Who was the best ever Best Actress Oscar winner, by decade? 1980s edition

1930s poll

1940s

If M wins I will boil all your bunnies.

1950s

1960s

Kathleen Turner, Peggy Sue Got Married and The War of the Roses

Finally, 1970s. Please vote as you please on all

Wow, the 1980s really has a lame line-up of Best Actress winners.

Click, click, click.

If write-in ballots were counted, my ground-breaking performance in "Yentl" would have topped everyone in this lame line-up of so-called winners. Can you hear me?

Anybody but Cher or M.

Our Sally is going to be the ultimate loser.

Isn't Meryl in Sophie's Choice considered the pinnacle of acting? She spoke German in a Polish accent and gassed one of her kids or something?

The Meryl voters are such sheep.

0%??? I thought you two-faced bitches really liked me?!?

Streep should have won for Evil Angels

Sissy Spacek, a performer who you never catch acting and who really should have at least two Oscars on her mantle.

Not only does she convincingly play Loretta Lynn at many different life stages, she does her own singing and is equally excellent in both the lighter and more dramatic moments. I especially love her scenes with Beverly D'Angelo, but her chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones is fantastic, too.

1. Sissy Spacek 2. Shirley Maclaine 3. Meryl Streep 4. Geraldine Page 5. Marlee Matlin 6. Sally Field 7. Cher 8. Katharine Hepburn 9. Jessica Tandy 10. Jodie Foster

R17 not to mention, Sissy Spacek popularized the musical biography leading role and how the actor preps for it. This video explains it well.

Give my daughter the shot !

This is how the line-up should've been

1980 - Sissy Spacek 1981 - Diane Keaton or Susan Sarandon 1982 - Meryl Streep 1983 - Debra Winger 1984 - Judy Davis 1985 - Whoopi Goldberg 1986 - Sigourney Weaver 1987 - Glenn Close or Holly Hunter 1988 - Glenn Close 1989 - Michelle Pfeiffer

Fuck I didn't add paragraph breaks. Here you go: This is how the line-up should've been

1980 - Sissy Spacek

1981 - Diane Keaton or Susan Sarandon

1982 - Meryl Streep

1983 - Debra Winger

1984 - Judy Davis

1985 - Whoopi Goldberg

1986 - Sigourney Weaver

1987 - Glenn Close or Holly Hunter

1988 - Glenn Close

1989 - Michelle Pfeiffer

[quote] The Meryl voters are such sheep.

That is why her parody on Sesame Street was actually a sheep.

Sissy may be the best of the decade, but I stand by Cher’s win 100%. It’s a great performance and holds up well today. I could watch Moonstruck over and over again. Many of the other films I can say the same about.

She’s been parodying this role ever since but I have to say Shirley. Holly Hunter should have won in ‘87 (the first year I ever followed the Oscars).

Do we have one of these for the males?

If Jessica Lange had won best actress for Frances as she deserved to, she'd have received my vote. It's one of the five greatest performances in cinema history.

Most deserved win: 01. Cher 02. Sissy Spacek 03. Shirley MacLaine 04. Meryl Streep 05. Marlee Matlin

Most undeserved win: 01. Katherine Hepburn 02. Jessica Tandy 03. Geraldine Page 04. Sally Field 05. Jodie Foster

But Hepburn's win was the only one I thought was upsetting when it happened because she was terrible in the film.

r26 lmao

R28, AL Pacino called Lange's performance in Frances the greatest by an actress he'd ever seen.

R29 It’s Anthony Hopkins favorite performance.

Streep for the win. Along with Vivian Leigh in Gone With the Wind, Streep in Sophie’s Choice is considered one of the top film performances ever.

Best scene by an Actress ever. There's a reason the title became part of popular vocabulary

R30 please provide a link to that. I love Sir Anthony and have never heard him say that

Oh no. Please don’t turn this into a Jessica Lange thread.

Just watched the "Sophie's Choice" scene again and it brought me to tears. No one can rival what she did in those 5 minutes

Wow

Nothing is comparable to what Meryl achieved

OP after you cover all the decades you should make a final poll with each decade winner, so DL can decide which is the best leading actress performance in Oscar history.

Buck would have never thought Sissy Spacek should have won.

Meryl wins. Its just stupid to hold the other M shit against her. Sissy is probably second. She sang all those songs and actually sounds better than Loretta in some

And Shirley third

I'm surprised by the hate for Jodie Foster in The Accused. Why? She's magnificent. Is it just that you think G deserved it more?

MTM Ordinary People an indelible performance and G in Fatal Attraction

G was great. In what amounts to a B movie. The movie is low brow with a totally trashy ending. She was never gonna win

Jodie gave a brave physical performance. Anyone that that doesn't feel repulsed and uncomfortable by the brutal gang rape sequence is not human. Its a very disturbing sequence

R33 I haven’t found the interview yet, but did read it back in the 90’s. It’s referenced in the Trivia section of the IMDb page for “Frances” and on a few other sites. I’ll keep looking, though, because now I’m determined to find it.

Also, this review from nearly a decade ago references it:

[quote] Frances the movie exaggerates her troubles but it also features two great performances in Stanley and Lange. Sir Anthony Hopkins is on record as saying Lange's is his favorite performance ever by a woman in any movie. High praise indeed. Sharp eyed viewers should look for Angelica Huston as a mental patient and Kevin Costner making his big screen debut in an uncredited bit part.[/quote]

R26 Lange is one-note .And the script is a series of showdowns with Frances battling her mother, the police, hair and make-up people, and the world in general The scenes in the mental institution are on a par with The Caretakers 63 and Valley of the Dolls 67. See Kim Stanley in 'The Goddess'(1958) a powerful performance and an excellent performance from Betty Lou Holland as her mother.

R48 One note my ass. My blurb, which a posted months ago on here:

[quote] In one of the best performances in cinema history, Lange reaches Olympian heights as a troubled star would-be serious thespian, her mercurial visage flickering from quiet melancholy and sardonic contempt to white-hot fury and, finally, pained, darkened hope trapped in a void. A shattering performance.

^ shrill and overwrought IMHO

OP, you oughta be ashamed of yourself to omit the true winner of the 1980s.

R50 I can accept your dislike for her performance - it’s your opinion, after all - but she was hardly one note. She played innocence, quiet desperation, yes, [italic]rage[/italic], and defeated hope beautifully.

Sally is at 1.6%. She actually received votes for her dreadful 'acting'? Is her gay son on DL and voting for his meal ticket repeatedly?

The fact that someone as awful as Sally Field has two Oscars for acting tells me what a joke these awards are.

R53 = Bette Midler

Did you forget Vivian Vance? Cunt OP.

My rating -

1. Sissy Spacek

2. Jodie Foster

3. Meryl Streep

4. Jessica Tandy

5. Shirley Maclaine

6. Marlee Matlin

7. Geraldine Page

8. Katharine Hepburn

Tied for last: Cher and Squeaky Field

Spacek by far.

R13 It was at one time by as time grinds on her performances in Sophies Choice is not seen as brilliant as it was in decades past.

R58 you are such a liar, it's still ranked by many critics as the best performance ever by an Actress.

R38 that's exactly my plan! Hope you are enjoying the threads

The 1980s really was the beginning of what we now call “Oscar bait,” or more specifically movies that are made with the sole intention of winning Academy Awards and nothing else.

R60 I surely am. BTW have you thought about making a poll for the 1920s. It's obvious who will be the winner but I really want to see the gays praise Janet Gaynor and shit on Coquette. Plus you will have 10 entrees for the final poll (Frances McDromand's Oscar is the only one of the new decade so far, and so doesn't count)

R62 your wish is my command, I'll make one later!

Who did you pick for each decade? Who do you think shouldn't have won?

[Quote] your wish is my command, I'll make one later!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to it.

[Quote] Who did you pick for each decade? Who do you think shouldn't have won?

30s- Viv

40s- Livvy for the Heiress

50s- Viv

60s- Maggie smith

70s- Jane Fonda

80s- Meryl Streep

The only one that shocked me was Liza winning over Jane. I thought for sure that the gays would pick Klute for that decade. It's a DL classic on par with looking for Mr Goodbar.

Cabaret isn’t exactly DL irrelevant, R64.

R65 you're right. I meant that I thought Klute was more relevant, but I was wrong.

R42 "You wanna play pinball? That's what he said. He said you wanna play pinball? See he figures I'm a piece of shit. Everyone figures I'm a piece of shit. And why not? You told them that. I never got to tell no one nothing. You did all my talking for me. I thought you were on my side. You told me you were on my side. Why did you do that?"

It's a performance filled with rage and a lot of sadness and pain. It's a very fine performance that was appreciated by voters for it's uncomfortable difficulty. Close wasn't even on the same level in what amounts to just a sneaky and cunning performance. Meryl in Cry in the Dark would've been my pick but Jodie was far superior than Glenn Close who did nothing but preen like a mustache twirling villain in DL. Pfieffer was the real standout in the movie.

R67, I have always loved Jodie's performance in "The Accused", but Foster herself has said she thought she was terrible in it. At least after completing the film anyway. I don't recall if her opinion changed after she won a Globe and an Oscar for it.

Meryl in "Evil Angles (A Shot in the Dark) " -- which is what my lez BFF in school used to call "Evil Angels" (A Cry in the Dark)" is still my favorite M performance. I am not Aussie or Kiwi though, so I cannot judge how convincing that aspect was. I know some Aussies and Kiwis found her accent and cadences unsatisfactory.

468 that's too funny. Who is your favourites from the other decades?

Meryl sounds exactly like Lindy if you compare the performance with Lindy's interviews.

R69, assuming you were referring to me, I actually voted for Sissy Spacek as my favorite from the 80s,

My personal top 3 from the women who won: 80s: Spacek, Foster, Streep 70s: Busrtyn, Jackson (Women in Love), Fonda (Klute) 60s: Neal, Loren, Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) 50s: Magnani, Leigh, Audrey Hepburn

I agree with whoever posted upthread that Kathleen Turner, who never won, arguably delivered much better performances than most of the women who did win in that decade, especially the ghastly Sally Field or even Kate Hepburn in the godawful OGP. Turner in "Peggy Sue Got Married" remains one of my all-time favorite performances.

Forgot to sign R70

R70 I was yes and I agree with many of your choices. Turner was splendid.

R70, Turner has exactly one strong scene in the film, when she speaks with her late grandmother on the phone. The rest of the time she's pushing way too hard. I watched it again a few months ago and it was a struggle to get through it all and not just because of Nic Cage's horrendous speaking voice.

Coppola really lost his touch after he lost his studio.

"Tucker" was painfully bad. He'd dreamed of making it for years, but by the time he got the financing he'd lost his mojo.

Meryl is ahead of the pack

Cher over Jodie Foster?

That's homophobia if ever there was such a thing.

Mary Tyler Moore should have won.

Streep can play anything

At least the ghastly Sally Field is in last place. For now.

Cher winning anything for acting is a ludicrous idea. Her performance in Moonstruck was like a mediocre sitcom about an Italian American family. The rest of the cast, except the loon Nic Cage, acted circles around Cher.

Unlikable Sally and the forgotten Katherine Kepburn are now in a dead heat in the race to the places in the bottom of Oscar's golden pond.

I wish there had been a La La Land / Moonshine moment with the auditors walking out immediately after Sally gave her "You Like Me" speech and informing her that there had been a mistake. As a consolation they should have let her present the trophy to the actual winner. 😈

This truly was the era when Oscar bait was born. M became its midwife the day she signed on to star in [italic]Out Of Africa[/italic].

[quote]Cher winning anything for acting is a ludicrous idea. Her performance in Moonstruck was like a mediocre sitcom about an Italian American family. The rest of the cast, except the loon Nic Cage, acted circles around Cher.

That must have been what inspired Spike Lee to write [italic]Do the Right Thing[/italic].

Was a decent decade

Meryl gives a great performance but the film itself is so mediocre in every other respect that her achievement is wasted. The novel was no great piece of literature and unfortunately Pakula was way too faithful in his adaptation.

I actually agree with Kael's assessment of Meryls work in this film. I can't really remember anything that happens below her neck. She has one indisputably great scene that probably no one else could have nailed so effectively. However, the best performance by a female actor that year was Jessica Lange in Frances. She's utterly unforgettable and works with every muscle in her body.

Frances is not a great movie. And no one puts Jessica on any best performance list. Pauline was wrong about Streep who completely surpassed her in fame. She seemed really obsessed with Meryl like a Datalounger.

R88, plenty of people put Jessica's performance in Frances on their best lists, including Anthony Hopkins, who called it the best film performance he'd ever seen. Michelle Pfeiffer has talked about being taking to an early screening of the film with Al Pacino while they were making Scarface and they were both blown away by her incredible work.

I doubt they voted for her.

G for Dangerous Liaisons and Turner for Peggy Sue Got Married are better than nearly all of these performances.

I wonder, R89, were these remarks by Hopkins and Pfeiffer happened to be made while they were promoting Titus and A Thousands Acres, respectively? May I make an educated guess? Had Streep been in these films instead of Lange, her turn in Sophie's Choice might have been the one they'd rhapsodized about.

R92 just got a big ol' hammer and smacked that nail on the head!

R92, wow you must have had a GREAT education to have arrived at that conclusion. I mean, I'm SO impressed. However, here in reality, your summation is idiotic and disingenious. Regardless of when the other actors praised Lange's performance, they didn't have to be quite so effusive in their praise. They could have simply said something like, "I've admired Jessica's work for a long time and wanted to work with her." Instead, they chose to marvel at her performance in Frances. Read reviews of the film, which admittedly is problematic, the praise for Lange was and is unanimous.

The biggest problem with the movie is how it skirts over her trip to the USSR.

Performance: 1.Shirley MacLaine 2.Sissy Spacek. 3.Cher. 4.Meryl Streep. 5.Jodie Foster. 6. Sally Field. 7.Geraldine Page. 8.Jessica Tandy. 9.Katharine Hepburn (haven't seen Children of a Lesser God)

Film: 1.Terms of Endearment 2.Moonstruck. 3.Coal Miner's Daughter

Glenn Close should have won in 1988 (Dangerous Liaisons). I haven't seen Lesser God, but the work of Kathleen Turner (Peggy Sue) and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) were monumental. Whoopi should have won in 1985. I think Michelle Pfeiffer would have been a fun and deserved win in 1989. Lange probably should have won in 1982. Close call with Meh. I don't care about 1984. I'm not sure I care about 1981.

I'm okay with Cher's win 1987. Same with Spacek in 1980. MacLaine was an inspired win in 1983.

Let's compare the National Society of Film Critics awards for best actress: 1980: Sissy Spacek 1981: Marílla Pêra from the Brazilian movie Pixote. Has anyone seen this one? 1982: Meryl 1983: Debra Winger over Shirley (agree with that) 1984: Vanessa Redgrave in The Bostonians (never saw it) 1985: Vanessa Redgrave in Wetherby (never even heard of it!) 1986: Chloe Webb in Sid and Nancy (never saw it) 1987: Emily Lloyd in Wish you Were Here (never saw it...the NSFC seems even more anglophilic than the Academy!) 1988: Judy Davis in High Tide (never saw it, but lord they must have hated Glenn Close!) 1989: Michelle Pfeiffer in the Fabulous Baker Boys (yes!)

The major critics have never been supportive of Close since her debut. NBR and LAFCA gave her the win for Garp. NYFCC and NSFC gave her a RU nod. And nothing since then. I'm not sure what their deal is. She has certainly gone broad (Fatal Attraction, etc), but she has also gone subtle. They rarely love her films, and when they do (Reversal of Fortune), like Dan, they ignore her.

Don't see why MaClaine was an inspired choice for 83? It was an Oscar Bait role and Shirley campaigned hard to win.

An inspired choice would have been GG Winner Julie Walters for the still charming Educating Rita.

Holly Hunter should have won for Broadcast News. But nooooooooooooo, they picked Cher.

Cher did more to turn the award into a participation trophy for white women than anyone since Julie Andrews.

R88 'What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael' (2018) A feature length documentary on Kael. One of the most influential film critics ever.

While I think Meryl is special, I think Kael was correct (although harsh) when she referred to her as an automaton (?) in her review of Silkwood (?) to encapsulate what she thought of her acting in the six short years she had been around on screen. And Katharine Hepburn concurred with her "click, click, click" comment.

When I think of my favourite Streep performances, the ones which stick with me are some of her more unstripped work, like in Postcards from the Edge. There's no accent. No impersonation (of Carrie Fisher; I suppose she could have went there if she wanted). The performance is quite fun and less confined. It's ironic because she plays a character who feels imprisoned, as she learns to live a sober life. I also loved her in Adaptation for similar reasons, but also because she actually got to star in an awesome movie for a change.

I can't think of a recent performance of hers I truly love. I appreciate her Violet Weston, because it's such a shit-show. But, I'm left wondering what a Gena Rowlands would have brought to the role, or Ellen Burstyn, who would have seemed like more natural fits. But, Streep was brought in partly for her name. She can get a film like that financed.

She was also excellent in The Devil Wears Prada, of course. That was a great example where her technique blended well with a softer side written into her villain role. That role really reinvigorated her career as a leading lady. The two biggest female marque names in the mid-to-late 2000s were probably Streep and Sandra Bullock.

I do think there is an overall bias against comedy. Somehow, it's considered less "impressive" or "important" than drama. There is something to be said for a great comedic performance. In the 1980s, there were some strong romantic comedy work from actresses who warmed audiences up when Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock eventually came along. I think Cher in Moonstruck is one of them.

I would have been okay with Close or Hunter winning. But, while I love Hunter in Broadcast News, the fake crying didn't work as well for me as it did in, say, Raising Arizona, that same year. it was a broad stroke that I'm not sure belonged in the film. With Close, she outshone herself just the next year in Dangerous Liaisons and sadly lost to Foster (who would win again--deservingly--for Lambs).

Streep was great in The Post. It wasn’t a showy or forced performance, and I appreciated that she was able to play another real life lady boss and heroine in Katharine Graham.

Pauline Kael only ended up writing about a short period of Streep’s career. In hindsight, she kind of used Streep for attention to be the contrarian. I loved her writing but she was definitely a dilettante.

R103 DONT YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN BITCH. It's me I myself.

You were quite good in August, Julia, R106. You played a role in the financing of that film as well.

You also should have been campaigned in lead, because your role was not supporting.