• LIFE

Celebrate Redhead Day With These Vintage Photos of Red-Haired Celebrities

2 minute read

“You’d find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair,” Anne of Green Gables famously remarked. “People who haven’t red hair don’t know what trouble is.”

From Lucy Maud Montgomery’s fictional orphan to Mark Twain, much has been said about the personality traits allegedly linked to a fiery mane. The only people who truly know what it’s like to have red hair, of course, are those who have it, and this weekend, throngs of them will descend on Breda in the Netherlands for Redhead Days (Roodharigen in Dutch).

Here, in celebration of this annual convention, is a collection of portraits of famous redheads from the LIFE Magazine archives. For some of them, their card-carrying membership in the redhead club is sometimes questioned—is Robert Redford’s hair red or sandy blonde?—while others, like Lucille Ball, would be excluded from Redhead Days for being converts, rather than natural-born entrants, into the cult of red. Still, hair dye or not, their legacies will forever burn red.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Ginger Rogers, 1941.
Ginger Rogers, 1941.Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Ann Sheridan, 1942.
Ann Sheridan, 1942.Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Lucille Ball, 1943.
Lucille Ball, 1943. Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Maureen O'Hara, 1946.
Maureen O'Hara, 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Danny Kaye, 1947.
Danny Kaye, 1947.George Lacks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Debbie Reynolds, 1950.
Debbie Reynolds, 1950.Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Shirley Maclaine. 1959.
Shirley Maclaine. 1959.Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gina Lollobrigida, 1960.
Gina Lollobrigida, 1960.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sophia Loren, 1964.
Sophia Loren, 1964.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Woody Allen, 1966.
Woody Allen, 1966.Bill Ray—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Ginger Baker, 1969.
Ginger Baker, 1969.John Olson—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Robert Redford, 1970.
Robert Redford, 1970.John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Maggie Smith, 1971.
Maggie Smith, 1971.John Olson—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

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Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com