Greatest Film Performances
of the 1940s (US/UK)
Criteria: Film Performances of the 1940s are ranked based on initial and lasting acclaim, popular and cultural recognition, plus influence. In order to qualify for this list the performance has to come from a predominately English-language film produced or co-produced by American or British production companies.
Actor - Film Title (Year of Release)
1. Laurence Olivier
Hamlet (1948)
2. Orson Welles
Citizen Kane (1941)
3. Katharine Hepburn
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
4. Charlie Chaplin
The Great Dictator (1940)
5. Humphrey Bogart
Casablanca (1942)
6. Ingrid Bergman
Gaslight (1944)
7. Henry Fonda
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
8. Barbara Stanwyck
Double Indemnity (1944)
9. James Stewart
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
10. Laurence Olivier
Henry V (1944)
11. James Cagney
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
12. Ingrid Bergman
Casablanca (1942)
13. Humphrey Bogart
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
14. Jane Wyman
Johnny Belinda (1948)
15. Ray Milland
The Lost Weekend (1945)
16. James Cagney
White Heat (1949)
17. Fredric March
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
18. Olivia de Havilland
The Heiress (1949)
19. Joan Fontaine
Suspicion (1941)
20. Barbara Stanwyck
The Lady Eve (1941)
21. Alec Guinness
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
22. Katharine Hepburn
Adam's Rib (1949)
23. Jennifer Jones
The Song Of Bernadette (1943)
24. Robert Mitchum
Out of the Past (1947)
25. Joan Crawford
Mildred Pierce (1945)
26. Paul Lukas
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
27. Joseph Cotten
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
28. Cary Grant
Arsenic And Old Lace (1944)
29. Ingrid Bergman
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
30. James Stewart
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
31. Laurence Olivier
Rebecca (1940)
32. Ingrid Bergman
Spellbound (1945)
33. Joan Fontaine
Rebecca (1940)
34. Gary Cooper
Sergeant Yorke (1941)
35. Greer Garson
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
36. Carole Lombard
To Be or Not To Be (1942)
37. Charles Boyer
Gaslight (1944)
38. Humphrey Bogart
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Olivia de Havilland
To Each His Own (1946)
40. Ronald Colman
A Double Life (1947)
41. Charlie Chaplin
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
42. Ingrid Bergman
Notorious (1946)
43. Olivia de Havilland
The Snake Pit (1948)
44. Montgomery Clift
Red River (1948)
45. Rosalind Russell
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
46. Loretta Young
The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
47. Orson Welles
The Third Man (1949)
48. Claude Rains
Notorious (1946)
49. Edward G. Robinson
Key Largo (1948)
50. Joan Fontaine
Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
51. Humphrey Bogart
To Have and Have Not (1944)
52. Jean Arthur
The More the Merrier (1943)
53. Bette Davis
The Letter (1940)
54. Katharine Hepburn
Woman of the Year (1942)
55. Cary Grant
His Girl Friday (1940)
56. Peter Lorre
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
57. Humphrey Bogart
High Sierra (1941)
58. Agnes Moorehead
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
59. Lauren Bacall
Key Largo (1948)
60. Donna Reed
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
61. Walter Huston
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
62. Broderick Crawford
All the King's Men (1949)
63. Mercedes McCambridge
All the King's Men (1949)
64. Bette Davis
Now, Voyager (1942)
65. Gary Cooper
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
66. Rosalind Russell
His Girl Friday (1940)
67. Ginger Rogers
Kitty Foyle (1940)
68. Ralph Richardson
The Heiress (1949)
69. Kirk Douglas
Champion (1949)
70. Humphrey Bogart
The Big Sleep (1946)
71. Cary Grant
Notorious (1946)
72. Spencer Tracy
Adam's Rib (1949)
73. John Wayne
Red River (1948)
74. Celia Johnson
Brief Encounter (1945)
75. Greer Garson
The Valley of Decision (1945)
76. Trevor Howard
Brief Encounter (1945)
77. Bing Crosby
Going My Way (1944)
78. Greer Garson
Madame Curie (1943)
79. Joan Fontaine
The Constant Nymph (1943)
80. Barry Fitzgerald
Going My Way (1944)
81. John Garfield
Body and Soul (1947)
82. William Powell
Life with Father (1947)
83. Lana Turner
The Postman Alaways Rings Twice (1946)
84. Gregory Peck
The Yearling (1946)
85. Bette Davis
The Little Foxes (1941)
86. Gregory Peck
Spellbound (1945)
87. Claude Rains
Casablanca (1942)
88. Monty Woolley
The Pied Piper (1942)
89. Ronald Colman
Random Harvest (1942)
90. Greer Garson
Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
91. Walter Huston
All That Money Can Buy (1941)
92. Cary Grant
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
93. Alexander Knox
Wilson (1944)
94. Cary Grant
None But The Lonely Heart (1944)
95. Elizabeth Taylor
National Velvet (1944)
96. Gene Tierney
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
97. Richard Widmark
Kiss of Death (1947)
98. Joan Crawford
Possessed (1947)
99. Susan Hayward
Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)
100. Deborah Kerr
Black Narcissus (1947)
101. Lauren Bacall
To Have and Have Not (1944)
102. Roger Livesey
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
103. Katina Paxinou
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
104. Mickey Rooney
The Human Comedy (1943)
105. Claudette Colbert
Since You Went Away (1944)
106. Rosalind Russell
Sister Kenny (1946)
107. Gene Kelly
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
108. Jennifer Jones
A Duel in the Sun (1946)
109. Harold Russell
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
110. Jane Wyman
The Yearling (1946)
111. Ingrid Bergman
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
112. Bing Crosby
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
113. Michael Redgrave
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
114. Greer Garson
Mrs. Parkington (1944)
115. Bette Davis
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
116. Joel McCrea
The More the Merrier (1943)
117. Gary Cooper
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
118. Charles Coburn
The More the Merrier (1943)
119. Fred MacMurray
Double Indemnity (1944)
120. Margaret O'Brien
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
121. Joan Fontaine
Jane Eyre (1943)
122. Gregory Peck
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
123. Richard Todd
The Hasty Heart (1949)
124. Irene Dunne
I Remember Mama (1948)
125. Barbara Stanwyck
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
126. Montgomery Clift
The Search (1948)
127. John Wayne
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
128. Anton Walbrook
The Red Shoes (1948)
129. Alec Guinness
Oliver Twist (1948)
130. Ingrid Bergman
Joan of Arc (1948)
131. Henry Fonda
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
132. Martha Scott
Our Town (1940)
133. James Stewart
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
134. Teresa Wright
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
135. Joseph Cotten
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
136. Robert Montgomery
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
137. Clifton Webb
Laura (1944)
138. Humphrey Bogart
Sahara (1943)
139. Raymond Massey
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
140. Margaret Sullavan
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
141. Barbara Stanwyck
Ball of Fire (1941)
142. Deborah Kerr
Edward, My Son (1949)
143. Gregory Peck
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
144. Cornel Wilde
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
145. Angela Lansbury
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
146. Gene Kelly
On the Town (1949)
147. Jeanne Crain
Pinky (1949)
148. Lionel Barrymore
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
149. Dana Andrews
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
150. Edmund Gwenn
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
151. Robert Mitchum
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
152. Olivia de Havilland
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
153. Cary Grant
Penny Serenade (1941)
154. Gary Cooper
Ball of Fire (1941)
155. John Carradine
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
156. Joel McCrea
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
157. Walter Brennan
The Westerner (1940)
158. W.C. Fields
The Bank Dick (1940)
159. Jean Simmons
Hamlet (1948)
160. Cornel Wilde
A Song to Remember (1945)
161. Jennifer Jones
Love Letters (1945)
162. Rita Hayworth
Gilda (1946)
163. Robert Ryan
Crossfire (1947)
164. Jane Greer
Out of the Past (1947)
165. Celeste Holm
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
166. Henry Travers
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
167. Rita Hayworth
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
168. James Stewart
Rope (1948)
169. Henry Fonda
My Darling Clementine (1946)
170. Burt Lancaster
The Killers (1946)
171. Walter Pidgeon
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
172. Teresa Wright
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
173. Walter Pidgeon
Madame Curie (1943)
174. Deborah Kerr
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
175. Susan Peters
Random Harvest (1942)
176. Jane Darwell
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
177. James Stephenson
The Letter (1940)
178. Gene Kelly
For Me and My Gal (1942)
179. Donald Crisp
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
180. Joseph Cotten
Citizen Kane (1941)
181. Tim Holt
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
182. Loretta Young
Come to the Stable (1949)
183. Robert Ryan
The Set-Up (1949)
184. Rex Harrison
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
185. Cathy O'Donnell
They Live By Night (1948)
186. Richard Attenborough
Brighton Rock (1947)
187. James Mason
Odd Man Out (1947)
188. Edmond O'Brien
White Heat (1949)
189. Lon Chaney Jr.
The Wolf Man (1941)
190. Sydney Greenstreet
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
191. Akim Tamiroff
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
192. Ida Lupino
The Hard Way (1943)
193. John Mills
In Which We Serven (1942)
194. Dean Jagger
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
195. Ethel Barrymore
None But The Lonely Heart (1944)
196. Dick Powell
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
197. J. Carrol Naish
A Medal for Benny (1945)
198. Ann Blyth
Mildred Pierce (1945)
199. Robert Montgomery
They Were Expendable (1945)
200. James Dunn
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
1. Laurence Olivier
Hamlet (1948)
2. Orson Welles
Citizen Kane (1941)
3. Katharine Hepburn
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
4. Charlie Chaplin
The Great Dictator (1940)
5. Humphrey Bogart
Casablanca (1942)
6. Ingrid Bergman
Gaslight (1944)
7. Henry Fonda
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
8. Barbara Stanwyck
Double Indemnity (1944)
9. James Stewart
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
10. Laurence Olivier
Henry V (1944)
11. James Cagney
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
12. Ingrid Bergman
Casablanca (1942)
13. Humphrey Bogart
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
14. Jane Wyman
Johnny Belinda (1948)
15. Ray Milland
The Lost Weekend (1945)
16. James Cagney
White Heat (1949)
17. Fredric March
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
18. Olivia de Havilland
The Heiress (1949)
19. Joan Fontaine
Suspicion (1941)
20. Barbara Stanwyck
The Lady Eve (1941)
21. Alec Guinness
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
22. Katharine Hepburn
Adam's Rib (1949)
23. Jennifer Jones
The Song Of Bernadette (1943)
24. Robert Mitchum
Out of the Past (1947)
25. Joan Crawford
Mildred Pierce (1945)
26. Paul Lukas
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
27. Joseph Cotten
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
28. Cary Grant
Arsenic And Old Lace (1944)
29. Ingrid Bergman
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
30. James Stewart
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
31. Laurence Olivier
Rebecca (1940)
32. Ingrid Bergman
Spellbound (1945)
33. Joan Fontaine
Rebecca (1940)
34. Gary Cooper
Sergeant Yorke (1941)
35. Greer Garson
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
36. Carole Lombard
To Be or Not To Be (1942)
37. Charles Boyer
Gaslight (1944)
38. Humphrey Bogart
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Olivia de Havilland
To Each His Own (1946)
40. Ronald Colman
A Double Life (1947)
41. Charlie Chaplin
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
42. Ingrid Bergman
Notorious (1946)
43. Olivia de Havilland
The Snake Pit (1948)
44. Montgomery Clift
Red River (1948)
45. Rosalind Russell
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
46. Loretta Young
The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
47. Orson Welles
The Third Man (1949)
48. Claude Rains
Notorious (1946)
49. Edward G. Robinson
Key Largo (1948)
50. Joan Fontaine
Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
51. Humphrey Bogart
To Have and Have Not (1944)
52. Jean Arthur
The More the Merrier (1943)
53. Bette Davis
The Letter (1940)
54. Katharine Hepburn
Woman of the Year (1942)
55. Cary Grant
His Girl Friday (1940)
56. Peter Lorre
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
57. Humphrey Bogart
High Sierra (1941)
58. Agnes Moorehead
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
59. Lauren Bacall
Key Largo (1948)
60. Donna Reed
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
61. Walter Huston
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
62. Broderick Crawford
All the King's Men (1949)
63. Mercedes McCambridge
All the King's Men (1949)
64. Bette Davis
Now, Voyager (1942)
65. Gary Cooper
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
66. Rosalind Russell
His Girl Friday (1940)
67. Ginger Rogers
Kitty Foyle (1940)
68. Ralph Richardson
The Heiress (1949)
69. Kirk Douglas
Champion (1949)
70. Humphrey Bogart
The Big Sleep (1946)
71. Cary Grant
Notorious (1946)
72. Spencer Tracy
Adam's Rib (1949)
73. John Wayne
Red River (1948)
74. Celia Johnson
Brief Encounter (1945)
75. Greer Garson
The Valley of Decision (1945)
76. Trevor Howard
Brief Encounter (1945)
77. Bing Crosby
Going My Way (1944)
78. Greer Garson
Madame Curie (1943)
79. Joan Fontaine
The Constant Nymph (1943)
80. Barry Fitzgerald
Going My Way (1944)
81. John Garfield
Body and Soul (1947)
82. William Powell
Life with Father (1947)
83. Lana Turner
The Postman Alaways Rings Twice (1946)
84. Gregory Peck
The Yearling (1946)
85. Bette Davis
The Little Foxes (1941)
86. Gregory Peck
Spellbound (1945)
87. Claude Rains
Casablanca (1942)
88. Monty Woolley
The Pied Piper (1942)
89. Ronald Colman
Random Harvest (1942)
90. Greer Garson
Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
91. Walter Huston
All That Money Can Buy (1941)
92. Cary Grant
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
93. Alexander Knox
Wilson (1944)
94. Cary Grant
None But The Lonely Heart (1944)
95. Elizabeth Taylor
National Velvet (1944)
96. Gene Tierney
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
97. Richard Widmark
Kiss of Death (1947)
98. Joan Crawford
Possessed (1947)
99. Susan Hayward
Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)
100. Deborah Kerr
Black Narcissus (1947)
101. Lauren Bacall
To Have and Have Not (1944)
102. Roger Livesey
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
103. Katina Paxinou
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
104. Mickey Rooney
The Human Comedy (1943)
105. Claudette Colbert
Since You Went Away (1944)
106. Rosalind Russell
Sister Kenny (1946)
107. Gene Kelly
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
108. Jennifer Jones
A Duel in the Sun (1946)
109. Harold Russell
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
110. Jane Wyman
The Yearling (1946)
111. Ingrid Bergman
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
112. Bing Crosby
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
113. Michael Redgrave
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
114. Greer Garson
Mrs. Parkington (1944)
115. Bette Davis
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
116. Joel McCrea
The More the Merrier (1943)
117. Gary Cooper
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
118. Charles Coburn
The More the Merrier (1943)
119. Fred MacMurray
Double Indemnity (1944)
120. Margaret O'Brien
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
121. Joan Fontaine
Jane Eyre (1943)
122. Gregory Peck
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
123. Richard Todd
The Hasty Heart (1949)
124. Irene Dunne
I Remember Mama (1948)
125. Barbara Stanwyck
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
126. Montgomery Clift
The Search (1948)
127. John Wayne
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
128. Anton Walbrook
The Red Shoes (1948)
129. Alec Guinness
Oliver Twist (1948)
130. Ingrid Bergman
Joan of Arc (1948)
131. Henry Fonda
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
132. Martha Scott
Our Town (1940)
133. James Stewart
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
134. Teresa Wright
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
135. Joseph Cotten
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
136. Robert Montgomery
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
137. Clifton Webb
Laura (1944)
138. Humphrey Bogart
Sahara (1943)
139. Raymond Massey
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
140. Margaret Sullavan
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
141. Barbara Stanwyck
Ball of Fire (1941)
142. Deborah Kerr
Edward, My Son (1949)
143. Gregory Peck
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
144. Cornel Wilde
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
145. Angela Lansbury
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
146. Gene Kelly
On the Town (1949)
147. Jeanne Crain
Pinky (1949)
148. Lionel Barrymore
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
149. Dana Andrews
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
150. Edmund Gwenn
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
151. Robert Mitchum
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
152. Olivia de Havilland
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
153. Cary Grant
Penny Serenade (1941)
154. Gary Cooper
Ball of Fire (1941)
155. John Carradine
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
156. Joel McCrea
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
157. Walter Brennan
The Westerner (1940)
158. W.C. Fields
The Bank Dick (1940)
159. Jean Simmons
Hamlet (1948)
160. Cornel Wilde
A Song to Remember (1945)
161. Jennifer Jones
Love Letters (1945)
162. Rita Hayworth
Gilda (1946)
163. Robert Ryan
Crossfire (1947)
164. Jane Greer
Out of the Past (1947)
165. Celeste Holm
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
166. Henry Travers
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
167. Rita Hayworth
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
168. James Stewart
Rope (1948)
169. Henry Fonda
My Darling Clementine (1946)
170. Burt Lancaster
The Killers (1946)
171. Walter Pidgeon
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
172. Teresa Wright
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
173. Walter Pidgeon
Madame Curie (1943)
174. Deborah Kerr
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
175. Susan Peters
Random Harvest (1942)
176. Jane Darwell
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
177. James Stephenson
The Letter (1940)
178. Gene Kelly
For Me and My Gal (1942)
179. Donald Crisp
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
180. Joseph Cotten
Citizen Kane (1941)
181. Tim Holt
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
182. Loretta Young
Come to the Stable (1949)
183. Robert Ryan
The Set-Up (1949)
184. Rex Harrison
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
185. Cathy O'Donnell
They Live By Night (1948)
186. Richard Attenborough
Brighton Rock (1947)
187. James Mason
Odd Man Out (1947)
188. Edmond O'Brien
White Heat (1949)
189. Lon Chaney Jr.
The Wolf Man (1941)
190. Sydney Greenstreet
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
191. Akim Tamiroff
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
192. Ida Lupino
The Hard Way (1943)
193. John Mills
In Which We Serven (1942)
194. Dean Jagger
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
195. Ethel Barrymore
None But The Lonely Heart (1944)
196. Dick Powell
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
197. J. Carrol Naish
A Medal for Benny (1945)
198. Ann Blyth
Mildred Pierce (1945)
199. Robert Montgomery
They Were Expendable (1945)
200. James Dunn
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
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Edited By: Tim, Bruno
List Begun: 2019-10-18