My UPDATED Ranking of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar Winners - Vol. 2 #68-40

Welcome back to the Best Supporting Actress Ranking Extravaganza...I am sure you are all positively giddy to be here. Nothing like objectively ranking performances and facing comments like "You ranked Mira Sorvino THAT HIGH?!" but honestly, I welcome hearing about other people's opinions!

While maybe not as severe as the struggle I had with ranking and discussing a lot of the Best Actress winners at this point in the series, I did find myself having a similar response when putting my thoughts down for this batch. 

With the upcoming performances, I still see a lot of the same issues (though not as negative) that I did with many of the winners in the first volume. I would say the biggest positive we get with many of these winners are that a lot of them have good or even very strong qualities in their work...it is just they also suffer from having portions of their performances containing bad choices/direction or weak characters/scripts and they either do all they can with what they are given or not enough.

I just think that last statement, "not enough", is more or less objective. I also know that a lot of times that many of the winners won an Oscar for reasons that didn't strictly just involve their performance. It is far too political to ignore such a thing.

With that in mind, let's dive in.

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#68 - Octavia Spencer, The Help (2011)

There was a narrative that made this win by Octavia Spencer so exhilarating at the time was that it was that it was a character actress who had been working and struggling for so long FINALLY getting her due.

What does sort of dampen it is that she plays a maid, and the movie just so happens to be The Help...sigh...

Spencer's co-star Viola Davis got bumped to the Lead Actress race even though she herself was borderline supporting...and that path cleared up a victory for Spencer even though her great co-star Jessica Chastain was also in the mix (and had a huge splash in a few films that year).

Davis had the performance, but I am not so sure that I really even remember much about Spencer in the film aside from the infamous pie scene. 

If there is anything I do love about this win, it is that it has allowed her career to blossom, and she has since received multiple Oscar nominations...though shockingly not for a performance that was better than all of her nominated performances: Luce.

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#67 - Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind (2001)

After being one of the best highlights in Requiem for a Dream, Jennifer Connelly came back the following year and got lots of attention for a stereotypical Supporting Actress role: the long-suffering but supportive wife.

I am not the biggest fan of A Beautiful Mind and wish that the script had a rewrite and that it had a different director other than Ron Howard. 

    In a similar vein to that of Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist, you come into this movie knowing that Connelly's Alicia will become an important and crucial fixture in John Nash's life. However, the character we meet feels so lifeless and droll. Connelly often seems to whisper her lines in such a way that it did remind me of the surprisingly lethargic energy that Davis had in her winning performance.

However, something does click once the trauma of John Nash's illness come into play. When this happens, Connelly comes to life and thankfully this portion of the performance does feel like something that would be worthy of Oscar recognition. Her anguish, her terror, her love all seem believable and you finally can see why someone might love this performance.

It is just a shame that the first half of it affects her so negatively.

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#66 - Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls (2006)

When they called Jennifer Hudson's name on Oscar night, it was a foregone conclusion. The gal who got voted off American Idol a lot earlier than many expected managed to have the last laugh.

When a film adaptation of the beloved 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls was first announced, many who knew it felt that whoever would play the role of Effie White would probably win the Oscar.

And they truly needed someone who could do this role justice...like, imagine if they watered down the role of Effie like they did for Madonna when she played Eva Peron?

Jennifer Hudson can sing the Effie track...there is no denying that.

I am just not sure she nailed the acting. This was another case where I feel like we have a performer who just didn't really give the role the emotional depth it needed...and sure, Hudson was able to sell the songs, but I still don't think she excelled when just strictly acting.

At best, she was maybe a little above average at getting the point across. Not a disaster by any means but just sort of a lot of brass with not much weight.

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#65 - Donna Reed, From Here to Eternity (1953)

Now we have Donna Reed, the epitome of what many consider the template of a classic 50s sitcom housewife...and she is a playing (even if the censors wouldn't allow it to be said) "a hooker with a heart of gold".

We see this character trope time and time again, and you certainly don't expect to see an actress like Donna Reed in such a role...and it isn't the last time we will see it here. In fact, we will see another "hooker with a heart of gold" trope in this very volume.

Reed is an interesting case here because she isn't exactly the biggest standout in From Here to Eternity, nor do I feel like her role is that compelling. 

I do think she is able to take some of her more wholesome attributes as a person/performer and imbue the role with a rather surprising warm touch. 

Hence the whole "heart of gold" comment.

I just think that in the grand scheme, Reed does come off as a little unnatural in this performance; that it feels a little calculated and over-rehearsed.

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#64 - Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden (1956)

Van Fleet falls into a similar trap as 1952 winner Gloria Grahame in that she made an impression in 3 films of 1955, but I would argue she won for a lesser performance in the grand scheme.

I feel like Kate is one of those characters that seems juicy on paper as woman who leaves her family behinds to open a brothel...you know, the typical Steinbeck fare...but she is a character that does feel shrouded in some mystery and because of that distance, I feel like it is hard to connect with the character in any way.

 

I think Van Fleet manages to give a performance that feels very lived in, and I do feel she has great chemistry with James Dean...but what she also suffers from are moments where she almost seems to try too hard to find moments of flourish; this could be even something as simple as how she chooses to move her head and look at another character. 

Add Jo Van Fleet to the list of actresses who were worthy to win an Oscar but perhaps maybe won for the wrong role.

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#63 - Angelina Jolie, Girl Interrupted (2000)

I actually ranked Angelina Jolie a lot lower in my previous ranking, but decided to give her a boost because she does do well with the kind of abrasive material she was given.

The career trajectory of Angelina Jolie has been an interesting one to follow, and I did think her take on Maria Callas in Pablo Larrain's Maria was beautifully done in 2024. Jolie is not a bad actress, and you can clearly tell that in her performance...and prior to this, Jolie had made a splash in two TV movies where she stole the show: George Wallace and Gia. 

I do think a lot of the performance suffers from being very surface level, but the commitment to it was what gave me the choice to put her above some of the people I have already ranked. 

As for Jolie's competition, I have to say this is a case where I tend to like so many of the other contenders more like Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense, Chloe Sevigny in Boys Don't Cry, Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich, or the snubbed Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich.

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#62 - Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind (1957)

When one enters 40s or 50s Hollywood cinema, it might be wise to be prepared for some melodramatic films and/or performances that could be considered pulpy/soapy. Dorothy Malone falls under the "soapy melodrama" category...and a movie like Written on the Wind is a prime example of why I often struggle with Hollywood films of this era.

I do have a certain admiration for the films of Douglas Sirk, but I can't say that I always love his films in the way that I do the films of the big-name directors of that era like Alfred Hitchcock or international filmmakers like Bergman, Kurosawa, etc... Within the confines of the film, Dorothy Malone gives exactly the kind of performance that the film needs. When you are playing a nymphomaniac who is constantly stepping out on their husband, chances are it is going to be played with abandon if you're in a soapy Sirk film.

I just find myself taking a campy enjoyment in Malone, but I also find that a lot her choices don't exactly translate well to the screen. She is just too broad, but that was also a style for the time.

In some ways, she reminds me a lot of Susan Hayward, but even Hayward was able to find some intricate layers from time to time in her melodramatic roles.

I recall one online blogger referring to Malone in this film as an ultimate example of "so bad, it's good"...and even if that could be legit, I am still not sure I would give an Oscar to such a performance.

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#61 - Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost (1990)

Here is a truly insane fact to put some things into perspective: when Whoopi Goldberg won the Oscar for Ghost, she became only the SECOND Black woman to win an acting Oscar. The male stat wasn't much better in that just the year prior, Denzel Washington became the second Black man to win in Best Supporting Actor for Glory following Louis Gossett Jr for An Officer & a Gentleman and the Lead win by Sidney Poitier for Lillies of the Field.

I don't think Goldberg winning for Ghost is a horrible win, but I do feel like she had competition that simply had better and meatier material.

The sad truth is that Goldberg probably should've won for her magnificent debut in The Color Purple five years prior...and if that had happened, she would've become the first woman of color to win a Lead Actress Oscar. 

The thing about Ghost is that I do consider it to be an entertaining film, but I do get the sense that its surge towards the Oscars was more due to its high visibility and Box Office numbers....which managed to knock out far more viable potential nominees like The Grifters and Reversal of Fortune.

I still think the fact it even won Best Original Screenplay is truly one of the most hilarious wins in Oscar history.

Goldberg manages to be the person who steals the movie, and it did feel great for her to have this moment, but it just felt like the role simply wasn't a stretch for her. She was great comic relief but it just didn't feel like an Oscar winning performance.

Of the nominees, I wish we could've seen a win for either Annette Bening in The Grifters or Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas. 

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#60 - Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

Woody Allen's films have managed to net 4 wins in the Best Supporting Actress category: two for Dianne Wiest, one for Penelope Cruz, and one for Mira Sorvino.

I have a lot of feelings about this win, because one hand, I do love the Academy choosing to reward a comedic performance that tread the line of being too much, but I still don't know if she was my favorite of the competition that year.

These days, a lot of the reason we've learned that Mira Sorvino never took off in such a manner after her Oscar win is due to the fact that her career was frequently sabotaged by Harvey Weinstein.

I find that Sorvino is actually a great actress, and I think she deserves a lot more attention and better roles. Sorvino is another contender who fell under the "hooker with a heart of gold" trope...and I have to say that she does entertain with it.

I also think she mostly suffers from her script, because even Woody Allen seemed to TRY to not demean this character, I feel like the subtext shines through that we basically laugh at this woman with her airhead demeanor, her squeaky voice that came from the same school of timbre as Vivian Blaine or Judy Holliday, and how she is so blatantly willing to talk about her porno career.

I think Sorvino actually does manage to overcome this by giving her a sense of dignity, even when Allen has her scripted to talk about extremely sexually explicit acts she would have to do for her porn work.

So in some ways, I do commend Sorvino for what she was able to bring to the role...but sadly it was the role as written I had issues with. 

I do want to give a shout-out to one of her fellow nominees. Joan Allen made a wonderful impression as Pat Nixon in Nixon...and as fascinating a man as Richard Nixon was, I think the hold that his wife had over him was one of the more compelling aspects...especially since she had little patience for the game compared to someone like, say, Nancy Reagan would.

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#59 - Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables (1958)

This is a performance that managed to win over a weak field of nominees, but I think what is truly remarkable about that fact is how it isn't normally the kind of performance that wins awards.

Subtle performances have obviously won Oscars, but this is one of those performances where I actually have to commend the voters for noticing that there was something...well...THERE.

Hiller is such a stoic presence and is able to enhance what could be considered a thankless role with a lot of efficiency and dignity.

I am not even sure I have as much to say about this performance...and admittedly, it has been a while since I have seen it. I do think that Hiller's performance style was very refreshing for its time as it was an era that was dominated by the likes of more melodramatic and flashy efforts.

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#58 - Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez (2024)

Sigh, okay...

If you followed my posts about the 2024/25 Award Season or read my review of Emilia Perez, you will know that I was, and still remain, an iron-clad member of the "I HATE THIS MOVIE" club.

Among this group, I shared the common opinion despite my absolute hatred of the film, I felt that Zoe Saldana was far and away the best thing about it.

Did she deserve to win the Oscar? Not at all. Strictly basing it on the performance, I can't say she did anything bad, but the material is so bad that is bogs her down way too much. I also think she had the unfair advantage of being category frauded into Supporting when she was arguably the film's lead, even having a few minutes more of screentime compared to the titular role played by Karla Sofia Gascon, who got nominated in Best Actress. 

A role like this truly shows Saldana has what it takes to deliver a performance that is awards caliber, but I just wish she were in a much better vehicle. 

To be fair, her most buzzed about competition was Ariana Grande, who surprised everyone with her take on the iconic role of Glinda in Wicked. Even in that case, I would argue she was a category fraud as well. In what world is having Saldana and Grande competing next to Isabella Rossellini in a 7-minute-long performance somehow appropriate.

Even though I took issue with The Brutalist, ironically enough more so in the second half when she actually becomes a focal point, I was very taken with Felicity Jones. I was never really the biggest fan of her as an actress prior to this role but she really impressed me.

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#57 - Goldie Hawn, Cactus Flower (1969)

I have often heard this being considered one of the worst wins in Oscar history, and I do have to disagree. I think that aside from the fact that she is essentially a co-lead in the film, the only real struggle with Hahn's Toni is that the role is very one-note until the end when she discovers the secret that her lover lied to her about being married in order to try to prevent her from wanting the same thing from him.

A lot of the ditsy qualities of this role played into the "dumb blonde" trope that Hahn was frequently lampooning on the TV show Laugh In...so it doesn't feel like a stretch for her.

Still though, she does a good job with the material. I just don't know if she was my first choice for the award, but I certainly don't begrudge the selection.

One of her fellow nominees was Catherine Burns in Last Summer, a film that is not widely known or able to be seen that frequently.

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#56 - Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008)

I alluded to Cruz's win earlier when discussing Mira Sorvino, and now, it is time to discuss how I feel about the performance directly.

I still remember the buzz that Vicky Christina Barcelona got when it came out. There was certainly a sense that Woody Allen struck gold...or maybe silver would be a better term here...actually maybe bronze.

I have always been of the belief that Woody Allen has not made a truly great film since 1989's Crimes Misdemeanors...and sure, he has made some okay-to-good films in the years since but even some of those good films have issues.

I would say Vicky Christina Barcelona falls under the "good" category from a basic entertainment standpoint, but it is also a film that is very lazy. The random narrator trope it has feels so unnecessary and intrusive, but as characters, they all feel very superficial and not particularly people we want to invest time in.

I do think Penelope Cruz, along with Rebecca Hall, are the two to make the most of their roles. Cruz started off her career in the US as being mocked for not being that great of an actress. It wasn't until many saw her in Pedro Almodovar's Volver that some were like "Okay, she is actually good".

Cruz IS good...and she did a good job here, but it really feels like a role that falls under "all flash, no real substance".

Of the actual nominees, Viola Davis made such a powerful impression with her brief screentime in Doubt while Marisa Tomei proved that she is still a better actress than many give her credit for in The Wrestler.

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#55 - Eileen Heckart, Butterflies are Free (1972)

When I think of Eileen Heckert, I think of her rather bombastic performance in the truly campy and wince-worthy film adaptation of the play The Bad Seed. 

Heckert came from the theater world. In fact, she originated this role on the stage, but lost the Tony to her young co-star Blythe Danner (who was replaced in the film by Goldie Hawn).

Heckert winning seemed like a mild upset, but I suppose some weren't eager to give Shelley Winters a THIRD Supporting Actress Oscar for her memorable performance in, perhaps, the best of the cheesy 70s Disaster films, The Poseidon Adventure.

*Sidenote: How on earth did Airport and The Towering Inferno get lucky with Best Picture nominations while The Poseidon Adventure got snubbed despite being far better than either of those? Every year is just different I guess*

Anyway, Heckert gets to play the doting mother to Edward Albert's Donnie, a blind man.

Considering the fact he is blind, Heckert's Florence seems very unwilling to accept that maybe he is able to function as an adult without her doting guidance...but is still in a way where we don't necessarily see her as a villain; she is simply a mother figure who loves her son, but will need to just gradually learn that he is ready to truly have his independence.

Heckert does dominate the film and her dry wit is particularly used to great effect when she has scenes with Goldie Hawn, but I think the only real thing about Heckert that bothers me is that her film work still slightly suffers from not translating too well from the stage to the screen.

I feel like she could've been reigned in a little bit at times, but despite that, I think she was able to give a relatively middling film a lot of life and compassion and wit.

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#54 - Anne Baxter, The Razor's Edge (1946)

Anne Baxter gets a lot of flak from some historians for fighting to be campaigned for Lead in All About Eve. Those same historians also think the vote-splitting led to Bette Davis losing what would've been her then record-breaking 3rd Oscar win for Lead.

Honestly, I don't think Baxter was strong enough in All About Eve to be a threat...and frankly, I would've voted for Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.

Baxter is another actress who falls into a similar category with Dorothy Malone and Susan Hayward; she is just very expressive and exaggerated...and often to her detriment. 

I think The Razor's Edge gives her a chance to play to her strengths, but because the film itself is so weak, it doesn't help much.

I feel like as Sophie, she manages to shine and steal the entire movie, but it is just that erratic nature of the time period where I just can't get over some of the more melodramatic tendencies.

However, the scene in which she sees her old friends in a Parisian bar is perhaps enough to make me forgive her for some of the lesser moments in the film. That moment alone helped me boost her up a few slots.

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#53 - Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener (2005)

When this win originally happened, I was not a fan of it at all. This was even coming from someone who actually really liked The Constant Gardener and would've nominated it for Best Picture.

I felt this was a performance that was just...there. It just sat there and did what it needed to do and helped drive the plot and Ralph Fiennes' character.

Even if I still would've given the Oscar to Amy Adams in Junebug (a film I actually did not like but she was simply radiant in it), I can't help but acknowledge that there was a certain energy to Weisz in this film that has stayed with me in hindsight. 

Although completely unrelated to her performance, I do want to address the idea that has been expressed online over the years that Weisz should've been nominated in Lead for this performance.

While she technically was the female lead of the film, I think she is totally Supporting. She only has about 25 minutes of screentime and most of that is within the first half of the film. 

Then again, I suppose if Anthony Hopkins can be in Lead (and win) for The Silence of the Lambs or Lily Gladstone can be heavily campaigned in Lead for Killers of the Flower Moon, then the same could be said for Rachel Weisz.

I am still in the supporting camp, though...and I would say she deserved a nomination.

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#52 - Anjelica Huston, Prizzi's Honor (1985)

This is an Oscar win I have actually sort of dimmed on a little bit.

I think everyone in my generation will always think of Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams, but Huston is far more than that. I will take this opportunity now to recommend her work in Paul Mazursky's Enemies: A Love Story and especially in Stephen Frears' The Grifters.

As for her Oscar winning performance in Prizzi's Honor, she is easily the best thing about the movie and a great example of taking a character with relatively minimal screentime and making a meal out of it. She literally steals every scene she is in, and manages to practically erase Jack Nicholson (her former real life lover) off the screen. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of her performance is her delicious accent, which only adds to her appeal.

I don't consider ranking her here as necessarily a bad thing, but more a testament that she took a mostly nothing role and made it a lot more. 

Having said that, I don't think a win for Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple would've been unreasonable either. 

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#51 - Beatrice Straight, Network (1976)

I have talked a lot about performances that suffer do brevity in screen time, which often coincides with the role being underwritten. In the case of Beatrice Straight, I think we need to give credit where credit is due. And despite her performance's brevity, I will be giving it a little bit more of a discussion.

Ms. Straight holds the distinction of giving the shortest performance ever to win an Oscar: 5 minutes and 40 seconds. Within that brief screen time, she only has three scenes. 

The second scene is inconsequential as we only see the back of her head and she speaks one line. The first scene is slightly more involved where we see her walking around the apartment searching for Howard Beale (Peter Finch) only to wake up her husband (William Holden) to tell him Howard left. While not much, this scene does manage to convey a certain warmth that makes her stand out...especially considering this has been a movie filled with a lot of sociopathic people up to this point.

It really all comes down to her third and final scene which is when Holden's Max confesses to Straight's Louise that he has been sleeping with Faye Dunaway's Diana and that he has fallen in love with her. 

Keep in mind, this is a woman who has been married to this man for 25 years and she has been faithful and loyal to him...we've seen this kind of story many times both on film and in life. We also barely spend any time with her character in the film so why should we really care that much about her?

Well...Beatrice Straight makes us care. Or at least she made me care. And apparently, enough Academy voters as well.

While I am still not sure it is enough for me to think she necessarily deserved the Oscar, I still think this is a very prime example of how to truly make an impression with such a brief monologue. It also truly helps that the passion Straight shows make us far more sympathetic to her plight than the rest of the yahoos around her.

One final thing: when I talked about Faye Dunaway's Best Actress win for Network, I brought up the stage adaptation that was on Broadway written by Lee Hall and directed by Ivo Van Hove. When I saw this production, I remember wondering how (or if) they would do the big Louise monologue.

I can recall reading online how some TV broadcasts of the film actually cut the scene out for time which seems truly crazy if you were to watch the film knowing that Beatrice Straight won for it. In some ways, the scene isn't exactly essential, but it does shine a light on Max and how his actions within the chaotic world of the television are affecting those in reality. 

I don't mean to be harsh, but in the stage version of Network, the actress playing Louise almost felt as if she was on the level of (to reference a lethargic performance from my last volume) Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist. I am not saying every performer should copy what another does, but this was a prime example of how effective Beatrice Straight was able to make this brief appearance.

She gave it purpose, plain and simple.

And due to brevity of the great scene, I decided to include it here!

 

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#50 - Jessica Lange, Tootsie (1982)

Lange went into Oscar night being considered pretty locked in to win Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie...and it seemed like a great way to acknowledge her as she was going to lose her Best Actress bid for Frances.

As a film, I actually have to admit that I love Tootsie...despite some of the aspects of it that have not aged well. I also think it contains one of the best performances of Dustin Hoffman's career and I do think he works extremely well with Lange in this.

For modern audiences who are used to seeing Lange portray characters who are often unhinged, it might be a bit of a surprise to see her in such a subdued role...and frankly, she does it very well.

After finishing work on Frances, her co-star Kim Stanley strongly encouraged her to tackle a comedy to counterbalance the intense dramatic work in their film.

Lange, however, isn't the funny part of Tootsie. Sure, she may get a line or two here and there that elicit a smile or slight chuckle, but Lange is essentially the straight man.

She does do well in not making her character seem like a fool for being fooled by Hoffman. Her final scene when he finally talks to her again as Michael and not Dorothy is mostly owned by Lange even though she barely speaks.

When she finally responds with "I miss Dorothy", you truly feel how sincere she is about that friendship...and that you might end up buying that she is willing to give Michael a chance since it WAS him.

It isn't a bad performance...I am just not sure it necessarily stood out even in her own film.

Lange was nominated against her co-star Teri Garr. While Garr's role was written for her, it still could've come off as relatively bland had it gone to someone else. Garr did wonders with Sandy and her brief snippets in the film are a prime example of a true Supporting performance that steals every second she is on screen.

This was also a stellar category if I was willing to rank Lange last of the five.

She was nominated against Glenn Close for her film debut in The World According to Garp, her Frances co-star Kim Stanley, Garr, and in another comic gem of a performance that I find truly delightful, Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria.

It is one of the best lineups this category ever had.

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#49 - Fay Bainter, Jezebel (1938)

Jezebel was sort of seen as a film to give Bette Davis a chance to play a Southern Belle after having lost the chance to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. 

The gambit paid off as Davis managed to win her second Oscar in 3 years AND managed to squeak in a year before Gone with the Wind opened in theaters.

I can't say I like Jezebel more than Gone with the Wind, but I also find the latter to be immensely overrated...and to reiterate, I have always thought that even before the film managed to face more scrutiny.

I think Jezebel is a solid watch and I do think that Fay Bainter is a rather interesting aspect of the film...especially considering it is not that flashy of a role.

This is a movie that is truly all about Bette Davis, but in a true supporting role fashion, Bainter is there as her Aunt who never exactly steals the show from Davis, but still provides a rather compelling screen presence.

She isn't necessarily remarkable, but it is a good example of how sneakily effective a sterling supporting performance can be to a film.

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#48 - Cate Blanchett, The Aviator (2004)

I think that my love of Blanchett might be slightly clouding my judgement here, because I might honestly consider ranking this performance a little lower.

In truth, The Aviator is a film I do like despite its bloated nature...but I have to admit that once Blanchett departs the film (aside from a small scene towards the end), it loses something.

Blanchett gets to play Katharine Hepburn, the current reigning champion of acting Oscar winners. Oscar voters always love a good impersonation/transformation...but I suppose what may hurt Blanchett here is that her take of Hepburn borders on caricature/cartoon rather than necessarily creating a real human being.

Having said that, she does have her great moments...particularly the scene where she leaves Howard. She does have wonderful chemistry with DiCaprio, who I still think gives one of his finest performances in this film and would've been a worthy winner. 

Blanchett gives the film such a vibrant and entertaining edge for a lot of the first half, but I do wish more had been done to polish off more of the cartoonish edges.

Of the nominees, I think this should've gone to either Virginia Madsen in Sideways or Laura Linney in Kinsey.

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#47 - Claire Trevor, Key Largo (1948)

With Claire Trevor, we get another example of an actress who took a role that is essentially thin and one-note and made as much out of it as they possibly could.

This is also another prime example of a supporting performance that somehow manages to be the best thing about the movie. Key Largo is a rather forgettable film and it is so weak that we somehow get the most lifeless and uninteresting performance out of Lauren Bacall.

Claire Trevor spends most of the movie just begging to have another drink and she essentially has no dignity...but considering how one-note the role is, Trevor does the absolute best she can with it. I actually originally had her ranked at #57 and then moved her up to #47.

There is just something about her in this role that I find to be impressive considering the limitations that are there. Maybe I will consider moving her a little higher in the future, but for her to get a 10-point jump is still nothing to scoff at.

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#46 - Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

The young girl who played Marla Gibbs' daughter on 227 does good!

In the last 25 years, Regina King has grown into being a truly wonderful actress, not to mention showing relatively good promise behind the camera when she directed One Night in Miami. 

If Beale Street Could Talk, adapted from a James Baldwin novel, was Barry Jenkins' follow-up film to Moonlight and while it would've been hard for a lot of films to live up to a masterpiece like Moonlight, I do think he did a great job with this adaptation.

King plays Sharon Rivers, the mother to the film's protagonist Tish. 

While King's screentime isn't much, and many have bemoaned that she doesn't do anything to warrant such recognition, I actually find her work here to be sterling and effective.

When Sharon goes to Puerto Rico to confront Victoria, the woman who is falsely accusing Tish's boyfriend Fonny of rape, King excels in this scene which is also incredibly infuriating due to blatant lie that Victoria is telling. 

*Side note: Victoria is played by Emily Rios, who played the tragic Andrea on Breaking Bad. She does well playing such a despicable character here.

If Beale Street Could Talk is very bleak but oddly hopeful all at once...and I think that King's work in it might be minimal, but she is effective.

However, I still might've given my vote to Rachel Weisz for The Favourite in this case.

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#45 - Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables (2012)

Even Anne Hathaway has admitted that this award season period was perhaps the most difficult time in her career as the internet seemed ready to pounce on her every opportunity that she appeared anywhere.

It does seem like that vitriol has since died down, but there certainly was a sense at the time that Hathaway was practically begging for an Oscar. 

The moment the trailer came out for Les Miserables, people were like "Well there is your winner". In truth, the role of Fantine in the stage production isn't necessarily an awards magnet. Sure, it may have netted Patti LuPone a win at the Olivier Awards (which was also for her work in The Cradle Will Rock) but I grew up always thinking of the role of Eponine being the awards magnet. 

I think what strongly benefitted Hathaway in this case was how the role was restructured. In the stage production, Fantine's big solo "I Dreamed a Dream" is placed right after she is ostracized from the factory...but in the movie, it occurs after she sells her hair and teeth and prostitutes herself, so the emotions are...well...understandably high at her bleakest moment. 

I feel like this is one of those performances where I didn't exactly hate it or even hate the fact that she won...but I also find myself feeling that despite the intense emotion, something about it still feels so brash and very forced.

Nevertheless, she still comes off as a highlight to the movie, which I still consider to be rather horrid as a whole. 

Hathaway should've been strongly considered for an Oscar for her lovely dramatic turn in Rachel Getting Married whereas in this race, I would've been inclined to vote for the still Oscar-less (as of this writing) Amy Adams for The Master.

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#44 - Mary Steenburgen, Melvin & Howard (1980)

The 1980 Award Season was all about domination within the acting categories.

Both Lead Actor and Actress had Robert DeNiro and Sissy Spacek sweeping through the whole season, while Mary Steenburgen had won every single Supporting Actress award except for the National Board of Review.

I feel like a lot of us these days tend to forget that Steenburgen is even an Oscar winner. It isn't that she is some obscure actress because she has popped up in so many movies and TV shows, but she has never really had another role that seemed to bring her anywhere close to Oscar glory again.

I do mostly support her win if only for the fact that her competition wasn't exactly the strongest. I do think in terms of the film she was in, Melvin & Howard is not as remembered or talked about today beyond if people happen to watch Oscar winning performances. While it didn't get a Best Picture nomination, it certainly seems like it was in the 6th slot with this win and its win in Best Original Screenplay. I know the film is based on a true story but there is such a disjointed and aloof quality to it that I found it often hard to connect to the film in any way. 

I do think Steenburgen suffers a little from that and it does seem a little strange that she swept in such a capacity, but then again, her category was very weak. 

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#43 - Allison Janney, I Tonya (2017)

I remember when The West Wing premiered and how it seemed like the entire country was in awe of Allison Janney and wondering where she had been. 

And then she won 1,530 Emmys for it.

Janney has managed to sustain a solid career as a character actress, and it doesn't surprise me that Hollywood really took the opportunity to coronate her during that awards season. 

As the irascible and bitter LaVona, the mother of Tonya Harding, Janney is certainly a force to be reckoned with. She dominates the first third of the movie and is truly indelible...especially when you factor in her pet parrot.

I think my only issue with the character/performance is that it relies so much on that irascible tone the whole time. She obviously does it extremely well and on its own terms, I do find it to be a very entertaining performance. 

I think this is just one of those cases where I can't help but feel bummed out that there was another performance that year by an actress who is also mostly known for TV who played a bit of an irascible mother but got the chance to add layers to it: Laurie Metcalf in Ladybird.

This happens several times for me on these rankings, because I do really want to base these strictly on the performance within the confines of who actually won this category.

On that basis, I do think Janney did exactly what she needed to do...and it is a pretty solid win on its own. I just wasn't a GREAT win. It mostly just served a purpose of giving a truly beloved actress an Oscar to go with her house full of Emmys.

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#42 - Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl (2015)

Around the time of the ceremony in which Alicia Vikander won the Oscar, I was not actively following the Oscar scene. I had just moved to New York City about a year and a half before and with the chaos of that...plus just a sense that I was not overly as enamored with the movies of the time, I just felt disconnected from it all.

This is just one of those wins that I find fascinating if only for the fact that, as of 2025, it seems as if Vikander's win didn't actually translate into any kind of major career. Even that year's Best Actress winner Brie Larson was sort of affected by that...if you ignore the whole Marvel aspect, but whatever.

Vikander's work in The Danish Girl is certainly worthy of recognition and I think a lot of that has to do with what she was able to do with such weak and regressive material that seemed to not truly care much about the concept of someone coming out as transgender.

The film aged poorly rather quickly with the casting of Eddie Redmayne at the titular girl, but I do think Vikander was the only source of strong work in the film.

Having said that, this is a true category fraud selection. I think Vikander could've easily won this award for Ex Machina instead and I actually think it would've been a little more worthy.

She deserves better roles and a comeback.

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#41 - Shirley Jones, Elmer Gantry (1960)

When discussing the Best Actress winners, I talked about how Sally Field defied the odds and managed to become a respected actress after having been known for her TV work on the frivolous sitcoms Gidget and The Flying Nun.

Shirley Jones is, I think, a more precarious case.

Jones' career began almost as a fluke. She had no intentions of being a performer but a chance encounter with a pianist friend in NY got her an audition at an open casting call for Richard Rodgers. If you haven't heard the story, it is worth checking out.

This led to Jones getting to play two of the big female roles in the R&H canon for their film adaptations: Laurey in Oklahoma! and Julie in Carousel. 

No one really viewed Jones as being a serious actress and she couldn't find work in more dramatic fare...so she turned to TV and managed to impress Burt Lancaster with her performance on a Playhouse 90 special called The Big Slide. 

Lancaster was going to co-produce and star in the film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' novel Elmer Gantry and felt Jones could pull off the small but pivotal role of Lulu Baines, a prostitute who has a steamy connection to the titular character that Lancaster would play.

Despite writer/director Richard Brooks originally having reservations about Jones for the part, Lancaster fought for her and Brooks later admitted that she was the right choice upon watching her first day's work, even calling her to tell her "I owe you an apology. Not only do I think you're going to be great in this part, but I also think you're going to win an Academy Award".

Many these days tend to forget that Jones is an Oscar winner because despite the clout of the win, she seems to be better remembered for being Shirley Partridge on The Partridge Family.

Film historians also seem to bemoan the fact she beat Janet Leigh for Psycho...but I have to admit that I think Jones does prove her worth as an actress here.

She may be a little too performative at times, but the scene in which she tries to con Gantry with photographers outside the window is actually very well done. This is a scene where we don't know what she is going to do because SHE doesn't know what she is going to do...and every moment, you see that doubt in her. She is trying to be sneaky and yet find herself still feeling complicated feelings of attraction towards this man.

Honestly, I would've liked to have seen more of this side of Shirley Jones as an actress.

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#40 - Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

I can't really say I am a fan of For Whom the Bell Tolls...but yet again, Katina Paxinou gets the honor of joining the list of supporting actresses who are the best thing about their movie.

Paxinou gets to play Pilar, a very strong and masculine woman living in the mountains of Spain during a civil war.

As a character and actress, both Pilar and Paxinou seem so unique to the era in which they are currently in. This was the 1940s in Hollywood, when the idea of the perfect actress in terms of talent and looks would've been Ingrid Bergman who, coincidentally, happens to be in this very movie.

Paxinou's Pilar is a dynamic creation.

She is loud and domineering, but also very warm and loving and caring. This is a woman who says that she "would have made a good man" and is actually referred to by other men as someone who can "fight like a bull". 

Perhaps one of her best moments in the film is her "ugly" monologue, where her vulnerability comes out with a dash of confidence still mixed in when she says:

"How it is to be ugly your whole life and to feel in here that you are beautiful".

It is a very intriguing and even refreshing performance that feels very different from most of the female performances of that era. 

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THOUGHTS ON THE RANKING SO FAR:

As I stated before, this was another volume where I kind of struggled. 

I think that despite some of the issues I had with these performances and even many of the films in which they were contained, I found myself finding better qualities in a lot of their work compared to some of the Best Actress winners.

The variety here just feels a lot more refreshing, but I still think the biggest problem is that a lot of the issues with these winners are mostly due to the nature of how their roles are written. 

In the last volume, a lot of my complaints stemmed from the fact that so many of the actresses just didn't do enough with the material they were given. 

Here, I found myself commended a lot of these actresses for doing more than what the roles may have given them on the page. It also doesn't hurt that so many of these actresses were actually the best aspect of their respective movies.

We still have two more volumes to go, but I will go ahead and say now that there will be a more positive shift in tone with a lot of these upcoming performances.

A lot of them would not have been my first choice for the win...or even would've been nominated. However, on their own terms, I find many of these to be commendable works. As we enter the top 40, it is going to become a little bit more of a bloodbath where I actually feel weird ranking some of the performances as low as I did. 

Stay tuned for the next volume! As it goes with my blog, you may see the post tomorrow or a week from now or a month from now...