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John Wayne became the quintessential Western hero, starring in films like Red River, Fort Apache, and 3 Godfathers, all released in 1948. He holds the record for the actor with the most leading parts at 142. In all but 11 films, he played the leading part. His career spanned from 1926 to 1976.

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James Stewart was one of the first (if not the first) stars to receive a percentage of the gross of his movies. He was a true "regular guy," he genuinely disliked the glamour often basked in by Hollywood stars, avoiding expensive clothes and fancy cars. He also liked his privacy having set off the sprinklers in his front yard because a family were having a picnic. Furthermore, he allegedly hated the nickname "Jimmy".

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Ernest Torrence (and his actor brother David Torrence) came to America directly from Scotland prior to WWI. Focusing instead on an acting career, both brothers developed into seasoned players on the New York stage. Ernest made his Broadway bow with "Modest Suzanne" in 1912, and a standout role in "The Night Boat" in 1920 brought him to the attention of Hollywood filmmakers. He became a prominent character actor in Hollywood, known for roles in both silent and early sound films. His breakthrough came with the role of Luke Hatburn in "Tol'able David" (1921). 

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Seena Owen was considered by most silent film cinematographers as one of the most stunning natural beauties ever to face a lens.

A very skilled actress, she appeared in several quality films during her career. After her 1932 crime drama film, Officer Thirteen (Allied Pictures) she retired from the silver screen. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from movies in 1933.

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Greer Garsons film debut was in 1939 with "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", earning her an Oscar nomination. While at MGM in the 194Os, she said that she would have liked to have been cast in more comedies rather than dramas, and was jealous that those roles were given to another redhead who recently signed with the studio, Lucille Ball. Ironically, Ball was dissatisfied at being overlooked for dramatic roles.

Greer was nominated for an Academy Award five years in a row: 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945. She holds the record for most consecutive nominations along with Bette Davis during that time.

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In 1916, Douglas Fairbanks met Mary Pickford at a party. Their embrace soon became a match made in Hollywood heaven as they soon became the highest-paid actors in Hollywood.

However, Fairbanks and Pickford were both married and it was several years before they each were granted divorces from their respective spouses. In 1920, the two were joined in a ceremony the press titled “The Marriage of the Century.”

After honeymooning in Europe, the couple returned to settle at Pickfair, their 18-acre Beverly Hills estate. Hollywood royalty supped and partied through the night at legendary Pickfair events.

In 1927, in the first ceremony of its kind, Fairbanks and Pickford placed their hand and footprints outside the newly opened Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. They made their first talkie together playing Petruchio and Kate in The Taming of the Shrew (1929). But gold can turn to dust, and the two separated in 1933.

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1953: Niagara is a film noir thriller. It stars Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, and Jean Peters.

Plot: George (Joseph Cotten) and Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) are honeymooning at a Niagara Falls motel. George and Rose have a troubled and volatile marriage. She is younger and seductively attractive. He is jealous, depressed and irritable. She plots with her lover Ted Patrick (Richard Allan) to do George in, but all does not go smoothly. For one thing, after Loomis is reported missing, Polly Cutler (Jean Peters) spies him at the motel, but her husband Ray (Casey Adams) thinks she's imagining it. (20th Century Fox)

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Janet Gaynor was a prominent American actress of the silent and early talkie eras. 

She is notable for being the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929 for her performances in three different films: 7th Heaven, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and Street Angel.

Throughout the mid-1930s, she was the top drawing star at theaters.

She also received a second Oscar nomination for her role in the original 1937 version of A Star Is Born.

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Lana Turner skipped a typing class while attending Hollywood High School. She went to the Top Hat Cafe, on Sunset Boulevard, and was sitting at the counter sipping a Coke. According to the Sunset Boulevard website, William Wilkerson, who wrote for the Hollywood Reporter, noticed her and thought she was attractive enough to be in films. With her mother's approval, he introduced Lana to the agent, Zeppo Marx, who was Groucho Marx's brother. Soon, she was put under contract to MGM.

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Justine Johnstone appeared in three Broadway shows between 1911 and 1914. She became a favorite performer for her 1915 and 1916 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1917, the Broadway musical revue Over the Top was created for her, which featured Fred Astaire and his sister Adele Astaire in their Broadway debuts.

In 1926, she retired from performing for private life, which led her to enroll in science courses at Columbia University, where she studied plant research.

She conducted numerous experiments that led to the cure for syphilis and the development of the modern I.V. unit drip technique.

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1946: Rita Hayworth in Gilda (film noir) with Glenn Ford. (Columbia Pictures)

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Kirk Douglas has appeared in five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Out of the Past (1947), Ace in the Hole (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960).

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1953: Roman Holiday starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Paramount Pictures.

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Betty Amann

March 10, 1905 - August 3, 1990

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Myrna Loy

Born August 2, 1905 Helena, Montana

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1945: Love Letters, (romantic film noir) starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Gladys Cooper and Anita Louise. The plot tells the story of a man falling in love with an amnesiac woman with two personalities, who is believed to have killed his soldier friend. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including a Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination for Jones. (Paramount Pictures)

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Larry Semon was the son of a traveling vaudeville magician, Zera the Great. In scores of short films, Semon rivaled Charlie Chaplin in comic popularity during the early 1920s. He directed The Wizard of Oz (1925), one of his very few feature-length films, in which he played the Scarecrow with Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. He married his leading lady, Dorothy Dwan, who played Dorothy, just before the film's release. Unfortunately, it was not a success and effectively killed Semon's career, which was already on the skids.