AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars

AFI 100 Years... series
1998100 Movies
1999100 Stars
2000100 Laughs
2001100 Thrills
2002100 Passions
2003100 Heroes & Villains
2004100 Songs
2005100 Movie Quotes
200525 Scores
2006100 Cheers
200625 Musicals
2007100 Movies (Updated)
2008AFI's 10 Top 10

AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is the American Film Institute's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history and is the second list of the AFI 100 Years... series.

The list was unveiled through a CBS special on June 15, 1999, hosted by Shirley Temple (who is herself honored on the female legends list), with 50 then-current actors making the presentations.[1]

AFI defines an "American screen legend" as "an actor or a team of actors with a significant screen presence in American feature-length films (films of 40 minutes or more) whose screen debut occurred in or before 1950, or whose screen debut occurred after 1950 but whose death has marked a completed body of work." In other words, the list generally honors actors recognized for their contributions to classical Hollywood cinema.[1] Jurors selected the final lists from 250 male and 250 female nominees.[2]

When the lists were unveiled, Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple, Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas (the longest-lived star at 103) and Sidney Poitier were alive, but have since died. At 89 in 2024, Sophia Loren is the sole surviving star.

  1. ^ a b "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars: The 50 Greatest American Screen Legends". American Film Institute. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
  2. ^ List of the 500 nominated star legends (Archive)