How are y’all doing, kittens & dawgs? Here it is Fall time again. How did this happen? Not that I’m complaining because I am not. The heat and humidity of summer gets rather old fast. I love all things autumn but am not a winter fan.
In the fall of 2015, I shared My 25 Favorite Male Actors series. I had every intention to follow up with a list of my favorite female actresses after the holidays of that year but that never happened. *smack forehead* I’m REALLY sorry. I kept posting about other things, pushing this off and until I just about forgot. Without further ado, here are 10 of my 25 favorite female stars!
I’m drawn to two kinds of actresses ~ beautiful or funny and sometimes they are both. This means most flick featuring my favorites are often times romantic comedies or dramas. I might be wrong, but as I review my top picks then a definite pattern will emerge.
The first movie starring Anne Archer I saw was Fatal Attraction. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Beth Gallagher playing opposite to Michael Douglas as his wife. I enjoyed her role as Cathy Ryan in the movies based on Tom Clancy’s novels but my favorite film is Narrow Margin. Have you seen it? Anne’s character goes on a blind date where she witnesses a mob hit and soon finds herself on the run with the help of an L.A. District Attorney (Gene Hackman) seeking her cooperation in a court case. I highly recommend this excellent action/suspense film!
What I love about Anne Archer, other than her natural ability on screen, is her beauty and pose. She always strikes me as someone who’s proud to be a woman with her soft, feminine grace. Sadly, these are traits lost to females on screen and off today.
Another Ann I like is Ann Margaret. I am not sure what the first thing I ever saw her in, but I do remember her appearing on a number of the 70s variety TV shows and I’m 99% sure I watched Viva Las Vegas on a Saturday TV matinee hour when I was a kid. I loved those early Elvis movies!
Many years later in the early 90s
In my childhood I loved watching the I Love Lucy and Here’s, Lucy! shows. Every time I think of Lucille Ball, I can’t help but think about this side-busting episode with Lucy and Ethel trying to keep up the chocolate factory conveyor belt gone wild.
I’d say her years in front of the camera with real-life husband, Desi Arnaz is my favorites but she was a hoot to watch on the screen regardless. Over recent years we have streamed a few of her old films Yours, Mine, and Ours (1968) with Henry Fonda and The Facts of Life (1960) with Bob Hope. Lucille Balls has an illustrious filmology be sure to visit her IMDB page!
Whenever I think Breakfast at Tiffany’s I think Audrey Hepburn. She starred opposite a very dashing young, George Peppard. It’s a film but not my favorite! I had not realized that this wasn’t her first starring role. In fact, the world came to know her in the classic 1953 production Roman Holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this famous movie on Netflix with DH, as well as Charade a few years ago.
As fabulous as the glamorous actress was on screen she was equally so in real life. I was surprised to learn these 6-Lesser Known Facts about the Hollywood starlet. For instance, did you know as a young girl in Holland she helped the Resistance during WWII, but her parents were Nazi sympathizers? That’s a kinda cool fact.
I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.
~Audrey Hepburn
I spent many hours as a kid watching The Carol Burnett show. There are really too many funny episodes to say which is my favorite but one hilarious segment I remember is her production of “Gone With the Wind”. Check it out…
Carol’s road to stardom began in the mid-50s with appearances on the Jack Parr and Ed Sullivan shows. She had short roles on sitcoms, spots on other variety shows, and even performed in Broadway mewsicals. At one point, she was befriended by the late Lucille Ball who liked her so much that she offered her, her own Desilu show but Burnett held off for her own variety show to come along and it did in the late 60s entertaining homes around America for 11-years.
Here’s a piece of fun trivia, Alan Alda and Carol Burnett starred in The Four Seasons (1981) but what I did not know is that they are childhood friends. They did a fabulous job acting but it wasn’t one of my favorite movies.
I was once asked to do my Tarzan yell at Bergdorf Goodman, and a guard burst in with a gun! Now I only do it under controlled circumstance. ~Carol Burnett.
The below clip is a compilation of Carol answering studio audience questions. I’d forgotten how fun this segment of the show was and in this one Carol is asked to do her famous Tarzan yell.
Born November 4, 1940 as Else Schletz-Ho in Berlin Germany. Her family was forced to evacuate their home in 1942 to southern Germany to a small university town. It was there her parents with the introduction of watercolor painting that fanned this new passion into a flame.
At the age of 14, her father died which interrupted her education. She decided to move to Great
To make a long story short, in the late 1950s she won the beauty title while on vacation in Italy and snared the eye of a prominent film actor/director. That set her movie career into motion. Elke moved to California in the early 1960s after captivating Hollywood’s attention.
Ms. Sommer’s career life on the big screen didn’t do as well as expected, but she fared well on TV. That’s where I best know her from popular shows like: The Dean Martin Show, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island.
I guess it was in the 80s when I saw Elke Sommer’s A Shot in the Dark (1964) with the dim-witted Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers). Did you know about this Pink Panther movie? And a flick chock-full of hilarious mistranslated circumstances called Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number (1966) with Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller.
Miss Sommer’s official website (suspended site – removed link) is quite nice and I enjoyed reading her in-depth biography found there. The bits and pieces I gathered primarily came from Wikipedia. One thing I found interesting is Elke found her way back to her first love – painting. Isn’t that cool? Her paintings are online for purchase at her site, too.
Elke Sommer was a nature in front of the camera. She had beauty and charm. I guess it boils down to the movie script will it sell or will it flop? It’s good to know Elke is more than just a pretty face, she’s an artist, too!
Turner’s debate movie production Body Heat launched her career in 1981 but it’s Romancing the Stone that I fondly recall her best in and man, did Hollywood know to write movie scripts back in the day! The sequel Jewel of the Nile was a blockbuster hit in my book, too. After these big hits, we squeezed in Peggy Sue Got Married and Undercover Blues (this is a fun movie), then there weren’t too many other films starring Katleen we were interested in seeing after that. I never knew the story behind her fall out on the big screen, weight gain, and rumors of alcoholism. The short version of the story is she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis; drinking to deaden the pain lead to problems with alcohol. Instead of debunking the claims of alcoholism because of her illness, she knew Hollywood hired drunks all the time but sick actors not so much. Now, you know the rest of the story!
Although my next favorite actress is best known as Gidget, I remember her best as The Flying Nun from my childhood. In the 80s she played opposite to Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit as the runaway bride and continued the role in Part two, as Reynold’s girlfriend.
In the mid to late 60s Houseboat aired on broadcast TV. It’s a great fun romantic comedy starring the remarkable Sophia Loren. I don’t know what it was about this movie, but I loved it! Perhaps I was enthralled by the whole girl falls for boy story. I rooted for Cinzia (Loren’s character) and in the end
This is the oldest film featuring Loren that I’ve seen, other than I have seen bits of Legend of the Lost. Sofia was a bombshell in the 1995 sequel Grumpier Old Men and today at the age of 81, she still turns heads. Whatever she’s doing, she’s doing it right. She’s amazing. I hope I not only look as good as her but still feel
Sigourney Weaver’s career began a few years (non-speaking role in Annie Hall opposite Woody Allen) prior to the release of the sci-fi flick, Alien. That’s the first thing I ever saw her in and that movie terrified me for days after watching it. Although we saw the most if not all the sequels that followed, my favorite films she starred in are Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Other movies, featuring Weaver that we liked include Eyewitness (William Hurt), Working Girl (Harrison Ford & Melanie Griffith), Copy Cat (Harry Connick Jr), Holes, and Vantage Point.
Weaver is married to Jim Simpson since 1984 (that’s a long time in Hollywood years) and was 41 years old when her dog was born. I remember a time when that was too old to have babies, don’t you? We’re certainly wiser in our 40s but to begin a family? Let’s just say, that’s not for me. I found it interesting that she’s longtime friends with horror star, Jamie Lee Curtis. 🙂
Do you like any of my favorite female leads featured? What movie(s) can you recommend that I didn’t mention for me to watch?
This month, I’m joining my friend, Mary, in her Rocktober Mewsic Fest. I may not get a chance to play along every day but I’m gonna do my best. That being said, I decided to use a song choice denoting a famous female celebrity. Give it for
I hope you enjoyed the first part of my new post series. Watch for the next edition in the coming weeks. Hopefully, it won’t take me long to get it together. One more thing, I’m a bit sidelined today with DH’s appointment but I’ll be back early tomorrow morning with coffee in hand. Have a tunesational Tuesday and please join me for a not-so-Wordless Wednesday.
X💋X💋, Cathy
