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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 (1977), 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 people. 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 Sandra Bullock, who was honored at the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony (2010) for her performance in The Blind Side.

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

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).

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 the exact 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), and Naomi Watts for 21 Grams (2004).

Sophia Loren 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) 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-mute 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).

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 - her second win. 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."

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

1920s

• 1927–1928 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

• 1928–1929 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

• 1929–1930 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

• 1930–1931 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

• 1931–1932 Helen Hayes - The Sin of Madelon Claudet as Madelon Claudet
  • Marie Dressler - Emma as Emma Thatcher Smith
  • Lynn Fontanne - The Guardsman as The Actress

• 1932–1933 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 last).

• 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 (tie) Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl as Fanny Brice
  • 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

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 Miller
  • Gabourey Sidibe – Precious as Claireece "Precious" Jones
  • Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia as Julia Child

International presence

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

• Australia: Nicole Kidman - American-born of Australian parents who were living temporarily in the United States (in Hawaii). Hence, Kidman is a native-born citizen of both countries)
• Canada: Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, and Marie Dressler, the winners in three years running (1929 – 31).
• France: Claudette Colbert, Simone Signoret, and Marion Cotillard. Colbert later became an American citizen.
• Germany: Luise Rainer
• Italy: Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren
• South Africa: Charlize Theron, who later became an American citizen.
• Sweden: Ingrid Bergman, who became an Italian by marriage.
• The Netherlands: Audrey Hepburn, who had a British father and a Dutch mother, and hence was a native-born citizen of both countries. Hepburn spent her girlhood and teenage years mostly in The Netherlands and in Belgium.
• United Kingdom: Vivien Leigh, Joan Fontaine, Greer Garson, Olivia de Havilland, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Jessica Tandy, Emma Thompson, Helen Mirren, and Kate Winslet.
• Elizabeth 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.

At the 37th Academy Awards (1965), all four of the top acting honors were awarded to non-Americans for the first time: Rex Harrison (British), Julie Andrews (British), Peter Ustinov (British), and Lila Kedrova (Russian-born French). This occurred for the second time at the 80th Academy Awards (2008), when the Academy Awards for acting were awarded to Daniel Day-Lewis (Irish/British), Marion Cotillard (French), Javier Bardem (Spanish), and Tilda Swinton (British).

See also

• List of Academy Awards ceremonies
• List of Best Actress winners by age at win
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
• List of actors who have won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a SAG, and a Critic's Choice Award for a single performance

References

1. "Halle Berry Biography: Page 2". People.com. Accessed 2007-12-20.
2. Redelmeier, Donald A. & Singh, Sheldon M. (15 May 2001), "Survival in Academy Award–Winning Actors and Actresses" (PDF), Annals of Internal Medicine: 961, retrieved 14 Jan 2009{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Redelmeier, Donald A. & Singh, Sheldon M. (5 Sep 2006), "Reanalysis of Survival of Oscar Winners" (PDF), Annals of Internal Medicine: 392, retrieved 14 Jan 2009{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Sylvestre, Marie-Pierre, Huszti, Ella & Hanley, James A. (5 Sep 2006), "Do Oscar Winners Live Longer than Less Successful Peers? A Reanalysis of the Evidence" (PDF), Annals of Internal Medicine: 361, retrieved 14 Jan 2009{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• Oscars.org (official Academy site)
• Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site)
• The Academy Awards Database (official site)
• Photos of the best actress nominees for the 80th Academy Awards (People.com)

• Academy Awards
• Best Actress Academy Award winners
• Film awards for lead actress
• Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award winning performance