1955's Top 35
by Ed_Jones_XLIX2 | created - 18 Oct 2018 | updated - 19 Oct 2018 | PublicWhat a year. So many great actors from all over the globe. So many, that it was hard to choose who to leave out to meet the 35 choice limit! This list is by Star Meter rankings starting at #1 and descending. All but 3 are still with us today. Who is your favorite actor or actress? After voting, please discuss here.
1. Bruce Willis
Actor | Die Hard
Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD, placing him in the top ten stars in terms of box office receipts.
Walter Bruce ...
2. Rowan Atkinson
Actor | Johnny English
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January, 1955, in Consett, Co. Durham, UK, to Ella May (Bainbridge) and Eric Atkinson. His father owned a farm, where Rowan grew up with his two older brothers, Rupert and Rodney. He attended Newcastle University and Oxford University where he earned degrees ...
3. Jane Kaczmarek
Actress | Pleasantville
Jane grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother, Evelyn, was a school teacher. Her father, Edward, is a former Defense Department employee. She is the oldest of four children. Her brothers, Jim & Bill, are a teacher and an entrepreneur respectively. Her sister, Mary, works for an Internet company....
4. Kevin Costner
Actor | The Postman
Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison, and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle ...
5. William Forsythe
Actor | The Devil's Rejects
Dynamically entertaining heavyset US actor with piercing eyes, William Forsythe has a superb talent for playing some truly unlikable and downright nasty characters that dominate the films in which he appears! If you're cast as the hero against Forsythe's villain, then you have your work cut out for...
6. Tanya Roberts
Actress | A View to a Kill
Tanya Roberts came from modest beginnings in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of a pen salesman (Irish) and a mother (Jewish) who were divorced before she reached high school. Tanya dropped out of high school at age 15, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her mother-in-law had the ...
7. Bill Paxton
Actor | Aliens
Bill Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the son of Mary Lou (Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman and actor (as John Paxton). Bill moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where he found work in the film industry as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World ...
R.I.P.
8. Willem Dafoe
Actor | Spider-Man
Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and dare to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large ...
9. J.K. Simmons
Actor | Whiplash
J.K. Simmons is an American actor.
He was born Jonathan Kimble Simmons in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Patricia (Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a music teacher. He attended the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; University of Montana, Missoula, MT (BA in Music).
He had ...
10. Brendan Gleeson
Actor | The Guard
Brendan Gleeson was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Pat and Frank Gleeson. From a very young age, he loved to learn, especially reading classical text in and outside the classroom. He took great attention to Irish play writers such as Samuel Beckett, which eventually led to him performing in his high ...
11. Xander Berkeley
Actor | Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Xander's father was a painter and his mother a school teacher who sewed, providing him with costumes (his preference over toys). School plays and Community Theater were next. An experimental theater troupe in the area (which was an offshoot from Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater in New York) took ...
12. Billy Bob Thornton
Actor | Sling Blade
Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in ...
13. Whoopi Goldberg
Actress | Ghost
Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in the Chelsea section of Manhattan on November 13, 1955. Her mother, Emma (Harris), was a teacher and a nurse, and her father, Robert James Johnson, Jr., was a clergyman. Whoopi's recent ancestors were from Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. She worked in...
14. Laurie Metcalf
Actress | Lady Bird
Laurie Metcalf was born June 16, 1955 in Carbondale, Illinois, the oldest of three children of Libby (Mars), a librarian, and James Metcalf, a budget director. She was raised in Edwardsville, Illinois. Laurie attended Illinois State University, where she obtained her bachelor of arts in theater in ...
15. Michael Rooker
Actor | Guardians of the Galaxy
Michael Rooker was born on April 6, 1955 in Jasper, Alabama. When he was thirteen, his parents divorced and he went with his mother to live in Chicago. He caught the acting bug while attending college, and began appearing in local stage productions. On first breaking into film, his intensity and "...
16. Judy Davis
Actress | Husbands and Wives
Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best...
17. Marina Sirtis
Actress | Star Trek: Generations
Marina Sirtis was born in London, England, to Greek parents, Despina (Yianniri), a tailor's assistant, and John Sirtis. Her parents did not want her to become an actress. As soon as Marina completed high school, she secretly applied to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After her graduation, ...
18. Debra Winger
Actress | Terms of Endearment
Mary Debra Winger was born May 16, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Ruth (Felder), an office manager, and Robert Jack Winger, a meat packer. She is from a Jewish family (originally from Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire). Her maternal grandparents called her Mary, while her parents called her Debra...
19. Kelsey Grammer
Actor | Cheers
A six-time Emmy Award winner, Kelsey Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to Sally (Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and restaurateur. He was raised in New Jersey and Florida. Grammer was drawn to the works of William Shakespeare and spent two years at ...
20. Jeff Daniels
Actor | The Squid and the Whale
Actor Jeff Daniels was born in Athens, Georgia, but was raised in Chelsea, Michigan. He is the son of Marjorie J. (Ferguson) and Robert Lee Daniels, who owned The Chelsea Lumber Company and was also mayor of Chelsea. Jeff attended Central Michigan University, but became involved in acting and ...
21. Glenne Headly
Actress | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
For the past fourteen years, she has said that family has been the most important thing to her and she has set most of her time aside to be a "present" mother to her son. Movies, plays and television are chosen, for the most part, when they occur in town or on a school break. She has taken the ...
R.I.P.
22. Christopher McDonald
Actor | Thelma & Louise
Christopher McDonald was born and raised in New York City, New York, to Patricia, a real estate agent, and James R. McDonald, an educator. His breakout role was in Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise (1991), followed shortly by playing Jack Barry in Robert Redford's Quiz show (1994). Other notable ...
23. Raoul Max Trujillo
Actor | Riddick
Raoul Max Trujillo, aka Raoul Maximiano Trujillo de Chauvelon, was born in Northern New Mexico. He is a mixed blood descendant of Mexican, Ute, Apache, Comanche, Pueblo, Tlascalan, French, Sephardic Jew and Andalusian Moor. After high school, he spent three years serving in the military in Germany....
24. Miguel Ferrer
Actor | Traffic
Miguel Ferrer was born on February 7, 1955 in Santa Monica, California, USA as Miguel José Ferrer. He was an actor, known for Traffic (2000), Crossing Jordan (2001) and Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993). He was married to Lori Weintraub and Leilani Sarelle. He died on January 19, 2017 in Los Angeles, ...
R.I.P.
25. Kate Mulgrew
Actress | Orange Is the New Black
Katherine Kiernan Mulgrew, or Kate Mulgrew, was born on April 29, 1955. She grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, the second oldest child (and oldest girl) in a large Irish Catholic family. When Kate expressed an interest in acting as a child, her mother, Joan, encouraged her to audition for local theater ...
26. Jimmy Smits
Actor | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Jimmy Smits was born on July 9, 1955 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA as Jimmy L. Smits. He is an actor and producer, known for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), NYPD Blue (1993) and The West Wing (1999). He was previously married to Barbara Smits.
27. Richard Schiff
Actor | Man of Steel
Richard was born in Bethesda, Maryland, the middle of three sons of Edward, a real estate lawyer, and Charlotte, a cable TV and publishing executive. His parents divorced when he was 12. He dropped out of high school but obtained an equivalency diploma. He tried studying at the City College of New ...
28. Peter Gallagher
Actor | American Beauty
Peter Gallagher was born on August 19, 1955 in New York City, New York, USA as Peter Killian Gallagher. He is an actor, known for American Beauty (1999), The O.C. (2003) and While You Were Sleeping (1995). He has been married to Paula Harwood since May 7, 1983. They have two children.
29. Lena Olin
Actress | Alias
Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress before she came to Hollywood. She acted at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm and was directed by Ingmar Bergman. She was born in Stockholm, to actors Britta Holmberg and Stig Olin, who appeared in six of Bergman's films. Lena also ...
30. Gary Sinise
Actor | Forrest Gump
Gary Alan Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, to Mylles S. (Alsip) and Robert L. Sinise, A.C.E., a film editor. He is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Swedish ancestry. His family moved to Highland Park, where he attended high school. ...
31. Linda Purl
Actress | Mighty Joe Young
Linda Purl was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and raised in Japan, becoming the only foreigner to train at the Toho Geino Academy. At the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo, she played the role of "Louis" in "The King and I" (in Japanese), "Bet" in "Oliver" and the role of "Helen Keller" in "The Miracle ...
32. Gilbert Gottfried
Actor | Aladdin
At the young age of 15, Gilbert Gottfried began doing stand-up at open mike nights in New York City and, after a few short years, became known around town as "the comedian's comedian". After spending several years mastering the art of stand-up comedy, producers of the legendary NBC late-night ...
33. Wayne Knight
Actor | Jurassic Park
Actor Wayne Knight achieved television immortality assaying the role of the frenetic mailman "Newman", nemesis of the eponymous lead character in the classic TV series Seinfeld (1989). He also appeared in Jurassic Park (1993) as "Dennis Nedry" and in one of the most notorious scenes in American ...
34. Yun-Fat Chow
Actor | Wo hu cang long
Chow Yun Fat is a charismatic, athletically built and energetic Asian-born film star who first came to the attention of western audiences via his roles in the high-octane/blazing guns action films of maverick HK director John Woo.
Chow was born in 1955 on the quiet island of Lamma, part of the ...
35. Mira Furlan
Actress | Babylon 5
A leading actress of theatre, film and TV in the former Yugoslavia, Mira Furlan emigrated to the U.S. with her husband, Goran Gajic, in November 1991, due to the intolerable political circumstances in her homeland. Ms. Furlan starred in the Warner Brothers TV-series Babylon 5 (1993) as "Ambassador ...
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