Studio publicity still · Public domain

A child star who became the first actress paid a million dollars for a film, won two Oscars, and lived the rest of it under a level of scrutiny that had no precedent. Her most consequential work was not on screen: in 1985, when almost nobody with anything to lose would say the word publicly, she co-founded amfAR and began raising money for AIDS research, using her fame deliberately as a shield for people who had none. She converted to Judaism in 1959 and remained a committed supporter of Israel.