
- Bette DavisBette Davis died on the 6th of October, 1989, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, too weak to make the journey home after her cancer…
- Ginger RogersGinger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on the 16th of July, 1911, in Independence, Missouri, and she would become one of the most celebrated…
- Natalie PortmanNatalie Portman was born on the 9th of June 1981, in Jerusalem, at Hadassah Medical Center. She has spent most of her life navigating two worlds: the…
- AaliyahAaliyah Dana Haughton was 22 years old when a twin-engine Cessna 402 lifted off a runway in the Bahamas on the evening of the 25th of August 2001, and then…
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah chose her name at age eight, pulling it from a book of Arabic names. The word latifah means "delicate" and "very kind", but Dana Elaine Owens…
- Brie LarsonBrie Larson walked onto the stage of the 89th Academy Awards, accepted the envelope, and deliberately did not clap during a standing ovation for the winner.
- Marisa TomeiMarisa Tomei walked onto the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on the 29th of March, 1993, and heard her name called as the winner of the Academy Award…
- Lucille BallLucille Ball was born on the 6th of August, 1911, at 69 Stewart Avenue in Jamestown, New York, and by the time she died on the 26th of April, 1989, she had…
- Mariah CareyMariah Carey walked into a music executive's party in December 1988 as an unknown backup singer and left without speaking to anyone important.
- Scarlett JohanssonScarlett Johansson was born on the 22nd of November 1984 in the Manhattan borough of New York City, and by the time she was nine years old she had already…
- Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton was born on the 19th of January 1946 in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee.
- Carrie FisherCarrie Frances Fisher once wrote that no matter how she died, she wanted it reported that she had drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
- Julia Louis-DreyfusJulia Louis-Dreyfus has won more Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards than any other performer in the history of television.
- The Lady of RageThe Lady of Rage was born Robin Yvette Allen on the 6th of February, 1968, and she would go on to appear on two of the most influential rap albums ever made…
- Diana RossDiana Ross was born on the 26th of March 1944, and her very name was an accident. Her mother intended to call her Diane, but whoever filled out the birth…
- Samantha SmithSamantha Reed Smith was ten years old when she looked at the cover of Time magazine and asked a question that would change her life. It was November 1982.