Famous Actors: Ranked by Popularity (Page 15 of 29) | Who Shares My BirthdayThe most famous actors in history, ranked by historical popularity: film, TV and stage stars with their birthdays, nationality and best-known work.An actor becomes notable when audiences remember the person as well as the part. Some earn that through a single role that enters popular culture, others through careers spanning decades of film, television and theatre. The actors near the top of this list are recognised across many countries and languages, not just in the industry where they made their name.This list covers the film, television, stage and voice actors in our database, from silent-era stars to today's leading performers. We rank them by historical popularity, not by awards or box office, so the order reflects who people around the world still look up most.Who is included: everyone in our database whose primary occupation matches this list. Each person must have an English Wikipedia article and a full date of birth recorded on Wikidata. A growing share of people also have an original profile, written to our editorial rules and marked with a Last reviewed date.Most famous actor: Charlie Chaplin. Highest historical popularity score (HPI 89.8).Most common birth month: April. 149 of 1,443 were born in April.Living vs deceased: 1,031 / 412. 71% are still living.Most common nationality: American. 818 people, 57% of the list.Editor-written profiles: 318. 22% have a full original profile so far.701. Ruth Gordon (1896–1985), American: Actress who won an Academy Award for Rosemary's Baby and co-wrote the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn comedy Adam's Rib.702. Mike Myers (1963), Canadian: Created and starred as Austin Powers, and played Wayne Campbell in the comedy Wayne's World.703. Barbara Hershey (1948), American: Appeared in films including Hannah and Her Sisters and Black Swan, in a screen career of over fifty years.704. Lisa Kudrow (1963), American: Played the quirky masseuse and singer Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom Friends for ten series.705. Laura Dern (1967), American: Won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for Marriage Story, after earlier roles in Jurassic Park and Blue Velvet.706. Julia Ormond (1965), British: Actress who gained wide attention in the 1990s as Susannah in Legends of the Fall and Lady Guinevere in First Knight.707. Luke Perry (1966–2019), American: Became a teen idol as the brooding Dylan McKay in the television drama Beverly Hills, 90210.708. Owen Wilson (1968), American: Actor who co-wrote Bottle Rocket with Wes Anderson and earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing The Royal Tenenbaums.709. Marcia Cross (1962), American: Played the perfectionist Bree Van de Kamp in the television drama Desperate Housewives.710. Hema Malini (1948), Indian: Bollywood actress known for the 1975 film Sholay, who later became a BJP member of parliament for Mathura.711. Bridget Fonda (1964), American: Starred in Single White Female and played Melanie in Jackie Brown.712. Liv Tyler (1977), American: Played the elf Arwen in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.713. Michelle Rodriguez (1978), American: Won an Independent Spirit Award for Girlfight, then played Letty Ortiz in the Fast & Furious films.714. Sarah Wayne Callies (1977), American: Played Lori Grimes in The Walking Dead and Dr Sara Tancredi in the thriller series Prison Break.715. Eva Mendes (1974), American: Actress of Hitch, 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Place Beyond the Pines.716. Ashton Kutcher (1978), American: Rose to fame as Michael Kelso in That '70s Show and later starred in Two and a Half Men.717. Carrie-Anne Moss (1967), Canadian: Canadian actress who played Trinity in The Matrix films.718. Matt Smith (1982), British: Played the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who and the young Prince Philip in the Netflix drama The Crown.719. Kate Beckinsale (1973), British: English actress who starred as vampire warrior Selene in the Underworld film series and appeared in Pearl Harbor.720. Matt Dillon (1964), American: Teen idol of the 1980s who starred in The Outsiders and later earned an Oscar nomination for Crash.721. Billy Zane (1966), American: Played the villainous Cal Hockley in James Cameron's Titanic.722. Jean Dujardin (1972), French: Comic actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor playing a silent-film star in The Artist.723. Eva Green (1980), French: Actress who played Vesper Lynd opposite Daniel Craig in the James Bond film Casino Royale.724. Malin Akerman (1978), Swedish: Played Silk Spectre II in Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Watchmen, after early supporting roles in comedies.725. Eva Longoria (1975), American: Played Gabrielle Solis in the long-running television drama Desperate Housewives, and later moved into directing and producing.726. Thomas Mitchell (1892–1962), American: Character actor who won an Academy Award for Stagecoach and appeared as Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life.727. Lucy Lawless (1968), New Zealand: Starred in the title role of the television fantasy series Xena: Warrior Princess.728. Loretta Young (1913–2000), American: Won the Academy Award for The Farmer's Daughter and later hosted the long-running television anthology The Loretta Young Show.729. Fredric March (1897–1975), American: Won Academy Awards for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Best Years of Our Lives.730. Shannen Doherty (1971–2024), American: Played Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210 and later Prue Halliwell in the supernatural series Charmed.731. Paul Muni (1895–1967), American: Won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing the title role in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936).732. Chadwick Boseman (1976–2020), American: Played the superhero king T'Challa in Marvel's Black Panther, after earlier portraying Jackie Robinson in the film 42.733. Jason Momoa (1979), American: Played Arthur Curry in Aquaman after first appearing as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones.734. Otto Sander (1941–2013), German: German stage and screen actor who played the angel Cassiel in Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire.735. Marisa Tomei (1964), American: Won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny.736. Holly Hunter (1958), American: Won an Oscar for playing the mute pianist Ada in Jane Campion's The Piano.737. Jessica Chastain (1977), American: Won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.738. Mithun Chakraborty (1950), Indian: Won a National Film Award for his debut in Mrigayaa and later starred in Disco Dancer.739. John Cusack (1966), American: Starred as the lovelorn Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything... and as the record-shop owner in High Fidelity.740. Norma Shearer (1900–1983), Canadian: Leading MGM star of the early sound era who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Divorcee.741. Felicity Huffman (1962), American: Played Lynette Scavo in Desperate Housewives and earned an Oscar nomination as a transgender woman in Transamerica.742. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (1970), dane: Played the knight Jaime Lannister throughout the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones.743. Yevgeny Leonov (1926–1994), Russian: Beloved Soviet actor who starred in the comedies Gentlemen of Fortune and Mimino, and voiced Winnie-the-Pooh in animated films.744. Mira Furlan (1955–2021), Croatian: Actress known as the Minbari ambassador Delenn in Babylon 5 and Danielle Rousseau in Lost.745. Lena Headey (1973), British: Played the scheming queen Cersei Lannister throughout HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones.746. Aaron Eckhart (1968), American: Actor who played district attorney Harvey Dent, later Two-Face, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.747. Innokenty Smoktunovsky (1925–1994), Russian: Played the title role in Grigori Kozintsev's celebrated 1964 Soviet film of Hamlet.748. Bob Fosse (1927–1987), American: Won an Oscar for directing Cabaret and choreographed the stage musical Chicago.749. Michael Jeter (1952–2003), American: Character actor who won an Emmy for the sitcom Evening Shade and a Tony Award for the musical Grand Hotel.750. Idris Elba (1972), British: Played Stringer Bell in The Wire before starring as the detective in Luther.How we rank and selectRanking: people are ordered by their Historical Popularity Index (HPI) from Pantheon. HPI combines how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about a person, how many page views those articles get, how evenly the views are spread across languages and how long ago the person lived. People Pantheon does not yet cover are listed after them, ordered by our own popularity score (the number of Wikipedia language editions with an article about them).Membership: each person appears in one occupation list only, based on their primary occupation as classified by Pantheon (for example, a queen who wrote poetry is listed as royalty, not as a writer). Kings, queens, emperors, sultans and royal consorts are not listed as politicians or writers: anyone who held a monarch's office on Wikidata, and never served as a president or head of government, counts as royalty. For the few people Pantheon does not cover, we use the primary field recorded in our database.One-line summaries: each summary is an original line written for this site with AI assistance under our editorial rules, then checked against the Wikipedia introduction so no wording is copied.Statistics: every figure on this page is calculated live from our database each time the page loads, so it changes as we add people.Last reviewed: October 2026Sources: Pantheon: Historical Popularity Index (HPI) rankings, Wikidata: birth dates, death dates and occupations, Wikipedia: biographies behind our summaries and popularity scores. Who Shares My Birthday.

Barbara Hershey

Michelle Rodriguez

Sarah Wayne Callies

Carrie-Anne Moss

Kate Beckinsale

Thomas Mitchell

Shannen Doherty

Chadwick Boseman

Jessica Chastain

Mithun Chakraborty

Felicity Huffman

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Innokenty Smoktunovsky

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Famous Actors

The best-known film, television and stage actors in our archive, ranked by historical popularity.

1,443 actors in our database, ranked by historical popularity. Page 15 of 29.

Most famous actor

Charlie Chaplin

Highest historical popularity score (HPI 89.8)

Most common birth month

April

149 of 1,443 were born in April

Living vs deceased

1,031 / 412

71% are still living

Most common nationality

American

818 people, 57% of the list

Editor-written profiles

318

22% have a full original profile so far

The ranked list (from #701)

How we rank and select

Ranking: people are ordered by their Historical Popularity Index (HPI) from Pantheon. HPI combines how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about a person, how many page views those articles get, how evenly the views are spread across languages and how long ago the person lived. People Pantheon does not yet cover are listed after them, ordered by our own popularity score (the number of Wikipedia language editions with an article about them).
Membership: each person appears in one occupation list only, based on their primary occupation as classified by Pantheon (for example, a queen who wrote poetry is listed as royalty, not as a writer). Kings, queens, emperors, sultans and royal consorts are not listed as politicians or writers: anyone who held a monarch's office on Wikidata, and never served as a president or head of government, counts as royalty. For the few people Pantheon does not cover, we use the primary field recorded in our database.
One-line summaries: each summary is an original line written for this site with AI assistance under our editorial rules, then checked against the Wikipedia introduction so no wording is copied.
Statistics: every figure on this page is calculated live from our database each time the page loads, so it changes as we add people.

Further reading

Reviewed by the Who Shares My Birthday editorial team.

Last reviewed: October 2026

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