Top of the World: 15 Favourite Winning Oscar Performances by an Actress

Are you ready for a new top list? I know you are! I’ve promised myself to come back with a new one every week and, so far, I haven’t really kept my promise… But I’m working on it!

So, today, I present you my top 15 favourite Oscar winning performances by an actress (to those who won for BEST ACTRESS. For BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, we’ll have to look at a futur top). I first wanted to do a top of my favourite performances by an actress without considering the Oscar wins, but it was too difficult as I have too many favourite performances! So, this seemed to be a good compromise, and I’m quite satisfied with my choices!

Of course, this list is very subjective. My top 1 might not be your top one, and your top 3 might not be my top 3. It’s not an objective list. These are just my personal choices and the first objective of this list is really just to entertain you and share my cinematic tastes with you.

To make this more thrilling, I’ll present you my choices in descending order. So, number one will be a more surprise for you!

But even if this is a subjective list, I do hope you’ll like it (or well, at least 1 or 2 of my choices ahah)! :O

Ok, here we go!

15. Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy – Bruce Beresford, 1989)

14. Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking – Tim Robbins, 1995)

13. Faye Dunaway (Network – Sidney Lumet, 1976)

Well, I do hope Faye would have won the Oscar for Bonnie and Clyde, but I also love her performance in Network (otherwise she wouldn’t be on the list!)

12. Joan Fontaine (Suspicion – Alfred Hitchcock, 1941)

The only actress/actor who ever won an Oscar for a performance in an Hitchcock’s film. Now that’s quite a moment in Oscar history! And she was great!

11. Diane Keaton (Annie Hall – Woody Allen, 1977)

Imagine if, being too shocked by the emotion of winning an Oscar she would have said “Ladida ladida la la” as an acceptance speech!

10. Natalie Portman (Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

9. Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight – George Cukor, 1944)

Yes, we do love very psychological performances!

8. Greer Garson (Mrs. Miniver – William Wyler, 1942) 

7. Grace Kelly (The Country Girl – George Seaton, 1954)

THE COUNTRY GIRL, Grace Kelly, 1954, bottles

I know some of you won’t agree here, but I do think Grace deserved her Oscar for this brilliant performance! We have to support our favourites, no? 😉

6. Katharine Hepburn (On Golden Pond – Mark Rydell, 1981)

That was Ms. Hepburn 4th and last Oscar. A very well-deserved one!

5. Shirley Booth (Come Back Little Sheba -Daniel Mann, 1952)

Oh, I was so happy when I learned that she had won the Oscar for this performance! I just love her in that film!

4. Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday – William Wyler, 1953)

My favourite performance by my favourite actress 🙂

3. Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker – Arthur Penn, 1962)

2. Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind – Victor Flemming, 1939)

There’s only one Scarlett O’Hara, and that’s Vivien Leigh!

and…

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Suspence

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BIG SUSPENCE

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1. Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress – William Wyler, 1949)!

Ok now, I DO think this is the best performance by an actress. I’m both objective and subjective here!

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Seriously, we have to give some credits to William Wyler for bringing the best out of his actresses (and actors)!

So that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this post! Please don’t hesitate to share your personal choices  in the comments! 🙂