Best Actress 1961

[Big Magilla]

I love all these performances but I voted for Geraldine Page. Her Alma Winemiller in Summer and Smoke was, quite simply, the best interpretation of a female Tennessee Williams character since Vivien Leigh's Blanche Dubois. Like Leigh, it helped that she played the character on stage first.

Piper Laurie is truly heartbreaking in The Hustler, but this is to me a decidely supporting performance.

Natalie Wood was likewise heartbreaking in Splendor in the Grass and Audrey Hepburn was charm personified in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but Page's toughest competition for my vote was Oscar winner Sophia Loren.

There are two myths about Loren's performance that I'd like to dispel.

The first is that she was the first to win an Oscar for a foreign language performance. Technically this is true, but actually it isn't. Two Women was shown primarily in an English dubbed version in the U.S. This is the version that most Academy members saw so they were in reality voting for her performance in English.

The other is that this is the film that proved she could act. Not so. Unlike Anna Magnani, who was a fish out of water in Hollywood films, Loren was quite at home in them in her early years. She gave wonderful performances in Houseboat, The Black Orchid and It Started in Naples. It was only after she was taken seriously as a dramatic actress in Two Women that she became stiff and turned in zombie like performances in the likes of El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire.

A strong year for actresses, those who might have had a shot in a less competitive year include Leslie Caron in Fanny; Deborah Kerr in The Innocents and Rosalind Russell in A Majority of One.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1258000934

[jowy_jillia]

My Ranking:
5. Geraldine Page - Summer and Smoke
I know this performance often is raved, but I cannot stand this performance.

4. Piper Laurie - The Hustler
A pretty good performance, but nothing awards worthy

3. Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's
Her most jazzy performances. She makes this role memorable

2. Sophia Loren - Two Women
Intense and passioned in this role Loren is. She delievers every line trust worthy

1. Natalie Wood - Splendor in the Grass
Just Great.

Omissions
Kerr, MacLaine, McNeill


1960
1. Deborah Kerr - The Sundowners - 8 votes
2. Shirley MacLaine - The Apartment - 4 votes
3. Melina Mercouri - Never on a Sunday - 2 votes
4. Greer Garson - Sunrise at Campobello - 1 vote

1959
1. Simone Signoret - Room at the Top - 9 votes
2. Audrey Hepburn - The Nun's Story - 6 votes
3. Katharine Hepburn - Suddenly Last Summer - 1 vote
3. Elizabeth Taylor - Suddenly Last Summer - 1 vote

1958
1. Rosalind Russell - Auntie Mame - 8 votes
2. Susan Hayward - I Want to Live! - 6 votes
3. Elizabeth Taylor - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - 3 votes
4. Shirley MacLaine - Some Came Running - 2 votes

1957
1. Joanne Woodward - The Three Faces of Eve - 6 votes
2. Anna Magnani - Wild is the Wind - 4 votes
2. Lana Turner - Peyton Place - 4 votes
4. Deborah Kerr - Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison - 2 votes

1956
1. Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia - 10 votes
2. Carroll Baker - Baby Doll - 2 votes
2. Nancy Kelly - The Bad Seed - 1 vote
4. Katharine Hepburn - The Rainmaker - 1 vote
4. Deborah Kerr - The King and I - 1 vote

1955
1. Katharine Hepburn - Summertime - 11 votes
2. Anna Magnani - The Rose Tattoo - 4 vote
3. Eleanor Parker - Interrupted Melody - 2 votes
4. Susan Hayward - I'll Cry Tomorrow - 1 vote

1954
1. Judy Garland - A Star Is Born - 14 votes
2. Grace Kelly - The Country Girl - 2 votes
2. Jane Wyman - Magnificent Obsession - 2 votes
4. Audrey Hepburn - Sabrina - 1 vote

1953
1. Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday - 10 votes
2. Deborah Kerr - From Here to Eternity - 4 votes
3. Leslie Caron - Lili - 1 vote
3. Ava Gardner - Mogambo - 1 vote

1952
1. Julie Harris - The Member of the Wedding - 5 votes
2. Susan Hayward - With a Song in my Heart - 4 votes
3. Shirley Booth - Come Back, Little Sheba - 3 votes
3. Joan Crawford - Sudden Fear - 3 vote

1951
1. Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire - 20 votes
2. Shelley Winters - A Place in the Sun - 3 votes

1950
1. Gloria Swanson - Sunset Blvd. - 13 votes
2. Bette Davis - All About Eve - 9 votes
3. Eleanor Parker - Caged - 1 vote

1949
1. Olivia de Havilland - The Heiress - 13 votes
2. Deborah Kerr - Edward My Son - 2 votes
3. Susan Hayward - My Foolish Heart - 1 vote
3. Loretta Young - Come to the Stable - 1 vote

1948
1. Jane Wyman - Johnny Belinda - 9 votes
2. Olivia de Havilland - The Snake Pit - 6 votes
3. Barbara Stanwyck - Sorry Wrong Number - 2 vote

1947
1. Rosalind Russell - Mourning Becomes Electra - 5 votes
2. Susan Hayward - Smash Up - 4 votes.
3. Joan Crawford - Possessed - 3 votes
4. Loretta Young - The Farmer's Daughter - 2 votes

1946
1. Celia Johnson - Brief Encounter - 14 votes
2. Olivia de Havilland - To Each His Own - 3 votes
2. Jennifer Jones - Duel in the Sun - 3 votes
4. Jane Wyman - The Yearling - 1 vote

1945
1. Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce - 8 votes
2. Gene Tierny - Leave Her to Heaven - 6 votes
3. Ingrid Bergman - The Bells of St. Mary's - 3 votes
4. Jennifer Jones - Love Letters - 1 vote

1944
1. Barbara Stanwyck - Double Indemnity - 16 votes
2. Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight - 5 votes

1943
1. Jean Arthur - The More the Merrier - 6 votes
2. Jennifer Jonies - The Song of Bernadette - 4 votes
3. Ingrid Bergman - For Whom the Bell Tolls - 2 vote
3. Joan Fontaine - The Constant Nymph - 1 vote

1942
1. Bette Davis - Now, Voyager - 8 votes
1. Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver - 7 votes
3. Katharine Hepburn - Woman of the Year - 1 vote

1941
1. Barbara Stanwyck - Ball of Fire - 8 votes
2. Bette Davis - The Little Foxes - 5 votes
3. Olivia de Havilland - Hold Back the Dawn - 1 vote
3. Joan Fontaine - Suspicion - 1 vote

1940
1. Katharine Hepburn - The Philadelphia Story - 10 votes
2. Joan Fontaine - Rebecca - 7 votes
3. Bette Davis - The Letter - 5 votes

1939
1. Vivien Leigh - Gone With the Wind - 23 votes
2. Greta Garbo - Ninotchka - 2 votes

1938
1. Bette Davis - Jezebel - 5 votes
1. Wendy Hiller - Pygmalion - 4 votes
3. Margaret Sullavan - Three Comrades - 3 votes
4. Norma Shearer - Marie Antoinette - 1 vote

1937
1. Irene Dunne - The Awful Truth - 7 votes
2. Greta Garbo - Camille - 6 votes
3. Barbara Stanwyck - Stella Dallas - 2 votes
4. Janet Gaynor - A Star is Born - 1 vote
4. Luise Rainer - The Good Earth - 1 vote

1936
1. Carole Lombard - My Man Godfrey - 11 votes
2. Irene Dunne - Theodora Goes Wild - 1 vote
2. Luise Rainer - The Great Ziegfeld - 1 vote

1935
1. Katharine Hepburn - Alice Adams - 8 votes
2. Claudette Colbert - Private Worlds - 2 votes
2. Bette Davis - Dangerous - 2 votes
4. Miriam Hopkins - Becky Sharp - 1 vote

1934
1. Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night - 7 votes
2. Bette Davis - Of Human Bondage - 2 vote

1932/33
1. Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory - 6 votes
2. May Robson - Lady for a Day - 3 votes

1931/32
1. Marie Dressler - Emma - 6 votes
2. Lynn Fontanne - The Guardsman - 1 vote

1930/31
1. Marlene Dietrich - Morocco - 8 votes
2. Marie Dressler - Min and Bill - 1 vote
2. Irene Dunne - Cimarron - 1 vote
2. Norma Shearer - A Free Soul - 1 vote

1929/30
1. Greta Garbo - Anna Christie - 4 votes
2. Norma Shearer - The Divorcee - 2 vote
3. Ruth Chatterton - Sarah and Son - 1 vote
3. Greta Garbo - Romance - 1 vote

1928/29
1. Ruth Chatterton - Madame X - 4 votes
2. Jeanne Eagels - The Letter - 1 vote

1927/28
1. Janet Gaynor - Sunrise - 7 votes
2. Janet Gaynor - Seventh Heaven - 3 votes
3. Janet Gaynor - Street Angel - 1 vote

Actual Winners who didn't recieve any vote
28/29. Mary Pickford - Coquette
31/32. Helen Hayes - The Sin of Madelon Claudet
40. Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle
50. Judy Holliday - Born Yesterday
60. Elizabeth Taylor - Butterfield 8