Academy Awards Best Actress (original) (raw)

The Best Actress Academy Awards Facts and Trivia

The Best Actress award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actress in a leading role." The same rules that govern the Best Actor category apply to the Best Actress category.

The Top Best Actress Winner and Most Nominated Actress:

The most honored actress of all-time is Katharine Hepburn - with a total of twelve nominations and four wins - all in the Best Actress category - stretching over a period of 48 years (from Hepburn's Best Actress win for Morning Glory (1932/33) to her Best Actress win for On Golden Pond (1981)) - a record in itself for the greatest span between Oscar wins. Hepburn is the only actress to have won the Best Actress award four times.

The only actress to win Best Actress three times (from a total of six nominations) was Frances McDormand.

Meryl Streep surpassed Hepburn's record of 12 acting nominations in 2002, with 13 career nominations (and then in 2006 with 14 career nominations, in 2008 with 15 career nominations, in 2009 with 16 career nominations, in 2011 with 17 career nominations, in 2013 with 18 career nominations, in 2014 with 19 career nominations, in 2016 with 20 career nominations, and in 2017 with 21 career nominations). She was the most-nominated performer ever - over a period of 39 years (from her Best Supporting Actress nomination for The Deer Hunter (1978) to her latest Best Actress nomination for The Post (2017)). Meryl Streep is the only performer to have 21 Oscar nominations, 17 as Best Actress (a record) and four as Best Supporting Actress, with two Best Actress wins and one Best Supporting Actress win.

Many other actresses have won the Best Actress award twice. See also below.

Other Top Best Actress Oscar Winners Best Actress Wins
Luise Rainer 2 career nominations (2 B.A. noms), 2 wins The Great Ziegfeld (1936) The Good Earth (1937)
Bette Davis 10 career nominations (10 B.A. noms) (plus an "unofficial" write-in nomination in 1934), 2 wins Dangerous (1935) Jezebel (1938)
Olivia de Havilland 5 career nominations (4 B.A. noms), 2 wins (both B.A.) To Each His Own (1946) The Heiress (1949)
Vivien Leigh 2 career nominations (2 B.A. noms), 2 wins Gone With The Wind (1939) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Ingrid Bergman 7 career nominations (6 B.A. noms), 3 wins (2 B.A. wins) Gaslight (1944) Anastasia (1956)
Elizabeth Taylor 5 career nominations (5 B.A. noms), 2 wins Butterfield 8 (1960) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Glenda Jackson 4 career nominations (4 B.A. noms), 2 wins Women in Love (1970) A Touch of Class (1973)
Jane Fonda 7 career nominations (6 B.A. noms), 2 wins (both B.A.) Klute (1971) Coming Home (1978)
Sally Field 3 career nominations (2 B.A. noms), 2 wins Norma Rae (1979) Places in the Heart (1984)
Jodie Foster 5 career nominations (3 B.A. noms), 2 wins (both B.A.) The Accused (1988) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Hilary Swank 2 career nominations (2 B.A. noms), 2 wins Boys Don't Cry (1999) Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Other Top Best Actress Oscar Nominees/Winners Best Actress Wins
Greer Garson 7 career nominations (7 B.A. noms), 1 win Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Norma Shearer 6 career nominations (6 B.A. noms), 1 win The Divorcee (1929/30)
Cate Blanchett 8 career nominations (4 B.A. noms) 1 win Blue Jasmine (2013)
Kate Winslet 7 career nominations (4 B.A. noms), 1 win The Reader (2008)
Sissy Spacek 6 career nominations (6 B.A. noms) 1 win Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

The Only Best Actress Tie:

In the Best Actress category, an unusual tie (the only occurrence among female acting performances) occurred in 1968 between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand, for their respective performances in The Lion in Winter (1968) and Funny Girl (1968).

[Note: With her subsequent win, Streisand became the only performer to win an Oscar for Best Actress (Funny Girl (1968)) and for Best Original Song ("Evergreen" from A Star Is Born (1976)) with lyrics by Paul Williams).]

The Most Best Actress Nominations (and Wins):

Only one actress has received four Best Actress Oscar wins, and Frances McDormand was the only actress to receive three Best Actress Oscars. There are twelve actresses who have received two Best Actress Oscars. The number of Best Actress nominations are in parentheses:

Consecutive Best Actress-Winning Performers:

There are only two actors (Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks) who have received two consecutive Best Actor awards, as there are only two actresses who have received two consecutive Best Actress statuette wins:

Stars to Win Two Best Actress Oscars Before the Age of 30:

Both Luise Rainer and Hilary Swank won their Oscars each time that they were nominated.

With Kate Winslet's sixth career nomination for The Reader (2008), she became the youngest individual (at age 33) to have six Oscar nominations. She was one year younger than Bette Davis who (at age 34) received her sixth for Now, Voyager (1942). Now in 2015, Winslet received a seventh career nomination, Best Supporting Actress for Steve Jobs (2015).

Young Stars To Be Nominated for Best Actress Oscars:

22 year-old Jennifer Lawrence became the youngest performer to receive two Best Actress nominations, upon receiving the nod forSilver Linings Playbook (2012) as a recovering, unemployed widow. [Note: She had previously been nominated for the first time for Winter's Bone (2010). With her first nomination at the age of 20 years and 163 days, she became the third-youngest actress ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She broke a record previously held by Teresa Wright (who was 24 when she received her third nomination in 1942).] With her Best Supporting Actress nomination forAmerican Hustle (2013), Lawrence became the youngest three-time acting nominee of all-time. In 2015, Lawrence (at age 25) received her third Best Actress nomination for Joy (2015), and became the youngest actor OR actress to receive 4 Oscar nominations. She bested Jennifer Jones, who received her third Best Actress nomination (for Duel in the Sun (1946)) (and fourth Oscar nomination) at the age of 27. In comparison, Meryl Streep was 34 when she was nominated for her fourth Oscar for Sophie's Choice (1982).

Kate Winslet had also received two nominations by age 22, but one was for Best Supporting Actress.

Film Debut Nominees/Winners of Best Actress Oscars:

Four actresses have won the Best Actress Oscar for their first (substantial) screen roles or during the first year of their film careers (in a feature film), while others (a sampling) have received a nomination for their first screen role:

Post-Humous Best Actress Nominees and Winners:

Only actress Jeanne Eagels was nominated post-humously for her role in The Letter (1929). She was the first (and only) female to ever be nominated post-humously for any acting Oscar.

Oscar-Winning Actress Roles and Trends:

Biographies of remarkable, real-life individuals (showbiz figures and entertainers) and portrayals of the mentally ill are heavily represented among Oscar winners (and nominees), particularly in the acting awards. It helps an actress's chances of winning (or being nominated for) an Oscar if the character dies during the movie, or is alcoholic (or drug-addicted), or is a murderess. Also, first-time Oscar nominations are more often given to actresses below or around the age of thirty.

Against Type

It also helps to play a role against type (Julia Roberts as a crusading single mother in Erin Brockovich (2000) or Helen Hunt for a sex surrogate in The Sessions (2012), or Susan Sarandon as a death-row nun in Dead Man Walking (1995)), or for showing acting diversity (Kathy Bates as the horror villainess in Misery (1990), or singer Cher in Moonstruck (1987)).

Prostitutes

A large number of actresses have also won (or been nominated for) the top acting awards for portraying hookers (girls of the night, party girls, whores, call girls, madams, etc.) or loose women (mistresses, promiscuous ladies, etc.), for example:

Mute or Non-Speaking

And a few Best Actress (and Supporting Actress) winners acquired acting Oscars for characters that were essentially mute:

Disabled

Another group of actresses have won awards (or were nominated) for portraying characters that were performers, or handicapped with disabilities (or other physical afflictions, including serious alcoholism and drug use), for example:

Fictional Actresses

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

Faye Dunaway was the only performer who won an Academy Award Oscar of her own (Best Actress for Network (1976)) and then went on to portray in the film Mommie Dearest (1981) a real-life star, Joan Crawford, who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945). Cate Blanchett's Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for The Aviator (2004) in her role as Katharine Hepburn marked the first time a performer won an Oscar for playing an Oscar-winning actress.

Country Singers

The only two actresses to win Best Actress Oscars (their sole wins) for playing real-life country singers:

Nuns

Actress who portrayed nuns found that it was a mostly non-winning category for its many nominees in lead and supporting roles:

Mediocre or Compensatory Oscar Wins:

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

Also, elderly nominees seem to fare better, such as 72 year-old Ruth Gordon winning the Best Supporting Actress award for Rosemary's Baby (1968), or Best Actress winners Katharine Hepburn (after her first win at age 27), Geraldine Page (finally winning with her eighth nomination), Jessica Tandy and Ellen Burstyn for On Golden Pond (1981), The Trip to Bountiful (1985), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Requiem for a Dream (2000). Young nominees also do well, such as Patty Duke (in 1962), Tatum O'Neal (in 1973), and Anna Paquin (in 1993).

The only instance of a Best Actress nomination for a science-fiction film role was Sigourney Weaver for Aliens (1986).

Best Actresses with New Screen Names:

Two actresses won the Best Actress Oscar with new screen names:

Reprising an Acclaimed Stage Role:

Four Best Actress winners won the Oscar for an acclaimed stage role that they reprised on the screen:

Longest Time Period Between First and Last Nomination/Win:

Longest Gap Between First Nomination and First Winning Film:

Best Actress Winners For Their Only Nominations:

Female Performers with Oscars in Both Lead and Supporting Categories: (in order of accomplishment)

Seven actresses have won acting awards in both the lead (BA) and supporting (BSA) categories:

Three Films With the Most Oscars for Acting:

To date, no film has won all four of the Academy Awards for acting.

Winning Co-Stars: Best Actor and Best Actress in the Same Film

Seven films have won in both the leading actor and leading actress categories:

Films With Two Best Actress Nominations:

Multiple Nominations:

No single performer has ever won two performing awards in the same year. There have been a total of twelve performers who are double nominees - that means that they have received two acting nominations in the same year. Three were actors and nine were actresses (wins are marked with *). (See the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress pages for further information on double nominees.) Of the 12 performers (actors and actresses) who've been recognized with nods for two performances in the same year, seven of them ended up winning one of the trophies.

Double nominees usually win in one category. Often, actresses have been nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for different films in the same year. In 1938, Fay Bainter received the first simultaneous nominations of any performer in lead and supporting categories (wins are marked with *). Three of the eight actresses won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and only one (Holly Hunter) of the eight won the Best Actress Oscar, while Sigourney Weaver, Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and Scarlet Johansson lost both bids.

Multiple Nominations for the Same Character:

As of 2015, there were five actors who were nominated twice for playing the same character in two different films. (See section on Best Actor.) The sixth performer to accomplish the same feat, Cate Blanchett, remains the only actress to be nominated twice for playing the same character role in two different films:

[Note: The female film character that is the most Oscar-friendly role is Queen Elizabeth I, with three acting nominations, two for Blanchett and one for Judi Dench - see below. The male film character that is the most Oscar-friendly role is King Henry VIII, also with three acting nominations.]

Four sets of actresses have been nominated for Best Actress for the same role in different films, in different years:

Three other groups of actresses played the same character in the same film:

The only time two female performers were nominated for the same character (Queen Elizabeth I) in different films in the same year was:

Related Winners and Nominees: Husbands-Wives, etc.

Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar for Fargo (1996), thereby becoming the first star to win in a film directed by a spouse, husband Joel Coen. Her brother-in-law, Ethan Coen, was the film's producer.

Other wives nominated for films made by their director husbands:

To date, no female directors have had their starring husbands receive an Oscar nod.

Sisterly Oscar Competition:

Twice in Academy Awards history, two sisters have been nominated for the same category during the same year:

Joan Fontaine (Best Actress winner for Suspicion (1941)) and double-winner sister Olivia de Havilland (for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949)) are the only sisters to win "Best Actress" Oscars.

Liza Minnelli, who won Best Actress for Cabaret (1972), was the only Oscar winner to have parents who both received Oscars:

African-American (or Black) Notables:

There have only been fourteen African-American (or black) nominations for Best Actress (and only one win, in 2001), divided amongst thirteen different performers. All nominees were nominated only once in the category, except for Viola Davis:

# Best Actress Nominee Film
1 Dorothy Dandridge Carmen Jones (1954)
2 Diana Ross Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
3 Cicely Tyson Sounder (1972)
4 Diahann Carroll Claudine (1974)
5 Whoopi Goldberg The Color Purple (1985)
6 Angela Bassett What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)
7 Halle Berry Monster's Ball (2001) (win)
8 Gabourey Sidibe Precious (2009)
9 Viola Davis The Help (2011)
10 Quvenzhané Wallis Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
11 Ruth Negga Loving (2016)
12 Cynthia Erivo Harriet (2019)
13 Viola Davis Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
14 Andra Day The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2020)

In total, there have only been 30 different African-American (or black) performers nominated for the top award (either Best Actor or Best Actress).

Only twenty-three awards have been won by African-Americans (or blacks) in both lead and supporting categories (five Best Actor, one Best Actress, seven Best Supporting Actor, and ten Best Supporting Actress). Only six black performers have won the Oscar in the lead category (five Best Actor, one Best Actress).

Only one African-American actress has ever won the Best Actress Oscar:

2020 was considered a landmark year when Viola Davis became the most-nominated black actress in Oscars history, now with four nominations (two in lead, and two in supporting. She also became the first black actress ever to have earned more than one Best Actress Oscar nomination. This year also marked the first time since 1972 that two black women were nominated in Best Actress in the same year.

2016 was the first year in Academy history in which black actors/actresses were nominated in each of the four acting categories. Seven of the 20 acting nominations in 2016 were non-white nominees (six African-American and one Britisher/Indian). This bested the record of five nominated blacks in 2006 and 2004. In 2017, there were four non-white nominees. Three nominated blacks occurred in three different years (2001, 1985, and 1972).

Years With Record Number of Black (Non-White) Nominees
2020 Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2020) Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah Leslie Odom, Jr., One Night in Miami LaKeith (Keith) Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah
2017 Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq. Danuel Kaluuya, Get Out Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
2016 Denzel Washington, Fences Ruth Negga, Loving Mahershala Ali, Moonlight Naomie Harris, Moonlight Viola Davis, Fences Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures+ British/Indian Dev Patel, Lion
2006 Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland Djimon Honsou, Blood Diamond Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
2004 Jamie Foxx, Ray Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby Jamie Foxx, Collateral Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda
2001 Halle Berry for Monster's Ball Denzel Washington for Training Day Will Smith for Ali
1985 Whoopi Goldberg for The Color Purple Margaret Avery for The Color Purple Oprah Winfrey for The Color Purple
1972 Diana Ross for Lady Sings the Blues Cicely Tyson for Sounder Paul Winfield for Sounder

The Most Nominations for a Black Actress:

In four instances, African-Americans have won two of the four acting prizes in the same year:

The only Caucasians who portrayed black characters and were nominated (but didn't win) for Academy Awards:

Latino, Asian and Other Minority (or Non-English) Performers or Nationalities:

Note: In 1985, all ten of the Best Actor/Actress nominees were American-born - the first time in Oscar history. Also, in 1964 and in 2007, all four winners of the performance/acting Oscars were non-Americans.

There have been very few nominations/wins of ethnic/minority female performers (or non-English) in the Best Actress category
[Note: The nominations for Best Actress amongst French actresses/speakers are numbered below]:

Only three female Asian-Americans have been nominated for the lead acting Oscar. The only Asian actress to win the Best Actress Oscar (twice, in 1939 and 1951) was Vivien Leigh, whose mother had an Irish and Indian background. Indian-born British actress Merle Oberon (although her origins have been clouded and disputed) was also nominated as Best Actress for The Dark Angel (1935), and reportedly the first Asian actress to be nominated for an Oscar. The third clearly East-Asian female nominee (and winner) was Michelle Yeoh, for her lead role inEverywhere Everything All at Once (2022).

White, Austrian performer Luise Rainer won a Best Actress Oscar for playing an Asian role in The Good Earth (1937).

Some notable Canadian-born Best Actress nominees and winners should also be noted: Mary Pickford winning for Coquette (1928/29), Norma Shearer winning for The Divorcee (1929/30), Marie Dressler winning for Min and Bill (1930/31), Genevieve Bujold nominated for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), and Ellen Page nominated for Juno (2007).

Nicole Kidman was the first Australian actress (although US born) to win the Best Actress Oscar award, for The Hours (2002). Australian actress Cate Blanchett also won Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (2013). Kidman was also nominated as Best Actress for her roles in Moulin Rouge! (2001), Rabbit Hole (2010), and Being the Ricardos (2021). Cate Blanchett was also nominated as Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Carol (2015), and Tár (2022). Other Australian actresses nominated for Best Actress include May Robson for Lady For a Day (1933), Judy Davis for A Passage to India (1984), and Naomi Watts for 21 Grams (2004).

Foreign-Language Performances to Win Major Oscars:

Only two actresses have won the Best Actress Oscar for a foreign-language performance:

The first acting Oscar winner from South Africa was Charlize Theron as Best Actress for Monster (2003). [She was also nominated for Best Actress for North Country (2005).] In the same year of 2003, Theron and Djimon Hounsou were the first African-born performers to be nominated for an Oscar. Benin native Djimon Hounsou was nominated (and lost) twice: for roles in In America (2003), and Blood Diamond (2006).

Other Notables:

Curiously, in the decade of the 1950s, none of the Best Actress Oscar winners appeared in a Best Picture winning film!

The only stars to win a Best Actress Oscar in a musical film were:

Winning Performances Portraying Royalty:

Silent Film Oscar Winners:

The only two performers to win Oscars (although the awards weren't officially called "Oscars" yet) for silent film performances were:

Youngest and Oldest Best Actresses: Nominees and Winners Note: The calculated time is from date of birth to the date of either (1) the nominations announcement, or (2) the date of the awards ceremony.
Youngest Best Actress Nominee Youngest Best Actress Winner Oldest Best Actress Nominee Oldest Best Actress Winner
9 years (and 135 days) Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) 21 years (and 218 days) Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (1986) 85 years (and 321 days) Emmanuelle Riva for Amour (2012) 80 years (and 292 days) Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Youngest Best Actress Nominee Runner-Ups: Youngest Best Actress Winner Runner-Ups: Oldest Best Actress Nominee Runner-Ups: Oldest Best Actress Winner Runner-Ups:
13 years (and 309 days) Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider (2003) 20 years (and 163 days) Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone (2010) 20 years (and 235 days) Isabelle Adjani for The Story of Adele H. (1975) 20 years (and 311 days) Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice (2005) 20 years (and 335 days) Ellen Page for Juno (2007) 21 years (and 171 days) Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (1986) [Note: Matlin was the first under-21 American actress to be nominated.] 21 years (and 277 days) Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn (2015) 22 years (and 60 days) Elizabeth Hartman for A Patch of Blue (1965) 22 years (and 128 days) Kate Winslet for **Titanic (1997)**22 years (and 134 days) Janet Gaynor for 7th Heaven (1927/28), Street Angel (1927/28), and Sunrise (1927/28) 22 years (and 193 days)Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook (2012) 22 years (and 222 days) Janet Gaynor for 3 films ( Sunrise (1927/28), Street Angel (1927/28) and Seventh Heaven (1927/28)) - she won for Seventh Heaven 24 years (and 127 days) Joan Fontaine for **Suspicion (1941)**24 years (and 325 days) Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday (1953) 25 years (and 0 days) Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette (1943) 25 years (and 4 days) Julie Christie for **Darling (1965)**25 years (and 138 days) Grace Kelly for **The Country Girl (1954)**25 years (and 240 days) Hilary Swank for **Boys Don't Cry (1999)**26 years (and 116 days) Vivien Leigh for Gone With the Wind (1939) 26 years (and 130 days) Jodie Foster for The Accused (1988) 80 years (and 252 days)Jessica Tandy for **Driving Miss Daisy (1989)**80 years (and 11 days) Dame Edith Evans for The Whisperers (1967) 79 years (and 38 days) Judi Dench for Philomena (2013) 75 years (and 313 days) May Robson for Lady for a Day (1932/33) [Note: Robson also has the earliest birth date of all performers ever nominated for an Oscar. She was born on April 19, 1858.] 74 years (and 275 days) Katharine Hepburn for **On Golden Pond (1981)**72 years (and 45 days) Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal (2006) 71 years (and 53 days) Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) 69 years (and 343 days) Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years (2015) 69 years (and 116 days) Fernanda Montenegro for Central Station (1998) 68 years (and 68 days) Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream (2000) 67 years (and 169 days) Ida Kaminska for The Shop on Main Street (1966) 74 years (and 321 days) Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond (1981) 63 year old Frances McDormand for Nomadland (2020) 63 years (and 1 day) Marie Dressler for **Min and Bill (1930/31)**62 years (and 249 days) Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady (2011) 61 years (and 337 days) Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968) 61 years (and 214 days) Helen Mirren for The Queen (2006) 61 years (and 122 days) Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful (1985) 60 years (and 334 days) Katharine Hepburn for **Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)**60 years (and 247 days) Frances McDormand for **Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)**54 years (and 201 days) Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) [Note: To date, Booth is the only Best Actress Oscar winner who was in her 50s when she won.] 53 years (and 50 days) Julianne Moore for Still Alice (2014) 49 years (and 351 days) Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment (1983)
Six years (and 310 days) Shirley Temple was the youngest performer to win an Academy Award when she won an unofficial honorary 'juvenile' Academy Award statuette in 1934, presented on February 27, 1935. 94 years (and 341 days) Eli Wallach was the oldest male performer to receive an honorary statuette, presented on November 13, 2010. 94 years (and 83 days) Maureen O'Hara was the oldest female performer to receive an honorary statuette, presented on November 8, 2014.