Sexy, stylish, and powerfulfrom Lillian Gish to Katharine Hepburn, Myrna Loy to Lauren Bacall, Jean Harlow to Grace Kelly, each of the legendary actresses featured in this book left an indelible mark in film history and define roles for women on and off the screen. Produced by Turner Classic Movies, this playful and definitive guide to fifty unforgettable actresses mirrors the focus of a month-long film festival on the channel. The life and accomplishments of each actress is celebrated in an insightful career overview, accompanied by an annotated list of essential films, filmographies, behind the scenes facts and style notes, Academy Award wins and nominations. Full of delightful trivia, film stills, posters, and glamorous photos, Leading Ladies pays tribute to the most charismatic, enduring, and elegant actresses of the silver screen.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Robert Osborne is the prime-time host and anchor of Turner Classic Movies and a columnist-critic for the Hollywood Reporter .
Molly Haskell is co-host of TCM's "The Essentials" series and the author of several books on women and film.
Turner Classic Movies is widely considered the definitive resource for classic films, featuring movies from all the major studios, unedited and commercial free.
Molly Haskell is co-host of TCM's "The Essentials" series and the author of several books on women and film.
Turner Classic Movies is widely considered the definitive resource for classic films, featuring movies from all the major studios, unedited and commercial free.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I recently read this volume as well as its companion, Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era, and thoroughly enjoyed both while agreeing with others that the selections may have been biased if executives within the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) organization were involved in the decision as to whom to include and whom to omit. For example, Ann Sheridan (who appears in films shown on TCM) but not Shirley Temple (who doesn't). That said, both volumes offer a Foreword by Robert Osborne and an Introduction by Molly Haskell and have the same reader-friendly format which consists of a brief but adequate bio of the given actress followed by "Style Notes" and "Behind the Scenes" sections. Here are a few brief excerpts.
From the brief bio of Katharine Hepburn: "Her film work kept her a star despite frequent breaks to pursue theatrical projects and care for [Spencer Tracy] as his health declined. She put her salary on the line so he could play opposite her in his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). He died 17 days after filming was complete. Katharine won an Oscar for the film, but she said she could never watch it because the memories were too painful."
From the brief bio of Vivien Leigh: "Filming Gone with the Wind was a terrible experience for Vivien. She connected well with the film's first director George Cukor, but he was fired after a few weeks. Victor Fleming, a good friend of Clark Gable's, took over, and Vivien felt like a second-class citizen. Fleming's only direction to her was `Ham it up!' She secretly went to Cukor each Sunday to work on the next week's scenes. One week she accidentally ran into Olivia De Havilland, who was playing Melanie. She was doing the same thing."
From the "Style Notes" of Lauren Bacall: "When she became pregnant in the late 1940s, she designed a maternity wardrobe that was decades ahead of its time: suits and skirts that capitalized on her changing figure rather than concealing it."
From the "Style Notes" of Ava Gardner: "The sultry, appraising gaze that [she] often gives on camera is really a squint - she needed glasses but could not wear them in her pictures."
From the "Style Notes" of Marilyn Monroe: She "didn't wear anything to distract from her curves, so she wore no underwear. Often she was sown into her tight-fitting gowns."
From "Behind the Scenes" of Joan Crawford: She "would go head-to-head with anyone to keep her star status, but she met her match in Bette Davis when the longtime rivals were cast as abusive sisters in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Bette kicked Joan in the head so hard during a fight scene that she required stitches. When Bette had to drag Joan across a room, Joan loaded her pockets with weights, causing an injury to Bette's back that lasted for days. Baby Jane was a hit and the two were paired again for Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), but after three weeks of the rematch, Joan threw in the towel and quit the film." Olivia De Havilland replaced her.
From "Behind the Scenes" of Audrey Hepburn: "Initially, Gregory Peck turned down the male lead in Roman Holiday (1953) because he didn't want to play second fiddle to an unknown actress. Director William Wyler persuaded him to take the role, yet when Peck realized how wonderful Audrey was going to be in the part, he insisted that the studio give her billing equal to his. They became lifelong friends."
It would be unfair to expect more of this volume than what it was intended to be: An entertaining, often informative discussion of 50 actresses of the studio era, most of whom are "unforgettable." More a quibble than a complaint, I wish those who organized the material in this volume had also identified (preferably in an annotated bibliography) the biography of each actress which is generally regarded as most accurate and comprehensive.
From the brief bio of Katharine Hepburn: "Her film work kept her a star despite frequent breaks to pursue theatrical projects and care for [Spencer Tracy] as his health declined. She put her salary on the line so he could play opposite her in his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). He died 17 days after filming was complete. Katharine won an Oscar for the film, but she said she could never watch it because the memories were too painful."
From the brief bio of Vivien Leigh: "Filming Gone with the Wind was a terrible experience for Vivien. She connected well with the film's first director George Cukor, but he was fired after a few weeks. Victor Fleming, a good friend of Clark Gable's, took over, and Vivien felt like a second-class citizen. Fleming's only direction to her was `Ham it up!' She secretly went to Cukor each Sunday to work on the next week's scenes. One week she accidentally ran into Olivia De Havilland, who was playing Melanie. She was doing the same thing."
From the "Style Notes" of Lauren Bacall: "When she became pregnant in the late 1940s, she designed a maternity wardrobe that was decades ahead of its time: suits and skirts that capitalized on her changing figure rather than concealing it."
From the "Style Notes" of Ava Gardner: "The sultry, appraising gaze that [she] often gives on camera is really a squint - she needed glasses but could not wear them in her pictures."
From the "Style Notes" of Marilyn Monroe: She "didn't wear anything to distract from her curves, so she wore no underwear. Often she was sown into her tight-fitting gowns."
From "Behind the Scenes" of Joan Crawford: She "would go head-to-head with anyone to keep her star status, but she met her match in Bette Davis when the longtime rivals were cast as abusive sisters in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Bette kicked Joan in the head so hard during a fight scene that she required stitches. When Bette had to drag Joan across a room, Joan loaded her pockets with weights, causing an injury to Bette's back that lasted for days. Baby Jane was a hit and the two were paired again for Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), but after three weeks of the rematch, Joan threw in the towel and quit the film." Olivia De Havilland replaced her.
From "Behind the Scenes" of Audrey Hepburn: "Initially, Gregory Peck turned down the male lead in Roman Holiday (1953) because he didn't want to play second fiddle to an unknown actress. Director William Wyler persuaded him to take the role, yet when Peck realized how wonderful Audrey was going to be in the part, he insisted that the studio give her billing equal to his. They became lifelong friends."
It would be unfair to expect more of this volume than what it was intended to be: An entertaining, often informative discussion of 50 actresses of the studio era, most of whom are "unforgettable." More a quibble than a complaint, I wish those who organized the material in this volume had also identified (preferably in an annotated bibliography) the biography of each actress which is generally regarded as most accurate and comprehensive.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is wonderful! It really does feature all of the greatest classic actresses - Clara Bow, Norma Shearer, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, Gene Tierney, Lana Turner, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Pickford, Irene Dunne, Joan Crawford, and many more. There are lots of photos and interesting trivia about all the actresses. The book devotes four pages to each actress which includes at least one full page photo. The photos alone are worth the price of the book! There are also complete filmographies for every actress in the back. I would recommend this book to everyone who loves classic actresses.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Judging from the wealth of trivia he shares on the Turner Classic Movies channel, author Robert Osborne is obviously a film historian whose focus is primarily and unapologetically Hollywood's golden era. Molly Haskell has been a feminist film critic of significant stature since her first book in 1973, "From Reverence to Rape: the Treatment of Women in the Movies". Given their unabated interest in the subject, it's no wonder they have come up with a glossy guide to the fifty actresses they feel epitomized the height of glamour and box office appeal when the major studios dominated the business and groomed its stars. For each of the legends, there is a full-page photo (usually an unfamiliar one which is a nice treat), a thumbnail profile and filmography, selected stills from classic roles, and some intriguing trivia ranging from beauty tips to on-the-set drama. It's all superficial but supremely entertaining for movie buffs.
As such lists go, the choices are all laudatory but in some cases debatable. The inclusion of several women - Pickford, Gish, Davis, Hepburn (Kate and Audrey), Garbo, Dietrich, Crawford, Bergman, Garland, Monroe - is inarguable especially for the endurance of their legacies. Others seem to be included more for iconic reasons than for the studio films they actually did, for instance, Louise Brooks (more famous for her two G.W. Pabst films in Germany than anything she did in Hollywood), Marion Davies (her career overshadowed by all things Hearst), Grace Kelly (a brief Hollywood career and then European royalty) and Lena Horne (no great movie roles given the era's pervasive racism).
At the same time, the book serves a great purpose in re-introducing luminous screen personalities who deserve to be resuscitated for a new generation of film viewers - personal favorites like Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard and Rosalind Russell among others. I also like how the editors have chosen a few women who had been previously underestimated and given them a new aura of respectability, for instance, Clara Bow, Doris Day, Kim Novak and Loretta Young. Although I will draw ire for this opinion, I feel some of the selections seem decidedly second-tier for such a vaunted list, namely Ann Sheridan, Esther Williams, Maureen O'Hara and Debbie Reynolds. It's also unclear to me where the demarcation line is drawn as I was surprised to see Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren and Natalie Wood included but not, for example, Leslie Caron, Julie Andrews or Jane Fonda.
Of course, any such list will have glaring omissions - Janet Gaynor, Shirley Temple, Margaret Sullavan, Joan Fontaine (though sister Olivia de Havilland is included), Ida Lupino, Alice Faye, Jennifer Jones, Betty Grable, Jane Wyman, Dorothy Dandridge, among others come to mind. I also wish the editors could have included some recognition for foreign actresses of similar stature in the same era, for example, Anna Magnani, Celia Johnson, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret and Setsuko Hara. But this is all part of the fun. The others on the top fifty list, in case you're wondering, are Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert, Ava Gardner, Greer Garson, Jean Harlow, Susan Hayward, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Swanson, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Tierney, Lana Turner and Mae West.
As such lists go, the choices are all laudatory but in some cases debatable. The inclusion of several women - Pickford, Gish, Davis, Hepburn (Kate and Audrey), Garbo, Dietrich, Crawford, Bergman, Garland, Monroe - is inarguable especially for the endurance of their legacies. Others seem to be included more for iconic reasons than for the studio films they actually did, for instance, Louise Brooks (more famous for her two G.W. Pabst films in Germany than anything she did in Hollywood), Marion Davies (her career overshadowed by all things Hearst), Grace Kelly (a brief Hollywood career and then European royalty) and Lena Horne (no great movie roles given the era's pervasive racism).
At the same time, the book serves a great purpose in re-introducing luminous screen personalities who deserve to be resuscitated for a new generation of film viewers - personal favorites like Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard and Rosalind Russell among others. I also like how the editors have chosen a few women who had been previously underestimated and given them a new aura of respectability, for instance, Clara Bow, Doris Day, Kim Novak and Loretta Young. Although I will draw ire for this opinion, I feel some of the selections seem decidedly second-tier for such a vaunted list, namely Ann Sheridan, Esther Williams, Maureen O'Hara and Debbie Reynolds. It's also unclear to me where the demarcation line is drawn as I was surprised to see Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren and Natalie Wood included but not, for example, Leslie Caron, Julie Andrews or Jane Fonda.
Of course, any such list will have glaring omissions - Janet Gaynor, Shirley Temple, Margaret Sullavan, Joan Fontaine (though sister Olivia de Havilland is included), Ida Lupino, Alice Faye, Jennifer Jones, Betty Grable, Jane Wyman, Dorothy Dandridge, among others come to mind. I also wish the editors could have included some recognition for foreign actresses of similar stature in the same era, for example, Anna Magnani, Celia Johnson, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret and Setsuko Hara. But this is all part of the fun. The others on the top fifty list, in case you're wondering, are Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert, Ava Gardner, Greer Garson, Jean Harlow, Susan Hayward, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Swanson, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Tierney, Lana Turner and Mae West.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice gift
Beautiful book which was a gift for my dad, a Hollywood movie buff. I also got him the corresponding book of Leading Male Actors. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
This book was very intriguing. I love classic movies and the stars. This book gave you little tidbits on each leading lady.
Published 5 months ago by giputtmo
4.0 out of 5 stars
In depth detail of the personal lives of actresses of the studio era.
This is an authoritative, must have book for classic movie lovers everywhere, specifically classic women lovers. Read more
Published on April 24, 2011 by BookLover 44
1.0 out of 5 stars
TEENY TINY PRINT
This book must have been written for an ant. The font is awful. The size is miniscule and the color is LIGHT gray to make it even MORE unreadable. Read more
Published on February 19, 2011
5.0 out of 5 stars
Present for Wife
Gave it to my wife as a present and she read it cover to cover and enjoyed every page. Sent it on to our daughter and she loved it. Read more
Published on December 29, 2010 by The Patron
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love classic actresses!
I absolutely love classic actresses and when I saw this book, and all of the classic actresses in it, I immediatly wanted it! When it arrived, it was in great condition! Read more
Published on November 20, 2010 by Eri
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous Book!!
The beautiful star glamour portraits alone are reason enough to buy this book! I may need another copy handy to add to my collection! HHHhhhmmmmmmmmmm.... ;)
Published on August 26, 2010 by TheOriginalMily
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice!
Excellent compendium of photos and info. A great job by TCM. I have this and its companion "Leading Men" book on my coffee table. Really nicely done.
Published on August 22, 2010 by Julia E. Maish
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful review of some of Hollywood's stars
This is a compilation of 50 of the most unforgettable stars of the studio era. It does not cover all of them, but there was only room for 50. Read more
Published on August 1, 2010 by Cheryl Wedesweiler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and Informative Book!
I bought this Leading Ladies book, and love it so much that I am now back to buy its companion book, Leading Men! Read more
Published on December 9, 2009 by Lanie
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- The Million Dollar Mermaid (Thorndike Biography) by Esther Williams on page 204, page 206, and Back Matter
- Quiet Man [VHS] by John Wayne on page 153, page 154, and page 155
- Morning Glory (Second Chance at Love) by Kasey Adams on page 106, and Back Matter
- The Bad and the Beautiful by Vincente Minnelli on page 197, and page 198
- Sitting Pretty: A Novel by Al Young by Al Young in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
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