Greatest Actresses without an Oscar nomination born (1894-1934)
by MarilynHack | created - 22 Dec 2013 | updated - 31 Dec 2013 | Publiclist of actresses born between 1894 and 1934 and now gone that were fabulous actresses that never got the right role for an Oscar nomination yet should be remembered for what they DID achieve while here
1. Joan Greenwood
Actress | Kind Hearts and Coronets
Joan Greenwood, of the plummy feline voice, was born in the well-to-do London section of Chelsea, the daughter of renowned portrait painter Sydney Earnshaw Greenwood (1887-1949). Dancing from the age of eight, she took ballet lessons and later enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). ...
2. Susan Oliver
Actress | Star Trek
A fascinating aura of mystery seemed to surround the characters portrayed by blue-eyed blonde actress Susan Oliver, whose trademark high cheekbones, rosebud lips and heart-shaped face kept audiences intrigued for nearly three decades. While her career didn't play out as well as it should have, she ...
3. Pamela Brown
Actress | Cleopatra
Pamela Brown trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Her first appearance was as "Juliet" in "Romeo and Juliet" at Stratford-on-Avon in 1936. She followed this with a variety of roles for the Old Vic Company in London. She appeared on Broadway in the 1947 production of "The Importance ...
4. Jill Bennett
Actress | For Your Eyes Only
Jill Bennett was born on December 24, 1931 in Penang, Malaysia as Nora Noel Jill Bennett. She was an actress and writer, known for For Your Eyes Only (1981), The Nanny (1965) and Moulin Rouge (1952). She was married to John Osborne and Willis Hall. She died on October 4, 1990 in Kensington, London,...
5. Kathleen Byron
Actress | Saving Private Ryan
Kathleen Byron trained for the stage at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, beginning her work in the movies soon after she finished her training. Her early work with Michael Powell made her name in the UK. She went to Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s but found it difficult to break into the US ...
6. Zasu Pitts
Actress | It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Classic comedienne Zasu Pitts, of the timid, forlorn blue eyes and trademark woebegone vocal pattern and fidgety hands, was born to Rulandus and Nellie (Shay) Pitts, the third of four children on January 3, 1894. Her aged New York-native father, who lost a leg back in the Civil War era, had settled...
7. Margaret Tyzack
Actress | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Margaret Tyzack was born on September 9, 1931 in Plaistow, London, England as Margaret Maud Tyzack. She was an actress, known for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Match Point (2005). She was married to Alan R. Stephenson. She died on June 25, 2011 in Blackheath, London.
8. Lilyan Tashman
Actress | The Matrimonial Bed
Lilyan Tashman was born on October 23, 1896, in Brooklyn, New York, to Rose (Cook) and Morris Tashman. Her parents were Jewish immigrants, her father from Bialystok, Poland, and her mother from Germany. After toying with some stage work, she made her film debut with Experience (1921). That was her ...
9. Anita Louise
Actress | The Little Princess
An actress from the age of 6, Anita appeared with Walter Hampden in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson. As a juvenile actor, Anita used the name Louise Fremault and made her film debut at 9 in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924). She continued to make films as a child actor, and in 1929, ...
10. Diana Sands
Actress | The Landlord
Diana Sands was born on August 22, 1934 in New York City, New York, USA as Diana Patricia Sands. She was an actress, known for The Landlord (1970), East Side/West Side (1963) and A Raisin in the Sun (1961). She was married to Lucien Happersberger. She died on September 21, 1973 in New York City.
11. Julie Bovasso
Actress | Saturday Night Fever
Julie Bovasso was born on August 1, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA as Julia Anne Bovasso. She is known for her work on Saturday Night Fever (1977), Moonstruck (1987) and The Verdict (1982). She was married to Len Wayland and George Earl Ortman. She died on September 14, 1991 in New ...
12. Kate Reid
Actress | The Andromeda Strain
Esteemed London-born stage, radio and TV actress Kate Reid was actually born Daphne Katherine Reid in 1930 of Canadian parents. The family moved back to Ontario before she was a year old. An introverted child of delicate health, Kate sought refuge in books and role-playing and began studying drama ...
13. Linda Darnell
Actress | No Way Out
Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and...
14. Betty Garrett
Actress | On the Town
A sunny singer, dancer and comic actress, Betty Garrett starred in several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She was at the top of her game when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a screeching, ugly halt. She and her husband Larry Parks, an Oscar-nominated actor, were summoned...
15. Bethel Leslie
Actress | The Richard Boone Show
The daughter of a well-to-do attorney and a socialite, Bethel Leslie was born on August 3, 1929, in New York City. Ms. Leslie was a 15-year-old student at the Brearley School on the Upper East Side when she was discovered by the legendary producer George Abbott, for the Broadway play "Snafu" in ...
16. Rochelle Hudson
Actress | Imitation of Life
From ingenue to leading lady to character actress, she appeared in Hollywood films from the early 30s through the late 60s.
17. Barbara Baxley
Actress | Sea of Love
Barbara Angie Rose Baxley was born on New Year's Day 1923 to Emma A. & C. Bert Baxley in Porterville, CA. She was the youngest of their two daughters and was named after her grandmothers; Angie Sibley-Tyler and Iva Matilda Rose-Baxley. Barbara attended and graduated with honors from the University ...
18. Norma Crane
Actress | Fiddler on the Roof
Norma Crane was born on November 10, 1928 in New York, USA as Norma Anna Bella Zuckerman. She was an actress, known for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Studio One in Hollywood (1948) and Banyon (1971). She was married to Herbert Sargent. She died on September 28, 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
19. Ruth White
Actress | To Kill a Mockingbird
Ruth White was born on April 24, 1914 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, USA as Ruth Patricia White. She was an actress, known for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Midnight Cowboy (1969) and The Reivers (1969). She died on December 3, 1969 in Perth Amboy.
20. Jane Greer
Actress | Out of the Past
As a baby, she was winning beauty contests; as a teenager, with good looks and an attractive contralto voice, she was singing with big bands (most notably Enric Madriguera's orchestra in Latin Club Del Rio in Washington, D.C.. She met Rudy Vallee, her first husband, on the radio where she also ...
21. Molly Picon
Actress | Fiddler on the Roof
The little "yente" with the big, expressive talent, New York-born Yiddish icon Molly Picon entertained theater, radio, TV and film audiences for over seven decades (from age 6) with her song-and-dance routines while helping to popularize the Yiddish culture into the American mainstream as well as ...
22. Betty Field
Actress | Of Mice and Men
Thespian Betty Field was born in Boston on February 8, 1916, the daughter of a salesman and his wife. Ancestors on her father's side were Mayflower colonists Priscilla and John Alden. Her parents divorced while she was still young and Betty eventually learned to speak Spanish while traveling with ...
23. Judith Evelyn
Actress | Rear Window
Judith Evelyn was born on March 20, 1913 in Seneca, South Dakota, USA as Evelyn Morris. She was an actress, known for Rear Window (1954), Giant (1956) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958). She was married to Andrew Allan. She died on May 7, 1967 in New York City, New York, USA.
24. Ann Sheridan
Actress | Kings Row
Ann Sheridan won the "Search for Beauty" contest which carried with it a Paramount screen test. Signed to a contract at 18, she was put into a number of small roles under her real name of Clara Lou Sheridan. As she got better, her name was changed to Ann. In 1936, after two dozen films, she went to...
25. Carole Landis
Actress | I Wake Up Screaming
Carole Landis was born on New Year's Day in 1919 in Fairchild, Wisconsin, as Frances Lillian Mary Ridste. Her father, a railroad mechanic, was of Norwegian descent and her mother was Polish. Her father walked out, leaving Carole, her mother and an older brother and sister to fend for themselves.
...
26. Joan Hickson
Actress | Miss Marple: Nemesis
Joan Hickson was born in 1906 at Kingsthorpe, Northampton. Her stage career began with provincial theater in 1927, going on to a long series of West End comedies, usually playing the part of a confused or eccentric middle-age woman. She performed at the Regent's Park Open Air Theater, at the time ...
27. Nancy Wickwire
Actress | The DuPont Show of the Month
Nancy Wickwire was born on November 20, 1925 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The DuPont Show of the Month (1957), Profiles in Courage (1964) and Camera Three (1955). She was married to Basil Langton. She died on July 10, 1974 in San Francisco, California, USA.
28. Patricia Jessel
Actress | The City of the Dead
Patricia Jessel was born on October 15, 1920 in Hong Kong, British Crown Colony as Patricia Helen Jessel. She was an actress, known for The City of the Dead (1960), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Hamlet (1961). She was married to George Feinberg. She died on June 10, 1968...
29. Virginia Gregg
Actress | Operation Petticoat
Virginia Gregg was born on March 6, 1916 in Harrisburg, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Operation Petticoat (1959), Emergency! (1972) and Police Story (1973). She was married to Jaime Del Valle. She died on September 15, 1986 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.
30. Coral Browne
Actress | Dreamchild
Australian actress who worked primarily in Britain and specialized in superior, upper-crust sorts. Browne began her stage career in Melbourne but moved to England at the age of 21 and quickly brightened the West End with her sharp delivery and stylish sense of comedy. Her film appearances were ...
31. Lili Darvas
Actress | Szerelem
Hungarian-born Lili Darvas (pronounced 'Darvash') was a major star first in Budapest, then on the German stage with Max Reinhardt's theatre company during the 1920's, touring Europe with plays by Goethe, Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Shaw. She received her education at the Budapest Lyceum and made her ...
32. Kathleen Freeman
Actress | The Blues Brothers
Kathleen Freeman's introduction to show business came very early in life. Her parents were vaudevillians, and she made her debut at age 2 in their act. Later she attended UCLA with intentions of becoming a pianist, but was bitten by the acting bug and never looked back. She gained experience on ...
33. Dorothy Tutin
Actress | The Importance of Being Earnest
Dame Dorothy Tutin's esteemed company of peers included other remarkable dames, including Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Unlike these others, Dorothy had limited screen time over the years and would develop the respect but not the stardom afforded the other two outside the realm of the theatre. ...
34. Mary Wickes
Actress | Sister Act
From the grand old school of wisecracking, loud and lanky Mary Wickes had few peers while forging a career as a salty scene-stealer. Her abrupt, tell-it-like-it-is demeanor made her a consistent audience favorite on every medium for over six decades. She was particularly adroit in film parts that ...
35. Augusta Dabney
Actress | The Paper
Augusta Dabney was born on October 23, 1918 in Berkeley, California, USA as Augusta Keith Dabney. She was an actress, known for The Paper (1994), That Night! (1957) and Loving (1983). She was married to William Prince and Kevin McCarthy. She died on February 4, 2008 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, USA.
36. Ruth McDevitt
Actress | The Birds
Delightfully daffy and an apple dumpling of a darling, wizened character actress Ruth McDevitt was born Ruth Shoecraft in Michigan but raised in Ohio where her father served as a county sheriff. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art with designs of becoming an actress but married a ...
37. Janet Munro
Actress | Darby O'Gill and the Little People
As Disney's lively lass Katie O'Gill she was the freshness of spring. She could inspire you to dance a jig through a field of flowers. Her entrancing green eyes and catchy spirit had that kind of life-affirming effect. Cute, spunky, almond-eyed British actress Janet Munro was deemed to be an ...
38. Cathy O'Donnell
Actress | The Best Years of Our Lives
She was in Alabama until age 12, Ann Steely attended high school and college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then worked as a stenographer to finance a trip to Hollywood, where fortune favored her with a contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under Samuel Goldwyn. Recognizing her talent and appeal through a ...
39. Mary McCarty
Actress | Babes in Toyland
Mary McCarty was born on September 27, 1923 in Winfield, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Babes in Toyland (1961), Trapper John, M.D. (1979) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). She died on April 30, 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
40. Louise Troy
Actress | Ghostbusters II
Louise Troy was born on November 9, 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Ghostbusters II (1989), The United States Steel Hour (1953) and Toma (1973). She was married to Douglas Seale and Werner Klemperer. She died on May 5, 1994 in New York City.
41. Jane Connell
Actress | Mame
Jane Connell was born on October 27, 1925 in Berkeley, California, USA as Jane Sperry Bennett. She was an actress, known for Mame (1974), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Bewitched (1964). She was married to Gordon Connell. She died on September 22, 2013 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
42. Vanessa Brown
Actress | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The attractive daughter of Austrian-Jewish émigrés who fled their homeland to Paris in 1937 before coming to America, "B" actress Vanessa Brown grew up exceptionally fluent in German, French, Italian and English. She auditioned for Lillian Hellman at age 13 sporting a perfect Teutonic accent and ...
43. Peg Phillips
Actress | Northern Exposure
Margaret "Peg" Phillips was a retired accountant when she began taking acting classes at age 65. In 1990 she was cast in the role of Ruth-Anne Miller, the shop keeper in the series Northern Exposure (1990). The role was supposed to be only intermittent, but Peg's portrayal won the hearts of viewers,...
44. Eve Brent
Actress | The Green Mile
Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Fort Worth, Eve Brent began her career in radio and early television and later moved on to the college and little theater stage. Arriving in Hollywood with a husband and infant son in the 1950s, she landed some film (Gun Girls (1957), Journey to Freedom (1957), ...
45. Elizabeth Spriggs
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Elizabeth Spriggs was born on September 18, 1929 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England as Elizabeth Jean Williams. She was an actress and writer, known for Sense and Sensibility (1995), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Paradise Road (1997). She was married to Murray Manson, Marshall Jones ...
46. Anne Haney
Actress | Liar Liar
Anne Haney held prominent roles acting on stage, on the screen, and on TV. All these achievements came in her mid 40s, after she had raised a daughter and buried a husband. It wasn't until after she had packed her daughter off to college and "the maid quit", as she said, that she decided to try her...
47. Gertrude Lawrence
Actress | Lord Camber's Ladies
Eminent London and Broadway musical star who appeared in nine films from 1929 through 1950.
48. Martita Hunt
Actress | Great Expectations
Popular British character actress known for her rich cluster of queens, dowagers, shrews and evildoers, Martita Hunt was born on a ranch in Argentina to British parents, but moved with her family to England at age 10 for her formal education. On stage at age 21 with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre,...
49. Norma Varden
Actress | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The daughter of a retired sea captain and his much-younger wife, actress Norma Varden was born and raised in turn-of-the-century London. A piano prodigy, she studied in Paris and appeared in concert in England during her teenage years. Acting, however, became her career of choice, studying at the ...
50. Phyllis Thaxter
Actress | Superman
This warm and winning, very non-theatrical brunette was born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter in Portland, Maine, on November 20, 1919. The daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter, her acting talent came from her mother's side, who was a one-time Shakespearean actress. Phyllis was educated ...
51. Margaret Hamilton
Actress | The Wizard of Oz
Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio to Jennie and Walter Hamilton. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. Margaret had already built her resume with several...
52. Kay Kendall
Actress | Les Girls
Kay Kendall was born on May 21, 1926 in Withernsea, Yorkshire, England as Justine Kay Kendall-McCarthy. She was an actress, known for Les Girls (1957), The Reluctant Debutante (1958) and Simon and Laura (1955). She was married to Rex Harrison. She died on September 6, 1959 in London, England.
53. Phyllis Love
Actress | Play of the Week
Phyllis Anne Love was born in Des Moines, Iowa on December 21, 1925. She attended Roosevelt High School in Des Moines along with her close friend, Cloris Leachman. After performing in various local and regional drama productions, Love enrolled in the Actors Studio in New York in 1948. Her movie ...
54. Olive Deering
Actress | The Ten Commandments
Olive Deering was born on October 11, 1918 in New York City, New York, USA as Olive Corn. She was an actress, known for The Ten Commandments (1956), Samson and Delilah (1949) and The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse (1948). She was married to Leo Penn. She died on March 22, 1986 in New York.
55. Betty Garde
Actress | Caged
Betty Garde was a versatile actress, who began in show business after winning a playwriting competition at high school. Joining Actor's Equity in 1922, she became a noted performer on stage in Boston and Philadelphia, eventually making her debut on Broadway in 1925. Betty, at least early in her ...
56. Gertrude Michael
Actress | The Last Outpost
Gertrude Michael was born in Talledega, Alabama on June 1, 1911. After graduating from high school, she appeared on radio, as a musician and "Home Arts" advisor. She attended the University of Alabama and Converse College, Spartenburg,SC and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. It was in ...
57. Evelyn Varden
Actress | The Night of the Hunter
Evelyn Varden was born on June 12, 1893 in Adair, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Bad Seed (1956) and Pinky (1949). She died on July 11, 1958 in New York City, New York, USA.
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