Film Legends

In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced the 50 greatest American screen legends, voting Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart into the number one spots. AFI defined an American screen legend “as an actor or a team of actors 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”. According to AFI.com, the list was selected by artists, historians, critics and other cultural leaders from the American film community who chose from a list of 250 male and 250 female actors as compiled by AFI historians. Commencing today with Elizabeth Taylor, 100 word or less biographical summaries will be added for each screen legend. Additional biographical pieces covering actors not in the Top 50 will be composed upon completion of the list (Klaus Ming March 2011).

#	Male Legends	#	Female Legends
1.	Humphrey Bogart	1.	Katharine Hepburn
2.	Cary Grant	2.	Bette Davis
3.	James Stewart	3.	Audrey Hepburn
4.	Marlon Brando	4.	Ingrid Bergman
5.	Fred Astaire	5.	Greta Garbo
6.	Henry Fonda	6.	Marilyn Monroe
7.	Clark Gable	7.	Elizabeth Taylor
8.	James Cagney	8.	Judy Garland
9.	Spencer Tracy	9.	Marlene Dietrich
10.	Charlie Chaplin	10.	Joan Crawford
11.	Gary Cooper	11.	Barbara Stanwyck
12.	Gregory Peck	12.	Claudette Colbert
13.	John Wayne	13.	Grace Kelly
14.	Laurence Olivier	14.	Ginger Rogers
15.	Gene Kelly	15.	Mae West
16.	Orson Welles	16.	Vivien Leigh
17.	Kirk Douglas	17.	Lillian Gish
18.	James Dean	18.	Shirley Temple
19.	Burt Lancaster	19.	Rita Hayworth
20.	The Marx Brothers	20.	Lauren Bacall
21.	Buster Keaton	21.	Sophia Loren
22.	Sidney Poitier	22.	Jean Harlow
23.	Robert Mitchum	23.	Carole Lombard
24.	Edward G. Robinson	24.	Mary Pickford
25.	William Holden	25.	Ava Gardner