by Ted Sherman

Created on: June 09, 2008

Greatest actresses of the 40s

1. Bette Davis has to be among the top ten on anyone's list. Although she had a hundred varieties of films, you knew it was Bette up there on he screen, whether she was Queen Elizabeth I, Jezabel or a hysterical murderess. Early in her career, her roles made her seem more innocent, vulnerable and sweet, as soon as she took control of her own career, the rest is the history of one of the gutsiest, talented actresses who ever conquered Hollywood. I believe her best was, "Dark Victory".

2. Joan Crawford was like Bette Davis in many ways, and the two of them acted together in rather disgraceful horror films when their star years were over. I guess they needed the money. However, the difference between the two great actresses was that Crawford was always sexual, usually a predatory dame who'd steal your diamonds and your husband. She won the Oscar for her best film, "Mildred Pierce". It was shameful that her daughter needed to make some dirty bucks by writing, "Mommy Dearest", which was probably a total lie. She was just as much of a grand dame in real life as Davis, but always with a twinkle and sense of humor. I met her once in an agency office, and she was an elegant, kindly woman with a great sense of humor.

3. When Shirley Temple became an aging grand dame, she was way past her movie years and into U.S. politics, earning a United Nations post and two ambassadorships. However, during the Great Depression, the little five-year-old took America out of the doldrums with her golden curls, her dimples and her song and dance routine. One of the great moments of her career, as well as in American cinema, was when the little white girl broke through the color line and danced a duet up and down the steps with black stage star Bill Robinson in "The Littlest Colonel". And that was decades before Martin Luther King and Barack Obama.

4. Hattie McDaniel didn't break the color line, and had to spend her entire film career as a mammy-type servant. She was the first black actor to win an Academy Award in 1939 for "Gone With The Wind". She will be remembered with admiration, not as an on-screen domestic, but as an understanding, compassionate and very intelligent human being. The old cliche at the time would be, "She's a credit to her race". No, she was a credit to the human race.

5. Ingrid Bergman, like Davis and Crawford, was always Bergman up on the screen, whether she was the virginal warrior, "Joan of Arc" or the sexy ex-lover of Bogie in the immortal,

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