Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Prior to the 49th Academy Awards ceremony (1976), this award was simply known as the Academy Award of Merit for Performance by an Actress. Since its inception, however, the award has commonly been referred to as the Oscar for Best Actress. While actresses are nominated for this award by Academy members who are actors and actresses themselves, winners are selected by the Academy membership as a whole.

History

Throughout the past 82 years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, AMPAS has presented a total of 83 Best Actress awards to 69 different actresses. Winners of this Academy Award of Merit receive the familiar Oscar statuette, depicting a gold-plated knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film. The first recipient was Janet Gaynor, who was honored at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony (1929) for her performances in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. The most recent recipient was Natalie Portman, who was honored at the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony (2011) for her performance in Black Swan.

In the first three years of the Academy Awards, individuals such as actors and directors were nominated as the best in their categories. Then all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award. However, during the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony (1930), only one of those films was cited in each winner's final award, even though each of the acting winners had had two films following their names on the ballots. For the 4th Academy Awards ceremony (1931), this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film. Such nominations are limited to five per year. Until the 8th Academy Awards ceremony (1936), nominations for the Best Actress award were intended to include all actresses, whether the performance was in either a leading or supporting role. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1937), however, the Best Supporting Actress category was specifically introduced as a distinct award following complaints that the single Best Actress category necessarily favored leading performers with the most screen time. Currently, Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role constitute the four Academy Awards of Merit for acting annually presented by AMPAS.

Other awards for acting

Actors have also received special awards, or Academy Honorary Awards, for acting in specific films (such as in the case of James Baskett, who received a special honorary award for Disney's Song of the South). Child actors have also been awarded the Academy Juvenile Award.

Superlatives

Superlative Best Actress Best Supporting Actress Overall

Actress with most awards Katharine Hepburn 4 Shelley Winters

Dianne Wiest 2 Katharine Hepburn 4

Actress with most nominations Meryl Streep 13 Thelma Ritter 6 Meryl Streep 16

Actress with most nominations

(without ever winning) Deborah Kerr 6 Thelma Ritter 6 Deborah Kerr

Thelma Ritter 6

Film with most nominations All About Eve

Suddenly, Last Summer

The Turning Point

Terms of Endearment

Thelma & Louise 2 Tom Jones 3 All About Eve 4

Oldest winner Jessica Tandy 80 Peggy Ashcroft 77 Jessica Tandy 80

Oldest nominee Jessica Tandy 80 Gloria Stuart 87 Gloria Stuart 87

Youngest winner Marlee Matlin 21 Tatum O'Neal 10 Tatum O'Neal 10

Youngest nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes 13 Tatum O'Neal 10 Tatum O'Neal 10

Katharine Hepburn, with four wins, has more Best Actress Oscars than any other actress. Eleven women have won two Best Actress Academy Awards; in chronological order, they are Luise Rainer, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Jodie Foster, and Hilary Swank.

Only two actresses have won this award in consecutive years: Luise Rainer (1937 and 1938) and Katharine Hepburn (1967 and 1968).

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Five women have won both the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards: Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep, and Jessica Lange.

Emma Thompson won a Best Actress Oscar for Howards End (1992) and a Best Adapted Screenplay Award for Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Meryl Streep holds the record of 13 nominations in the Best Actress category. Streep has been nominated 16 times (13 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress), which makes her the overall most-nominated performer in all acting categories.

There has been only one tie in the history of this category. This occurred in 1969 when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand were both given the award. Unlike the earlier 1932 tie for Best Actor, however, Hepburn and Streisand each received exactly the same number of votes.

Only twice have siblings been nominated for the Best Actress award during the same year: Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine in 1942, and Lynn Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave in 1967.

Only two pairs of actresses have been nominated for Best Actress for the same role: Jeanne Eagels and Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter (1929 and 1940), and Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland as Vicki Lester in A Star is Born (1937 and 1954). In addition, Judi Dench and Kate Winslet both received nominations (Dench for Best Actress and Winslet for Best Supporting Actress) for their portrayals of Iris Murdoch at different ages in 2001's Iris. Winslet and Gloria Stuart were also both nominated (Winslet for Best Actress and Stuart for Best Supporting Actress) for their portrayals of Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997).

The 71st Academy Awards (1999) presented the unique case of actresses being nominated in the same year for the same character in different films. Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress for playing Queen Elizabeth I of England in Elizabeth, while Judi Dench was nominated for (and won) Best Supporting Actress for playing the same character in Shakespeare in Love.

Cate Blanchett is the only actress to be nominated twice for the same role (Queen Elizabeth I), first for 1998's Elizabeth and then again for 2007's Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Halle Berry, who won in 2002 for her role in Monster's Ball, is the only woman of African-American descent to win the Best Actress award. Seven other black actresses have been nominated: Dorothy Dandridge, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett, and Gabourey Sidibe.

Charlize Theron is the only South African actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in Monster (2003).

The only Asian actress to win is Vivien Leigh, whose mother had an Irish and Indian background, while Merle Oberon, born to an Anglo-Sri Lankan mother and father of unknown ethnic origin, was nominated.

Ida Kaminska is the only Polish actress nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in The Shop on Main Street (1965).

Only five actresses of Hispanic or Latin American descent have been nominated for the Best Actress award, but as of 2008 none has yet won: Helena Bonham Carter (1997; her mother is Spanish), Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian, (1998; the first Latin American actress ever nominated), Salma Hayek, Mexican (2002), Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian (2004), and Penélope Cruz, Spanish (2006). However, Cruz won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Nicole Kidman is the only Australian actress to win the Best Actress award (The Hours, 2003); other Australian nominees include May Robson for Lady for a Day (1933), Judy Davis for A Passage to India (1984), Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Naomi Watts for 21 Grams (2004) and Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider (2004).

Sophia Loren, Marlee Matlin, and Marion Cotillard are the only actresses to win this award for a foreign-language performance: Loren for her Italian-language performance in Two Women (1961), Matlin for her American Sign Language performance in Children of a Lesser God and Cotillard for her French-language performance in La Vie en Rose (2007).

Cotillard was the second French actress to win the Best Actress award after Simone Signoret for her role in Room at the Top (1959). Claudette Colbert, who won the award in 1934 for her comedic performance in It Happened One Night, was born French but later became a U.S. naturalized citizen.

Jane Wyman, Marlee Matlin and Holly Hunter are the only actresses in the post–silent era to receive Academy Awards for roles that were non-speaking (in Wyman's case) or predominantly non-speaking (in Matlin and Hunter's cases). Wyman, playing a deaf rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948), was the first person in the sound era to win an acting Oscar without speaking a line of dialogue. Matlin, who speaks just once when she argues with actor William Hurt, won the award for her American Sign Language performance in Children of a Lesser God (1986), and Hunter, who narrates several scenes and speaks on camera in the last scene (although her face is covered) for her British sign language role in The Piano (1993). Unlike Matlin, who is almost completely deaf in real life, Hunter and Wyman can hear.

No Best Actress winning or nominated performance is lost, although Sadie Thompson (1928) is incomplete and missing portions have been reconstructed with stills.

There have been no posthumous winners of the award. The only posthumous nomination of a woman for any acting award was Jeanne Eagels, who was nominated for Best Actress in 1929 for The Letter. She was the first woman to be posthumously nominated for an Oscar in any category.

The earliest nominee in this category who is still alive is Luise Rainer (1936), followed by sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine (both 1941).

Luise Rainer is one of only two acting winners who have ever reached the age of 100, the other being George Burns.

In 1984, three of the five nominees — Sally Field in Places in the Heart, Jessica Lange in Country, and Sissy Spacek in The River — were all nominated for playing strikingly similar roles: farmers struggling to keep their properties running against the odds, not a particularly common role. Field won the Oscar for her performance; this was her second award. Lange and Spacek had both won previously.

In 2009, Sandra Bullock became the first actor to date to have won a Razzie Award for Worst Actress and an Academy Award for Best Actress in the same weekend, but for two different roles. She won Best Actress for The Blind Side and Worst Actress for All About Steve.

Life expectancy of winners

In 2001 Donald A. Redelmeier and Sheldon M. Singh published a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine in which they found that:

"Winning an Academy Award was associated with a large gain in life expectancy for actors and actresses... Winning an Academy Award can increase a performer’s stature and may add to their longevity. The absolute difference in life expectancy is about equal to the societal consequence of curing all cancers in all people for all time (22, 23). Moreover, movie stars who have won multiple Academy Awards have a survival advantage of 6.0 years (CI, 0.7 to 11.3 years) over performers with multiple films but no victories. Formal education is not the only way to improve health, and strict poverty is not the only way to worsen health. The main implication is that higher status may be linked to lower mortality rates even at very impressive levels of achievement."

The authors did an update to 29 March 2006 in which they found 122 more individuals and 144 more deaths since their first publication. Their unadjusted analysis showed a smaller survival advantage of 3.6 years for winners compared to their fellow nominees and costars in the films in which their performance garnered them their award.However, in a 2006 published study by Marie-Pierre Sylvestre, MSc, Ella Huszti, MSc, and James A. Hanley, PhD, the authors found:

"The statistical method used to derive this statistically significant difference gave winners an unfair advantage because it credited an Oscar winner's years of life before winning toward survival subsequent to winning. When the authors of the current article reanalyzed the data using methods that avoided this "immortal time" bias, the survival advantage was closer to 1 year and was not statistically significant. The bias in Redelmeier and Singh's study is not limited to longevity comparisons of persons who reach different ranks within their profession."

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Winners and nominees

Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by year of their Los Angeles qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the film's year of release. For example, the Oscar for Best Actress of 1999 was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000.

The first six years of the Academy Awards are sometimes represented as one half of two consecutive years which are 1927-28 (1st), 1928-29 (2nd), 1929-30 (3rd), 1930-31 (4th), 1931-32( 5th) and 1932-33 (6th). The Academy usually simplifies this (most notably during their broadcasts and in their Oscar montages) by using the latter year to cause less confusion. (i.e. the year representing 1927-28 becomes just 1928)

Winners are listed first in bold, followed by the other nominees.

1920s

1928 (1927-28) Janet Gaynor – Seventh Heaven as Diane, Street Angel as Angela, and Sunrise as The Wife – Indre

Louise Dresser – A Ship Comes In as Mrs. Pleznik

Gloria Swanson – Sadie Thompson as Sadie Thompson

1929 (1928-29) Mary Pickford – Coquette as Norma Besant

Ruth Chatterton – Madame X as Jacqueline Floriot

Betty Compson – The Barker as Carrie

Jeanne Eagels – The Letter as Leslie Crosbie (posthumous nomination)

Corinne Griffith – The Divine Lady as Emma Hart, Lady Hamilton

Bessie Love – The Broadway Melody as Hank Mahoney

1930 (1929-30) Norma Shearer – The Divorcee as Jerry Bernard Martin

Nancy Carroll – The Devil's Holiday as Hallie Hobart

Ruth Chatterton – Sarah and Son as Sarah Storm

Greta Garbo – Anna Christie as Anna Christie and Romance as Madame Rita Cavallini

Norma Shearer – Their Own Desire as Lucia 'Lally' Marlett

Gloria Swanson – The Trespasser as Marion Donnell

1930s

1931 (1930-31) Marie Dressler – Min and Bill as Min Divot, Innkeeper

Marlene Dietrich – Morocco as Mademoiselle Amy Jolly

Irene Dunne – Cimarron as Sabra Cravat

Ann Harding – Holiday as Linda Seton

Norma Shearer – A Free Soul as Jan Ashe

1932 (1931-32) Helen Hayes – The Sin of Madelon Claudet as Madelon Claudet

Marie Dressler – Emma as Emma Thatcher Smith

Lynn Fontanne – The Guardsman as The Actress

1933 (1932-33) Katharine Hepburn – Morning Glory as Eva Lovelace

May Robson – Lady for a Day as Apple Annie

Diana Wynyard – Cavalcade as Jane Marryot

(Note: The Academy also announced that Robson came in second and Wynyard third.)

1934 Claudette Colbert – It Happened One Night as Ellie Andrews

Grace Moore – One Night of Love as Mary Barrett

Norma Shearer – The Barretts of Wimpole Street as Elizabeth Barrett

(Note: The Academy also announced that Shearer came in second and write-in candidate Bette Davis, for Of Human Bondage, came in third.)

1935 Bette Davis – Dangerous as Joyce Heath

Elisabeth Bergner – Escape Me Never as Gemma Jones

Claudette Colbert – Private Worlds as Dr. Jane Everest

Katharine Hepburn – Alice Adams as Alice Adams

Miriam Hopkins – Becky Sharp as Becky Sharp

Merle Oberon – The Dark Angel as Kitty Vane

(Note: The Academy also announced that Hopkins came in second and Hepburn third.)

1936 Luise Rainer – The Great Ziegfeld as Anna Held

Irene Dunne – Theodora Goes Wild as Theodora Lynn

Gladys George – Valiant Is the Word for Carrie as Carrie Snyder

Carole Lombard – My Man Godfrey as Irene Bullock

Norma Shearer – Romeo and Juliet as Juliet – Daughter to Capulet

1937 Luise Rainer – The Good Earth as O-Lan

Irene Dunne – The Awful Truth as Lucy Warriner

Greta Garbo – Camille as Marguerite Gautier

Janet Gaynor – A Star Is Born as Esther Victoria Blodgett, aka Vicki Lester

Barbara Stanwyck – Stella Dallas as Stella Martin 'Stell' Dallas

1938 Bette Davis – Jezebel as Julie Marsden

Fay Bainter – White Banners as Hannah Parmalee

Wendy Hiller – Pygmalion as Eliza Doolittle

Norma Shearer – Marie Antoinette as Marie Antoinette

Margaret Sullavan – Three Comrades as Patricia 'Pat' Hollmann

1939 Vivien Leigh – Gone with the Wind as Scarlett O'Hara

Bette Davis – Dark Victory as Judith Traherne

Irene Dunne – Love Affair as Terry McKay

Greta Garbo – Ninotchka as Nina Yakushova 'Ninotchka' Ivanoff

Greer Garson – Goodbye, Mr. Chips as Katherine

1940s

1940 Ginger Rogers – Kitty Foyle as Kitty Foyle

Bette Davis – The Letter as Leslie Crosbie

Joan Fontaine – Rebecca as The Second Mrs. de Winter

Katharine Hepburn – The Philadelphia Story as Tracy Lord

Martha Scott – Our Town as Emily Webb

1941 Joan Fontaine – Suspicion as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth

Bette Davis – The Little Foxes as Regina Giddens

Olivia de Havilland – Hold Back the Dawn as Emmy Brown

Greer Garson – Blossoms in the Dust as Edna Kahly Gladney

Barbara Stanwyck – Ball of Fire as Katherine 'Sugarpuss' O'Shea

1942 Greer Garson – Mrs. Miniver as Mrs. Miniver

Bette Davis – Now, Voyager as Charlotte Vale

Katharine Hepburn – Woman of the Year as Tess Harding

Rosalind Russell – My Sister Eileen as Ruth Sherwood

Teresa Wright – The Pride of the Yankees as Eleanor Twitchell

1943 Jennifer Jones – The Song of Bernadette as Bernadette Soubirous

Jean Arthur – The More the Merrier as Constance "Connie" Milligan

Ingrid Bergman – For Whom the Bell Tolls as María

Joan Fontaine – The Constant Nymph as Tessa Sanger

Greer Garson – Madame Curie as Marie Curie

1944 Ingrid Bergman – Gaslight as Paula Alquist Anton

Claudette Colbert – Since You Went Away as Mrs. Anne Hilton

Bette Davis – Mr. Skeffington as Fanny Trellis

Greer Garson – Mrs. Parkington as Susie 'Sparrow' Parkington

Barbara Stanwyck – Double Indemnity as Phyllis Dietrichson

1945 Joan Crawford – Mildred Pierce as Mildred Pierce

Ingrid Bergman – The Bells of St. Mary's as Sister Mary Benedict

Greer Garson – The Valley of Decision as Mary Rafferty

Jennifer Jones – Love Letters as Singleton/Victoria Morland

Gene Tierney – Leave Her to Heaven as Ellen Berent Harland

1946 Olivia de Havilland – To Each His Own as Miss Josephine 'Jody' Norris

Celia Johnson – Brief Encounter as Laura Jesson

Jennifer Jones – Duel in the Sun as Pearl Chavez

Rosalind Russell – Sister Kenny as Sister Elizabeth Kenny

Jane Wyman – The Yearling as Orry Baxter

1947 Loretta Young – The Farmer's Daughter as Katrin Holstrom

Joan Crawford – Possessed as Louise Howell

Susan Hayward – Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman as Angelica 'Angie' / 'Angel' Evans Conway

Dorothy McGuire – Gentleman's Agreement as Kathy Lacy

Rosalind Russell – Mourning Becomes Electra as Lavinia Mannon

1948 Jane Wyman – Johnny Belinda as Belinda McDonald

Ingrid Bergman – Joan of Arc as Joan of Arc

Olivia de Havilland – The Snake Pit as Virginia Stuart Cunningham

Irene Dunne – I Remember Mama as Martha 'Mama' Hanson

Barbara Stanwyck – Sorry, Wrong Number as Leona Stevenson

1949 Olivia de Havilland – The Heiress as Catherine Sloper

Jeanne Crain – Pinky as Patricia 'Pinky' Johnson

Susan Hayward – My Foolish Heart as Eloise Winters

Deborah Kerr – Edward, My Son as Evelyn Boult

Loretta Young – Come to the Stable as Sister Margaret

1950s

1950 Judy Holliday – Born Yesterday as Emma 'Billie' Dawn

Anne Baxter – All About Eve as Eve Harrington

Bette Davis – All About Eve as Margo Channing

Eleanor Parker – Caged as Marie Allen

Gloria Swanson – Sunset Boulevard as Norma Desmond

1951 Vivien Leigh – A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche DuBois

Katharine Hepburn – The African Queen as Rose Sayer

Eleanor Parker – Detective Story as Mary McLeod

Shelley Winters – A Place in the Sun as Alice Tripp

Jane Wyman – The Blue Veil as Louise Mason

1952 Shirley Booth – Come Back, Little Sheba as Lola Delaney

Joan Crawford – Sudden Fear as Myra Hudson

Bette Davis – The Star as Margaret Elliot

Julie Harris – The Member of the Wedding as Frances 'Frankie' Addams

Susan Hayward – With a Song in My Heart as Jane Froman

1953 Audrey Hepburn – Roman Holiday as Princess Ann

Leslie Caron – Lili as Lili Daurier

Ava Gardner – Mogambo as Eloise Y. Honey Bear Kelly

Deborah Kerr – From Here to Eternity as Karen Holmes

Maggie McNamara – The Moon Is Blue as Patty O'Neill

1954 Grace Kelly – The Country Girl as Georgie Elgin

Dorothy Dandridge – Carmen Jones as Carmen Jones

Judy Garland – A Star Is Born as Vicki Lester (Esther Blodgett)

Audrey Hepburn – Sabrina as Sabrina Fairchild

Jane Wyman – Magnificent Obsession as Helen Phillips

1955 Anna Magnani – The Rose Tattoo as Serafina Delle Rose

Susan Hayward – I'll Cry Tomorrow as Lillian Roth

Katharine Hepburn – Summertime as Jane Hudson

Jennifer Jones – Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing as Dr. Han Suyin

Eleanor Parker – Interrupted Melody as Marjorie 'Margie' Lawrence

1956 Ingrid Bergman – Anastasia as Anna Koreff / Anastasia

Carroll Baker – Baby Doll as Baby Doll Meighan

Katharine Hepburn – The Rainmaker as Lizzie Curry

Nancy Kelly – The Bad Seed as Christine Penmark

Deborah Kerr – The King and I as Anna Leonowens

1957 Joanne Woodward – The Three Faces of Eve as Eve White / Eve Black / Jane

Deborah Kerr – Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison as Sister Angela

Anna Magnani – Wild Is the Wind as Gioia

Elizabeth Taylor – Raintree County as Susanna Drake

Lana Turner – Peyton Place as Constance MacKenzie

1958 Susan Hayward – I Want to Live! as Barbara Graham

Deborah Kerr – Separate Tables as Sibyl Railton-Bell

Shirley MacLaine – Some Came Running as Ginnie Moorehead

Rosalind Russell – Auntie Mame as Mame Dennis

Elizabeth Taylor – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Margaret 'Maggie the Cat' Pollitt

1959 Simone Signoret – Room at the Top as Alice Aisgill

Doris Day – Pillow Talk as Jan Morrow

Audrey Hepburn – The Nun's Story as Sister Luke (Gabrielle van der Mal)

Katharine Hepburn – Suddenly, Last Summer as Violet Venable

Elizabeth Taylor – Suddenly, Last Summer as Catherine Holly

1960s

1960 Elizabeth Taylor – BUtterfield 8 as Gloria Wandrous

Greer Garson – Sunrise at Campobello as Eleanor Roosevelt

Deborah Kerr – The Sundowners as Ida Carmody

Shirley MacLaine – The Apartment as Fran Kubelik

Melina Mercouri – Never on Sunday as Ilya

1961 Sophia Loren – Two Women as Cesira

Audrey Hepburn – Breakfast at Tiffany's as Holly Golightly

Piper Laurie – The Hustler as Sarah Packard

Geraldine Page – Summer and Smoke as Alma Winemiller

Natalie Wood – Splendor in the Grass as Wilma Dean 'Deanie' Loomis

1962 Anne Bancroft – The Miracle Worker as Annie Sullivan

Bette Davis – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as Baby Jane Hudson

Katharine Hepburn – Long Day's Journey Into Night as Mary Tyrone

Geraldine Page – Sweet Bird of Youth as Alexandra Del Lago

Lee Remick – Days of Wine and Roses as Kirsten Arnesen Clay

1963 Patricia Neal – Hud as Alma Brown

Leslie Caron – The L-Shaped Room as Jane Fossett

Shirley MacLaine – Irma la Douce as Irma La Douce

Rachel Roberts – This Sporting Life as Margaret Hammond

Natalie Wood – Love with the Proper Stranger as Angie Rossini

1964 Julie Andrews – Mary Poppins as Mary Poppins

Anne Bancroft – The Pumpkin Eater as Jo Armitage

Sophia Loren – Marriage Italian-Style as Filumena Marturano

Debbie Reynolds – The Unsinkable Molly Brown as Molly Brown

Kim Stanley – Séance on a Wet Afternoon as Myra Savage

1965 Julie Christie – Darling as Diana Scott

Julie Andrews – The Sound of Music as Maria von Trapp

Samantha Eggar – The Collector as Miranda Grey

Elizabeth Hartman – A Patch of Blue as Selina D'Arcy

Simone Signoret – Ship of Fools as La Contessa

1966 Elizabeth Taylor – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as Martha

Anouk Aimée – A Man and a Woman as Anne Gauthier

Ida Kaminska – The Shop on Main Street as Rozalie Lautmann

Lynn Redgrave – Georgy Girl as Georgy

Vanessa Redgrave – Morgan! as Leonie Delt

1967 Katharine Hepburn – Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as Christina Drayton

Anne Bancroft – The Graduate as Mrs. Robinson

Faye Dunaway – Bonnie and Clyde as Bonnie Parker

Edith Evans – The Whisperers as Maggie Ross

Audrey Hepburn – Wait Until Dark as Susy Hendrix

1968 Katharine Hepburn – The Lion in Winter as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Barbra Streisand – Funny Girl as Fanny Brice (tie)

Patricia Neal – The Subject was Roses as Nettie Cleary

Vanessa Redgrave – Isadora as Isadora Duncan

Joanne Woodward – Rachel, Rachel as Rachel Cameron

1969 Maggie Smith – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as Jean Brodie

Geneviève Bujold – Anne of the Thousand Days as Anne Boleyn

Jane Fonda – They Shoot Horses, Don't They? as Gloria Beatty

Liza Minnelli – The Sterile Cuckoo as Mary Ann 'Pookie' Adams

Jean Simmons – The Happy Ending as Mary Wilson

1970s

1970 Glenda Jackson – Women in Love as Gudrun Brangwen

Jane Alexander – The Great White Hope as Eleanor Backman

Ali MacGraw – Love Story as Jennifer Cavalleri

Sarah Miles – Ryan's Daughter as Rosy Ryan

Carrie Snodgress – Diary of a Mad Housewife as Tina Balser

1971 Jane Fonda – Klute as Bree Daniels

Julie Christie – McCabe & Mrs. Miller as Constance Miller

Glenda Jackson – Sunday Bloody Sunday as Alex Greville

Vanessa Redgrave – Mary, Queen of Scots as Mary, Queen of Scots

Janet Suzman – Nicholas and Alexandra as Empress Alexandra / Alix of Hesse Darmstadt

1972 Liza Minnelli – Cabaret as Sally Bowles

Diana Ross – Lady Sings the Blues as Billie Holiday

Maggie Smith – Travels with My Aunt as Augusta Bertram

Cicely Tyson – Sounder as Rebecca Morgan

Liv Ullmann – The Emigrants as Kristina

1973 Glenda Jackson – A Touch of Class as Vicki Allessio

Ellen Burstyn – The Exorcist as Chris MacNeil

Marsha Mason – Cinderella Liberty as Maggie Paul

Barbra Streisand – The Way We Were as Katie Morosky

Joanne Woodward – Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams as Rita Walden

1974 Ellen Burstyn – Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore as Alice Hyatt

Diahann Carroll – Claudine as Claudine

Faye Dunaway – Chinatown as Evelyn Cross Mulwray

Valerie Perrine – Lenny as Honey Bruce

Gena Rowlands – A Woman Under the Influence as Mabel Longhetti

1975 Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as Nurse Ratched

Isabelle Adjani – The Story of Adele H. as Adèle Hugo a.k.a. Adèle Lewry

Ann-Margret – Tommy as Nora Walker Hobbs

Glenda Jackson – Hedda as Hedda Gabler

Carol Kane – Hester Street as Gitl

1976 Faye Dunaway – Network as Diana Christensen

Marie-Christine Barrault – Cousin, cousine as Marthe

Talia Shire – Rocky as Adrian Pennino

Sissy Spacek – Carrie as Carrie White

Liv Ullmann – Face to Face as Dr. Jenny Isaksson

1977 Diane Keaton – Annie Hall as Annie Hall

Anne Bancroft – The Turning Point as Emma Jacklin

Jane Fonda – Julia as Lillian Hellman

Shirley MacLaine – The Turning Point as Deedee Rodgers

Marsha Mason – The Goodbye Girl as Paula McFadden

1978 Jane Fonda – Coming Home as Sally Hyde

Ingrid Bergman – Autumn Sonata as Charlotte Andergast

Ellen Burstyn – Same Time, Next Year as Doris

Jill Clayburgh – An Unmarried Woman as Erica

Geraldine Page – Interiors as Eve

1979 Sally Field – Norma Rae as Norma Rae Webster

Jill Clayburgh – Starting Over as Marilyn Holmberg

Jane Fonda – The China Syndrome as Kimberly Wells

Marsha Mason – Chapter Two as Jennie MacLaine

Bette Midler – The Rose as Mary Rose Foster

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1980s

1980 Sissy Spacek – Coal Miner's Daughter as Loretta Lynn

Ellen Burstyn – Resurrection as Edna Mae McCauley

Goldie Hawn – Private Benjamin as Pvt. Judy Benjamin

Mary Tyler Moore – Ordinary People as Beth Jarrett

Gena Rowlands – Gloria as Gloria Swenson

1981 Katharine Hepburn – On Golden Pond as Ethel Thayer

Diane Keaton – Reds as Louise Bryant

Marsha Mason – Only When I Laugh as Georgia

Susan Sarandon – Atlantic City as Sally Matthews

Meryl Streep – The French Lieutenant's Woman as Sarah / Anna

1982 Meryl Streep – Sophie's Choice as Sophie Zawistowski

Julie Andrews – Victor Victoria as Victoria Grant, aka Count Victor Grezhinski

Jessica Lange – Frances as Frances Farmer

Sissy Spacek – Missing as Beth Horman

Debra Winger – An Officer and a Gentleman as Paula Pokrifki

1983 Shirley MacLaine – Terms of Endearment as Aurora Greenway

Jane Alexander – Testament as Carol Wetherly

Meryl Streep – Silkwood as Karen Silkwood

Julie Walters – Educating Rita as Rita

Debra Winger – Terms of Endearment as Emma Greenway Horton

1984 Sally Field – Places in the Heart as Edna Spalding

Judy Davis – A Passage to India as Adela Quested

Jessica Lange – Country as Jewell Ivy

Vanessa Redgrave – The Bostonians as Olive Chancellor

Sissy Spacek – The River as Mae Garvey

1985 Geraldine Page – The Trip to Bountiful as Carrie Watts

Anne Bancroft – Agnes of God as Mother Miriam Ruth

Whoopi Goldberg – The Color Purple as Celie Harris

Jessica Lange – Sweet Dreams as Patsy Cline

Meryl Streep – Out of Africa as Karen Blixen

1986 Marlee Matlin – Children of a Lesser God as Sarah Norman

Jane Fonda – The Morning After as Alex Sternbergen

Sissy Spacek – Crimes of the Heart as Rebecca 'Babe' / 'Becky' Magrath Botrelle

Kathleen Turner – Peggy Sue Got Married as Peggy Sue Bodell

Sigourney Weaver – Aliens as Ellen Ripley

1987 Cher – Moonstruck as Loretta Castorini

Glenn Close – Fatal Attraction as Alex Forrest

Holly Hunter – Broadcast News as Jane Craig

Sally Kirkland – Anna as Anna

Meryl Streep – Ironweed as Helen Archer

1988 Jodie Foster – The Accused as Sarah Tobias

Glenn Close – Dangerous Liaisons as Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil

Melanie Griffith – Working Girl as Tess McGill

Meryl Streep – A Cry in the Dark as Lindy Chamberlain

Sigourney Weaver – Gorillas in the Mist as Dian Fossey

1989 Jessica Tandy – Driving Miss Daisy as Daisy Werthan

Isabelle Adjani – Camille Claudel as Camille Claudel

Pauline Collins – Shirley Valentine as Shirley Valentine-Bradshaw

Jessica Lange – Music Box as Ann Talbot

Michelle Pfeiffer – The Fabulous Baker Boys as Susie Diamond

1990s

1990 Kathy Bates – Misery as Annie Wilkes

Anjelica Huston – The Grifters as Lilly Dillon

Julia Roberts – Pretty Woman as Vivian Ward

Meryl Streep – Postcards from the Edge as Suzanne Vale

Joanne Woodward – Mr. and Mrs. Bridge as India Bridge

1991 Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling

Geena Davis – Thelma & Louise as Thelma Dickinson

Laura Dern – Rambling Rose as Rose

Bette Midler – For the Boys as Dixie Leonard

Susan Sarandon – Thelma & Louise as Louise Sawyer

1992 Emma Thompson – Howards End as Margaret Schlegel

Catherine Deneuve – Indochine as Eliane

Mary McDonnell – Passion Fish as May-Alice Culhane

Michelle Pfeiffer – Love Field as Lurene Hallett

Susan Sarandon – Lorenzo's Oil as Michaela Odone

1993 Holly Hunter – The Piano as Ada McGrath

Angela Bassett – What's Love Got to Do with It as Tina Turner

Stockard Channing – Six Degrees of Separation as Ouisa Kittredge

Emma Thompson – The Remains of the Day as Mary Kenton

Debra Winger – Shadowlands as Joy Gresham

1994 Jessica Lange – Blue Sky as Carly Marshall

Jodie Foster – Nell as Nell Kellty

Miranda Richardson – Tom & Viv as Vivienne Haigh-Wood

Winona Ryder – Little Women as Jo March

Susan Sarandon – The Client as Reggie Love

1995 Susan Sarandon – Dead Man Walking as Helen Prejean

Elisabeth Shue – Leaving Las Vegas as Sera

Sharon Stone – Casino as Ginger McKenna

Meryl Streep – The Bridges of Madison County as Francesca Johnson

Emma Thompson – Sense and Sensibility as Elinor Dashwood

1996 Frances McDormand – Fargo as Marge Olmstead-Gunderson

Brenda Blethyn – Secrets & Lies as Cynthia Rose Purley

Diane Keaton – Marvin's Room as Bessie

Kristin Scott Thomas – The English Patient as Katharine Clifton

Emily Watson – Breaking the Waves as Bess McNeill

1997 Helen Hunt – As Good as It Gets as Carol Connelly

Helena Bonham Carter – The Wings of the Dove as Kate Croy

Julie Christie – Afterglow as Phyllis Mann

Judi Dench – Mrs. Brown as Queen Victoria

Kate Winslet – Titanic as Rose DeWitt Bukater

1998 Gwyneth Paltrow – Shakespeare in Love as Viola De Lesseps/Thomas Kent

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth as Elizabeth I

Fernanda Montenegro – Central Station as Dora

Meryl Streep – One True Thing as Kate Gulden

Emily Watson – Hilary and Jackie as Jacqueline du Pré

1999 Hilary Swank – Boys Don't Cry as Brandon Teena

Annette Bening – American Beauty as Carolyn Burnham

Janet McTeer – Tumbleweeds as Mary Jo Walker

Julianne Moore – The End of the Affair as Sarah Miles

Meryl Streep – Music of the Heart as Roberta Guaspari

2000s

2000 Julia Roberts – Erin Brockovich as Erin Brockovich

Joan Allen – The Contender as Sen. Laine Hanson

Juliette Binoche – Chocolat as Vianne Rocher

Ellen Burstyn – Requiem for a Dream as Sara Goldfarb

Laura Linney – You Can Count on Me as Sammy Prescott

2001 Halle Berry – Monster's Ball as Leticia Musgrove

Judi Dench – Iris as Iris Murdoch

Nicole Kidman – Moulin Rouge! as Satine

Sissy Spacek – In the Bedroom as Ruth Fowler

Renée Zellweger – Bridget Jones's Diary as Bridget Jones

2002 Nicole Kidman – The Hours as Virginia Woolf

Salma Hayek – Frida as Frida Kahlo

Diane Lane – Unfaithful as Connie Sumner

Julianne Moore – Far from Heaven as Cathy Whitaker

Renée Zellweger – Chicago as Roxie Hart

2003 Charlize Theron – Monster as Aileen Wuornos

Keisha Castle-Hughes – Whale Rider as Paikea Apirana

Diane Keaton – Something's Gotta Give as Erika Berry

Samantha Morton – In America as Sarah

Naomi Watts – 21 Grams as Cristina Peck

2004 Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby as Maggie Fitzgerald

Annette Bening – Being Julia as Julia Lambert

Catalina Sandino Moreno – Maria Full of Grace as María Álvarez

Imelda Staunton – Vera Drake as Vera Drake

Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as Clementine Kruczynski

2005 Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line as June Carter Cash

Judi Dench – Mrs Henderson Presents as Laura Henderson

Felicity Huffman – Transamerica as Bree

Keira Knightley – Pride & Prejudice as Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Bennet

Charlize Theron – North Country as Josey Aimes

2006 Helen Mirren – The Queen as Queen Elizabeth II

Penélope Cruz – Volver as Raimunda

Judi Dench – Notes on a Scandal as Barbara Covett

Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada as Miranda Priestly

Kate Winslet – Little Children as Sarah Pierce

2007 Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose as Édith Piaf

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age as Queen Elizabeth I

Julie Christie – Away from Her as Fiona Anderson

Laura Linney – The Savages as Wendy Savage

Ellen Page – Juno as Juno MacGuff

2008 Kate Winslet – The Reader as Hanna Schmitz

Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married as Kym Buchman

Angelina Jolie – Changeling as Christine Collins

Melissa Leo – Frozen River as Ray Eddy

Meryl Streep – Doubt as Sister Aloysius Beauvier

2009 Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side as Leigh Anne Tuohy

Helen Mirren – The Last Station as Sofya Tolstoy

Carey Mulligan – An Education as Jenny Mellor

Gabourey Sidibe – Precious as Claireece "Precious" Jones

Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia as Julia Child

2010s

2010 Natalie Portman – Black Swan as Nina Sayers

Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right as Nic

Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole as Becca Corbett

Jennifer Lawrence – Winter's Bone as Ree Dolly

Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine as Cindy Pereira

International presence

As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of winners for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Australia: Nicole Kidman (Kidman was born in the United States of Australian parents who were temporarily living in Hawaii; she is a citizen of both countries.)

Canada: Marie Dressler, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer (Pickford, Shearer, and Dressler won their respective awards in three consecutive years, 1929–1931.)

France: Claudette Colbert, Marion Cotillard, Simone Signoret (Colbert later became an American citizen.)

Germany: Luise Rainer

Italy: Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani

Israel: Natalie Portman (Portman, born in Israel, has an Israeli father and an American mother, and is a dual Israeli and American citizen.)

The Netherlands: Audrey Hepburn (Hepburn had a British father and a Dutch mother; hence, she was a native-born citizen of both countries. Hepburn spent her childhood and teenage years mostly in The Netherlands and Belgium.)

South Africa: Charlize Theron (Theron later became an American citizen.)

Sweden: Ingrid Bergman (Bergman became an Italian by marriage.)

United Kingdom: Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Greer Garson, Audrey Hepburn, Glenda Jackson, Vivien Leigh, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Jessica Tandy, Elizabeth Taylor, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet (Taylor was born in England of American parents who were living there temporarily and who returned to the United States permanently in 1939. Hence, Taylor has dual citizenship and has been eligible to receive a knighthood in the United Kingdom.)

There have been two years in which all four of the top acting Academy Awards were presented to non-Americans.

At the 37th Academy Awards (1964), the winners were Rex Harrison (British), Julie Andrews (British), Peter Ustinov (British), and Lila Kedrova (Russian-born French).

At the 80th Academy Awards (2007), the winners were Daniel Day-Lewis (British and Irish), Marion Cotillard (French), Javier Bardem (Spanish), and Tilda Swinton (British).

Multiple awards

4 awards

Katharine Hepburn

2 awards

Ingrid Bergman

Bette Davis

Olivia De Havilland

Sally Field

Jane Fonda

Jodie Foster

Glenda Jackson

Vivien Leigh

Luise Rainer

Hilary Swank

Elizabeth Taylor

Multiple nominations

2 nominations

Isabelle Adjani

Jane Alexander

Cate Blanchett

Leslie Caron

Ruth Chatterton

Jill Clayburgh

Glenn Close

Marie Dresser

Sally Field

Janet Gaynor

Holly Hunter

Vivien Leigh

Laura Linney

Sophia Loren

Anna Magnani

Bette Midler

Liza Minnelli

Helen Mirren

Julianne Moore

Patricia Neal

Luise Rainer

Michelle Pfeiffer

Julia Roberts

Gena Rowlands

Simone Signoret

Maggie Smith

Barbra Streisand

Hilary Swank

Charlize Theron

Liv Ullmann

Emily Watson

Sigourney Weaver

Natalie Wood

Loretta Young

Renee Zellweger

3 nominations

Julie Andrews

Annette Bening

Claudette Colbert

Joan Crawford

Faye Dunaway

Jodie Foster

Greta Garbo

Joan Fontaine

Nicole Kidman

Eleanor Parker

Gloria Swanson

Emma Thompson

Debra Winger

4 nominations

Julie Christie

Judi Dench

Olivia De Havilland

Glenda Jackson

Jennifer Jones

Diane Keaton

Marsha Mason

Geraldine Page

Vanessa Redgrave

Rosalind Russell

Barbara Stanwyck

Kate Winslet

Joanne Woodward

Jane Wyman

5 nominations

Anne Bancroft

Ellen Burstyn

Irene Dunne

Susan Hayward

Audrey Hepburn

Jessica Lange

Shirley Maclaine

Susan Sarandon

Elizabeth Taylor

6 nominations

Ingrid Bergman

Jane Fonda

Deborah Kerr

Norma Shearer

Sissy Spacek

7 nominations

Greer Garson

10 nominations

Bette Davis

12 nominations

Katharine Hepburn

13 nominations

Meryl Streep

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(source:wikipedia)