In honor of all the great actressing in The Help, I decided to create a list of the Top 15 Best Actress Winners of All Time. This proved to be very difficult for a few reasons, chief of them being I’ve seen so few of the winning performances. I’ve actually seen more of the losing actress than those of the winners. Case in point: I have seen all of the 2006 nominees (Winslet, Dench, Cruz, and Streep) but not the winner. Maybe I’ll make a list of my favorite losers sometime but for now, here are the best performances I’ve seen who have won a statue.
- Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire
- Jodie Foster, Silence of the Lambs
- Elizabeth Taylor, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
- Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind
- Hillary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry
- Susan Heyward, I Want to Live!
- Liza Minelli, Cabaret
- Faye Dunaway, Network
- Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment
- Frances McDormand, Fargo
- Charlize Theron, Monster
- Natalie Portman, Black Swan
- Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball
- Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking
- Cher, Moonstruck
Analysis: Since seeing so few of the winning performances, this list is relatively on the recent side. Vivien takes up two (much deserved) spots in the top 5 as Blanche and Scarlett are two of the most iconic performances in screen history. I’m interested to see how we will view Natalie’s win in the future, but that character looms so large in my mind she is deserving of a spot here.