The Easy Answer to the Question: Who is My Favorite Actress?

On Monday I addressed the question: who is my favorite actor. Today I will determine who my favorite actress is.

Barbara Stanwyck.

That was easy.

Stanwyck was a great actress who excelled at both comedy (The Lady Eve) and drama (Double Indemnity). She could be sexy and she could be tough and she could be vulnerable and she could be sassy. She also showed up in a lot of my favorite all-time films. In addition to the two already mentioned there was Christmas in Connecticut, Meet John Doe, Baby Face, Ball of Fire, Night Nurse, and Remember the Night. She also featured in a slew of other good films such as Clash by Night, Sorry Wrong Number, The Furies, Lady of Burlesque and Stella Dallas. 

That was too easy. Let’s look at other favorite actresses. 

I love Myrna Loy who more than held her own in over a dozen films with William Powell. She always came off as smart as hell, sexy and a real wit — likely because she was. I’m also second to no one in my admiration for Carole Lombard who in her short life made such classics as My Man Godfrey, Twentieth Century, To Be or Not to Be, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Nothing Sacred. She may have been the greatest comic actress of her generation. No, she was — definitely. 

I’m also a Bette Davis fan (what cinephile isn’t?). She had a prolific career highlighted by her work from the late thirties through the mid forties: Petrified Forest, Marked Woman, Jezebel, The Letter, The Great Lie, The Little Foxes, the Man Who Came to Dinner, Now Voyager, Watch on the Rhine.

Jean Arthur showed up in a lot of terrific pictures such as Talk of the Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Easy Living, specializing in comedy. 

Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Loretta Young, Joan Crawford were all terrific. But I have to give a shoutout to Joan Blondell. Though she rarely had starring roles and was in only a handful of outstanding films, she’s a personal favorite. She was absolutely adorable AND sexy at the same time. 

I also feel compelled to single out Marlene Dietrich. Her films with director Josef von Sternberg from the early ‘30s are among the best vehicles for an actress ever made (see especially, Blonde Venus, Morocco and the Shanghai Express). Dietrich had a long brilliant career.

Ingrid Bergman has to rank high. Casablanca, Notorious, Stromboli, Voyage to Italy, Gaslight, Spellbound, Cactus Flower, and Autumn Sonata.

So far I’ve only looked at actresses from Hollywood’s golden age. Let’s look at more recent stars.

Faye Dunaway is the first name that comes to mind. From 1967 through 1976 she was in Bonnie and Clyde, The Thomas Crown Affair, Little Big Man, Chinatown, Three Days of the Condor and Network appearing opposite, Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford and William Holden. Not a bad run.

Natalie Wood, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Julie Christie were all fine actresses whose work I always enjoyed. However of them only Christie was the only who appeared in more than a couple of my favorite films (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait).

Then there’s Diane Keaton. She was in the first two Godfather films, Manhattan, Annie Hall, Love and Death, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Reds, all beloved films. Keaton didn’t just stumble into great films, she was always a part of what made them great. And look at her range, The Godfather and Annie Hall are VERY different films, only similar in that they’re great.

Among foreign actresses I love Monica Vitti, Jeanne Moreau, Liv Ullman, Bibi Andersson, Lea Seydoux, Claudia Cardinale and Kati Outinen. Vitti had the good fortune to appear in Michelangelo Antonio's best films (La Notte, L'Aventurra, L'Eclise and Red Desert) while Ullman and Andersson featured in a lot of Ingmar Bergman's best work. Ullman was also in the two great films from another Swedish director, Jan Troell (The Emigrants and A New Land). Outinen has been a regular in Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki's pictures. 

There are many really good actresses working now who I always enjoy such as Kristen Stewart, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Penelope Cruz and Frances McDormand. Of them I think Blanchett is the best actress but they all are brilliant. 

For favorite actors I had one from the first half  of cinema history (Cary Grant) one from the second half (Al Pacino) and one from foreign language films (Marcello Mastrioni). Among actresses in the same categories (drum roll please) the winners are Barbara Stanwyck, Diane Keaton and Liv Ullman.