Which actress had/has the highest ratio between her beauty and acting talent

Charlize Theron

Vivien Leigh Marilyn Monroe Greta Garbo Marion Cotillard Meryl Streep

Without question it's always the French and the Italian actresses who are the best and most beautiful.

I don't know why that is.

For some reason actors never enter into it.

But the best actors never come close to the best actresses in terms of talent.

I don't know why that is either.

Katharine Hepburn

Liz Taylor, silly OP.

ON DIRECTING ELIZABETH TAYLOR TO A BEST ACTRESS OSCAR IN 'WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?' (1966) "She understood, since she had been doing it since she was 4 years old, what movie acting was, and she had that kind of secret deal with the lab that, overnight in the bath, what we had seen her do on the set was about three times better [on screen]. And Richard Burton studied her, fascinated about what she knew about the camera, the light, the makeup and the costumes, and what to trust to them and what to do yourself. She was a true film actress and there was a lot to learn from her."

You could be right, R3.

Isabelle Adjani

[quote]R4 please, don't say Liz Taylor because her acting sucked.

(I would Juliann Moore, perhaps. She did go to Julliard.) (Runner Ups: Cate Blanchette or Michelle Pfeiffer?)

Monica Vitti comes to mind.

I’d go with Vivian Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor. Vivian Leigh was a classical stage actress who happened to do films. Taylor was raised to be a Hollywood star.

So the key to remember with Taylor is she was a ‘star brand’ first and foremost. It’s ususlly difficult for audiences to forget the star and pay attention to the acting, but Taylor did have the skill of getting a character across in its own right.

I didn't realize that Juliette Binoche (who is beautiful and a great actress) gets mistaken for Julia Ormond. Perhaps they should play sisters in a film.

I’m sorry but Elizabeth Taylor was the greatest ever.

Ingrid Bergman

[quote]R5 Liz Taylor, silly OP. ON DIRECTING ELIZABETH TAYLOR TO A BEST ACTRESS OSCAR IN 'WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?' (1966)....

So she made about a hundred films and was good in one of them??

That's the character and the script...not the actress.

She was fake and small, most of the time.

Jessica Lange was a true beauty when younger and is one of our finest actors.

Holy crap r10 I didn't even recognize Julia Ormond!

Sometimes Liz sucked and sometimes she didn't.

Her Maggie the cat is one of the all time great screen performances.

And God forgive me but I love Cleopatra.

'Egyptian generosity.

Two heads for the prices of one!'

Gena Rowlands

Gena Rowlands Susan Kelechi Watson Jessica Lange (early years) Julianne Moore Jessica Chastain

R17 Nailed it!

ISABELLE Adjani too yes!

I'd go with Binoche too

Michelle Pfeiffer

THREAD CLOSED.

Gena Rowlands is a good call.

Anouk Aimée, Ingrid Bergman, Monica Vitti, OK for Vivien Leigh too. I think I am one of the few who considered Maria Casares a beauty.

"French beauty" Isabelle Adjani is half Kabyle, half German. No French involved. She destroyed her face many years ago with procedures. The Kablye are a beautiful people in North Africa.

Redgrave. Of course.

R16. I agree Liz Taylor’s performances varied. But I would guarantee her poor performances were down to poor Direction. Mike Todd was killed during Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and she still turned in an outstanding performance. She was notoriously self indulgent and she needed firm direction, control and management. If she had a Director who was subservient to her, she’d have not only taken liberties but not worked hard. Actors claimed she was very strange in performance. She’d give nothing until she knew she had to. Like Garland, she was a child actress, neither of them truly chose to do it, their parents pushed them into it. So in adulthood, they had no deep desire to act. It wasn’t coming from a place of ambition as it does with other actors.

Gong Li

Alida Valli - her performance in Senso is perhaps the best female acting performance ever captured on film. A great beauty too.

She did suck in her Hollywood films though, but bad scripts probably had something to do with that too. There are many other great Euro actresses who suck in english-language films (Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard...)

Cue the Gong Li and Capucine trolls.

Oh and the Sharon Tate troll.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR & Cate Blanchett

R30, present and accounted for!

Catherine Deneuve

[quote]R30 Cue the...Capucine trolls.

Capucine was elegant and breath taking...and I think everyone agrees she could not act.

Lots of great choices here - but I'm sorry, I had to laugh at the mentions of Isabelle Adjani, IMO one of the worst actresses ever.

Anyway, my choice - Gong Li.

Second choice - Sophia Loren (shown here in A Special Day)

[quote]Isabelle Adjani, IMO one of the worst actresses ever.

Says who? You?

Pfffff...

Capucine Jenner?

[quote]R34 Catherine Deneuve

Too reserved.

Adjani was ok when very young. Gong Li is not a a great beauty and the many Chinese considered her common looking. Denueve was an average actress for her first 2 decades. Got better older and looser.

Portrait of r31.

Has anyone on this thread seen Diabolique?! Adjani was so awful in that one she made even Sharon Stone seem like a good actress in comparison.

Are gay men bad at math? Highest ratio means greatest disparity between beauty and talent, silly OP, so by your own opinion Liz Taylor would have been a good pick.

Have you seen Possession, R42?

r42, have you seen "The Story of Adele H"? You might want to shut the fuck up.

Having read over this list, I think I would have to throw my hat in the ring for Ingrid Bergman.

She's one of the ONLY performers from her era who conveyed emotion purely and naturally. She's soulful.

And, she also had quite a bit of variety.

Some of you are asking to only name actresses who have never given a not-so-stellar performance, which is an impossible standard.

[quote]Denueve was an average actress for her first 2 decades.

You are probably not very familiar with her work in the first two decades.

R45 - I'm not R42 but R36. I have seen Adele H. And Nosferatu, Diabolique, Queen Margot, Subway, Quartet, The Driver, Ishtar & Camille Claudel. She's a ham! There's nothing natural or spontaneous about her. Sometimes just to be a jerk, I've posted a couple of times on DL as "The Isabelle Adjani Is Awful Troll."

And for the fun of it, here's my "favorite" scene from Possession . . .

Greta Garbo

Gene Tierney

Well, we have to disagree, R49. And that scene is MAGNIFICENT, as is the film.

R40, who are these "many Chinese"?

Well, r49, you certainly are a troll who has spent a lot of time disparaging one person. You certainly are a jerk, as you yourself admit.

You're also a loser.

Bai Ling

What an attractive thread--anonymous gay men mocking much more successful women.

Isabelle Adjani, to me, is the epitome of female beauty and a genius actress. I love her passion.

Thank you, R56. I think you get it.

Little Isabelle

Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman

Isabelle's father when he was young and beautiful. Her brother Eric was a beautiful party boy in Paris.

Setsuko Hara, most of all.

But I would also list:

Olivia de Havilland

Julie Christie

Liv Ullmann

Jessica Lange

Michelle Pfeiffer

[quote]R42 Adjani was so awful in that one she made even Sharon Stone seem like a good actress in comparison.

Sharon Stone is amazing in CASINO. But she's kind of like Liz Taylor...a beautiful woman who isn't much of an actress at heart, and seems to have more lucked into one of two roles that suited her that also had great directors at the helm.

The delicate, some say the flower-like, Miyoshi Umeki.

People here will hate me for pointing this out, but it's probably Goop.

Gwyneth as Sylvia Plath

Ingrid Bergman or Gene Tierney for me, as far as all-timers go. Currently working, Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman.

R64 I wouldn't mind Goop if she'd just SHUT THE HELL UP!!

I love her in EMMA....and also playing an unstable hooker in HARD 8. And a guilty late night pleasure is A PERFECT MURDER.

With many actresses listed on this thread, I think their beauty exceeded their acting talent. With Goop, I think the reverse is true. Sorry, r64, I just don't think she's that beautiful, certainly not along the lines of an Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, or Deneuve.

[quote]R68 I just don't think she's that beautiful, certainly not along the lines of an Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, or Deneuve.

That IS little bit true.

Sorry, Goop. You've been eliminated.

I don't know how Susan Sarandon could turn out to be such a nasty b**ch after she was seduced by Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger.

R65 The woman Ted Hughes cheated on Plath with, Assia Wevill, is actually even more interesting than that poetess was.

She killed herself AND Hughes' child. I've been meaning to read the 2008 book about her, [italic] A Lover of Unreason. [/italic]

[quote] The woman Ted Hughes cheated on Plath with, Assia Wevill, is actually even more interesting than that poetess was. She killed herself AND Hughes' child.

That makes her "even more interesting" than Plath--a murder? Plath was one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

I thought Goop was pretty in Se7en. She had that girl next door look.

"Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars--to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording--all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night..."

-- Sylvia Plath

R7 That makes her "even more interesting" than Plath--a murder? Plath was one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

She published only two books of poetry, and is more of a footnote. The first is coldly academic. The second is the more interesting one.

I think her prose are actually much more striking than her verse, and I wish she had focused more on that.

[quote]R72 That makes her "even more interesting" than Plath--a murder?

Yes....because Plath is interesting because of her LIFE, not necessarily because of "Daddy" or any of her other poems. She's the waspy honor roll cheerleader with an academic scholarship who spectacularly cracked.

Anne Sexton beat her on all artistic fronts.

Laura Linney

Michelle Pfeiffer

Faye Dunaway

I can't comment here because—

1. Females don't interest me.

2. Females who stand in front of a camera aren't genuine actresses.

I can only respect females as actresses if they've done lots of work on stage. So therefore I can only name Redgrave and Bergman.

[quote]Sharon Stone is [...] a beautiful woman who isn't much of an actress at heart, and seems to have more lucked into one of two roles that suited her

“Sucked into” is more like it.

R1 = Harvey Weinstein

[quote]Yes....because Plath is interesting because of her LIFE, not necessarily because of "Daddy" or any of her other poems. She's the waspy honor roll cheerleader with an academic scholarship who spectacularly cracked.

Wevill murdered a four year old and wrote a hair dye tv commercial. I’ll take Plath.

French actresses

[quote]R77 Faye Dunaway

I love her, but she has little to NO range as an actress.

I think her best performance is CHINATOWN. Beautifully crafted and layered.

Eva Green

Reese Witherspoon and Julianne Moore

Julie Christie

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Lindsay Duncan

Connie Nielsen

Vanessa Redgrave

Gillian Anderson

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Easily it was Rita Hayworth, who WAS Columbia Pictures for years, she was the first woman give the power over her contract, and at one point had complete control over her next three pictures. Then, as usual, she blew it and sold back the rights for $750.000 USD

[quote] Reese Witherspoon

Yes, truly a great beauty.

Kelly Macdonald

Deneuve and Binoche.

Eva Green, Charlotte Rampling, Mélanie Laurent, Emmanuelle Beart, Adèle Haenel, Lou de Laage

Sasha Pieterse, Saoirse Ronan, Kristen Stewart, Sarah Gadon, Tatiana Maslany, Ksenia Solo

Kate Winslet and Angelina Jolie

Vanessa Redgrave

Ellen Burstyn

Julie Christie

[quote]Maggie Gyllenhaal

I think you just killed this thread.

[quote]Sasha Pieterse, Saoirse Ronan, Kristen Stewart, Sarah Gadon, Tatiana Maslany, Ksenia Solo

Is this a list of women you'd like to fuck?

Saoirse Ronan is not fuckable

I choose Jif

Jolie must have stuffed 10 pounds of silicon into her flat boobs, judging how flat chested she looks here. Also she seems tiny compared to Goop.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 2004 premiere

Zhang Ziyi

Gong Li

I would say Goop if she wasn't Harvey's whore :(

R99 How dare you

Julie Christie and Jane Fonda.

THREAD CLOSED.

Gong Li

THREAD RE-OPENED

Sidse Babett Knudsen

eddie redmayne

Marilyn Monroe

amazing screen presence

Rebecca Hall

Liz Taylor's acting did NOT suck. I'd say it's definitely Taylor. The most beautiful of all with talent too.

R112, Rebecca Hall? Surely, you're joking. Decent actress but very average looking IMO.

[quote]Decent actress but very average looking IMO.

decent/average - that's sort of a correct ratio: she's neither a great actress or beautiful.

G. No talent. No beauty. Perfect ratio.

r116, that sounds like quite the backhanded compliment to say to an actress: "You have the perfect ratio between looks and talent."

I'm no mathematician so I don't even understand this 'ratio' business.

You can't assume there's a correlation (or a negative-correlation) between beauty and talent.

Rebecca Hall is an amazing actress and I think she's beautiful

Sofia Helin

Sofie Grabol

Julianne Moore, seriously and I'm not joking.

She's beautiful and in her 50s below, still is beautiful. She's an Oscar winner and her acting is consistently good.

Lots of bizarre choices on this thread - when were Laura "soccer mom" Linney or frog face Gena Rowlands ever considered great beauties?! Or Isabelle Adjani a great actress?!

There are only two actresses that came to my mind when I saw this thread - one is Julie Christie (who was aready mentioned several times) and the other one is Irene Papas, who was brilliant in everything from adaptations of Greek tragedies to Disney films. There was also something about Papas' face that made her look very "transnational" so during her career she was able to play characters that were Iranian, Colombian, Italian, Serbian, Greek, French...and was believable in all of them.

Lillian Gish. A beautiful young woman and she invented the close up.

OP meant highest ratio of her beauty and acting talent.

But it takes dimwits not to get that and be pinch faced schoolmarms.

Setsuko Hara always wins the acting honors.

She is far beyond any actor or actress that we know of. I wouldn't call her a beauty in the conventional sense but like Magnani when she was young she was a compelling beauty.

Ann-Margret owns this thread.

Capucine in The Pink Panther is enormously beautiful and at the same time very funny and plays wonderfully off Sellars.

That is a helluva lot more worthy of an Oscar than Oscar bait roles.

Making yourself frumpy and chewing the scenery like a termite is just silly.

They are not the most glamorous, but all the actresses who worked with Ingmar Bergman were beautiful and incredibly talented. Liv, Bibi and many others. Incredible performances, radiant faces.

Carole Lombard

Valeria Golino

Sophia Loren

Margot Robbie is becoming a contender.

Sophia Loren was fat and ugly

Geez. I love DL and come here for smart and witty commentary on many subjects - but about half of these responses really make me consider all this!!!

Rebecca Hall, Laura Linney, Margot Robbie, Kristen Stewart, etc? Is this an “ironic” thread?

Mireille Enos

Margot Robbie has man jaw

....

Wow she got fat @R10 Monica belluci

Elizabeth Taylor

Bellucci is poor man's Isabelle Adjani

[quote]Elizabeth Taylor

Weak jaw

Avoid any woman with a strong jaw line ....or an Adams apple.

Miss Cillian Murphy, of course!

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you cunts crack me up

Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl is prettier than 90% of the names in this thread

The first Mrs. John Derek

This thread is sexist as if women are judged like a beauty pageant contest.

Eva Green is an excellent choice. She along with Rebecca Hall and Charlotte Rampling have intelligent-looking faces.

Some people you can tell are morons just by looking at them (dead-eyed, goofy-grinned Jennifer Lawrence, for instance).

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[quote]R130 Sophia Loren was fat and ugly.

You're insane.

R145. Kill yourself immediately. Thank you.

Are people really trying to deny that Gwyneth Paltrow was at one time considered conventionally beautiful? Did anyone ever say Brad Pitt was too pretty for her?

cate blanchett (she should have won the oscar over gwyneth but gwyneth's parents had more friends and clout.) she should have 2 oscars by now.

[quote]Rebecca Hall? Surely, you're joking. Decent actress but very average looking IMO.

Big banana feet.

Elizabeth Taylor had a tiny, thin voice that recorded poorly. She became a star despite that critical failing. But she was never a great actor. The instrument didn’t exist. And a great actor - even a movie actor - needs a good voice. Her smoldering sexuality and tabloid fame guaranteed stardom. Just don’t confuse it with great acting. To hear her scream ‘A LABOTOMY!’ in Suddenly Last Summer was the last straw.

Blanchett should give those awards back for using PSH's death during her 2nd Oscar campaign while trying to deflect the Woody Allen scandal. Also for the shitty performance she gave in Notes on a Scandal and looking like a bloody amateur next to Judi Dench.

[quote] Lillian Gish. A beautiful young woman and she invented the close up.

I love you, R123.

[quote] Did anyone ever say Brad Pitt was too pretty for her?

Many people. It was quite common at the time including on DL.

[quote]R154 Also for the shitty performance she gave in Notes on a Scandal and looking like a bloody amateur next to Judi Dench.

Oh, she was good : ( I don't know how else one would expect the part to be played.

I have to watch that film again, actually. I've been reading Judi Dench's autobiography, [italic] And Furthermore. [/italic]

Miss Piggy - She had style, she had grace, and Kermit the Frog gave good face!

Annette Bening, Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, and Kate Winslet

r156. The man in that picture is in no way too pretty for that woman.

[quote] Julie Christie and Jane Fonda. THREAD CLOSED.

[quote]Gong Li THREAD RE-OPENED.

Natalie Wood

NOW THREAD CLOSED.

R107 Both Julie Christie and Jane Fonda started off pretending to be Brigitte Bardot.

Fonda married Mr Bardot. And Christie was the English Bardot.

Both of them had coarse voices. Christie has a prominent lower lip which movie producers thought was sexy but I thinks it makes her look rather goat-like. She played strumpets for her first decade. She got an Oscar for playing a slut. She said she wants to suck warren Beatty's cock.

Didn't Fonda also get an Oscar for playing a professional slut?

I never thought Brad Pitt was pretty, nor witty or charming or interesting or even sophisticated. Never understood what Goop saw in him.

No one has ever thought Brad Pitt witty or charming or interesting or sophisticated. But pretty, he was the paragon for a very long time.

Charlotte Rampling

Brad Pitt isn't pretty in the same way Tom Cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio aren't pretty.

There was only one Claudia Jennings. Gorgeous and she put 100% into every role she had.

Louise Brooks was a master at conveying emotion .

Julie Christie, Charlotte Rampling, Claudia Cardinale, Jean Simmons

Her roles didn't always play up her attractiveness, but Anne Bancroft had beautiful bone structure and was a brilliant actress.

Renée Zellweger

[quote] Renée Zellweger

In whose eyes?

R170 & R1 = Harvey Weinstein

Pitt has had lots of plastic surgery and procedures

Dame Judi in Philomena >>> Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

Completely subjective on all scores. So in the end just opinions which is why they are like asses.

Yes I agree, R175

what's with all these foreign broads- the criteria is that people actually had to go see the movies!

r173 So the lips are his but I always thought he was a natural blond. I see no other procedures. Weirdly, if you'd told me that was Tom Cruise's yearbook picture, I would've believed it.

"Sometimes Liz sucked and sometimes she didn't."

That's because Elizabeth was only good when she played herself:

National Velvet, A Place in the Sun, Virginia Woolf

In anything different or more complex she was lost and dull.

Eleanor Parker.

Beautiful, without being at all pretty, Anna Magnani was a consummate stage as well as film actress. If you don’t know her work, search out “The Rose Tattoo”. “The Fugitive Kind” and/or Fellini’s “Roma”.

I love Anna Magnani too, R181, but she does not belong in this thread.

Audrey Hepburn

Maggie Gyllenhaal

What does this "highest ratio" mean?

High beauty / Low acting talent?

Low beauty / High acting talent?

OP, please explain.

[quote]R185 OP, please explain.

OP has left the building.

Chloë Sevigny

Of actresses working today, I'd say Julianne Moore. Seriously!

She's beautiful and an amazing actress. She's done her share of "pay the bills" roles, like many actors have, but she's also made lots of interesting choices and been brilliant. I know she is well-regarded, but I think she should be even more respected as an actress.

Her red carpet game is spotty, but she is a beautiful woman and is aging wonderfully.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I'd say:

Elizabeth Taylor is stunning in 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf' but she is deliberately made up to look dowdy in that film.. However, her true beauty becomes noticeable every now and then, accident.

Ava Gardner in 'Pandora And The Flying Dutchman'.

And my favourite... Barbra Streisand in 'The Way We Were', especially the scene where she says to a group of customers in a café: "You're all decadent and disgusting".

There is nothing more beautiful than attitude.

Jessica Lange in the 80s

I thought only African-Americans aspired to have "attitude", R189.

Are you "sassy" as well?

Are you a woman who aspires to be "fierce"?

I'm glad someone else mentioned Julianne Moore. She shone the minute she was seen on Boogie Nights. I thought she'd be another beautiful flash-in-the-pan but she's proven herself to be one of the most talented actresses working today.

Surprised more people haven’t said Marilyn. Say what you want, but she never got enough credit for her acting and was on her way to becoming a master. No one lit the screen up like her, and regardless of what you think, that takes TALENT.

Eva Green

I agree R193!

Very interesting thread, but let's face it, Juliette Binoche is extremely lovely, but is not a beauty in the way that Catherine Deneuve is.

Same with Ingrid Bergman, lovely and expressive face, but not as beautiful as, hmmm, I can't think of a 1940s actress to compare her to, so I will say Catherine Deneuve again.

To answer your question.

So, perhaps this question could be rephrased, "Of the great beauties of international cinema, which ladies were the most talented actresses?"

Gay mathematicians, I am still curious how to phrase this question with its original intent using a ratio.

R199, a ratio isn't the way to express the question because it just measures whether the acting talent and beauty are in alignment with each other. So, for example, a woman of great beauty and extraordinary talent would have a ratio close to 1. But a woman of low beauty and minimal talent would also have a ratio close to 1.

So Vivien Leigh and Rumer Willis would both be the answer?

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I thought Julianne went to Boston University

Thank you all so much! I’m so flattered. You guys!

Diane Lane

I think that Jodie Foster was very attractive although never sexy or sultry when she was young, and she was always a good actress. Looking back to the olden days, I'd say that Joan Crawford's dramatic looks and acting chops were on a par - especially in the late 30s and early 40s.

Kate Winslet.

Kate Winslet. Every single performance is A+ and at least for me she just has the most perfect face. Her features are bolder than a pretty, dainty movie star.

R206 I admire Joan Crawford’s career and Mildred is a great movie that she performed well in. But I’ve seen probably a dozen of her movies and from my recollection that was her singular outstanding performance. I tend to find Ryan Murphy’s shows cloying and superficial, but one thing he got right in Feud was showing Bette Davis as a disciplined, serious, committed actor and Joan Crawford as being preoccupied with looking attractive to the point that she rarely was able to connect with her characters and let loose as an actor must.

Thank you to those who pointed out the poor structuring of the OP's question. To clear up any lingering confusion, I think this is what he meant to ask "Which beautiful actress possessed/possesses acting talent of a caliber commensurate with the extreme heights of her beauty?"

If we can agree that this was the intent, then I think it's safe to say to that we can void such previous suggestions as Laura Linney, Jodie Foster, Anna Magnani, Kate Winslet, Jane Fonda, et al., all of whom are exceptional actresses, and though attractive, are not transcendent beauties on an epochal level. And while she is certainly a tremendous actress, I have never understood how anyone could characterize--as they frequently do--Ingrid Bergman as some great beauty along the lines of Gene Tierney, Ava Gardner, Hedy Lamarr, etc. She simply wasn't. I'd say the same for Vivien Leigh. I can understand why people are arguing for Liz, but her talent, while considerable, does not measure up to the sublimity of her beauty. I also understand the OP's nomination of Jessica Lange, but as gorgeous as she was in her prime, her looks have kind of turned ordinary. Don't get me wrong, she's still quite attractive, but she lost her ravishing quality somehow, and I'm not simply attributing that shift to age.

For the deceased, easy cases can be made for Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Maureen O'Hara, Sylvia Sidney... Greta Garbo also seems reasonable. For the living I would elect Ann-Margret, Anouk Aimee, Gena Rowlands, Julianne Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron. Basinger does not get enough credit for her talent or her charisma. She sears the screen, and in performance after performance she demonstrates an especial knack for conveying both vulnerability and resilience. If you've not seen Door in the Floor, in which she's paired with Jeff Bridges, you are missing out on two extraordinary performances. I could watch her for days and days--

Crawford is overrated as an actress. Ann Blyth stole MILDRED PIERCE out from under her. Her Oscar ‘win’ was Hollywood politics. Someone owed the producers a favor.

And I don’t understand the topic...is it someone who is beautiful AND talented or beautiful and mediocre?

R211, your question/confusion clearly conveys that you didn't even bother to read THE POST RIGHT BEFORE YOURS, or you would know the answer. Pay attention. There will be a test.

Thanks, R210. Well said, even without the word "ratio."

Gene Tierney.

Grace Kelly (Rear Window)

Marilyn Monroe

Michelle Pfeiffer

I was going to say Gene Tierney, but this thread has got it covered.

Gene Tierney was one of JFK's girlfriends!!

Jennifer Tilly

The one and only Miss Cillian Murphy

Hmmm, how about phrasing the question thusly: of the truly great cinema actresses, who are the most beautiful?

We'd have to have separate categories for each decade, of course.

How to compare Garbo to M?

R210 Maureen O'Hara!?!?

OT. Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, whose mother is Adjani, is very striking looking.

R220, YES, Maureen O'Hara. Have you know idea how beautiful she was, with talent to match? Are you thinking of someone else? Maureen McCormick?

Mia Farrow was a beauty. I think she could act, but I'm not sure.

R220, yes Gabriel Kane Day-Lewis is handsome.

Interesting, sometimes two gorgeous people make an ugly, but not in this case!

R222, She certainly could in Rosemary's Baby--an A+++++ performance. That she didn't get nominated for Best Actress for that performance was a crime, but it was admittedly a very competitive year.