“Her Role” by Aquifer was our tenth grid for 2026.

Stats: 53 solvers attempted this puzzle.  42 solvers managed to complete the puzzle and the bonus forms as well. As many as 36 solvers got the full score.

Try the puzzle here (Annotations will be visible on solving the puzzle or on clicking “Reveal Grid”)

You are currently logged out. Click here to login and access the puzzle.

Click to see the solution grid

Bonus Questions: 1-5. Five actresses who appears in a movie among the down entries

Ans

(Ruth) GORDON , (Judy) GARLAND, (Lilian) GISH, (Elixabeth) TALYLOR, (Barbara) STANWYCK

6. The only actress in the grid who does not act in any of the movies among the down entries.

Ans

(Clara) BOW

NOTES FROM THE SETTER:

Among the actress entries, Judy Garland (Babes on Broadway) and Elizabeth Taylor (National
Velvet) probably need no introduction. Noir fans will also be familiar with Barbara Stanwyck,
whose performance in Double Indemnity (a grid entry) set the template for femme fatales in
cinema, while many will also recognise Ruth Gordon from her iconic roles in Rosemary’s Baby
and the grid entry Harold and Maude.
Lilian Gish (Romola) and Clara Bow (no film in the grid) were silent-era legends who
transitioned to sound films. Both earned their sobriquets in 1927, the year that Hollywood
introduced sound in cinema. Gish was described by Vanity Fair that year as the first lady of the
screen, which later evolved into First Lady of American Cinema, while Bow’s performance in the
1927 film It helped bring the term “It Girl” into popular usage.

Logged in solvers can check their submission Here:

Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)

Out of 53 solvers,  42 completed and submitted the grid and bonus forms, of which 36 got the full score.

Each of the following scored 168 points (Grid Score – 162,  Bonus – 6).

Aashwina Mouli
Abhay Phadnis
Al Sanders
Amita Annette Joseph
Arun Hiregange
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Devi Prasad
Himanshu Rajurkar
Ian J VanderSchee
Jose A
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H Rao
Max Jackson
Mona Sogal
Narayanan R
Neelima Rai
Nilesh Parmar
P. Venkatesan
Prakash Arumugam
Ramachandra Nagendra Prasad
Ramki Krishnan
Ranjani Srikanth
Ratna Rao
Ratnakumar V
Rengaswamy Narasimhan
Samit Kallianpur
Sampath Shrinivasan
Samraat Saxena
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sparsh Sinha
Steve Gunter
Supriya Mithal
Venkatraghavan S

Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a great rating of 8.8. It was rated a perfect 10 by 13 out of the 42 folks who voted (31%). The lowest rating was 6.

Favourite Clues:  The Top clues were

1. 15A Mark Twain leaving wife behind in Kansas (3, 5) – 22 votes
2. 7D Crime novel due, I’m working with Enid Blyton (6, 9) – 14 votes
3. 1A Section of Welsh tribe reading about reincarnations (8) – 8 votes
4. 9D Short Vietnam novella spins tense tale of a girl on a horse (8, 6) – 8votes

Thanks Aquifer. Another brilliant grid with intricate grid fill packed with theme content. Lots to unravel and discover as we solved it. The solvers ratings and the comments in the thread below