Most undeserved best actress win

Jessica Tandy wasn't as bad as some of the others on this list. You are missing some of the other undeserving winners like Jen Lawrence, Halle Berry, Brie Larson, Moolia Roberts and Sally Field for the rural hick movie (her second win).

Honourable mentions:

Joan Fontaine- Suspicion

Marlee Matlin - Children of a lesser God

Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia

Glenda Jackson - A touch of class

Katherine Hepburn - On Golden pond

Cher - Moonstruck

I thought Jessica Tandy was wonderful.

Also, although I love Olivia Colman, and think she is a great actress in any role, I don’t think her role in The Favourite was deserving of a Best Actress nomination.

Julia Roberts -- Erin Brockovich. What a joke!

You Goop haters are all a bunch of BITTER BITCHES!

Yes, she’s annoying as ALL hell, but she’s great in “Shakespeare in Love.”

R1 I disagree about Jessica Tandy. She was decent but nothing special. Michelle Pieffer on the other hand, Whew. Her effortless sexy breezy performance in The Fabulous Baker Boys was so incredibly hot, and I'm as gay as they come.

Also disagree about Brie Larson and Halle Berry. Brie is allegedly a bitch but that doesn't take away from her role as the terrified but pretending to be hopeful mother in room. Halle deserved to win for that "Make me feel good" scene alone.

Julia's oscar was Hollywood saying "Here's your reward for making us millions all these years"

I agree about the rest.

^^She looks like a female praying mantis about to devour her mate.

R5 Have you seen Elizabeth? There's a reason why Cate Blanchett is a two-time award winning actress who's touted as one of the greats while Goop is busy selling snake oil and pussy scented candles.

Fernanda Montenegro should've won over those two anyways, but I digress.

Paltrow should stick to pseudo medical advice and vagina candles.

I would like to see Gwyneth Paltrow do one more film and really knock it out of the park, just for the laughs.

R10 = Blythe Danner

The Iron Lady

I agree with R5. Paltrow is a pill, but she’s also an outstanding actor. She was perfect in Shakespeare in Love.

That Iron Lady year was pretty painful. Weinstein was behind it, the film was terrible, the accent was wrong, and the performance was hammy. I was robbed!!!

Viola at R14, you expected to "clean up" at all the awards that year, just like your character cleaned up white people's homes. Unfortunately for you, you ran into an evil bitch who inspired the "Thatcher, Thatcher, trophy snatcher" line.

I rewstched it recently and was surprised how great Julia was in Erin Brockovich

Helen Hunt was far unworthier of that Oscar than Gwynnie or anyone else on that list, frankly. Hunt to my mind is the most undeserving of any contemporary winner.

Grace Kelly stole Judy's Oscar by daring to dress up in shabby clothes in order to play a poor person.

R16, I never think of her as a great actress and I can't stand her, but I agree about JR's performance in Erin Brockovich. She delivered an old-fashioned movie star performance and filled up the screen with her presence and charisma. I found her completely believable in the role. I think she's probably the last of that breed of actresses who had genuine star quality.

Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook. J Law was a Weinstein girl

And to put it more in perspective, r18: Could Grace have done Judy's role? Of course not. Could Judy have done Grace's role? Yes....and she would have been more interesting in it.

Jane Fonda in Coming Home.

Reese Witherspoon didn’t do anything extraordinary with her dull noble wife part in Walk the Line. It felt like she was getting a career award because she was turning thirty and was nearing the end of her “winsome female lead” shelf life. The irony being that Witherspoon is much better at playing sharp and steely Karens than she is girl next door.

I voted for Helen Hunt, who was the least impressive of the five nominated that year.

J-Law - miscast

^ in an awful film!

Helen Hunt's is not just a mediocre performance, but in a year with rich work nominated around her (Judi Dench for Mrs. Brown, Helena Bonham Carter for The Wings of the Dove, Julie Christie for Afterglow) and one fantastic performance not nominated (Pam Grier in Jackie Brown). It got my vote.

Paltrow shouldn't have won over Montenegro or Blanchett, but it's a much better performance than Hunt.

[quote]Glenda Jackson - A touch of class

I know I'm in the minority, but I think she's fantastic in this. Great comedic performance. Glenda could have been a first rate screwball comedienne.

Though I would have given the oscar to Marsha Mason for Cinderella Liberty.

I would have given Halle Berry hazardous duty pay for doing a love scene with someone as dusty looking as Billy Bob Thornton. So gross. But not an Oscar.

Neither Helen Hunt nor Jack Nicholson deserved their wins for As Good As It Gets.

Yea, why did Jack and Helen win? She was charmless and he played himself

Nicholson was an Academy favorite. They kept nominating him for his tired old schtick. Hunt, I think, benefited from also being a TV sitcom regular, winning multiple Emmys for "Mad About You", and also being the only American nominee that year.

Funnily enough I thought the actor from that movie who deserved to win the Oscar was Greg Kinnear, who was nominated but lost to Robin Williams who basically copied Judd Hirsch's "Ordinary People" performance.

OP you should remove Hepburn from the poll and add Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, instead.

R33 I didn't add Streep because she got that Oscar as a compensation for her losing for The Devil wears Prada, Doubt and Julie and Julia.

Katherine Hepburn on the other hand only won because she had sympathy for the Spencer Tracy situation and she would've won the following year regardless.

Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich. She owes that award to her wonder bra.

Tandy is incredible in DAISY, so I'm with those who say she does not belong on this list.

As far as "playing yourself" goes, that's not easy to do. Some might argue harder to do that than a role with a lot of adjustment work, like THE IRON LADY. So I like Helen Hunt's performance very much. I just don't love her chemistry with Jack, he's too old for her. I never believed their connection.

Hunt's performance feels like one of those NY theater-trained actor performances of great vulnerability and openness, naturalism, so forth. Really the opposite of a movie star performance like Cher or Julia Roberts, both of whom are great. Every once in a while the Academy goes for a performance like Hunt's, and I'm glad they do when they do. She makes it look easy, and it isn't.

I kind of love the diversity in the list of Best Actress winners. I used to pooh-pooh the movie stars on the list, but as I get older (I'm an actor), I really appreciate those kinds of performances. Meryl will always have a bit of showy-ness to her work, and it's great. It's who she is! But we don't want that from an actress like Hunt.

R19, I totally agree. Julia gives one of the greatest pure star turns in Erin Brockovich. No, it’s not a Streep-like performance where you marvel at the accent and the wigs and whatnot, but in nearly every moment, that performance announces with utter confidence “I am the biggest goddamn movie star on the planet,” which she really was.

And her Oscar speech is why people love the awards. It’s tacky, narcissistic, and a total blast (“I have a television,” calling the conductor stick-man).

Emma Stone for La La Land

That Silver Linings Book was just terrible.

I'm glad people are standing up for Julia in Erin Brockovich. Whenever it airs on AMC, I can't help but get sucked in again. She is so compelling to watch. She and Albert Finney were terrific together. It's a star performance but she works so well with the rest of the cast and doesn't try to dominate them (although the character may try to) but that only makes her performance that much better. Like the scenes where she goes to see Marg Helgenberger and you see the softer, less caustic side of Erin. Roberts lets Helgenberger have her moment but by doing that, you see the warmth from Erin and the bond she has with the people, which is integral to the movie.

I also like Gwenyth in Shakespeare in Love. Putting aside Harvey's bullying for awards and the hate for GP, I think she is wonderful in this movie. So charming.

Helen Hunt's performance is one that I don't remember all these years later so she'd be my choice.

Halle was good but Sissy Spacek deserved that Oscar in 2001 for In the Bedroom. That scene with Marisa Tomei is so powerful. Sissy unleashing her rage -- whew.

Mary Pickford in Coquette is the worst. The only reason it isn't getting more votes is because no one has seen it

I think Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent in Shakespeare in Love.

I thought so then, and I think so now!

Cam't believe these are the only options. Where is Jennifer Lawrence on this list?

I love that Reese is considered in the top 5 least deserved. She’s a cunt.

Missing:

Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8 (she herself admitted it).

Katharine Hepburn twice: Guess Who's Groveling for Oscar, On Golden Piss Pond....She can keep Lion in Winter,

"I lost to a tracheotomy,"

Liz was okay in Butterfield 8. Better than Pickford in Coquette

I was always surprised when I would see Ginger Rogers referred to as an Oscar winner. I finally saw KITTY FOYLE a few years ago, and I didn’t think she was anything special at all, especially when you consider she was up against three hugely iconic performances…Hepburn in PHILADELPHIA STORY, Fontaine in REBECCA, and Bette in THE LETTER. Kate and Bette already had Oscars, and Joan was still pretty new to leading roles, so I guess Ginger won for her years of being a big box office dancing star? I don’t know anything about the fourth nominee, Martha Scott in OUR TOWN.

I do think Ginger is dynamite in one of my favorite old movies, STAGE DOOR.

Reese won because she had had some hits in the past and the competition was very weak. Felicity Huffman was the only other possibility but she was a TV star.

Mine would be Sandra Bullock. I think she won because she’s America’s Sweetheart, supposedly incredibly easy to work with, and they didn’t want to give it to Gabourey Sibidie, who should have won that year

Bullock kind of knew her win was controversial. She starts her speech with did I earn this or did I just wear you down?

(She had a good year that year too. She took over that movie with Betty White and Ryan Reynolds that Julia Roberts abandoned, produced it and turned it into a big money maker. And to quote Sally Field, they like her.)

R51 Yeah, she immediately shouted out Gabourey when she won, she totally knew. I really think voters didn’t want to give the two big awards to both Monique and Gabourey. Monique’s win was fucking undeniable and to me the gold standard of what an Academy Award winning supporting role should be

What is Sean Penn talking about with the neglecting an actress two years in a row stuff?

Brie Larsen was dull dull dull. Great role, imagine what someone like Emma Stone would have done with it. Brie defines the Non-Star (and a bitch to boot).

Larson is oddly non-descript. Every time she is on an awards show or something I have to think or ask who's that?

Like Emma Stone is that much more talented than Brie Larson....

LA Liz

R27 Helen Hunt didn't even give the best comedic performance by an actress that year. I think the Roberts My Best Friend's Wedding comedic performance was far superior. And the character actually had an arc. Hunt's character had zero arc.

Hunt goes in and out or her accent in the film too and she and Nicholson aren't believable as a couple.

R40 Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich is a grade A movie star turn. It was rewarded for its fabulousness. Yes Burstyn was incredible but she never made Hollywood 2 billion dollars by the age of 30 and commanded the screen like an old movie star.

Burstyn should have gone supporting. She'd have easily won there.

R61 over Marcia Gay Hardon? I completely agreee, Ellen would have won it all in Supporting

Juliette Binoche was the WTF nominee the year America's Sweetheart won for Erin Brockovich. Chocolat was a forgettable movie and neither Dench nor Binoche deserved a nomination.

Burstyn and Linney were unlucky to have been nominated in The Year of Julia. They could have won in a different year without a clear frontrunner.

R63 totally agree, neither did anything special in Chocolat. The movie is good enough but not deserving all the acclaim.

Frances Mcdormand stole Carey Mulligan’s Oscar this year. Emma Stone (La la land) did the same with Isabelle Huppert (Elle). But she was robbed by Regina King two years later, Emma should have won supporting for her work in The Favourite.

I know very few (if any) here have seen it but Coquette is abysmal. Pickford got a lifetime achievement award, basically. Jeanne Engels in The Letter was phenomenal and deserved that award.

[quote] Frances Mcdormand stole Carey Mulligan’s Oscar this year.

You misspelled my name, sweetie. It's V-i-o-l-a D-a-v-i-s. Don't make me cry, that's all I ask of you.

Chocolat is one of those movies you heard nothing but raves about for maybe two, three years, then you rarely ever heard it mentioned again.

I watched Chocolat a few years ago and it was decent but couldn't fathom how it got a Best Picture nomination

I get why Julia Roberts won, but I was rooting for Laura Linney. YOU CAN COUNT ON ME is one of my all time favorites. I’m still pissed Mark Ruffalo wasn’t even nominated. He gave a fantastic, star making performance.

I'm happy to see Tandy is currently in last place. She was wonderful in that film, and I love her acceptance speech.

Ridiculousness. Worst survey ever.

Judi Dench. Tics and mannerisms along with her posh accent. She arches her eyebrows and flares her nostrils and she get nominated.

R73, she has never won Best Actress at the Oscars though. I think she deserved it for "Notes on a Scandal" instead of the unbelievably overrated and over-praised Helen Mirren in "The Queen".

I agree, Judi gave us the iconic Barbara Covett. She was also incredible in "Iris" but beaten by Halle Berry.

Ginger Rogers. Rosalind Russell (who wasn't even nominated for His Gril Friday) should have won that year.

^ *Girl

Bullock hands down. Paltrow is Shakespearean compared to her no pun intended.

R53 I think he was talking about then wife Robin not being nominated, but I forget what film of hers.

By decade:

Luise Rainer, should have been Carole Lombard "His Man Godfrey"

Ginger Rogers, should have been Joan Fontaine "Rebecca"

Grace Kelly, should have been Judy Garland "A Star Is Born"

Liz Taylor (1960) should have been Deborah Kerr "The Sundowners"

Jane Fonda (1978) should have been Jill Clayburgh or Ingrid Bergman

Sally Field (1984) should have been Judy Davis "A Passage To India"

Helen Hunt, should have been Judi Dench "Mrs Brown"

Sandra Bullock, should have been Gabi Sidibe "Precious"

Jennifer Lawrence, should have been Emmanuelle Rica "Amour"

Brie Larson, should have been Charlotte Rampling "45 Years" or Blanchett for "Carol"

JUDY

WAS

ROBBED

[quote] Ginger Rogers, should have been Joan Fontaine "Rebecca"

I think not.

R67 So sorry, Blackmeryl.

"Miss Daisy" was a noble white person pic which meant it was Oscar bait, with Tandy having the Oscar bait role. It also helped that the film was very old fashioned, which also tends to do well with the Academy. Tandy was good in it, good enough not to belong on this list. OTOH Bullock plays the most grating sort of noble white person in Blind Side in what apparently is a far from true story and never should have been nominated.

Roberts was better than usual in Erin Brockovitch, which was an Oscar bait role/film not unlike Norma Rae (which the Academy really, really liked!).

Hunt is definitely among the least deserving---she gives the film a tv movie quality. She's basically supporting player material for anything longer than a half hour.

Helen Hunt was good playing the sex surrogate in "The Sessions" but beaten by AnnE

Luise Rainer, The Good Earth. Excruciating to watch her overacting (and yellowface, so it’s really embarrassing now).

Some of these were "deferred" awards - i.e. the actress deserved it for an earlier role and got this one instead.

The absolute queen of that in recent years would be Whoppi Goldberg for Ghost, when she was far more deserving for the Color Purple.

*Whoopi

Grace Kelly is a favorite of mine….I really enjoyed the work she did with that pervert Hitchcock. Dial M For Murder.. Rear Window just a few notables…plus I think she’s beautiful..soft spoken..elegant…you know…...a little Princess.

[quote]Bullock plays the most grating sort of noble white person in Blind Side in what apparently is a far from true story and never should have been nominated.

I think Bullock is a better actress than people here give her credit for, but Blind Side was just awful. They gave it to her that year because they liked her, not the performance. That happens a lot.

[italic]Do the Right Thing[/italic] was racist sellout trash.

[italic]Driving Miss Daisy[/italic] deserved its Oscars.

Do the Right Thing was a great if somewhat flawed film (too many ideas).

Driving Miss Daisy was old fashioned noble white person shit.

No, it was not “noble white person shit.“ It was a beautiful film about the relationship between blacks and Jews.

Why is this site so obsessed with women? You see a ton of threads like this about actresses, rarely about actors.

R94, We wouldn't be caught dead with men. Rough, hairy beasts. Eight hands. And they … they all just want one thing from a girl.

Don't get the hate for Helen Hunt. She was such a great actress she could make the role in "Twister" amazing.

Hunt did nothing with a bland role in an okay movie, yet won the Oscar over 4 great performances.

Her role, in the hands of a more interesting actress such as Holly Hunter, may have at least been memorable

Wasn't Holly Hunter offered the role in As Good As it Gets.

Maybe she was pregnant?

Ring a bell with anyone?

r98 No

According to IMDB trivia:

The role of Carol Connelly was initially offered to Holly Hunter.

and Betty White was offered the part of Hunt's mother but turned it down because the dog get thrown down the trash door.

r98 maybe you're thinking of another James L. Brooks movie - Broadcast News where Debra Winger was pregnant and Holly Hunter took her place? I think Holly might have been more memorable here.

Yes r102 I remember that.

According to imdb though Hunter turned it down. Surprising if so. She had worked with Brooks before, it was a good part, and I checked her kids birthdates, she wasn't pregnant then.

Agree Holly would have been more memorable. Would have made her character more damaged and neurotic and made the attraction to Nicholson more realistic.

It always struck me as odd that Hepburn got an Oscar for taking care of a dying Spencer Tracey and Tracey who actually was dying didn't get one.

(and wasn't he still married to someone else? So people knew about and accepted their extramarital affair. Ingrid Bergman was run out of town for the same thing. Explain eldergays!!)

Holly Hunter had a huge falling out with James Brooks, one week before filming started. Also, she wanted as much money as Jack Nicholson, the studio said "no".

I love Holly Hunter, except for one role/movie, (and I might be in a small minority). Definitely belongs in this thread: Holly Hunter for The Piano.

Did Holly win the Oscar because she finally shut up? She's playing a pre-feminist young woman whose voice is so silenced by men that she acts like a mute....BUT she writes notes? Like a 12-year-old who is giving her parents the silent treatment. The she shows up in New Zealand. with a piano that is just SO important to her that she never mentioned it to her arranged-marriage husband..... and when the poor sap (who I felt sorry for) has no way to move it off the beach where it has been placed in the wet sand...... we are supposed to feel sympathy for her victimization by men. Oh, PUH-LEEZE!

THEN.....in the scene where he chops off her finger she goes into kabuki style over-acting (but still doesn't scream) with pain beyond words......I almost left. not sure why I stayed...... unless it was my hope to see tattooed Harvey Keitel without his clothes. and WHY hire a white american jew to play a Maori ? That decision would be SO FRIGGIN' CANCELLED if they did it now.

But I digress....

I was shocked Holly showed tits and bush in The Piano. Siggy was their first choice but her agent turned it down on her behalf. When Siggy found out the agent got chopped!

R107 Harvey was an adopted Maori honey. And he was a hot papa swine! Great nakedness

I didn’t like Holly Hunter in The Piano either. There’s been excellent mute performances so that wasn’t the reason. I didn’t want to see this great, crazy hillbilly lady all butt naked. Bending over showing muff between legs? Fuckin gross. Then for years after I think Hunter believed she was sexual, a sexy woman. Long blonde hair, more sexual roles.

Gwyneth Paltrow ownes this thread.

R110 Gross? You are confusing gross with hot.

Holly Hunter is just exhausting and annoying. She was perfect for that Cheerleader Murder movie but would have been awful for "As Good as it Gets". Hunter's usual tone would have made the attraction to Nicholson seem too needy and neurotic. "The Piano" was the kind of obvious allegory that gets tedious after a while. Total Oscar bait.

R94 I made a thread like this about actors but no one cared. I think it's just that gay men in general revere women icons more than men. There's a reason almost all gay icons are women.

Holly's Scottish accent in the film's V.O. is horrendous. And I love Holly -- just not in that film. Sigourney would have been great since her voice often got in her way too.

No Bronx accent for Holly either. She got greedy according to Brooks but who knows.

Anna Paquin didn't deserve to win for The Piano, either. There's a reason why she hasn't had any great performances as an adult....

AGAIG hasn’t aged well. Nicholson just won because he has that cool, hip factor that McDormand has that the voters can feel edgy about voting for. He really did nothing unique in this role. Agreed Hunter would’ve made it more memorable in the Hunt part. I think she won because voters were just being lazy and checked off her name too without seeing Afterglow, Mrs. Brown and Wings of the Dove as much. Hunt tries in some scenes, but the role is rather bland and you need someone more charismatic to pull it off. The film is horribly written and directed and runs out of what steam it has when the road trip begins. Pretty much killed James L Brooks film career.

Meryl should have been cast in AGAIG. Ageism.

If you wanted to go that much older, you might as well have asked Bea Arthur.

Meryl was only 47 and her real daughter was younger than the kid in that movie. Plus she actually has chemistry with Jack

[quote]Reese won because she had had some hits in the past and the competition was very weak. Felicity Huffman was the only other possibility but she was a TV star.

So was Helen Hunt, r49. But she won..

Huffman in Transamerica was the same year as Brokeback Mountain. If lots of voters refused to watch the "gay cowboy" movie, they also likely avoided the "tranny road movie".

R`122: Brokeback was classic Oscar bait. The "trannie" troll is off their meds and running amok.

[quote] It always struck me as odd that Hepburn got an Oscar for taking care of a dying Spencer Tracey and Tracey who actually was dying didn't get one.

(and wasn't he still married to someone else? So people knew about and accepted their extramarital affair. Ingrid Bergman was run out of town for the same thing. Explain eldergays!!)

R105, morals had undergone an enormous sea change between 1949 and 1967. Plus Tracy and Hepburn were discreet about it. Few people outside of Hollywood knew. And of course, nowadays many say that their supposed affair was fake to throw people off the fact that both of them were gay. Who knows?

Ingrid openly carried on with Roberto Rossellini while still married to her husband. Didn’t sit well with a conservative American film audience.

[quote]It always struck me as odd that Hepburn got an Oscar for taking care of a dying Spencer Tracey and Tracey who actually was dying didn't get one. (and wasn't he still married to someone else? So people knew about and accepted their extramarital affair. Ingrid Bergman was run out of town for the same thing. Explain eldergays!!)

[R105], morals had undergone an enormous sea change between 1949 and 1967. Plus Tracy and Hepburn were discreet about it. Few people outside of Hollywood knew. And of course, nowadays many say that their supposed affair was fake to throw people off the fact that both of them were gay. Who knows?

Ingrid openly carried on with Roberto Rossellini while still married to her husband. Didn’t sit well with a conservative American film audience

Liza Minnelli.

Halle Berry

R126, that's absurd. That was Liza's. finest hour, and she absolutely deserved it, taking nothing away from all her fellow nominees in an extremely strong year for best actress nominees.

What makes R126's claim even more absurd is to say Minnelli was the least deserved win ever, when you have Helen Hunt so clearly the winner, and about 10 other actresses behind Hunt.

Liza Minnelli was ok. But in small doses.

Liza in Cabaret was iconic

OP, as far as I'm concerned none of these deserved an Oscar for those performances.