My UPDATED Ranking of the Best Actress Oscar Winners - Vol. 2 #70-41

Oh, the joys of objectively rating a bunch of random performances that are linked together solely by the fact that they all won an award that is also subjective...

What a ranking like this can prove is that even good performances can rank a lot lower than you might expect, or perhaps a winning performance that may have ranked 5th for you that particular year may actually end up being one you like when you strictly judge it on its own merits or even amongst the other winners.

Within this volume, there are some performances that most definitely fall into either category. I will start off with a performance that is certainly a solid one, but one that I find isn't quite as remarkable as I originally felt when I first saw it.

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#70 - Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Unfortunately for Ms. Tandy, she suffers one of the more noticeable drops in this revamped ranking as in the original series, I ranked her at #55.

I will say that Jessica Tandy is certainly something of a sentimental figure for me considering her pop culture resurgence happened during my early formative years to the point that not only is she one of the first celebrities I can recall being aware of, but she is also one of the earliest I can remember having passed away, which was in 1994. My beloved Nan, who passed away in January 2024, was a big fan of Fried Green Tomatoes and I can recall her putting it on whenever it would be on TV. 

While that performance netted her an Oscar nomination, it was her work in Driving Miss Daisy that got her the win. I think it is clear that while it is very solid work by a truly wonderful actress, I do think she suffers from the film around her. 

Driving Miss Daisy is a very interesting case because it was based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play, but when you look at the play now, you sort of wonder: "How did that happen?"

The film falls into that mawkish territory where it feels like racism was only a thing in the past, whereas truthfully it has been a clear and present danger...even if now it feels overwhelmingly loud.

This was also the year that Michelle Pfieffer swept many of the precursors for her work in The Fabulous Baker Boys, and in hindsight, it is clear that her work in that film would've made for a truly wonderful selection here. 

It is still nice to see Tandy get the recognition, but this was clearly a sentimental push for her within a film that ended up winning Best Picture.

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#69 - Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God (1986)

Not only was Marlee Matlin the first deaf person to win an acting Oscar, but she also still remains the youngest Best Actress winner to date at the age of 21. 

If we were judging Matlin's win based on who she beat out, I would likely give my vote to other contenders who were in the category like either Sigourney Weaver for Aliens or Kathleen Turner for Peggy Sue Got Married...or one major snubbed contender I would've considered: Isabella Rossellini for Blue Velvet. 

Still - this performance is one that I do admire, nonetheless. Considering how much of a warm personality she is in life; she is able to imbue this character who has rather abrasive qualities at times with a certain humanity.

I do think it is a shame that her career never really took off like it should have. She had a short-lived television show called Reasonable Doubts and a memorable recurring role as pollster Joey on The West Wing...and perhaps one of her more coveted guest spots on Seinfeld in the "Lip Reader" episode. 

I had hoped being a part of the Best Picture winner Coda would reignite her career, but she still seems to get consistently steady work over the years so that is certainly something to be happy about.

It was also a joy to get to see her be a part of the 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening.

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#68 - Helen Hunt, As Good as it Gets (1997)

This has got to be one of the most reviled wins in this category's history; that one-two punch of Hunt and Paltrow certainly felt like the bottom of the barrel for many film aficionados who remotely care about the Oscars.

I can understand the hatred for Paltrow, and while I do think that Hunt didn't deserve to win this, I do think she was better than many gave her credit for. I do think As Good as It Gets hasn't aged as well as James L. Brooks' other films that achieved Oscar success and I also think her co-star Jack Nicholson's win for this film was more undeserving than hers...but I will say I think Hunt is the best thing about the film.

She does the best job at riding the film's comedic/dramatic elements and also feels the most lived-in within the film's world. You buy her as a weary waitress, and she also had a very strong Oscar clip which was when she was crying at her mother over her nagging only for her to realize it isn't that big of deal which leads to her great delayed response of "...okay..."

It is a good performance; not sure it is truly Oscar worthy in the grand scheme, and I would have to agree with Hunt's own assessment that the winner should've been Judi Dench, who played Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown.

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#67 - Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins (1964)

This is one of those Oscar wins where I am kind of impressed it actually happened. However, it was obvious that there was clear sentimentality and narrative at play here.

Julie Andrews had been passed over for the film version of My Fair Lady as it was deemed that she would not be a sufficient enough draw at the Box Office despite her success in the role onstage.

I could go into this at length, but basically what happened is that Audrey Hepburn was cast as Eliza in My Fair Lady but was not able to truly sing the role as was necessary, so the services of the legendary ghost singer Marni Nixon were brought in. This was a much more common practice in the early years of Hollywood, but it seemed particularly egregious in this instance because the woman who was passed over for the role just so happened to be the star of that film's biggest success at the Box Office.

I am of the belief that had Julie Andrews had done My Fair Lady, she would've won the Oscar for that...but as it stands, the push came to reward her for Mary Poppins.

There is no denying that Andrews is remarkably comfortable in what was her film debut and adapted to the medium extremely well...but I still don't know if this was a performance that felt as though it warranted the year's highest honor. The strange thing about Andrews is that she also feels absent from quite a few portions of the film on top of this.

Of her competition, I do admittedly feel more drawn to the intense work of Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater and Kim Stanley in the underrated Seance on a Wet Afternoon.

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#66 - Renee Zellweger, Judy (2019)

When it was announced that Renee Zellweger would be playing Judy Garland in a biopic, many of us raised our eyebrows and braced for impact.

I never disliked Zellweger, but ever since she won her "overdue" Oscar for Cold Mountain back in 2004, it seemed as though her career quickly declined and any goodwill she had just vanished. 

On top of all that, it was announced she would be doing her own singing. THAT was a bit of a shock.

It isn't that Zellweger can't sing; she did a perfectly capable job as Roxie in Chicago, but very few people in history have had quite the distinctive, emotional, and powerful voice that Garland had. 

If we are judging the performance without trying to focus too closely on the actual Garland, it is clear that Zellweger is doing good work. However, the real issue is that when she sings, it doesn't convince you of the legend of Garland. Perhaps even more egregious is that this film is supposed to take place during the final months of Garland's life when she was far more fragile and in poor health than truly shown in the film. 

And Zellweger isn't necessarily to blame; she mostly had a bland script to rely on and the direction was solid at best. I just think that the potential this performance/film had didn't live up to the expectations...and even though the Actress race that year seemed to be weaker than other recent years, it allowed her to sweep the season. I just think other snubbed performances were far worthier than the contenders that made it in:

Lupita Nyong'o, Us

Florence Pugh, Midsommar

Alfre Woodard, Clemency

Adele Haenel, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

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#65 - Marie Dressler, Min & Bill (1931)

In one of the earliest performances to win an Oscar, you can easily say that Marie Dressler was something of an anomaly.

The ageist attitudes of Hollywood have always been present and the fact that an actress of Dressler's age/stature won this award...and for pretty much a comedy no less...is quite the accomplishment. 

Very few actresses had the kind of command and presence of Dressler...who could make Beatrice Arthur look relatively demure by comparison.

Min & Bill is a very brief film and not overly remarkable, but it would be worth seeing for Dressler. These days, Dressler is better remembered for being a part of the famous Ma & Pa Kettle film series.

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#64 - Katharine Hepburn, On Golden Pond (1981)

Going into the Oscars that evening, many pundits felt that Best Actress was between Diane Keaton for Reds and Meryl Streep for The French Lieutenant's Woman. 

Katharine Hepburn's win was considered a major shock. It was also historic as this was her 4th win, something no other performer has duplicated.

There is no denying the memorable nature of her performance or her chemistry with Henry Fonda. Her most famous scene where she refers to Fonda as her "knight in shining armor" is easily the highlight of the film. 

I don't think too much of the film, but Hepburn and Fonda were both lovely and I appreciate that their wins along with Supporting winners Maureen Stapleton and Sir John Gielgud gave us the oldest average age of winners to date. 

Who would I have given it to, though? I actually think Susan Sarandon was truly luminous in Atlantic City and would've loved to see her and Burt Lancaster win for that film. I also would've gladly supported a win for Diane Keaton in Reds.

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#63 - Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce (1945)

Very few performers of any gender are as iconic and infamous as Joan Crawford...which might have a lot to do with her hatred for wire hangers.

Crawford also seems to polarize a lot of people, famous or not, that question if she truly was as psychotic as her adopted daughter Christina claimed.

Beyond that, I am going to refrain from going further into that discussion and instead focus on Crawford as an actress.

Her co-star from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Bette Davis, was not a fan of Crawford...and the feeling was mutual, but Davis could also admit the truth.

Davis was once quoted in an interview as saying Crawford was "a consummate professional" in that she was always punctual and knew her lines and was pretty much no-nonsense.

There is no denying Crawford's meticulous nature helped her achieve great success as an actress, but I have also never taken to her much in that arena.

I do think Mildred Pierce was essentially "lightning in a bottle" for Crawford...and this Oscar served not just as deserving acknowledgment for her work in the film, but as a career award as she had yet to receive even a nomination despite a pretty successful 20-year career dating back to silent films.

*Side note: Had supporting categories existed in 1933, I would have to assume she would've been an easy winner as Flaemmchen, the stenographer in Grand Hotel*

I am inclined to say that this win was perfectly acceptable as it seemed very attuned to the exact skills that Crawford was able to excel at.

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#62 - Frances McDormand, Nomadland (2020)

I do admire Frances McDormand a great deal and think that how she approaches her work, and her celebrity are truly inspiring and refreshing. 

I still just find myself a bit baffled that this performance was able to net her a 3rd Lead Actress Oscar...especially being only 3 years after she won her 2nd for Three Billboards.

Considering Nomadland ended up dominating the Best Picture and especially Best Director races that year, it does sort of make sense in hindsight that McDormand being involved in the eventual Best Picture winner would allow her to coattail to a win, especially with all the precursors being divided up between her, Carey Mulligan, Viola Davis, and Andra Day. 

I do want to take a moment to bemoan the loss of Carey Mulligan here because she did such a phenomenal job in Promising Young Woman, especially with it being the kind of role not many people expected to see her in. 

I just think McDormand's work here was almost too subtle. I like to champion subtle performances as often times they can be looked down upon as being nothing difficult or awards worthy...but there is a clear fine line for me in making a subtle performance pop.

In the end, I don't think McDormand really did that for me.

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#61 - Jodie Foster, The Accused (1988)

I will openly admit that it can be hard to talk about The Accused as a movie, because I do clearly support the film's message that a woman shouldn't be criticized or demeaned for being rape just because she acts or dresses a certain way.

However, the film often flirts with being a bit melodramatic and maybe a step above an average Movie of the Week. Despite that, Foster's performance clearly holds the film together as best as she can...even though the script/direction hold her back a bit. 

It is truly clear that the moment that won her the Oscar was the gang rape scene itself. Needless to say, it is a very uncomfortable scene, and despite the film having several flaws in its approach, I do have to commend them for how they don't let us shy away from the brutality here.

Foster's character Sarah is raped by three men while she is splayed over a pinball machine at a bar...with others cheering it on...and when it comes to the film's message that a woman isn't always asking for it, it truly gets that point across in a chilling manner.

I still think I would've opted to see this win go to Glenn Close for Dangerous Liaisons or Meryl Streep for A Cry in the Dark, which would've made a far more worthy 3rd win than the one she eventually received.

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#60 - Helen Hayes, The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932)

The title of "First Lady of the American Theatre" has been given to a couple of different women, but the first person I ever heard referred to as such was Helen Hayes.

Much like other women who got the title (like Ethel Barrymore), Hayes never strayed far from the stage and only acted in films sporadically. 

While The Sin of Madelon Claudet benefits from being a pre-Code film, it also gets docked for its rather stuffy and offensive treatment of a woman who just made some bad choices in her life. In that regard, you could also see the glimmers of the Hays Code within it.

Hayes does come off as a little theatrical at times, but there is a humanity to her that feels very potent and alive which isn't always apparent in some of these films from the 30s.

Considering a lot of the performances that were getting honored at the time, I think Hayes' stands out as being rather solid.

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#59 - Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday (1954)

Very few women are as truly iconic as Audrey Hepburn. 

In an era where feminine beauty was epitomized by the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner, Hepburn stood out as a different kind of beauty: svelte and sweet.

Considering Roman Holiday was her first real film role, Hepburn came out of the gate with guns blazing...and with a role that was truly suited to her sweet and genteel charms.

Hepburn would eventually prove herself to be a great dramatic actress in films like A Nun's Story and Wait Until Dark or Two for the Road...but there is no denying the true indelible charm and grace she exudes in this film and how well she works with Gregory Peck, an actor who wasn't always the most consistent scene partner a performer could have back then.

I just wonder how undeniable this was for an Oscar win, especially when you had the perennially overlooked Deborah Kerr in this category for From Here to Eternity playing against type to rather wonderful results. 

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#58 - Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking (1995)

Following 4 nominations, with 3 happening over the span of 4 year, Susan Sarandon won on her 5th nomination for her performance as Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking, a film based on the true story of a nun who ends up becoming a staunch protester of the death penalty when she encounters an innocent man who is on Death Row.

Directed by her then-partner Tim Robbins, Dead Man Walking is one of those rare examples of a Hollywood film that leans rather heavily into more leftist politics...and it was certainly far better than most of the actual Best Picture nominees that year.

I don't consider this to be Sarandon's best work (I am more of a fan of Atlantic City which I discussed under Hepburn's On Golden Pond win), but it is a very solid win for a performance that could've been a lot worse since it was practically an overdue selection at that point.

Of the nominees, I actually sort of preferred Elisabeth Shue from Leaving Las Vegas but a lot of my favorite performances that year were snubbed.

Nicole Kidman proved she was capable of brilliance in To Die For and should have won her first Oscar here. Another major snub (which was considered a longshot) was Kathy Bates in Delores Claiborne, a performance in a truly underrated film from one of the more underrated titles in the Stephen King canon.

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#57 - Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Here is a little bit of trivia for you: up until recently, Greer Garson's acceptance speech for this film was the longest on record at about 5 minutes 30 seconds. It took over 80 years, but Adrien Brody just beat it by 10 seconds with his pretentious "I won't be egregious" speech.

Hmmm, so he won't be egregious? To quote Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride: "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means".

Anyway...Greer Garson is an actress that doesn't get a lot of discussion these days, but back in the 1940s, she was arguably one of Hollywood's biggest stars after she made a splash in 1939's Goodbye Mr. Chips. 

She was an actress who often exuded great warmth and strength, but I still never quite took to her work in the way that I did some of her contemporaries...particularly the actress I would've given the Oscar to that year: Bette Davis for Now Voyager.

It is nice to see Garson have an Oscar, but I do think Mrs. Miniver falls into that melodramatic field that a lot of the war-era Hollywood films suffered from, and she is affected by that. It is still pretty on brand for solid performances of the time.

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#56 - Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich (2000)

Coming off a decade of being America's Sweetheart and a Box Office Stalwart, Julia Roberts' success with Erin Brockovich was a prime example of Hollywood just dying to give such a huge star their due with an award.

Roberts does have a lot going for her. I still think this was a far more compelling selection for an Oscar compared to that of Sandra Bullock's Oscar win a decade later after she had been Roberts' closest peer to the style of films she had been known for. 

The film has a pretty solid script; she is being directed by Steven Soderberg; her co-stars include the likes of Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhardt. 

She also does rather well, too. I am just not sure it really measures up to being one of the best in the category.  It's a star turn, but it didn't always feel as earnest or honest...especially in some of her bigger moments.

Of the nominees, I think Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream was an easy call. Also, it never would've happened but Maggie Cheung's beautiful work in In the Mood for Love would've been lovely to see here.

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#55 - Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night (1934)

I think Claudette Colbert truly lucked out in a lot of ways. 

On one hand, it was obvious that the Academy loved her film as it became the first to win the top 5 big Oscars of the evening: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay.

Colbert was a highlight and gave a truly lovely performance, but this was the infamous year that Bette Davis got snubbed for her rather visceral performance in Of Human Bondage, the film that sort of set up the expectation that this young actress would be a different kind of performer than any of her peers...and one who would not shy away from vile characters.

    I think on her own merits, Colbert is a worthy winner. Perhaps she doesn't match the same level of screwball comedy prowess that her peers of the era cultivated like Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard, or Jean Arthur...but she works well with Gable and brings great sophistication and wit to one of the last films to come out before the dreaded Hays Code ruined pretty much everything.

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#54 - Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own (1946)

To Each His Own is not a great film and it tends to sort of fall into some of the more melodramatic tropes of 40s Hollywood cinema...and it also isn't de Havilland's best work by any stretch.

However...this win was a great example of perseverance as de Havilland had fought the studio system over both the true structures of acting contracts and the quality of roles for women.

This didn't adhere to some of the major studio heads, but in her favor, the studio system hierarchy was approaching the last stretch of its heyday.

Olivia de Havilland won two Oscars (her 2nd win will be coming up later on), but I feel like perhaps she should've won her first Oscar for a different film.

In this particular year, I would've voted for Celia Johnson, whose truly delicate performance in Brief Encounter is a prime example of the true power of subtlety.   

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#53 - Susan Hayward, I Want to Live! (1958)

This is a performance that I actually struggled to rank, because I find myself both marveling at Hayward and cringing at the same time.

Hayward was an actress who loved to...well...emote. 

If I would compare her to any actress that is pretty well known to audiences of today, it would be Jessica Lange.

However, my problem with Hayward is that she often borders a campy melodramatic line that she never truly masters without falling into the pool.

I think I Want to Live! represents her finest performance if only for the fact that she didn't entirely fall into that overbearing melodrama like she did in films like I'll Cry Tomorrow (although that film does play differently when you realize how much it personally related to her) and by the end, she makes some truly subtle choices in moments of silence that show she might've been able to achieve balanced excellence if directors were more willing to reign her in. 

So I am okay with the win, but I wouldn't have been opposed to Rosalind Russell taking it for Auntie Mame or Elizabeth Taylor for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

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#52 - Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) 

This is a performance I actually let drop about a dozen points from its original slot, mainly because I do think perhaps it doesn't resonate as much over time...but I do stand by the fact that Jessica Chastain was pitched in the right arena that she needed to be to play Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner. 

I feel like even at the time, Chastain winning felt like more of an afterthought. Of the nominees, 3 of them (Colman, Cruz, and Kidman) had all won Oscars while the only other nominee not to win was Kristen Stewart...and considering how much Spencer ended up crashing and burning following her stellar streak with the critics, it just seemed like the stars aligned for Jessica Chastain to win her first Oscar after she had been a strong player for her work in movies like The Help and Zero Dark Thirty.

A movie about Tammy Faye's life makes sense to have, but I still found the film to be a bit of a slog to get through...which is a bit strange considering that the Evangelical world is one I am very familiar with and while I do think they nailed a lot of the aesthetics, the film never managed to truly engage me. 

Chastain certainly helped it a bit, and I didn't hate her win for this...I just agree that perhaps it wasn't the best choice or the bolder choice.

I do think of the nominees, Penelope Cruz for Parallel Mothers would've made for a wonderful win. Of those who were snubbed:

Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World

Tessa Thompson, Passing

Martha Plimpton, Mass

Annamarie Vortolomei, L'evenement 

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#51 - Holly Hunter, The Piano (1993)

I have been a bit all over the place with this performance and the film. In my early days of filmdom, I found myself thinking The Piano was a true bore that battled along the lines of films such as The English Patient or Out of Africa. 

Holly Hunter's performance perhaps didn't earn as vitriolic a response in my book, but I did question it a little...and I still do feel that considering she beat out Angela Bassett for What's Love Got to Do with It? and Stockard Channing for Six Degrees of Separation. 

In the years since, I have come to find The Piano to be a beautifully bleak film that has aged remarkably well, and I do think Hunter carries the film rather handily...especially acting opposite Anna Paquin, who managed to win a well-deserved Supporting Actress Oscar at the mere age of 11.

Despite Paquin being a true Supporting performance in which she does often recede to the background, I would argue she often steals a lot of the scenes from Hunter.

Nevertheless, considering this is a performance in which she never speaks except for narration, Hunter does have to convey so much with her eyes. The moment in which she makes a decision regarding her piano at the end of the film is a truly memorable scene that she sells so well. 

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#50 - Nicole Kidman, The Hours (2002)

I don't think I can begin to describe the outpouring of love that Nicole Kidman received in the early 2000s following her abrupt divorce from Tom Cruise. After all of that occurred in early 2001, she followed it up with performances in Moulin Rouge and The Others and was then named Entertainer of the Year.

By 2003, the amount of love was so intense that when it came time to predict the Oscars, it was Dave Karger of Entertainment Weekly who made the comment "I feel like they are dying to give it to Nicole".

This is what was so unfortunate about Kidman in the decade leading up to her coronation with the Best Actress prize for The Hours. She had always been known as "Mrs. Tom Cruise/Actress second", even after she came close to an Oscar nod for To Die For, which still may be my favorite performance of hers.

Kidman won for what was essentially a Supporting performance that got a lot of press at the time for the fact that she donned a fake nose which made her unrecognizable. I found most of the performance to be fine, but it is the famous train station scene which tips it over the edge.

I feel like her delivery of "I'm dying in this town!" will forever be engrained in my memory, and when it comes to a single scene, I will gladly claim that the train station scene is easily one of the best moments any of these actresses had.

As for who I would've voted for out of the nominees, that actually would've been Kidman's Hours co-star Julianne Moore who was up for her truly exquisite work in Far from Heaven. Although, I do want to take a moment to single out Isabelle Huppert for La Pianiste as that film was eligible during this award season and her work in that was an absolute masterclass and one of the finest film performances I have ever seen. 

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#49 - Simone Signoret, Room at the Top (1959)

Often considered a win that is questionable, I think Simone Signoret suffers mostly from the debate over how much one might like the art of subtlety.

Room at the Top is a pretty prototypical 50s melodrama, but Signoret manages to anchor the film down quite beautifully. It is also a performance that I could easily see getting pushed down to Supporting by today's standards since "Supporting" tends to be the place where borderline performances are placed if they feel they may not have as best a shot in lead.

Signoret, the first French actress to win an Oscar, also comes off as quite naturalistic in the film. Despite some of its pulpy nature, it holds up a lot better than most films of its kind from that era and I think her work is a true testament to that.

I do think that if they had honored Audrey Hepburn for A Nun's Story that I would've also gladly accepted that, too.

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#48 - Janet Gaynor, Sunrise/Seventh Heaven/Street Angel (1928)

We have finally reached a milestone winner here as Janet Gaynor was not only the first actress to win this award, but the only one to win for multiple films back before that rule was quickly changed at future ceremonies. She also stands as the only actress to win for Silent film performances.

I have to admit that I have never seen Street Angel but I have seen Seventh Heaven and Sunrise. I think both of these films are actually quite good, especially Sunrise which I consider one of the best films to come out of the Silent era.

I think Gaynor does her best work in Seventh Heaven but is buoyed up more by the content of Sunrise.

Gaynor would later prove to be an equally strong actress once the talkies came along as she was the original actress to portray the Esther role in the now seemingly ongoing A Star is Born franchise...but she also worked so strongly in Silent films because she had that undeniable quality where she could express so much just with her eyes. 

Not everyone succeeded when talkies came along (coughMaryPickfordcough), but Gaynor did...and she deserves more praise and discussion by today's film historians.

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#47 - Cher, Moonstruck (1987)

This is one of those wins that you think would be quite popular among certain groups, but it is actually often maligned. I am not about to malign Cher for this performance as it does stand as a truly nice performance with a lot of vibrancy and charisma.

Moonstruck is probably one of my favorite romantic comedies ever made; I also think John Patrick Shanley also helped make it fresh by adding a great subplot for Olympia Dukakis, who played Cher's mother, as she has to navigate the infidelity of her husband and ends up having a quick dinner with a younger man with a seemingly similar roving eye. 

This is an Oscar win I admire greatly on its own merits and I think there is no denying that Cher has natural acting talents...and any training she may have received from Lee Strasberg in the early 80s only solidified that.

I do want to recommend the movie Mask from 1985 (no relation to the Jim Carrey film), as it probably contains Cher's greatest performance, though Moonstruck is a close second.

However, 1987 truly belonged to two women:

Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction

Holly Hunter, Broadcast News

These performances are two polar opposites and while Close's borderlines a very problematic area in how it presents a scorned woman, there is no denying it is an iconic performance and a SUPERB performance.

Hunter's Jane Craig is a marvel, too. She is a strong but also vulnerable and flawed woman...I would go as far to say it may be the greatest character that James L. Brooks ever wrote, and it is easily the best film of his career.

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#46 - Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday (1950)

This is an Oscar win that is often considered one of the most infamous because a major comedic performance managed to best Bette Davis in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. 

I can't say for certain what the consensus is, but while I supported the Best Picture win for All About Eve, I do think I would've voted for Swanson.

This isn't to say that Holliday is an undeserving winner. I do think maybe she appears a little green at times onscreen, but considering this role made her a Broadway sensation, she still manages to create a compelling onscreen persona.

I have expressed this before, but it seems like a very frustrating Catch-22 where a lot of people bemoan that not enough comedic performances (or any genre performances for that matter) are rewarded Oscars...and yet, whenever it seems to happen, they are often some of the most hated wins.

I don't even have the same passionate response to Davis and Swanson as other film historians do...but either way, I think Holliday doesn't deserve the intense hate she does often get.

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#45 - Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment (1983)

It has happened to a couple of others in either direction, but for whatever reason, I have found myself rethinking my stance on MacLaine's win. Sure, it was perceived as an overdue victory in what was that year's Best Picture winner, but she did have great reviews for it.

I do stand by my opinion that I prefer Debra Winger's performance from the same film, but I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that MacLaine was better here than I originally gave her credit for.

When I last wrote about her (ranking her at #62), I said that it felt like a performance that was trying too hard to win an Oscar. Think about her yelling "Give my daughter the shot!!" or if she is freaking out over being a grandmother...they are very loud moments, but I revisited sections of the film recently only to discover that they played a lot better to me than they ever did. On top of this, she does have some beautifully subtle moments such as when she is at Debra Winger's bedside at the end.

So yes, maybe it isn't necessarily what I would've voted for that year, but I do think her performance deserved a bit of a reappraisal.

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#44 - Julianne Moore, Still Alice (2014)

While the overdue narrative didn't help Glenn Close overcome the passion of Olivia Colman, the narrative ended up helping Julianne Moore despite how the passion amongst film fanatics seemed to rest with Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl and Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night.

This isn't to say that I am here to bash Moore for this performance or anything. 

I would say that her performance in this is handled with a lot of care and is highly emotional. I do think the film around her isn't exactly as strong, which can often work against some performers.

It isn't an undeserved win by any means, but I do think it is another case where the film suffers around the actress which almost has Moore going into to overdrive to compensate for the film's soapier and maudlin faults.

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#43 - Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight (1945)

As the first of her 3 Oscar wins, I would say that Gaslight is easily the most deserved of Ingrid Bergman's wins and probably one of the best performances of her entire career. 

Many bemoan the fact that she beat out Barbara Stanwyck's legendary Femme Fatale in Double Indemnity, especially considering Stanwyck never ended up winning a competitive Oscar. I think that Bergman's win is pretty deserving in the grand scheme.

Gaslight may not be quite as strong as Double Indemnity, but it is pretty close. It works very well as a thriller, especially considering that it came out in 1944.

Bergman is so indelibly linked to Casablanca that it may be hard to forget that she had a pretty extensive career otherwise, but I think when looking at a film like Gaslight, you can tell she was able to bring a lot to the table.

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#42 - Julie Christie, Darling (1965)

Julie Christie doesn't get a lot of discussion these days. Even when she came THISCLOSE to winning another Oscar for Away from Her back in 2008, I feel like there wasn't as much passion surrounding her despite her relative legend. 

Many of her contemporaries are highly regarded and beloved by younger generations today like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren...though Christie never seemed to seek that kind of stardom. 

Looking back her earlier films like Billy Budd and Darling, you can see how much she embodied the quirky persona that seemed to be linked with the swinging scene of London in the 60s. 

I think one aspect of Darling that does play well nowadays even if a lot of the film doesn't exactly stand the test of time is the complexity in which Julie Christie imbues this role.

Diana Scott is a true anti-hero back before that was truly a commonality in films...especially when it would come to female characters. Back in the days of the Hays Code, women who had the slightest bit of questionable morals were written to be punished in some way to appease the censors. 

For one key example, Diana has an abortion in the film...and it doesn't try to analyze or demonize the action. It just presents it as her choice and lays the issue bare. Sure, the film does give her a chance to face a comeuppance or two, but it just feels so much more invigorating in how she is written. It does feel like a key step towards films of the 60s flirting with the more sophisticated and gritty films of the 1970s.

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#41 - Shirley Booth, Come Back Little Sheba (1952)

In a decade that was dominated by the glamorous Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Grace Kelly, the Academy managed to honor some truly remarkable character actresses with Best Actress honors. 

I will be talking about one of those in my final volume, but there is a certain joy in seeing a great character actress from the stage like Shirley Booth make her film debut in Come Back, Little Sheba and take a well-deserved Oscar.

Of course, Booth's film career didn't exactly take off and following her win, she seems most remembered for playing the titular maid on the sitcom Hazel. 

Come Back, Little Sheba is a movie that is melodramatic to its detriment; the kind of movie that makes me roll my eyes when I think about the supposed Golden Age of Hollywood.

However, for what it is, I find it to be rather enjoyable and I think Booth manages to sell the material very well...even if the script makes her say "daddy" far too often to the point it almost seems comical.

Booth deserves to be talked about more as a performer, and I think in many ways, what she brought to the table could be seen as being a little ahead of its time. 

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THOUGHTS ON THE RANKING SO FAR:

Wow...these last 3 performances...

Looking at Booth, Christie, and Bergman, I find myself feeling a bit shocked that I ranked them as low as this...but it does go to show that we are starting to get closer to the territory where even if some of these people may not have gotten my personal vote in a given year, they were pretty worthy in their own right!

I try my best to remain partial to the performances themselves rather than the films that contain them, but it is undeniable how much the quality of the film can end up hurting a performance. There are instances where a performer can truly overcome that, and I am sure we will see that as we get into the next two volumes.

Coming up will be #40-21 followed by the top 20!

Stay tuned for those!

For the previous list, please see that ranking here: #98 - 71

My UPDATED Ranking of the Best Actress Oscar Winners! - Vol. 1 #98-71

Back in 2023, I completed a full ranking of the entire roster of Best Actress winners for my blog and it still remains one of my most successful series of posts.

However - I haven't updated it to include the two most recent winners and haphazardly threw Michelle Yeoh onto the ranking without really thinking. Upon further inspection, I think I do feel like certain actresses deserved to be shifted around both positively and negatively. 

My goal is to try to update this list every year from here on out whenever we get a new winner, but for now, let us start at the very bottom with my least favorite Best Actress winner. This choice is still the same from my previous post, and I think a lot of you who follow this kind of thing will agree.

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#98 - Mary Pickford, Coquette (1929)

You could argue that Mary Pickford had a claim on the title of "America's Sweetheart" by how much the public adored her in the 1920s, sort of like the "girl next door" compared to the worldly and mature Clara Bow. 

When the film industry shifted from Silent to Sound in the late 20s, it sent seismic waves around the industry as some of the biggest stars were deemed to be unusable once their voices would be factored into the equation. This concept was shown to show hilarious affect with Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain. 

The era of 1928-1929 cinema is often considered one of the worst, if not the absolute worst, era in Hollywood history primarily due to the industry adapting to the changeover to sound. The results lead to films with strange robotic staging, performances than range from weirdly melodramatic or wooden as a board, and sound quality that often makes dialogue insanely difficult to hear. 

In order to keep up with the times, Pickford's first foray into the talkies was Coquette, in which she would play a well-to-do southern belle whose infatuation with one of the working class leads to tragedy.

Pickford was known for having a long, luscious curls but cut her hair to a pixie cut to match the intensely popular flapper aesthetic of the time while also trying to shed her "Pollyanna" image.

The results did lead to respectful reviews and people accepting that Pickford could work as a "talkie actress"...however, time has not been kind to the film or to Pickford.

Pickford was only the second actress to ever win this prize, but she was the first to do something that has become more commonplace nowadays: campaign and lobby for votes.

Pickford was married to actor/filmmaker Douglas Fairbanks, who just so happened to be the first President of the Academy. Among the founding members, Pickford was also a part of that group. As a means to try to further the state of her career, she invited the judges/voters over to her famous Pickfair estate to push the agenda as to why she would warrant such an award. 

That isn't why I am voting her as my least favorite choice to win the award...the performance itself is frankly more than enough to base this selection on. As I eluded to earlier, Coquette is very much a product of its time when it comes to being a film that struggles to overcome the early days of Talkies. 

It is staged poorly and is presented in such a lifeless way that it is amazing that it is still somehow melodramatic at the same time.

Pickford's talent is not overly apparent in this film as it is is clear she lacks the prowess of her contemporaries such as the aforementioned Clara Bow or Joan Crawford, Janet Gaynor, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson, or the woman who should've won this award posthumously, Jeanne Eagles for The Letter.

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#97 - Elizabeth Taylor, Butterfield 8 (1960)

"I lost to a tracheotomy" - Shirley MacLaine.

You sure as hell did!

The winner of the Best Picture award in 1960 was the truly near-perfect romantic dramedy The Apartment, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, in which she in particular gives a performance that blends romance and comedy and drama with such ease that I consider this one of the worst Oscar losses in history.

The tracheotomy in question that she lost to was that of the one given to Elizabeth Taylor, who nearly died after a severe bout with pneumonia. On top of this, Taylor had become something of a pariah in the press after Eddie Fisher left Debbie Reynolds for her.

There seemed to be a strong sentiment of forgiveness towards Taylor. When someone almost dies, the industry apparently soon wants to put aside the fact you're a homewrecker. That isn't to say I want to demonize Taylor for those actions; relationship dynamics and breakups can be highly complex. 

However - considering the circumstances in which she won in addition to the quality of the performance/film she was in, I cannot support this choice. 

Butterfield 8 is simply a trashy film that barely offers any kind of true value...and it is so tacky in its approach that they cast Eddie Fisher to play opposite Taylor in the film. Upon its premiere, Taylor expressed that she found the film to be "a piece of shit"...but I suppose you could argue Taylor fits the aesthetic of the film rather well. It's just a shame that it is clearly beneath her talents as evidenced by her work in previously nominated performances like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer and especially in the performance that would net her a 2nd Oscar: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 

There are truly some cringy moments to see here...and perhaps you could call them camp in their own way. Taylor yelling "I was the slut of all time!" leading to get slapped by her mother, and we also get one of the most ridiculous death scenes ever put on film. 

Such a true waste of an Oscar win, and a clear case of where narrative and sentimentality carried the day over quality.

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#96 - Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (2010)

"Did I deserve this, or did I just wear you all down?"

Great opening line to a speech by a truly charismatic actress who had just won an Oscar for a truly unremarkable performance in a very abysmal movie that stands as one of the worst examples of the "White Savior" trope in cinema history. 

I have been actively following the movie award season since the late 90s, and while the opinions of people who lurk on online film forums can be questionable and suggestive, I can't recall a time when it seemed like so many people agreed that it was so baffling that a particular performance was not only getting intense Oscar buzz, but that it was the frontrunner to win despite such clearly better competition. 

It was almost as vitriolic as the awards embrace given to Emilia Perez. 

Even more surprising was when The Blind Side actually slipped into the Best Picture race that year seemingly on the coattails of Bullock's success. 

I am not saying that Bullock gives a truly terrible performance, but she is just...there. It doesn't help that the script is positively atrocious in all of its "white savior" circle jerk banality. 

I can still remember the moment where she sits around the table with her southern belle friends and one says, "You're changing that boy's life!"

And with a meek but trying to be profound tone, Bullock says "No....he's changing mine".

I mumbled quietly "Dear fucking lord..." 

Aside from Bullock, The Blind Side is appalling because the film was clearly structured to make the Tuohy family look saintlier than they actually were in real life. It also doesn't help that Michael Oher came out in recent years to shine a light on the Tuohys' behavior and actually sued them over tricking him into a conservatorship.

Bullock has given some strong performances, like playing Harper Lee in the lesser-seen Truman Capote biopic Infamous and she is basically the best thing about beyond the visual effects in Gravity, which I don't think is as amazing of a film as many make it out to be...and this performance is more or less serviceable at best and it isn't helped by the fact she is dealing with insufferable material.

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#95 - Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter (1947)

Nowadays, it is hard to get truly crazy upset wins in the Acting categories. Even some of the more surprising ones make sense in hindsight, like Olivia Colman or Mark Rylance.

Wins like Marcia Gay Harden for Pollock or Adrien Brody's first win for The Pianist seem very harder to pull off nowadays. Back when there were fewer precursor awards, it did seem easier for different voting bodies to opt for different performances.

And yet...no one seemed to think Loretta Young had a shot. 

This was a character actress who hadn't received much attention prior who managed to beat out such heavy hitters as Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, and Susan Hayward with what was a relatively meek performance in a comedy.

And the only reason Young even got the role was because Ingrid Bergman was let go when suspicions were brought to light that she may have been having an affair with her co-star Joseph Cotton...because how dare a woman do such thing?! Of course, Cotton wasn't penalized because...you know...the patriarchy. 

Considering how much of a departure this was from the other nominees, I suppose that is what made Young stand out. However, I do think it is fascinating how much many of us bemoan how the Oscars and many other voting bodies never tend to recognize comedic performances and yet, they are the ones that people often have the most flack with.

I do think the issue with Young is that her performance often lacks a certain spark or energy. Her character is supposed to be a Swedish farm girl who lives her family for a life in the big city who gets into the world of politics. I just find that for a performance that is supposed to be built on a lot of quirky charisma, it isn't quite there...and it also doesn't help that her Swedish accent slips in and out throughout the film. 

The performance does have a charm to it, but I also feel like for being our leading lady, she often disappears next to her co-stars.

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#94 - Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Considering this was one of the first Oscar seasons I can distinctly remember following, I have a lot of opinions about this selection...as do a lot of people who follow this kind of thing.

A lot has been said about Shakespeare in Love, particularly with how it won Best Picture in an upset over the very popular and acclaimed Spielberg WWII epic Saving Private Ryan. A lot of the reasoning behind this was that of Harvey Weinstein, a man whose campaigning tactics were nothing short of diabolical. That Best Picture win is frequently considered to be his magnum opus, but going along for that ride was Gwyneth Paltrow.

Paltrow was seen as a promising young actress at the time, coming off roles in films like Emma and Sliding Doors plus there seemed to be an overwhelming obsession with her in terms of how she epitomized old-style Hollywood glamour. The lovely YouTube channel BeKindRewind made a video on this topic and she nailed this point on how news outlets were giving Paltrow titles such as "the new Audrey Hepburn" or "the new Grace Kelly". 

Paltrow's win seemed like such a coronation, but the remarkable thing was how toxic the opinion towards her win changed. It also didn't help that her acceptance speech was quite possibly the most made fun of since Sally Field's 1985 win as she seemed to go on for an eternity and was blathering and crying to the point you could barely understand her. My favorite moment is when she can barely get out the thanks to her mother, Blythe Danner, and when it cuts to Danner in the audience, she almost seems put off by the display, but that is me just being a bit snippy. As for the performance itself, it's fine. Nothing less, nothing more. It is not that remarkable in the slightest.

If you want remarkable, there were two nominees right there who gave stellar performances: Cate Blanchett's breakout role in Elizabeth and particularly Fernanda Montenegro, the Queen of Brazillian Theatre, in Central Station.

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#93 - Luise Rainer, The Good Earth (1937)

Are you ready for a heaping dose of YELLOWFACE?!

The Good Earth was based on a novel by Pearl S. Buck about Chinese farmers in pre-WWI China who struggling terribly to survive. Paul Muni and Luise Rainer were both cast as the lead couple and in case the point didn't get across, they were lily white. 

Anna Mae Wong had lobbied hard for the role seeing it as her big chance to have a dramatic breakthrough role only for it to be denied as they cast Paul Muni in the husband role. In those days, the dreaded Hays Code forbid any kind of interracial couple pairings in films and thus, the role was given to Luise Rainer, who had just won an Oscar the year prior for The Great Ziegfeld.

Rainer was something of a pet project for MGM head Louis B. Meyer. For years, he had loathed the actress that had been his biggest star simply because she protested the fact that she made less than her male co-stars or that she felt it wasn't necessary to devote all her time to Hollywood hobnobbing.

That was Greta Garbo.

And Meyer hoped that getting another actress from Europe could somehow duplicate Garbo's success but have an actress that was willing to go along with the game plan.

Hilariously, it backfired. Despite winning two back-to-back Actress Oscars, Rainer's star would dim fast, and she would leave Hollywood by 1940. Rainer couldn't stand the Hollywood game even more than Garbo. When Rainer won this particular Oscar, she hadn't even planned on attending the ceremony until Meyer sent someone to her home only to find her in pajamas. They forced her to get ready for the ceremony and videos clearly show Rainer trying to appear happy while Meyer forces her repeatedly to show off her Oscar.

I think this is a performance where it isn't just hard to separate the Yellowface angle, but also the fact that she tends to rely too much on stereotypes with nearly constant wide-eyed facial expression and accent that seems to flutter somewhere between a variation of Chinese and her native German. 

Meyer lobbied hard for Rainer to win and the power of the film studios (as I have stated before) were too strong in those days...and he lobbied at the expense of Greta Garbo who was up for her truly iconic work in Camille. 

However, in addition to Garbo, you also had these stellar women:
Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth
Janet Gaynor, A Star is Born
Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas

Gaynor was the very first recipient of a Best Actress Oscar, and we will discuss her eventually. She would've placed a solid fourth here but Dunne, Garbo, and Stanwyck were all worthy to win this for some of the best work of their respective careers. 

The win for Rainer seemed like a wasted opportunity, especially those three women never won an Oscar.

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#92 - Katharine Hepburn, Morning Glory (1934)

Prior to becoming "Box Office Poison", Katharine Hepburn managed to strike gold for a year with her performances in Little Women and her Oscar winning work in Morning Glory, a film no one talks about anymore unless referencing Hepburn. 

I have referenced the following quote various times throughout my blog because there is a lot of truth to it, particularly with that of Hepburn herself. She was quoted as saying "The right actors win Oscars, but often for the wrong roles".

Hepburn fits this to a tee. She has won more acting Oscars than any other performer: 4. 

Of those four, I would say she only deserved one...I won't say which one to reserve some suspense, but chances are if you are a film person, you already know.

Her work as Eve Lovelace in Morning Glory is a prime example of how stiff and wooden some performances could be in these early films. A lot of the acting trademarks that would define Hepburn's truly illustrious career are oddly missing with this performance. 

Of the nominees, character actress Mary Robson was my favorite from Lady for a Day but even she suffers a lot from the film around her.

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#91 - Joan Fontaine, Suspicion (1941)

With Joan Fontaine, we have our first example of an actress winning an Oscar not long after losing for a far superior performance. In fact, this was just a year after she lost for the most memorable role of her career in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca.

Conveniently enough, she wins the next year for a performance in a rather forgotten about Hitchcock effort, Suspicion, which revolves around a meek and relatively naive woman who marries a playboy type only to discover he is not the man he says he is...and on top of that, he might be a murderer. 

Fontaine fits the ever-present blonde damsel in distress motif that pops up constantly in Hitchcock's films, but here, her portrayal as Lina feels far more lifeless than that of the previous years' "The 2nd Mrs. DeWinter". 

Is it just subtlety or is it simply a lack of solid characterization? I am more inclined to agree with the latter. 

Fontaine would've been a far more worthy winner in 1940 as opposed to 1941. If I were to opt for a candidate amongst the 1941 nominees, I would've opted for Bette Davis in The Little Foxes though I also wouldn't have minded Barbara Stanwyck for Ball of Fire.

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#90 - Jessica Lange, Blue Sky (1994)

I do truly adore Jessica Lange, but the unfortunate thing about her in my book is that neither of her Oscar wins are for her best work. In fact, I think she mostly benefitted from 1994 being one of the truly barren years for this category to the point where publications at that time even commented that the field was truly depressing.

When it comes to the qualities I admire about Lange as an actress, I think that she gives herself over to a character in ways that are unrelenting and surprising. The downside to this is that it doesn't always come across as smoothly, so while I commend the effort and the boldness, I would just to follow it with "See you on the next film!"

Blue Sky is also a rather mediocre film which bombed at the Box Office when it was released after having been shelved for 3 years due to the bankruptcy of its original distributor, Orion. 

Her role of Carly Marshall is a suffering housewife who has frequent outbursts brought on by mental illness. So yes, it is a challenging and demanding role that requires a lot of extensive care and preparation. 

In the end, I don't think she fully succeeded nor does the film around her help in any way.

Her competition was incredibly weak as well, but I would probably give the win to Winona Ryder, who made for a truly wonderful Jo in Little Women. 

This was also the year they randomly nominated Susan Sarandon for The Client, but that performance clearly had some passion considering she won the BAFTA for it! I will say out of the snubbed performances; I would've loved to see Jennifer Jason Leigh make it in for Mrs. Parker & The Vicious Circle or Jamie Lee Curtis for True Lies or Sigourney Weaver for Death & The Maiden.

Oh, if only What's Love Got to Do With It? actually came out in '94 instead of '93 so she could've wiped the floor with these people in a swift cakewalk...even though she should've done that pretty handily in '93.

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#89 - Bette Davis, Dangerous (1935)

We have another entry in the "Someone wins Oscar soon after losing for a much superior similar performance" category.

Bette Davis burst onto the scene in 1934 with her performances as the miserable and grating Mildred in Of Human Bondage, a character she sought to play because she knew it was a chance to show Hollywood what she was capable of in a role that most actresses would be afraid to tackle.

While the film did end up losing money, she herself caused quite the sensation and the public loved her commitment to the character. Controversy then arose when she was snubbed of an Oscar nomination which seemed to be due to the fact that RKO didn't want to spend a lot of money on a film that lost them money while Davis' own studio, Warner Bros., didn't want to put money up on an actress of theirs who made a film for a competing studio AND that they found difficult (i.e. she wouldn't put up with sexist and hypocritical BS...for the record, Bette Davis is awesome!)

Dangerous was a film Davis originally turned down, but she was persuaded to accept it when she was told it was inspired by Jeanne Eagles, the late actress who suffered from drug and alcohol abuse despite her immense acting promise. Eagels was an idol of Davis' and she wanted to try to tackle the role in her honor.

The results were essentially a disaster. Davis manages to find enough good moments, but the film itself is the real disaster and a lot of the scenes play as retreads of Davis' outbursts from Of Human Bondage...even down to having a monologue she foams out of her mouth to Franchot Tone (with whom she has no chemistry even though it was rumored they had an affair) that feels like a watered-down version of her "Wipe my mouth!" monologue she screams at Leslie Howard.

Davis knew that Dangerous was mostly a failure and talks about it extensively in her very candid autobiography.

This win cost Katharine Hepburn an Oscar for one of her best performances, which was for Alice Adams. 

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#88 - Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line (2005)

Every year will bring us different dynamics by category, but it still does feel so strange that Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for Walk the Line while Joaquin Phoenix did not. That isn't necessarily to say that Phoenix would've gotten my vote either; he happened to be in a crazy stacked category while Witherspoon's was rather weak by comparison.

I will say Witherspoon having an Oscar is something I do love knowing is a thing, especially because she has killed in films like Election and gave such an iconic turn as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. 

Walk the Line is one of those standard musical biopic films that really do nothing to advance the art of filmmaking but as it stands, Witherspoon does a nice job. However, it is really more of a Supporting performance that doesn't get much of a chance to shine. 

As problematic as it is, Felicity Huffman did do a great job in Transamerica even if the idea of a cis woman playing a trans woman doesn't fly these days. 

They did snub some truly wonderful performances like:

Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger

Natasha Richardson, The White Countess

Joan Plowright, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale (although she could also be Supporting)

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#87 - Grace Kelly, The Country Girl (1954)

Hollywood, especially of the supposed Golden Age, is petty as hell.

Despite a glorious comeback in which she gave the performance of her career, Judy Garland was cast aside due to her erratic behavior and controversial work ethic in favor of the glamorous Grace Kelly who did something that is also quite the popular favorite style in this category: "de-glamming" yourself.

Grace Kelly had talent, there is no question about that. However, her solid work in The Country Girl never left any kind of significant impression on me. It really truly read like an early example of Hollywood wanting to crown a new princess (pardon the pun) who had a pretty strong year with multiple hit films by singling out what was her biggest dramatic success in which she dared to present herself as looking rather plain.

All at the expense of Judy Garland, someone whose erratic and unhealthy tendencies were brought upon by Hollywood themselves.

Kelly would soon leave Hollywood to become a literal princess when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco. 

I think it is a fine performance, but this is one of those cases where I can't help but sit here and think how laughable and petty it is that Garland lost this.

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#86 - Emma Stone, La La Land (2016)

This placement may anger some or may even raise some eyebrows from those who aren't that big on this win/performance, but I truly did not see what was that great about this performance in the grand scheme.

I can remember seeing the film in theaters and mildly enjoying it...but the truth is that a film like La La Land should've been up my alley and yet I found myself a little underwhelmed; a feeling that has only grown a bit more over the years since seeing it. 

While watching it, I remember taking to Stone and thinking she did a good job...certainly far more interesting than the performance given by her co-star Ryan Gosling. I wasn't closely following the award season at that time so when people began saying Emma Stone was the frontrunner to win and she won at SAG, I was floored. I couldn't believe that this performance was going to go along for the film's seemingly inevitable sweep. 

I get that the film was trying to take on classic cinematic musicals with more modern and realistic performances, but for me, the results often felt lifeless. It didn't help that it was difficult to even care about Mia and Sebastian as characters or their supposed love story.

Stone's best moment is probably her performance of "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)", which helps by being a song that can be carried more by the acting than the singing voice, but even that didn't exactly wow me upon viewing. 

Of the actual nominees, Isabelle Huppert would've made a strong winner for Elle as would've Natalie Portman for Jackie. Although in my dream world, Viola Davis would've been bumped up to Lead for Fences and won here rather than commit category fraud in Supporting.

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#85 - Ingrid Bergman, Anastasia (1956)

Here comes another narrative "We Forgive You!" win.

The truth is that the fact that Hollywood felt that they needed to "forgive" Bergman is a joke. The controversy was that Bergman basically had an affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini.

How dare she. 

It is a truly sexist story. I would recommend watching YouTuber BeKindRewind's video on Bergman to get the full story. It is amazing how sensitive the morals were, especially towards women, back in the 1950s.

Maybe we ought to get used to it since, as of this writing, we seem to be heading back to that very decade…

Bergman's win here also benefited from relatively uninteresting competition, like Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Katharine Hepburn in The Rainnmaker, which are both good performances but not among their best.

Bergman has also been better than she was in Anastasia. It is a good performance but one that doesn't exactly draw much passion. 

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#84 - Norma Shearer, The Divorcee (1930)

Time has not been kind to Norma Shearer. If you were to go back and look at the least of nominees in the 1930s, you will see that Norma Shearer managed to net 6 nominations and one win between 1930-1938. This was briefly the nomination record until Bette Davis would steal it a couple of years later...and now Meryl Streep has like 4,594 nominations...or 21...something like that.

Norma Shearer never really gets discussed anymore, but a lot of her legend comes from the fact that she was married to producer Irving Thalberg and that the clout managed to get her a lot of roles that she may not have been overly right for.

However, Shearer is a fascinating actress and over the 1930s, she would grow more polished as a performer. This is simply a case where I find her more melodramatic acting style to be a bit much and that it just doesn't measure up when comparing it to the other winners.

San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle is a premier expert on the pre-Code era of Hollywood, so he has had a lot to say about the likes of Shearer.

"Shearer is the exemplar of 1930s sophisticated womanhood...the first American actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and a virgin onscreen".

Shearer was definitely more of a pioneer for strong women than many give her credit for. She would go on to give better performances in movies like Marie Antoinette, but despite the low ranking for this performance, I do admire what she could accomplish at a time when women were even more discriminated against. 

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#83 - Jennifer Lawrence, The Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Very few filmmakers leave me feeling as cold or as annoyed as David O. Russell, a man with such a massive ego and yet he does not have the filmography to match that status. That isn't to say that filmmakers should all be cocky, but you don't see Martin Scorsese or Bong Joon Ho running around belittling people or acting like he is the greatest gift to cinema.

Jennifer Lawrence being put into his universe certainly helped her, because it got her an Oscar and a couple of nominations for the succeeding films of his. However, his fascination with her still strikes me as odd. 

She was only 22 when she starred in this film and yet she was cast to play someone older and play opposite Bradley Cooper. Her age is also a lot older in American Hustle as well.

Lawrence does a solid job with her characters, but something about them rings false. I do think we are approaching an era of her career where will we see potentially better things from her. 

Even her performance in Don't Look Up, which features a sort of semi-dramatic/comedic outburst of despair, was done far better than anything she did in an O'Russell film.

Frankly, this Oscar should've gone to either Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty or Emmanuelle Riva in Amour. Circling back to O'Russell, I do remember when Emmanuelle Riva won the BAFTA for Amour, and the camera cut to him in the audience with a face of disgust because Lawrence lost the award; for the record, she was politely clapping. 

I get being sad that your leading lady lost the award, but for the love of God, GET OVER IT! She lost to a performance she deserved to lose to!

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#82 - Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady (2011)

Leave it to the Academy to FINALLY reward Meryl Streep with her long overdue 3rd Oscar for a very stuffy biopic performance in a film that was honestly an absolute slog to sit through.

Not only was the film a slog, but it was about Margaret Thatcher...a woman who, on the day of her death, got RAKED OVER THE COALS by former actress turned Parliament member Glenda Jackson (who we will be seeing on this list) for her heinous politics and reign as PM. 

One might think that speaking so ill of the dead on the day they died might be a bit cruel, but if there was ever someone who belonged on that list, Thatcher certainly deserves such a vile status.

I don't necessarily think Streep was horrible in the film. If there was ever an actress who has had a pretty solid track record in performance quality, Streep is a legend for a reason. 

She can be a bit more mannered and calculated in performances, which this is clearly one of those. I feel like her scenes as the elderly Thatcher might be her best work in the film...even if the idea of us watching an elderly Thatcher wither away with her dying husband and making us feel sympathy for her is something makes me want to throw a sofa at the screen. 

This was the year that Viola Davis came very close to becoming the second actress of color to win a Lead Oscar as her narrative heated up following her SAG win. This isn't to say that I necessarily would've voted for her, but she was certainly a better choice than Streep...even if The Help was a very problematic film in its own right. 

2011 was a year in which we had so many stellar Lead Actress performances and yet the season seemed to veer towards the lesser side of that list. Aside from Rooney Mara, other contenders I wish had made a dent in this race would've been:

Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia 

Olivia Colman, Tyrannosaur 

Charlize Theron, Young Adult

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#81 - Kate Winslet, The Reader (2008)

It is a shame that in a year where they finally gave Winslet her overdue Oscar, she gave a better performance in a better film and yet they opted for the awards bait performance in an awards bait film that's Best Picture nomination seemed to singlehandedly lead to the Academy changing its rules that there would be more than 5 Best Picture nominees the following year. 

The Reader was a highly acclaimed novel, but the results onscreen were uneven and mostly forgettable as the film progressed. 

As a concept (SPOILERS), the idea of an illiterate Nazi sympathizer and concentration camp guard seducing minors as a means to earn their trust so they will read to her is oddly intriguing but clearly problematic. As the film's presentation suggests, it dangerously flirts with them trying to make us sympathize with a Nazi and a pedophile while acting as something close to Holocaust Revisionism. 

The nature of the role doesn't exactly due much to give Winslet to chew on, whereas her performance in that year's Revolutionary Road in which she got the act opposite her Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates gave her a role that might've seemed far simpler on paper, but it felt a lot more real and the vitality she gave the role was easily some of the best in her entire career. 

As for her fellow nominees, I actually think Anne Hathaway did truly lovely work in the rather bleak Rachel Getting Married and this would've been a great opportunity to give her an Oscar out of the lineup given.

Some snubbed contenders I would've loved to see make it onto this list were Kristen Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long and Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky.

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#80 - Luise Rainer, The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

I already talked about Rainer and her short Hollywood career when discussing her win for The Good Earth, but I do want to take a moment to talk about the glimmer of promise she gave in The Great Ziegfeld. 

I may be ranking her pretty low, which is mainly due to the fact that the performance doesn't have much meat on the bone, and it is clear that her win was heavily orchestrated by Louis B. Meyer, but Rainer's performance in this has one standout moment that a lot of film historians call the first true example of an "Oscar scene".

Even if you may not be familiar with the term, you can probably assume that an Oscar scene means that within just a couple of minutes of screentime, you may give the kind of performance that truly cinches you an Oscar win.

For Rainer, there is one scene in The Great Ziegfeld which stands out as such. 

This is a 3-hour film, and she is easily has supporting screentime in the narrative. Rainer plays Anna Held, the eventual ex-wife of the legendary Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld...who eventually marries actress Billie Burke, who most remember nowadays as being Glinda in The Wizard of Oz.

Later in the film, Anna learns of Flo's marriage to Burke, and she calls to congratulate him. While speaking to him over the phone, she speaks of happiness to his marriage and also her upcoming projects while we see tears streaming down her face. 

While the performance style is certainly of its time and does seem very theatrical by today's standards, there is something so captivating about watching her in this scene. 

It isn't enough to rank her higher, but it is quite the lovely moment. Had she been in Supporting, she would likely have a bit of a loftier rating.

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#79 - Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby (2004)

I can remember being baffled when Hilary Swank swooped in to win a 2nd Oscar after her career mostly faltered following her 1st Oscar in 5 years prior. 

And her career still didn't really take off after the 2nd either.

It isn't that Swank is without talent (spoiler alert: her first win is going to be a lot higher on this ranking), but I didn't get the praise for Million Dollar Baby then and especially not now.

And once again, it isn't that Swank is bad in this. I just think the nature of the role (her being a female boxer) and her eventual fate did more to help her than the quality of her performance. 

Meanwhile - you had Kate Winslet, who was still Oscarless at that point, in this category for her quirky and effervescent performance as Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which would've been a perfect first win for her.

I have already written a lot about other actresses and their work thus far and yet I can find myself to drum up a lot of passion talking about Swank...which is about as a good a suggestion to show how indifferent I am about her performance and the film.

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#78 - Ginger Rogers, Kitty Foyle (1940)

I do love the idea of someone like Ginger Rogers having this moment for herself. These days, her legend is still closely tied to being the person who did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels. 

As delightful as watching Fred Astaire onscreen truly is to do, there is so much fire and charisma to Ginger Rogers whenever she appears. Not only was she one of the finest dancers in cinema history, but her comedic skills were on point.

It makes sense that seeing her take on a dramatic role in Kitty Foyle must've been quite the 180 that audiences weren't expecting, and she does solid work in the film...although I would argue that the melodramatic sensibilities of 1940s Hollywood does rear its head here. 

I think this win certainly played into the narrative of seeing an actress spread her wings, and the unfortunate fact in this case is that many voters at the time expressed that they voted for Rogers more as a vote for her character as a person as opposed to Katharine Hepburn, who had made something of a comeback with her truly dynamic performance in The Philadelphia Story. 

Not to mention, this category contained Joan Fontaine in Rebecca and Bette Davis in The Letter. Personally, I do think Fontaine or Hepburn should've taken this one in the end. 

Rogers' win was solid, but I do think even based on its own merits, it was not worthy to win an Oscar.

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#77 - Sally Field, Places in the Heart (1984)

Even if you don't follow award shows or even know much about film history, it is very likely that you have heard Sally Field's acceptance speech parodied/paraphrased into the ground: "You like me! You really like me!".... even though the actual quote was "You like me! Right now, you like me!"

On the same trajectory as Hilary Swank, Field came back 5 years later to win her 2nd Oscar...although it is clear that Field has had more of a career and legend about her by comparison.

Field seemingly benefitted from a race that didn't exactly have a strong frontrunner leading into the final days of the award season, so once Field took the Globe and having her film be a Best Picture nominee on top of it, it felt as though this win just felt into her lap.

The performance is solid as is the film, but it doesn't feel truly remarkable. Perhaps what is even more interesting is that 1984 was the year of the Farm movie in Best Actress with not only Field but also Jessica Lange in Country and Sissy Spacek in The River. 

I would argue Field was in the stronger film, but that Lange maybe gave my favorite performance of the trio...and yet, I don't have a passionate favorite amongst the five nominees that year. I almost wish they just bumped the Supporting Actress winner Peggy Ashcroft up to Lead as she had been straddling both categories all season. That would've opened up the Supporting race, but my personal choice in that instance wasn't even nominated: Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas.

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#76 - Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967)

Hepburn won what was basically her 2nd overdue Oscar just a year before she won her 3rd...and while I would argue her 3rd win was her best and pretty much undeniable (yet another spoiler for the ranking), it makes this 2nd win seem like a waste in hindsight. It seems to be rooted more in sentimentality and being overdue rather than the performance itself.

That sentimentality was due to Hepburn mourning the loss of her frequent co-star and off-screen lover Spencer Tracy, with whom she shared the screen in this particular film. Tracy died only 10 days after filming his final scene and it left the normally fiercely independent Hepburn rather distraught.

The subject matter of the film was particularly prescient for that time: a white woman seeking to marry a black man only months before the Loving v. Supreme Court case. 

Hepburn's work as the mother who does realize that her daughter is doing nothing wrong is quite solid, but perhaps her most beautiful moment in the film occurs at the end in which she plays a quiet but pivotal role in Tracy's magnificent monologue in which he comes around to supporting his daughter's engagement. 

It was already known at the time that his health was in a dire place, so with that in mind, it is no shock that the tear-streamed face of Hepburn listening to Tracy is her thinking about their life together. Even one particular line in which Tracy references living to the age of 110 makes Hepburn almost wince as she knows his death is nearing.

I do think my personal vote in this category would go to Dame Edith Evans for The Whisperers, but you also have Anne Bancroft's legendary work as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, although that performance also straddles the Lead/Supporting line. 

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#75 - Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class (1973)

The 1973 Best Actress race was a bit of a free-for-all. It seemed as though most pundits felt any of the nominees could win...except for Glenda Jackson.

Marsha Mason and Ellen Burstyn seemed to have the most momentum, while Barbra Streisand seemed to be the populist fave. Joanne Woodward, along with Jackson, already had an Oscar.

Jackson's performance was seen as something of a departure from the other nominees. While the other performances came from various forms of drama (which is normally what the Oscars go for rather frequently), Jackson came from a rather cynical romantic comedy and it was not only a departure from the contenders, but a departure for her.

There have been similar instances throughout the years of performances winning in close races that seemed to benefit from being a lot different from their peers (i.e. Marisa Tomei winning for My Cousin Vinny over 4 dramatic actress from either the UK or Australia), so it doesn't really shock me here per se.

Although, I do feel a bit mixed on the win. I think Jackson does a fine job but it isn't her strongest work. I feel like Burstyn could've taken this one, freeing up her slot from where she won the following year.

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#74 - Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Jennifer Jones is another actress who doesn't exactly seem to have stood the test of time in terms of discussion and praise. It isn't that she is bad, but I also never found her to be truly distinctive.

While Song of Bernadette might be her best work, it is also not anything particularly strong.

This is also another case of a film that is simply too overlong, and it also gets docked points for being essentially religious propaganda. 

Jones might be the best thing about it, but she is also overshadowed at times by Vincent Price as the prosecutor.

In the end, I am not overly passionate about any of the nominees from that year so I will just let this one slide.

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#73 - Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda (1948)

I have more positive things to say about Johnny Belinda as opposed to Song of Bernadette, but I do still think that isn't a great film; maybe just a pretty good one.

What really helps the film is the performance by Jane Wyman, who gives a very heartfelt performance as a deaf-mute woman who was raped.

I think for its time; the film does come across a lot better than it could have and I think some of that is a testament to Wyman.

However, I think that the performances by Olivia de Havilland (The Snake Pit) and Irene Dunne (I Remember Mama) would've been more worthy of an Oscar.

Jane Wyman also got a second award of sorts around this same time because she got a divorce from Ronald Reagan. I would say great success, but still though, Wyman was a Republican and supposedly very homophobic, so in that case, she can go suck a lemon.

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#72 - Jane Fonda, Coming Home (1978)

I have always had a rather mixed opinion on Fonda as an actress. 

When she is good, she is GREAT. 

It isn't that she is bad, per se. She just tends to not always be as emotive, and it gives a lifeless feel to some of her performances. I could sort of compare it to some of the same issues I have with Scarlett Johannsen, who often divides people with her acting.

In the case of Coming Home, Fonda was in the early stages of her comeback after spending a few years in relative obscurity and scorn after her visit to Hanoi.

*Side note: I adore Jane Fonda and her activism. No judgement or hatred here*

This was also one of the first major films (along with that year's Best Picture winner The Deer Hunter) to have a Vietnam-centric theme in which Fonda plays Sally Hyde, a conservative nurse who ends up developing a romantic interest in Luke (Jon Voight), an angry and frustrated vet who was left a paraplegic, while her husband Bob (Bruce Dern) is still deployed.

A lot of the issues with this film due stem from it being rather melodramatic and an example of Hal Ashby's sort of erratic abilities as a director.

I also did not find myself as invested in this love triangle, as I couldn't garner much sympathy for Dern's character, nor did I really find Voight to be that appealing either.

Fonda does sell it the best, but she just isn't quite there. I feel like the movie is nowhere near as radical as wants to be presented as.

Fonda also won over two truly magnificent performances:

Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman is one of the finest performances of the 70s. Vibrant, raw...actually I will let the film's tagline take it from here: "she laughs, she cries, she feels angry, she feels lonely, she feels guilty..." It goes on and on. It is one of the best performances to truly run the gamut of emotions.

Then you have Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata, a truly sterling performance that was actually the finest of her career...but considering she already had 3 Oscars and the Academy was still very stringent about honoring performances and films in a foreign language, she didn't seem to have much of a chance.

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#71 - Halle Berry, Monster's Ball (2001)

Halle Berry became the first woman of color to win the Best Actress Oscar when she took the gold for Monster's Ball, and to this day, she is only one of two as Michelle Yeoh became the first woman of Asian descent to win...and it is shame that Berry managed to win for a movie that is such a sleazy melodrama in which she plays a trashy character who mainly serves as a redemption piece for the racist character played by Billy Bob Thornton.

Now let's watch them have one of the worst sex scenes ever filmed...

Halle Berry stunned everyone with her lovely performance in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge just a couple years prior to her work in Monster's Ball. 

She has talent...and yet, after this Oscar win, she has struggled for 20 years. She finally had a bit of a comeback with her directorial debut Bruised, but despite a solid acting/directing job, the movie was mostly subpar.

I think Berry does as good as she can in a film this low brow...but it does just come off as a bit cringeworthy at times.

I am not really happy with any of the Best Actress nominees that year honestly. 

The fact they snubbed Naomi Watts for her dual role (in a sense) in Mulholland Drive is simply criminal. In terms of a breakthrough performance, what Naomi Watts achieved in Mulholland Drive is nothing short of astounding. There would be a lot to praise but I just think about that amazing audition scene. We see her rehearse it before with Laura Harring's character Rita and it feels very forced and typical...only for it to become something else entirely in the room, and it is glorious. Also, other snubs included Tilda Swinton in The Deep End and Nicole Kidman for her work in The Others...but she was nominated for Moulin Rouge instead.

Even though she wasn't technically eligible until the following year, Isabelle Huppert's work in The Piano Teacher is among the finest of her career.

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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE RANKING SO FAR:

Revisiting this list, I found myself realizing that some of these performances are truly interchangeable. When I did this ranking the first time, I found myself not necessarily hating some of these performances but rather just considering them be objectively not Oscar worthy. I do stand by that statement overall. 

Selecting Pickford as my least favorite is clearly the easiest option and I know that is a pretty common consensus among those who follow these types of things...and yes, I am well aware that it is a niche group. 

As of right now, I do have the full ranking drafted out, but I am sure as I begin writing about the actresses one by one, I may shift some of them around. 

Next up, I will be ranking #70-41. This will be followed by:

#40-21

and

THE TOP 20

My goal will be to keep adding each year to these posts, and perhaps even shift some of them around if I feel like it. I suppose you could say I want this to be as close to a living and breathing thing that a blog could be...same with when I re-tackle the Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress races. I do still want to do Actor and Supporting Actor, but there are quite a few performances from each category during the first roughly 25 years of the ceremony that I only saw once and never did again, so I don't feel as confident ranking those.

Stay tuned for the next volume!