On June 15, 1999, the American Film Institute unveiled its choices for the top 25 actors and 25 actresses of the first half of this century, in its 100 Years 100 Stars program.
For the last five months we've been accepting ballots from you, containing your choices for your 10 favorite actors and 10 favorite actresses. Here are the final results from #1 to #40, just in time to compare them with the choices of the AFI's 1800 experts. (All links are to Classic Movies tribute articles.)
The race for favorite actor is almost too close to call, with Cary Grant just edging out Jimmy Stewart by three votes. Humphrey Bogart is almost 100 votes behind Stewart, with Clark Gable 50 votes behind Bogart. Another 100 votes separate the top four stars from a three-way tie for fifth among John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, and Gregory Peck -- which is pretty amazing, considering how many ballots we received. Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, and Gene Kelly are the rest of the top ten. A pretty elite group!
Among actresses, Katharine Hepburn has been the runaway winner the entire time (and I think it's safe to predict that she'll finish first Tuesday night), with Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, and Bette Davis rounding out the top four. There's a drop of almost 100 votes to the surprise fifth place finisher, Maureen O'Hara. As I've mentioned in previous articles, this may be partly due to an organized campaign by her supporters, but it would be nice to see her get some recognition from Hollywood. Lauren Bacall, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, and Elizabeth Taylor complete the top ten actresses, all of whom are guaranteed to be honored on Tuesday. The program will be hosted by Shirley Temple Black, who according to our poll has a chance of being named to the list herself, finishing 23rd.
Remember that this poll is entirely unofficial. The actual 25 actors and 25 actresses will be chosen by the AFI's voters, not by this poll. But I think our results will be pretty close to the final numbers -- especially for the top 10, who should be featured on the program, assuming the voting is legitimate (and I have no reason to believe it isn't).
The Results
I'm sure one of the questions on your mind is whether there were any actors or actresses who did not get any votes. Yes, there were, but of course that situation was aggravated by the fact that I only allowed 20 votes per person rather than 50. Nevertheless, here are some names you can be pretty sure you won't hear on Tuesday: Actors - George Arliss, Richard Dix, William Farnum, Rex Ingram, Charles Ray, and Harold Russell. Actresses - Betty Bronson, Jeanne Eagels, Corinne Griffith, May McAvoy, Mae Murray, Anna Q. Nilsson, Seena Owen, and Marie Prevost. Many of them were silent stars or supporting actors who are sadly all but forgotten today.
Be sure to visit Tim Dirks' page from his Greatest Films site entitled Greatest Film Star Roles and Legends after Tuesday. He'll be identifying the 50 winners with special symbols. I'm willing to bet he's had them all listed on his page since last year.
I said earlier that I would speculate about which stars from the second half of this century would be chosen to present the winners. While I don't know what the exact format of the program is going to be, I'd certainly think that the following presenters would make a lot of sense:
Cary Grant - Harrison Ford
Jimmy Stewart - Tom Hanks
Humphrey Bogart - Jack Nicholson
Clark Gable - Paul Newman
John Wayne - Clint Eastwood
Henry Fonda - Peter Fonda
Laurence Olivier - Anthony Hopkins
Bob Hope - Billy Crystal
Sidney Poitier - Denzel Washington
Kirk Douglas - Michael Douglas
Katharine Hepburn - Meryl Streep
Audrey Hepburn - Gwyneth Paltrow
Vivien Leigh - Emma Thompson
Judy Garland - Liza Minelli
Myrna Loy - Jodie Foster
Lucille Ball - Whoopi Goldberg
Jean Harlow - Meg Ryan
Those are just just some of my thoughts on the subject. Finally, I told several of you that I would reveal my own choices at the end of the poll. Here they are, in alphabetical order, with the actor's or actress' position in the final standings listed in parentheses. You'll notice that the only person on my list who didn't end up in the top 40 was Jean Simmons. I still hope she'll have a part in this program.
Official Results
Actors
Humphrey Bogart (3)
Jimmy Cagney (11)
Kirk Douglas (27)
Henry Fonda (9)
Clark Gable (4)
Alec Guinness (31)
Burt Lancaster (28)
Robert Mitchum (15)
Peter Sellers (33)
Jimmy Stewart (2)
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Actresses
Lauren Bacall (6)
Ingrid Bergman (3)
Judy Garland (8)
Audrey Hepburn (2)
Katharine Hepburn (1)
Grace Kelly (18)
Marilyn Monroe (12)
Jean Simmons
Barbara Stanwyck (15)
Natalie Wood (26)
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