Every Academy Award for Best Actress: A Complete History of the Winners

The rich history of the Academy Award for best actress is as fascinating as the history of the film industry itself. The list of winners tells a story about female representation onscreen, of progress moving (slowly) forward, and doors that were once shut being (gradually) opened. Best-leading-actress Oscars have gone to a range of complex female characters, performed by some of the greatest movie stars of all time—women who double as boundary pushers and helped shift the industry. As Emma Thompson put it in her best-actress speech, they’re a testament to “the heroism and the courage of women.”

Here’s a look back at who won best actress at the Oscars:

Emma Stone – 2024
Poor Things (2023)Poor Things stars Emma Stone as Frankenstein-ian creation Bella Baxter, who rapidly develops and learns the ways of the world in an adult body. “Before I even got the chance to read the script, I felt like I understood her journey or her arc, from brand new to full adulthood. She’s my favorite character ever,” the actress told Vanity Fair. Lily Gladstone, recognized for Killers of the Flower Moon, was the first Native American actress to be nominated in the lead category.

Michelle Yeoh – 2023
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)In an emotional interview with GQ, Michelle Yeoh spoke of what she saw in the genre-shattering role of Evelyn Wang: “This is something I’ve been waiting for for a long time, that’s going to give me the opportunity to show my fans, my family, my audience, what I’m capable of: to be funny, to be real, to be sad. Finally, somebody understood that I can do all these things.” Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win the category, with Halle Berry co-presenting the award alongside Jessica Chastain.

Jessica Chastain in “The Eyes of Tamy Faye” 2021.From Searchlight Pictures/Everett Collection.

Jessica Chastain – 2022
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)Jessica Chastain spent nearly a decade developing this biopic of television evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker as a starring vehicle. Onscreen, she sang from Tammy Faye’s songbook and donned prosthetics to match the TV personality’s unique frame. In her acceptance speech, Chastain spoke of anti-LGBTQ legislation and the rise of hate crimes: “In times like this, I think of Tammy and I’m inspired by her radical acts of love…. And I’m inspired by her compassion and I see it as a guiding principle that leads us forward.”

Frances McDormand – 2021
Nomadland (2020)As a producer of Nomadland, Frances McDormand was the first performer to receive both an acting and a best-picture Oscar for the same film. She is only the second actress to win three lead-actress Oscars, trailing Katherine Hepburn’s record of four. McDormand has never lost when nominated in the lead category, but has been nominated for supporting actress three times without winning.

Renée Zellweger – 2020
Judy (2019)Renée Zellweger earned her second Oscar for playing Judy Garland, a screen legend who was never given a competitive Oscar of her own. “Though Judy Garland did not receive this honor in her time, I am certain that this moment is an extension of the celebration of her legacy,” Zellweger said in her acceptance speech. Scarlett Johansson, who was a nominee for her role in Marriage Story, is the most recent actor to be nominated in both lead and supporting categories at the same Oscars (her supporting nomination was for Jojo Rabbit).

Olivia Colman – 2019
The Favourite (2018)As Queen Anne, Olivia Colman became the sixth actor to win an Academy Award for playing a British royal for Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite. In his Vanity Fair review of the film, Richard Lawson said Colman “reigns supreme.… crafting an Anne who’s pitiable and pathetic, a needy, lovelorn wreck who’s nonetheless capable of great wrath.” Colman unexpectedly bested the predicted winner, Glenn Close—“You’ve been my idol for so long, and this is not how I wanted it to be,” Colman said in her speech—who was up for lead actress for the fourth time. Two years later, Close received her fourth supporting actress nomination, giving her eight nods in total—which means she’s tied Peter O’Toole’s record for most acting nominations without a win (though he did win an honorary Oscar).

Frances McDormand – 2018
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)Calling the film a “stupendous showcase for the formidable gifts of McDormand,” The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney said that McDormand “can add this, alongside Fargo and Olive Kitteridge, among her best work.” The actress ended her acceptance speech by honoring all her fellow nominees and declaring two words: “inclusion rider.” That same year, Meryl Streep received her 21st and most recent nomination for The Post; she is now the second most nominated woman in Academy Awards history (trailing costume designer Edith Head, who received 35 nods).

Emma Stone – 2017
La La Land (2016)Stone also won the Volpi Cup for best actress at the Venice Film Festival for La La Land, with the actress telling Vogue that performing on Broadway in Cabaret helped her prepare for Damien Chazelle’s screen musical. “[T]his is simply a huge performance for Stone,” said Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson, calling Stone “the film’s biggest asset…giv[ing] a performance of such natural intelligence and warmth.”

Brie Larson – 2016
Room (2015)Todd McCarthy praised Brie Larson’s performance as a kidnapped and abused mother for “expanding beyond the already considerable range she’s previously shown with an exceedingly dimensional performance in a role that calls for running the gamut.” Larson also went viral this year for offering a hug to each of the victims of sexual assault who participated in Lady Gaga’s telecast performance of her nominated song “Til It Happens to You.”

Julianne Moore – 2015
Still Alice (2014)Still Alice premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival without distribution, but critics were quickly calling best actress a done deal for Julianne Moore—who stars in the film as a woman diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Christy Lemire praised her performance, writing, “With a combination of power and grace, Julianne Moore…delivers one of the more memorable performances of her career.” Accepting the award, Moore said “I read an article that said that winning an Oscar could lead to living five years longer. If that’s true, I’d really like to thank the Academy, because my husband is younger than me.”

Cate Blanchett – 2014
Blue Jasmine (2013)“Sit down! You’re too old to be standing!” Cate Blanchett jokingly waved off the standing ovation that greeted her second Oscar. In Blue Jasmine, she starred as Woody Allen’s take on Blanche DuBois by way of Bernie Madoff. Vanity Fair said the performance “allows us to glimpse the fear, panic, and vulnerability beneath Jasmine’s surface, even at its most lacquered. The performance is like watching a gorgeous vase will itself to keep from shattering as it falls floorward.”

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook” 2012.From Weinstein Company/Everett Collection.

Jennifer Lawrence – 2013
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)In the same year that she shattered box office expectations as Katniss Everdeen, Jennifer Lawrence won her Oscar for portraying a spiky, grieving widow—“played with feisty authenticity,” wrote Karina Longworth in the Village Voice—in the romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook. Age records were broken in both directions this year. At 9 years old, Quvenzhané Wallis from Beasts of the Southern Wild was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category. At 85, Emmanuelle Riva from Amour was the oldest. The ceremony was held on Riva’s birthday and Lawrence wished her a happy birthday in her acceptance speech.

Meryl Streep – 2012
The Iron Lady (2011)Meryl Streep earned her third Oscar for playing Margaret Thatcher, despite lackluster reviews for The Iron Lady—“Streep is a pleasure to behold; less so the rest of The Iron Lady,” sniffed Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum. Though Streep still trails Katherine Hepburn’s total wins, she has passed Hepburn’s tally for lead acting nominations, achieving her 14th lead actress bid for this performance. “When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America going ‘Oh no! Oh come on! Why her? Again?!’ But whatever,” Streep joked in her speech.

Natalie Portman – 2011
Black Swan (2010)For director Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman danced and psychologically unraveled onscreen as a ballerina determined to lead Swan Lake. Manohla Dargis called the performance “smashing, bruising, wholly committed ” and compared it favorably to Mickey Rourke’s performance in Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, calling both “more art than autobiography, and as a consequence more honest.”

Sandra Bullock – 2010
The Blind Side (2009)Sandra Bullock had the two biggest box office hits of her career up to that point in 2009, with both The Proposal and The Blind Side. After a career largely spent in comedies, Bullock understood that the buzz for her performance marked a new era: “People who do what I do don’t do award-winning films,” she told Entertainment Weekly at the time. On the Oscar stage, she humbly and slyly began her speech with, “Did I really earn this, or did I just wear y’all down?”

Kate Winslet – 2009
The Reader (2008)On her sixth nomination (which, if she hadn’t won, would have meant a tie with Deborah Kerr’s losing streak), there was no question that Kate Winslet would emerge victorious for The Reader during a season that also saw her receiving awards for Revolutionary Road. Though the film was distributed by the Weinstein Company, Winslet pointedly refused to thank the Hollywood monster in her acceptance speech. Winslet later told the Wall Street Journal Magazine that she keeps her Oscar in her bathroom.

Marion Cotillard – 2008
La Vie en Rose (2007)In an awards season that occurred amid a writers’ guild strike, Marion Cotillard slowly became the season’s dark horse for her performance as Edith Piaf in the musical biopic La Vie En Rose. The Hollywood Reporter called Cotillard’s Piaf “an extraordinarily brave performance…whose every gesture and singing performance channels not only Piaf but perhaps a bit of Judy Garland.”

Helen Mirren – 2007
The Queen (2006)When The Queen debuted at the Venice Film Festival, Helen Mirren took the Volpi Cup best-actress prize, kicking off what would be an undefeated season as the best-actress frontrunner. Coincidentally, it would also be the first time since Vivien Leigh that the Venice winner also snagged an Oscar. It would also mark the last time a best-actress winner won an Emmy in the same year.

Reese Witherspoon – 2006
Walk the Line (2005)As country music icon June Carter Cash opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash, Reese Witherspoon did her own singing in the film. “What makes her June Carter so moving is the way she holds herself apart from Cash rather than letting herself fall for him,” praised Stephanie Zacharek. “There’s never a minute when we’re not aware of how grounded she is.” Quoting Carter in her speech, Witherspoon said, “I’m just trying to matter and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody.”

Hilary Swank – 2005
Million Dollar Baby (2004)Million Dollar Baby was a famously late addition to the Oscar race, with its December release announced only a few weeks before the film hit theaters. By winning, Hilary Swank would once again defeat perceived frontrunner Annette Bening (nominated for Being Julia) after the same matchup in 2000 for leading roles in Boys Don’t Cry vs. American Beauty. “Extremity becomes her,” Newsweek wrote about Swank. “She pops off the screen, funny, touching and ferociously physical.”

Charlize Theron – 2004
Monster (2003)To embody the murderous Aileen Wournos, Charlize Theron gained 30 pounds and donned prosthetics—and Oscar predictions started as soon as set photos of her transformation appeared in the press. Roger Ebert wrote, “What Charlize Theron achieves in Patty Jenkins’ Monster isn’t a performance but an embodiment. With courage, art and charity, she empathizes with Aileen Wuornos, a damaged woman who committed seven murders.”

Nicole Kidman – 2003
The Hours (2002)While the press obsessed about the prosthetic nose she donned to play Virginia Woolf, Nicole Kidman’s career was enjoying a high mark after her best-actress nomination for 2001’s Moulin Rouge! The New York Times’ Stephen Holden called her work in The Hours “a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain.” Upon winning, Kidman told the audience, “Russell Crowe said ‘Don’t cry if you get up there,’ and now I’m crying,” before gathering herself by briefly turning her back to the audience.

Halle Berry in “Monster’s Ball” 2021.From Lions Gate/Everett Collection.

Halle Berry – 2002
Monster’s Ball (2001)Halle Berry became the first Black actress to win the Academy Award for lead actress, and on the same night that Denzel Washington was awarded best actor. The Hollywood Reporter said that in Monster’s Ball, Berry “digs deeply, mining one of the strongest performances of her career.” In her tearful acceptance speech, Berry explained that “this moment is so much bigger than me,” paying tribute to both Black actresses who had been nominated previously and her peers who had been ignored by the Academy, from Dorothy Dandridge to Vivica A. Fox. She later told Vanity Fair that this moment in her speech “came from my collective consciousness of what I had been feeling all along about the shoulders of the women that I stand on.” The Academy has yet to honor another Black actress with this prize.

Julia Roberts in “Erin Brockovick” 2000.FromUniversal/Everett Collection.

Julia Roberts – 2001
Erin Brockovich (2000)“This is the Julia Roberts performance her fans have been waiting for since Pretty Woman,” Amy Taubin hailed in the Village Voice—a review that also zeroed in on the bustiness of Roberts’s performance, a detail that sent the press spinning that year. For this film, Roberts became the first actress to receive a $20 million payday for a film. After a rollicking and ebullient speech—“Stick Man, I see you!” she shouted, politely haranguing Oscars conductor Bill Conti—Roberts told the pressroom backstage, “I don’t know how people act cool and calm, because this is so huge.”

Hilary Swank – 2000
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)Hilary Swank portrayed murdered transgender man Brandon Teena in the film, which rested on the actor’s shoulders: “Without Hilary Swank’s astonishing performance as Brandon Teena, the film’s success would not be possible,” wrote Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. Meryl Streep, recognized for Music of the Heart, received her 12th nomination that year, matching Katherine Hepburn’s total for the most nominated performer in Academy Awards history—though she had not yet matched Hepburn’s tally for lead actress nominations.

Gwyneth Paltrow – 1999
Shakespeare in Love (1998)Shakespeare in Love’s long journey to the screen had previously attached stars like Julia Roberts and Winona Ryder in the role that would earn Gwyneth Paltrow her Oscar. Paltrow’s performance was a breakout, as Janet Maslin wrote: “In her first great, fully realized starring performance, [Paltrow] makes a heroine so breathtaking that she seems utterly plausible as the playwright’s guiding light.”

Helen Hunt – 1998
As Good as It Gets (1997)Helen Hunt was in the middle of a multi-Emmy-winning run on television’s Mad About You when she won her Academy Award for lead actress in James L. Brooks’s romantic comedy. Winning alongside her costar Jack Nicholson, the year of As Good as It Gets was the last time both lead acting categories were awarded to the same film. After praising her fellow nominees at the top of her acceptance speech, Hunt also praised performances that weren’t nominated—from Billy Connolly (Mrs. Brown), Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting), and Joan Allen (The Ice Storm).

Frances McDormand – 1997
Fargo (1996)As Fargo’s pregnant officer Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand is a font of morality in a frozen sea of crime. Her victory was also something of a surprise, especially over Cannes best-actress winner Brenda Blethyn (from Secrets and Lies). In her Entertainment Weekly review of the film, Lisa Schwarzbaum praised McDormand for “warming the core of Fargo,” adding, “I can think of few movies that would have room for a female character of such formidable gifts.”

Susan Sarandon – 1996
Dead Man Walking (1995)In his review of Dead Man Walking, Roger Ebert praised Susan Sarandon’s craft: “In film after film she finds not the right technique for a character so much as the right humanity. It’s as if she creates a role out of a deep understanding of the person she is playing.” With her fifth lead actress nomination, her role as death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean broke Sarandon’s losing streak; she received a standing ovation from the ceremony audience.

Jessica Lange in “Blue Sky” 1994.From Orion Pictures Corp/ Everett Collection.

Jessica Lange – 1995
Blue Sky (1994)After distributor Orion Pictures went bankrupt, Blue Sky sat shelved for several years. By the time it finally hit theaters, director Tony Richardson had passed away. wrote Vincent Canby of The New York Times. But the film’s release came and went early in the year, and Smith’s nomination came as a surprise. Nathan Cohen of the Toronto Daily Star speculated that Smith’s stage appearance with the National Theatre Company during the nomination period may have helped raise her profile.

Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand (Tie) – 1969
The Lion in Winter (1968) and Funny Girl (1968), respectivelyA slew of records were made in this heated best-actress year. Most conspicuously, it is the only tie ever for the Academy Award for best actress in a leading role. Hepburn also became the second leading actress with consecutive wins, and the first to receive three leading-actress prizes (and she wasn’t finished yet). Hepburn once again declined to attend the ceremony, but sent Streisand a personal note after their tie: “I think that you are really first rate and full of whatever it is and I am proud to share that perch with you for the next year. Incidentally I just hope that osmosis transfers a little of what you have to me.”

Katharine Hepburn – 1968
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)Reunited with her frequent screen partner Spencer Tracy for what would be his last film role, this was the only time either of the popular twosome won an Oscar for a movie in which they starred together. Life magazine honored Hepburn with a career comeback tribute that year, with Hepburn telling the publication, “I think they’re beginning to think I’m not going to be around much longer…. They’ll miss me like an old monument—like the Flatiron Building.”

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” 1966.From Everett Collection.

Elizabeth Taylor – 1967
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)In order to play the foulmouthed boozy spouse in Edward Albee’s groundbreaking Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?—a character several years older than she was in real life—Taylor had to gain 30 pounds and don heavy makeup. “Her characterization is at once sensual, spiteful, cynical, pitiable, loathsome, lustful and tender,” praised Variety. Taylor was nominated alongside the film’s three other credited actors—including then husband, Richard Burton—and it was the first time a film’s entire credited cast was nominated for an Oscar.

Julie Christie – 1966
Darling (1965)That year, Christie appeared not only in Darling but in its fellow best-picture nominee Doctor Zhivago. She was featured in a Newsweek cover profile in December of 1965, with audiences focusing as much on her fashion sense and love life as her emergent acting talent. Wiley and Bona recount an interview with Sidney Skolsky where Christie reportedly demurred: “Success is a trap. I don’t know if I am prepared for it.”

Julie Andrews – 1965
Mary Poppins (1964)Julie Andrews’s movie breakthrough as the titular nanny came in the same year that My Fair Lady won best picture. Famously, Andrews was passed over for the big-screen lead role of Eliza Doolittle, even though she became a star by creating it for the stage. Audrey Hepburn played the role on film, and it was speculated that having her singing dubbed had cost her a best-actress nomination.

Patricia Neal – 1964
Hud (1963)Formerly mishandled as a contract player and cast out for having an affair with Gary Cooper in her youth, Patricia Neal won critical favor for playing a housekeeper in Hud. “So fully did Miss Neal realize the part’s potential that…one could not imagine any other actress in the role,” Wiley and Bona quote The Washington Post. Neal had just shy of 22 minutes of screen time, making hers the shortest performance of all best-actress Oscars winners.

Anne Bancroft – 1963
The Miracle Worker (1962)In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther praised Anne Bancroft for recreating her Broadway performance as Helen Keller’s tutor, Anne Sullivan: “Miss Bancroft’s performance does bring to life and reveal a wondrous woman with great humor and compassion as well as athletic skill.” Her costar Patty Duke also won as best supporting actress, making The Miracle Worker the first film to win two acting Oscars without being nominated for best picture. Bancroft was starring in a play on Broadway at the time and could not attend the ceremony, so her award was accepted by Joan Crawford, who failed to be nominated that year for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Crawford’s costar Bette Davis, however, did receive a best-actress nomination that year.

Sophia Loren – 1962
Two Women (1960)In a 1962 Time cover story, the Italian actor’s growing stardom was positioned as a sign of expanding taste among the industry and moviegoers: “A short time ago, all the serious attention toward Sophia Loren would have seemed as preposterous as the suggestion that Jimmy Hoffa might someday win the Nobel Prize.” Loren was at home in Italy during the ceremony and was reportedly awoken from sleep with the news of her win, delivered by none other than Cary Grant. Loren was the first actor to win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance.

Elizabeth Taylor – 1961
Butterfield 8 (1960)Elizabeth Taylor’s first Academy Award for best actress came after she was hospitalized during the voting period from an onslaught of flu, pneumonia, and meningitis. Reviews were largely kind to Taylor, but she believed that her win was due to a “sympathy” vote after her illness. She allegedly hated the role, saying “I still say it stinks,” in reaction to the film’s success. Nominated alongside Taylor were Deborah Kerr (The Sundowners) and the first performer nominated for a non-English language role, Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday). With her sixth and final bid at best actress, Kerr became the category’s biggest loser. (Thelma Ritter would match this record in supporting actress a couple of years later, and in 2019, Glenn Close and Amy Adams would respectively pass and match these losses in total nominations across categories.)

Simone Signoret – 1960
Room at the Top (1959)The first actress to win best-actress prizes at both the Academy Awards and at the Cannes Film Festival, Simone Signoret starred in Room at the Top as a woman who has an affair with a younger social climber. “You can’t imagine what [it means to] me, being French,” Signoret said in her acceptance speech. Her costar Hermione Baddeley’s supporting-actress nomination is still the shortest-nominated performance of all time, at just over two minutes of screen time.

Susan Hayward – 1959
I Want to Live! (1958)On her fifth nomination, Susan Hayward was finally an Oscar-winning actress for her performance as a woman on death row. Bosley Crowther hailed her in The New York Times, writing that “she’s never done anything so vivid or so shattering to an audience’s nerves…. Anyone who can sit through this ordeal without shivering and shuddering is made of stone.”

Joanne Woodward – 1958
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)According to Inside Oscar, Woodward received instant praise for her role as a woman with multiple personalities, but was skeptical of the Academy: “If I had an infinite amount of respect for the people who think I gave the greatest performance, then it would matter.” Woodward would be savaged in the press not for her awards wariness, but for daring to make her own dress for the ceremony. Previous winner Joan Crawford said in a statement that “Woodward is setting the cause of Hollywood glamour back 20 years.” (According to Inside Oscar, when Woodward wore a Travilla gown to the 1965 Oscar ceremony, she quipped, “I hope that it makes Joan Crawford happy.”)

Ingrid Bergman – 1957
Anastasia (1956)In the years following her first Academy Award for best actress, Bergman became a controversial figure for leaving Hollywood in 1949 due to her affair with director Roberto Rossellini and becoming pregnant before their marriage. After she’d been all but excommunicated, Anastasia was warmly received by an audience and an Academy eager to welcome the star back to movie screens. The premiere’s audience burst into applause when Bergman’s name appeared on the screen, and the Oscar ceremony audience was even more ecstatic when her name was called as the winner.

Anna Magnani – 1956
The Rose Tattoo (1955)“It’s a tour de force of quality rarely seen on the screen,” shouted Daily Variety of the film featuring the Italian actor as a seamstress who is suddenly widowed. The role was reportedly written for Magnani by Tennessee Williams. The newly minted star declined to return to America to campaign for the film, reportedly telling the film’s producer, “[she] wants to to be judged only on her performance, not her handshaking ability.” Time magazine still called her “the most explosive actress of her generation” anyway.

Gracey Kelly and William Holden in “The Country Girl” 1954.From the Everett Collection.

Grace Kelly – 1955
The Country Girl (1954)Grace Kelly had no fewer than five hit films in 1954, including Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Dial M for Murder. Of her work in The Country Girl, the New York Post said that Kelly “gives it everything a great actress could, one who was not handicapped by her own beauty” for the slightly de-glammed role. Kelly’s main competition was seen as A Star Is Born’s Judy Garland, who could not attend the ceremony.

Audrey Hepburn – 1954
Roman Holiday (1953)“Miss Hepburn makes her American screen debut a memorable occasion,” declared The Hollywood Reporter of Audrey Hepburn’s first Hollywood performance in Roman Holiday. “A beauty, she reveals sensitivity and sincerity in her captivating portrayal.” Hepburn seemed overwhelmed at the ceremony, nearly walking offstage before her acceptance speech, then saying, “It’s too much.” She was the first actress to win the trifecta of Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award for the same performance.

Shirley Booth – 1953
Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)Another performer who originated their best-actress-winning role on Broadway, Shirley Booth was the first actress to win the Academy Award and the Tony for the same role. Variety wrote, “Shirley Booth has the remarkable gift of never appearing to be acting,” and that year Booth won all American film acting awards pre-Oscars. As Jennifer Lawrence would nearly 60 years later, Booth tripped on her way to the stage to accept her award.

Vivien Leigh – 1952
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)The former Scarlett O’Hara was Tennessee Williams’s Blanche DuBois on film, taking over the role from its Broadway originator, future best-actress Academy Award winner Jessica Tandy. Leigh was on Broadway in Antony and Cleopatra with husband Laurence Olivier at the time of the ceremony, and could not attend. A Streetcar Named Desire became the first film to win three acting awards, feats that only Network and Everything Everywhere All at Once would ever match.

Judy Holliday – 1951
Born Yesterday (1950)Judy Holliday reprised her Broadway performance—where she had leveled up from understudy duties only three days before opening night, according to Inside Oscar. Columbia Pictures took out ads claiming You Can’t Take It With You and It Happened One Night as the only comedies to win the Academy Award, boasting, “We think Born Yesterday will be the third.” The film didn’t take best picture as the studio predicted, but Holliday won against the tough competition of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve, and Eleanor Parker in Caged. According to Inside Oscar, Swanson later wrote in her memoir, “Judy Holliday, when she dared to look at me at all, seemed to be pleading forgiveness.”

Olivia de Havilland – 1950
The Heiress (1949)Despite proving to be a box office disappointment, The Heiress led the Oscar nominations with recent best-actress winner de Havilland receiving unanimous accolades from voices like The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther, who praised her “dignity and strength.” After her second win, the actress told reporters, “When I won the first award in 1946, I was terribly thrilled. But this time I felt solemn, very serious, and shocked. It’s a great responsibility to win the award twice.”

Jane Wyman – 1949
Johnny Belinda (1948)Jane Wyman’s best-actress win for portraying a deaf-mute woman was the first Academy Award–winning performance to use American Sign Language. Controversial for a storyline that centered on the rape of her character, Johnny Belinda nevertheless received high critical praise for Wyman’s performance. Wyman drew laughs from the audience for her brief acceptance speech: “I accept this very gratefully for keeping my mouth shut once. I think I’ll do it again.”

Loretta Young – 1948
The Farmer’s Daughter (1947)Loretta Young had to contend with competing films in 1947; she also starred in best-picture nominee The Bishop’s Wife. According to Inside Oscar, Daily Variety had run a poll of over 200 Academy members; results anticipated Young would win for The Bishop’s Wife, not the film that would ultimately earn her the best-actress Oscar. Shockwaves went through the ceremony when presenter Fredric March began to accidentally say the name of nominee Rosalind Russell before correcting himself.

Olivia de Havilland – 1947
To Each His Own (1946)Afraid of canceling out her best-actress chances by competing with herself in the same movie year, Olivia de Havilland requested that Universal stop campaigning her for The Dark Mirror in order to focus support on the melodrama To Each His Own, according to Inside Oscar. At the ceremony, her sister Joan Fontaine had presented the award for best actor and tried to congratulate de Havilland backstage, only to receive a cold shoulder that was caught by photographers. This ignited another round of press around the sisters’ fractured relationship.

Joan Crawford and Gary Owen in “Mildred Pierce” 1945.From Everett Collection.

Joan Crawford – 1946
Mildred Pierce (1945)After leaving her MGM contract and convincing the previously unwilling director Michael Curtiz to hire her, Crawford had the last laugh with Mildred Pierce. The New York Daily News declared that Crawford “gives the best performance of her career” in the role, and the film was a massive success and best-picture nominee. On the night of the ceremony, Crawford reported ill health and stayed home; photographers and Curtiz arrived at her home shortly after her name was announced to greet the winner. “This is the greatest moment of my life,” Crawford told them, according to Inside Oscar, adding, “I voted for Ingrid Bergman myself.”

Ingrid Bergman – 1945
Gaslight (1944)Besties Bergman and Jennifer Jones, who won best actress the previous year, were each other’s Oscar date at this ceremony, and Jones would be the one to announce Bergman as the winner. Starring as a wife who is slowly manipulated by her husband to believe she is crazy, the popular Bergman would earn the first of three acting Oscars for her performance. According to Inside Oscar, fellow nominee Barbara Stanwyck said she didn’t mind losing, because Bergman was her favorite actress too.

Jennifer Jones – 1944
The Song of Bernadette (1943)A major discovery for audiences in the titular role of the canonized nun Bernadette Soubirous, Jennifer Jones was forced by Fox executives to obscure her marriage and children in order to better fit her public persona with her role, according to Inside Oscar. As part of the promotion for the religious film, Jones had her portrait painted in character by Norman Rockwell. Backstage at the ceremony, Jones reportedly told her main competition, Ingrid Bergman, that she should have won—the two were friends and attended the ceremony together.

Greer Garson – 1943
Mrs. Miniver (1942)After winning for megahit Mrs. Miniver, Greer Garson took heat in the press for an acceptance speech that was more than five minutes long, thanking the Academy for embracing her as a non-American-born performer and speaking about how acting is not a competition. Garson would be nominated for best actress a total of seven times in her career, making her among the most nominated in the category.

Joan Fontaine – 1942
Suspicion (1941)The New York Film Critics awarded Joan Fontaine their best-actress prize, forcing RKO to bump up the film’s Los Angeles premiere date so that the film could also be Oscar eligible. Nominated alongside her sister, Olivia de Havilland, with whom she shared a lifelong feud, according to Inside Oscar, Fontaine later said, “All the animus we’d felt toward each other as children…all came rushing back in kaleidoscopic imagery.” Life reported de Havilland saying that she might have won that year for Hold Back the Dawn, had Suspicion’s release not changed. Fontaine’s best-actress Oscar would be the only acting win for an Alfred Hitchcock film.

Ginger Rogers – 1941
Kitty Foyle (1940)Known primarily for her roles singing and dancing in 1930s musicals with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers sought to prove her acting abilities as characters who don’t dance, like the eponymous Kitty Foyle. RKO ran trade ads declaring, “It’s Unanimous!” and listing all of Rogers’s rave reviews. Accepting her Oscar, Rogers tearfully declared, “This is the greatest moment of my life!”

Vivien Leigh – 1940
Gone With the Wind (1939)The role of Scarlett O’Hara was the most coveted in the history of the industry, with producers eventually landing on the British Vivien Leigh. The breakthrough star covered Time magazine, while The Hollywood Reporter called Leigh and her also nominated fiancé Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights) “the most sacred of all Hollywood’s sacred cows.” In her acceptance speech, Leigh centered her recognition and thanks on producer David O. Selznick.

Ann Codee, Bette Davis, and Fay Bainter in “Jezebal” 1938.From Everett Collection.

Bette Davis – 1939
Jezebel (1938)Bette Davis’s role as a Southern belle in Jezebel came after career frustrations for the actress; Warner Bros. had sued her for breach of contract for pursuing roles outside the studio. Warner Bros. won the suit, though as a result, it finally began offering Davis the kind of roles she wanted. Davis appeared on the cover of Time magazine to promote the film. The halo of her second win was brief; soon after, Davis began feuding with studio head Jack Warner again. Fay Bainter also won best supporting actress for the film, marking the first time both female acting Oscars went to the same movie.

Luise Rainer – 1938
The Good Earth (1937)Thinking no one would ever win multiple Academy Awards, previous winner Rainer stayed home from the ceremony, only to rush out to accept in person when her name was called. Rainer was not only the first actor to win multiple Oscars; she was the first to do so consecutively, and the only female actor to do so for 30 years.

Luise Rainer – 1937
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)The press was not so gracious to the splashy musical The Great Ziegfeld for winning best picture, or to Rainer’s win for a relatively brief performance. According to Inside Oscar, after the ceremony, winners posed with their prizes for the newsreel press, which forced Rainer to repeat her entire acceptance speech several times. Per Inside Oscar, after the eighth repeat, Rainer looked to best-director winner Frank Capra and said, “Why don’t you direct this?”

Bette Davis – 1936
Dangerous (1935)Bette Davis won her first Oscar for Dangerous, starring as a chaotic actress. She had initially turned down the film because she found the script underwhelming, “maudlin and mawkish with a pretense at quality,” she wrote in her autobiography. Davis wrote that she felt her win was more in recognition of her previous year’s nomination for Of Human Bondage: “It’s a consolation prize. It was true that even if the honor had been earned, it had been earned last year.”

Claudette Colbert – 1935
It Happened One Night (1934)Claudette Colbert’s win for It Happened One Night was the peak of a string of creative and financial successes for her, preceded by hits Cleopatra and Imitation of Life, both of which were also nominated for best picture. According to Inside Oscar, the actress was waiting for a train to New York when her name was announced, and a member of the Oscars press committee managed to have the train held for departure so Colbert could quickly come and accept in person. It Happened One Night was the first film to sweep the ceremony’s major categories—winning best picture, director, actress, actor, and a writing prize—and Colbert was the first French best-actress winner as well.

Katharine Hepburn – 1934
Morning Glory (1933)Beginning her ascent to stardom, Katharine Hepburn won her first best-actress Oscar for playing an actress on her own journey to greatness. Never attending the Academy Awards when she was nominated, Hepburn dodged the ceremony (and the closing of a flop play called The Lake) by taking a European vacation. Louella Parsons tarnished Hepburn in her column for not attending.

Helen Hayes – 1932
The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)The talkie debut of Broadway legend Helen Hayes was a fraught process: Rewrites occurred mid-production, and a disastrous preview screening led to major reshoots. The result was a dour weepy that earned Hayes raves in outlets like The New York Times. According to Inside Oscar, voting placements were revealed at the time by executive B.P. Schulberg; Hayes earned more votes than her fellow nominees (previous winner Marie Dressler and Lynn Fontanne) combined.

Marie Dressler – 1931
Min and Bill (1930)In her 60s, former vaudevillian Dressler was an unlikely movie star who drove Min and Bill to become one of MGM’s biggest box office successes of its year. When her name was called during the ceremony, nine-year-old best-actor nominee Jackie Cooper was asleep in her arms. Onstage, Dressler mused, “I have always believed that our lives should be governed by simplicity. But tonight, I feel very important.”

Norma Shearer – 1930
The Divorcée (1930)Risqué material at the time, The Divorcée cast Shearer as a woman who leaves her husband for his infidelities, then cavorts with his friends before realizing she is really in love with her former husband after all. The Academy asked the actress to pose for a photo shoot with her trophy days before the ceremony, effectively spoiling her win. Shearer’s brother Douglas was the first-ever Oscar winner for sound during the same ceremony, making the Shearers the first-ever Oscar-winning siblings.

Mary Pickford – 1930
Coquette (1929)Mary Pickford looked to rebrand at the emergence of talkies, chopping off her famed blonde curls and taking on a more adult role in Coquette. “I am determined to give the performance of my career, and to give it in my own way,” she told the press. Pickford was among the several winners at the second Oscars who were founding members of the Academy, and she would struggle to maintain a career in talkies, retiring shortly after. She is the first Canadian Oscar winner. Nominated for The Letter that year, Jeanne Eagels became the first posthumous acting nominee and the only posthumous nominee ever in best actress.

Janet Gaynor – 1929
7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for best actress in a leading role for a trio of hits from Fox, quickly rising to be one of Hollywood’s top box office draws. Upon her casting in 7th Heaven, Louella Parsons dissed the new star in print, calling Gaynor “too young and inexperienced to trust for such a fine property”—though she later retracted her comments upon seeing Gaynor’s performance. According to Inside Oscar, “It was more like a private party than a big public ceremony,” Gaynor said of the first Oscars, where the awards were all given in a span of 15 minutes.

Who won more than three best-actress Oscars for best actress?Only Katherine Hepburn: Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).

Who has the most Oscars for best actress?Katherine Hepburn has four. Frances McDormand has three—for Fargo (1996), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), and Nomadland (2020). Ingrid Bergman and Meryl Streep both have three acting Oscars, including one supporting-actress win each.

Who is the oldest actress to win a best-actress Oscar?Jessica Tandy, who was 80 when she won for Driving Miss Daisy.

Who is the youngest best-actress Oscar winner?Marlee Matlin, who was 21 when she won for Children of a Lesser God.

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