Girls Gone Wild -- Favorite Bad Girl Oscar Winners
Friday, May 27, 2016 at 5:30PM Kieran, here. We've been celebrating Girls Gone Wild this month at The Film Experience. If you haven't already done so, make sure to check out Team Experience's wonderful relay-style Thelma & Louise 25th anniversary retrospective.
As the month comes to a close, it felt fitting to take a look back at some of the Best Oscar-winning "bad girl" star turns. Here are 11 of the juiciest...
Honorable Mention:
Cristal Connors in Showgirls (Gina Gershon)
Should have been nominated. Very possibly should have won. Haters be damned.
Top Ten Oscar Winning Bad Girl Roles
10. Addie Loggins in Paper Moon (Tatum O'Neal - Best Supporting Actress 1973)
A charismatic yet unsentimental child performance that perfectly nails the tone of its film. The only complaint is that she wasn't promoted to lead Actress where (judging by that roster) she very well could have contended.
9. Barbara Grahame in I Want to Live! (Susan Hayward - Best Actress 1958)
Delightfully over-the-top and melodramatic. Barbara refuses to wear a nightgown while in prison for murder. She wants to "sleep raw!"
8. Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Louise Fletcher - Best Actress 1975)
A clear favorite among the pantheon of "bad girl" characters. A little cartoonish, but believable and fitting within the context of that film's reality.
7. Minnie Castevet in Rosemary's Baby (Ruth Gordon - Best Supporting Actress 1968)
It's always wonderful when Oscar gives shine to great performances in genres not typically considered "prestige," such as Ruth Gordon's Minnie--the neighbor from hell.
6. Flora McGrath in The Piano (Anna Paquin - Best Supporting Actress 1993)
Misguided and lonely, but causing no small amount of havoc for those around her. One can't help but wonder what Flora's relationship with her mother would be like all these years later...
5. Annie Wilkes in Misery (Kathy Bates - Best Actress 1990)
Paul Sheldon's #1 fan. Like the best of villains, she can be undeniably sweet. Just don't put her in the same room with a lying, dirty birdy...
4. Diana Christensen in Network (Faye Dunaway - Best Actress 1976)
Expanding the definition of "bad girls" to include "badass girls" for this entry. Today, in the age of joke celebrity political campaigns (and cable news giving them validity) Diana and her approach to news media feels sadly not that far off the mark.
3. Velma Kelly in Chicago (Catherine Zeta-Jones - Best Supporting Actress 2002)
To be fair, Velma would probably resent her place on this list. After all, she completely blacked out. She doesn't remember a thing...
2. Marylee Hadley in Written on the Wind (Dorothy Malone - Best Supporting Actress 1956)
As the mambo-ing seductress herself declared when someone calls her a dirty liar, "I'm dirty. Period!"
1. Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (Vivien Leigh - Best Actress 1939)
Petulant, selfish, flinty and dramatic. Cinema's original diva, original bad girl. The original movie heroine we love to hate.
What are some of your favorite Oscar-winning bad-girl performances?
Reader Comments (25)
Great list! I miss Cate Blanchett's Jasmine and Penelope Cruz in Vicky, Cristina Barcelona but otherwise excellent choices :D
Bates should rank higher.
Mo'Nique in Precious. She goes past bad and straight to evil.
Tilda Swinton is one of the best Oscar-winnibg villains ever
Ooh...Tilda in Michael Clayton is a major omission, Cal Roth. Excellent call.
I considered Mo'Nique in Precious but I was going for a more whimsical tone for this post and Mary Jones doesn't lend itself to that very well. Though she's one of the best winners that category has ever seen, for sure.
If Gene Tierney had beaten Joan Crawford (and I think she should have), she'd be at the top of any Oscar bad girls list. Cray cray, gorgeous, murderous.
Yeah, Tilda Swinton is everything.
I think Angelina Jolie's crazy inmate would fit right in, though I also think thay performance is somewhat overrated.
I was going to revolt if Marylee Hadley was not here. #2 is a fine position for her. It's too bad Cristal can't be there to keep her company.
My personal favorites (in no particular order):
Jo Van Fleet - East of Eden
Dorothy Malone - Written on the Wind
Ruth Gordon - Rosemary’s Baby
Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Elizabeth Taylor - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
Faye Dunaway - Network
Kathy Bates - Misery
Shelley Winters in A Patch Of Blue.
Love the Dorothy Malone call out.
I'd include any of the women from Caged. Heck, most Claire Trevor characters really. :)
Some great choices!
The movie is glossy garbage, but I always get a kick out of Elizabeth Taylor as Gloria Wandrous (how's that for a bad girl name?!) in Butterfield 8, grinding her stiletto into Laurence Harvey's shoe...
Of course if Glenn Close won for Dangerous Liaisons...
Great list, especially Leigh, Dunaway and Fletcher. I'm not a fan of Hayward's performance. I think it's really bad.
I would also add Bette Davis in Jezebel and Julie Christie in Darling.
Cosign every woman on this list except Catherine Zeta Jones.
Thanks for the props to Dorothy Malone, but the line is: "You're a FILTHY liar." To which she responds: "I'm FILTHY. Period." Totally better than "dirty." :-D
The photo of Vivien Leigh is everything. It's my favourite dress from the whole film.
Patryk- I'm with you 100% on this one...
Having Leigh and Malone at the top is perfect, and I also especially like the inclusion of Dunaway and Gordon. I'll join the others in wishing Swinton was on this, but it's a strong list.
Kathy Bates gives me chills everytime. The greatest and most evil female Oscar winning character ever. She should be #1 tbh.
Though I don't mind Leigh at all. What a selfish bitch. That wasn't easy to watch for nearly 4 hours.
And I agree, Gina Gershon should have been nominated and won.
Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Broadie
Of course, Vivien Leigh - Gone With the Wind!
Totally agree! Julie Christie in Darling deserves a spot on this list.
Such a great list nevertheless; Dunaway in Network is weirdly underrated.
I personally would also add Minny Jackson in The Help for that "chocolate" pie alone.
AdamK: "I think Angelina Jolie's crazy inmate would fit right in, though I also think thay performance is somewhat overrated."
Totally overrated. A basically dimensionless, showboat-y performance, nothing really very special. I'd have given supporting that year to Toni Collette for Sixth Sense. (In 1999 they gave a lot a bad awards, tbh)