Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett burst into public prominence as a young teenage actress, first being noticed in the indie classic Welcome to the Dollhouse. Since then she's made over 20 films, likely being one of the few actors in history with as many films as her age, being born in 1984, so she's still only 24. Her most acclaimed and demanding part was as the friend of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, when both were temporarily American fish out of water in Japan.
If anyone is going to be the new Marilyn, I nominate Scarlett, who has better acting skills and is just as beautiful, resembling the fabulous glamour queens of the silver screen. Currently a Woody Allen favorite, she's appeared in his films Match Point and Vicky Christina Barcelona.
Somehow, she manages to have both the "girl next door" and the classic voluptuous film siren qualities, which make her one of the most popular and alluring modern actresses.

Natalie Portman

Natalie was discovered on Long Island by a fashion modeling rep in a laundromat with her mom. When she showed up for a fashion shoot, she was sent to audition for Luc Besson's film The Professional. She got the lead part with no experience at age 12. She has since starred in many films, including the second Star Wars trilogy, and garnered an Oscar nomination for supporting actress for her daring role in Closer. As you can see from some of these photos, she would also be a great fashion model, and to me has some of the same graceful qualities as Audrey Hepburn.

Halle Berry

African-American actress Berry is not only beautiful enough to have once been the Revlon Girl (other recent ones were Salma Hayak and Andie McDowell), but has also won an Oscar for best actress. This is my favorite photo of her (left), a work of art by itself and one I've used as my desktop wallpaper.

I've heard her name pronounced "holly" and "halley", but it doesn't matter, "a rose by any other name..", to quote Shakespeare. Don't you wish this shirt was unbuttoned completely? That's one lucky tie..

Aishwarya Rai

Indian actress Aishwarya, or "Ash" as she's called by fans, could be the most beautiful actress in the world right now. I think a billion fans would agree. She can also sing and dance, often tours worldwide, and some of her best movies are musicals, like Bride and Prejudice (2004), or historical epics that include music, like Jodhaa Akbar (2007).

Here's a shot from Jodhaa Akbar (rt.) from her wedding night.



Everything about her is gorgeous, sometimes her eyes are blue, sometimes green; but her hair is almost always long. Here's the best hair portrait I could find, the photographer's name is Chotia.

Gee, do you think this is someone you'd like to know? I have a feeling this is really her natural style when relaxing..

PS - It's pronounced (her full name) "eye-eesh-wa-rye-a rye", for us western illiterates! and, yes, she is currently married...

Ziyi Zhang

Zhang is considered the most popular actress in the world, with an estimated one billion fans. Most people first saw her in the action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but she had earlier appeared in Zhang Yimou’s award-winning The Road Home (1999) as a teenager. At 80 lbs, she impressed the martial arts trainers for Tiger and later Yimou’s Hero (photo left), for her determination and skill with little prior training. She later appeared in the western film Memoirs of a Geisha, and was a glamorous presenter at the Academy Awards. From mainland China, she’s considered “a peasant” in Hong Kong – I just think they’re jealous, name one major Hong Kong actress right now. (I know Maggie Cheung, but I'm a hardcore Chinese film fan). Hero is one of the best films ever made, highest-grossing all-time in China. No other actress in the world combines feminine beauty with athleticism and energy like Zhang.

Rona Hartner

Rona Hartner is a stunning and unique beauty from Bucharest, Romania. She gained international acclaim for her role as a dancing and singing gypsy in the 1998 film Gadjo Dilo ("The Crazy Stranger"), for which she won several international acting awards. ...and can she dance! (This is a woman you want to know!)

She not only acts, but records music CDs, does artwork, is an incredible photo model. All this and more are on display at her own website: Rona Hartner Website

Jennifer Connelly

Timeless beauty! Black haired, green-eyed Jennifer first caught my eye as a 12 yr old ballerina in Once Upon a Time in America (photo right), and has since grown into a dazzlingly beautiful and talented actress, with an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, and ‘girl next door’ appeal.
She must keep a low profile, for you never hear her mentioned with the other film sirens, yet she’s obviously one of the most beautiful actresses of our lifetime.
I know she’s a mother, so her family must take precedence over her career. Look at fanpix for her pictures, for they have over 500 there, some near nudes that show her ample assets, and believe me, they are worth checking out! Let’s hope she keeps making films and gets at least another Oscar.

Marlon Brando [Film God 1]

Brando burst into film and gave acting a new style (method) for the next half a century. He seemed to embody smoldering angst, threatening to burst open at any moment in a volcano of emotion, yet on the surface he appeared confident enough that he 'had the world on a string'. He became an icon to the nation in the biker movie The Wild One (1953), photo rt. and dig the high-heels, as leader of a motorcycle gang that takes over Hollister, Ca. When a local asks, "Hey, son, what are you rebelling against?", Brando replies "what cha got?". He then dazzled everyone in A Streetcar Named Desire, yet was the only cast member of four to NOT win an Oscar, which he got a couple of years later for On the Waterfront ("I coulda been a contenda.")


He aged quite well for awhile, as his next Oscar winning role in Frances Coppola's The Godfather (1972) proved. After that he became the unofficial taster for Haagen-Daas, and showed up for Apocalypse Now! in 1979 so overweight that Coppola had to shoot him at night and mostly just head shots. He did make a film comeback as a parody of his godfather role in The Freshman, a comedy in which he played a mafia don to Matthew Broderick's title role.


You get one actor of this magnitude in your lifetime, and you don't realize it until there's just no one as 'large' half a century later. It's almost as if he escaped from the big screen and descended into our lives like the characters in Woody's Purple Rose of Cairo, becoming part of the cultural lexicon. I suppose a lot of Brando's strength came from his good looks, and not from his script selection as his early career was never matched again for the power of those films.
He even did a musical about gangsters, Guys and Dolls (above rt.), with Frank Sinatra, and his singing wasn't too bad; then a pedestrian remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, which featured his Polynesian wife as his romance in the movie (see below).He later OD'd by "hoggin the daas" (as Apu said in the Simpsons), had to have his stomach pumped, and said "I'm beyond my art, and sex, all I have left is my gluttony."



The photo left is from The Godfather, during which Brando stuck marbles in his cheeks to help make that voice. The photo right is from his early days as an acting student in New York at Actor's Studio.

[After seeing the early Brando pictures, I decided to not ignore male beauty on this blogsite in spite of its title, so expect more film gods: Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster, Brad Pitt, Hrithik Roshan from India, maybe even Valentino!]

Candice Bergen

One of the most photogenic models ever, Candice easily made the transition to films in Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge, and made everyone's fantasies by cheating on boyfriend Art Garfunkel with his roommate, a very young Jack Nicholson. Candice's famous father was Edgar Bergen, a popular ventriloquist whose dummy Charlie McCarthy was just as well known as its creator, and became the most popular character of that lost art. Candice later played photographer Margaret Bourke-White in Gandhi (right), and Margaret never looked so good! She actually had more success later in TV, winning Emmys for her popular liberal reporter, Murphy Brown. She's still beautiful today in her 60's as a lawyer in Boston Legal (btm.rt), with glasses and silver-blonde hair. Eye Candice indeed, and we've been lucky enough to watch her gracefully grow for half a century now.