Oscar Best Actress standouts

(Second of two parts)

Reese Witherspoon may have given the best performance by an actress last year in Walk the Line, but it certainly would be eclipsed if you put it side by side with Oscar-winning performances of other actresses in the 78-year history of the Academy Awards. The other day I came up with a list of the greatest award-winning performances of actresses of all time. Below is the conclusion.

Susan Hayward (I Want to Live, 1958) – It was a tough role and it needed an actress who had a tough life (to be able to identify with the character) because it was about a woman who was executed in the San Quentin prison after her alleged participation in a brutal murder case. Like the real-life character she was playing, Susan Hayward had a difficult life from her childhood years all the way to adulthood. She was perfect for the role and not surprisingly gave an Oscar-winning performance that stands out among the greatest in the Academy Awards’ 78 years.

Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker, 1962) – First done on TV – in Playhouse 90 – with Teresa Wright and Patty McCormack, The Miracle Worker became a popular material when it was done on Broadway with Anne Bancroft playing Helen Keller’s teacher Annie Sullivan. After winning a Tony for it, The Miracle Worker was filmed in Hollywood and gave Ms. Bancroft a well-deserved Oscar for this role that isn’t only physically draining, but emotionally wracking as well.

Glenda Jackson (Women in Love, 1970) – This film adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence classic wasn’t exactly one of the best pictures that year. Glenda Jackson as the sculptress Gudrun Brangwen, however, still manages to stand out in a film that chose to hype the nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed and came out of it with an Oscar for Best Actress. In the roster of Academy Award Best Actress winners, I wouldn’t say that Ms. Jackson’s performance here ranks in the Top 10. But it’s still one of the best ever in my list.

Liza Minnelli (Cabaret, 1972) – In this film adaptation of the Bob Fosse musical, Liza sings, dances, cries, laughs, flirts with men and the audience and talks dirty to them. It’s a very difficult role, but Liza delivers with great success and is rewarded with an Oscar for a performance that stands out among the greatest in my Best Actress list.

Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, 1974) – I saw this movie on RPN-9’s afternoon slot one time when classes were canceled for reasons I no longer recall. But I do remember getting enthralled with the performance of this actress (who I later found out in the closing credits as Ellen Burstyn) playing a mother to a headstrong son and having ambitions of becoming a singer, but waits on tables along the way. When I found out many years later (when I started reading books on film and Hollywood) that she had won an Oscar for this, I wasn’t a bit surprised because as far as I am concerned, it is one of the greatest performances ever delivered by an actress on film.

Faye Dunaway (Network, 1976) – Ratings. This was what drove the television network executive character played by Ms. Dunaway in this film to be cold, ruthless, cunning and calculating. People in the TV industry – men and women – perhaps should watch this movie again to check themselves if they’ve become like the character of Faye Dunaway in Network. A second viewing of this film may just remind them of how Oscar worthy Ms. Dunaway’s performance is in this film.

Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice, 1982) – It was a tough contest for actresses that year because one of the nominees, Jessica Lange (Frances), also gave one of the most brilliant screen performances in the history of Hollywood. And Meryl Streep? Her rendition of the character of a Polish concentration camp survivor (who had to choose between her two kids to be taken away) will always remain on the No. 1 spot in my list of the greatest Oscar-winning performances.

Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment, 1983) – Her victory is not something you can dismiss as a sentimental vote (for having remained Oscarless for so long) because she was superb in her role as a mother who has an uncomfortable relationship with a daughter (Debra Winger) she truly loves.

Sally Field (Places in the Heart, 1984) – It is the opinion of a lot of other people that she was better in Norma Rae. I think otherwise. I liked her more in this film and I consider Ms. Field’s performance here as a widow in the south who had to raise her kids and save her cotton farm as great screen acting.

Jodie Foster (The Accused, 1988) – Another actress with two Oscars won in close succession, I prefer Jodie’s performance in The Accused better than the one she delivers in Silence of the Lambs.

Holly Hunter (The Piano, 1993) – For keeping her mouth shut (by choice) in this movie set in untamed New Zealand in the 19th century, she comes up with an Oscar-worthy performance that stands out in the roster of Best Actress winners.

Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, 1999) – Among the more recent Oscar winners for Best Actress, Ms. Swank’s performance as a lesbian who wants to be one of the boys really stands out in my list – unmatched even by her second Oscar victory the other year for Million-Dollar Baby.