The following list of names is from the book The Film 100 (full title: The Film 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential People in the History of the Movies), written by Scott Wise, a Citadel Press Book, published by Carol Publishing Group: Secaucus, New Jersey (1998).
The purpose of this page is not to provide details about the careers and lasting influence of these individuals (numerous other resources are available for that). This purpose of this page is to identify the religious affiliation, religious background and/or religious beliefs of the individuals named in the "Film 100" list. The names and rankings in this list are from The Film 100, by Scott Wise. The other information has been researched and collected by Adherents.com specifically for this page.
| The Film 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential People in the History of the Movies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank. Name | Religious Affiliation | Brief note about significance, occupation, credits |
| 1. W. K. Laurie Dickson | ? | inventor of the motion picture camera |
| 2. Edwin S. Porter | invented film editing; America's first major filmmaker | |
| 3. Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic | actor, director |
| 4. Mary Pickford | Catholic; Christian Science (convert) | actress; studio boss; co-founder of United Artists |
| 5. Orson Welles | Protestant Christian | director/actor; Citizen Kane; etc. |
| 6. Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic | director; Psycho; The Birds; Rear Window; etc. |
| 7. Walt Disney | Congregationalist | pioneering animator |
| 8. D. W. Griffith | Methodist | director |
| 9. Will Hays | Presbyterian | led Hollywood's self-censorship: 1930 Motion Picture Produc. Code |
| 10. Thomas Edison | Congregationalist; agnostic | inventor, developed film recording, projection technology, light |
| 11. John Wayne | Presbyterian; Catholic | actor, movie star, esp. in Westerns |
| 12. J. R. Bray | founded first studio dedicated to animation | |
| 13. Billy Bitzer | pioneering cameraman | |
| 14. Jesse Lasky | founded first motion picture studio in Hollywood | |
| 15. George Eastman | photography innovations incl. dry plates, film w/ flexible backing | |
| 16. Sergei Eisenstein | Russian Orthodox; Marxist; Freudian | Soviet director; developed montage; Battleship Potemkin |
| 17. Andre Bazin | Catholic | French film critic |
| 18. Irving Thalberg | Jewish | movie producer |
| 19. Thomas Ince | director | |
| 20. Marlon Brando | minimal Christian Science; Native American spirituality | pioneering "method" actor, inspired realism in film acting |
| 21. Louis B. Mayer | Jewish | Hollywood studio mogul |
| 22. Greta Garbo | Lutheran | actress |
| 23. Robert Flaherty | Protestant father; Catholic mother | pioneering documentary filmmaker; Nanook of the North |
| 24. Lon Chaney | Christianity; both parents deaf | actor popular for monster, horror roles; make-up pioneer |
| 25. Anita Loos | screenwriter | |
| 26. Georges Melies | Catholic | early cinema pioneer; inventor of the sci-fi and fantasy genres |
| 27. Adolph Zukor | Jewish | producer and executive |
| 28. John Gilbert | Latter-day Saint | leading silent-era movie star |
| 29. Max Fleischer | Jewish | producer |
| 30. John Ford | Catholic | director, esp. Westerns |
| 31. William Fox | Jewish | producer, theater chain owner |
| 32. George Lucas | Buddhist Methodist | director, developer of special effects; Star Wars; etc. |
| 33. Linwood Gale Dunn | visual special effects pioneer | |
| 34. Eadweard Muybridge | inventor of key photographic, film processes | |
| 35. Katharine Hepburn | nominal Episcopalian background; atheist | actress |
| 36. Winsor McCay | animator | |
| 37. Stanley Kubrick | Jewish | director; 2001: A Space Oddysey; Dr. Strangelove; etc. |
| 38. Buster Keaton | Catholic (non-practicing) | actor known for physical comedy |
| 39. James Agee | Episcopalian | film critic |
| 40. Fritz Lang | Jewish Catholic | director (M; Metropolis; etc.) |
| 41. Marcus Loew | Jewish | founded theater chain |
| 42. Cedric Gibbons | art director | |
| 43. James Cagney | Catholic | actor |
| 44. Ben Hecht | Jewish | producer, director, writer |
| 45. Ingmar Bergman | Lutheran; agnostic | acclaimed Swedish filmmaker |
| 46. Humphrey Bogart | Episcopalian (lapsed) | actor |
| 47. Leon Schlesinger | Jewish | producer over Warner Brothers animation studio |
| 48. Louella Parsons | Catholic | entertainment and gossip columnist |
| 49. Roger Corman | Catholic | producer, director |
| 50. Edith Head | Catholic | costume designer |
| 51. Bernard Herrmann | Jewish | composer |
| 52. Gary Cooper | Catholic (convert) | actor |
| 53. Mike Todd | Judaism | producer; pioneered 70-millimeter film; Around the World in 80 Days |
| 54. Ernst Lubitsch | Jewish | German-born director; "King of Comedy"; also musicals |
| 55. Sidney Poitier | Vodoun; Anglican; Catholic | pioneering black actor |
| 56. Saul Bass | title designer | |
| 57. Billy Wilder | Jewish | director; Double Indemnity; Some Like It Hot, etc. |
| 58. Bette Davis | Baptist/Episcopalian family background; Christian Science (temporary) | actress |
| 59. Erich von Stroheim | Jewish-born Catholic (convert) | actor, director; Greed |
| 60. Max Factor | developed face make-up used in filmmaking | |
| 61. The Lumiere Brothers | first to project moving, photographic, pictures to paying audience | |
| 62. Woody Allen | Jewish (raised Orthodox); agnostic | director, actor; "Annie Hall" (1977), etc. |
| 63. Clark Gable | Catholic | actor |
| 64. David O. Selznick | Jewish | producer |
| 65. Gregg Toland | pioneering cinematographer; Citizen Kane | |
| 66. Lillian Gish | Episcopalian | actress |
| 67. William Cameron Menzies | set designer; Gone with the Wind | |
| 68. Lucille Ball | Protestant; Dutch Reformed (Rev. Peale) | actress, comedian; television sitcom pioneer |
| 69. Samuel Rothafel | Jewish | pioneer in building movie "palaces"; synched orchestral score to film |
| 70. Akira Kurosawa | Buddhist-Shinto culture | influential Japanese filmmaker |
| 71. Marilyn Monroe | Christian Science; temporary convert to Judaism | actress, movie star, female icon |
| 72. Vittorio De Sica | Catholic | Italian director; The Bicycle Thief |
| 73. Natalie Kalmus | co-developer of Technicolor process | |
| 74. Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert | lapsed Catholic | influential film reviewers |
| 75. Willis O'Brien | special effects pioneer; stop motion photography; King Kong | |
| 76. Shirley Temple | Presbyterian, Episcopalian | popular child star |
| 77. Yakima Canutt | stunt man | |
| 78. Sam Peckinpah | Protestant | director |
| 79. Jackie Coogan | Catholic | child actor |
| 80. Federico Fellini | Catholic; astrology; Jung | director |
| 81. Leni Riefenstahl | Lutheran | influential director famous for Nazi propaganda films |
| 82. Steven Spielberg | Judaism | director |
| 83. Sam Warner | Jewish | executive, studio founder |
| 84. Jean-Luc Godard | Calvinist/Huguenot (lapsed); devout Maoist | director |
| 85. Robert De Niro | Catholic (non-practicing) | actor |
| 86. Fred Astaire | Episcopalian | popular dancing actor, dance choreographer |
| 87. Francis Ford Coppola | Catholic (non-practicing) | director |
| 88. Ted Turner | raised Catholic/Episcopal; now agnostic or atheist | cable mogul; film colorization |
| 89. Clint Eastwood | raised Protestant; agnostic | actor famous for popular Westerns; leading director |
| 90. Dalton Trumbo | Christian Science | Important novelist and screenwriter |
| 91. Dennis Hopper | director, actor | |
| 92. Richard Hollingshead | drive-in movies inventor and entrepreneur | |
| 93. Melvin Van Peebles | pioneering black filmmaker | |
| 94. John Chambers | make-up technician, advanced latex masks; Planet of the Apes | |
| 95. Mack Sennett | Catholic | pioneer, innovator of slapstick film comedy (incl. Keystone Kops) |
| 96. Martin Scorsese | Catholic (lapsed former seminarian) | director |
| 97. Karl Struss | DP for Cecil B. DeMille, etc.; pioneering cinematographer | |
| 98. Busby Berkeley | influential Hollywood movie director, musical choreographer | |
| 99. John Hubley | New York Times: "most influential animator of the postwar era" | |
| 100. John Cassavetes | Greek Orthodox | director; pioneer of American cinema verite; Faces; Shadows; etc. |
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