Redheads have always captivated on the screen, from 1940s sexpot Rita Hayworth, to ’80s teen queen Molly Ringwald, to Mad Men’s queen bee Joan Harris.

But with Pixar’s Brave coming out this week — and among its more appealing visual elements being the wild mane of long, red curls on the head of Scottish princess Merida — summer 2012 could be shaping up to be the season of the redhead.
So that got us thinking about other famed auburns.

There are too many to choose from but we only get to pick five. Sorry, Carrot Top.

Katharine Hepburn

The classic redhead, even though it may not have been obvious in her early, black-and-white movies. Hepburn’s hair — along with those sharp cheekbones, bright eyes and tall, athletic frame —  gave her an aura of patrician and strength. In colour films, the red locks magnified her fiery persona, contributed to the sense that she was not a woman to be trifled with. And even in later films like 1981’s On Golden Pond, when her tresses had faded a bit, she still exuded an air of irreverence and unpredictability.

Nicole Kidman

We see her as a blond sometimes: on the red carpet for the Oscars, for example, or in her upcoming movie The Paperboy, for which she bleached her locks platinum. She switched to a medium-brown shade for the biopic Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. But for the most part, Kidman’s raven hair is a key component of her signature, statuesque look. In early films like Dead Calm and Days of Thunder, the prodigious nature of her red curls signalled the presence of someone fierce and formidable. But she’s also smoothed them out and tamed them to a softer strawberry shade for movies including To Die For.

Emma Stone

A redhead on the rise. Yes, she’s back to her natural blond hair for her latest role in next month’s The Amazing Spider-Man. But in the movies that put her on the map — Superbad, Zombieland and especially Easy A, the high school comedy that made it clear she’s destined for superstardom — her red hair adds to her sly, subversive allure. More mature roles came along last year in two big movies: The Help and Crazy Stupid Love. Her entire vibe suggests that she’d just be a cool chick to hang out with, and a lot of that has to do with the intriguing contrast of her dark red hair and bright green eyes.

Woody Allen

They can’t all be women, right? He’s 76 now and the years have understandably greyed him, as evidenced this week as he appears on screen in his latest movie, the ensemble comedy To Rome With Love. But in his earliest films, like 1971’s Bananas and 1977’s Annie Hall, the shaggy red hair combined with the eyeglasses, you can see the demeanour and the delivery that creates his trademark, neurotic persona. While red hair can seem so exciting on women, Allen’s contributed to the sensation that he was an underdog, someone you always want to root for to get out of a predicament or fall in love.

Jessica Rabbit

So maybe she’s not a “real” person (although she’s inspired countless real fantasies, not to mention naughty Halloween costumes). But we have to admit that when we started pondering the notion of movie redheads, this cartoon character’s name is the first one that popped into our heads. The femme fatale from Robert Zemeckis’ 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a groundbreaking mix of live-action and animation, simply oozes sex appeal, especially as voiced by Kathleen Turner. Crucial to her look is her long mane of wavy, red tresses, which cascade down all the right places on her curvy frame.