Best Actress Ranking - Update

Here is a new update. The newly added performance is highlighted in bold. 

If five performances from the same year are included, the winning performance is higlighted in red.

1. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Jessica Lange in Frances (1982)
3. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
4. Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)
5. Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
6. Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
7. Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927-1928)   
8. Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman (1978)
9. Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
10. Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985)

11. Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991)
12. Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
13. Edith Evans in The Whisperers (1967)
14. Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (1938)
15. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939)
16. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
17. Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (2004)
18. Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998)
19. Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! (2001)
20. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

21. Simone Signoret in Room at the Top (1959)
22. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941)
23. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
24. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame (1958)
25. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
26. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
27. Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
28. Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
29. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)
30. Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom (2001)

31. Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001)
32. Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
33. Annette Bening in American Beauty (1999)
34. Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie (1998)
35. Judi Dench in Iris (2001)
36. Julie Christie in Away from Her (2007)
37. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951)
38. Audrey Hepburn in Wait until Dark (1967)
39. Meryl Streep in The Devil wears Prada (2006)
40. Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)

41. Julie Walters in Educating Rita (1983)
42. Anne Baxter in All about Eve (1950)
43. Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown (1997)
44. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932)
45. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
46. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
47. Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)
48. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
49. Joan Crawford in Sudden Fear (1952)
50. Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)

51. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
52. Marsha Mason in Chapter Two (1979)
53. Jane Wyman in The Yearling (1946)
54. Martha Scott in Our Town (1940)
55. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 
56. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)
57. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)
58. Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart (1949)
59. Jeanne Crain in Pinky (1949)
60. Eleanor Parker in Detective Story (1951)

61. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
62. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
63. Louise Dresser in A Ship comes in (1927-1928)
64. Dorothy McGuire in Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
65. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)  
66. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1928-29)
67. Sissy Spacek in The River (1984)
68. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
69. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)
70. Ruth Chatterton in Madame X (1928-29)

71. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)
72. Bette Davis in The Star (1952)

Dorothy McGuire as Kathy Lacy in Gentleman's Agreement

As I have already written about Dorothy’s performance before and my opinion on her has not really changed overall, I will keep my thoughts brief.

Overall, this is a very peculiar nomination because rarely has the presence of a Best Actress nominee felt so…unnecessary. As I stated in my original review, Dorothy McGuire has the bad luck of being part of the least interesting storyline of Gentleman’s Agreement and that is still correct. The movie is about Phil’s story and how he pretends to be Jewish for an article and the reaction of the people around him. The reaction of Dorothy McGuire’s Kathy is certainly an interesting one as she is the kind of person who considers herself to be as open-minded and liberal as possible but slowly shows the hypocrisy of her character when faced with anti-Semitism (or as she calls it, “that thing”) directly. But it is only one reaction and the love story itself simply feels too strongly forced into the picture and it simply doesn’t deserve the kind of attention it gets (even having the movie end with Phil and Kacy embracing each other) because it never becomes part of the true story. And therefore it is very difficult for Dorothy McGuire to make any kind of impression – she is not a supporting actress, her screen time justifies her leading status but, as mentioned in the beginning, she never feels like a integral part of the movie.

Besides the problems of the part itself, Dorothy McGuire adds to these as well. I admit, I have only seen a few movies with her but usually she is a charming and welcome screen presence but she is strangely stiff and lifeless in Gentleman’s Agreement. Most of her scenes feel very awkward and her chemistry with Gregory Peck is rather non-existent – which is obviously a big problem since the love story is the main reason for her presence in the picture. In most of her scenes with Gregory Peck, she whispers her lines in a strangely affected manner – take the scene when Gregory’s Phil arrives to pick her up and she surprises him by already coming down in the elevator. Both are so…bored in their reaction to one another, it’s hard not to imagine co-star Celeste Holm expressing honest joy in a situation like this.

This is actually another problem for Dorothy McGuire – the presence of Celeste Holm. This Oscar winner crafts an entire character with maybe 15 minutes of screen time, she steals every scene she appears in without even trying and is such a living and breathing creation that it’s not hard to actually be mad at the movie makers for forcing Phil to be together with Kathy at the end when Celeste Holm’s Ann is right there – the only reason to be happy for Phil and Ann not to end up together is thinking that Ann can do much better…of course the goal here is not to compare Celeste Holm and Dorothy McGuire but to judge Dorothy on her own but Celeste Holm’s work makes the shortcomings in Dorothy McGuire’s acting style even more obvious and it again doesn’t help that a supporting player basically makes you wish the leading lady would just go away…

So, on the one hand, Dorothy McGuire faced an already lost battle as the love story in Gentleman’s Agreement and the relationship between Kathy and Phil never feels as relevant in the context of the story as the movie makes want the viewers to believe and she didn’t do herself any favour by adding to this with a too lifeless and stiff acting style that makes Kathy an even less interesting character in the process. But strangely enough, there are still some upsides to her work.

The most surprising aspect of her work is that, unlike most other unsatisfying performances in this category, she somehow completely ruins the rather simple parts of her performance but shines in the more complex situations. All her romantic scenes with Gregory Peck, telling about her past with her husband, talking about her little house in the country or accepting his marriage proposal, should be rather easy to realize but unfortunately never come alive. On the other hand, she shines in the moments when her character's hypocrisy becomes noticeable and she has to justify her thinking to Phil and herself. Her best scenes is undoubtedly when Phil tells her of his plan to tell everyone that he is Jewish and she reacts with a stunned “Jewish…but you’re not, Phil, are you? Not that it would make any difference to me.” It’s a reaction that is both surprising but also very familiar and her way of quickly trying to cover her initial shock with smiles and putting her behaviour into perspective is extremely intriguing. Also her other fight scenes with Gregory Peck, when she constantly expresses her desire to fight “this thing” while also never willing to risk anything for it, work much better than their romantic moments. Also the break-up scene between Phil and Kathy works very well because Kathy truly owns her feelings and thinking and yes, her hypocrisy, in this moment, and Dorothy McGuire makes this truly believable – she really nails the attitude of a person who considers herself extremely tolerant and liberal but also finds all sorts of excuses and explanations for never going against those people who aren’t.

But unfortunately these aspects of Kathy’s character are not developed any deeper by the movie makers. Her hypocrisy is never explored in relation to her character but only how it affects her relationship to Phil. And since the movie is determined to bring those two back together in the end, it threw in a short scene of Kathy realising her own faults. But this moment never feels earned in the context of the story and is unfortunately both clumsily written and acted – it’s hard to believe that a woman that is presented as sophisticated and intelligent throughout the picture is unable to realise that just “sitting there and feeling ashamed” when she witnesses anti-Semitism is not a way to fight it and Dorothy McGuire’s acting style becomes far too melodramatic in this moment and again feels much less believable than her moments of anger or hidden prejudice.

So, it is a performance that didn’t really have a lot of chances but one that still could have been far more interesting and engaging if the actress had been more alive and natural on the screen. Dorothy McGuire shines in the more complex scenes but those moments unfortunately never develop any further and she lacks too much energy outside of these scenes to make a lasting impression or to even justify her importance to the plot and to Phil.