Barbara Stanwyck

Name at birth: Ruby Stevens

Barbara Stanwyck left the vaudeville stage for the movies in the late 1920s, but her career didn't take off until the '30s, thanks in part to director Frank Capra. Known as a hard-working professional, Stanwyck played a variety of roles in comedy and dramas, and by the end of the 1930s she was a reliable leading lady. Her characters were usually tough, smart and resolute, giving the impression of having been around the block, as Stanwyck herself had: orphaned at the age of four, she was raised by an older sister and quit school at the age of 13. In the 1940s she was at her career peak, starring in Lady Eve (1941), Meet John Doe (1941), Double Indemnity (1944) and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). She seemed to play mostly matriarchs and cattle baronesses in the '50s, and later had a second career in television, with The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1960-61) and The Big Valley (1965-69) and The Thorn Birds (1983). Stanwyck was nominated for an Oscar four times, but never won; she was, however, given an Academy Award in 1981 for Lifetime Achievement.