Summary
- Hollywood's Golden Age produced legendary acting duos, known for their star power and incredible dynamics.
- From classic comedy pairings to musical duos and on-screen husband and wife, these duos left a lasting impact.
- Their collaborations revolutionized genres, shaped contemporary comedy, and showcased the power of on-screen chemistry.
Hollywood’s Golden Age, which lasted from approximately 1927 to 1960, produced some of the greatest acting duos the world of moviemaking had ever seen. Taking place amid the Hollywood studio system, where films were written, produced, and released at a rapid rate, the most marketable thing about a movie was its star power, and nothing drew audiences in more than a beloved pairing. Occasionally surrounded by gossip of lurid affairs, some partnerships had real-life romantic backstories, while others represented incredible dynamics of true friendship and strong working relationships.
Some of the greatest duos from Hollywood’s Golden Age are made up of classic comedy pairings, such as Laurel & Hardy or Abbot and Costello. Others gained acclaim for their musical bravado and ability to deliver incredible dance numbers, like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. While some actors, such as William Powell and Myrna Loy, became famous for playing a husband and wife onscreen, others made those parts a reality and tied the knot in real life. There were so many stories surrounding the best movie actor duos from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
10 Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn
Known for classic screwball comedies such as Holiday
Both massive movie stars separately, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn first appeared together in the romantic comedy Sylvia Scarlett and would later lead three screwball comedy classics including Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, and The Philadelphia Story. A short-lived but successful pairing, the duo only worked together between 1935 and 1940. However, Grant would go on to foster a successful collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock, while Hepburn’s career began to falter throughout the 1940s before it was renewed in the 1950s with roles in The African Queen and David Lean’s Summertime.
9 Greta Garbo & John Gilbert
Known for Anna Karenina and A Woman of Affairs
As an icon of the earliest days of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Greta Garbo made a name for herself playing melancholic, tragic characters while actor John Gilbert struggled to make the transition from silent film to talkies. However, as Hollywood was on the brink of leaping into sound, Garbo and Gilbert would act as the final successful duo of the silent era with roles in Flesh and the Devil, Anna Karenina, and A Woman of Affairs. However, with the success of The Jazz Singer in 1927, the world of moviemaking was forever changed, and this partnership could not withstand its effect.
8 William Powell & Myrna Loy
Known for the Thin Man series
William Powell and Myrna Loy made a name for themselves as the most notable on-screen husband and wife of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Starring in 13 movies together throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Powell and Loy were particularly known for playing Nick and Nora Charles across six films in The Thin Man series. While Powell was already a sought-after leading man at the time, The Thin Man made a star out of Loy and the pair would repeat their success again and again through various roles playing husband and wife.
7 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Known for classic musicals like Swing Time
The most beloved of any Hollywood Golden Age dance partners, Fred Astaire and Ginny Rogers wowed viewers across best movie musicals of all time. While both maintained acclaimed careers separately, it was together that they really shone and to witness them onscreen together was always a delight.
6 Bing Crosby & Bob Hope
Known for their satirical Road series
The Rat Pack singer Bing Crosby and American comedian Bob Hope made seven comedy “Road” movies along with the actress and singer Dorothy Lamour. As clever satires of the most popular genres at the time, these comedies featured running gags, references to other notable contemporary actors, and poked light fun at movie studios of the time. Crosby and Hope had dynamic chemistry together and laid the groundwork for future “bromance” movies that embraced rather than made fun of the power of male friendships.
5 Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy
Known for slapstick features like Sons of the Desert
Perhaps the most iconic comedy duo of all time, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were one of the few acts that successfully managed to transition from silent movies into the talkies of Hollywood’s Golden Age. With an unmatched skill for slapstick comedy, Laurel and Hardy’s cartoonish visual style and hilarious mismatched height and weight have been replicated countless times across cinema. Laurel and Hardy made 107 films together between the 1920s and the 1950s and helped shape contemporary comedy influencing everyone from Samuel Beckett to Monty Python.
4 Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy
Known for romantic movies like Woman of the Year
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were a legendary cinematic couple, both on-screen and off, whose romantic affair was an open secret during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Hepburn and Tracy met on the romantic comedy Woman of the Year in 1942 and made nine films together with the last being Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in 1967. With a 25-year professional and romantic relationship, the iconic pair worked closely together right up until Tracy’s death which occurred just weeks after filming wrapped on what would be their final film.
3 Bud Abbott & Lou Costello
Known for classic war and horror comedies
The comedy pairing of Bud Abbot and Lou Costella was one of the most popular comedy teams of the 1940s and 1950s. Together Abbott & Costella made war comedies such as Buck Privates and comedic horrors like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. With success across radio, television, and film, Abbott & Costello became icons for their signature sketch “Who’s On First?” which was considered one of the greatest comedy routines of all time and appeared in their 1945 movie The Naught Nineties.
2 John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara
Known for iconic films by director John Ford
One of the greatest pairings of Hollywood’s Golden Age, John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara made five movies together, three of them with acclaimed filmmaker John Ford. Through classics like Rio Grande and The Quiet Man, the two icons had serious chemistry and excelled in Western team-ups, rural romances, and laugh-out-loud comedies. To see Wayne and O’Hara share the screen was always a treat, and the two had a working relationship for over 20 years that lasted right up until O’Hara retired in 1972. Sadly, Ford had ed away by the time she returned for one last movie in 1991.
1 Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall
Known for their deep love for one another and film noirs like The Big Sleep
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made four movies together and were the most iconic power couple of their era. Dubbed “Bogie and Bacall” by the media, they were known for classics like The Big Sleep and To Have and to Have Not, the romance adventure where they first met and fell in love before quickly marrying. With a legendary, albeit sadly, short-lived romance, due to Bogart’s death in 1957, separately they each stand as important Hollywood figures. But together, they were a powerhouse of unmatched charisma whose mere presence onscreen was enough to cement a movie as an all-time classic.
