AMC's 50 Greatest Actresses of All Time

She had offbeat looks and a quirky voice, but when Davis was onscreen everyone else disappeared.

Soulful star Bergman made doomed romance look good in Casablanca and self-loathing even better in Notorious.

Her mother said she wasn't pretty enough, but brassy Barbra from Brooklyn won an Oscar for her first film, Funny Girl.

Gone With the Wind made the dark-haired beauty a star, but ten years later she played a shy spinster in The Heiress.

Fonda defied the Establishment, going from generic starlet (Walk on the Wild Side) to sex kitten (Barbarella) to Oscar winner (Klute).

In a world of pneumatic blondes, Hepburn made smart, complicated brunette sprites sexy in Roman Holiday and Sabrina.

From Double Indemnity to The Lady Eve, Stanwyck was a lean live wire with an alluringly husky voice.

She made casual elegant and relocated the seat of sex appeal from the bosom to the brain in Bringing Up Baby and Adam's Rib.

British beauty Kerr specialized in channeling the hidden heat beneath the brittle, high-strung facade.

At 17, Winslet wowed moviegoers as a sociopathic teen in Heavenly Creatures. She's never shied away from offbeat characters.

The Swedish-born Garbo had plenty of beauty and talent to spare, but her mystery made her a legend.

Arthur excelled at playing brisk, witty, no-nonsense career girls who could go toe-to-toe with any man.

Colbert could do just about anything -- historical dramas, women's weepies, musicals -- but she was the quintessential runaway heiress.

The Gone With the Wind star made fewer than two dozen movies, but the combination of icy beauty and inner fire made her unforgettable.

No one worked harder. From Our Dancing Daughters to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, she remained in the limelight.

Taylor could act when she wanted to, as in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and even when she didn't her looks sufficed.

Blanchett sexed up the queen in Elizabeth and turned men's blood to ice as a Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

An energetic redhead with a saucy smile, MacLaine made hooking seem wholesome in Irma la Douce and Sweet Charity.

Dench has been a woman for all seasons, equally able to steal 1998's Shakespeare in Love and put James Bond in his place.

Boss from hell, Holocaust survivor, and frustrated housewife -- is there anyone Streep can't play?

Talented but insecure, Garland was the little girl with a voice big enough to inspire everyone who felt out of step with the world.

In The Big Sleep, the young Bacall's sultry voice and tough-girl swagger captivated men and women alike.

Wholesomely pretty, America's Sweetheart was the first real movie star and co-founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

An Italian bombshell with talent as generous as her curves, Loren could be sultry, funny, and heartbreaking.

Olivia de Havilland's younger sister was the quintessential cool, classy Hitchcock blonde and won an Oscar for Suspicion.

She could have coasted on her platinum-blonde looks, but Lombard showed she had sublime comic timing in My Man Godfrey.

Louche, leggy, and decadently languid, Dietrich brought European sophistication to Hollywood and kissed a girl in thirties Morocco.

She sang like an angel in Mary Poppins and made fun of her sweetness-and-light image in S.O.B.

Witty and urbane, Loy excelled in the Thin Man movies, playing the brainier half of society sleuths Nick and Nora.

From The Quiet Man to Miracle on 34th Street, O'Hara brought a dash of color to every movie she made.

Portman gives her all to every role, from a 12-year-old assassin (The Professional) to a ballerina losing her grip on reality (Black Swan).

As a child star (Miracle on 34th Street), teen idol (Rebel Without a Cause), and ingenue (West Side Story), Wood always sparkled.

Often daffy but never dumb, Keaton was equally at home in Annie Hall and the Godfather trilogy.

Precocious child actress Foster matured into a brainy Oscar-winning beauty in dramas like The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.

"Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" asked the bombshell in Hell's Angels, and a bad-girl cliche was born.

Kidman's range -- which includes comedy, action, and serious drama -- is as striking as her fiery red hair.

The star of the sex farces She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel, the full-figured West was queen of the bawdy double entendre.

She wasn't much of an actress, but Gardner had the looks that transformed a tobacco farmer's daughter into a pop-culture goddess.

Modeling got Hayward to Hollywood, where she delivered wrenching performances in Smash-Up and I Want to Live!

A Hollywood makeover turned Latina dancer Margarita Cansino into a red-haired pinup and erotic icon.

Refusing to be stereotyped as the perky star of TV's Flying Nun, Field reinvented herself as a gutsy movie actress in Norma Rae.

She may be tiny, but she can go from cute (Legally Blonde) to formidable (Walk the Line) in an instant.

The Tesla roadster of actresses, Jolie is the rare woman who looks like Lara Croft and talks like Mother Teresa.

A teenage beauty-pageant winner, Berry dressed down to star in Monster's Ball, proving she's more than a (very) pretty face.

Bullock is the girl next door -- smart, nice, pretty, loyal, and fun. Who cares if her movies are forgettable?

Pretty Woman catapulted the coltish Roberts to stardom, and her megawatt smile continues to light up comedies and dramas.

Day's perky, fresh-faced image was the antithesis of her hard-knocks life, but she never broke character.

Rogers could sing, dance, and had enough sex appeal that it rubbed off on Fred Astaire, with whom she starred in Top Hat.

Before becoming Princess Grace of Monaco, she was the impossibly elegant star of Rear Window and Dial M for Murder

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, and Some Like it Hot showcased the buxom, blue-eyed blonde's comic gifts.