Acting
Screen performances and the people behind them.
People in Acting
63 profiles
ActorAngelina Jolie
Playing Lara Croft and Maleficent.
ActorScarlett Johansson
Playing Black Widow in the Marvel films.
ActorBrad Pitt
Playing Tyler Durden and producing 12 Years a Slave.
ActorJon Voight
Starring in Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home.
ActorAudrey Hepburn
Playing Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
ActorCharlie Chaplin
Creating the bowler-hatted Tramp.
ActorMeryl Streep
Playing Sophie, Miranda Priestly and Margaret Thatcher.
ActorKate Bosworth
Playing a surfer in Blue Crush and Lois Lane in Superman Returns.
ActorRowan Atkinson
Playing Mr. Bean, Blackadder and Johnny English.
ActorNicolas Cage
Starring in Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off and National Treasure.
ActorJulia Louis-Dreyfus
Playing Elaine Benes in Seinfeld and Selina Meyer in Veep.
ActorPaul Newman
Starring in The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
BroadcasterOprah Winfrey
Hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show and building her own media company.
ActorClark Gable
Playing Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.
ActorSimon Pegg
Co-writing and starring in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
ActorRashida Jones
Playing Ann Perkins in Parks and Recreation and co-directing Quincy.
ActorLupita Nyong'o
Playing Patsey in 12 Years a Slave and Nakia in Black Panther.
ActorChuck Norris
Starring in Walker, Texas Ranger and martial-arts action films.
ActorWilliam H. Macy
Playing Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo and Frank Gallagher in Shameless.
ActorJerry Lewis
Starring in The Nutty Professor and performing with Dean Martin.
ActorBruce Willis
Playing John McClane in Die Hard.
ActorGary Oldman
Playing Sirius Black, Commissioner Gordon and George Smiley.
ActorSteve McQueen
Starring in The Great Escape, Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair.
ActorKeira Knightley
Playing Elizabeth Swann and Elizabeth Bennet.
ActorEwan McGregor
Playing Mark Renton in Trainspotting and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.
ActorBette Davis
Playing formidable, complicated women in films including All About Eve.
ActorPaul Rudd
Playing Ant-Man and starring in comedies including Clueless and I Love You, Man.
ActorMary Pickford
Becoming a silent-film star who also helped take control of film distribution.
ActorShirley Temple
Becoming a major child star before a second career in American diplomacy.
FilmmakerOrson Welles
Directing and starring in Citizen Kane.
ActorHenry Fonda
Playing principled Americans in The Grapes of Wrath and 12 Angry Men.
ActorIan McKellen
Playing Gandalf and Magneto alongside a major Shakespearean stage career.
ActorMarilyn Monroe
Starring in Some Like It Hot and becoming an enduring Hollywood icon.
ActorHattie McDaniel
Becoming the first Black performer to win an Academy Award.
ActorNicole Kidman
Starring in Moulin Rouge!, The Hours and Big Little Lies.
ActorTom Hanks
Playing Forrest Gump, Captain Miller and the voice of Woody.
ActorDaniel Radcliffe
Playing Harry Potter throughout the eight-film series.
ActorClara Bow
Becoming silent cinema’s original It Girl.
ActorHalle Berry
Becoming the first Black woman to win the leading-actress Oscar.
ActorRobert De Niro
Playing the volatile leads of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.
FilmmakerGene Kelly
Turning athletic dance into cinematic storytelling.
ActorKeanu Reeves
Playing Neo in The Matrix and the assassin John Wick.
ActorPeter Sellers
Playing Inspector Clouseau and three roles in Dr. Strangelove.
ActorSophia Loren
Winning an Oscar for the Italian-language drama Two Women.
ActorGwyneth Paltrow
Winning an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and playing Pepper Potts.
ActorJulie Andrews
Playing Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music, with a voice inseparable from both films.
FilmmakerBuster Keaton
Turning dangerous stunts, precise visual jokes and an unchanging expression into silent-film classics.
ActorKate Winslet
Playing Rose in Titanic and emotionally complex women in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
ActorAmitabh Bachchan
Defining Hindi cinema’s “angry young man” in Zanjeer and Deewaar, then building a second career as an elder leading actor.
ActorBela Lugosi
Giving Dracula the voice, gaze and commanding presence that helped define the screen vampire.
ActorShah Rukh Khan
Becoming one of Hindi cinema’s defining romantic stars, from DDLJ to Devdas.
ActorVivien Leigh
Playing Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
ActorSally Field
Moving from television comedy to Oscar-winning performances in Norma Rae and Places in the Heart.
ActorGrace Kelly
Starring in Hitchcock thrillers before becoming Princess of Monaco.
ActorWhoopi Goldberg
Combining dramatic roles, comedy and television, from The Color Purple to Sister Act.
ActorJulianne Moore
Playing complex, vulnerable women in films including Boogie Nights, Far from Heaven and Still Alice.
ActorVanessa Hudgens
Playing Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical films.
ActorMilla Jovovich
Playing Leeloo in The Fifth Element and Alice in the Resident Evil films.
ActorJonah Hill
Starring in Superbad and earning Oscar nominations for Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street.
ActorJane Fonda
Starring in Klute, Coming Home and 9 to 5, alongside a long public life in activism.
ActorAva Gardner
Starring in The Killers, Mogambo and The Night of the Iguana.
ActorDenzel Washington
Starring in Malcolm X, Training Day and Glory, with major roles on both screen and stage.
ComedianRicky Gervais
Co-creating The Office and playing David Brent, the boss desperate to be liked.