A Little R-E-S-P-E-C-T

16. DOROTHY MALONE (actress, Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels). "Firstly, Loretta Young remains my ideal woman/actress, both on and off the screen. Although I am always deeply moved by Greer Garson's valiant and gracious qualities, and, granted, Bette Davis etched her strong emotions on all our lives-- still, I must confess, Barbara Stanwyck's vivid, poignant, heroic and magnificent portrayal of Stella Dallas haunts my psyche to this day. It shaped my idea of motherhood, per-haps even shaped my own life. I experienced it first as a teenager, and, again, many years later--and I am still crying,"

17. ANNE BANCROFT (actress, Malice, Home for the Holidays). "One of my three favorite movies is The African Queen--I am always amazed by Katharine Hepburn in that. She's just superb in it. The whole idea of that film, two very different people on a road, slowly getting to know each other, reminds me of my own marriage. What are my other two favorite films? The Informer and Dumbo."

18. MARISA TOMEI (actress, Only You, My Cousin Vinny). "You know who comes to mind? Anna Magnani in Mamma Roma, What vitality she had, and what passion! What a woman!"

19. ALFRE WOODARD (actress, How to Make an American Quilt, Crosscreek). "I loved Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful, because she had the balls to fill up a frame. Most stage-trained actors make the mistake of trying to be 'film actors'--they try to make tiny gestures and mumble their lines. But I loved Gerry Page in The Trip to Bountiful and also in every other film she made, because you always felt she entered the frame already at full tilt. And she left it that way, too."

20. JANET LEIGH (actress, The Fog, Psycho). "I adored Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Of course I'd already read all of the Oz books, so I was primed to love the movie, but I thought Judy was perfect as Dorothy--so grounded within the fantasy, yet so adventuresome and ready for anything."

21. ANNA HAMILTON PHELAN (screenwriter, Gorillas in the Mist, Mask). "One really strong woman character for me was Margaret Hamilton, as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Maybe she didn't inspire or delight me growing up, but she sure scared the hell out of me, year after year. That face, that voice, that laugh--especially that laugh--resonated in many a child-hood nightmare. Years later, I had the pleasure of acting with her in the theater. In real life, she had the personality of Glinda (the Good Witch of the North), but even so, my childhood reaction to her performance in The Wizard of Oz remained. Even today when I watch it, I have fleeting moments of feeling six years old."

22. MARY-LOUISE PARKER (actress, Boys on the Side, Fried Green Tomatoes). "I was very impressed by Jane Campion's film An Angel at My Table. It was the story of Janet Frame, who was hospitalized for eight years as a schizophrenic and later became New Zealand's most famous novelist-poet. What an inspiring story, and Kerry Fox was great, just great, in the role."

23. VENETIA STEVENSON (producer, Dean R. Koontz's Servants of Twilight, Southern Comfort). "For me it would have to be Jane Fonda as Barbarella, because she was sexy as well as powerful."

24. MARILYN BECK (nationally syndicated columnist). "All the characters Rosalind Russell played were women of achievement at a time when many didn't feel it was women's place to achieve. She played career women in movies such as Take a Letter, Darling, a star reporter in His Girl Friday, an Australian nurse who initiated the treatment for cancer in Sister Kenny-- and, of course, who could ever forget her as the outrageous Auntie Mame, urging us to 'Live! Live!? What a role model."

25. GRETA SCACCHI (actress, Shattered, Presumed Innocent). "I think Debra Winger brings a strong presence to everything she does. I especially admired her character in Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins. The way she faced death was heroic."

26. GLYNIS JOHNS (actress, The Ref, Little Gloria...Happy At Last). "I greatly admired Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy. It was a lovely role for an older woman, a very self-contained, thinking role, and she played it magnificently. When I was 14 years old, in a picture called Murder in the Family, Jessica played my sister."

27. PARKER POSEY (actress, Party Girl, Frisk). "I was crazy about Molly Ringwald when I was growing up. I especially identified with her Pretty in Pink character, because she made her own prom dress, and I was working in a dress shop. She was so cool in that film, I wanted to be just like her. Molly was the main reason I wanted to be an actress."

28. SHANNEN DOHERTY (actress, Mallrats, Heathers). "Jessica Lange has been amazing in every movie she's made, but I was especially affected by her performance in Blue Sky. She could be manic, show rage, everything, anything--what a great role."

29. MARGARET CHO (actress, It's My Party, The Doom Generation). "My favorite is Diana Ross as the nobody turned supermodel turned couture dress designer in Mahogany, because, as Anthony Perkins puts it, she's 'rich, dark, beautiful and rare.' But then, what else could she be considering she's named Mahogany?"

30. MARY HART (co-host, "Entertainment Tonight"). "I'll never forget Katharine Hepburn as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter. She was a queen with as much intelligence, strength and passion as her king. Kate Hepburn, in her own life, has always been a premiere example of independence."

31. ANNA LEE (actress, "General Hospital," How Green Was My Valley). "I must mention two characters. When I was younger, I loved everything Ingrid Bergman did, but especially her Joan of Arc. She was my favorite character, a saint and a martyr, so strong and fearless. Then a movie character that has great meaning for me in later years, since I became paralyzed and must be in a wheelchair, is Irene Dunne in Love Affair. To see a woman so set on fighting her way back--so determined-- well, that has special meaning for me."

32. JOCELYN MOORHOUSE (director, How to Make an American Quilt, Proof). "I loved Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve. She's so great in that character; she just tells it like it is. I love her speech: 'Bill's 32. He looks 32. He looked it five years ago; he'll look it 20 years from now. I hate men!'"

33. CHRISTINE LAHTI (actress, Hideaway, "Chicago Hope"). "The most obvious choice is Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. She knew what she wanted, and she went out and got it. She was a strong-willed woman who let nothing defeat her."

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