The Best Actress

The Best Actress Academy Awards Best Actress: The Best Actress award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actress in a leading role." The same rules that govern the Best Actor category apply to the Best Actress category. (See the complete list of all Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress winners here). Winning Trends: Biographies of remarkable, real-life individuals (showbiz figures and entertainers) and portrayals of the mentally ill are heavily represented among Oscar winners (and nominees), particularly in the acting awards. It helps an actress's chances of winning (or being nominated for) an Oscar if the character dies during the movie, or is alcoholic (or drug-addicted), or is a murderess. It also helps to play a role against type (Julia Roberts as a crusading single mother in Erin Brockovich (2000), or Susan Sarandon as a death-row nun in Dead Man Walking (1995)), or for showing acting diversity (Kathy Bates as the horror villainess in Misery (1990), or singer Cher in Moonstruck (1987)). Also, first-time Oscar nominations are more often given to actresses below or around the age of thirty. A large number of actresses have also won (or been nominated for) the top acting (and supporting) awards for portraying hookers (girls of the night, party girls, whores, call girls, madams, etc.) or loose women (mistresses, promiscuous ladies, etc.), for example: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Janet Gaynor won the Best Actress award for her role as a poor prostitute in Street Angel (1927/28), one of three films for which she was honored Helen Hayes won the Best Actress Oscar as a sacrificial, maternal streetwalker in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931/32) Anne Baxter won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a thrown-away woman who turned to prostitution after the car-crash death of her husband and child in The Razor's Edge (1946) Claire Trevor won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a faded, torch-singing floozy turned into a gangster's alcoholic mistress in Key Largo (1948) Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar as a mistress and kept woman in Born Yesterday (1950) Vivien Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar as a fallen woman in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Donna Reed (playing against type) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a sailor port 'club' hostess in From Here to Eternity (1953) Jo Van Fleet won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a wizened madam and James Dean's estranged mother in East of Eden (1955) Dorothy Malone won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a wild, frustrated, and seductive nymphomaniac in Written on the Wind (1956) Joanne Woodward won the Best Actress Oscar as a multiple personality (with one sluttish member) in The Three Faces of Eve (1957) Susan Hayward won the Best Actress Oscar as a deceitful party-girl prostitute in I Want to Live! (1958) Elizabeth Taylor won the Best Actress Oscar as a high-class New York call girl who wants to straighten out her life in Butterfield 8 (1960) - in the same year, Melina Mercouri was nominated for playing a Greek prostitute who doesn't work one day of

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the week in Never On Sunday (1960) and Shirley MacLaine was nominated for her role as the mistress of a callous business executive in The Apartment (1960) Shirley Jones (also against type) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960) Shirley MacLaine was nominated for Best Actress as a Parisian prostitute in Irma La Douce (1963) Julie Christie won the Best Actress Oscar as an amoral model in Darling (1965) Jane Fonda won the Best Actress Oscar as a fearful, bored, and victimized/stalked streetwalker in Klute (1971) Jodie Foster was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a young runaway prostitute in Taxi Driver (1976) Julia Roberts was nominated as Best Actress for her role as a LA hooker/escort in Pretty Woman (1990) Mira Sorvino won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a bubble-headed prostitute in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) - in the same year, two other nominees for Best Actress also played prostitutes: Sharon Stone for Casino (1995) and Elisabeth Shue for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) Kim Basinger won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a Veronica Lake-look-alike hooker in L.A. Confidential (1997) Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar as a serial-killer prostitute in Monster (2003)

And a few Best Actress winners acquired acting Oscars for characters that were essentially mute: • • • •

Jane Wyman won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a deaf-mute in Johnny Belinda (1948) Holly Hunter won the Best Actress Oscar for her non-speaking role (although she did voice-over narration) as a 19th century pianist mute in The Piano (1993) Note: Marlee Matlin (truly hearing impaired) won the Best Actress Oscar for her mostly silent, realistic performance in Children of a Lesser God (1986) Patty Duke won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for portraying Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962) who spoke only one triumphant word of dialogue: "Wa-wa" (or water)

Another group of actresses have won awards for portraying characters that were performers, or handicapped with disabilities (or other physical afflictions), or nuns, for example: • • • • • • • • • • •

Bette Davis won the Best Actress Oscar for Dangerous (1935) Jennifer Jones won the Best Actress Oscar for The Song of Bernadette (1943) Vivien Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Ingrid Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for Anastasia (1956) Joanne Woodward won the Best Actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) Patty Duke won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for portraying Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962) Jessica Lange won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Tootsie (1982) and the Best Actress Oscar for Blue Sky (1994) Susan Sarandon won the Best Actress Oscar for Dead Man Walking (1995) Angelina Jolie won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted (1999) Halle Berry won the Best Actress Oscar for Monster's Ball (2001) Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Oscar for The Hours (2002)

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Cate Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Aviator (2004) Hilary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar for Million Dollar Baby (2004) Marion Cotillard won the Best Actress Oscar for La Vie en Rose (2007, Fr.)

And a few actresses have received Best Actress nominations for playing actresses (performers/stars) who were Best Actress winners: • • • •

Janet Gaynor, nominated for A Star is Born (1937) Bette Davis, nominated for The Star (1952) Judy Garland, nominated for A Star is Born (1954) Maggie Smith, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978) (win)

Faye Dunaway was the only performer who won an Academy Award Oscar of her own (Best Actress for Network (1976)) and then went on to portray in the film Mommie Dearest (1981) a real-life star, Joan Crawford, who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945). The only two actresses to win Best Actress Oscars (their sole wins) for playing real-life country singers: • •

Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2005)

Oscar victories for Best Actress haven't always been for the stars' best work, either, but retroactively for an entire body of work - or for sympathy: • • • •

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62 year old Marie Dressler's Best Actress win for Min and Bill (1930/31) was a tribute to her entire career Bette Davis won her only two Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938), after being passed over for Of Human Bondage (1934) - she would have rather won for her better performances in The Letter (1940) and All About Eve (1950) Elizabeth Taylor's first Best Actress win - for Butterfield 8 (1960) - was a sympathy vote for her near-fatal bout with pneumonia, and for being passed over for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) two years earlier Katharine Hepburn also acknowledged that she probably won the Best Actress award for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) over Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967), because Spencer Tracy, her longtime lover, had just died; her other Oscar wins were for Morning Glory (1932/33), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981), but she should have won instead for Alice Adams (1935), The Philadelphia Story (1940), The African Queen (1951), and Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) Faye Dunaway won Best Actress for her performance in Network (1976), but she should have won earlier for either Bonnie and Clyde (1967) or Chinatown (1974)

Also, elderly nominees seem to fare better, such as 72 year-old Ruth Gordon winning the Best Supporting Actress award for Rosemary's Baby (1968), or Best Actress winners Katharine Hepburn (after her first win at age 27), Geraldine Page (finally winning with her eighth nomination), Jessica Tandy and Ellen Burstyn for On Golden Pond (1981), The Trip to Bountiful (1985), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Requiem for a Dream (2000). Young

nominees also do well, such as Patty Duke (in 1962), Tatum O'Neal (in 1973), and Anna Paquin (in 1993). The Top Best Actress Winner: The most honored actress of all-time is Katharine Hepburn - with a total of twelve nominations and four wins - all in the Best Actress category - stretching over a period of 49 years (from Hepburn's Best Actress win for Morning Glory (1932/33) to her Best Actress win for On Golden Pond (1981)) - a record in itself for the greatest span between Oscar wins. Hepburn is the only actress to have won the Best Actress award four times. Meryl Streep surpassed Hepburn's record of 12 acting nominations in 2002, with 13 career nominations (and then in 2006 with 14 career nominations) - and became the mostnominated performer ever - over a period of only 24 years (from her Best Supporting Actress nomination for The Deer Hunter (1978) to her Best Supporting Actress nomination for Adaptation (2002)). Meryl Streep is the only performer to have 14 Oscar nominations, 11 as Best Actress and three as Best Supporting Actress, with one win in each category. Many other actresses have won the Best Actress award twice. Among them are two performers who have won consecutive statuettes: •

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Luise Rainer with her first win for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), and then her second and back-to-back Best Actress Oscar win for her performance in The Good Earth (1937). She became the first multiple Oscar winner, and was the first to win an award two years in a row Katharine Hepburn, two consecutive Best Actress Oscars in four wins, for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968)

The Top Best Actress Oscar Winner

Katharine Hepburn 12 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 4 wins Other Top Best Actress Oscar Winners and Nominees

Best Actress Wins

Morning Glory (1932/33) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) The Lion in Winter (1968) On Golden Pond (1981)

Best Actress Wins

Sophie's Choice (1982) Meryl Streep 14 career nominations (11 B.A. noms), 2 wins (1 B.A.)

The Great Ziegfeld (1936) The Good Earth (1937) Luise Rainer 2 career nominations (both B.A.), 2 wins

Bette Davis 10 career nominations (all B.A. noms) (plus an "unofficial" write-in nomination in 1934), 2 wins

Dangerous (1935) Jezebel (1938)

Gaslight (1944) Anastasia (1956) Ingrid Bergman 7 career nominations

ACADEMY of MOTION PICTURE ARTS and SCIENCES BEST ACTRESS* AND BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS* (*Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading (Supporting) Role) [Note: Winning Co-Stars - Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the Same Film are indicated by a Shaded-in Year] Year of Award

Best Actress* Academy Award Winner

Best Supporting Actress* Academy Award Winner

1927-28

Janet Gaynor N/A Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise

1928-29

Mary Pickford Coquette

N/A

1929-30

Norma Shearer The Divorcee

N/A

1930-31

Marie Dressler Min and Bill

N/A

1931-32

Helen Hayes The Sin of Madelon Claudet

N/A

1932-33

Katharine Hepburn Morning Glory

N/A

1934

Claudette Colbert It Happened One Night

N/A

1935

Bette Davis Dangerous

N/A

1936

Luise Rainer The Great Ziegfeld

Gale Sondergaard Anthony Adverse

1937

Luise Rainer The Good Earth

Alice Brady In Old Chicago

1938

Bette Davis Jezebel

Fay Bainter Jezebel

1939

Vivien Leigh Gone With the Wind

Hattie McDaniel Gone With the Wind

1940

Ginger Rogers Kitty Foyle

Jane Darwell The Grapes of Wrath

1941

Joan Fontaine Suspicion

Mary Astor The Great Lie

1942

Greer Garson

Teresa Wright

Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver

1943

Jennifer Jones The Song of Bernadette

Katina Paxinou For Whom the Bell Tolls

1944

Ingrid Bergman Gaslight

Ethel Barrymore None But the Lonely Heart

1945

Joan Crawford Mildred Pierce

Anne Revere National Velvet

1946

Olivia de Havilland To Each His Own

Anne Baxter The Razor's Edge

1947

Loretta Young The Farmer's Daughter

Celeste Holm Gentleman's Agreement

1948

Jane Wyman Johnny Belinda

Claire Trevor Key Largo

1949

Olivia de Havilland The Heiress

Mercedes McCambridge All the King's Men

1950

Judy Holliday Born Yesterday

Josephine Hull Harvey

1951

Vivien Leigh A Streetcar Named Desire

Kim Hunter A Streetcar Named Desire

1952

Shirley Booth Come Back, Little Sheba

Gloria Grahame The Bad and the Beautiful

1953

Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday

Donna Reed From Here to Eternity

1954

Grace Kelly The Country Girl

Eva Marie Saint On the Waterfront

1955

Anna Magnani The Rose Tattoo

Jo Van Fleet East of Eden

1956

Ingrid Bergman Anastasia

Dorothy Malone Written on the Wind

1957

Joanne Woodward The Three Faces of Eve

Miyoshi Umeki Sayonara

1958

Susan Hayward I Want to Live!

Wendy Hiller Separate Tables

1959

Simone Signoret Room at the Top

Shelley Winters The Diary of Anne Frank

1960

Elizabeth Taylor Butterfield 8

Shirley Jones Elmer Gantry

1961

Sophia Loren Two Women

Rita Moreno West Side Story

1962

Anne Bancroft The Miracle Worker

Patty Duke The Miracle Worker

1963

Patricia Neal Hud

Margaret Rutherford The V.I.P.'s

1964

Julie Andrews

Lila Kedrova

Mary Poppins

Zorba the Greek

1965

Julie Christie Darling

Shelley Winters A Patch of Blue

1966

Elizabeth Taylor Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Sandy Dennis Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1967

Katharine Hepburn Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Estelle Parsons Bonnie and Clyde

1968

Katharine Hepburn; Barbra Ruth Gordon Streisand Rosemary's Baby The Lion in Winter; Funny Girl

1969

Maggie Smith The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Goldie Hawn Cactus Flower

1970

Glenda Jackson Women in Love

Helen Hays Airport

1971

Jane Fonda Klute

Cloris Leachman The Last Picture Show

1972

Liza Minnelli Cabaret

Eileen Heckart Butterflies Are Free

1973

Glenda Jackson A Touch of Class

Tatum O'Neal Paper Moon

1974

Ellen Burstyn Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Ingrid Bergman Murder on the Orient Express

1975

Louise Fletcher One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Lee Grant Shampoo

1976

Faye Dunaway Network

Beatrice Straight Network

1977

Diane Keaton Annie Hall

Vanessa Redgrave Julia

1978

Jane Fonda Coming Home

Maggie Smith California Suite

1979

Sally Field Norma Rae

Meryl Streep Kramer vs. Kramer

1980

Sissy Spacek Coal Miner's Daughter

Mary Steenburgen Melvin and Howard

1981

Katharine Hepburn On Golden Pond

Maureen Stapleton Reds

1982

Meryl Streep Sophie's Choice

Jessica Lange Tootsie

1983

Shirley MacLaine Terms of Endearment

Linda Hunt The Year of Living Dangerously

1984

Sally Field Places in the Heart

Dame Peggy Ashcroft A Passage to India

1985

Geraldine Page The Trip to Bountiful

Anjelica Huston Prizzi's Honor

1986

Marlee Matlin Children of a Lesser God

Dianne Wiest Hannah and Her Sisters

1987

Cher Moonstruck

Olympia Dukakis Moonstruck

1988

Jodie Foster The Accused

Geena Davis The Accidental Tourist

1989

Jessica Tandy Driving Miss Daisy

Brenda Fricker My Left Foot

1990

Kathy Bates Misery

Whoopi Goldberg Ghost

1991

Jodie Foster The Silence of the Lambs

Mercedes Ruehl The Fisher King

1992

Emma Thompson Howards End

Marisa Tomei My Cousin Vinny

1993

Holly Hunter The Piano

Anna Paquin The Piano

1994

Jessica Lange Blue Sky

Dianne Wiest Bullets Over Broadway

1995

Susan Sarandon Dead Man Walking

Mira Sorvino Mighty Aphrodite

1996

Frances McDormand Fargo

Juliette Binoche The English Patient

1997

Helen Hunt As Good As It Gets

Kim Basinger L.A. Confidential

1998

Gwyneth Paltrow Shakespeare in Love

Judi Dench Shakespeare in Love

1999

Hilary Swank Boys Don't Cry

Angelina Jolie Girl, Interrupted

2000

Julia Roberts Erin Brockovich

Marcia Gay Harden Pollock

2001

Halle Berry Monster's Ball

Jennifer Connelly A Beautiful Mind

2002

Nicole Kidman The Hours

Catherine Zeta-Jones Chicago

2003

Charlize Theron Monster

Renee Zellweger Cold Mountain

2004

Hilary Swank Million Dollar Baby

Cate Blanchett The Aviator

2005

Reese Witherspoon Walk the Line

Rachel Weisz The Constant Gardener

2006

Helen Mirren The Queen

Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls

2007

Marion Cotillard La Vie en Rose

Tilda Swinton Michael Clayton