Best Actress Oscar Winners who deserved it and got it

Elizabeth Taylor in "...Virginia Woolf", Meryl in "Sophie's Choice", Charlize Theron in "Monster". Angelina Jolie in "Girl, Interrupted". I still feel Brittany Murphy should've been nominated for that same film.

Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker (even fellow nominee Katharine Hepburn thought Bancroft deserved it).

Maggie Smith in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie

Glenda Jackson in Women In Love

Hillary Swank in Boys Don't Cry

R1, Jolie won for supporting actress.

"Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker (even fellow nominee Katharine Hepburn thought Bancroft deserved it)."

Fuck them!

Simone Signoret in Room At The Top.

In terms of recent winners I think Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine was fantastic.

Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda.

Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter.

Bette Davis for "Jezebel"

Helen Lawson - "Love Me Forever"

Claudette Colbert / It Happened One Night

Sally Field / Norma Rae

Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs

Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle

Kathy Bates MISERY

Brie Larson in Room (forget the hatars). Exquisite film and performance. Whichever actress got the part could have gone all the way with it, really, but she was perfect for the part.

Frances McDormand Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

[quote] "Jolie won for supporting actress."

I know that, R3. I realize OP asked specifically for "BSA"...but I didn't think about it until after I posted. Apologies.

Mary Tyler Moore for oops!

Frances McDormand for Fargo

Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment.

Some undeniable wins:

Vivien Leigh (for both iconic wins)

Olivia DeHavilland, The Heiress

Shirley Booth, Come Back Little Sheba

Simone Signoret, Room At The Top

Elizabeth Taylor, WAOVW?

Katherine Hepburn, The Lion In Winter

Maggie Smith, TPOMJB

Glenda Jackson, Women In Love

Jane Fonda, Klute

Our Sally, Norma Rae

Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner's Daughter

Meryl for Sophie's Choice

Kathy Bates, Misery

Jodie Foster, TSOTL

Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry

Charlize Theron, Monster

Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Sissy Spacek for 'Coal Miner's Daughter' immediately comes to mind. Brilliant work in a role that allows her to utilize her fantastic singing voice, ability to convincingly age or de-age herself without artifice, and gift for giving lived-in, spontaneous-feeling performances. Her specifically etched inner life explains the exterior of the character, rather than allowing the latter to imply the former as is the case in many other Oscar-winning biopic performances.

Faye Dunaway in Network.

Lol@faye dunaway. She should have won that razzie and best bitch mommie dearest only

Faye Dunaway might have deserved the Oscar for Chinatown. But certainly NOT for pacing the floor and flaring her nostrils in Network.

R22 I came here to post specifically about Sissy—very well said!

R22=Conrad Jarrett

I want to say Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight. She is one of my favorite actresses of the era, and the Gaslight performance is not bad. However, Stanwyck for Double Indemiity would not have been a bad win for that year either.

I think her best Hollywood 40's performance was Notorious, but she was not even nominated for that one.

I don't like this thread. It's too positive and too many people are being....agreeable.

That blonde Hollywood princess Goop stole my well-deserved Oscar. How's that for fucking agreeable?

Julia Roberts fucking deserved her Oscar in 2000. Any one who says otherwise is a homophobe or a plain idiot, no doubt.

Julie Andrews also deserved her's. She also deserved one for TSOM. she was ROBBED. DISGUSTING.

I liked Shirley in that role for she won her Oscar. Give my daughter the SHOT !

Shirley Maclaine was sublime. It was a fantastic role and she played every moment and nuance of it to the HILT!

R21 Julia may have been a worthy winner but so would for Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For A Dream. Therefore Julia wasn't undeniable that year.

Kate Winslet for The Reader

Lol R34 funny! Winslet was the weakest nominee of 2008 and The Reader is her weakest nominated performance.

Sorry I forgot she somehow got nominated for Iris, so The Reader is Winslet's second weakest performance!

R31, do you think Julie andrews deserved it over Julie Christie?

Julie Andrews disgraced herself when she turned down her Tony nomination.

Charlize Theron, Monster, and Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose, were two of the best wins ever. Stunning performances. No equals.

Renee deserved it for Judy

40 posts and no one mentioned Streisand for "Funny Girl"?

Naomi Watts for Mulholland Drive

Oops. Hallie Berry won instead for Monster’s Ball.

Total white girl Halle Berry never deserved her Oscar. She should be called out for her blatant "Blackface".

The 1950’s is one of my favorite decades for films but for whatever reason the Oscars gave some strange choices during the decade.

Grace Kelly for The Country Girl over Judy for example

^ditto Judy Holliday over Bette and Gloria Swanson

R35 You're entitled to your opinion even if it is wrong.

Big Winslet should have won for Eternal Sunshine. Hillary Swank does not need 2 Oscars. Meryl should have won in 2009 for Doubt. Then big Viola could have won for The Help. The Michelle Williams could have taken BSA for Manchester By The Sea over Viola and her emotive snot.

Nickers Kidman should have won in 2002 for Moulin Rogue!

Julianne Moore should have won in 2003 for Far From Heaven

Rosamund Pike could then have won in 2015 for playing a wicked bitch Gone Girl

I recently watched Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and felt like Ellen Burstyn came out of nowhere to turn in one of the best Best Actress performances of all time

Holly Hunter - The Piano

Whoopi should have won in 86 for The Color Purple, then Nettie Bening could have scored the 1990 BSA for The Grifters where she went fully nude!

R44, In the 1940s, both Ginger Rogers and Loretta Young won undeserved Oscars.

I can tell you two bitches who did not deserve their Oscars: Grace Kelly and Rita Moreno

Joan should have won her 2nd Oscar instead of Loretta Young. Or Roz should have won it instead. Anybody but Loretta.

R54, Wasn't one of devout Catholic Loretta's sons arrested for child pornography?

Hepburn should’ve won in 62 for Long Days Journey into Night. I think she had the same raw intensity as Bancroft; the movies even look similar but Hepburn us playing one of the greatest roles for an actress. I liked Pumpkin Eater so Annie could wait two years.

Liza!

Another vote for Brie Larson

Olivia Colman. Glenn wasn't that great that year.

Marion Cotillard in La vie en rose!

Olivia Colman should have won supporting and let Glenn have her Oscar finally. I blame Emma Stone. I don't know why she insisted on being in supporting when she had the title character and biggest role in the film. It worked out ok for Colman but had things gone as suspected with Glenn winning Emma would have robbed Colman of an Oscar.

R61 just a guess but Glenn probably came 'Close'. If she had won in 2019 then Coleman would likely be 'the favourite' this year for "The Lost Daughter". Thus year's category is really weak apart from Cruz.

All this Close vs. Colman when the winner should have been Melissa McCarthy. By far. The same with Roberts vs. Burstyn when it should have been Laura Linney. Or K. Hepburn vs. Bancroft vs. Dunaway when the greatest performance that year was given by Edith Evans. and so on.

Maybe R63 but those performances were never frontrunner and never going to win.

Wendy Hiller might’ve won in 1938 if not for Bette Davis’ performance in Jezebel.

I deserved mine.

Sissy Spacek vs Mary Tyler Moore was the best race I've seen. They both deserved to win, but Spacek's more demanding role made her the "if I can only pick one" winner.

I wasn't alive in 1950 but I think that was the best year for the Best Actress race. Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson gave career defining performances, but Judi Holliday was perfect, much like Claudette Colbert in another comedic winning performance. Personally I would have voted for Gloria Swanson, but all three deserved to win.

"Susan Hayward for I Want to Live!"

-Snort

R66, Of course you did, Mother.

Spacek, Coal Miner's Daughter

MacLaine, Terms of Endearment