Keira voted sexiest ever

A new poll has seen teenage British actress Keira Knightly voted the sexiest film star of all time.

11:15 30 September 2004

A new poll has seen teenage British actress Keira Knightly voted the sexiest film star of all time.

Knightly was rated ahead of legends of the silver screen like Ursula Andress (91), Raquel Welch (51), Jane Fonda (81) and Marilyn Monroe (6) by 15,000 readers of industry magazine Empire.

All polls of this nature reflect the stars and tastes of the time - with no place in the top 100 for the once iconic Katherine Hepburn and the original bad boy James Dean in lowly 82nd place - but the Empire poll seems to follow fashion more than most.

The top five on the list have all had films out in the last year - with three of them (Knightly, Johnny Depp (5) and Orlando Bloom (3)) all appearing in the 2003 smash hit Pirates of the Caribbean.

Apart from appearing in pirate adventures, catsuits appear to be a good way to get to the top of the list - with Angelina Jolie (Tombraider) and Halle Berry (X-Men and Catwoman) rounding off the top five.

Monroe is the only non-current actress to break into the top ten - with Jennifer Connelly (7), Hugh Jackman (8), Scarlett Johanson (9) and Uma Thurman (10) filling the other slots.

The swings in public opinion seems to suggest that Monroe may be the only one that stays there for long - as last time the list was compiled Kate Winslet topped the poll and six years later she is languishing in 35th place.

Marlon Brando, Rita Hayworth, Paul Newman, Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot all oust modern names like Jude Law (28), Kirsten Dunst (38) and Tom Cruise (36) from the top 20 - but many older film fans will be shocked to see Sean Connery in 50th, Lauren Bacall in 74th and Ingrid Bergman and Jane Fonda in 80th and 81st.

Editor of Empire, Colin Kennedy, commented on the selection: "While there is a fair smattering of traditional beefcakes and bombshells, there has been a palpable broadening of taste."