1. Mutt - The humble mixed-breed is top dog for movie hounds. Why? Because audiences love watching an underdog rise to the top. Exhibit A: Oscar-winner Million Dollar Baby, in which the dog with the walk-on part is Hilary Swank’s own mutt Karoo. Mutts have star quality to spare: A mutt named Mutt held her own opposite Charlie Chaplin in A Dog’s Life, while in Tightrope, another mutt manages to steal thunder from his director-co-star, Clint Eastwood!
2. Collie - In the illustrious history of dogs on film, one purebred leads the pack: the one and only Lassie, star of many movies plus a long-running TV series. Filmmaker Bruce Weber even included an ode to Lassie in his beautiful dog documentary, A Letter to True.
3. German Shepherd Dog - Back in the 1930s, B.L. (Before Lassie), the box office big boy was a handsome GSD named Rin Tin Tin. Today, GSDs are making a comeback and looking to unseat their comely Collie cousins from the casting couch; witness the presence of GSDs in two of last year’s most talked-about movies, The Brave One and I Am Legend.
4. Dalmatian - The spectacular spotted dog first stole the show in the animated feature 101 Dalmatians, which was subsequently remade in 1996 as a live-action feature starring FetchDog’s favorite multiple Oscar nominee.
5. Terrier mix - You can always count on a terrier mix to turn in a memorable performance, but you can’t guarantee he won’t chew the scenery. In High Sierra and Port of Shadows, however, mutt’s the word as two little terrier mixes subtly steal thunder from two huge stars, Humphrey Bogart and Jean Gabin, respectively. And for his star turn in Umberto D., the terrier mix playing Flike deserved the Oscar for best paw-formance - alas, no such award exists.
6. Saint Bernard - This dog with the huge (literally) screen presence also shows tremendous range as an actor, from horror (Cujo) to family comedy (Beethoven). The camera loves this canine so much that the makers of the movie Call of the Wild cast him against type to appear opposite Clark Gable - as a sled dog (!).
7. Golden Retriever - Movie mavens adore a beautiful blonde whether s/he walks on two legs or four, and the glamorous Golden imparts glow to movies as wildly different as Air Bud and Road to Perdition.
8. Greyhound - Previously seen on screen mainly as the logo on a bus (remember that scene where Audrey Hepburn says farewell to Buddy Ebsen in Breakfast at Tiffany’s?), the Greyhound proved last year that he’s in fast company with appearances in "Charlie Wilson’s War" and "Cassandra’s Dream."
9. Great Dane - Sure, we know him as Scooby Doo, but this giant breed has also graced grownup movies that are seriously scary, co-starring with Bette Davis in Dead Ringers and making a brief appearance as one of the dogs in French director Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face.
10. Wolf - The noble ancestor of all dogs, no matter how small and un-lupine they may be, has appeared in live-action films (Dances With Wolves) as well as animated ones such as Balto.
