Favorite actresses

Over at MoominLight, a continuation of a fun meme: your 20 all-time favorite movie actresses.

This seems to be a movie buff's meme rather than a mythologist's. I don't really follow actresses for themselves. I usually remember an actress based on a movie I love in which they star. I haven't seen Scarlett Johansson in anything since Lost in Translation, for example, but she will always be a favorite for me based on that movie.

This quirk also means that some of the more obvious names, such as Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, and Marilyn Monroe get left out because there isn't a movie that I liked that much with them in it. (And no, I never really got into Casablanca, The African Queen, or Some Like It Hot). I did like The Big Sleep, but for me, Bacall's little sister (naturally, the sexy, unstable one, played by Martha Vickers) was the attraction there.

Forthwith, the list, in basic order, though there's no way to go strictly 1-20:

 

Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's

 

Grace Kelly in Rear Window

 

Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally

 

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in Thelma and Louise

 

Kim Novak in Vertigo

 

Holly Hunter in Broadcast News. This one is not from Broadcast News, but it's representative of Miss Hunter's beauty.

Emma Thompson in Dead Again

Natalie Wood in West Side Story

 

Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation

 

Audrey Tautou in Amelie

 

Catherine Keener in Capote

Glenn Close in The Natural

Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman

 

Isabelle Adjani in L'ete meurtrier

 

Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice

 

Lorraine Bracco and Edie Falco in The Sopranos

Honorable Mention:

 

Emma de Caunes in Mr. Bean's Holiday

Annabella Sciorra in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

And I would not willingly omit Carrie Fisher in the original Star Wars. I am a former Luke Skywalker wannabe. Too bad she was my sister.