Female Hollywood Legends on Postage Stamps

What better way to be remembered than to have your image on millions of postage stamps. These famous stars of Hollywood have been seen in movies and magazines and their images are iconic but the crowning glory is to be commemorated on a postage stamp. Most of these legends were commemorated by the postal authorities of the countries that they were born in. Some female Hollywood legends are so revered that several other countries have issued stamps of their famous features.

75 million Judy Garland stamps were printed by USPS

This Judy Garland postage stamp is from the Legends of Hollywood series which were a set of postage stamps from USPS. The stamp, like the woman, is exquisitely beautiful and captures Judy in an enchanting glow. Judy Garland was born in 1922 and the image chosen for the stamp comes from one of her movies in 1954 called "A Star Is Born". A vast number of these 75 million stamps, issued in 2006, were never posted and remain in stamp collections throughout the world. Two of the smaller countries in Russia have also featured Judy Garland commemorative postage stamps.

This Katharine Hepburn stamp was also issued by the United States postal service and despite the lack of color is still quite a stunning image of the Hollywood legend. I think that the stark black and white imaged postage stamps are equal in beauty to the colored stamps, and certainly the Hepburn stamp is every bit the equal of the Garland stamp above.

Katharine Hepburn was born in 1907 and the image for the stamp is a publicity still that comes from one of her movies in 1942 called "Woman of the Year". Katharine has been hailed as the 'First Lady of Cinema' and no wonder, as she has accumulated a record 4 Academy Award wins. Katherine died in 2003 and her stamp was release in 2010 and printed 50 million times. The delay in issuing the stamp was down to the antiquated 5 year rule of the USPS whereby a person must be deceased for 5 years before being commemorated on a postage stamp. Thankfully, the rules have changed and living legends on stamps will be part of the USPS roll out of forever stamps in 2012.

Perhaps Hedy Lamarr is less well known the two stamps above but she was quite an icon in her day and is remembered as a true Hollywood legend. Her home country commemorated Hedy on an Austrian postage stamp, thus proving that the USPS do not have the monopoly on issuing classic postage stamps of influential people. Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna, Austria in 1913 and died in Florida in 2000.

“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”

This is a famous quote from Hedy Lamarr at the height of her Hollywood career but it belies a truth about the woman, because she was a highly intelligent inventor. Hedy Lamarr became a citizen of the US in 1953 and as well as being a Hollywood Legend she invented a radio frequency hopping anti-torpedo detection system in 1941. Such was her popularity during the war years that she raised $7 million in War Bonds at a single event.

Another colored postage stamp of a leading lady issued by the USPS features the great Bette Davis. She won 2 Academy Awards and was the first lady ever to receive 10 Academy Award Nominations. Bette Davis came second in a list of the greatest female stars of Hollywood according to the American Film Institute. She was only surpassed by the great Katharine Hepburn as the leading lady of Hollywood. Both women appear in the top 5 of any Hollywood Legends list of female performers. Bette Davis was born in 1908 and died in 1989.

60 million of the Bette Davis commemorative stamps were printed by USPS

Apart from this featured USPS stamp (60 million print run) issued in 2008, Bette was also commemorated on a stamp issued by Sierra Leone.

The two Greta Garbo commemorative stamps was issued in 2005 in two countries, namely the US and Sweden. The Hollywood legend was honored by her home country of Sweden at the same time as her adopted country where she starred in Hollywood. The same image was used for both issues of the stamps which are shown here side by side. The Greta Garbo black-and-white image is a take from her movie made in 1932 called "As You Desire Me". Greta Garbo was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1905 and died in New York in 1990.

Sweden (or Sverige as is shown on the stamps of Sweden) honored its famous Hollywood star with several other commemorative postage stamps. Other countries to feature a Greta Garbo stamp are the Ivory Coast, Cuba, Germany and the Republique du Benin in 2009.

The Golden Age of Hollywood produced many fine female legends and these commemorative stamps are great keepsakes not just for the US stamp collectors but philatelists of Canada, Australia, Britain’s Royal Mail and everywhere else besides.