69. Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond
      Sunset Boulevard (1950)

As a washed-up silent-film diva, Swanson had a few unfortunate things in common with Norma Desmond by 1950—multiple ex-husbands, movie star attitude, and a ruined career. But like Norma, she also possessed the ability to say anything she wanted with her eyes, which flash and narrow with kaleidoscopic emotion as she hires a struggling writer (William Holden) to fix her unsalvageable screenplay and reduces him to a gigolo. Thanks to Swanson, a vulnerable beating heart dwells inside the monomaniacal glamour queen of 1086 Sunset Boulevard.

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