Greatest Film Performances of the 1940s (US/UK)

  Actor - Film Title (Year of Release)

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  1. Laurence Olivier - Hamlet (1948)
  2. Orson Welles - Citizen Kane (1941)
  3. Katharine Hepburn - The Philadelphia Story (1940)
  4. Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator (1940)
  5. Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca (1942)
  6. Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight (1944)
  7. Henry Fonda - The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
  8. Barbara Stanwyck - Double Indemnity (1944)
  9. James Stewart - It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
10. Laurence Olivier - Henry V (1944)
11. James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
12. Ingrid Bergman - Casablanca (1942)
13. Humphrey Bogart - The Maltese Falcon (1941)
14. Jane Wyman - Johnny Belinda (1948)
15. Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend (1945)
16. James Cagney - White Heat (1949)
17. Fredric March - The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
18. Olivia de Havilland - The Heiress (1949)
19. Joan Fontaine - Suspicion (1941)
20. Barbara Stanwyck - The Lady Eve (1941)
21. Alec Guinness - Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
22. Katharine Hepburn - Adam's Rib (1949)
23. Jennifer Jones - The Song Of Bernadette (1943)
24. Robert Mitchum - Out of the Past (1947)
25. Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce (1945)
26. Paul Lukas - Watch on the Rhine (1943)
27. Joseph Cotten - Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
28. Cary Grant - Arsenic And Old Lace (1944)
29. Ingrid Bergman - For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
30. James Stewart - The Philadelphia Story (1940)
31. Laurence Olivier - Rebecca (1940)
32. Ingrid Bergman - Spellbound (1945)
33. Joan Fontaine - Rebecca (1940)
34. Gary Cooper - Sergeant Yorke (1941)
35. Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver (1942)
36. Carole Lombard - To Be or Not To Be (1942)
37. Charles Boyer - Gaslight (1944)
38. Humphrey Bogart - Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Olivia de Havilland - To Each His Own (1946)
40. Ronald Colman - A Double Life (1947)
41. Charlie Chaplin - Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
42. Ingrid Bergman - Notorious (1946)
43. Olivia de Havilland - The Snake Pit (1948)
44. Montgomery Clift - Red River (1948)
45. Rosalind Russell - Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
46. Loretta Young - The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
47. Orson Welles - The Third Man (1949)
48. Claude Rains - Notorious (1946)
49. Edward G. Robinson - Key Largo (1948)
50. Joan Fontaine - Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
51. Humphrey Bogart - To Have and Have Not (1944)
52. Jean Arthur - The More the Merrier (1943)
53. Bette Davis - The Letter (1940)
54. Katharine Hepburn - Woman of the Year (1942)
55. Cary Grant - His Girl Friday (1940)
56. Peter Lorre - The Maltese Falcon (1941)
57. Humphrey Bogart - High Sierra (1941)
58. Agnes Moorehead - The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
59. Lauren Bacall - Key Largo (1948)
60. Donna Reed - It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
61. Walter Huston - Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
62. Broderick Crawford - All the King's Men (1949)
63. Mercedes McCambridge - All the King's Men (1949)
64. Bette Davis - Now, Voyager (1942)
65. Gary Cooper - The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
66. Rosalind Russell - His Girl Friday (1940)
67. Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle (1940)
68. Ralph Richardson - The Heiress (1949)
69. Kirk Douglas - Champion (1949)
70. Humphrey Bogart - The Big Sleep (1946)
71. Cary Grant - Notorious (1946)
72. Spencer Tracy - Adam's Rib (1949)
73. John Wayne - Red River (1948)
74. Celia Johnson - Brief Encounter (1945)
75. Greer Garson - The Valley of Decision (1945)
76. Trevor Howard - Brief Encounter (1945)
77. Bing Crosby - Going My Way (1944)
78. Greer Garson - Madame Curie (1943)
79. Joan Fontaine - The Constant Nymph (1943)
80. Barry Fitzgerald - Going My Way (1944)
81. John Garfield - Body and Soul (1947)
82. William Powell - Life with Father (1947)
83. Lana Turner - The Postman Alaways Rings Twice (1946)
84. Gregory Peck - The Yearling (1946)
85. Bette Davis - The Little Foxes (1941)
86. Gregory Peck - Spellbound (1945)
87. Claude Rains - Casablanca (1942)
88. Monty Woolley - The Pied Piper (1942)
89. Ronald Colman - Random Harvest (1942)
90. Greer Garson - Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
91. Walter Huston - All That Money Can Buy (1941)
92. Cary Grant - The Philadelphia Story (1940)
93. Alexander Knox - Wilson (1944)
94. Cary Grant - None But The Lonely Heart (1944)
95. Elizabeth Taylor - National Velvet (1944)
96. Gene Tierney - Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
97. Richard Widmark - Kiss of Death (1947)
98. Joan Crawford - Possessed (1947)
99. Susan Hayward - Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)
100. Deborah Kerr - Black Narcissus (1947)

101. Lauren Bacall - To Have and Have Not (1944)
102. Roger Livesey - The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
103. Katina Paxinou - For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
104. Mickey Rooney - The Human Comedy (1943)
105. Claudette Colbert - Since You Went Away (1944)
106. Rosalind Russell - Sister Kenny (1946)
107. Gene Kelly - Anchors Aweigh (1945)
108. Jennifer Jones - A Duel in the Sun (1946)
109. Harold Russell - The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
110. Jane Wyman - The Yearling (1946)
111. Ingrid Bergman - The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
112. Bing Crosby - The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
113. Michael Redgrave - Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
114. Greer Garson - Mrs. Parkington (1944)
115. Bette Davis - Mr. Skeffington (1944)
116. Joel McCrea - The More the Merrier (1943)
117. Gary Cooper - For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
118. Charles Coburn - The More the Merrier (1943)
119. Fred MacMurray - Double Indemnity (1944)
120. Margaret O'Brien - Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
121. Joan Fontaine - Jane Eyre (1943)
122. Gregory Peck - Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
123. Richard Todd - The Hasty Heart (1949)
124. Irene Dunne - I Remember Mama (1948)
125. Barbara Stanwyck - Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
126. Montgomery Clift - The Search (1948)
127. John Wayne - Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
128. Anton Walbrook - The Red Shoes (1948)
129. Alec Guinness - Oliver Twist (1948)
130. Ingrid Bergman - Joan of Arc (1948)
131. Henry Fonda - The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
132. Martha Scott - Our Town (1940)
133. James Stewart - The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
134. Teresa Wright - Mrs. Miniver (1942)
135. Joseph Cotten - The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
136. Robert Montgomery - Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
137. Clifton Webb - Laura (1944)
138. Humphrey Bogart - Sahara (1943)
139. Raymond Massey - Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
140. Margaret Sullavan - The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
141. Barbara Stanwyck - Ball of Fire (1941)
142. Deborah Kerr - Edward, My Son (1949)
143. Gregory Peck - Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
144. Cornel Wilde - Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
145. Angela Lansbury - The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
146. Gene Kelly - On the Town (1949)
147. Jeanne Crain - Pinky (1949)
148. Lionel Barrymore - It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
149. Dana Andrews - The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
150. Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
151. Robert Mitchum - The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
152. Olivia de Havilland - Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
153. Cary Grant - Penny Serenade (1941)
154. Gary Cooper - Ball of Fire (1941)
155. John Carradine - The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
156. Joel McCrea - Sullivan's Travels (1941)
157. Walter Brennan - The Westerner (1940)
158. W.C. Fields - The Bank Dick (1940)
159. Jean Simmons - Hamlet (1948)
160. Cornel Wilde - A Song to Remember (1945)
161. Jennifer Jones - Love Letters (1945)
162. Rita Hayworth - Gilda (1946)
163. Robert Ryan - Crossfire (1947)
164. Jane Greer - Out of the Past (1947)
165. Celeste Holm - Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
166. Henry Travers - It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
167. Rita Hayworth - The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
168. James Stewart - Rope (1948)
169. Henry Fonda - My Darling Clementine (1946)
170. Burt Lancaster - The Killers (1946)
171. Walter Pidgeon - Mrs. Miniver (1942)
172. Teresa Wright - The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
173. Walter Pidgeon - Madame Curie (1943)
174. Deborah Kerr - The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
175. Susan Peters - Random Harvest (1942)
176. Jane Darwell - The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
177. James Stephenson - The Letter (1940)
178. Gene Kelly - For Me and My Gal (1942)
179. Donald Crisp - How Green Was My Valley (1941)
180. Joseph Cotten - Citizen Kane (1941)
181. Tim Holt - The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
182. Loretta Young - Come to the Stable (1949)
183. Robert Ryan - The Set-Up (1949)
184. Rex Harrison - Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
185. Cathy O'Donnell - They Live By Night (1948)
186. Richard Attenborough - Brighton Rock (1947)
187. James Mason - Odd Man Out (1947)
188. Edmond O'Brien - White Heat (1949)
189. Lon Chaney Jr. - The Wolf Man (1941)
190. Sydney Greenstreet - The Maltese Falcon (1941)
191. Akim Tamiroff - For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
192. Ida Lupino - The Hard Way (1943)
193. John Mills - In Which We Serven (1942)
194. Dean Jagger - Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
195. Ethel Barrymore - None But The Lonely Heart (1944)
196. Dick Powell - Murder, My Sweet (1944)
197. J. Carrol Naish - A Medal for Benny (1945)
198. Ann Blyth - Mildred Pierce (1945)
199. Robert Montgomery - They Were Expendable (1945)
200. James Dunn - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)