Here they are again...

 

 

So, this was it. I hope you enjoyed my ranking even if you don't agree! As usual, all my thanks for all the comments without which it wouldn't be half as much fun!

 

And here is the ranking again:

 

01. Patty Duke as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker

02. Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously

03. Sandy Dennis as Honey in Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

04. Jane Darwell as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath

05. Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense in Zorba, the Greek

06. Josephine Hull as Veta Louise Simmons in Harvey     

07. Juliette Binoche as Hana in The English Patient         

08. Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar named Desire
09. Rita Moreno as Anita in West Side Story
10. Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper in The Last Picture Show
11. Maggie Smith as Diana Barren in California Suit
12. Tatum O’Neal as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon
13. Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore in A Passage to India
14. Vanessa Redgrave as Julia in Julia
15. Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton

16. Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke in All the King’s Men

17. Anna Paquin as Flora McGrath in The Piano
18. Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer
19. Mira Sorvino as Linda Ash in Mighty Aphrodite
20. Rachel Weisz as Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener
21. Mo’Nique as Mary Jones in Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire
22. Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krassner in Pollock     
23. Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront
24. Celeste Holm as Anne Dettrey in Gentleman’s Agreement
25. Renée Zellweger as Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain
26. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly in Chicago
27. Mercedes Ruehl as Anne Napolitano in The Fisher King
28. Maureen Stapleton as Emma Goldman in Reds
29. Anne Baxter as Sophie Nelson Macdonald in The Razor’s Edge
30. Dianne Wiest as Helen Sinclair in Bullets over Broadway
31. Donna Reed as Alma Burke in From Here to Eternity
32. Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator
33. Katina Paxinou as Pilar in For Whom the Bell tolls
34. Brenda Fricker as Mrs. Brown in My Left Foot
35. Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in Gone with the Wind
36. Claire Trevor as Gaye Dawn in Key Largo     
37. Estelle Parsons as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde
38. Eileen Heckart as Mrs. Florence Baker in Butterflies are Free
39. Jessica Lange as Julie Nichols in Tootsie   
40. Jennifer Hudson as Effie White in Dreamgirls     
41. Marisa Tomei as Mona-Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny
42. Shirley Jones as Lulu Bains in Elmer Gantry
43. Penélope Cruz as Maria Elena in Vicky Christina Barcelona
44. Beatrice Straight as Louise Schumacher in Network     
45. Dianne Wiest as Holly in Hannah and her Sisters
46. Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love
47. Wendy Hiller as Pat Cooper in Separate Tables
48. Anne Revere as Mrs. Araminity Brown in National Velvet
49. Fay Bainter as Aunt Belle Massey in Jezebel
50. Goldie Hawn as Toni Simmons in Cactus Flower
51. Olympia Dukakis as Rose Castorini in Moonstruck     
52. Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracket in L.A., Confidential
53. Dorothy Malone as Marylee Hadley in Written on the Wind
54. Shelley Winters as Mrs. Petronella Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank
55. Alice Brady as Mrs. Molly O’Leary in In Old Chicago
56. Mary Steenburgen as Lynda Dummar in Melvin and Howard
57. Gale Sondergaard as Faith Paleologus in Anthony Adverse
58. Anjelica Huston as Maerose Prizzi in Prizzi’s Honor
59. Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash in A Beautiful Mind
60. Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost
61. Geena Davis as Muriel Pritchett in The Accidental Tourist
62. Angelina Jolie as Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted
63. Jo Van Fleet as Kate in East of Eden     
64. Teresa Wright as Carol Beldon in Mrs. Miniver
65. Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet in Rosemary’s Baby
66. Lee Grant as Felicia Carr in Shampoo
67. Miyoshi Umeki as Katsumi Kelly in Sayonara     
68. Helen Hayes as Ada Quonsett in Airport
69. Melissa Leo as Alice Ward in The Fighter
70. Ethel Barrymore as Ma Mott in None but the lonely Heart
71. Shelley Winters as Rose-Ann D’Arcy in A Patch of Blue
72. Margaret Rutherford as The Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s
73. Mary Astor as Sandra Kovak in The Great Lie
74. Ingrid Bergman as Greta Ohlsson in Murder on the Orient-Express
75. Gloria Grahame as Rosemary Bartlow in The Bad and the Beautiful 

Number 01: Patty Duke as Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Well, here is my number 1. To determine this position, I just asked myself the question: if, of all the winners in that category, only one could keep her Oscar and I could decide that – who would it be? And my answer was very simple.

Actually, Patty Duke may seem like such an unlikely choice for the number 1. The character of Helen Keller does not really allow a lot of depth, the performance stays on one note almost all the time and also does not present any change. But sometimes, all these things aren’t necessary especially when it comes to a character that is such a physical challenge. The inexperience of Patty Duke and her willingness to let herself completely go in this role create one of the most overwhelming performances ever.

Helen Keller is a deaf and blind girl, caught in a world of silence, unable to communicate with those around her and also unable to understand what they expect from her. From a technical point-of-view, Patty Duke is truly flawless – her vocals, her wild temper, her violence, her facial work all comes across as both believable and captivating. She found exactly the right balance to make Helen a character you care about while never trying to get any sympathy for her. She makes the struggle of Annie Sullivan believable – she loves Helen but also denies her any pity.

And even though I said that Helen Keller is a character that lacks depth, this is not true for Patty Duke’s characterization – because she shows that there is actually much going on inside her head. She learns very quickly, she understands that her parents will never punish her for her behavior and so she has mastered the technique of manipulating them. Everybody always assume that she is dumb and Patty Duke shows how Helen uses this to her own advantage, even without truly realizing that does it.

The scenes between Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft are certainly masterpieces of acting – especially their fight at the dinner table. Nothings seems rehearsed, everything appears to be spontaneous and real. When Helen is crying for her mother, Patty Duke is incredibly touching but again she never tries to get our sympathy but shows Helen as what she is – ‘a badly spoiled child’.

And then there is the ‘water-scene’ – more than ever, Patty Duke’s vocal works blows the audience away and it’s one of the most touching and at the same time most cheerful scenes ever.

Even though most people today would give the award that year to Angela Lansbury, I thank Patty Duke for delivering one of the few performances that totally and without any hesitation satisfy me as a brilliant piece of art.

Number 02: Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan in "The Year of Living Dangerously" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Few performances are such a mystery as that of Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously. What can be expected from this work? How much did the fact that she played a man influence the Academy members? Did the only reward her for this? Or is there more the character and the actress?

Well, the answer is pretty easy – yes, there is much more. I do not want to give Linda Hunt too much credit for playing a man (after all, if they wanted someone to be a convincing man, then why not cast one?) but I still can’t help but be stunned at her convincing role-play. Every movement, every line delivery, her whole behavior with the rest of the cast is totally and absolutely convincing and overwhelming. But the performance of Linda Hunt goes much further than this – Billy Kwan is one of the most complex characters that ever hit the screen, a photographer who has his own believes and ideals about the world around him, and Linda Hunt caught all these aspects with a performance that matches the complexity of the character at every step.  

So yes, Linda Hunt gives without a doubt, one of the best performances of all time, one that shows you what actors and actresses can do, one that shows you what great acting is all about – a total disappearance of one person into another.

Despite the supporting status, Billy Kwan is the center of The Year of Living Dangerously. He narrates the story, he is the insider with the contacts, but beyond that he also sees himself as a ‘puppet master’, the man who controls the story and the players from behind. He is the one who takes care of Guy (Mel Gibson), a journalist from Australia and shows him his new home, leading him into the slums: there Billy tells him his views, quoting a question once asked by Tolstoy about the poverty in the world ‘What then must we do?’ This is also the question Billy asks: he sees the poverty and believes that everyone should do what he can to help the people around him.

It’s also Billy who helps Guy to get contacts, to get stories and achieve something. But Billy has more plans for Guy: he wants to bring him together with Jill, an English friend who works at the embassy. Billy himself once asked her to marry him but she turned him down. In one amazing scene Billy is outside his house and inside are Guy and Jill – Billy knows that he achieved his goal, they are together now but Linda Hunt perfectly shows the expressions of a person who has achieved what he wanted but isn’t sure if he is happy about it.

Linda Hunt’s really stunning scenes come later when Billy realizes that his believes in the country’s political leader were wrong – he feels betrayed, he questions his whole believes. And he does feel betrayed by Guy, too. In an exceptional scene, they argue and Billy tells him ‘I thought you were a man of light…that’s why I gave you those stories…I made you feel something about what is right…I gave you my trust…I created you.’ It’s a chilling scene and Linda Hunt is beyond incredible. Even more so in the next scene when Billy looks at the pictures he took of the poor people in his country, feeling helpless and asking over and over again ‘What then must we do?’

An all-around stunning achievement.

Number 03: Sandy Dennis as Honey in "Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? is most famous for Elizabeth Taylor’s and Richard Burton’s performances but Sandy Dennis does not need to hide herself between these two giants as she, too, gave a performance that certainly lives up the high reputation of this classic drama. She does not steal the movie but there was also no need for that since all four actors contribute enormously to its success but she played her part probably as good as humanly possible – and with a part like this, this is a splendid achievement.

Sandy Dennis’s Honey is certainly one of the most neurotic creations this category has ever seen – considering that Sandy Dennis was an expert in playing these types of woman, this should not be surprising but thankfully this all worked for Honey. The way Sandy Dennis delivers her lines, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, swallowing words, laughing awkwardly or crying helplessly – it all comes together gloriously.

Sandy Dennis perfectly fit her performance to the style of Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? – it’s a dark drama, a satire, sometimes even a comedy and Sandy Dennis is a strong reason for that: she can break your heart when she finds out that her husband told George something very personal and screams ‘You couldn’t have told him’ but she can also make you laugh hysterically when she shouts ‘Hump the hostess!’, ‘Violence! Violence!’ or tells Martha ‘He’s not a floozy, he can’t be a floozy, you’re a floozy’.

But Sandy Dennis also fills her performance with so many wonderful moments: right at the beginning, when Liz yells ‘God damn you!’ And she’s also magnificent when she is listening to George’s and Nick’s conversation on the stairs. Later, in the scene in the bar, she delivers a real tour de force, dancing like a crazy woman, then suddenly turning angry and yelling at her husband ‘Stop that! You are always at me when I’m having a good time!’ Honey may be the result of Sandy Dennis’s own acting style and personality but when actress and character fit together so perfectly and the actress has the necessary talents to make it all real – then we have a winner!

It’s essentially a very observing performance – Sandy Dennis mostly remains part of the ensemble and only has some few moments to step in the foreground but despite this she completely disappears in the character and gives one of the all-time great performances. 

Number 04: Jane Darwell as Ma Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Today, Judith Anderson’s performance as the creepy Mrs. Denvers in Rebecca may be the more iconic performance but Jane Darwell’s win for her portrayal of Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath does never receive any complaints because of that – the reason is simple: her performance is just magnificent and her win one of the most deserved ever, even with such strong competition.

Jane Darwell and Henry Fonda are the actors who carry this important story and stand for the different aspects of it. Jane Darwell’s Ma Joad is the center of the family, the one who keeps everyone going (as her husband puts it) and who tries to make the best out of every situation. It’s a very private but also monumental performance in which Jane Darwell crafts a simple character and turns her into a symbol for strength and courage.

From the first time Jane Darwell appears onscreen, she finds the perfect balance between moving reactions and strong dedication. Her delivery of the line ‘Oh thank God, thank God’ when she sees her son for the first time in years, it’s the first of many moving moments that Jane Darwell delivers to perfection. Her famous scene with her earrings (definitely one of the best acted scenes ever), her dignity when she leaves her home and doesn’t want to look back, her determination when Grandma is dying and Ma Joad tells her ‘We have to get across. The family’s got to get across’ – all played to perfection!

And who can forget her monologue when she asks Tom to stay with his family (‘Stay and help, Tommy. Help me…’)? This speech and the look on her face when they are dancing is everything that Tom needs to stay.

And just like Rod Steiger is an important part of Marlo Brando’s famous ‘I could have been a contender’-speech, Jane Darwell is just as essential to the Henry Fonda’s ‘I’ll be there’-speech. It’s incredibly moving when she says goodbye to her son, telling him ‘Tommy, we ain’t the kissing type, but…’ and her final heartbreaking ‘Tommy”.

And even in her final speech, Jane Darwell shines despite the fact that whole scene feels rather out of place. Still, when she finishes ‘We’ll go on forever, Pa, ‘cause…we’re the people’, Jane Darwell again created a moment that is as monumental as it is private.

A really astonishing performance!

Number 05: Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense in "Zorba, the Greek" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Like Josephine Hull in Harvey, Lila Kedrova won the Oscar for playing a very eccentric and unusual character – but while Josephine Hull was hilariously funny, Lila Kedrova is immensely heartbreaking as Madame Hortense, the ill-fated owner of a little hotel on a Greek island.

Right from the start, Lila Kedrova uses her unique appearance and voice to craft Madame Hortense as a very strange and unusual woman – she’s very eccentric, she loves to talk about her ‘four admirals’ with whom she affairs in the past (sometimes at the same time) and she comes across as rather laughable because there is something so ridiculous about her. And so it’s  no surprise when Alan Bates’s character secretly starts to laugh about her. But then, in one second, Lila Kedrova turns her whole character around when she catches him and says, with disbelief in her voice, ‘You are laughing…at me’. In this moment Madame Hortense becomes one of the most tragic characters ever – never taken seriously, always too over-the-top but incredibly heartbreaking in her loneliness.

Madame Hortense is a woman who is past her prime and knows it – at a Christmas Party she has fun with Zorba but then slips and falls and says ‘You see…it is too late’, referring to her age. And Lila Kedrova simply says all her line in the most heartbreaking way possible. When Zorba leaves, she begs to him ‘Don’t forget me!’ and when Alan Bates tries to cheer her up, telling her ‘He’ll be back’, she says ‘They all say that…’ with a sad voice, thinking about her four admirals and how they left her.

Lila Kedrova’s most moving scene comes when Zorba writes a letter, telling Alan Bates that he met another woman – Madame Hortense wants to know what stands in the letter and Alan tells her ‘Read it yourself’. Madame Hortense looks as it, but then says ‘I can’t read it…my eyes’. She leaves it open if she really did not understand the content of the letter and decided to live in her world of her own fantasies in which Zorba wants to marry her – but Lila Kedrova really knows how to break your heart in this moment. Later, she even tops all this when Madame Hortense is lying in her bay, praying quietly and hallucinating.

Overall, one of the most haunting and, again, heartbreaking performances ever.

Number 06: Josephine Hull as Veta Louise Simmons in "Harvey" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

In 1950, the Academy forgot its love for dramatic performances and awarded two of my favorite comedy-performances ever: the amazing Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday and the equally fantastic Josephine Hull in Harvey. Both wins are not exactly universally loved but out of all the female performances that received Oscars for comedic performances, they are, for me at least, by far the funniest and most entertaining ones. Josephine Hull has the ability to make me laugh even the thousandth time I see her – and creating such lasting and effective comedy is, again for me at least, a great reason to make it so high n my ranking.

Josephine Hull played the exhausted, eccentric, neurotic and confused sister of Elwood P. Dowd, a charming man who has one little problem – he constantly talks to his friend Harvey, an indivisible large white rabbit. In her part, Josephine Hull, like Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, walked a very thin line between creating effective comedy or appearing over-the-top and shrill – and both actresses succeeded completely. Josephine Hull’s high-pitched voice, her over-the-top mannerisms, her hilarious facial work – all works amazingly and builds a wonderful contrast to the subtle and restrained work by James Stewart.

Behind all the hilarious work, Josephine Hull also develops a nice and believable relationship with James Stewart and manages to be very touching in her later scenes when she suddenly decides that she would rather have Elwood the way he is than change him.

But still, it’s mostly the comedy that makes me love this performance so much. Basically, Josephine Hull can turn every line into gold – ‘Oh Myrtle, it’s a wonderful feeling to have your relative out of the house before the company comes!’, ‘Oh, we can go in now!’, ‘You said that name! You promised you wouldn’t say that name and you said it!’, ‘Myrtle Mae, see who the stranger is in the bathtub!’ or ‘“That is NOT my mother!’. Or when she is on the phone and then greets her guests with a high-pitched voice is also such a perfect moment but she is especially funny when she hits Mr. Wilson with her hand-bag and yells ‘Don’t you touch me, you white slaver you!’ or when she runs up the stairs, yelling ‘Knock him down, judge! Kick him, kick him!’

It’s easily one of my most favorite comedy performances ever and I am so glad that Academy recognized this incredibly talented woman!

Number 07: Juliette Binoche as Hana in "The English Patient" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

After she won the Golden Globe and the SAG Award, a win as Best Supporting Actress for Lauren Bacall seemed like the surest thing in Oscar history – but the dominance of The English Patient made it possible for Juliette Binoche to get caught up in its awards sweep and take home the Oscar for her role as Hana, a loving and caring nurse who takes care of a burned man in an abandoned monastery in Italy at the end of World War II. But as you can seem from the position in my ranking – I don’t think that her win can only be explained as part of a sweep. It can only be explained by the fact that she delivered one of the greatest performances this category has ever known.

In the first ten minutes of the movie Juliette Binoche has already more Oscar scenes than other people in a whole movie, when she has to suffer the death of her fiancé and her best friend. Juliette Binoche has one of those beautiful faces that is made for close-ups and the actress’s ability to show so much with her eyes is used to great effect.

Despite her supporting status, Juliette Binoche dominates the ‘present parts’ of The English Patient. She tries to forget her personal pain by easing the pain of her patient, taking care of him, always with a smile, always charming despite grieving inside. In a fantastic scene she breaks down in the kitchen, telling that she is ‘in love with ghosts’.

Juliette Binoche’s warm and likeable appearance turns every scene she is in into something special. When she is reading poetry, saying ‘For the heart is an organ of fire…I love that…I believe that’, it’s a simple scene but Juliette Binoche shines. And when Kip, who is looking for mines, joins the ‘gang’ in the monastery, Hana’s life changes and Juliette Binoche has the chance to shine even more. It’s such a realistic scene when she brings Kip some olive oil for his hair and uses the opportunity to check out his body. And the scene in the church is one big declaration of love to Juliette by Anthony Minghella: the look on her face, the score, the whole atmosphere of the scene are breathtaking.

Later, after they spend the night together, Kip has to take care of a bomb. Hana, full of fear, tells him ‘Don’t go, I’m frightened!’ Juliette Binoche beautifully underlines that Hana is not a complex character, but rather like a child, a little lost and scared. She perfectly plays the simplicity of the part while rising to all the challenges this actually provides for her.

One of my favorite performances ever in my favorite movie ever.

Number 08: Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski in "A Streetcar named Desire" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Compared to the work by Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter could easily be forgotten in a part that seems much less showy – but if you want to know how much Kim Hunter contributed to A Streetcar named Desire, then simply watch other taped versions and see how actresses like Beverly D’Angelo or Diane Lane don’t even achieve 1% of the greatness that Kim Hunter did.

The greatness of the 1951-version of A Streetcar named Desire comes from the entire cast – all actors play their parts with such dedication that any other attempt can only pale in comparison. And so, just like Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando forever left their marks on these characters, Kim Hunter did the same with Stella. She realized all the part’s potentials and created a very believable character who both fits to the world of Blanche and to that of Stanley is torn between them. In so many great scenes, she shows this confusion, how she is worried about Blanche but it is impossible for her to leave Stanley (personally, it never bothered me that the ending of the movie was changed because I am sure that Stella will be back with Stanley in 5 minutes, no matter what she says).

And, of course, never before has walking down a stair been so sexy. The way she looks at Marlon Brando, with so much lust and passion, getting everything out of that single moment to defy her whole character. But apart from that chilling scene, Kim Hunter has a showy and wonderfully written part which she plays to perfection. Her chemistry with Marlon Brando is simply outstanding, they both have so much fire and lust between them, even during their many fights. She is not afraid to show how much passion and lust is hidden inside Stella – the way she lies in her bed after she returned to him in the night, the way she tells Blanche ‘I was sort of thrilled by it…’ and, of course, right at the beginning when the first thing she tells Blanche about her husband ‘Isn’t he wonderful looking?’ Immediately in these first scenes she shows her feelings for Stanley, telling Blanche ‘I can hardly stand when he’s away for a night…when he’s away for a week, I nearly go wild…When he comes back, I cry in his lap like a baby…’ and later she tells Blanche that Stanley is the only one in his business who will achieve anything – there is an unquestioning faith in him that Kim Hunter shows perfectly.

But Kim Hunter also works wonderfully with Vivien Leigh, believably showing her love for her sister, her worries for her health and her future. It’s a strong and totally believable performance and Kim Hunter is able to capture all the necessary emotions perfectly and she also never slides in the background – she holds her own against Marlon Brando’s and Vivien Leigh’s powerhouse performances and that is no small feat. 

Number 09: Rita Moreno as Anita in 'West Side Story' (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

The role of Anita was the reason that the Oscar was invented. Basically, all that Anita has to do is this: come, steal the movie and leave. And Rita Moreno does this with full force!

I have seen West Side Story on the stage already a few times and yes, there were Anitas who sang better (even though Rita Moreno did not sing ‘A Boy like that’ anyway) and there were Anitas who could dance better; but there was never an Anita who had the same acting talent and energy that Rita Moreno brought to the part. The screen is on fire when Rita Moreno is on the screen and this may easily be the ultimate movie musical performance. Besides dancing up a storm, she runs the whole gamut of emotions, going from happiness to sorrow to anger to hate – and she does all this with magnificent realism while also keeping Anita ‘larger-than-life’ in the universe that West Side Story creates.

Rita Moreno is a supporting actress who both supports and carries the movie. Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood may provide the message and the theme of West Side Story and both actors do satisfying work thanks to the simplicity of their characters and the story but West Side Story comes alive thanks to the supporting players. And among them, nobody is such a force as Rita Moreno and she is the reason why West Side Story is the classic that it is today.

‘America’ alone is enough to award Rita Moreno. She has the wonderful talent of not only dancing and singing but actually acting during this number, emphasizing the playfulness and the sexual tension of the scene.

In the bridal shop she shows all the worries Anita has about Tony and Maria with one look and turns her character from a happy party-girl in a great friend and worried woman. Again, she does all this so easily but it’s still obvious at every moment that she is the dominating force in West Side Story.

And later, she shows some of the strongest dramatic acting this category has ever seen when she first has to endure the loss of her love, then is persuaded to help the man who is responsible for it and then is almost raped in Doc’s store. As mentioned before, Anita is a true showcase and it would be very hard for an actress to ruin this part – but to take it as high as Rita Moreno did it is not really easier.

Number 10: Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper in "The Last Picture Show" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

It’s not easy to stand out in an ensemble movie but Cloris Leachman left an unforgettable impression with her heartbreaking performance as Ruth Popper, the sad and neglected wife of the local football coach (who prefers to spend his time with his boys from the team) and who starts an affair with the much younger Sonny, the main character of The Last Picture Show.

Cloris Leachman is one of those women who can tell the whole story of their life with her face. When she opens her door and Sonny tells her that he will be driving her and not her husband, she makes it clear that this is no surprise for her, just another humiliation. And when she breaks down at the kitchen table, it’s an incredibly moving moment, especially when she sees that Sonny tries to cheer up – that’s probably the first time in years someone cares about her.

Cloris Leachman also achieves a very believable and captivating relationship with Timothy Bottoms – it never seems awkward to see the two together, they have a sweet chemistry and they simply work.

Cloris Leachman also does a great job when her character blossoms up – she doesn’t overdo it, she’s not an ugly duckling who turns into a beautiful swan, she’s not one of the girls from those Teenie-movies who takes off her glasses and becomes the hottest girl in school. She simply becomes more relaxed, more open, her happiness shows on her face, but that inner beauty is not enough for a young man like Sonny and so it’s no surprise when he leaves her.

With only a handful of scenes Cloris Leachman has shown how her character changed from sad and lonely to loving and sweet and has made the viewer care about her. Even when she walks out of the hospital (after Sonny didn’t want to see her), she beaks your heart despite the fact that you don’t see her because she is shot from a long distance.

And then it all comes to her final scene – one the greatest scenes ever when all her anger, all her frustration and all her unhappiness that has build up inside her for years and years break out and instead of accepting her fate, she shouts what she always wanted to say. It’s a chilling scene that should be studied in acting classes. From her loud moments (‘Three months I’ve been apologizing…’) she goes to heartbreaking quiet moments (‘See? You shouldn’t have come here’) to an incredibly moving finale (‘Never you mind, honey. Never you  mind…’).

An amazing and unforgettable performance.

Number 11: Maggie Smith as Diana Barren in "California Suit" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Maggie Smith joined an elite circle of performers who received Oscars in the leading and the supporting category. In 1979, she won her second Oscar for her hilarious performance as an Academy-Award nominated actress who battles with her husband before and after the ceremony. Considering that Neil Simon wrote the screenplay, it’s no surprise that all the character’s constantly throw around one wisecrack after another – and while most of the other actors in the cast fail completely to bring their storylines to live, Michael Caine and Maggie Smith take all the dialogue and turn it into gold. Of course, the writing for these two characters is simply much better than for all the others – all their jokes are funny, their insults are clever and all the observations about the Academy Awards make it even better. I think that Academy members probably found it impossible not to vote for a performance that has lines like ‘Oh damnit, my favorite category’ when talking about the Documentary Shorts or ‘“I’ve been trying to get ready for this horse-shit affair for three hours’.

But thankfully Maggie Smith not only threw around wisecracks – she also invested a lot of thoughts and details into her character. Right in her first scene on the plane when she watches herself in her nominated part she makes it clear that Diana is rather satisfied with her work, no matter how much she likes to criticize herself. Diana Barren is a woman who does not doubt her acting ability – it’s the publicity she can’t stand, especially now that her Oscar nomination has suddenly put her into the spotlight. When she tells her husband that ‘It’s no fun anymore’ she makes it clear that she is not only worrying about the Oscars but that her life has come to a point at which she needs a decision about how it will go on – especially because she is also constantly doubting her ability to keep her bisexual husband whom she needs so much. Maggie Smith portrays Diana as a woman who is questioning life and beginning to wonder if this is all it has to offer. The ultimate loss of the Oscar is only the final event in her life that makes her realize that her life is not going in a direction she likes (‘I’m tired of paying for everything and getting nothing in return.’) Maggie Smith is able to catch all these serious aspects of the character and still fills her performance with a lot of many funny moments.

Especially at the beginning, she uses the fear and uncertainty of her character about the whole Academy- thing to play some hilarious scenes – when she wonders ‘It looks like a have a hump on my left shoulder’ or complains about her hair (‘I look like Richard III’) and her awful dress, she is always making it with a line-delivery that never makes us laugh at her. We can understand her and feel for her.

And after the show, her uncertainty quickly turns into anger and frustration and her battle scenes with Michael Caine are priceless – ‘What won the award, you asshole?’, ‘Ten a.m. is the morning. That is redundant. You A.H.’, ‘Oh, Sidney, I saw your privates!’ or ‘I found the people at the Oscars singularly unattractive this year!’

And she is able to turn form funny too touching in one second when she and Sidney are making a reality-check about their relationship. It’s an overall simply wonderful performance and a more than deserved win!

Number 12: Tatum O’Neal as Addie Loggins in "Paper Moon" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

It seems to be a well-known fact that Tatum O’Neal’s performance is the result of clever directing and shooting scenes up to 70 times until she got it right. But as I already mentioned in my review for Anna Paquin, it’s the result that matters. And the result is one of the funniest, most original and captivating performances ever to hit the screen.

Another aspect that won’t be considered here it the obvious category fraud – Tatum O’Neal is in 99% of the movie her being in the supporting category would be like putting Vivien Leigh in the supporting category for Gone with the Wind. But I only want to judge the performance itself and because of that I don’t want to care about the placement. 

I could be very easy to dismiss Tatum O’Neal’s work – just like Helen Hayes in Airport gets most laughs out of the fact that she is a little old lady acting so – unlike a little old day, Tatum O’Neal gets a lot of laughs by acting like an adult when she is only a little girl. But Tatum O’Neal certainly does much more – she does not act like an adult but she plays precisely what Addie is, a little girl who is wise beyond her years and knows how to play the games better than the grown-ups do. She isn’t given any of that ‘precious’ dialogue that so many juvenile characters get these days but instead talks like a little girl is supposed to talk, only always with her own hidden agenda. And all this makes her performance a perfectly entertaining combination of her personality and her acting.

Tatum O’Neal’s chemistry with her father is excellent and their constant arguments in the car are comedic gold. But so many other scenes are fantastic, too – Tatum O’Neal created such a little ‘brat’ that every time she acts cute or cries for the purpose of another fraud, she is absolutely delightful. And her scenes in the hotel are maybe the best. When she wants to trick that guy into going up to Miss Trixie’s room and she tells him ‘You won’t be sorry’ with a you-know-what-I-mean-look.

It’s an incredible grown-up performance, Addie is a real three-dimensional person, particularly at the end when Moses brings her to her aunt and Tatum O’Neal’s perfectly shows how much she is going to miss him.

Overall, it’s certainly one of the most original performances and characters this category has to offer.

Number 13: Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore in "A Passage to India" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

I strongly believe that Peggy Ashcroft is the only winner of the Supporting Oscar who also would have been an easy winner in the leading category – she won several awards in the leading category and hers was undoubtedly the most celebrated female performance of 1984. Combine this with an extremely weak field in the Best Actress category which allowed Sally Field to win a second Oscar in 5 years and I am pretty sure that Peggy Ashcroft would have been triumphant. But anyway, the Academy honored her in the Supporting category and personally, I agree with this placement since Judy Davis is the clear lead in David Lean’s A Passage to India with Peggy Ashcroft offering splendid support as the wise and generous Mrs. Moore who travels to India with her future daughter-in-law to visit her son and witnesses prejudices and the negative effects of British superiority.  

Like a lot of other British winners in this category (Vanessa Redgrave or Judi Dench), Peggy Ashcroft is able to light up the screen whenever she appears and tell a lot about her character with just a small look or gesture. Her Mrs. Moore is the only voice of sanity in A Passage to India, she full of tolerance, has no prejudices and, as she tells other British visitors, would like ‘to come across some of the Indians socially. As friends.’ The character of Mrs. Moore could easily have been turned into a saint, but Peggy Ashcroft wisely avoids making her saint-like and instead simply turns her into an old and wise woman who uses her experiences to lead the life she thinks is best.

Peggy Ashcroft shines in the scene when she first meets the Indian doctor in a mosque in the middle of the night. He tells her ‘You have no rights here. You should have taken off your shoes!’ and she answers ‘But I have taken off my shoes. I left them outside.’ Dr. Aziz is surprised because most English ladies never take off her shoes, especially when they think no one is there to see. Mrs. Moore simply says ‘God is here.’ Later, she is a guest at a party where the Indians are again treated like dirt by the English hosts. Full of rage, she says to her son ‘This is one of the most unnatural affairs I have ever attended!’ Peggy Ashcroft remains completely natural during her entire performance, never trying to gain the audience’s sympathy by playing a ‘nice, little old lady’ but instead crafts an intelligent character who becomes the center of the whole story.

Peggy Ashcroft’s most impressive scenes are when she and Adela visit some caves and Mrs. Moore gets frightened and runs outsight, scared and shaking by the echo and the darkness. Later, she tells Adela with a shaking voice ‘I think like many old people I sometimes think we are merely passing figures in a godless universe.’ In this scene, she shows that Mrs. Moore is already realizing that life will not go on forever and that death is starting to look more and more realistic. The way she looked at a tombstone earlier or grabs her chest with a look of pain later strengthens these impressions.

As mentioned before, Peggy Ashcroft can tell the whole life of her character with just a small look. When she talks about her second husband, who, in her own words, was very unconventional, Peggy Ashcrofts lets the whole past of Mrs. Moore come alive in just a few seconds. There is no need to tell about her past but everything is so easy to imagine.

Overall, a wonderful performance that shows that great acting knows no age.

Number 14: Vanessa Redgrave as Julia in "Julia" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

What is it about Vanessa Redgrave that makes her such a fascinating actress to watch? I don’t know but she simply has that certain ‘something extra’. And in Julia, she is able to build one of the most complete and complex characters ever to hit the screen with just a few moments of screen time. Vanessa Redgrave is also a first-class example for a supporting role. She is essential to the movie (it’s named after her!), she has little screen-time but shines in every single second of it and her presence can be felt throughout the entire film. Everything in it is happening because of her, for her or with her. Jane Fonda may be the one who carries Julia but Vanessa Redgrave is the one who creates it.

Vanessa Redgrave is one of those actresses who lights up the screen simply with one look. She gives so much energy, mystery and life, so much intelligence and grace is constantly shining inside her. In only a few scenes at the beginning she already establishes the whole character of Julia. She is a fighter, a strong, intelligent woman (excepted at Oxford) and a great friend to Lilly. In one second she can show more passion and determination for her cause than others in 2 hours. When Lilly says that there is a time when every woman reaches a perfect age and that it had happened to Julia, you believe her. When she says to Lilly ‘Lilly, finally there’s some real hope in the world’, Vanessa Redgrave tells everything about Julie – her political views, her own believes and her whole character.

After that, Julia is gone for a long time, but as mentioned before, her presence is everywhere. Just like later in Howards End, Vanessa Redgrave has the ability to create an everlasting character mostly thanks to her own strength and dominating screen presence. And then it all comes to the scene in Berlin when Julia and Lilly meet again. Even Jane Fonda (normally not a favourite of mine) shines during this scene as she and Vanessa Redgrave truly seem like life-longs friends – Lilly, scared und unsure of the whole situation and Julia, strong and protecting. Vanessa Redgrave does not display an easy visible amount of emotions in that scene but she says everything with her eyes – her love for Lilly, her fear, her hope, the joy of experiencing a short moment of happiness even though the danger is constantly present. That glorious inner fire that is burning in Julia and in Vanessa Redgrave makes this scene a masterclass in acting. Even though Julia is only sitting at a table, Vanessa Redgrave makes her a force of nature. When she shows Lilly that she has a false leg, Julia just says ‘It’s done, that’s what it is.’

It is a very small role but Vanessa Redgrave is able to make Julia one of the most fascinating and interesting characters that ever grace the screen.

Number 15: Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder in "Michael Clayton" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Tilda Swinton jumped up a good deal compared to my last ranking and this is no surprise since she is an outstanding actress in a very interesting part. Who doesn’t love a good-played villain and isn’t it even better when it is an outstandingly-played villain who isn’t one-dimensional but instead an intelligently crafted multidimensional human being?

Just like Mercedes McCambridge, Tilda Swinton uses her unique voice to her biggest advantage but unlike Sadie Burke, Karen Crowder is not strong or dominating – she would like to be but actually she suffers from her insecurity and neurotic nature, especially in circumstances she can’t handle. Tilda Swinton presents Karen as a woman who was promoted in a job she just can’t handle and who slowly loses control over everything. By this, her Karen becomes not a villain you hate but rather a villain you pity.  

Another similarity to Mercedes McCambridge is the fact that Karen Crowder, like Sadie Burke, is not the greatest role ever written but both actresses saw the potential and the strength and added their own personality and screen presence. In her first scene in the bathroom, Tilda Swinton already shows how everything has become too much for Karen and even though the audience doesn’t know yet what’s going on, it’s a captivating introduction.

This is followed by a fascinating montage in which Karen is rehearsing answers for an interview, constantly saying them again and again until she gives polished and seemingly spontaneous answers to the camera. Tilda Swinton opens the whole character up in those scenes and shows how much her job controls her life and how willing she is to let herself be controlled like this even though she can’t truly handle it.  

Later, Tilda Swinton establishes these ideas further when she first meets Michael Clayton. Her aggressiveness because he is late and her disbelieve at his thoughts again show how touchy she is, how easily she lets her suspicions overtake her character and how she seems unable to judge a situation spontaneously.  

In her later scenes, Tilda Swinton again shows Karen’s doubts and fears when she decides to take a way that will lead her into some dark territory. Like a child who is unable to play with the adults, Karen Crowder is lost in her own web of intrigues.

Her biggest moment is her final scene in which she basically runs the whole amount of Karen’s emotions in just a few seconds from happiness to shock to inability to handle her talk with Clayton to complete panic.

As mentioned before, it’s a fantastic performance of a very human villain.

Number 16: Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke in "All the King’s Men" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Mercedes McCambridge is another glorious example of an actress taking a small and secondary part and filling it with so much life and energy that she dominates the whole movie. Her role as Willie Stark’s secretary in All the King’s Men is neither large nor overly important but Mercedes McCambridge does so much wonders in this role that Sadie Burke becomes the most fascinating and interesting character of the whole story.

Mercedes McCambridge is an incredibly unique screen presence and this helps her to give an incredibly unique performance. Most of all, her Sadie Burke is a very intense creation, especially thanks to her strong and dominating voice. Overall, Mercedes McCambridge simply has one of the strongest screen presences ever and she gets everything out of her role and even much more.

Just like Katina Paxinou’s Pilar, Sadie Burke is a strong woman in a world of men, not sexy or attractive but still fascinating. Sadie is a hard-bitten woman who knows how to play the game. She never gets treated like a lady (more than once she is told to ‘Shut up’ and when she asks for a drink, all she hears is ‘Help yourself’) and Sadie has accepted it, playing with the boys on the same level instead of wanting to be a little wife. She always talks in an amused way about Willie’s wife, probably laughing about her fate as a housewife.

Mercedes McCambridge’s Sadie belongs in the world of politics and when she says ‘Anybody that pays me is smart’, there is little doubt that she is right. And very soon these two unlikely romantic interests, Willie Stark and Sadie Burke, start an affair and Sadie discovers that, despite all her strength and willpower, she, too, knows the feeling of jealousy and betrayal when she has to discover that, after having laughed at Willie’s wife, she also is just another woman for Willie. She angrily shouts ‘I hate all women!’ and again underlines that she feels more comfortable around men. All this leads up to her scene in front of the mirror when she sees the picture of Willie’s newest affair. She compares that image to herself and then opens up, telling that she had smallpox as a child which ‘leaves your face hard.’ She now shows that she, too, would like to be beautiful and attractive, showing all her lost dreams in her face. But at the same time she begins to tease Jack, knowing that it is his fiancée who is Willie’s newest affair. And then in just a small second she is tough self again when Jack slaps her and she just laughs in his face, saying ‘Well…’, as if he was a little boy.

If ever a small part was made outstanding by the unique work of a unique actress, then this is the case. 

Number 17: Anna Paquin as Flora McGrath in "The Piano" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

It’s funny because while I usually dislike most child-actors, all three juveniles who took home Oscars in this category made my Top 20. The first one to be mentioned is Anna Paquin who was able to pull off an upset and took home the Oscar for her performance as Flora McGrath, the daughter of mute Ada McGrath in the gothic love story The Piano.

The eternal question with child actors is always how much they really understood of their part and how much of their performance was guided by the director – but I don’t think it truly matters how a performance is created and the only thing that should be judged is what is on the screen.

In the case of Anna Paquin, this is surely a lot. Her character is Ada’s way of communicating – she translates her mother’s sign-language but she always likes to add a spiteful tone to her voice. In this way, she’s a typical child – she likes to lie, she likes to spy, she likes to misbehave but there is always more to her. The intentions of Flora are never truly clear and of course the question is how far the intentions of this little girl can truly go. Again, Flora is like every child – not knowing or understanding a lot but thinking she does and that way acting out of her own ideas and thoughts.

Anna Paquin has a very unique screen presence – she does not get a showy part like Holly Hunter but she never is overshadowed either. Both Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin work amazingly together and during their scenes together Flora always appears as if both a little girl and an adult are trapped inside her. 

It’s an essential supporting performance. She is most of the time in the background, but never slips out of the viewer’s mind and has some very impressive scenes, like when she is telling a lie about her father and of course, when she totally freaks out after her mother was punished by her husband.

It’s a very grim and dark performance, especially for a child and the character always remains a kind of mystery – and Anna Paquin is able to get all these aspects perfectly. 

Number 18: Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Not a lot of actresses were able to reach the top so fast as Meryl Streep – after an Emmy and a first Oscar nomination, she swept the national awards for the first time in her life for her role as Joanna Kramer in the courtroom drama Kramer vs. Kramer, a young wife and mother who leaves her family to discover herself and then later wants custody of her young son.

Right from the start, Meryl Streep shows how she perfectly she is always able to develop the technical parts of her characters – her broken face, her tears, her desperation are clearly visible when she wishes her son good-night before she leaves him. It’s clear that Joanna is not selfish when she leaves her family behind but instead sees it as the best solution for everyone because she realizes that she is close to a breakdown – the life she leads does not fulfill her anymore and her unhappiness has turned into a deep depression when she finally finds the will to leave. When she tells her husband Ted about her plans and talks with him in the hallway, Meryl Streep presents some of her most unaffected work – her desperation, her plea to let her go, her refusal to go back inside, the way she touches her wedding ring, everything is completely authentic and helps Meryl Streep to tell the audience all about her character in just a few short moments before she leaves the movie for a great deal of time.

When the character returns, Meryl Streep still shows her nervous sides but she reduced them to demonstrate that Joanna has truly found herself and is not the same woman she was when she left Ted and her son. Her scene with Dustin Hoffman in a little café is incredibly authentic as both actors portray a fake friendliness while slowly circling each other about their son.

 Later, Meryl Streep gets a lot of opportunities to demonstrate her ability to cry – during her monologue in the witness stand, after the session and later at the end. In all these scenes, Meryl Streep opens Joanna up more and more, finds new sides in her and lets the audience and the other characters understand her intentions better and better.  

Like her other Oscar-winning role in Sophie’s Choice, Joanna Kramer is not a very complex character and Meryl Streep follows the script with a performance that offers little surprises. But Meryl Streep always fills these limitations of her characters with so much detail, so much life and so much technical brilliance that the results are almost always glorious.

A strong and powerful performance that works as a great counterpart to the work by Dustin Hoffman.

Number 19: Mira Sorvino as Linda Ash in "Mighty Aphrodite" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

As you may know by now, dumb blondes are one of my weaknesses. Judy Holliday, Jean Hagen, Jennifer Tilly…when an actress knows how to play such a character and find the comedy without overdoing it, then I just can’t resist. And Mira Sorvino is no exception (and as I said before, every actress who has to kiss Woody Allen should get an Oscar!).

In Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite, Mira Sorvino played Linda Ash, a slow-minded prostitute and porn-actress with an almost unbearable voice and a typical heart of gold. In her performance, Mira Sorvino benefits a great deal from Woody Allen’s screenplay – Mighty Aphrodite is one of his weaker efforts and nothing in it truly excites except for the character of Linda who is written as the perfect scene-stealer and given one hilarious line after another. So it was easy for Mira Sorvino to steal the show but she did not only become a vessel for Allen’s lines but instead created a wonderful, memorable and hilarious character.  

The biggest accomplishment of Mira Sorvino is the fact that she was able to combine Linda’s experience and lifestyle with a believable and intriguing child-like innocence. Even when she is saying lines like ‘There was this guy f**king me from behind and there were these two huge guys dressed like cops in my mouth at the same time’, there is something so sweet and innocent about her. Her Linda is not naïve in the sense that she doesn’t know any better – she chose her lifestyle but is also aware that she would like to change it. Yes, she is a bit stupid but Mira Sorvino fortunately treats Linda with all her respect – something that neither Woody Allen nor the movie do. The fact that Allen actually gives Linda a line like ‘He has to be as smart as I am’ when she talks about a guy for her is almost repellent – up until now Linda has never appeared to see herself as smart or anything like that so this line was nothing but a cheap, unnecessary shot at Linda’s costs. But Mira Sorvino beautifully survives all this and gives Linda a lot of unexpected depth and dimensions – when she tells Larry that she is the only one in her family with any ambition, it is strangely believable. She is also very touching when she tells Larry about her child which she gave up for adoption or at the end after she was hit by a guy or when she talks about her hopes and dreams – Mira Sorvino knows how to create a Linda who is both hilariously inappropriate but also beautifully lost.

But besides being touching, Mira Sorvino is most definitely another thing – incredibly funny. Throwing out lines like ‘Isn’t is a pisser?’ or ‘I hate it when a guy comes in, wipes out a big dick and waves it all over the joint’ or ‘I just got a small part in an Angela Dawnson movie!…I get to do it with her!’, she gives a true comedic tour-de-force performance that is a constant ray of light in an otherwise boring and insignificant movie.

I know this performance is not among the most popular in this category but I think that Mira Sorvino is simply wonderful.