Team Top Ten: Oscar's Greatest Losers (Actress Edition)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 12:49PM 
Hepburn won 4 Oscars. Every win leaves a trail of four lossesAmir here, to bring you our newest Team Top Ten. You may remember we tackled the best directors of the new century in our first episode and each first Tuesday of the month Nathaniel and all the contributors will vote on a new list. This time it’s all about two things I’m sure you all love as much as we do:
...Actresses & Oscar.
This is a list of the greatest performances that lost the Best Actress award. We’ve looked at the pool of 337 performances that were nominated for an Oscar in that category but failed to win and we ranked them in the order of our individual preference, irrespective of the actresses that won in any given year.
It was quite a heavy task, as you can imagine. How would you go about choosing only ten among so many stellar turns? 80 different performances managed to get at least one vote from our contributors. Actresses who have had multiple unsuccessful nominations were generally the victims of an internal spread of votes. Meryl Streep is the most glaring example, of course. Four of her performances garnered votes, but none was popular enough to make the cut. Katharine Hepburn’s performances were similarly divisive, though one of them stood head and shoulders above the rest as you will see below. There were surprising inclusions and even more surprising exclusions but the main takeaway was consensus over performances that have found their place in the critical canon. Only 6 ladies from this new century made the top 30, which is reason to rejoice, in my opinion -- old treasures aren’t forgotten just yet.
Swanson gave good face.
Nathaniel will share runners-up and some juicy trivia and stats because this experiment really deserves a lot more than a list of ten names. For now, however, here are the actresses Team Experience deems the greatest Oscar losers of all time:
THE 10 GREATEST BEST-ACTRESS-LOSING PERFORMANCES
are after the jump...
surprise! Holly Hunter made the list
10. Holly Hunter (Broadcast News, 1987)
Lost to Cher in Moonstruck
"The leads in so many romantic comedies blend together into a blandly likable blur. Not so with Holly Hunter in Broadcast News. She takes the trope of the hardworking professional woman who is great at her job but unlucky in love, and imbues her with a crackling specificity. Far from sanding down her rough edges, Hunter embraces them, from her crying jags, to her stubbornness, to her clumsy grabs at love, to that southern accent she makes no attempt to disguise. Hunter’s Jane Craig topped my ballot because she is the gold standard against which I measure all other romantic comedy performances."
- Michael C.
nine more iconic performances after the jump...
Lost to Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle
"It is probably inaccurate to call The Philadelphia Story a star vehicle, and yet Katharine Hepburn’s turn as Tracy Lords might make you think otherwise. She channels all the perceived characteristics of herself, and familiar characteristics of old characters – the supercilious glare, the self consciousness beautifulness, the goddess like quality combated by her tangible realness –into creating this maddening, beguiling, delightful, spoiled woman. Consequently, even when the film and its characters seems to be plotting against her interest, Katharine/Tracy coaxes it, not very gently, into submitting to her. This may be an ensemble film and Hepburn may not even have top billing – but the way Tracy Samantha Lords endures in your mind for a lifetime afterward is proof one of the brightest star turns by an actor."
- Andrew K.
08. Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven, 2002)
Lost to Nicole Kidman in The Hours
"Cathy Whitaker, is a woman who is living in purgatory: so trapped in her roles as devoted wife and mother, that she can only see heaven as something unattainable. Moore's performance however is miraculous, she takes one of the most parodied styles of acting - the 1950s melodrama - and through endless layers of fear, restrained passion and endless compassion, turns it into something sublime."
- Jose Solis
07. Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard, 1950)
Lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday
"The thing about Gloria Swanson's performance is that you remember it. I last saw Sunset Boulevard several years ago, and indeed my favorite thing about the movie is not her performance, but that when you think about the film, you see her. She is indelible in one's mind, iconic, terrifying, and tragic. She is repulsive, but you can't turn away, and you'll never forget."
- Deborah Lipp
06. Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence, 1974)
Lost to Elle Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
"Gena Rowlands' Mabel Longhetti is a woman whose mental demons are realised physically, raging and crying and spitting in reaction to the actions and people who send her spiralling around in her own headspace. The way Rowlands extends the script into her movement is almost exhausting. It's an ingeniously visceral performance that is acutely attuned to a woman who recognises her demons but cannot bare to admit them, and is constantly in a fierce battle with both herself and those around her. When Mabel says to her children that she hopes they never grow up, you know it's because she wishes she never had, because she doesn't know how to behave in a world with a stopper on emotion, and Rowlands' pure energy, whether excitably waiting for the school bus or viciously ranting against her husband, shades that longing with an unsurpassable melancholy."
- David Upton
... and now the top five, though it should be noted that Gena Rowlands at #6 was in a virtual tie with the next two ladies (Ballots were weighted to reflect high placements and appearance on multiple lists)
05. Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, 1996)
Lost to Frances McDormand in Fargo
"I suppose that there are more obscure performances nominated for the Best Actress Oscar than Emily Watson's as the special and religious Bess McNeil in Breaking the Waves, but there are none with more pressing mysteries. How could an actress start over and exude such innocence? How could someone embark on the most operatic descents in movie history and not make it seem exploitative? We'll never know, but when we watch Bess we take on her philosophy - we stop asking, we start believing."
- Paolo
04. Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity, 1944)
JUST CELEBRATED IN "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT"
Lost to Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight
"The greatest femme fatale in the history of the species, not least because Stanwyck isn’t in the remotely interested in playing the simplistic, misogynistic figure familiar from so many later noirs. Her Phyllis Dietrichson isn’t just an ice-blooded fiend (though she’s never not that); she makes sure to let us in on the nerves, the almost girlish anticipation, and the mixture of satisfaction and paranoia that shows how this killer is first of all a person, with motivations and impulses that are uncomfortably recognizable despite her warped inhumanity."
- Tim Brayton
3. Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004)
THE ONLY PERFORMANCE OF THE PAST TEN YEARS TO MAKE THE LIST
Lost to Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
"By the time Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released, Kate Winslet had already gained a reputation as an emotionally fearless actress and the go-to when the role required a corset. So, when she appeared in Michel Gondry's head-tripping, heart-stirring, modern-day masterpiece, shed of the period garb, her hair, a series of crayola-hued concoctions, and full of a new, spontaneous energy, it was a Kate we had never seen before. But, even if we hadn't been aware of her work previously, Winslet's Clementine Kruczynski would still be an astonishing achievement. In what could have easily turned into a manic pixie dream girl, Winslet fully fleshes her out –finding the flaws and insecurities behind the quirks. Impulsive, combative, and irrational at times, Winslet never shies away from making her a real, complex–even unlikable–woman. But, despite her faults, we come to realize this "f***ed-up girl, just trying to find her own piece of mind" is someone we'd never erase from our memory."
- "Abstew" Andrew Stewart
... The top two were clear and decisive winners of this poll, far ahead of the pack. Praise be to the 1950s and that decades glorious actressing.
02. Bette Davis as Margo Channing (All About Eve, 1950)
Lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday
"How many roles as famous as those like Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve were originally cast with different actors? Davis did such an outstanding, iconic turn as aging Broadway star Channing that it’s hard to imagine Claudette Colbert in the role as originally planned. It’s hard to imagine why I’m even having to write this passage. Alas, that’s what comes from being a participant in what is surely one of the most famous actress line-ups of all time. Losing votes to equally iconic Gloria Swanson as well as her own co-star, Anne Baxter, meant that Judy Holliday walked away with the statue. Davis lost the Golden Globe, too, but at least she won a prize from the hoi polloi of the Cannes Film Festival!"
- Glenn Dunks
01. Judy Garland (A Star Is Born, 1954)
JUST CELEBRATED IN "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT"
Lost to Grace Kelly in Country Girl
"What Garland ultimately presents is an astonishing synthesis of Gene Kelly's indefatigable physical energy and Bette Davis's dramatic intensity, including in moments where her acting stands wholly apart from musical performance. You have to have real mettle to survive the unexpectedly vicious tirade that a studio publicist unleashes on her when Vicki won't attend an Academy benefit in the final minutes of the film, for patently obvious reasons. Garland survives it, and then bellows back with her own redoubtable gust of jealous self-defense, even as the character's nerves are obviously, completely frayed."
- From Nick Davis's essay on Garland's performance
Did your all-time favorite make the list? Would you have handed Oscars to all ten of these women?
RELATED: Part Two #11-25 from out lists, the "just-missed" ladies that gathered a lot of support
Reader Comments (95)
Also:
Kim Stanley, 'Seance on a Wet Afternoon'
Anne Bancroft, 'The Pumpkin Eater'
Helena Bonham Carter, 'The Wings of the Dove'
Anjelica Huston, 'The Grifters'
Bette Davis, 'The Little Foxes'
Cicely Tyson, 'Sounder'
jimmy, hilarious!!
I sound repetitive but i just have to say it.
There is now way Gena Rowlands doesn't top this list. No, not even Garland (top 10 all time performances material) beats her. No way Winslet should be ranked higher - it's not even her best performance (Holy Smoke, Hamlet, et cetera).
People, Gena in A Woman Under the Influence is simply the best performance of all time. Yes, greater than Falconetti, Garland, Giulietta Masina, Emily Watson...
I get chills just by remembering for far Gena went for this role. It's untoppable. It's the greatest achievement in acting even, both genders.
Now I feel more relieved. Thank you.
cal --- and here I thought you'd be happy to see her on the list. BUT IT'S STILL NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU ;)
I'll be happy when you see it!
Ten, chronologically:
BETTE DAVIS "The Letter"(1940) - winner-Ginger Rogers "Kitty Foyle"
BETTE DAVIS "All About Eve"(1950)
ELEANOR PARKER "Caged"(1950) - winner-Judy Holliday "Born Yesterday"
GLORIA SWANSON "Sunset Blvd(1950)
SUSAN HAYWARD "I'll Cry Tomorrow"(155) -winner-Anna Magnani "The Rose Tattoo"
Magnani was very good but Hayward
was even better with a career-best turn
SARAH MILES "Ryan's Daughter"(1970) -winner -Glenda Jackson "Women in Love"
SALLY KIRKLAND "Anna"(1987) -winner -Cher "Moonstruck"
ANGELICA HUSTON "The Grifters"(1990) -winner Kathy Bates "Misery"
JULIANNE MOORE "Far From Heaven"(2002) -winner-Nicole Kidman "The Hours"
*Moore should have won supporting that year too for "Boogie Nights"
CAREY MULLIGAN "An Education"(2009) -winner-Sandra Bullock "The Blind Side"
People from my ballot who didn't get in
JESSICA LANGE, Frances
JANE FONDA, The Shoot Horses Don't They?
NATALIE WOOD, Splendor in the Grass
PENELOPE CRUZ, Volver
CECILY TYSON, Sounder
MARLENE DIETRICH, Morocco
Julianne Moore for Far from Heaven, definitely. I still cannot figure out how Nicole Kidman won that year.
Jessica Lange for Frances.
Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth.
@cal: you need to check Rowlands out in "Another Woman." Just as Oscar-worthy as in "A Woman Under the Influence."
Ken: Boogie Nights was five years before that. Julianne's other film in 2002 was The Hours.
I tried, Cal! Gena was never anything other than top of my list.
I think most of my choices have been mentioned apart from Helena Bonham Carter in Wings of the Dove?
@BVR: I love Gena in Another Woman, but A Woman Under The Influence is just another league. I think she comes this close in Opening Night (another miracle performance) and Love Streams is third place, then Gloria and then Another Woman. I think she deserved to win the Oscar four times and maybe a fifth for Another Woman, with additional nominations for Minnie and Moskowitz, Unhook the Stars and Faces.
@David
Let's start a campaign to make A Woman under the Influence enter Hit me With Your Best Shot series!
cal: It's not really that kind of film, though. It's exceedingly well performed, but it's not really built on grandiose "thematic" images.
I feel like I'm the only person, but Bette Midler in The Rose. I know Sally Field in Norma Rae was a great choice, but for some reason Bette's performance in The Rose just really won't leave me ever since I watched it. One of my favorite actress performances ever, it was devastating.
Off the top of my head:
Bette Davis, All About Eve
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction
Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Viola Davis, The Help
Sorry, forgot Irene Dunne, Theodora Goes Wild, 1936 and Bette Davis, The Letter, 1940. The olden day films are more difficult to keep up on . . . .
I'm glad some of you guys remembered Deborah Kerr for The Sundowners and Geraldine Page for Interiors.
Rosalind Russell, Mourning Becomes Electra.
Meryl Streep, Out of Africa.
Stanwyck, Double Indemnity.
Davis, All About Eve
Davis, The Letter
Greta Garbo, Camille
And so many more...
Yes yes yes. Love this list. I, unsurprisingly, have an immense love toward Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis in their respective 1950 roles. The 1950s was such an amazing decade for cinema.
Glad to see you guys have enjoyed the list. I'm loving all the conversation in the comments.
I would have added Barbara Streisand for Yentl.
I'll get into detail on the follow up post, but I'll just say I'm very pleased because half of my ballot made the big list, and all the ladies were on my list of finalists before I narrowed it down to 10 (which was agony)
Choog -- Helena ALMOST made my list.
Cal -- what's funny is i had rented this just before the list was finished compiling and then I interviewed Gena's daughter totally coincidentally the same day. haha
These are great choices...and I agree with Cal, Gena Rowlands is EASILY my number one (more so than Garland, Davis, Swanson, Watson, etc., who are all fabulous), but Gena's performance in A Woman Under the Influence is simply one of the most harrowing performances ever committed to film. The scene where she repeatedly mumbles to her father at the dinner table "Stand up for me, dad" tears me apart every time I watch it. I think it's a shame that she never really received the due respect from the industry and audiences that she deserved.
From this past decade, the only real tragedy I see as far as "biggest loser" is Anne Hathaway losing to Kate Winslet. I'm not the biggest fan of Anne but she was acting in a different league than every single woman nominated in that category. It was the perfect star turn and really utilized all of her gifts to show what a fine actress she can be (MUCH more than Les Miserables, in my opinion, even though she is good in that). I love Kate Winslet to death but The Reader is easily my least favorite performance from her (well, at least her Oscar nominated performances). She was so much more effective and deserving in Eternal Sunshine and Revolutionary Road.
Right you are, Volvagia. Her performance in "The Hours" is the one that should have netted Julianne Moore the Supporting Oscar in 2002. Which, in a perfect world, she could have added to the trophy she (should have) won for "Boogie Nights five years earlier. And if she'd gotten her much deserved Best Actress award for "Far From Heaven" she'd have been, I believe, the first performer ever to win Best Actress and Best Supporting actress in the same year.
This was very tough. I'm going to give an honorable mention to Laura Linney in You Can Count on Me, Talia Shire in Rocky, and Irene Dunne in Cimarron. Here's my top 10...
10. Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl (1977)
9. Jane Alexander - Testament (1983)
8. Ingrid Bergman - For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
7. Angela Bassett - What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993)
6. Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
5. Greer Garson - Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
4. Claudette Colbert - Since You Went Away (1944)
3. Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist (1973)
2. Bette Davis - All About Eve (1950)
1. Sissy Spacek - In the Bedroom (2001)
Oh man, I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to see Holly Hunter's "Broadcast News" performance make this list. WIthout question one of my all-time favorite performances of any genre, gender, lead or supporting.
Can't wait to see some of the individual lists in the coming weeks!
I never understood why Bjork, for "Dancer in the Dark", was not nominated and, of course, didn't win.
Genuinely surprised Ellen Burstyn made the list. However, much like Cate Blanchette for "Elizabeth", i think Team Film Experience are an Erin Brockovich loving crowd (and a Shakespeare in Love loving crowd) and don't feel quite so bad for the already Oscared Burstyn. In regards to Glenn Close, however, it may have had more to do with internal vote splitting. Well, except for ALBERT NOBBS.
Craig, those two Swinton performances weren't nominated. Hence, no eligible for the list.
And, yeah, I don't get the Grace Kelly/REAR WINDOW thing. Even combined with COUNTRY GIRL no way does she best Garland.
01. Glenn Close - Dangerous Liaisons
02. Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth
03. Angela Bassett - Whats Love Got To Do With It
04. Meryl Streep - Silkwood
05. Liv Ullmann . Ansikte mot Ansikte
06. Judi Dench . Notes on a Scandal
07. Gloria Swanson - Sunset Bouleward
08. Emanuelle Riva - Amour
09. Elizabeth Taylor - Suddenly Last Summer
10. Nicole Kidman - Moulin Rouge
@nathanielr
you've rented and you've seen it? please report! let me welcome to the gena rowlands cult.
Mine:
1990 - Joanne Woodward, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
1995 - Elisabeth Shue, Leaving Las Vegas
1996 - Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves
1997 - Judi Dench, Mrs. Brown
1998 - Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth/Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station
2000 - Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream
2001 - Sissy Spacek - In the Bedroom
2004 - Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
2005 - Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
2008 - Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
2009 - Carey Mulligan, An Education/Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
2010 - Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
2012 - Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Ken & Volvagia -- i can't agree on Moore in 2002 (in supporting). Yes, she should have two Oscars already but not for The Hours. Pfeiffer, Streep and CZJ were the ones deserving of that crown that year
ok, my top ten:
10 - Jodie Foster, Nell
9 - Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music
8 - Gena Rowlands, Gloria
7 - Meryl Streep, The Bridges of Madison County
6 - Bette Davis, Now, Voyager
5 - Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity
4 - Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard
3 - Isabelle Adjani, The Story of Adele H.
2 - Judy Garland, A Star is Born
1 - Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence
Michelle wasn't nominated, Streep already had a Supp Oscar, and Zeta-Jones would make wonderful Oscar less actress.
Julianne Moore's career Oscar is The Hours, in Supporting.
Great list!
My top 10 unawarded ladies:
1. Judy Garland-A Star Is Born-Without question, for me no one else comes close. Sheer brilliance denied.
2. Bette Davis-All About Eve
3. Gloria Swanson-Sunset Boulevard
4. Barbara Stanwyck-Double Indemnity-If I had my way she would be the most awarded actress in history. She was always able to turn dross into gold.
5. Bette Davis-Dark Victory-Beautiful work especially the last portion when all the Betteness is stripped away.
6. Greta Garbo-Camille
7. Susan Hayward-I'll Cry Tomorrow-She was excellent in I Want to Live! but this was her best performance.
8. Natalie Wood-Splendor in the Grass-Although I loved her and she was always enjoyable she could be a spotty actress but she really got under the skin of Deanie and gave an incredibly raw performance.
9. Jane Fonda-They Shoot Horses, Don't They?-Speaking of rawness.
10. Angelica Huston-The Grifters
Talk about tough choices! I didn't even have room for Julie Christie in Away from Her and that is so deserving. So many others.
Glad to see Davis/Stanwyck made the cut, but no Swanson? Wow. To think Judy Holliday beat both Swanson and Davis is nuts.
Performances that I would add:
-Elisabeth Shue, Leaving Las Vegas
-Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
-Meryl Streep, Julia & Julia
-Meryl Streep, Doubt
-Meryl Streep, A Cry in the Dark and/or Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (sorry Jodie)
-Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's
-Anne Bancroft, The Graduate
1. Glenn Close for Dangerous Liaisons over Jodie Foster in The Accused. I loved Jodie in Silence of the Lambs, but I really felt Glenn gave the superior performance against the former.
The final shot of Dangerous Liaisons is a perfect distillation of everything I love aesthetically. It's opera, myth, and existential despair.
2. Felicity Huffman for Transamerica. Seriously, in what world was Reese more deserving that year? She was merely passable in Walk the Line (whereas Joaquin was the soul of that film)
3. Emily Watson for Breaking the Waves . . . no contest there. I felt McDormand's performance was kitschy.
4. Fernanda Montenegro/Cate Blanchett/Emily Watson against Gwynnie. Please.
5. Emmanuelle Riva. Amour. I liked Lawrence a lot but still. Riva gave a masterpiece of a performance
Where was that picture taken of Hepburn's four Oscars? Is that from her estate, or the Academy's museum or something?
OMG This is my favorite column, ever.
1) Edith Evans, The Whisperers
2) Bette Davis, All About Eve
3) Joanne Woodward, Rachel Rachel
4) Julianne Moore, Far from Heaven
5) Glenn Close, Dangerous Liaisons
6) Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field
7) Diana Roaa, Lady Sings the Blues (sorry guys)
8) Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream
9) Geraldine Page, Summer and Smoke
10)Liv Ullmann, Face to Face
And I must admit Deborah Kerr should have won a competitive Oscar, she was nominated for the wrong roles. Her work in The Innocents and Black Narcissus remain for me the most memorable and award worthy performances of her career.
And I leave out Thelma Ritter, since she maybe had only one lead role (The Model and the Marriage Broker) so Supporting Actress is another article
And one last mention: Talullah Bankhead not getting nominated for Lifeboat (when she won the NY Film Critics award) in 1944 was way out of line.
Orion -- that was from the national gallery in DC. they had an Oscars exhibit and all four of hers were displayed.
Sigourney Weaver for Aliens is not on that list. Nuff said.
I don't have the patience to make a list, but I'll say two things:
1) Thank God, Maggie Smith won for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (one of the greatest AMPAS choices in history);
2) Emily Watson losing for "Breaking the Waves" is deeply deeply embarrassing.
Because I grew up in the 80s all through the 90s (I had become an adult beyond), I'll focus more on these eras:
1. Goldberg's The Color Purple
2. Streep's The Bridges of Madison County
3. Swanson's Sunset Blvd.
4. Close's Fatal Attraction
5. Weaver's Aliens
6. Moore's Far From Heaven
7. Blanchett's Elizabeth
8. Cruz's Volver
9. Staunton's Vera Drake
10. Streep's Silkwood