Being a star isn't just about performance, it's about cultivating personae. In the silent era particularly a star needed to be an easily recognizable personality in real life to go along with having a recognizable characterization in films. The first "talkies" started being released in theaters in 1927, and the so-called "Silent Era" ended soon after that. All of the performers here were active in the 1920s when feature films were being produced without spoken dialogue. This list is comprised of hard-working immigrants playing Latin lovers and tramps, wholesome women playing girl-next-door sex symbols, a handsome All-American man playing the stoic straight man, and a secret sex-pot playing not-so-secret sex pots. Stars may try to switch up their roles in order to keep the audience on their toes, but they'll usually go back to the well again in order to maintain their on-screen persona. Some current examples to help clarify the issue: George Clooney is a movie star because he has a developed persona whereas Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a great actor, but not necessarily a movie star. For the opposite sex: Natalie Portman is a movie star, Jessica Chastain is an actress. A really, really good one, but still not a star. This list isn't necessarily devoted to the best actors in silent movies (although all of the actors on this list are definitely talented), it is about the stars who utilized their personae so effectively that they became icons and their films iconic. Because the nature of being a male star versus being a female star were drastically different during the silent era, and they are still pretty different today, this list is broken up into two sections of movie stars: five male, five female. Many of the selections are obvious, we all know a certain mustachioed man with a bowler hat is going to be on here, but hopefully a few choices will come as a surprise.