Sci-Fi’s Most Beautiful Stars: 1933-2008

John on September 4, 2009 at 10:20 am

And now for something completely different…

I’m a fan of sci-fi and fantasy films. One of the things I’ve noticed about these movies over the years is that they always feature beautiful stars. There are no doubt lots of interesting reasons for this, but I think the obvious ones are probably the right ones. In any case, we’ll save that discussion for another day.

For the moment, the only goal is to identify the most beautiful stars in sci-fi/fantasy films for every year from 1933-2008. Now, prior to 1950 there wasn’t a lot of science fiction on the screen, so you’ll see a lot more fantasy films prior to that date. Honestly, some of the films are a bit of a stretch under sci-fi or fantasy, but it was the best I could do. If you have a better suggestion, feel free to disagree or make suggestions in the comments.

Finally, a content warning: Everything here is from G, PG or PG-13 films, nearly all of which I’ve seen, some of which I’ve seen several times and many of which you’ve no doubt seen as well. Princess Leia’s metal bikini is as risque as it gets. If, however, you avoided seeing Return of the Jedi because of nudity you should probably skip this post as well.

Without further ado…

• 1933 – Fay Wray in King Kong
• 1934 – Maureen O’Sullivan in Tarzan and His Mate
• 1935 – Olivia DeHavilland in Midsummer Night’s Dream
• 1936 – Jean Rogers in Flash Gordon (serial)
  
• 1937 – Betty Jane Rhodes in Jungle Jim (serial)
• 1938 – Olivia DeHavilland in Adventures of Robin Hood
• 1939 – Constance Moore in Buck Rogers (serial)
• 1940 – June Duprez in Thief of Bagdad
• 1941 – Ingrid Bergman in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• 1942 – Veronica Lake in I Married a Witch
  
• 1943 – Martha Vickers in Captive Wild Women
• 1944 – Maria Montez in Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
• 1945 – Anne Jeffreys in Zombies on Broadway
  
• 1946 – Josette Day in Beauty and the Beast
• 1947 – Virginia Mayo in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• 1948 – Ann Blyth in Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
• 1949 – Mae Clarke in King of the Rocket Men
• 1950 – Erin O’Brien-Moore in Destination Moon
• 1951 – Margaret Sheridan in The Thing from Another World
  
• 1952 – Elizabeth Taylor in Ivanhoe
• 1953 – Donna Martell in Project Moonbase
• 1954 – Julie Adams in Creature from the Black Lagoon
• 1955 – Faith Domergue in It Came from Beneath the Sea
  
• 1956 – Anne Francis in Forbidden Planet
• 1957 – Joan Taylor in 20 Million Miles to Earth
• 1958 – Kathryn Grant in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
• 1959 – Yvette Vickers in Attack of the Giant Leeches
• 1960 – Yvette Mimieux in The Time Machine
  
• 1961 - Coleen Gray in Phantom Planet
• 1962 – Anne Helm in The Magic Sword
• 1963 – Tippi Hedren in The Birds
  
• 1964 – Martha Hyer in First Men in the Moon
• 1965 – Ursula Andress in She
• 1966 – Raquel Welch in One Million BC
  
  • 1966 Runner Up – Julie Christie in Farenheit 451
• 1967 – Susan Denberg in Frankenstein Created Woman
• 1968 – Jane Fonda in Barbarella
• 1969 – Loni Von Friedl in Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
• 1970 – Linda Harrison in Beneath the Planet of the Apes
  
• 1971 – Julie Ege in Creatures the World Forgot
• 1972 – Britt Ekland in The Asylum
• 1973 – Leigh Taylor Young in Soylent Green
• 1974 – Caroline Munro in the Golden Voyage of Sinbad
  
• 1975 – Maud Adams in Rollerball
• 1976 – Jenny Agutter in Logan’s Run
  
  • 1976 Runner Up – Jessica Lange in King Kong
• 1977 – Jane Seymour in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
  
• 1978 – Caroline Munro in Starcrash
• 1979 – Persis Khambata in Star Trek the Motion Picture
  • 1979 Runner Up – Sigourney Weaver in Alien
• 1980 – Ornella Muti in Flash Gordon
• 1981 – Judi Bowker in Clash of the Titans
  • 1981 Runner Up – Adrienne Barbeau in Swamp Thing
• 1982 – Nastasia Kinski in Cat People
  • 1982 Runner Up – Sean Young in Blade Runner
• 1983 – Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi
  • 1983 Runner Up – Lysette Anthony in Krull
• 1984 – Phoebe Cates in Gremlins
  • 1984 Runner Up – Katherine Mary Stewart in The Last Star Fighter
• 1985 – Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science
  • 1985 Runner Up – Michelle Pfieffer in Ladyhawke
    
• 1986 – Geena Davis in The Fly
  • 1986 Runner Up – Lea Thompson in Howard the Duck
• 1987 – Emanuelle Beart in Date with an Angel
  • 1987 Runner Up – Robin Wright in The Princess Bride
• 1988 – Erika Eleniak in The Blob
  • 1988 Runner Up – Tahnee Welch in Coccoon:  The Return
• 1989 – Kim Basinger in Batman
• 1990 – Demi Moore in Ghost
  
  • 1990 Runner Up – Natasha Richardson in The Handmaid’s Tale
• 1991 – Jennifer Connelly in The Rocketeer
• 1992 – Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns
  
• 1993 – Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man
• 1994 – Cameron Diaz in The Mask
  • 1994 Runner Up – Mili Avital in Stargate
• 1995 – Jeanne Tripplehorn in Waterworld
  
• • 1995 Runner Up – Natasha Henstrige in Species
• 1996 – Pamela Anderson in Barb Wire
• 1997 – Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element
  • 1997 Runner Up – Denise Richards in Starship Troopers
• 1998 – Jennifer Connelly in Dark City
  
  • 1998 Runner Up – Gillian Anderson in The X Files Movie
• 1999 – Carrie Anne Moss in The Matrix
  • 1999 Runner Up – Dina Meyer in Bats

  

• 2000 – Jennifer Lopez in The Cell
• 2001 – Cameron Diaz in Vanilla Sky
• 2002 – Natalie Portman in Attack of the Clones
  • 2002 Runner Up – Samantha Mumba in  The Time Machine
• 2003 – Monica Belluci in Matrix Reloaded
  
  • 2003 Runner Up – Kristianna Loken in Terminator 3
• 2004 – Angelina Jolie in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
  • 2004 Runner Up – Jessica Biel in Blade Trinity
  • 2004 Runner Up – Alexa Davalos in Chronicles of Riddick
• 2005 – Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux
  
  • 2005 Runner Up – Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four
• 2006 – Rebecca Romijn in X-Men 3
• 2007 – Megan Fox in Transformers
  • 2007 Runner Up – Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World’s End
• 2008 – Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man
  
  • 2008 Runner Up – Rachel Bilson in Jumper
• 2009 – Malin Akerman in Watchmen

Looking over the list, about half of these movies are pretty bad. Even if you’re a fan of the genre, some of them aren’t worth watching. Maybe that’s why the casting director tries so hard to cast the most beautiful women possible in these roles?

Special thanks to Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans which is the source of many of the photos from films prior to 1950. Also, Scott looked over the whole list and made a number of good suggestions.

Update: Trying out a new gallery feature…

[Show as slideshow]

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Category: Movies |