LIFE - 20 Classic Beauties: PEOPLE's Picks

The World's Most Beautiful Women, 1950s-1980s

Mon, 01 Mar 1954 03:00:00 EST

Every year, PEOPLE magazine puts together a list of the 100 folks on the planet it deems the most talented, inspiring, and, yes, gorgeous. The 2009 World's Most Beautiful People issue hits newsstands May 1, and features today's most striking stars. (Get a sneak peek on People.com.) But what about the classic beauties of decades past? LIFE asked Liz Sporkin, editor of the PEOPLE special issue, to name the 20 classic female entertainers who fit the bill. First up: Grace Kelly, the stunning Oscar-winning actress who became a real-life princess in 1956 and has defined Hollywood elegance for decades.

Audrey Hepburn

Thu, 08 Mar 1956 03:00:00 EST

The actress, style icon, and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador was shockingly humble about her looks: "I'm not beautiful. My mother once called me an ugly duckling," she once said. "But, listed separately, I have a few good features." (More Audrey: See LIFE's gallery of the actress at her most stunning.)

Lena Horne

Mon, 01 Jan 1940 03:00:00 EST

Even as she grew older, the effervescent jazz singer and actress could unnerve men with her beauty: In 1981, the usually cool and collected Ed Bradley, 20 years younger than Horne, blushed through an interview with her on "60 Minutes."

Sophia Loren

Thu, 01 Jun 1961 03:00:00 EDT

"Of all the actresses I have met, Sophia Loren has always seemed to be the hardest-working and easiest to get along with," wrote LIFE staffer Alfred Eisenstaedt, who captured this image of Loren in 1961 and photographed her countless times over his career. (See Eisenstaedt's photos of Loren at her Italian villa.)

Gene Tierney

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Yes, she was physically exquisite -- 20th Century Fox founder Daryl F. Zanuck once called her "undeniably the most beautiful woman in movie history." But beyond her looks, Tierney had a remarkable inner strength that helped her overcome numerous struggles: She battled bipolar disorder, had her heart broken by Oleg Cassini and John F. Kennedy, contracted a case of rubella that left the daughter she was carrying deaf, partially blind, and mentally handicapped...and survived to write about it all in her 1979 autobiography "Self-Portrait."

Dorothy Dandridge

Mon, 01 Jan 1951 03:00:00 EST

As a girl she toured the U.S. as part of a song-and-dance act with her sisters, and by the time she was 32 had a sizzling nightclub act and an historic Academy Award nomination for Best Actress (the first time a black woman was up for the honor). But it wasn't until decades later that Dandridge's legacy was truly appreciated: In 1999, Halle Berry dramatized her story in an HBO biopic, and three years later dedicated her Best Actress Oscar to Dandridge and other boundary-breaking black actresses.

Ava Gardner

Thu, 09 Oct 1952 03:00:00 EST

Over her four-decade career, the saucy Gardner charmed not only moviegoers but also some of showbiz's most prominent men: Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, Howard Hughes, and Frank Sinatra, whose passionate, tempestuous relationship with Gardner drove him to write torch songs.

Mia Farrow

Sun, 23 Apr 1967 03:00:00 EST

She's descended from Hollywood royalty, the daughter of actress Maureen O'Sullivan and director John Farrow. But by 1968 Mia had established a name on her own, revealing her huge talent -- and a famous Vidal Sassoon pixie cut that accentuated her delicate beauty -- in "Rosemary’s Baby."

Ali MacGraw

Mon, 08 Mar 1971 03:00:00 EST

With her minimalist makeup, tan skin, funky style, and shiny brown hair, MacGraw was the dream girl next door. But it wasn't just her looks that made her breakout turn as the tragic Jenny in 1970's "Love Story" so memorable -- she imbued the character with an intelligence and wit that prompted the New York Times' film critic to dub her a "Radcliffe madonna figure."

Rita Moreno

Thu, 11 Feb 1954 03:00:00 EST

She's probably best remembered as the sexy Anita in the big-screen version of "West Side Story," but that was just the start of Moreno's remarkable career: After picking up an Academy Award for her performance in that musical, she went on to win a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony for various other projects.

Elizabeth Taylor

Wed, 16 Oct 1963 03:00:00 EDT

Her personal life has played like a movie, filled with passion, intrigue, and, of course, diamonds. Amid all that juiciness, it’s easy to forget that Taylor was just as exciting in her professional role as an actress, swinging from light comedy ("Father of the Bride") to lavish epics ("Cleopatra") to nasty drama ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?").

Catherine Deneuve

Sun, 01 Jan 1961 03:00:00 EST

Obviously, she's beautiful on the outside; Deneuve has been a muse not only for movie directors but also for designers like Yves Saint Laurent over her career as an actress and model. But she's also beautiful inside, using her fame to help the less fortunate through her work with the United Nations (like Angelina Jolie, she's a goodwill ambassador) and Amnesty International.

Marilyn Monroe

Fri, 01 Jan 1954 03:00:00 EST

"Marilyn is a kind of ultimate. She is uniquely feminine. Everything she does is different, strange, and exciting, from the way she talks to the way she uses that magnificent torso. She makes a man proud to be a man." --Clark Gable

Brigitte Bardot

Fri, 01 Jan 1965 03:00:00 EST

The Pretenders, Bob Dylan, and Billy Joel have all referenced her in their songs. Andy Warhol painted her. There's even a statue of her in the town of Buzios, Brazil. So what was it about Bardot that fascinated the world? French film critic Francoise Parturier tried to sum up her appeal in a 1961 issue of LIFE: "People say Bardot merely uses her derriere. I say you have first to possess a handsome, showable derriere and, second, know how to use it. That is Brigitte's glory."

Diana Ross Portrait Session

Sun, 01 Sep 1974 03:00:00 EDT

Besides fronting the most successful girl group of all time (the Supremes), Ross emerged as a solo style star in the 1970s, influencing future generations of pop stars. "Diana Ross was never safe but always sexy and glamorous and had her own individual style," Beyonce Knowles told People in 2004. "She started a lot of different trends, but whatever she wore complemented her body."

Vivien Leigh

Fri, 01 Jan 1937 03:00:00 EST

Like Gene Tierney, she struggled with mental and physical illness that threatened her career. But in her heyday, Leigh's beauty was exceeded only by her talent: A British actress, she won both her Academy Awards for transforming herself into the Southern belles of "Gone With the Wind" and "A Streetcar Named Desire," and held her own in stage and screen productions opposite second husband Laurence Olivier.

Ingrid Bergman

Sun, 01 May 1949 04:00:00 EDT

Wrote the New York Times of the "Casablanca" star in 1943: "She has brought into this capital of artificiality the simplicity and charm of her native Sweden. Unpainted fingernails, skin that doesn't look like icing on a cake, a natural manner, unpretentious clothes -- these usual things make her unusual among Hollywood stars."

Natalie Wood

Mon, 01 Jan 1962 03:00:00 EST

She was a child actress who effortlessly pulled off a transition to adult fare, and delighted all she met along the way. LIFE followed her at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962, where the 23-year-old Wood remained her charming self even as the paparazzi "pursued her like jackals": "At a party given by the Russian delegation, Natalie, the daughter of Russian emigrants, delighted her hosts by conversing fluently in their language and even joining in folk songs."

Raquel Welch

Sat, 01 Jan 1972 03:00:00 EST

The "Most Desired Woman" of the 1970s, according to Playboy, Welch was so sexy she played "Lust incarnate" in the comedy "Bedazzled." Decades later the sex symbol was still looking good, making PEOPLE's Most Beautiful list in 2008 and sharing her secret: yoga and weight training.

Princess Diana

Sun, 01 Feb 1981 03:00:00 EST

Of all the tributes dedicated to the "people's princess" since her tragic death in 1997, perhaps none was so moving or personal than this simple statement from Prince William: "Her beaming smile greeted us from school. She kissed us last thing at night. She was, quite simply, the best mother in the world. We miss her."