First National Pictures · Public domain

Paul Muni went from Chicago's Yiddish theater to become one of Warner Bros.' most prestigious stars, playing real historical figures with an intensity built on painstaking research and elaborate makeup work he'd learned from his actor parents. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Story of Louis Pasteur in 1936, after five nominations, and later won a Tony Award for Inherit the Wind on Broadway in 1955. He was given a rare privilege for the era: the right to choose his own film roles.