Greatest Performances in Classic Hollywood Movies, Ranked
Traditionally, Classical Hollywood Cinema refers to the approximate era between the 1930s and 1960s, defined by the studio system and by a distinctive visual and acting style. Most actors tended to follow similar methods, but some performers stood out among the rest as especially exemplary. Just as Toni Collette‘s performance in Hereditary (2018) is destined to go down in film history, a number of classic Hollywood actors stun audiences today just as much as they did in their time.
But what makes a good acting performance? The ideal performance rings true to its audience because it doesn’t feel forced or over the top. In fact, the best performances often lead audiences to assume the actors are playing themselves—because their characterizations are so convincingly natural that it seems as though there can be no other possibility. Furthermore, the best acting performances make audiences feel something, whether it’s joy, sadness, or inspiration. Ahead, the best performances of Classical Hollywood Cinema, spanning the entire prolific period.
10
Omar Sharif in ‘Doctor Zhivago’
Based on the controversial novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago is a historical fiction epic that carries its audience through the Russian Revolution and its effects. Like the book, the film won over audiences for its beautiful mixture of political history as well as the star-crossed romance between its main characters, Yuri Zhivago (played by Omar Sharif) and Lara Antipova (Julie Christie). It was the second-highest grossing film of 1965 and remains one of the highest-grossing films worldwide, adjusted for inflation.
Acting in such a sprawling epic is a difficult feat. The actor must both maintain consistency in the character’s goals while simultaneously demonstrating growth. Sharif does this seamlessly, while also delivering a compelling performance that illustrates the depth of Zhivago’s complex emotions without ever seeming over the top.
9
Juanita Moore in ‘Imitation of Life’ (1959)
Imitation of Life deserves the same legendary status as the likes of Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). It depicts the relationship between a white single mother (played by Lana Turner) and a Black single mother (Juanita Moore), the latter of whom has a light-skinned daughter (Susan Kohner) who spends her life determined to pass as white. Far ahead of its time in its honest depiction of racial, class, and gender issues, Imitation of Life remains groundbreaking even today.
In that vein, Moore is underappreciated for her acting, both in this film and the others in which she’s featured. Her character, Annie Johnson, is conflicted by love, disappointment, and pain throughout the film, striving to retain a sweet, forgiving demeanor even as her daughter rejects her. Moore’s role is by far the most emotionally complex—and therefore the most challenging—in the film, yet she delivers with a quiet depth that permeates every scene, whether she’s speaking in it or not. It’s no wonder Moore was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for this performance alone.
8
James Stewart in ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ (1936)
James Stewart is one of the most recognizable actors of Classic Hollywood, known best for roles in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Vertigo (1958), and Rear Window (1954). But his most memorable performance is without a doubt his role in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a perpetually relevant dramedy about political corruption and the erosion of democratic values in America.
In the film, Stewart plays a naïve youth group leader who gets appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. Throughout the experience, he’s exposed to political corruption and inefficacy. He also repeatedly finds himself facing pressure from a crooked state official. Indignant and deeply disillusioned, Stewart ultimately delivers one of the most moving and righteous political speeches in the history of film— one that still rings true today.
7
Greta Garbo in ‘Anna Karenina’ (1935)
Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo was one of the few actors to successfully transition from silent film to sound. As a matter of fact, she reigned supreme throughout the 1930s as one of the most popular actresses in the world, known for films like Grand Hotel (1932) and Queen Christina (1933). But her best performance was in Anna Karenina, the popular adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel.
Garbo had a talent for wearing her emotions on her face, through the subtle tensing of her jaw or the furrowing of her brow. Her deep, distinctive voice also carried strong emotions like love and sorrow—Anna Karenina‘s greatest themes—incomparably. For that reason, she excels as Anna, the character’s temptation, adoration, and grief oozing through the screen. And it’s no wonder Garbo channels the story so well: In 1927, she played Anna Karenina in a silent adaptation of the classic Russian novel, though this version was titled Love. The film was one of MGM‘s highest grossing projects of 1927, though it has since fallen into relative obscurity, eclipsed by Garbo’s grandiose 1935 talkie.
6
Spencer Tracy in ‘Inherit the Wind’
Inherit the Wind is yet another literary adaption. Based on Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee‘s play of the same name, the story fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes Trial that gripped the nation in an argument over teaching evolution as opposed to the Bible. In 1960, Inherit the Wind was a nod to the fascist politics of McCarthyism, which ruined countless artists’ careers in a witch hunt for communist sympathizers.
Who can forget Spencer Tracy‘s climactic speech in which he proclaims, “An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral”? Tracy, who plays lawyer Henry Drummond, executes this fantastical scene (in court lawyers aren’t permitted to be quite as dramatic as his character was) with a delivery that’s not just convincing but downright inspirational. Tracy was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe for his performance, and his performance solidified his legacy as one of the finest actors of his generation.
5
Bette Davis in ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’
In the psychological horror thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford channeled their real-life feud and even played former movie stars. In the film, Davis’ character torments her paraplegic sister in their crumbling Hollywood mansion—a narrative steeped in madness, cruelty, and decay. While both Davis and Crawford have been applauded for their performances, Davis’ performance stands out for its otherworldly horror. She was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for this film, though Anne Bancroft ultimately took that award home for her performance in The Miracle Worker.
Davis’ work in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? channels psychosis and desperation like no other, culminating in a terrifying regressive childhood state that leads her to violence. Davis should also be applauded for the way she balances overt madness with subtlety, exhibiting understandable traces of jealousy, resentment, and regret before plunging back into insanity. Her performance was so gripping that it even inspired the controversial “psycho-biddy” genre, which centers around unstable older women.
4
Vivien Leigh in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’
Vivian Leigh might be best known for her performance in Gone with the Wind, but A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) just might be the highlight of the actress’ career. In the film, she plays delicate Southern belle Blanche DuBois, who comes to stay with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella (played by Kim Hunter) and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Struggling with trauma, alcoholism, and intense anxiety, DuBois develops a fraught relationship with Stanley throughout the film that ends with his rape of her, triggering her final psychological collapse.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams, this tragic film has long been admired for its complexity and its iconic performances. Brando tends to eclipse his costars because of his iconic delivery of the line “Stella! Stella!” at the end. However, it’s really Leigh who deserves the most acclaim. Her character spends most of the film laden with secrets and unprocessed trauma, and Leigh manages to communicate these hidden feelings through small anxious gestures and timid line delivery. She also masterfully eases into DuBois’ mental decline, depicting instability without turning the character into a caricature.
3
Elizabeth Taylor in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
Based on the 1962 play by Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) is a masterclass in delivering dialogue. Centering on a married couple whose relationship teems with built-up resentment, it takes place over the course of a single evening in which the two host a young married couple for drinks. The older couple, Martha (played by Elizabeth Taylor) and George (played by Richard Burton) snipe at each other in the presence of their guests, an ongoing volley that starts out subtle before escalation into an all-out war that reveals the couple’s shared instability.
Taylor’s acting is highly realistic, communicating simmering resentment and disrespect through tiny fluctuations in tone, head tilts, and even eye movements. While the actress is typically associated with her more sultry roles, like Cleopatra (1963) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), her performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? eschews glamour in favor of a more raw, desperate performance. The pivot seemed to impress critics as well, as the film earned Taylor the Academy Award for Best Actress.
2
Frank Sinatra in ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ (1954)
You may know Frank Sinatra for his prolific music career, but did you know he was also an accomplished actor? Indeed, the most underappreciated point in Sinatra’s career is his performance in The Man with the Golden Arm, which was acclaimed upon its 1955 release but has since been eclipsed by the singer-actor’s more comedic films with the Rat Pack. The noir thriller, which also features Kim Novak, was revolutionary during its time for its frank depiction of drug addiction, which was a major taboo for most of the twentieth century.
In The Man with the Golden Arm, Sinatra depicts temptation, guilt, and dependence with empathy and realism. Variety was one of many publications who praised his performance, calling out his “marked conviction” and devotion to the role. Sinatra himself felt that this was the greatest role he played throughout his long acting career, remarking that he should have won an Oscar for this film (though he was nominated) rather than for From Here to Eternity (1953).
1
Gloria Swanson in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950)
Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece Sunset Boulevard is about an aging silent film star named Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson) who pursues a toxic, tumultuous relationship with an aspiring screenwriter half her age. The film casts a critical gaze on Hollywood, refusing to shy away from issues like mental illness, substance abuse, and the film industry’s habit of disposing of actresses as they mature. Consistently ranked as one of the greatest films of all time, it was nominated for a whopping 11 Academy Awards, three of which it won.
While Swanson didn’t take home the Academy Award for Best Actress that year, her performance in Sunset Boulevard has become the stuff of legends. Her depiction of Desmond is as compelling as it is disturbing, and she manages to elicit sympathy for the character even as she fearlessly delves into Desmond’s paranoid, dangerous frame of mind. In fact, Swanson’s depiction of a washed-up silent film-era movie star was so moving that it shocked her contemporaries. Mary Pickford, for instance, was reportedly so overwhelmed by the film that she was nowhere to be found after the premiere, while Barbara Stanwyck kissed the hem of Swanson’s skirt to show her respect. Like Swanson, Pickford and Stanwyck were both silent film stars, and therefore deeply understood the character of Norma Desmond. Swanson no doubt drew from her own experiences in Hollywood, including watching her former colleagues’ careers sink. Her character has become the ultimate symbol of Hollywood’s fickle nature.
Sunset Boulevard
- Release Date
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August 10, 1950
- Runtime
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110 Minutes
- Director
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Billy Wilder
- Writers
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Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr.
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William Holden
Joe Gillis
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Gloria Swanson
Norma Desmond
