Free Download: Great Character Actresses of Classic Film

I have created two desktop wallpapers featuring some of the most familiar faces out of the plethora of wonderful actresses populating the movies of Hollywood’s golden age. We think of them as middle-aged and old women; but all were already interesting personalities in their youth.

Most of these ladies had decades of stage experience before stepping before the cameras. And looking at these beautiful, vital, and interesting faces, and remembering their distinctive voices, it’s no wonder that they found stage success which allowed them to play roles of all types, from ingenues to femmes fatales, scrubwomen to princesses, witches to fairies. When they got to Hollywood they knew what they were doing.

First, here are 10 Great Character Actresses:

And here is the key, showing them as they were seen in the movies:

First row: Gladys Cooper, Elizabeth Patterson, Hattie McDaniel, Dame May Whitty, Maria Ouspenskaya. Second row: Marie Dressler, Beulah Bondi, Lucille Watson, May Robson, Mary Boland.

And here’s a second group of eight actresses:

And here’s the key:

First row: Dame Sybil Thorndyke, Una O’Connor, Laura Hope Crews, Sara Allgood. Second row: Edna May Oliver, Ethel Waters, Alison Skipworth, Ethel Barrymore

Please feel free to download these for desktop wallpaper if you wish.

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