The 100 Most Influential People
in the History of the Movies
Part 3

by Film 100

The Film 100
(part 3, ranked)

The Film 100
Influential Role(s)
(ranked)
Recommended Film Viewing
68 Lucille Ball
(1911-1989)

Actress
Roman Scandals (1933)
Stage Door (1937)
The Big Street (1942)
The Long Long Trailer (1954)
69 Samuel Rothafel
(1882-1936)

Entrepreneur of "Pleasure Palaces"
 
70 Akira Kurosawa
(1910-1998)

Japanese Director
Rashomon (1950)
Ikiru (1952)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
71 Marilyn Monroe
(1926-1962)

Actress
All About Eve (1950)
Niagara (1952)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Bus Stop (1956)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
72 Vittorio de Sica
(1901-1974)

Italian Director, Actor, Screenwriter, Producer
Shoeshine (1946)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Umberto D. (1952)
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1964)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)
73 Natalie Kalmus
(1892-1965)

Film Pioneer, Early "Technicolor" Advocate
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
As 1939 approached, color was on the block; many studios thought the returns didn't justify the price. But GWTW changed all that. Its brilliant use of color placed it heads above the other outstanding films of that productive year. Studio executives then put Technicolor at the top of their wish list for the really big productions.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Kalmus flew to England extensively to train British crews on appropriate use of color in costumes, make-up, and set design. Her suggestions were spot on, and Michael Powell's ballerina musical is the exemplary Technicolor film.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Although John Ford wasn't much for consultants, he carefully listened to Kalmus in using Technicolor. Kalmus explained how many directors overused the process and didn't take advantage of her ability to custom manufacture special hues. YELLOW RIBBON was truly a joint effort, and defined the color of the Western.
74 Gene Siskel (1946-1999) & Roger Ebert (1942-2013)
Influential Film Critics
 
75 Willis O'Brien
(1886-1965)

Special Effects Artist
The Lost World (1925)
King Kong (1933)
Close to the finale, Kong chases Fay Wray to a hotel, in a scene that illustrates O'Brien's attention to detail and sophisticated mix of live action and stop-motion animation. As the ape rips the hotel sign from the building, faint clouds of dust add to the realism. O'Brien, using two sets, one full-scale and one miniature, cuts between real car crashes, a miniature marquee hurling through the air, fleeing pedestrians, and ultimately, a real marquee smashing into pieces.
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
More monkey business, but this time O'Brien had his protegee Ray Harryhausen working by his side. The story of a giant ape scooped up the Oscar for O'Brien and passed the torch to SINBAD's creator. The film is hard to find, but shows up at sci-fi conventions.
76 Shirley Temple
(1928-2014)

Actress, Singer
Baby Take a Bow (1934)
Bright Eyes (1934)
Little Miss Marker (1934)
Curly Top (1935)
The Little Colonel (1935)
The Littlest Rebel (1935)
Captain January (1936)
Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
Heidi (1937)
The Little Princess (1939)
77 Yakima Canutt
(1895-1986)

Legendary Hollywood Stuntman
Stagecoach (1939)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
78 Sam Peckinpah
(1925-1984)

Director, Screenwriter
Ride the High Country (1962)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Getaway (1972)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
79 Jackie Coogan
(1914-1984)

Child Star and Actor
The Kid (1921)
Peck's Bad Boy (1921)
Oliver Twist (1922)
Johnny Get Your Hair Cut (1927)
Tom Sawyer (1930)
Huckleberry Finn (1931)
80 Federico Fellini
(1920-1993)

Italian Director, Screenwriter
La Strada (1954)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
8 1/2 (1963)
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Fellini Satyricon (1970)
81 Leni Riefenstahl
(1902-2003)

Director, Actress, Screenwriter
Triumph of the Will/Triumph des Willens (1935)
Pure propaganda never looked so good. Her first effort at documentary, Leni rehearsed extensively to prepare for Hitler's famous speech, digging trenches for low angle shots, building towers for long crowd shots. Then, she put all of the images to the marching tempo of goosesteppers.
Olympia (1936)
Leni shoots a beautiful nude sequence to open the film with a look back on the origins of the Olympics, but her Greece is filled with blonde hair and blue eyes. Still the compositions are all interesting and the film launched techniques used today in television sports broadcasting.
82 Steven Spielberg
(1947- )

Director, Producer, Executive
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
83 Sam Warner
(1888-1927)

Studio Executive
Don Juan (1926)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
84 Jean-Luc Godard
(1930- )

French Director, Screenwriter, Critic
Breathless/A Bout de Souffle (1959)
A Married Woman/Une Femme Mariee (1964)
85 Robert De Niro
(1943- )

Actor
Mean Streets (1973)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The King of Comedy (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
GoodFellas (1990)
86 Fred Astaire
(1899-1987)

Actor, Dancer
The Gay Divorcee (1934)
Top Hat (1935)
Swing Time (1936)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Funny Face (1957)
Silk Stockings (1957)
87 Francis Ford Coppola
(1939- )

Director, Producer, Screenwriter
The Godfather (1972)
The Conversation (1974)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
88 Ted Turner
(1938- )

Media Mogul
 
89 Clint Eastwood
(1930- )

Actor, Director, Producer
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
For A Few Dollars More (1965)
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Unforgiven (1992)
90 Dalton Trumbo
(1905-1976)

Screenwriter; (Pseudonym: Robert Rich)
Kitty Foyle (1940)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Roman Holiday (1953)
The Brave One (1956)
Exodus (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Lonely are the Brave (1962)
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Papillion (1973)
91 Dennis Hopper
(1936-2010)

Actor, Director, Screenwriter
Giant (1956)
Easy Rider (1969)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Hoosiers (1980)
Blue Velvet (1986)
92 Richard Hollingshead
(1900-1975)

"Drive-in Theater" Entrepreneur
 
93 Melvin Van Peebles
(1932- )

Director, Screenwriter, Actor, Producer
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
After SWEETBACK, there was no need for other Van Peebles films. The exploitation had begun and other black filmmakers rushed to work. "Here they come," said Van Peebles, "an endless row of black filmmakers, charging up the road." But many of them simply copied this film's dialogue, fashion, music, and themes.
94 John Chambers
(1923-2001)

"Latex" Make-up Technician
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
Jaws (1975)
95 Mack Sennett
(1880-1960)

Director, Producer, Actor; "The King of Comedy"
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
His Bitter Pill (1916)
The Shriek of Araby (1923)
96 Martin Scorsese
(1942- )

Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor
Taxi Driver (1976)
From a script by Paul Schrader, TAXI DRIVER was an original of the American cinema. Absent of plot, it simply follows the descent of a cabbie in New York City, as he is gradually exposed to the underbelly of urban life. A study in the character of an insignificant man and the soul or metropolis.
Raging Bull (1980)
Hailed as an instant classic, RAGING BULL redefined the boxing picture by filming fights with a mixture of gritty realism and dreamlike heroic imagery. The plot revolves around the despicable Jake LaMotta, played by Robert De Niro as an unflagging louse.
GoodFellas (1990)
A brilliant eulogy to the gangster film, GOODFELLAS tracks the life of Henry Hill through an underworld that goes from romantic to brutal in the blink of an eye. The long tracking shots utilized by Scorsese throughout the movie help establish the constant tension present in the lives of these career criminals.
97 Karl Struss
(1886-1981)

Director of Photography, Cinematographer
Sunrise (1927)
Island of Lost Souls (1933)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Journey Into Fear (1942)
Limelight (1952)
The Fly (1958)
98 Busby Berkeley
(1895-1976)

Director, Innovative Choreographer
Golddiggers of 1933 (1933)
Footlight Parade (1933)
42nd Street (1933)
Dames (1934)
99 John Hubley
(1914-1977)

Animator, Art Director, Creator of "Mr. Magoo"
Gerald McBoing Boing (1951)
Rooty Toot Toot (1952)
Moonbirds (1959)
The Hole (1962)
100 John Cassavetes
(1929-1989)

Director, Actor, Screenwriter, Producer
Shadows (1960)
Faces (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

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