Best actress 1981

Faye should have been second-Oscared this year.

Not even Meryl much cared for her own performance in French Lieutenant's Woman. What a lame year for Best Actress, based on the nominees above.

And even if Meryl had won, she still would have won for Sophie's Choice. Absolutely no one was beating her that year.

Keaton was pretty riveting when I rewatched Reds recently. Even she says the performance "worked" because Beatty was so hard on her. (It ended their relationship but she does credit her with getting a good performance out of her----and she rarely complements her own work.)

I don't think Lange was really in the running. Sally Field was probably sixth for Absence of Malice (since it got two other actors nominated) and Miss Dunaway probably got her share of votes despite the controversy.

The stuff about Sarandon voting for herself as supporting and being shocked she ended up in lead is odd. She's in a lot of the film. 45 percent to Lancaster's 54 percent.

Do you mean 1982? Remember the Oscars are always held early the next year. So 1981 films were honored at the 1982 ceremony. The 1981 ceremony honored 1980 films and was rightfully won by Sissy Spacek(Coal Miner's Daughter). With, nominations for Ellen Burstyn(Resurrection), Goldie Hawn(Private Benjamin), Mary Tyler Moore(Ordinary People), and Gena Rowlands(Gloria).

If you want to refer to the ceremony by other than the year you can say the 54th Academy Awards or whatever.

R4, I think most sentient human beings, which obviously doesn't include YOU, understand that OP meant the films that were released in 1981.

FRENCH LIEUTENANTS WOMAN was a ridiculous and pretentious movie then and now. Streep is really uncomfortable to watch and over the top (bordering on camp) and she has zero chemistry with Jeremy Irons. Not her finest hour.

I (respectfully) disagree with R3 about REDS. I think Keaton (and Beatty as well) seem utterly contemporary and out-of-place in the historical setting. Keaton is working hard but I just didn't buy her. It's a pretty and romantic movie, at least.

Can I suggest that none of these movies mentioned by OP are really all that great?

R5 No, because that is not how ANYONE does it. Go to Oscars.org The Oscars are by award year, not by the eligibility year. OP was wrong. If you say 81 it is the ceremony held that year. He wants to discuss Best Actress 1982.

no r7 see wikipedia, imdb etc. OP was correct

I think Dunaway should have been nominated for Mommie Dearest. It was definitely the best performance in 1981.

Atlantic City is one of my favorite movies and although I hate Sarandon with a passion I do think she gave a good performance.

Marsha Mason should have won. She was so good in Only When I Laugh.

It was odd how they kept giving them to Hepburn even though she never attended or seemed interested in her wiins. (sort of like Frances McD.)

I never saw Only when I laugh. and have no desire to watch it. The clear choices were Keaton or Sarandon for the win, however when I was forced to go see On Golden Pond, I knew that the old lezzie was gonna win. Fonda was "guaranteed " because he was dying, I knew the old dyke was getting her 4th. I fell asleep twice watching the pond movie at College (Northwestern)

Who was your pick r6?

Jane Fonda, On Golden Pond.

[quote] and she rarely complements her own work.)

Oh dear.

My performance as Miss Sally Ross was the sadly overlooked high point of that year.

she was in supporting r15

Lily Tomlin for the Incredible Shrinking Woman.

Oscar so rarely respects comedic performances.

[quote]Who was your pick [R6]?

I actually didn't vote in OP's poll, R14. These are all talented actresses but I don't think any of these films are their best work.

I do have a fond memory of ATLANTIC CITY and Sarandon in it (back before she lost her mind) but I haven't seen it in 40 years. God only knows what I'd make of it now.

Dunaway is the only performance from that year that anyone remembers.

Of the 1981 nominees, Streep's performance was superior and complex. Keaton just didn't have the romantic quality of a Vivien Leigh or Julie Christie necessary for a film of Reds' epic scope. Sarandon was adequate. Mason was mundane. Hepburn played Hepburn yet again. Dunaway should have been nominated and won.

The actual winner is Faye Dunaway with a good editor.

I would give the 1981 Oscar to Sarandon (Atlantic City). Then I would give Sarandon’s 1995 Oscar (Dead Man Walking) to Streep (The Bridges of Madison County) for her third win.

The Best Actress of 1981 was Kathleen Turner for Body Heat.

The best Actresses of 1981 were Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen for Rich and Famous.

You are an IDIOT, OP! You are deluded, deranged, and DERIDED! The obvious best actress of 1981 was Bo Derek in “Tarzan.”

The Best Actress of 1981 was Bernadette Peters for Pennies From Heaven.

R18 Yeah, I know but she should have been lead.

no r29

She's only in 20 minutes of the movie.

Atlantic City still holds up IMO.

Gritty crime drama and superb direction by Malle. Lancaster and Sarandon were great as was the supporting cast. Lancaster didn't like SS, aparently she already was a cunt back then.

My favorite performance not nominated that year was Kate Nelligan in Eye of the Needy.

^^ Eye of the NEEDLE !! lol But I think my typo could possibly become a great movie.

R9 Excuse me! Miss Faye and Miss Keaton were runners up to me in the NYFCC voting and I was named Best Actress by the National Board of Review as well

R30 interesting list and I noticed that the 2 largest supporting roles with over an hour of screen time were Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker (1962) and Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon (1973)

A loaded year for lead actress performances. My take on the nominees:

1. Sarandon - the best of the bunch and probably her best performance to date. She and Lancaster should have taken the gold. 2. Mason - have only seen the film once but really liked it and Mason's performance which is her best work in a Neil Simon adapted play. 3. Keaton - Annie Hall goes to Russia was thrown around at the time. Liked her performance more back in when the film was released then I do now but worthy of a nomination. 4. Hepburn - Yeah, Hepburn playing Hepburn. She was good but far from her best work. 5. Streep - An embarrassment......until Mama Mia came along.

I tend to think next in line where:

6. Sally Field for Absence of Malice (given Newman and Melinda Dillion scored Oscar nominations Field must have been very close 7/8. Faye Dunaway for Mommie Dearest and/or Sissy Spacek for Raggedy Man (frankly both deserved nominations over most of the actual nominees) 9. Bernadette Peters for Pennies From Heaven - she won a Golden Globe but the film was a big flop that really has grown in stature over time.

Doubt Lange was in the running nor sadly Kate Nelligan or Kathleen Turner who like Dunaway & Spacek were more deserving than most of the actual nominees.

Liza Minnelli, Carol Burnett and Jill Clayburgh also got Golden Globe nominations. It really was a great year for actresses, and I agree about Glenda Jackson being worthy for a nomination for Stevie.

R37 Glenda Jackson wasn't eligible in 1981. Stevie was released in LA in 1978 and that was the year she was eligible.

Stevie didn't open in New York until 1981. Hence a New York Film Critics win but not up for very much deserved Oscar consideration.

R30 *sighs*

OK, FINE!

Kristy McNichol should have been nominated for Supporting Actress for Only When I Laugh. I thought it was mean that they nominated the whole cast but left her out.

R25 I agree.

"you're not that bright are you? I like that in a man."

Rewatched On Golden Pond two weeks ago. Holds up and Katherine was great. She earned that award that year.

Faye Dunaway didn't stand a chance after they remarketed MD as high camp. Prior to that, the movie had gotten dismal reviews with her performance being the highlight. At that point, she could have pulled off a nomination.

After "The biggest mother of them all!" PR push, however, no way. Especially since the Globes were getting reamed out for rewarding Pia Zadora in Butterfly. The Academy (which was still very conservative at that time) was not going to touch a movie about child abuse that the studio tried to market as a camp spectacle, borderline comedy.

Plus, Faye was already on the downturn in her career. She had received her first Razzie nomination that year for First Deadly Sin, and she was not the big moneymaker, A lister that she had been a few years prior. Streep, Lange, and a few others were generating more buzz and taking those spots. And given her well documented behavior, I don't think many people were going to bend over backwards propping her up. They snubbed her for Barfly a few years later.

If she had placed in the top ten, she probably would have barely scraped in at a number ten. I think Kathleeen Turner, Sally Field, Liza Minnelli, Sissy Spacek and Bernadette Peters all stood a better chance of a nomination.

FAYE!@!!!%%#@!!!!

How dare you. It is Miss Dunaway.

Hepburn is funny tender and very entertaining in On Golden Pond. (more so than Henry.)

It was a strong year for Supporting Actresses too. Karen Allen was great in Raiders.

Interesting how Mary Steenburgen got the Globe nomination for Ragtime while Elizabeth McGovern got the Oscar nom for the same picture. That rarely happens.

I remember being shocked as a kid that the wholesome preppy McGovern from Ordinary People was naked (for a long time!) in Ragtime.

Dunaway was in the running. This was the first year I followed the Oscars. I remember writing down Dennis Cunningham of CBS' predictions. He had Miss Dunaway in instead of Sarandon.

I would from this list only kept Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond and Diane Keaton in Reds.

The other three nods would be: Faye Dunaway, Mommie Dearest Bernadette Peters, Pennies From Heaven Barbara Sukowa, Lola

Faye in MD would be my winning pick. A performance that couldn't have been done by anyone else, at any point in time.

It was not a very good year for actresses. Generally has not been following the 1970s.

It's a pity Faye never was able to embrace Mommie Dearest.

I've heard Ed Norton and Debra Winger both praise the film and Pauline Kael of all people fought for Miss Dunaway at the New York Film Critics Circle.

Yes blame the editing and marketing but you did a good job Faye. Accept the complements!!!

It's kind of amazing the trajectory of the response to Faye's performance.

But I agree, it's too bad she never embraced Mommie Dearest. If Dunaway developed a sense of humour about herself, she could probably reinvent herself as Dionne Warwick did.

I think Dunaway's disgust for Mommie Dearest has something to do with her ex-husband for whom she got a producing credit. Probably a really painful time in her life and she takes it out on the film. (the marriage ended really poorly----see the youtube of that phone call about Brando etc.)

A really painful time in Irene Sharaff's life too...

And it was also a very painful time for everyone else who worked on Mommie Dearest...

I actually think Mommie Dearest will continue to age well in terms of her performance elevating it to iconic cultural artifact. It's as if it was made for memes decades before that was even contemplated.

Given it is nearly 40 years since these nominations it is interesting that Mommie Dearest (with Atlantic City a close second) are really the only two films are highly regarded.

Reds has dated very badly.

Meryl was expected to win? She had the BAFTA, Golden Globe and LA Critics award.

Jane Fonda had high hopes for Rollover oh, another Christmas 1981 release that bombed. But let's not forget Barbra in her pretty blonde wig in All Night Long, a film she only agreed to do so she could use her salary to get Yentl produced. Sally Field also had Back Roads which was a disappointment. Golden Globe nominee Carol Burnett had one of her worst films to with Chu Chu and the Chili Flash which will give you the same reaction as rancid chilli.

Meryl was brilliant in the challenging dual role in French Lieutenant's Ho. She deserved the award that year.

Carol Burnett also had The Four Seasons, which netted her a Supporting Actress Globe nomination. But she asked the studio not to push her for an oscar, because she felt her performance wasn't very good.

I think had they pushed, she might have been nominated.

Meryl was predicted to win but there were doubts. Some thought Keaton could win and a small minority though Marsha Mason would win since Streep and Keaton had just won and Mason was on her fourth nomination without a win. No one predicted Hepburn winning. People gasp when she does.

[quote]Carol Burnett also had The Four Seasons, which netted her a Supporting Actress Globe nomination

It was a lead actress in a comedy globe nomination. (no offense I hate correcting people but...)

R61 damn they really have the same exact face.

Marsha Mason was excellent in "Only When I Laugh". She plays a recovering alcoholic, and in this scene she is about to relapse. You can see the desperation in her face, and hear it in her voice. It was a well-deserved nomination.

Mason is so good in Chapter Two too. Which must have been a challenge because the movie is very stagey and her two scene partners (James Caan and Valerie Harper) seem so miscast.

R64 The whole cast of Only When I Laugh were great. It's a shame Kristy McNichol couldn't have scored a nomination as well.

McNichol was quite talented. I only saw Little Darlings recently for the first time. It was such a standard teen comedy BUT she gave such a mature moving performance. So touching.

(Tatum sounded so affected sadly. Like she was trying too hard to be sophisticated.)

Tatum was never really an actress, her Best Supporting Oscar for PAPER MOON notwithstanding.

She was a cute, photogenic kid, but per IMDB: [quote]Some Hollywood insiders suspected that Tatum O'Neal's performance was "manufactured" by Peter Bogdanovich. It was revealed that the director had gone to great lengths, sometimes requiring as many as 50 takes of some of her scenes, in order to capture the "effortless" natural quality for which Tatum was critically praised. Either way, Bogdanovich maintained later that working with the young actress was "one of the most miserable experiences" of his life.

I have heard other accounts that Bogdanovich, Ryan O'Neal (her costar and her father), and Polly Platt all gave her line readings that Tatum repeated onscreen. So she never really learned to act and heaven knows, her skills never improved with time.

In her defense, she was absurdly young to start working professionally, her father was/is a disaster, and her substance abuse issues aside, I have heard she is actually a nice person. She should never have gotten into show biz.

Her mother was no bargain either. I think she abandoned the kids. Did she have substance issues too?

You always hear how Tatum's performance was manufactured by others but I'd bet there are plenty of adult performances that were created the same way with directors and editors making the performances.

Only When I Laugh is an underrated gem of a movie.

R69, Joanna Moore was a drug addict and alcoholic. Tatum had to support and take care of her in her later years.

Kristi was heartbreaking in OWIL.

Kristy was such a natural actress. She just brought so much presence to the screen and what she projected was so authentic.

Peter Bogdanovich gave line readings to all his actors, even Streisand.

This was the only year that Hepburn and Streep were nominated together. I didn’t care for On Golden Pond. At all.

Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn were in their early/mid 70s in On Golden Pond but fuck if they didn't look 95 by modern standards. "Older" people looked SO old back then.

I would have replaced Marsha Mason with Kathleen Turner for Body Heat.

R56 What about the Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire? Never saw it but think it's still well thought of.

R77, indeed. Katharine Hepburn was 74 years old in 1981. Fellow nominee, Meryl Streep, is now 72, and looks far younger than Kate did in "The Lion in Winter," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," etc., over a decade prior.

Also Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball and Bette Davis. They were also in their 70s at the time and looked like gargoyles. It's amazing how much younger people who are the same age in 2021 look.

William Holden and Peter Finch were still in their 50s when they did Network.

R77 you’re telling me!

[quote]Carol Burnett also had The Four Seasons, which netted her a Supporting Actress Globe nomination. But she asked the studio not to push her for an oscar, because she felt her performance wasn't very good.

That's odd if true. She was in her late forties at the time and had never been nominated(and hasn't been since then).

You are all fucking Philistines. It’s an embarrassment the Susan Sarandon is not coming first in this poll. Wahwahwah Hillary Bernie wahwahwah.

R85 I bet your pardon. Read my post at R36. Sarandon for the win!

Sarandon was...adequate. Only half a dozen other actresses could have played this character just as well. She's never made a character her own I always wonder what Fonda, Lange, Close, or Streep could have done with the role.

Streep? Close? Driving an old gangster wild with desire by lemoning her titties? They were both pretty, ice blondes at this point in their lives but no. Hell. No.

Fonda a touch too WASPy.

Lange had a Playmate-ish, alpha-sexuality at this point in her career. She would have booted her loser ex and sister out the door and told Lancaster to fuck off.

Sarandon had the right mix of sexuality and quiet desperation.