Which trio of actresses do you prefer: Hepburn/Davis/Crawford vs Streep/Lange/Close

I liked the Lange/Keaton/Spacek film.

Ullmann/Andersson/Thulin

Terrible comparison, OP. Joan Crawford has no business being there. You can replace her with Vivien Leigh or Barbara Stanwyck.

Magnani/Masina/Vitti

Barbra...and...oh, Barbra...and oh, Barbra.

I like Davis. I like Crawford, to a certain extent. Hepburn may have been the most skilled actress of the three, but she bores me.

The Streep-Lange-Close trio I can support.

R6 Whoever composed that image of Meryl, Jessica, and Glenn really seems to hate Glenn.

The only reason Babs has an Oscar to her name is because she voted for herself.

Louise Brooks/Mary Pickford/Clara Bow

Margaret Hamilton/Mary Wickes/Kathleen Freeman

If we're going to suggest alternative trios then...

Vivien Leigh/Hedy Lamarr/Gene Tierney

Linda Darnell could sub in for one of them too.

I only enjoy Hepburn in the three films she and Cary Grant did together.

Marge/Selma/Patty

I’m abstaining because you didn’t include DeWitt, Somers, and Barnes.

For shame. OP!!

OP = risible attention-seeking OCD categorist.

Unless he expected fun snark!

Give me a fucking break.

Hepburn/Davis/Crawford are so far ahead of the other trio that there is no competition here. There is no need for a poll to prove it, though Glenn at least as a couple of classics (Fatal Attraction & Dangerous Liaisons).

I can't stand Joan Crawford. She looks so crazy that it distracts me to the point I miss the dialogue. Scary eyes. I find K H good, but sometimes irritating. Stop smiling! Bette Davis was great.

The second set of actresses --I like and respect them all. So I voted for them.

If I could make my own peer actress set: Susan Hayward/ Lucille Ball/ Gene Tierney

Hatchet faced Lange can't get arrested on film. 20 years at least. Get a grip.

Barbra has two competitive Oscars, R8. For which do you assume she voted for herself? I would assume both times, but I could be wrong…

Lawrence/Stone/Hathaway

R20 Just no. I like Emma and Anne. But no. Just no.

Cher/Liza/Bette

Entertainers that dabbled in acting.

Can you imagine Crawford in Fatal Attraction? Or Davis in American Horror Story? Or Hepburn in Death Becomes Her?

More interesting is if you mixed the golden age actresses with the modern ones. E.g. : Hepburn/Lange vs Davis/Streep. I think that's more evenly matched.

Hepburn would probably be a better fit with Close since she picked Close as her successor, the way Davis picked Streep. And of course, Crawford picked Dunaway but we all know how that turned out.

R20 I'd be okay with Anne and Emma, but definitely not Weinstein's leman.

R19 I'm talking about her infamous tie with Hepburn in 1968 when the votes were evenly split. That only occurred because Babs voted for herself.

Stop comparing women. All women have the right to separate agency just like men do.

We have no threads comparing the male leads of their time, and on a gay site no less....because the competition doesn't matter today. Somehow it still matters how we view female actresses, singers, Girl Groups, etc. And that's because of casual sexism.

Streep/Close/Lange are three incredibly overrated actresses that possess the charisma of wet paint. I have no clue why they're so deified on DL - especially frau favorite Streep who has barely made any watchable films. There are better and more interesting actress in that age range. Sigourney Weaver, Sissy Spacek. Diane Keaton when she tried. I know DL hates Susan Sarandon, but she's fabulous on screen.

The actress from the generation just before them - Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Gena Rowlands, Shirley MacLaine, Ellen Burstyn, Julie Christie, Maggie Smith were all leagues better in talent and/or star power. That's not even getting into foreign ones like Liv Ullmann, Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve...

At least Hepburn/Davis/Crawford, whatever you may think of their technical talents or lack thereof, were STARS in every sense with numerous classics under their belts.

R12 There are four Hepburn/Grant pairings - Sylvia Scarlett, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday and The Philadelphia Story.

Why would you group Audrey Hepburn, Geena Davis, and Broderick Crawford together?

Lana Turner/Susan Hayward/Natalie Wood

Julia Roberts/ Julia Roberts/ Julia Roberts

Frances McDormand / Elizabeth Holmes / Patsy Ramsey

R31 I'm not R12 but barely anyone knows about Sylvia Scarlett. Her comedies with Grant are the iconic movies and considered classics.

I can’t stand Hepburn so I went with the modem group.

But The Women and All About Eve are great.

Jessica has Frances and Tootsie.

Glenn has Fatal Attraction.

Meryl has over a dozen great movies, so the modern ladies win … from her.

Can't stand the "Great" Kate or Meryl (click...click...click). And what classics does Meryl even have besides Sophie's Choice (and that would only be considered a classic because of her performance, not the movie itself) and The Devil Wears Prada?

Meryl has Defending Your Life, Death Becomes Her, The Devil Wears Prada, Postcards from The Edge, Kramer v Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, The Deerhunter, Doubt, A Cry in the Dark, Julie and Julia, it’s Complicated, The Hours, Adaptation, The Post and probably others I am missing.

These are all great films for movie fans and must see movies for gaylings.

R39 None of the are classics honey.

Of course they are. I forgot Silkwood.

Silkwood is very easy to forget so that is understandable.

I keep hearing Meryl fans claim Silkwood is one of her classics but I personally hadn't even heard of the movie until her fans kept bringing it up to validate Meryl's film career. Of course that's just my own personal experience, but whereas I've constantly heard about Sophie's Choice or Fatal Attraction in pop culture, I've never once heard anything about Silkwood.

Agree with R40, that pretty much none of the movies that R39 brought up are classics. Death Becomes Her might be a camp classic in the gay community but it's not a classic in the true sense of the word. The Hours is best known for Nicole Kidman's Oscar win, not Meryl's performance. Even Julianne Moore got better reviews than Meryl from that movie. The Post seems as forgotten as Spotlight, an actual Oscar winning movie for Best Picture. Kramer vs Kramer is considered dated. Meryl just mugs for the camera in Julie and Julia and the new HBO show has only further affirmed that view.

The Devil Wears Prada is the only movie which I hear about in pop culture and which young people seem attuned with. And Sophie's Choice is in the vernacular so I guess that counts as well.

R36 Just because “barely anyone” knows about Sylvia Scarlett doesn’t make R12’s statement correct. I agree SS isn’t very good, but it exists, nonetheless. And who knows? Perhaps R12 wasn’t aware of its existence, and might enjoy knowing about it.

Hepburn and Cary Grant should have been in a lavender marriage/relationship instead of Hepburn and Tracy.

Bad poll: I want Hepburn and Lange.

Are any of the current crop of actresses inspired by Hepburn, Davis, Crawford, etc? I know Streep loves Davis and cites her as an inspiration. I think Glenn does that with Hepburn.

[quote]I know DL hates Susan Sarandon, but she's fabulous on screen.

She's decent but she's not a great.

If I had to pick a top 10 from actresses born in the second half of the 1940s she wouldn't feature.

1945: Helen Mirren, Brenda Fricker, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Mia Farrow, Linda Hunt

1946: Diane Keaton, Cher, Sally Fields, Susan Sarandon, Penelope Wilton, Charlotte Rampling, Liza Minnelli, Brenda Blethyn, Dianne Weist

1947: Glenn Close, Jacki Weaver, Mary Kay Place, Rula Lenska

1948: Kathy Bates, Barbara Hershey, Mercedes Ruehl, Bernadette Peters

1949: Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Judith Light, Pam Grier,

It's so weird to think of Liza as a contemporary of Glenn, Susan Sarandon, or Sally Field.

In an interview with The Guardian last week Spacek mentioned her admiration for actresses of the 1940s and singled out Barbara Stanwyck.

[R12] here. Of course I've seen Sylvia Scarlett. It's fine. Holiday- Bringing Up Baby - The Philadelphia Story are genius. BTW, Streep absolutely does not have a single great film to her name. The Devil Wears Prada? It's Complicated? Garbage.

Death Becomes Her and She-Devil (an abomination compared with the BBC miniseries) are her most entertaining comic performances.

Over a decade old now, but still painfully valid:

Mere jealously. The old films primarily appeal to old people.

[quote] And Sophie's Choice is in the vernacular so I guess that counts as well.

Silkwood shower is in the vernacular as is Dingo’s got my baby.

Let's be realistic about the three modern actresses in OP's poll with respect to "classic films". I agree that Streep, for the amazing career that she's had, didn't exactly star in any movies that will be considered timeless classics. But neither did Lange - her resume is even less impressive. Of the three, Close probably comes the closest (pun intended), but only slightly. Yes, Fatal Attraction was a huge hit, but notwithstanding Glenn's great performance, the movie is a steaming pile of dog shit. (My personal favorite of Glenn's Dangerous Liaisons.)

This is not to suggest that these women weren't in any good movies. They starred in dozens of great films. But I think very few of them would be classified as "great classic films."

Dixie Dunbar, Mitzi Mayfair and Dame May Whitty

R55, I suspect more people associate the dingo quote with Julia Louis-Dreyfus than Meryl Streep.

[quote]Let's be realistic about the three modern actresses in OP's poll with respect to "classic films". I agree that Streep, for the amazing career that she's had, didn't exactly star in any movies that will be considered timeless classics. But neither did Lange - her resume is even less impressive. Of the three, Close probably comes the closest (pun intended), but only slightly. Yes, Fatal Attraction was a huge hit, but notwithstanding Glenn's great performance, the movie is a steaming pile of dog shit. (My personal favorite of Glenn's Dangerous Liaisons.)

[quote]This is not to suggest that these women weren't in any good movies. They starred in dozens of great films. But I think very few of them would be classified as "great classic films."

Let's be honest, most film journalists who have compiled the "classic movie" lists over the decades have been men, and most of the films have been written and directed by men with mostly male characters.

There was some analysis of the Best Picture winners with male/female dialogue and from memory only Chicago had more female dialogue than men. Since then only Million Dollar Baby, The Shape Of Water, Nomadland and Coda could be argued to have a female lead.

There is a snobbishness about what constitutes a classic movie - how many actresses could claim to have starred in several?

Where the fuck is Dorothy Dandridge? Cecily Tyson? Angela Bassett?

Per the Top 1,000 Films of All Time list (an compendium of greatest of all time critics lists), OP's actresses rank as follows:

Katharine Hepburn - 4: Bringing Up Baby (#125), Holiday (#943), The Philadelphia Story (#328), The African Queen (#737)

Bette Davis - 1: All About Eve (#129)

Joan Crawford - 1: Mildred Pierce (#957)

Meryl Streep - 2: The Deer Hunter (#160), The Bridges of Madison County (#891)

Jessica Lange - 2: All That Jazz (#474), Tootsie (#511)

Glenn Close - 0:

And then there's Miss Dunaway with Chinatown, Bonnie and Clyde, Network.

Click. Click. Click.

R61, Manhattan is also on the list. So there's a third for Meryl (albeit in a minor role).

Diane Keaton has more than any of those actresses, though: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Reds and the first two Godfather movies.

Dead, dead, and frolicking with Courtney Vance, r60.

r62, and Natalie Wood with Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers, Splendor in the Grass, and West Side Story.

r64, oops, missed that one.

The list at R61 kind of shows how they truly did make women's movies in the golden age of Hollywood. Of the movies for the modern actresses, only one - Streep in Bridges of Madison County, was a starring role. All the others - Deer Hunter, All That Jazz, Tootise, Manhattan - were supporting roles. Then look at the films for the three older actresses - all of them are starring roles.

that's Tootsie, not Tootise.

How many Jane Fonda movies are considered classics?

A “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” remake would be fabulous with Barbra Streisand (Blanche) and Bette Midler (Jane.) It’ll never happen, though.

R59 If you look at Best Picture winners in total, Hepburn never even starred in any. Joan has Grand Hotel and Bette has All About Eve. I can't think of any Golden Age actress who starred in more than one except for Leslie Caron who has An American in Paris and Gigi.

Adding to R61's list, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine both have 2 movies each.

Olivia: The Adventures of Robin Hood; Gone with the Wind

Joan: Rebecca; Letter from an Unknown Woman

Seeing as Streep’s (and other modern actresses) movies are already fondly remembered, I don’t buy the argument that they don’t have any classic films.

Colin Firth has starred in 3 best picture winners

The MoviesAnywhere app has an automatic list function. One of the list categories is classics. The following movies are characterized as classics for the Golden Age trio of actresses.

Katharine - 4: Adam's Rib, Bringing Up Baby, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Philadelphia Story

Joan - 4: The Damned Don't Cry, Grand Hotel, Mildred Pierce, The Women

Bette - 3: All About Eve, Dark Victory, Jezebel

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is characterized as a cult classic rather than a classic though.

Lange is eye-candy who hooked up with the right men. Close is ugly.

Meryl, you're hardly a looker yourself.

Well, if the app says so, that must be all I need to know and not think for myself.

As someone pointed out, it's fairly difficult to base appearances in classic films as the primary criteria for a great female actor, as so many of the classic films are male driven and the female leads are pretty much just arm candy. It's like when it was revealed that Carrie Fisher had the highest cumulative box office gross of any female actor in Hollywood because of the Star Wars movies. Similarly, Natalie Wood, whom I love, but would never call one of the greats acting wise, happened to be in a series of highly acclaimed films that are now considered classics: Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street (arguably her greatest performance), West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause....

Natalie Wood is excellent in Splendor in the Grass. Inside Daisy Clover and This Property is Condemned are both highly underrated movies of hers. However, her best performance (and her own personal favorite) was the TV movie The Cracker Factory dealing with mental illness, alcoholism, and suicide. Had that been a theatrical movie, I think she could easily have been Oscar nominated again.

Neither. I like a mix of both but thanks for the thread. Enjoying the posts.

Bette/Jessica/Glenn

R61 Sissy Spacek (5) Badlands, Carrie, 3 Women, JFK, The Straight Story.

I would have put

Streep/Fonda/Winger

Runner up Sigourney Weaver

R67 and even though he’s basically cancelled now, also goes to show that Woody Allen was consistently the best writer /director for women in the modern era, hence why Keaton hits more of these goal posts than the others (I don’t count The Godfather, since she’s second tier at best in both).

None of this goes to show how great (or how much of a draw) any of these actresses were/are, however.

R61 Meryl has three - you left out Manhattan.

This thread has made me realize how bland Glenn is.

I would go with Streep/Spacek/Winger