Showing posts with label Maggie Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maggie Smith. Show all posts
Sunday, December 28, 2025
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Maggie Smith (1934-2024)
I almost certainly had seen Sister Act and Hook before I saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie given the timeline of my life, but watching Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie changed something inside of me on a cerebral level. It was one of those movies that you point to as being quintessential to your cinematic journey, one of those performances that is impossible to deny. In perhaps the first witty rejoinder I ever made in a review, I remember once writing "she made fascism fashionable," and indeed, Smith did in that role. The way she pronounced words, the callousness and broad hand she had, armed with the knowledge that she was always right, is such a specific character choice that Smith herself would never really top this performance...but to be fair, few actors could. Other than those performances given by Vivien Leigh & Marlon Brando, I'd argue this is the finest performance that any Oscar winner has ever given onscreen...Smith is that good.
But let's face it-Smith was always good. And she was always so specific. For an actress that frequently played a trope (initially a sexually-aware woman-of-class, then eventually prim dowager types with a barbed tongue), she always brought such depth to her work. There's a reason that so many people felt her as being one of "their actresses," and it wasn't just that she worked in series that were insanely popular like Sister Act, Harry Potter, and eventually Downton Abbey (the show that would become her chagrin as it made her more famous than she had ever wanted...and therefore the work most cited in her obituaries). It was that she made them popular-she could deliver every line with such specificity that you knew only she could make it work. She was nominated for six Academy Awards...which never felt quite like enough.
She was also one of those actresses it was impossible to imagine film without. She worked constantly, starring in a film as recently as last year with Kathy Bates & Laura Linney called The Miracle Club, and like her contemporaries Judi Dench & Ian McKellen, was such a treasure you wanted to believe that the world would keep her around forever. But even the most immortal of beings have to drift to the other side someday, and this week, to paraphrase the song that her character made famous, Smith came out to the meadow.
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
OVP: Supporting Actress (2001)
OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2001)
The Nominees Were...
Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom
Kate Winslet, Iris
My Thoughts: We talked a little bit about this in the Adapted Screenplay race, but part of the reason that A Beautiful Mind has aged poorly is not because it was a bad movie, but because it beat better movies at the Oscars. When this is discussed, the focus is usually on the Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay races, mostly because people do not enjoy being mean about individual actors winning Oscars. It's weird when there's a star with dozens of characters (potentially in movies you like) behind the win (this is partially why people win in the first place for performances that might not be worthy or are just career-achievement statues). But that's definitely the case here, as it's hard to look at this list of either actors or performances and not think that the least of them won. But let's see if that's actually the case?
Jennifer Connelly is an actress I don't get, though I'd never name check her as an actress I dislike. She's very beautiful, and I think her best role might be The Rocketeer, where she leans in on that, or perhaps Requiem for a Dream (though there she's upstaged by Ellen Burstyn). This work is solid-I think she understands Alicia Nash, and she delivers her monologues beautifully. But I believe this falls too often into the trope of "what if there was a wife?", where the role is largely meant to be a reflection of her husband. That's sometimes called for in a movie, but it's not the type of role I think of when I think of handing someone an Oscar, and that's what we're talking about given the point of this article, so Connelly falls short.
On the flip side, you have Helen Mirren doing everything she can to nail a side character that will come into further focus as the movie churns along. This was still during Mirren's "acting god" phase, before she won an Oscar & was never quite as good again. Every line in this is really something from her, starting off as very cross & devoted to her employer, and as we move on we understand there's more to both that relationship and the relationships of those around her than meets the eye. By the crucial climax of the film, she's done all of the work to get to ace her big monologue, totally devastating the audience as the film closes.
Mirren's definitely going in on all cylinders here, in maybe her best film work to date, and is playing against type as a dowdy maid. Two other actresses in this race are playing into our expectations of them, but doing so beautifully. Mirren's costar Maggie Smith is one of them. I think Smith's role here, which would inspire her part in Downton Abbey, is more substantive than some of her later "comic relief dowagers." She plays her part beautifully between being someone who is mocked (she's poor, and has to rely on her richer relations for money), but also who has lived this life for so long she doesn't know how to be anything other than what she currently is. It's a balance she pulls off with a great deal of wit, but the work she's done, like Mirren, pays off toward the end in smaller moments as she becomes relieved that her problems entering the house aren't what they were when she leaves, showing just below the veneer.
The other actress who is leaning into what we'd expect from her is Kate Winslet. This was during that period where pretty much every Winslet performance was an event, leading up to her inevitable Oscar. Winslet is marvelous here. Yes, she's playing another earth mother role that is sexually liberated, but she does so with finesse. She is given the difficult task of giving us an Iris to mourn as Judi Dench's character shows what has been lost, full of life, vitality, and genius. Winslet does that brilliantly, frequently shocking the audience but doing so with enough specificity that this Iris doesn't get lost alongside some of her other work of this period.
The final nominee is Marisa Tomei, who at the time felt like she was giving a middle finger to the people who, for a decade, had been talking about her My Cousin Vinny win as if it was a gigantic mistake the Oscars made. Tomei is smart in this part, playing her role as someone whose motives aren't always clear-does she love Nick Stahl's Frank, or is he just a way out of a bad life for herself? Is she aware of the danger she's putting Frank in...and does she care if it means that she might get out? Tomei plays this fluttering beneath her eyes, a sense of a pretty girl who generally can play that card to get out of responsibility. It's the sort of role that easily could've been played just for sympathy or sentiment, but she makes her steelier, a bit more ruthless, and that helps make the ending (even when she's offscreen) so powerful.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Connelly, besting Mirren, Smith, Winslet, Tomei, & Cameron Diaz (Vanilla Sky). The SAG Awards put Connelly in lead due to a balloting error, so the winner was Mirren, who beat Diaz, Cate Blanchett (Bandits), Judi Dench (The Shipping News), & Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam). BAFTA went back to Connelly, topping Mirren, Dench, Winslet, & Smith. I'm torn on sixth place. Diaz did the best in the precursors, but Diaz was cited for a lot of precursors during this era (not just for Vanilla Sky, but also There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich and Gangs of New York) and couldn't make it for any of them, so I think she just wasn't Oscar's speed. I'm guessing it was between Dench & Fanning, and I'm going to lean toward Fanning given Dench was already in for Iris...Penn getting in for Best Actor makes me think they liked the film, and children do well in this category.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: This is a very good lineup, the best of the four acting lineups that Oscar amassed in 2001. But if they could've squeezed in Cate Blanchett's Galadriel, it would've been even better.
Oscar’s Choice: Connelly spent the entire season giving extraordinarily dull acceptance speeches, but Oscar didn't care and gave her the statue.
My Choice: Mirren is the best of this very good lineup-she's not just playing against type, but she's the emotional crux of her film. Following her I'd go Smith the silver, followed by Winslet, Tomei, and Connelly. The reputation of this race was right-she was out of her league.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Do you side with the Academy in giving Jennifer Connelly her only statue, or would you like to join me in the downstairs with Helen Mirren? Doesn't it feel a bit of a crime that no Robert Altman film ever won an acting trophy given how good he was with actors? And was it Fanning, Dench, or Diaz in sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
Tea with the Dames (2018)
Film: Tea with the Dames (2018)
Stars: Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith
Director: Roger Michell
Oscar History: No nominations for the film, but with nominations for 14 Oscars, 16 Emmys, 31 Olivier Awards, 26 Globes, & an astounding 49 BAFTA citations, this is a cast that is perpetually in need of more shelf space for their hardware.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars
I sometimes imagine the joy that other people feel when watching SportsCenter or Real Housewives is the joy I feel watching actresses being interviewed. I love literally nothing more than talking about movies and acting and performances, and seek out such a thrill every chance I get. If such an analogy works, Tea with the Dames would surely be a Super Bowl of sorts. Seating Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, & Maggie Smith in the same room is absolute unparalleled bliss, watching them spar, chuckle, and think over decades of performances, careers, and costars. Honestly-even if it's never quite as flawless as the trailer made it seem, the movie is impossible to resist, and filled with marvelous quotes and reflections from four grand titans in the world of acting.
The film follows the four longtime friends on what appears to be a leisurely weekend at Plowright's country estate, one that she used to own with her husband, Laurence Olivier, who costarred with all four women throughout their careers. The film meanders between table conversations among the four women, with Dench & Smith, obviously the most famous of the quartet, dominating the chatting, and then one-on-one interviews with either one or two of the women in pairs. The film focuses a lot on their stage work, which is extensive and kind of admirably ridiculous (between the four women, is there a play by Shakespeare or Chekhov that they haven't got covered?), occasionally meandering their time in film or their personal lives, but most frequently it's just meandering conversation, quite frequently sneaking in the names of other titled thespians with whom they worked (in addition to Olivier, players as diverse as John Gielgud, Edith Evans, and Robert Stephens all get name-checked, frequently with a "Sir" or "Dame" tagged on to pay respect).
The movie is, on its own merits, fine. The film suffers a bit from waiting too long for making such a picture. Smith, at a very-recent 84, is the youngest of the bunch, and age has started to put a strain on the once matchless wit of the women, as we are reminded when Michell throws in snippets of old interviews of the actresses. It's a bit heartbreaking watching Plowright, in particular, walk around the house with handrails and a guide, as she has gone almost completely blind in the past decade and as a result is absent for more of the picture than the other three women. Not even 90 minutes long, it feels like the sort of film that needed a bit more spring, but also would have benefited from more length (provided the length wasn't just filler), and it's hard to watch & not come to the realization that these amazing women may someday soon all be gone from our mortal coil.
That said, it's impossible to deny the pleasures of such a movie. Watching these four women, who have given the world so much with their talents and gifts, is a thrill. Each one of them has film and television memories for me etched across her face, and so I could go watch this exact movie again right now and be totally fine. The movie may not be everything I hoped, but what's there is more than enough. Flighty, fun, getting all of its meaning from four proper legends of stage and screen, all of whom it's impossible not to love if you care at all for the art of acting.
Stars: Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith
Director: Roger Michell
Oscar History: No nominations for the film, but with nominations for 14 Oscars, 16 Emmys, 31 Olivier Awards, 26 Globes, & an astounding 49 BAFTA citations, this is a cast that is perpetually in need of more shelf space for their hardware.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars
The film follows the four longtime friends on what appears to be a leisurely weekend at Plowright's country estate, one that she used to own with her husband, Laurence Olivier, who costarred with all four women throughout their careers. The film meanders between table conversations among the four women, with Dench & Smith, obviously the most famous of the quartet, dominating the chatting, and then one-on-one interviews with either one or two of the women in pairs. The film focuses a lot on their stage work, which is extensive and kind of admirably ridiculous (between the four women, is there a play by Shakespeare or Chekhov that they haven't got covered?), occasionally meandering their time in film or their personal lives, but most frequently it's just meandering conversation, quite frequently sneaking in the names of other titled thespians with whom they worked (in addition to Olivier, players as diverse as John Gielgud, Edith Evans, and Robert Stephens all get name-checked, frequently with a "Sir" or "Dame" tagged on to pay respect).
The movie is, on its own merits, fine. The film suffers a bit from waiting too long for making such a picture. Smith, at a very-recent 84, is the youngest of the bunch, and age has started to put a strain on the once matchless wit of the women, as we are reminded when Michell throws in snippets of old interviews of the actresses. It's a bit heartbreaking watching Plowright, in particular, walk around the house with handrails and a guide, as she has gone almost completely blind in the past decade and as a result is absent for more of the picture than the other three women. Not even 90 minutes long, it feels like the sort of film that needed a bit more spring, but also would have benefited from more length (provided the length wasn't just filler), and it's hard to watch & not come to the realization that these amazing women may someday soon all be gone from our mortal coil.
That said, it's impossible to deny the pleasures of such a movie. Watching these four women, who have given the world so much with their talents and gifts, is a thrill. Each one of them has film and television memories for me etched across her face, and so I could go watch this exact movie again right now and be totally fine. The movie may not be everything I hoped, but what's there is more than enough. Flighty, fun, getting all of its meaning from four proper legends of stage and screen, all of whom it's impossible not to love if you care at all for the art of acting.
Monday, February 04, 2019
The Lady in the Van (2015)
Film: The Lady in the Van (2015)
Stars: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Jim Broadbent (plus a lot of really fun cameos that I won't spoil here)
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Oscar History: Smith received nominations for the Globes & BAFTA, indicating a strong play (I'd argue that it was either she or Mirren who was in sixth place at the Oscars that year), but 2015 was arguably Best Actress's strongest slate in this decade, and so she just missed out on a seventh Oscar citation.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars
This morning we returned to 2015, and I have every intention of continuing to plow through 2015 so that I can get that year off of my back. But before we can bid that annum adieu, we have to catch a pair of 2015 films that were nominated for major acting precursors, but for some reason I never got around to at the time. The first of these films is arguably the one that made the most sense as a precursor (the other sort of came out of nowhere), and I suspect was just a few votes short of being part of our OVP to begin with: The Lady in the Van. What initially felt like just another toss-away "I can do it in my sleep" Maggie Smith role actually ended up being a bit more challenging work from the actress, or so the critics had proclaimed. As a result, I watched this with interest to see if Smith, one of the best actresses of her generation who seems to have caught a whiff of the "Robert de Niro/Coasting Legend Syndrome" could actually create a compelling new creation.
(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses on the real-life relationship between Alan Bennett (Jennings), the noted playwright and author of The History Boys, as well as Mary Shepherd (Smith), an eccentric older woman who would be all-but-homeless were it not for the van that she lives in on Bennett's block. They develop a strained friendship, with Bennett fascinated by her, having her inspire his work (much to his chagrin) and in many ways she reminds him of the mother with whom he has a complicated relationship, not least of which because he's hiding his homosexuality from her and the world. Shepherd seems to have lived a dozen lives, once a war nurse and a concert pianist and potentially a killer (this is how Smith opens the film, with her hitting a man with her car, seemingly by accident but it continually haunts her). Their friendship turns into something real, and we watch as she lives essentially in his driveway for fifteen years, never entirely giving in on her own independence even as she continues to rely on Bennett more heavily.
The movie has a few quirks that you'd only find in a British comedy. Bennett is actually two separate characters, one a flesh-and-blood man & the other his manifested subconscious, where he has conversations about the things he's hiding from the world and the way that he resents himself for continually writing about Shepherd rather than his own life or his romantic pursuits. The movie is littered with cameos, including all of the original History Boys, which is wonderful to see (James Corden & Sacha Dhawan are my favorites of the bunch here, and of course Russell Tovey plays the random lover, because Russell Tovey is always a sex bomb whenever he's onscreen so why not lean into it?), which occasionally keeps the plot moving as it becomes a bit repetitive and Bennett as a protagonist is at times infuriating; he keeps his own personality at arm's length, and it doesn't make it better when he's expository about it late in the film.
But the movie is worth the price if only for Smith (and the cameos), as she truly hasn't been this good on the big screen in years, perhaps since Gosford Park. Smith finds some interesting humanity in a character she could have just gone-through-the-motions with and still gotten a similarly solid box office. I love the ways that she gives us hints of not just the woman she once was, but the woman she might have been had tragedy and mental illness not struck. The big scene where she sits at the piano, in the dark, could have been indulgent in a lesser actors care, but here it feels so real, so heartbreaking as she must break the shell of a character she's needed to craft to get through each day, and must only for a moment find a window into a world she once inhabited. In almost any other year, this would've been an easy Oscar nomination (put this in 2014 or 2016, for example, and she'd have made it, and probably not even in fifth place), but I'm glad the Globes & BAFTA found room so that I could catch this late gem in Smith's career.
Stars: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Jim Broadbent (plus a lot of really fun cameos that I won't spoil here)
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Oscar History: Smith received nominations for the Globes & BAFTA, indicating a strong play (I'd argue that it was either she or Mirren who was in sixth place at the Oscars that year), but 2015 was arguably Best Actress's strongest slate in this decade, and so she just missed out on a seventh Oscar citation.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses on the real-life relationship between Alan Bennett (Jennings), the noted playwright and author of The History Boys, as well as Mary Shepherd (Smith), an eccentric older woman who would be all-but-homeless were it not for the van that she lives in on Bennett's block. They develop a strained friendship, with Bennett fascinated by her, having her inspire his work (much to his chagrin) and in many ways she reminds him of the mother with whom he has a complicated relationship, not least of which because he's hiding his homosexuality from her and the world. Shepherd seems to have lived a dozen lives, once a war nurse and a concert pianist and potentially a killer (this is how Smith opens the film, with her hitting a man with her car, seemingly by accident but it continually haunts her). Their friendship turns into something real, and we watch as she lives essentially in his driveway for fifteen years, never entirely giving in on her own independence even as she continues to rely on Bennett more heavily.
The movie has a few quirks that you'd only find in a British comedy. Bennett is actually two separate characters, one a flesh-and-blood man & the other his manifested subconscious, where he has conversations about the things he's hiding from the world and the way that he resents himself for continually writing about Shepherd rather than his own life or his romantic pursuits. The movie is littered with cameos, including all of the original History Boys, which is wonderful to see (James Corden & Sacha Dhawan are my favorites of the bunch here, and of course Russell Tovey plays the random lover, because Russell Tovey is always a sex bomb whenever he's onscreen so why not lean into it?), which occasionally keeps the plot moving as it becomes a bit repetitive and Bennett as a protagonist is at times infuriating; he keeps his own personality at arm's length, and it doesn't make it better when he's expository about it late in the film.
But the movie is worth the price if only for Smith (and the cameos), as she truly hasn't been this good on the big screen in years, perhaps since Gosford Park. Smith finds some interesting humanity in a character she could have just gone-through-the-motions with and still gotten a similarly solid box office. I love the ways that she gives us hints of not just the woman she once was, but the woman she might have been had tragedy and mental illness not struck. The big scene where she sits at the piano, in the dark, could have been indulgent in a lesser actors care, but here it feels so real, so heartbreaking as she must break the shell of a character she's needed to craft to get through each day, and must only for a moment find a window into a world she once inhabited. In almost any other year, this would've been an easy Oscar nomination (put this in 2014 or 2016, for example, and she'd have made it, and probably not even in fifth place), but I'm glad the Globes & BAFTA found room so that I could catch this late gem in Smith's career.
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
My Dozen Favorite Actresses
I am back to writing daily blog articles this week, and as a result of that, I want to do a few GTKY articles in relation to movies, as we're now entering the phase of the year where we weirdly overlap movies/politics. The Oscars are picking up, the elections are in full-swing, and so I decided to do a series of three articles (we'll go one today, one Thursday, and one this weekend) where I count down my dozen favorite actresses, actors, and directors, of all-time.
I haven't really done this before, and I was debating whether to rank or whether to go alphabetical, and partially because of a cop-out, but mostly because I think it's darn near impossible to actually rank different actors/styles, I decided to go alphabetical below. If I get enough comments (or at least a couple), I'll spill the beans about how I would have properly ranked these, but in the meantime, let's start with the ladies as they're always the most interesting.
Honorable Mentions: It has to be said that a lot of women were in contention here. There are some that just missed (Cate Blanchett ignobly was positioned at thirteenth, with people like Tilda Swinton, Julie Christie, and Myrna Loy were not far behind). There are a few actresses where I feel like they're poised for greatness, but haven't quite made enough movies yet (Chastain, Viola Davis, Cotillard, Weisz), while others I've always loved but can't quite claim to have seen enough of their filmography to warrant a spot (Stanwyck, Lombard, Hayworth, and Dietrich all spring to mind). It also has to be said that I could name-check women that should be on this list until the end of time, while the men's list will not remotely approach this adoration. This is an endlessly fun activity, though, so please berate, agree, and recommend in the comments (along with providing your own list).
Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)
Oscar History: 7 nominations/3 wins (Gaslight, Anastasia, The Murder on the Orient Express)
First Impressions: I think my first experience with Ingrid Bergman was actually Casablanca-I want to say I saw it right at the same time as Anastasia so theoretically I could have seen her there first, but my gut is telling me Casablanca was the culprit.
Why the Love: I don't think that you can pinpoint exactly one reason to love Ingrid Bergman, for many years my easy answer for favorite actress (I'm not ranking here, but she'd be still be Top 5). She has this instinctive, natural introverted glamour in every movie she makes. Even when she's being funny or joyous, there's something mesmerizing in the way that she does it. There are few actresses in the history of cinema I've felt more connected to the language of their eyes and faces-she is the sort of performer who would have been famous in every decade of the movies.
My Favorite Performance: Casablanca, most assuredly. I know she didn't like that everyone pointed this movie out, but she's my favorite performance in my favorite movie, and the way she just effortlessly projects being the object of Rick's affection, and yet still striking in her own ways as a woman complicated by loving two men at once: it's to-die-for.
Missing Piece: Almost certainly the performance of hers I'm missing and most excited to see is Autumn Sonata. I love both Bergmans, and so the idea of the two of them together is thrilling.
Juliette Binoche (1964-Present)
Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (The English Patient)
First Impressions: I think the first film I ever saw of hers was Chocolat, a film I remember quite enjoying when it came out even if it was a bit frothy (it's the sort of pleasant comedy that I tend to have a lovely time with even if it's not remotely Oscar-worthy), though I will save both my brother and I the embarrassment of sharing my initial thoughts of Binoche, particularly when she shockingly bested Lauren Bacall at the Oscars.
Why the Love: Binoche is truly a superb actress, one who finds the center in pretty much every characterization she's in, and who has been, in her forties and now fifties, continually growing. Her early work as a young, earthy beauty has transformed into a mature, confident performer, one who continually amazes even decades after she first got onto our screens. Honestly-Binoche is one of those rare performers I'll not only see all of their movies, I'd be willing to bet I'd like the movie that holds them.
My Favorite Performance: Surely it'd have to be (my favorite?-it competes with Casablanca on a steady basis) movie The English Patient. The way she handles line readings as the optimistic, but consistently abandoned Hana is a work of pure poetry.
Missing Piece: I've never seen Blue. I know, I have no excuse on that one.
Joan Crawford (1904-1977)
Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Mildred Pierce)
First Impressions: Like most people younger than forty, my first impression of Crawford was clutching a wire hanger, being impersonated by Faye Dunaway in a camp classic (which I've never seen somehow, but we all know that rodeo even if we haven't caught the picture).
Why the Love: No Golden Age performer has grown more on me in recent years than Joan Crawford. Seriously, for all of the Mommie Dearest jokes or the cracks about her shoulder pads, Crawford was a consummate movie star, and a damned fine screen presence. Honestly-I have yet to find a film of hers where I didn't enjoy her, even if occasionally the films surrounding her border on the absurd (or more accurately in her grand guignol period, the camp). Crawford is intensely watchable, perhaps even more so than her arch-rival (who, thanks to a fortuitous use of the alphabet, she sits right atop right now), and always holds the attention of every movie she's starring in (Joan Crawford doesn't do bit parts).
My Favorite Performance: I mean, I truly hope one of these isn't a horrible cliche, but I'm going to go with Mildred Pierce, where she's absolutely aces as a melodramatic mother (with a daughter from hell). She won the Oscar in a bit of a surprise that year, but her victory was well-earned. Truly, though-Joan Crawford's greatest role was pretty much always Joan Crawford.
Missing Piece: I haven't seen either of her other two Oscar-nominated turns in Possessed and Sudden Fear, so I'll go with those-arguably the two Best Actress nominations I'm most looking forward to from the late 40's/early 50's.
Bette Davis (1908-1989)
Oscar History: 10 nominations/2 wins (Dangerous and Jezebel)
First Impressions: The Kim Carnes song aside, my first introduction to Bette Davis was weirdly Jezebel. When I first got into the Oscars I started randomly watching any film on AMC that had ever won a Big 6 trophy, which is why a twelve-year-old boy was watching a then sixty-year-old movie about a woman desperately (but unfortunately) in love with Hank Fonda.
Why the Love: Because Bette Davis doesn't take shit from anybody, and you have to admire someone like that. You'll notice by now if you're peaking ahead that I didn't put her longtime Oscar rival Kate Hepburn on this list. At one point she absolutely would have made this and if I expanded to 20 I probably would have found room, but Hepburn I almost never could get into when she did drama (1968 set aside). Davis, on the other hand, was worth it whenever she was delivering a laugh or a dramatic line, and perhaps was best when she was trying to do both (Baby Jane Hudson, anyone?). She was a consummate actress, even if the public toward the end of her career demanded a movie star, and one that echoed her tough broad persona even more than in her heyday. Davis always delivered.
My Favorite Performance: I looked ahead-I don't always go with the cliche, so I'm here going to say the role that she was born to play (all do respect to the talented Claudette Colbert, but it wouldn't have been the same had the producers' first choice been available): Margo Channing. Her throw-a-mink-like-a-wet-umbrella attitude was classic, and she sells all of the lines of (arguably) the best screenplay ever written with All About Eve. A close runner-up is her desperate romantic nature in Now, Voyager, which is a much better movie than you remember it.
Missing Piece: I'm going to go with Dark Victory, the film she ended up in instead of Gone with the Wind, and the movie that many people suspect she would have clinched her third Oscar for had it not been for Vivien Leigh.
Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)
Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (Roman Holiday)
First Impressions: Like so many, I remember loving My Fair Lady growing up, thinking it absolutely loverly.
Why the Love: Audrey Hepburn has also been someone that I've said for years is "my favorite actress" and depending on the day probably still is. There's a quiet grace in her work, something that's hard to pinpoint but evident when she's at the top of her game. It's not just the waif-like beauty, but also the way she presents her heartbroken self as genuine, and genuinely lonely. I see something like Sabrina, and am flabbergasted at how good her performance is in an era where she was more likely to go into histrionics over a lost man than simply sustain a subdued facial expression. Hepburn largely disappeared from the cinema after she set it afire for most of the 1950's and 60's, but she left a wonderful footprint.
My Favorite Performance: Sabrina Fairchild is actually pretty close to the top-it's one of those romantic comedies that works better if you slightly change the ending (Sabrina never really needed any man-just her Paris cookbooks), but I can't deny the impact that Holly Golightly has had on me. I spent years after Breakfast at Tiffany's emulating her deep, distant love for Fred, to the point where I once walked in front of Tiffany's with a croissant, playing "Moon River" on my iPod. Yes, that happened-the movies are my life.
Missing Piece: Arguably Hepburn is the actress I do the best on in terms of seeing all of the important works. I am missing her Oscar-nominated turn in The Nun's Story, and while I haven't heard great things (it seems to be the weakest link in her AMPAS quintet), it's the only major film she ever made I haven't caught, so I'll go with that one.
Diane Keaton (1946-Present)
Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Annie Hall, though Keaton better step it up if she's going to continue her strange only-once-a-decade Oscar streak).
First Impressions: One of my mom's all-time favorite films is Baby Boom, and we would watch it as a family on a regular basis for many a movie night-I probably still know most of it by heart.
Why the Love: Keaton's the quirky girl you desperately hope to be while forcing yourself to fit into a group of people you don't really like. The actress is strangely good in drama (oddly enough, despite her multiple successful forays into comedy, she's actually best as a dramatic actress), imbuing her characters with a wide-eyed forcefulness, even if they don't match her actions. She's spent years creating a honed, eccentric (and besuited) persona offscreen, but my love for her comes in the quieter, honest moments she brings to the big-screen.
My Favorite Performance: I told you I'd go off the beaten path here. I love Annie Hall, don't get me wrong, and what a wonderful thing that she got her Oscar for Woody's magnum opus, but for me this has to go to Reds, one of the most romantic films ever made and almost certainly Warren's magnum opus as well. I might even put Annie in third, behind Louise and then Kay Corleone, in the second installment of the series (I may or may not have done the "it was an abortion" speech every single time my brother and I were washing dishes as a kid).
Missing Piece: Here's a strange case where I've seen most of her work, including a lot of her stuff with Allen. Perhaps Looking for Mr. Goodbar, the film that many people thought helped carry her Academy Award across the finish line?
Nicole Kidman (1967-Present)
Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (The Hours)
First Impressions: I believe that Nicole Kidman was one of the first actresses to ever really underscore what a sexy woman was for me, which is a weird thing for a very gay man to proclaim, but her work in Batman Forever was so glamorous, and I maintain to this day that I'd probably be into blonds if I were straight (fortunately for me I'm gay...and into redheads).
Why the Love: Kidman, after a decade of being married to Tom Cruise with only a spattering of success, managed to have one of the great second acts of movie history, pushing out a series of fine, pitch-perfect performances for auteur after auteur. She is courageous as a performer (witness The Paperboy), gamely finding herself in pretty much every vision that is put in front of her, and is occasionally lightning in a bottle when she finds the right match for her icy, grand talents.
My Favorite Performance: Oh Satine, you are breathtaking, but I will always be looking to Virginia Woolf, waiting for the train. I am that person who actually thought she deserved the Oscar for The Hours even in hindsight.
Missing Piece: The 2004 duo of Birth/Dogville stick out in my mind, or perhaps even the dark comedy of To Die For. Either way, Kidman is that rare recent actress where I actually have some room to grow.
Vivien Leigh (1913-1967)
Oscar History: 2 nominations/ 2 wins (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire)
First Impressions: Strangely, it's not Scarlett, but Blanche that first made my acquaintance. I was eleven-years-old, and I credit that screening of A Streetcar Named Desire as the exact moment that I permanently became a fan of the movies, someone who didn't just go casually but was willing to devote their life to them.
Why the Love: Because Vivien Leigh is perfect, and not just because she gave two of the world's most iconic performances. Leigh is glamorous steel, a weird conglomerate of pixieish beauty and a dangerous, ardent performer's heart. She also may be one of the cinema's most underrated performers. I mean, look at some of the work that she's done-even if she just had her two most iconic creations, that'd probably be enough to be on this list, but she also found time to make a slew of romantic heroines in the 1940's that were continually excellent.
My Favorite Performance: Leigh's made some of my all-time favorite films, and while Gone with the Wind is a titanic achievement (word-choice quite purposeful) and Waterloo Bridge is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen, nothing compares to Streetcar. I've seen thousands of movies, tens of thousands of performances, and this is my favorite in all of film history.
Missing Piece: I'd probably go with The Deep Blue Sea, a film that I absolutely loved Rachel Weisz in a few years (I would have given her the Oscar), as I think the tortured soul having a love affair is a part Leigh was born to play.
Shirley MacLaine (1934-Present)
Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Terms of Endearment...though it's worth noting one of her nominations was for directing the documentary The Other Half of the Sky)
First Impressions: My first impression of Shirley was actually not a film, and not even her belief in channelling or UFO's, but instead an ardent need to see the film Guarding Tess, which looked delightful when I would constantly pass it at our local video rental store, but I never was able to rent it (it had to have been rated PG-13, which was forbidden in my household). Either way, I loved the sly grin she had on all of those posters and was convinced it could be a favorite movie.
Why the Love: MacLaine is one of those performers I've come to more passionately as the years have gone by, an actress that is so consistent it's hard to remember she's also consistently refreshing. I honestly can't think of a Shirley MacLaine performance I didn't love. I've seen other actresses on this list upstaged, but I genuinely can't remember a single MacLaine film where she isn't the best part about it-it's the fact that she's always a trouper. While other actors of her generation slid into the laziness of playing themselves over-and-over-and-over again (cough, Al Pacino), Shirley continues to make interesting films whenever she gets the chance well into her eighties. Man do I wish filmmakers would take advantage of her still solid timing and ability. We deserve a Shirley moment for the ages just one more time.
My Favorite Performance: Aurora Greenway-it's that perfect combination of terrific movie, marvelous movie star turn, and damn fine acting. It was probably a victory for MacLaine at the Oscars because "how the hell hasn't she won yet?" but it's likely she would have won anyway even if she was hunting for a second trophy as she was just that good.
Missing Piece: I'll go with The Turning Point, a film that stars not only Shirley, but actually gets her to act opposite an actress I haven't seen her with (Anne Bancroft). Shirley's always at her best starring opposite other women (Debra Winger, Meryl Streep), so this feels like an easy answer to investigate.
Maggie Smith (1934-Present)
Oscar History: 6 nominations/2 wins (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite)
First Impressions: Maggie Smith is that rare performer who, especially for Millennials, is littered with performances you remember from childhood. My first impression of her was actually in Hook, though, as an aging Wendy. I thought she was wonderfully creepy and old in the role (which is saying something for the makeup department, who made her look older than she was), and it was kind of a love affair whenever I found her later on in any picture.
Why the Love: Smith's voice is where it starts. That crisp, precise accent that only she can achieve (though countless comedians are constantly trying to parody), is so marvelous and exact. But she's an actress that can rely on more than just her dialect. She's someone with great feeling. It might shock a generation of people who watched her do her "Maggie Smith schtick" in things like Downton, Harry Potter, and Best Exotic Marigold, all prim and upper-crust, to know that she once-upon-a-time was an actress that was quite sexual in her role choices and would fling herself into affairs in my favorite of her works. Smith is the sort of presence, even if the film's not on the top of its game, I'm always more than joyful to see show up on an opening credits line.
My Favorite Performance: Undoubtedly this would have to be The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, one of those rare Best Actress wins that not only totally deserved the win, but was the exact right moment for an actor who was actually a bit of a surprise victory at the time. It's a towering achievement if you've never had the chance to catch it, and one of my personal favorite movies.
Missing Piece: I somehow have never seen the other film that won her an Oscar in California Suite, which I'll obviously hit sometime in the OVP, but impatience may get the better of me one day and I'll move it to the top of the queue.
Meryl Streep (1949-Present)
Oscar History: 19 nominations/3 wins (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady)
First Impressions: I genuinely don't know what the first film starring Meryl Streep I ever saw was-I want to say it might have been Kramer or The Deer Hunter-that sounds about right as I would have seen both of those films when I was first starting to watch Oscar-winning pictures. My first impression of her, though, was that she was an actress that was treated as something of a deity, as I remember reading an Entertainment Weekly Oscar issue in 1995 where they talked about how she could upset Susan Sarandon's expected victory as she had legions of fans at the Oscars who always voted for her (they may have been onto something there).
Why the Love: I mean, at this point naming Streep as one of your favorite actresses is like naming Michael Jordan one of your favorite basketball players-everyone has to do it. But the point of the matter is that Streep deserves her spot in the pantheon. Some of her work, especially when she's at the top of her game, is unmatched. She can develop a naturalism onscreen like few others can achieve, and she's that rare multi-talented performer where it's almost hard to tell what she's best at-she can make you laugh, make you cry, she can sing like an angel and forebode with just the slightest of inflections. All-in-all, Streep is worthy of all the hype. After all, she can live up to it.
My Favorite Performance: For years I would have said The French Lieutenant's Woman, but I've actually had something of a resurgence this year of Streep roles (I've seen three of her Oscar-nominated turns for the first time...four if we think Florence Foster Jenkins gets there, which is looking increasingly plausible), and one of them has taken the top of the heap: Silkwood, where Streep casts aside pretty much any pretenses we have about her and just, scene-after-scene, is marvelous and exact and nails it. A brilliant piece of work.
Missing Piece: Like I said, I'm working my way through all of Streep's Oscar-nominated turns quickly and swiftly, but I still have two left: A Cry in the Dark and One True Thing. So I'll go with those two, but the Streep filmography gaps are closing quickly.
Kate Winslet (1975-Present)
Oscar History: 7 nominations/1 win (The Reader)
First Impressions: I actually most remember my mom talking about how much she liked her. The 1995 Oscars were the first Academy Awards I really got into (it helped that there were several films like Apollo 13, Batman Forever, and Babe that I had actually seen which were up for a number of awards), and I recall my mom looking at the Supporting Actress lineup and proclaiming Kate Winslet the one that should have won. As my mom dictated a lot of the movies I could see, that instantly added a huge weight in wanting to see Winslet in more films.
Why the Love: Winslet is the youngest actress on this list by nearly a decade, and so I teetered whether to include her or thinking perhaps she was still too new (and hadn't yet entered the treacherous-for-actresses period of her 40's). Yet I can't deny the love is there, and pretty much always there. I've seen most of Winslet's filmography, and she's one of the few women on this list I can genuinely claim I've seen every one of their Oscar-cited turns. She's a vision, consistently, onscreen-someone who is rarely judgmental of her characters, which gives imperfect creations like Rose or Marianne or Hanna so much more weight as she portrays them on the big screen.
My Favorite Performance: I'm torn. I think arguably her best acting role ever was Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a truly wonderful and special movie, one that will probably never be duplicated (it feels like the kind of film you only pull off once in a career), but the other half of me is screaming "TITANIC!" at the top of my lungs. As she's the last actress listed here, I'll just say both and cheat and bravo for getting through one of my lengthier blog posts.
Missing Piece: Like I said, Winslet's a rare performer I've actually seen most of her major movies. I'll go with her big break, though, which I haven't caught yet which is Heavenly Creatures.
There you have it-my twelve favorite actresses! Like I said, please take some time to visit the comments section, as I'm positive you have your own list of favorite actresses, or thoughts on mine! There's a plethora of comments directions to take, so I encourage you to do so!
I haven't really done this before, and I was debating whether to rank or whether to go alphabetical, and partially because of a cop-out, but mostly because I think it's darn near impossible to actually rank different actors/styles, I decided to go alphabetical below. If I get enough comments (or at least a couple), I'll spill the beans about how I would have properly ranked these, but in the meantime, let's start with the ladies as they're always the most interesting.
Honorable Mentions: It has to be said that a lot of women were in contention here. There are some that just missed (Cate Blanchett ignobly was positioned at thirteenth, with people like Tilda Swinton, Julie Christie, and Myrna Loy were not far behind). There are a few actresses where I feel like they're poised for greatness, but haven't quite made enough movies yet (Chastain, Viola Davis, Cotillard, Weisz), while others I've always loved but can't quite claim to have seen enough of their filmography to warrant a spot (Stanwyck, Lombard, Hayworth, and Dietrich all spring to mind). It also has to be said that I could name-check women that should be on this list until the end of time, while the men's list will not remotely approach this adoration. This is an endlessly fun activity, though, so please berate, agree, and recommend in the comments (along with providing your own list).
Oscar History: 7 nominations/3 wins (Gaslight, Anastasia, The Murder on the Orient Express)
First Impressions: I think my first experience with Ingrid Bergman was actually Casablanca-I want to say I saw it right at the same time as Anastasia so theoretically I could have seen her there first, but my gut is telling me Casablanca was the culprit.
Why the Love: I don't think that you can pinpoint exactly one reason to love Ingrid Bergman, for many years my easy answer for favorite actress (I'm not ranking here, but she'd be still be Top 5). She has this instinctive, natural introverted glamour in every movie she makes. Even when she's being funny or joyous, there's something mesmerizing in the way that she does it. There are few actresses in the history of cinema I've felt more connected to the language of their eyes and faces-she is the sort of performer who would have been famous in every decade of the movies.
My Favorite Performance: Casablanca, most assuredly. I know she didn't like that everyone pointed this movie out, but she's my favorite performance in my favorite movie, and the way she just effortlessly projects being the object of Rick's affection, and yet still striking in her own ways as a woman complicated by loving two men at once: it's to-die-for.
Missing Piece: Almost certainly the performance of hers I'm missing and most excited to see is Autumn Sonata. I love both Bergmans, and so the idea of the two of them together is thrilling.
Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (The English Patient)
First Impressions: I think the first film I ever saw of hers was Chocolat, a film I remember quite enjoying when it came out even if it was a bit frothy (it's the sort of pleasant comedy that I tend to have a lovely time with even if it's not remotely Oscar-worthy), though I will save both my brother and I the embarrassment of sharing my initial thoughts of Binoche, particularly when she shockingly bested Lauren Bacall at the Oscars.
Why the Love: Binoche is truly a superb actress, one who finds the center in pretty much every characterization she's in, and who has been, in her forties and now fifties, continually growing. Her early work as a young, earthy beauty has transformed into a mature, confident performer, one who continually amazes even decades after she first got onto our screens. Honestly-Binoche is one of those rare performers I'll not only see all of their movies, I'd be willing to bet I'd like the movie that holds them.
My Favorite Performance: Surely it'd have to be (my favorite?-it competes with Casablanca on a steady basis) movie The English Patient. The way she handles line readings as the optimistic, but consistently abandoned Hana is a work of pure poetry.
Missing Piece: I've never seen Blue. I know, I have no excuse on that one.
Joan Crawford (1904-1977)Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Mildred Pierce)
First Impressions: Like most people younger than forty, my first impression of Crawford was clutching a wire hanger, being impersonated by Faye Dunaway in a camp classic (which I've never seen somehow, but we all know that rodeo even if we haven't caught the picture).
Why the Love: No Golden Age performer has grown more on me in recent years than Joan Crawford. Seriously, for all of the Mommie Dearest jokes or the cracks about her shoulder pads, Crawford was a consummate movie star, and a damned fine screen presence. Honestly-I have yet to find a film of hers where I didn't enjoy her, even if occasionally the films surrounding her border on the absurd (or more accurately in her grand guignol period, the camp). Crawford is intensely watchable, perhaps even more so than her arch-rival (who, thanks to a fortuitous use of the alphabet, she sits right atop right now), and always holds the attention of every movie she's starring in (Joan Crawford doesn't do bit parts).
My Favorite Performance: I mean, I truly hope one of these isn't a horrible cliche, but I'm going to go with Mildred Pierce, where she's absolutely aces as a melodramatic mother (with a daughter from hell). She won the Oscar in a bit of a surprise that year, but her victory was well-earned. Truly, though-Joan Crawford's greatest role was pretty much always Joan Crawford.
Missing Piece: I haven't seen either of her other two Oscar-nominated turns in Possessed and Sudden Fear, so I'll go with those-arguably the two Best Actress nominations I'm most looking forward to from the late 40's/early 50's.
Oscar History: 10 nominations/2 wins (Dangerous and Jezebel)
First Impressions: The Kim Carnes song aside, my first introduction to Bette Davis was weirdly Jezebel. When I first got into the Oscars I started randomly watching any film on AMC that had ever won a Big 6 trophy, which is why a twelve-year-old boy was watching a then sixty-year-old movie about a woman desperately (but unfortunately) in love with Hank Fonda.
Why the Love: Because Bette Davis doesn't take shit from anybody, and you have to admire someone like that. You'll notice by now if you're peaking ahead that I didn't put her longtime Oscar rival Kate Hepburn on this list. At one point she absolutely would have made this and if I expanded to 20 I probably would have found room, but Hepburn I almost never could get into when she did drama (1968 set aside). Davis, on the other hand, was worth it whenever she was delivering a laugh or a dramatic line, and perhaps was best when she was trying to do both (Baby Jane Hudson, anyone?). She was a consummate actress, even if the public toward the end of her career demanded a movie star, and one that echoed her tough broad persona even more than in her heyday. Davis always delivered.
My Favorite Performance: I looked ahead-I don't always go with the cliche, so I'm here going to say the role that she was born to play (all do respect to the talented Claudette Colbert, but it wouldn't have been the same had the producers' first choice been available): Margo Channing. Her throw-a-mink-like-a-wet-umbrella attitude was classic, and she sells all of the lines of (arguably) the best screenplay ever written with All About Eve. A close runner-up is her desperate romantic nature in Now, Voyager, which is a much better movie than you remember it.
Missing Piece: I'm going to go with Dark Victory, the film she ended up in instead of Gone with the Wind, and the movie that many people suspect she would have clinched her third Oscar for had it not been for Vivien Leigh.
Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (Roman Holiday)
First Impressions: Like so many, I remember loving My Fair Lady growing up, thinking it absolutely loverly.
Why the Love: Audrey Hepburn has also been someone that I've said for years is "my favorite actress" and depending on the day probably still is. There's a quiet grace in her work, something that's hard to pinpoint but evident when she's at the top of her game. It's not just the waif-like beauty, but also the way she presents her heartbroken self as genuine, and genuinely lonely. I see something like Sabrina, and am flabbergasted at how good her performance is in an era where she was more likely to go into histrionics over a lost man than simply sustain a subdued facial expression. Hepburn largely disappeared from the cinema after she set it afire for most of the 1950's and 60's, but she left a wonderful footprint.
My Favorite Performance: Sabrina Fairchild is actually pretty close to the top-it's one of those romantic comedies that works better if you slightly change the ending (Sabrina never really needed any man-just her Paris cookbooks), but I can't deny the impact that Holly Golightly has had on me. I spent years after Breakfast at Tiffany's emulating her deep, distant love for Fred, to the point where I once walked in front of Tiffany's with a croissant, playing "Moon River" on my iPod. Yes, that happened-the movies are my life.
Missing Piece: Arguably Hepburn is the actress I do the best on in terms of seeing all of the important works. I am missing her Oscar-nominated turn in The Nun's Story, and while I haven't heard great things (it seems to be the weakest link in her AMPAS quintet), it's the only major film she ever made I haven't caught, so I'll go with that one.
Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Annie Hall, though Keaton better step it up if she's going to continue her strange only-once-a-decade Oscar streak).
First Impressions: One of my mom's all-time favorite films is Baby Boom, and we would watch it as a family on a regular basis for many a movie night-I probably still know most of it by heart.
Why the Love: Keaton's the quirky girl you desperately hope to be while forcing yourself to fit into a group of people you don't really like. The actress is strangely good in drama (oddly enough, despite her multiple successful forays into comedy, she's actually best as a dramatic actress), imbuing her characters with a wide-eyed forcefulness, even if they don't match her actions. She's spent years creating a honed, eccentric (and besuited) persona offscreen, but my love for her comes in the quieter, honest moments she brings to the big-screen.
My Favorite Performance: I told you I'd go off the beaten path here. I love Annie Hall, don't get me wrong, and what a wonderful thing that she got her Oscar for Woody's magnum opus, but for me this has to go to Reds, one of the most romantic films ever made and almost certainly Warren's magnum opus as well. I might even put Annie in third, behind Louise and then Kay Corleone, in the second installment of the series (I may or may not have done the "it was an abortion" speech every single time my brother and I were washing dishes as a kid).
Missing Piece: Here's a strange case where I've seen most of her work, including a lot of her stuff with Allen. Perhaps Looking for Mr. Goodbar, the film that many people thought helped carry her Academy Award across the finish line?
Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (The Hours)
First Impressions: I believe that Nicole Kidman was one of the first actresses to ever really underscore what a sexy woman was for me, which is a weird thing for a very gay man to proclaim, but her work in Batman Forever was so glamorous, and I maintain to this day that I'd probably be into blonds if I were straight (fortunately for me I'm gay...and into redheads).
Why the Love: Kidman, after a decade of being married to Tom Cruise with only a spattering of success, managed to have one of the great second acts of movie history, pushing out a series of fine, pitch-perfect performances for auteur after auteur. She is courageous as a performer (witness The Paperboy), gamely finding herself in pretty much every vision that is put in front of her, and is occasionally lightning in a bottle when she finds the right match for her icy, grand talents.
My Favorite Performance: Oh Satine, you are breathtaking, but I will always be looking to Virginia Woolf, waiting for the train. I am that person who actually thought she deserved the Oscar for The Hours even in hindsight.
Missing Piece: The 2004 duo of Birth/Dogville stick out in my mind, or perhaps even the dark comedy of To Die For. Either way, Kidman is that rare recent actress where I actually have some room to grow.
Oscar History: 2 nominations/ 2 wins (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire)
First Impressions: Strangely, it's not Scarlett, but Blanche that first made my acquaintance. I was eleven-years-old, and I credit that screening of A Streetcar Named Desire as the exact moment that I permanently became a fan of the movies, someone who didn't just go casually but was willing to devote their life to them.
Why the Love: Because Vivien Leigh is perfect, and not just because she gave two of the world's most iconic performances. Leigh is glamorous steel, a weird conglomerate of pixieish beauty and a dangerous, ardent performer's heart. She also may be one of the cinema's most underrated performers. I mean, look at some of the work that she's done-even if she just had her two most iconic creations, that'd probably be enough to be on this list, but she also found time to make a slew of romantic heroines in the 1940's that were continually excellent.
My Favorite Performance: Leigh's made some of my all-time favorite films, and while Gone with the Wind is a titanic achievement (word-choice quite purposeful) and Waterloo Bridge is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen, nothing compares to Streetcar. I've seen thousands of movies, tens of thousands of performances, and this is my favorite in all of film history.
Missing Piece: I'd probably go with The Deep Blue Sea, a film that I absolutely loved Rachel Weisz in a few years (I would have given her the Oscar), as I think the tortured soul having a love affair is a part Leigh was born to play.
Shirley MacLaine (1934-Present)Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Terms of Endearment...though it's worth noting one of her nominations was for directing the documentary The Other Half of the Sky)
First Impressions: My first impression of Shirley was actually not a film, and not even her belief in channelling or UFO's, but instead an ardent need to see the film Guarding Tess, which looked delightful when I would constantly pass it at our local video rental store, but I never was able to rent it (it had to have been rated PG-13, which was forbidden in my household). Either way, I loved the sly grin she had on all of those posters and was convinced it could be a favorite movie.
Why the Love: MacLaine is one of those performers I've come to more passionately as the years have gone by, an actress that is so consistent it's hard to remember she's also consistently refreshing. I honestly can't think of a Shirley MacLaine performance I didn't love. I've seen other actresses on this list upstaged, but I genuinely can't remember a single MacLaine film where she isn't the best part about it-it's the fact that she's always a trouper. While other actors of her generation slid into the laziness of playing themselves over-and-over-and-over again (cough, Al Pacino), Shirley continues to make interesting films whenever she gets the chance well into her eighties. Man do I wish filmmakers would take advantage of her still solid timing and ability. We deserve a Shirley moment for the ages just one more time.
My Favorite Performance: Aurora Greenway-it's that perfect combination of terrific movie, marvelous movie star turn, and damn fine acting. It was probably a victory for MacLaine at the Oscars because "how the hell hasn't she won yet?" but it's likely she would have won anyway even if she was hunting for a second trophy as she was just that good.
Missing Piece: I'll go with The Turning Point, a film that stars not only Shirley, but actually gets her to act opposite an actress I haven't seen her with (Anne Bancroft). Shirley's always at her best starring opposite other women (Debra Winger, Meryl Streep), so this feels like an easy answer to investigate.
Oscar History: 6 nominations/2 wins (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite)
First Impressions: Maggie Smith is that rare performer who, especially for Millennials, is littered with performances you remember from childhood. My first impression of her was actually in Hook, though, as an aging Wendy. I thought she was wonderfully creepy and old in the role (which is saying something for the makeup department, who made her look older than she was), and it was kind of a love affair whenever I found her later on in any picture.
Why the Love: Smith's voice is where it starts. That crisp, precise accent that only she can achieve (though countless comedians are constantly trying to parody), is so marvelous and exact. But she's an actress that can rely on more than just her dialect. She's someone with great feeling. It might shock a generation of people who watched her do her "Maggie Smith schtick" in things like Downton, Harry Potter, and Best Exotic Marigold, all prim and upper-crust, to know that she once-upon-a-time was an actress that was quite sexual in her role choices and would fling herself into affairs in my favorite of her works. Smith is the sort of presence, even if the film's not on the top of its game, I'm always more than joyful to see show up on an opening credits line.
My Favorite Performance: Undoubtedly this would have to be The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, one of those rare Best Actress wins that not only totally deserved the win, but was the exact right moment for an actor who was actually a bit of a surprise victory at the time. It's a towering achievement if you've never had the chance to catch it, and one of my personal favorite movies.
Missing Piece: I somehow have never seen the other film that won her an Oscar in California Suite, which I'll obviously hit sometime in the OVP, but impatience may get the better of me one day and I'll move it to the top of the queue.
Oscar History: 19 nominations/3 wins (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady)
First Impressions: I genuinely don't know what the first film starring Meryl Streep I ever saw was-I want to say it might have been Kramer or The Deer Hunter-that sounds about right as I would have seen both of those films when I was first starting to watch Oscar-winning pictures. My first impression of her, though, was that she was an actress that was treated as something of a deity, as I remember reading an Entertainment Weekly Oscar issue in 1995 where they talked about how she could upset Susan Sarandon's expected victory as she had legions of fans at the Oscars who always voted for her (they may have been onto something there).
Why the Love: I mean, at this point naming Streep as one of your favorite actresses is like naming Michael Jordan one of your favorite basketball players-everyone has to do it. But the point of the matter is that Streep deserves her spot in the pantheon. Some of her work, especially when she's at the top of her game, is unmatched. She can develop a naturalism onscreen like few others can achieve, and she's that rare multi-talented performer where it's almost hard to tell what she's best at-she can make you laugh, make you cry, she can sing like an angel and forebode with just the slightest of inflections. All-in-all, Streep is worthy of all the hype. After all, she can live up to it.
My Favorite Performance: For years I would have said The French Lieutenant's Woman, but I've actually had something of a resurgence this year of Streep roles (I've seen three of her Oscar-nominated turns for the first time...four if we think Florence Foster Jenkins gets there, which is looking increasingly plausible), and one of them has taken the top of the heap: Silkwood, where Streep casts aside pretty much any pretenses we have about her and just, scene-after-scene, is marvelous and exact and nails it. A brilliant piece of work.
Missing Piece: Like I said, I'm working my way through all of Streep's Oscar-nominated turns quickly and swiftly, but I still have two left: A Cry in the Dark and One True Thing. So I'll go with those two, but the Streep filmography gaps are closing quickly.
Oscar History: 7 nominations/1 win (The Reader)
First Impressions: I actually most remember my mom talking about how much she liked her. The 1995 Oscars were the first Academy Awards I really got into (it helped that there were several films like Apollo 13, Batman Forever, and Babe that I had actually seen which were up for a number of awards), and I recall my mom looking at the Supporting Actress lineup and proclaiming Kate Winslet the one that should have won. As my mom dictated a lot of the movies I could see, that instantly added a huge weight in wanting to see Winslet in more films.
Why the Love: Winslet is the youngest actress on this list by nearly a decade, and so I teetered whether to include her or thinking perhaps she was still too new (and hadn't yet entered the treacherous-for-actresses period of her 40's). Yet I can't deny the love is there, and pretty much always there. I've seen most of Winslet's filmography, and she's one of the few women on this list I can genuinely claim I've seen every one of their Oscar-cited turns. She's a vision, consistently, onscreen-someone who is rarely judgmental of her characters, which gives imperfect creations like Rose or Marianne or Hanna so much more weight as she portrays them on the big screen.
My Favorite Performance: I'm torn. I think arguably her best acting role ever was Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a truly wonderful and special movie, one that will probably never be duplicated (it feels like the kind of film you only pull off once in a career), but the other half of me is screaming "TITANIC!" at the top of my lungs. As she's the last actress listed here, I'll just say both and cheat and bravo for getting through one of my lengthier blog posts.
Missing Piece: Like I said, Winslet's a rare performer I've actually seen most of her major movies. I'll go with her big break, though, which I haven't caught yet which is Heavenly Creatures.
There you have it-my twelve favorite actresses! Like I said, please take some time to visit the comments section, as I'm positive you have your own list of favorite actresses, or thoughts on mine! There's a plethora of comments directions to take, so I encourage you to do so!
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