Everyone knows that Meryl Streep is Oscar's all time acting nomination queen. This year the queen received her 20th nomination, this time for playing the worst opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins. But Streep's astonishing numbers get a little less intimidating if you break them up into supporting and lead categories. So let's do that to place Streep in a slightly different context in the history of Oscar'ed actresses.
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We'll ignore wins in this particular exercize. Streep isn't #1 in the supporting sweepstakes, but she remains #1 by a very comfortable margin for leading actresses. More details after the jump...
Most Supporting Actress nominations
Thelma Ritter received her first nomination around her 49th birthday for ALL ABOUT EVE (1950). Five more nominations would follow
01 Thelma Ritter (6 nominations)
Maggie Smith received her last supporting Oscar nomination for GOSFORD PARK (2001). Will she nab another in her 80s?
02 [tie]
Amy Adams (4 nominations)
Ethel Barrymore (4 nominations)
Lee Grant (4 nominations)
Agnes Moorehead (4 nominations)
Geraldine Page (4 nominations)
Maggie Smith (4 nominations)
Maureen Stapleton (4 nominations)
Meryl Streep (4 nominations)
On a scale of 1-10 how hard are you rooting for another great role for Marisa Tomei. I'm at about a "15"
10 [Tie] Thirteen women have 3 supporting nominations including the following that are still working semi-regularly in theatrical features so they could return to Oscar if the stars align just so: Kate Winslet, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Marisa Tomei, and Dianne Wiest. Which do you think is most likely to make one more trip to the supporting shortlist?
22 [Tie] Nearly forty women have two in this category including the following that are still working regularly in theatrical features: Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Vanessa Redgrave... though the bulk of still living actresses with two nominations in this category are now primarily found on television and thus unlikely to be in an Oscar shortlist again (examples include: Kathy Bates, Marcia Gay Harden, and Anjelica Huston)
Most Lead Actress nominations
Bette Davis in DARK VICTORY (1939). She's one of those Oscar players who won for the wrong performances with plenty of "right" options for AMPAS.
01 Meryl Streep (16 nominations)
02 Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations)
03 Bette Davis (10 or 11 nominations depending on what you think of her write-in nomination for 1934)
04 Greer Garson (7 nominations)
Jane Fonda received her last nomination for THE MORNING AFTER (1986). That's a long time ago but she's still one of the greats
05 [tie]
Ingrid Bergman (6 nominations)
Jane Fonda (6 nominations)
Deborah Kerr (6 nominations)
Sissy Spacek (6 nominations)
09 Norma Shearer (6 nominations unless you count her double in 1929/1930 as 1 in which case 5)
10 [tie] of the nine women that have 5 lead actress nominations only the following are still alive: Ellen Burstyn and Jessica Lange (who both mostly work on TV now), Susan Sarandon, and Judi Dench.
What of the future?
While no one will rival Streep in our lifetimes -- she's way too far ahead of all rivals -- there are performers still working regularly who could rival the Greer Garsons and Ingrid Bergmans and such (statistically speaking). The three most likely are probably Cate Blanchett, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence. At least at this writing.
A word of caution though: Oscar history tells us that unless you are Hepburn or Streep there are finite windows in which you can be nominated for somewhat average work. When they fall, they fall hard (see Jacki Weaver's weird nomination for Silver Linings Playbook after her statue worthy work in Animal Kingdom) but they can go ice cold without any warning. No matter how talented actors are, they sometimes find it difficult to become a flavor of the year again unless they're far gone enough in their career to have something like a "comeback" vehicle or a "career tribute" vehicle -- like what happened with Julianne Moore for Still Alice (2014); after a flurry of nominations in the late 90s and early Aughts, Oscar lost interest for over a decade despite a constant stream of fine performances. Another example: Tilda Swinton has regularly been doing transcendent work since her surprise Oscar win but not a peep from the Academy.
Was Amy's failure to secure a nomination this year a sign of things to come?
Actresses that are either in a honeymoon phase with Oscar or possibly just ending it... but we won't know the latter unless voters start ignoring them regularly:
Amy Adams (5 nominations within the past 12 years -- do the recent misses for Big Eyes and Arrival despite precursor love indicate that it's over or were they just tough breaks?)
Michelle Williams (4 nominations within the past 12 years)
Jennifer Lawrence (4 nominations within the past 6 years)
Viola Davis (3 nominations within the past 8 years)
Rooney Mara (2 nominations within past 5 years)
Emma Stone (2 nominations within past 3 years)
Brie Larson in THE GLASS CASTLE (2017). Will she become an Oscar favorite?
Actresses that could be entering a honeymoon phase but we'll only know that if they start wracking up the nominations. (They could just as easily be a Carey Mulligan or Jessica Chastain. As talented as those two are, Oscar voters seemed to move on quickly, no?)
Brie Larson, Ruth Negga, Alicia Vikander, Emma Stone, Saoirse Ronan, Naomie Harris, and... Octavia Spencer??? (it's fun to imagine grounded comforting funny presence Spencer becoming something like a new Thelma Ritter, isn't it? Not that Thelma can ever quite be replicated)
YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO PREDICT THE FUTURE OR AT LEAST JUDGE THE PAST IN THE COMMENTS