Greatest Hollywood Actresses by Oscar Awards

Can you name the greatest Hollywood actresses of all-time based on their performance in Oscar nominations?

To make it easier, we give you a movie they starred in

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Last updated: March 11, 2024

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First submitted	July 10, 2012
Times taken	44,241
Average score	43.3%
Rating	4.26

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#	Movie	Actress
12.8	The Philadelphia Story	Katharine Hepburn
12.6	Sophie's Choice	Meryl Streep
8.4	All About Eve	Bette Davis
8.0	Fargo	Frances McDormand
7.6	Casablanca	Ingrid Bergman
6.6	Barbarella	Jane Fonda
6.0	Cleopatra	Elizabeth Taylor
5.8	Gone With the Wind	Olivia de Havilland
5.6	Elizabeth	Cate Blanchett
5.6	The Silence of the Lambs	Jodie Foster
5.6	A Touch of Class	Glenda Jackson
5.2	Tootsie	Jessica Lange
5.2	La La Land	Emma Stone
5.0	Norma Rae	Sally Field
4.8	Mrs. Miniver	Greer Garson
4.8	Gone With the Wind	Vivien Leigh
4.8	The Great Ziegfeld	Luise Rainer
4.8	Million Dollar Baby	Hilary Swank
4.6	Harry Potter series	Maggie Smith
4.4	Judy	Renée Zellweger
4.4	The Trip to Bountiful	Geraldine Page
4.4	Coal Miner's Daughter	Sissy Spacek
4.2	Titanic	Kate Winslet
4.2	The Exorcist	Ellen Burstyn
4.0	The Graduate	Anne Bancroft
4.0	I Want to Live!	Susan Hayward
4.0	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Audrey Hepburn
4.0	The Apartment	Shirley MacLaine
4.0	Bull Durham	Susan Sarandon
4.0	The Divorcee	Norma Shearer
3.8	The Song of Bernadette	Jennifer Jones
3.8	Moulin Rouge!	Nicole Kidman
3.6	A Farewell to Arms	Helen Hayes
3.6	Boogie Nights	Julianne Moore

#	Movie	Actress
3.6	Doctor Zhivago	Julie Christie
3.6	Annie Hall	Diane Keaton
3.6	The Three Faces of Eve	Joanne Woodward
3.6	Johnny Belinda	Jane Wyman
3.6	Skyfall	Judi Dench
3.4	The Hunger Games	Jennifer Lawrence
3.4	The Remains of the Day	Emma Thompson
3.2	The Sound of Music	Julie Andrews
3.2	It Happened One Night	Claudette Colbert
3.2	Mildred Pierce	Joan Crawford
3.2	Bonnie and Clyde	Faye Dunaway
3.2	Suspicion	Joan Fontaine
3.2	The Piano	Holly Hunter
3.2	The Queen	Helen Mirren
3.2	Pretty Woman	Julia Roberts
3.0	A Patch of Blue	Shelley Winters
3.0	Black Swan	Natalie Portman
3.0	Julia	Vanessa Redgrave
3.0	The Father	Olivia Colman
2.8	Misery	Kathy Bates
2.8	The Blind Side	Sandra Bullock
2.8	La Vie en Rose	Marion Cotillard
2.8	Min and Bill	Marie Dressler
2.8	Marriage Italian Style	Sophia Loren
2.8	The Rose Tattoo	Anna Magnani
2.8	Cabaret	Liza Minnelli
2.8	Hud	Patricia Neal
2.8	Room at the Top	Simone Signoret
2.8	The Prince of Tides	Barbra Streisand
2.8	Mad Max: Fury Road	Charlize Theron
2.8	Walk the Line	Reese Witherspoon
2.8	The Farmer's Daughter	Loretta Young
2.8	A Star Is Born (1937)	Janet Gaynor

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Greatest Hollywood Actors by Oscar Awards

34 Comments

Level ∞

Nov 12, 2019

We've reset this quiz to use Oscar nominations instead of an outdated list from AMC. Here's the methodology:

2 points for a Best Actress win

1 point for a Best Supporting Actress win

0.4 points for a Best Actress nomination

0.2 points for a Best Supporting Actress nomination

Level 90

Nov 14, 2019

I thought the word actress had been deemed politically incorrect and superseded.

Level 83

Nov 16, 2019

Not at Oscars, so it's a moot point here.

Level 81

Nov 30, 2019

by whom?

+13

Level ∞

Feb 11, 2020

The near future... PhD's at America's leading universities have succeeded at radically altering every aspect of society and language. People now communicate with a series of grunts, occasionally pausing to utter the one word which is still allowed: "problematic".

Level 81

Mar 13, 2020

stop appropriating Neandertaal culture

Level 76

Dec 30, 2019

Julia Roberts has 2 from Best Actress in a leading role, 0.4 from Best Actress in a leading role nomination and 2 x 0.2 from Best actress in supporting role nomination. Doesn't matter how many times I count, but that only comes down to 2.8.

Level 75

Jan 1, 2020

It appears that points are given for both the nomination and the win.

Level 92

Nov 12, 2019

Love this. Quiz idea: same thing for directors, giving them full points for Best Director wins and nominations and half for Best Picture wins and nominations.

Level 81

Nov 30, 2019

only got 3 points. Was having trouble coming up with names tonight. Will try some other time. Nice work, ginger.

Level 67

Dec 30, 2019

If Streep gets her annual nomination this year for Little Women, she'll tie Katharine Hepburn. Personally, I think Streep is the best all-time, and I don't think it's close. She deserves way more than the three Oscars she has. She should have won for Doubt and Adaptation. Bette Davis would be second. Saoirse Ronan is incredible for how young she is, and I expect she'll rack up plenty of awards in the coming decades. I'm also surprised Viola Davis isn't on this list. She is spellbinding in everything she's in, and I think she won an Oscar pretty recently.

Level 76

Dec 30, 2019

Viola Davis has 1.6 points.

Level 67

Dec 30, 2019

Hmm. I suppose that comes from always being a supporting actress. She's certainly a lot better than many of the people on this list.

Level 74

Dec 30, 2019

I realize many people on this site would probably know Dame Maggie Smith best from Harry Potter, but she has so many more roles that were better - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Gosford Park, A Room With a View, and she's my favorite TV character from Downton Abbey who also appeared in the movie version.

Level 57

Dec 30, 2019

Jane Fonda was not nominated for Barbarella.

Level 91

Dec 30, 2019

Charlize Theron wasn't nominated for Mad Max: Fury Road and Maggie Smith wasn't nominated for the Harry Potter series.

Level 76

Dec 30, 2019

That's not the point really, QM has just given us clues with movies they've appeared in.

Level 59

Jan 3, 2020

This quiz was confusing. It's by Oscar nominations, but then you list movies for which they did NOT get nominations? Would make more sense to list a movie for which they had.

Level 87

Mar 30, 2022

I like that it wasn't one of their nominated roles in many cases. Made it much more challenging.

Level 91

May 25, 2022

They're likely there to make the quiz easier for the general audience. For example, Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook but most people know her from The Hunger Games.

Level 55

Jan 14, 2020

Good quiz though I find it interesting that you've only included two who won for supporting actress, Winters and Dench.

Level 94

Jan 16, 2020

That is interesting how the numbers played out. Even more interesting is that over the 83 years the award has been given, it's gone to 81 different women. Only 2 have ever won it twice: Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters. Although both were nominated three times and won twice, Winters was also nominated for Best Actress and so was high enough to get on this list, while Wiest comes in at 2.6, just under the cutoff.

Level 94

Jan 16, 2020

Looked at it again--I count 8 who won Best Supporting Actress on this list: Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Ingrid Bergman, Helen Hayes, Judi Dench, and Shelley Winters

Level 69

Feb 25, 2022

I suppose they meant people who *only* won best supporting actress.

Level 55

Dec 16, 2020

I'm surprised that Jane Fonda isn't on the list.

Level 69

Aug 14, 2021

She is.

Level 80

Mar 30, 2022

Where is Jessica Chastain? After her win this year she should have enough points (1 Best Actress win, 2 Best Actress nominations, 1 Supporting Actress nomination).

Level ∞

Mar 30, 2022

I'll take a look at this next time I update the quiz.

Level 83

Apr 1, 2022

What does the "d" stand for in the lefthand column above all the scores?

Level 56

May 27, 2022

Interesting method of determining the "greatest" actresses. I assume the points for nominations is just one fifth of the points awarded for the winner. So, Glenn Close and Deborah Kerr are left off for not having won, despite lots of nominations, and Jessica Chastain has only 2.6 points. Still, how does Marie Dressler get 2.8 points with one win and one additional nomination?

Level 81

May 29, 2022

yeah I think it would make sense to give at least 1/3 or 1/2, or maybe even 3/4 as many points for a nomination vs a win, as opposed to 1/5.

Level 81

May 30, 2022

since... it's usually a close call, and almost always debatable, who gave the best performance in a given year. Certainly winning versus being nominated doesn't mean that your acting was 5x better than the other nominees..

Level 74

Jan 30, 2023

Nice quiz, and I got 39 correct. I do understand the qualifications for this list, but I was surprised to see a few names that did not qualify. Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, Deborah Kerr, Glenn Close and Judy Garland all come to mind.

Level 93

Apr 14, 2023

Here's why they don't appear:

Marilyn Monroe - 0 nominations, 0pts

Lauren Bacall - 1 nomination, 0.2pts

Judy Garland - 2 nominations (1L, 1S), 0.6pts

Deborah Kerr - 6 nominations (6L), 2.4pts

Glenn Close - 8 nominations (4L, 4S), 2.4pts