The Greatest Movie Stars of the 1920s: Icons Who Defined Early Hollywood
Discover the greatest movie stars of the 1920s—icons of the silent film era who shaped the golden age of early Hollywood cinema.
The 1920s were a golden age for cinema, marked by artistic and technical innovations that forever shaped the industry. Known as the silent film era, this decade was dominated by expressive visual narratives, where exaggerated gestures and intertitles replaced spoken dialogue.
Cinematic movements such as German Expressionism brought a unique aesthetic, with films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) exploring distorted and dark settings to convey intense emotions. At the same time, Hollywood was consolidating itself as the capital of world cinema, producing huge commercial successes and creating the star system, which transformed actors into cultural icons. Despite the lack of synchronized sound, silent films were accompanied by live soundtracks, performed by pianists or orchestras, depending on the grandeur of the exhibition.
In the late 1920s, cinema began to undergo a technological revolution with the arrival of talking films, known as talkies . The starting point for this transition was The Jazz Singer (1927), considered the first complete sound film, which combined recorded dialogue, music and sound effects. Although many filmmakers and producers initially resisted the change, the overwhelming popularity of talkies quickly became inevitable. This evolution not only redefined how stories were told, but also changed the standards of production and exhibition, forcing studios and professionals to adapt to the new demands.
Interestingly, while some considered the advent of sound a threat to the lyricism of silent cinema, others saw it as an opportunity to further expand the narrative and emotional possibilities of cinema. The 1920s saw the arrival of talkies, but silent films reigned supreme until the end of 1928. These were the great stars of the moment; some failed to break through the barrier of talkies, but others went on to have solid careers in the following decades.
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