Back home
Boston Globe's Boston.com

SectionsToday

Find all movies
By theatre
By town
By movie
By genre

Search
Enter cinema name, movie title, or star's name:



Features
Top 50 film stars
Local films
MovieMail

Boston Globe
Action!
Jay Carr's tips
Movie capsules
Video watch

Other resources
Local links
Moviefone.com

Yellow Pages
Theatres
Video rentals
Movie posters
Movie studios




Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn top list of 50 best film stars

By Jeff Wilson, Associated Press, 06/16/99

Hollywood co-stars Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart are shown on location in Africa for John Juston's 1951 film, "The African Queen." Bogart and Hepburn led the American Film Institute's list of the 50 greatest screen legends.

The 50 Greatest
Screen Legends

  • The List
  • Legend Photo Gallery
  • Associated Press's Star list

  • LOS ANGELES - Humphrey Bogart and his "African Queen'' co-star Katharine Hepburn led the American Film Institute's list Tuesday of the 50 greatest screen legends, a lineup missing many of the biggest stars of silent films and musicals.

    The roster was unveiled during a three-hour special on CBS.

    Cary Grant was No. 2 on the list of greatest male actors, followed by James Stewart, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy and Charlie Chaplin. Only four on the men's list - Brando, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and Sidney Poitier - are still alive.

    Following Miss Hepburn among female legends were, in order: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford. There are five living female legends - Miss Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Shirley Temple and Sophia Loren.

    "For a guy who didn't think of acting as a competitive sport, he would have been honored and awestruck by this,'' Bogart's son Stephen said. "You look at the 75 films he's done, from 'The African Queen' to 'Casablanca,' 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' and 'The Maltese Falcon.' These were all such disparate roles, yet he carried them all off.''

    Stephen Bogart's mother is Miss Bacall, who was No. 20 among the actresses.

    "I'm shocked and I'm flattered beyond words,'' she said by telephone from Italy. "My God! I would never have expected it. But I'm not surprised that Bogie's No. 1.'' She added: "Gee, this makes me feel a hell of a lot more important than I am. I'm going to call my agent right now.''

    The Tuesday night show was patterned after last summer's AFI special that named the 100 best American movies. "Citizen Kane'' was No. 1, followed by "Casablanca,'' "The Godfather,'' "Gone With the Wind,'' "Lawrence of Arabia'' and "The Wizard of Oz.''

    Critics and movie buffs jumped on the AFI for overlooking so many silent movies. Only four were chosen, and way down in 44th place was D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation.''

    "We expect that sort of thing again. Someone will find fault,'' AFI chairman Tom Pollock said. "Lists by their nature create controversy because of who is on them and who is left off them.''

    Those who didn't make the top 50 greatest stars included Douglas Fairbanks, Ronald Colman, Rudolph Valentino, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Alec Guinness, Mickey Rooney, Fredric March, Doris Day, Loretta Young, Olivia de Havilland, Bob Hope, Will Rogers, Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson and Tom Mix.

    "The silent film people always get the shaft. This is more a comment on a lack of cinema literacy,'' film critic and historian Leonard Maltin said. "But who on this list isn't deserving? I'd find it hard to argue against anyone who's on the list.''

    The AFI compilation also paid little regard to musicals. Astaire, Miss Rogers and Miss Garland appeared from that film genre, but Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were missing.

    By design, current box office stars like Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, John Travolta, Harrison Ford and Susan Sarandon weren't included.

    AFI defined "American screen legend'' as an actor with a significant presence in movies whose debut occurred before 1951 or whose debut occurred after 1950 but produced a significant body of work before the performer's death.

    That allowed the inclusion of James Dean (No. 18) and Grace Kelly (No. 13).

    Jurors were asked to consider five criteria: star quality (charisma and presence), craft (ability to embody different characters), legacy (body of work), popularity and historical context.

    Ballots were sent to more than 1,800 people in the film industry - both behind and in front of the camera - critics, writers, cultural leaders, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. It wasn't known whether Clinton and Gore voted.

    Entertainment writers and editors of The Associated Press, in a recently compiled list of the 25 most significant stars of the century, also selected Bogart, Miss Bacall and Miss Hepburn, but included Fairbanks, Valentino and Laurel and Hardy. Not limited by the AFI's rules, the AP also singled out Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mickey Mouse.



     


    Advertise on Boston.com

    or
    Use Boston.com to do business with the Boston Globe:
    advertise, subscribe, contact the news room, and more.

    Click here for assistance.
    Please read our user agreement and user information privacy policy.

    © Copyright 2000 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc.