Born Bessie Lee Pittman in the Florida Panhandle, she had escaped poverty by moving to New York City, changing her name, and working in a Fifth Avenue hair salon.

This year's winning film, a 1950s-set drama starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, is on an epic scale.

The research for The Banker's Top 1000 rankings was carried out by Adrian Buchanan, Guillaume Hingel, Charles Piggott, Valeriya Yakutovich, Alberto Berardi and Xavier DE Villepin.