Leni Riefenstahl
celebrity,Film,hollywood
Leni Reifenstahl
One of the world\'s first prominent female filmmakers, Leni Riefenstahl (1902 -2003) was a controversial figure from day one. A powerful director, her films \'Victory of Faith\', starring Hitler and his Nazi associates, and \'Olympia\', recording the 1936 Berlin Olympics, have stood the test of time, not only for their technical brilliance but also for claims that they were in deep allegiance to Hitler and the Nazi regime. Despite refuting these claims of Nazi sympathising, Riefenstahl was shunned by the movie world and didn\'t direct again until 2002, a year before her death.
Hattie McDaniel
celebrity,Film,hollywood
Hattie McDaniel
Despite playing a stereotyped maidservant for most of her acting career, McDaniel (1895 -1952) did more for the cause of black people in Hollywood than her character would suggest. Quoted as saying that she would rather play a maid than be one, her roles in the \'20s and \'30s became stronger and more powerful as the years went on. This culminated in her Oscar-winning performance in \'Gone with the Wind\', the first award for a black actor at a time when racism in both industry and society was rampant. Despite this, she persevered and became an inspiration for future black actors.
Audrey Hepburn
celebrity,Film,hollywood
audrey hepburn
Glamorous, dazzling, beautiful and charming are just a few of the superlatives that can be used to describe one of Hollywood\'s greatest female leads. Daughter of a banker and a baroness, Audrey Hepburn (1929 -1993) became Hollywood\'s darling after starring in hit movies including \'Breakfast at Tiffany\'s\' and \'My Fair Lady\'. While many may have tried to copy her extraordinary, iconic style none have come close.
Julia Phillips
celebrity,Film,hollywood
Julia Phillips
The legendary film producer Julia Phillips (1944-2002) had Hollywood on its knees back in the \'90s when she released her tell-all exposé of the industry. After producing Steven Spielberg\'s \'Close Encounters of the Third Kind\', Martin Scorsese\'s \'Taxi Driver\' and \'The Sting\', for which she became the first female winner of a Best Picture Oscar. But she wasn\'t going to win any awards for her 1991 book \'You\'ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again\' where she blew the whistle on her fellow filmmakers. The book\'s title was a self-fulfilling prophecy and she didn\'t find the film industry receptive to her talents afterwards, but she never regretted her book, which is a brilliant, entertaining and un-put-down-able read.
Jane Fonda
celebrity,Film,hollywood
jane fonda
Happy to cause a storm both on screen and off, Jane Fonda certainly had a lot to say about pretty much everything. A huge box-office star in her own right, Fonda came from an acting dynasty (her father was Henry Fonda, her brother is Peter and her niece is Bridget) and won Academy Awards for her roles in \'Klute\' and \'Coming Home\'. But although she starred in the likes of the cult fantasy hit \'Barbarella\', Fonda is actually very serious about her political views and is not afraid to speak her mind. Controversial and outspoken about the Vietnam and Iraq wars, feminism, racism and civil rights, she has made her mark not just on celluloid but in the real world too. And of course, there are the seminal workout videos...
Sigourney Weaver
celebrity,Film,hollywood
Sigourney Weaver
Although in space no one can hear you scream, the film world certainly heard plenty about
Sigourney Weaver, after she blasted herself into the movie spotlight with the role of Lt. Ellen Ripley in \'Alien\'. After an explosive lead role blowing a bitch of an alien into space, she didn\'t rest and took on a whole planet of them seven years later in \'Aliens\', creating the modern-day
action-woman. Gone is the make-up and the sexy garb – Weaver showed the world that a sweaty brow and the ability to handle a large weapon was indeed, sexy enough. Recent appearances have moved away from the female action-hero genre, and include voice cameos as a computer in
WALL.E and the narrator in
The Tail of Despereaux
Sofia Coppola
celebrity,Film,hollywood
sophia coppola
Her dad directed possibly the greatest film of all time (Francis Ford Coppola – \'The Godfather Trilogy\') and its obvious that Sophia has movie-making in her blood. With fantastic work such as \'Lost in Translation\' (for which she won a Best Screenplay Oscar), \'The Virgin Suicides\' and \'Marie Antoinette\', it\'s clear her unique blend of lush cinematography and popular culture are going to stay fresh for years to come. Her cool credentials are amplified by having a French rock-star boyfriend, directing a White Stripes video, owning a fashion label and having her own brand of champagne!
Julia Roberts
celebrity,Film,hollywood
julia roberts
Playing a hooker in \'Pretty Woman\' seemed like an unlikely start to superstardom, but
Julia Roberts\' enormous salaries (£25 million for 2003\'s \'Mona Lisa Smile\') alone show how significant she is to the world of cinema. One of the few women who can sell a film with her name alone above it, and a smile known throughout the world, Julia Roberts has shown that it is not only men in Hollywood that can pull in the crowds.
Reese Witherspoon
celebrity,Film,hollywood
Reese Witherspoon The most powerful actress in Hollywood
With
Julia Roberts reigning as the most powerful actress in
Hollywood for so long, and with so many other actresses waiting to hit the top spot, it didn\'t surprise us when she was finally usurped. Reese Witherspoon got her first major acting role, playing a tomboy in Robert Mulligan\'s
Man on the Moon, at just 14 years-old. Bigger roles soon appeared, and Reese became a well known face through major roles in films like Pleasantville (1998) Cruel Intentions (1999) and Election (1999). However, Reese\'s breakthrough role has to be as Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde (2001), which established her as one of the top female actresses in Hollywood. In 2006 she took home the Best Actress Oscar for her role as June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biopic
Walk the Line (2005), securing her place as the most powerful actress in Hollywood. In 2007, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this by naming her as the
Highest Paid Actress in Hollywood.
Nora Ephron
celebrity,Film,hollywood
Nora Ephron screen-writer and producer
Of course, none of these talented actresses would be topping our list without the writers and producers that give them material to work with. Nora Ephron, screen-writer and producer, is known for the strong female characters in her early films, such as Karen Silkwood an anti-nuclear activist in Silkwood (1983) and Cookie, a mobster\'s tough daughter in Cookie (1989). Ephron is also the woman responsible for bringing Meg Ryan to romantic comedies You\'ve Got Mail (1998), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and When Harry Met Sally (1989). It\'s no suprise that she\'s such a talented writer, her parents are the writing duo Henry and Pheobe Ephron, who wrote Caraousel (1956) and There\'s No Business Like Show Business (1954).
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