She was very tall, though. She was Belgian, and I think her 1st role was a bit-part in 'Lavender Hill Mob' w Alec Guinness. She certainly looked healthy to me, not malnourished at all in her movies -- just not buxom, which many N. European women are not. Just tall & slendor. See the movie, then it will be much easier for you to follow the long long long book. I think it's worth it!
Ah..Kathie..am hoping noone here is going to object to the amount of movie related conversation going on. I can give you my choices though - in my opinion - Padmini, Vyjayanthimala, Sarojadevi, Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman were among the best looking. The last two are purely hindi actresses -Padmini and Sarojadevi put on weight towards their latter years also given the fact that being idli like was south indian standard in those days for women but up north most heroines maintained their figure. Madhubala also featured on Time's most beautiful women of the century although ranked much lower than she deserved.
As far as heroes go I think we talked about NTR. NTR also figured on Time magazines most handsome men of the century I think he ranked like 10th or so. Again only see him in his early years towards latter years quite unbearable. Some other good looking men were Muthuraman in tamil who also maintained very good figure(his son Karthik also was very good looking for a while), Ravi chandran also tamil. Lots of telugu men have great stature as well as good looks especially the older lot - there was a guy named Ramakrishna who played Arjuna and was very good looking, some others include Gummadi, Krishna and Sobhan Babu, all very good looking men. I don't equate skin color towards good looks so most northern men disqualify :))
In most of the Bhagyaraj films also had such type sensitive messages like "naalu pathni perai sollunga" I think you know the full dialogues.Its really a wonderful scene but i dont know the name of the film.
Our actors are always young and handsome :-) Some even go to high school at 40's :)
Jokes apart, My personal views would be Actors: Older: Dev Anand, Dharmendar, Gemini Ganesan, Sivakumar, NTR only as Krishna :-) Younger: Many pay good importance to their image and physique, Aamir/hritik/Surya/Vikram etc are good examples. Ofcourse Rajini / Kamal have always been there...
Actress: Older: Quite a bit actually its difficult to classify them as they only last for a few years on target. Some did however weather that strom Hema malini / Waheeda / Rekha / Nutan / Nargis / Sri devi etc in Hindi Tamil is more brutal though: KR Vijaya / Savitri / Jayalalitha / Saroja D are some who looked lovely and also did justice to the task for a longer term. Younger gen... its a tough ask ... ellarume nalla thaan irukkanga..yenna porutha varai :-)
I am sure there are a lot of people wanting to pitch in their stars... I stop here and lets see around.
PS: I have always wondered why do many actress have a difficult time when they get older ?
RAvi, i like your list :)) No serious debate but just some viewpoints..Dev Anand, Sivakumar, Gemini all ok , but RAjini? Am not debating acting skills or complexion but how did RAjini get on handsome men list? Kamal also ok but lot of asadu vazhiyal/beku type of looks in early years. Same with Dharmendar. Am always surprised folks calling him handsome. Oru urulai kizhangukku features ezhudina kooda konjam nalla irukkum. And none of them maintained any real body shape btw, for that we have to give credit to MGR and perhaps Rajini too. Telugu guys maintained excellent figure, most of them. Of course most tamils are not exposed their neighbor. BTW have you seen NTR in early social roles? He can all of these guys a run for their money combined.
Regading heroines list ok, but REka/Sridevi lot of make up. By late 70s lot of make up took over genuine look looks. Sridevi had very good figure though. Why they dont' maintain figure, well perhaps one has to realize a woman's body goes through more changes than a man and the general public atleast in those days wanted their women idli like not slim like Waheeda Rehman. KRV and Savitri in later years could fill a 70 mm screen but still were hits so..audience choice?
Again no serious debate. Saturday morning, lot of work to do and sombala startukkku just lookign for something to wake up.