Actresses With Multiple Oscar Nominations For Best Actress

1. Meryl Streep

Considered by many critics to be the greatest living actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 21 times, and has won it three times. Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, to Mary Wolf (Wilkinson), a commercial artist, and Harry William ...

17 Noms.

1. The French Lieutenant's Woman - 1981 2. Sophie's Choice - 1982 (WON) 3. Silkwood - 1983 4. Out of Africa - 1985 5. Ironweed - 1987 6. Evil Angels / A Cry in the Dark - 1988 7. Postcards from the Edge - 1990 8. The Bridges of Madison County - 1995 9. One True Thing - 1998 10. Music of the Heart - 1999 11. The Devil Wears Prada - 2006 12. Doubt - 2008 13. Julie & Julia - 2009 14. The Iron Lady - 2011 (WON) 15. August: Osage County - 2013 16. Florence Foster Jenkins - 2016 17. The Post - 2017

2. Katharine Hepburn

Actress | The Lion in Winter

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...

12 Noms.

1. Morning Glory - 1932/33 (WON) 2. Alice Adams - 1935 3. The Philadelphia Story - 1940 4. Woman of the Year - 1942 5. The African Queen - 1951 6. Summertime - 1955 7. The Rainmaker - 1956 8. Suddenly, Last Summer - 1959 9. Long Day's Journey into Night - 1962 10. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - 1967 (WON) 11. The Lion in Winter - 1968 (WON) 12. On Golden Pond - 1981 (WON)

3. Bette Davis

Actress | All About Eve

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but...

10 Noms.

1. Dangerous - 1935 (WON) 2. Jezebel - 1938 (WON) 3. Dark Victory - 1939 4. The Letter - 1940 5. The Little Foxes - 1941 6. Now, Voyager - 1942 7. Mr. Skeffington - 1944 8. All About Eve - 1950 9. The Star - 1952 10. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - 1962

4. Greer Garson

Actress | Pride and Prejudice

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was born on September 29, 1904 in London, England, to Nancy Sophia (Greer) and George Garson, a commercial clerk. Of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent, Garson displayed no early interest in becoming an actress. Educated at the University of London intending to become a ...

7 Noms.

1. Goodbye, Mr. Chips - 1939 2. Blossoms in the Dust - 1941 3. Mrs. Miniver - 1942 (WON) 4. Madame Curie - 1943 5. Mrs. Parkington - 1944 6. The Valley of Decision - 1945 7. Sunrise at Campobello - 1960

5. Jane Fonda

Actress | Klute

Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was ...

6 Noms.

1. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - 1969 2. Klute - 1971 (WON) 3. Julia - 1977 4. Coming Home - 1978 (WON) 5. The China Syndrome - 1979 6. The Morning After - 1986

6. Sissy Spacek

Actress | In the Bedroom

As a kid, Sissy Spacek climbed trees, rode horses, swam, and played in the woods. She was born Mary Elizabeth Spacek on December 25, 1949, in Quitman, Texas, to Virginia Frances (Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent. Her father's family was of Czech and German origin.

...

6 Noms.

1. Carrie - 1976 2. Coal Miner's Daughter - 1980 (WON) 3. Missing - 1982 4. The River - 1984 5. Crimes of the Heart - 1986 6. In the Bedroom - 2001

7. Deborah Kerr

Actress | The King and I

Deborah Jane Trimmer was born on 30 September 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Captain Arthur Kerr Trimmer. She was educated at Northumberland House, Clifton, Bristol. She first performed at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London. She subsequently performed with the Oxford ...

6 Noms.

1. Edward, My Son - 1949 2. From Here to Eternity - 1953 3. The King and I - 1956 4. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison - 1957 5. Separate Tables - 1958 6. The Sundowners - 1960

8. Ingrid Bergman

Actress | Casablanca

Ingrid Bergman was one of the greatest actresses from Hollywood's lamented Golden Era. Her natural and unpretentious beauty and her immense acting talent made her one of the most celebrated figures in the history of American cinema. Bergman is also one of the most Oscar-awarded actresses, tied with ...

6 Noms.

1. For Whom the Bell Tolls - 1943 2. Gaslight - 1944 (WON) 3. The Bells of St. Mary's - 1945 4. Joan of Arc - 1948 5. Anastasia - 1956 (WON) 6. Autumn Sonata - 1978

9. Anne Bancroft

Actress | The Graduate

Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared...

5 Noms.

1. The Miracle Worker - 1962 (WON) 2. The Pumpkin Eater - 1964 3. The Graduate - 1967 4. The Turning Point - 1977 5. Agnes of God - 1985

10. Judi Dench

Actress | Skyfall

Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the ...

5 Noms.

1. Mrs Brown - 1997 2. Iris - 2001 3. Mrs Henderson Presents - 2005 4. Notes on a Scandal - 2006 5. Philomena - 2013

11. Audrey Hepburn

Actress | Breakfast at Tiffany's

Audrey Hepburn was born as Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was a Dutch noblewoman, while her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was born in Úzice, Bohemia, to English and Austrian parents.

After her parents' divorce, ...

5 Noms.

1. Roman Holiday - 1953 (WON) 2. Sabrina - 1954 3. The Nun's Story - 1959 4. Breakfast at Tiffany's - 1961 5. Wait Until Dark - 1967

12. Susan Sarandon

Actress | Thelma & Louise

It was after the 1968 Democratic convention and there was a casting call for a film with several roles for the kind of young people who had disrupted the convention. Two recent graduates of Catholic University in Washington DC, went to the audition in New York for Joe (1970). Chris Sarandon, who ...

5 Noms.

1. Atlantic City - 1981 2. Thelma & Louise -1991 3. Lorenzo's Oil - 1992 4. The Client - 1994 5. Dead Man Walking - 1995 (WON)

13. Jessica Lange

Actress | Tootsie

Jessica Lange was born in 1949, in Cloquet, Minnesota, USA, where her father worked as a traveling salesman. She obtained a scholarship to study art at the University of Minnesota, but instead went to Paris to study drama. She moved to New York, working as a model, until producer Dino De Laurentiis...

5 Noms.

1. Frances - 1982 2. Country - 1984 3. Sweet Dreams - 1985 4. Music Box - 1989 5. Blue Sky - 1994 (WON)

14. Shirley MacLaine

Actress | Terms of Endearment

Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on ...

5 Noms.

1. Some Came Running - 1958 2. The Apartment - 1960 3. Irma la Douce - 1963 4. The Turning Point - 1977 5. Terms of Endearment - 1983 (WON)

15. Elizabeth Taylor

Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked ...

5 Noms.

1. Raintree County - 1957 2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - 1958 3. Suddenly, Last Summer - 1959 4. BUtterfield 8 - 1960 (WON) 5. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 1966 (WON)

16. Ellen Burstyn

Actress | Requiem for a Dream

Ellen Burstyn was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Correine Marie (Hamel) and John Austin Gillooly. She is of Irish, French/French-Canadian, Pennsylvania Dutch (German), and Native American ancestry.. She worked a number of jobs before she became an actress. At 14, she was a short-order cook at a ...

5 Noms.

1. The Exorcist - 1973 2. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - 1974 (WON) 3. Same Time, Next Year - 1978 4. Resurrection - 1980 5. Requiem for a Dream - 2000

17. Cate Blanchett

Actress | Carol

Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...

5 Noms.

1. Elizabeth - 1998 2. Elizabeth: The Golden Age - 2007 3. Blue Jasmine - 2013 (WON) 4. Carol - 2015 5. Tar - 2022

18. Irene Dunne

Actress | The Awful Truth

Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age...

5 Noms.

1. Cimarron - 1930/31 2. Theodora Goes Wild - 1936 3. The Awful Truth - 1937 4. Love Affair - 1939 5. I Remember Mama - 1948

19. Susan Hayward

Actress | With a Song in My Heart

Susan Hayward was born Edythe Marrener in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1917. Her father was a transportation worker, and Susan lived a fairly comfortable life as a child, but the precocious little redhead had no idea of the life that awaited her. She attended public school in Brooklyn, where she...

5 Noms.

1. Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman - 1947 2. My Foolish Heart - 1949 3. With a Song in My Heart - 1952 4. I'll Cry Tomorrow - 1955 5. I Want to Live! - 1958 (WON)

20. Norma Shearer

Actress | The Divorcee

She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to ...

5 Noms.

1. The Divorcee - 1929/30 (WON) Their Own Desire - 1929/30 2. A Free Soul - 1930/31 3. The Barretts of Wimpole Street - 1934 4. Romeo and Juliet - 1936 5. Marie Antoinette - 1938

21. Glenn Close

Actress | Fatal Attraction

Eight time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Mary H. "Bettine" (Moore) and William Taliaferro Close (William Close), a prominent doctor. Both of her parents were from upper-class families.

Glenn was a noted ...

4 Noms.

1. Fatal Attraction - 1987 2. Dangerous Liaisons - 1988 3. Albert Nobbs - 2011 4. The Wife - 2018

22. Annette Bening

Actress | American Beauty

Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, ...

4 Noms.

1. American Beauty - 1999 2. Being Julia - 2004 3. The Kids Are All Right - 2010 4. Nyad - 2023

23. Nicole Kidman

Actress | Moulin Rouge!

Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.

Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical ...

4 Noms.

1. Moulin Rouge! - 2001 2. The Hours - 2002 (WON) 3. Rabbit Hole - 2010 4. Being the Ricardos - 2021

24. Diane Keaton

Actress | Annie Hall

Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Deanne (Keaton), an amateur photographer, and John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall, a civil engineer and real estate broker. She studied Drama at Santa Ana College, before dropping out in favor of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New ...

4 Noms.

1. Annie Hall - 1977 (WON) 2. Reds - 1981 3. Marvin's Room - 1996 4. Something's Gotta Give - 2003

25. Vanessa Redgrave

Actress | Coriolanus

On January 30, 1937, renowned theatre actor Michael Redgrave was performing in a production of Hamlet in London. During the curtain call, the show's lead, Laurence Olivier, announced to the audience: "tonight a great actress was born". This was in reference to his co-star's newborn daughter, ...

4 Noms.

1. Morgan - 1966 2. Isadora - 1968 3. Mary, Queen of Scots - 1971 4. The Bostonians - 1984

26. Kate Winslet

Actress | Titanic

Ask Kate Winslet what she likes about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume that runs the gamut...

4 Noms.

1. Titanic - 1997 2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 2004 3. Little Children - 2006 4. The Reader - 2008 (WON)

27. Barbara Stanwyck

Actress | Double Indemnity

Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985). But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the ...

4 Noms.

1. Stella Dallas - 1937 2. Ball of Fire - 1941 3. Double Indemnity - 1944 4. Sorry, Wrong Number - 1948

28. Jane Wyman

Actress | Falcon Crest

Jane Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield on January 5, 1917, in St. Joseph, Missouri (she was also known later as Sarah Jane Fulks). When she was only eight years old, and after her parents filed for divorce, she lost her father prematurely. After graduating high school she attempted, with the help ...

4 Noms.

1. The Yearling - 1946 2. Johnny Belinda - 1948 (WON) 3. The Blue Veil - 1951 4. Magnificent Obsession - 1954

29. Julie Christie

Actress | Doctor Zhivago

Julie Christie, the British movie legend whom Al Pacino called "the most poetic of all actresses," was born in Chabua, Assam, India, on April 14, 1940, the daughter of a tea planter and his Welsh wife Rosemary, who was a painter. The young Christie grew up on her father's plantation before being ...

4 Noms.

1. Darling - 1965 (WON) 2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 1971 3. Afterglow - 1997 4. Away from Her - 2007

30. Glenda Jackson

Actress | Women in Love

Few in modern British history have come as far or achieved as much from humble beginnings as Glenda Jackson did. From acclaimed actress to respected MP (Member of Parliament), she was known for her high intelligence and meticulous approach to her work. She was born to a working-class household in ...

4 Noms.

1. Women in Love - 1970 (WON) 2. Sunday Bloody Sunday - 1971 3. A Touch of Class - 1973 (WON) 4. Hedda - 1975

31. Olivia de Havilland

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her ...

4 Noms.

1. Hold Back the Dawn - 1941 2. To Each His Own - 1946 (WON) 3. The Snake Pit - 1948 4. The Heiress - 1949 (WON)

32. Geraldine Page

Actress | Sweet Bird of Youth

Considered by many to be one of the greatest American actresses of all time, Geraldine Page was a master craftswoman who seemed to bring out the most inner detail of the character she was playing. Her dedication to her craft has earned her the respect of many of today's great actors including Meryl...

4 Noms.

1. Summer and Smoke - 1961 2. Sweet Bird of Youth - 1962 3. Interiors - 1978 4. The Trip to Bountiful - 1985 (WON)

33. Jennifer Jones

Actress | The Towering Inferno

One of the world's most underrated Academy Award-winning actresses, Jennifer Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley on 2 March 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Flora Mae (Suber) and Phillip Ross Isley, who ran a travelling stage show. As a young aspiring actress, she met and fell for young, handsome, aspiring ...

4 Noms.

1. The Song of Bernadette - 1943 (WON) 2. Love Letters - 1945 3. Duel in the Sun - 1946 4. Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing - 1955

34. Rosalind Russell

Actress | Auntie Mame

The middle of seven children, she was named, not for the heroine of "As You Like It" but for the S.S. Rosalind on which her parents had sailed, at the suggestion of her father, a successful lawyer.

After receiving a Catholic school education, she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New ...

4 Noms.

1. My Sister Eileen - 1942 2. Sister Kenny - 1946 3. Mourning Becomes Electra - 1947 4. Auntie Mame - 1958

35. Joanne Woodward

Actress | Rachel, Rachel

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward was born on February 27, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, to Wade Woodward and Elinor Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward in a modest household. Her one older brother, Wade Jr., who was the favorite of her father, eventually became an architect. Elinor Woodward was a ...

4 Noms.

1. The Three Faces of Eve - 1957 (WON) 2. Rachel, Rachel -1968 3. Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams - 1973 4. Mr. and Mrs. Bridge - 1990

36. Marsha Mason

Actress | The Goodbye Girl

Marsha Mason has a wonderful, extremely engaging "feel good" quality about her, an innate warmth that makes you root for her whether she's playing a stubborn single mom, brittle prostitute, or strung-out alcoholic. She was a resoundingly respected and popular film actress of the 1970s and 1980s ...

4 Noms.

1. Cinderella Liberty - 1973 2. The Goodbye Girl - 1977 3. Chapter Two - 1979 4. Only When I Laugh - 1981

37. Carey Mulligan

Actress | Never Let Me Go

Carey Hannah Mulligan is a British actress. She was born May 28, 1985, in Westminster, London, England, to Nano (Booth), a university lecturer, and Stephen Mulligan, a hotel manager. Her mother is from Llandeilo, Wales, and Carey also has Irish and English ancestry.

Her first major appearance was ...

3 Noms.

1. An Education - 2009 2. Promising Young Woman - 2020 3. Maestro - 2023

38. Michelle Williams

Actress | Blue Valentine

A small-town girl born and raised in rural Kalispell, Montana, Michelle Ingrid Williams is the daughter of Carla Ingrid (Swenson), a homemaker, and Larry Richard Williams, a commodity trader and author. Her ancestry is Norwegian, as well as German, British Isles, and other Scandinavian. She was ...

3 Noms.

1. Blue Valentine - 2010 2. My Week with Marilyn - 2011 3. The Fabelmans - 2022

39. Renée Zellweger

Actress | Chicago

Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (Andreassen), is a Norwegian-born former nurse and midwife, of Norwegian, Kven (Finnish), and Swedish descent. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born engineer. The two married in 1963. Renée ...

3 Noms.

1. Bridget Jones's Diary - 2001 2. Chicago - 2002 3. Judy - 2019 (WON)

40. Charlize Theron

Producer | Monster

Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg area, in South Africa, the only child of Gerda Theron (née Maritz) and Charles Theron. She was raised on a farm outside the city. Theron is of Afrikaner (Dutch, with some French Huguenot and German) descent, and Afrikaner ...

3 Noms.

1. Monster - 2003 (WON) 2. North Country - 2005 3. Bombshell - 2019

41. Saoirse Ronan

Actress | Hanna

Saoirse Una Ronan was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States, to Irish parents, Monica Ronan (née Brennan) and Paul Ronan, an actor. When Saoirse was three, the family moved back to Dublin, Ireland. Saoirse grew up in Dublin and briefly in Co. Carlow before moving back to Dublin ...

3 Noms.

1. Brooklyn - 2015 2. Lady Bird - 2017 3. Little Women - 2019

42. Julie Andrews

Actress | The Sound of Music

Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her...

3 Noms.

1. Mary Poppins - 1964 (WON) 2. The Sound of Music - 1965 3. Victor Victoria - 1982

43. Julianne Moore

Actress | Far from Heaven

Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...

3 Noms.

1. The End Of The Affair - 1999 2. Far From Heaven - 2002 3. Still Alice - 2014 (WON)

44. Jennifer Lawrence

Actress | The Hunger Games

As the highest-paid actress in the world in 2015 and 2016, and with her films grossing over $5.5 billion worldwide, Jennifer Lawrence is often cited as the most successful actress of her generation. She is also the first person born in the 1990s to have won an acting Oscar.

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence...

3 Noms.

1. Winter's Bone - 2010 2. Silver Linings Playbook - 2012 (WON) 3. Joy - 2015

45. Jodie Foster

Actress | The Silence of the Lambs

Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received ...

3 Noms.

1. The Accused - 1988 (WON) 2. The Silence of the Lambs - 1991 (WON) 3. Nell - 1994

46. Emma Thompson

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...

3 Noms.

1. Howards End - 1992 (WON) 2. The Remains of the Day - 1993 3. Sense and Sensibility - 1995

47. Debra Winger

Actress | Terms of Endearment

Mary Debra Winger was born May 16, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Ruth (Felder), an office manager, and Robert Jack Winger, a meat packer. She is from a Jewish family (originally from Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire). Her maternal grandparents called her Mary, while her parents called her Debra...

3 Noms.

1. An Officer and a Gentleman - 1982 2. Terms of Endearment - 1983 3. Shadowlands - 1993

48. Joan Crawford

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1906, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. It wasn't an easy life; ...

3 Noms.

1. Mildred Pierce - 1945 (WON) 2. Possessed - 1947 3. Sudden Fear - 1952

49. Greta Garbo

Actress | Ninotchka

Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. She was fourteen when her father died, which left the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and ...

3 Noms.

1. Anna Christie - 1929/30 2. Camille - 1937 3. Ninotchka - 1939

50. Faye Dunaway

Actress | Bonnie and Clyde

An icy, elegant blonde with a knack for playing complex and strong-willed female leads, enormously popular actress Faye Dunaway starred in several films which defined what many would come to call Hollywood's "second Golden Age." During her tenure at the top of the box office, she was a more than ...

3 Noms.

1. Bonnie and Clyde - 1967 2. Chinatown - 1974 3. Network - 1976 (WON)

51. Joan Fontaine

Actress | Suspicion

Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was ...

3 Noms.

1. Rebecca - 1940 2. Suspicion - 1941 (WON) 3. The Constant Nymph - 1943

52. Gloria Swanson

Actress | Sunset Blvd.

Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on ...

3 Noms.

1. Sadie Thompson - 1927/28 2. The Trespasser - 1929/30 3. Sunset Boulevard - 1950

53. Claudette Colbert

Actress | It Happened One Night

One of the brightest film stars to grace the screen was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903, in Saint Mandé, France where her father owned a bakery at 57, rue de la République (now Avenue Général de Gaulle). The family moved to the United States when she was three. As Claudette ...

3 Noms.

1. It Happened One Night - 1934 (WON) 2. Private Worlds -1935 3. Since You Went Away - 1944

54. Eleanor Parker

Actress | The Sound of Music

Eleanor Jean Parker was born on June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio, the last of three children born to a mathematics teacher and his wife. Eleanor caught the acting bug early and began performing in school plays. She was was so serious about becoming an actor, that she attended the Rice Summer ...

3 Noms.

1. Caged - 1950 2. Detective Story - 1951 3. Interrupted Melody - 1955

55. Frances McDormand

Actress | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She ...

3 Noms.

1. Fargo - 1996 (WON) 2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 2017 (WON) 3. Nomadland - 2020 (WON)

56. Olivia Colman

Actress | The Favourite

Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lost Daughter (2021). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.

1. The Favourite - 2018 (WON) 2. The Lost Daughter - 2021

57. Emma Stone

Actress | La La Land

Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born on November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker & Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish, German & British Isles descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the ...

2 Noms.

1. La La Land - 2016 (WON) 2. Poor Things - 2023 (WON)

58. Jessica Chastain

Actress | Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Michelle Chastain was born in Sacramento, California, and was raised in a middle-class household in a Northern California suburb. Her mother, Jerri Chastain, is a vegan chef whose family is originally from Kansas, and her stepfather is a fireman. She discovered dance at the age of nine and ...

2 Noms.

1. Zero Dark Thirty - 2012 2. The Eyes of Tammy Faye - 2021 (WON)

59. Sandra Bullock

Producer | The Proposal

Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Her mother, Helga Bullock (née Helga Mathilde Meyer), was a German opera singer. Her father, John W. Bullock, was an American voice teacher, who was born in Alabama, of German descent. Sandra grew up on the road ...

2 Noms.

1. The Blind Side - 2009 (WON) 2. Gravity - 2013

60. Jill Clayburgh

Actress | Bridesmaids

It came as no surprise to film aficionados when, in 1999, Entertainment Weekly named Jill Clayburgh on its list of Hollywood's 25 Greatest Actresses. For decades, she delivered stellar performances in a wide variety of roles.

Jill Clayburgh was born in 1944 in New York City, into a wealthy family, ...

2 Noms.

1. An Unmarried Woman - 1978 2. Starting Over - 1979

61. Sally Field

Actress | Forrest Gump

Sally Margaret Field was born November 6, 1946 in Pasadena, California, to actress Margaret Field (née Morlan) and salesman Richard Dryden Field. Her parents divorced in 1950 and her mother then married stuntman Jock Mahoney, and they had a daughter, Princess O'Mahoney. She also has a brother, ...

2 Noms.

1. Norma Rae - 1979 (WON) 2. Places in the Heart - 1984 (WON)

62. Holly Hunter

Actress | Broadcast News

Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, to Opal Marguerite (Catledge), a homemaker, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a part-time sporting goods company representative and farmer with a 250 acre farm. She is the youngest of seven children. Her parents encouraged her talent at an early age, and her first...

2 Noms.

1. Broadcast News - 1987 2. The Piano - 1993 (WON)

63. Bette Midler

Soundtrack | Beaches

Multi Grammy Award-winning singer/comedienne/author Bette Midler has also proven herself to be a very capable actress in a string of both dramatic and comedic roles. Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1, 1945. She is the daughter of Ruth (Schindel), a seamstress, and Fred Midler, a ...

2 Noms.

1. The Rose - 1979 2. For the Boys - 1991

64. Helen Mirren

Actress | The Queen

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...

2 Noms.

1. The Queen - 2006 (WON) 2. The Last Station - 2009

65. Liza Minnelli

Soundtrack | Cabaret

Liza Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, the daughter of Judy Garland and movie director Vincente Minnelli. She was practically raised at MGM studios while her parents worked long hours there and she made her film debut at 14 months of age in the movie In the Good Old Summertime (1949). Her ...

2 Noms.

1. The Sterile Cuckoo - 1969 2. Cabaret - 1972 (WON)

66. Penélope Cruz

Actress | Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Known outside her native country as the "Spanish enchantress," Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Madrid to Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to ...

2 Noms.

1. Volver - 2006 2. Parallel Mothers - 2021

67. Julia Roberts

Actress | Pretty Woman

Julia Fiona Roberts never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. She was born in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou (Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. As a child, due to her ...

2 Noms.

1. Pretty Woman - 1990 2. Erin Brockovich - 2000 (WON)

68. Maggie Smith

Actress | Gosford Park

One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...

2 Noms.

1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - 1969 (WON) 2. Travels with My Aunt - 1972

69. Michelle Pfeiffer

Actress | The Fabulous Baker Boys

Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their lives' work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High ...

2 Noms.

1. The Fabulous Baker Boys - 1989 2. Love Field - 1992

70. Sigourney Weaver

Actress | Alien Resurrection

Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist to Gwen/Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently, 14-year-old Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. With a career spanning over 50 years, Weaver has ...

2 Noms.

1. Aliens - 1986 2. Gorillas in the Mist - 1988

71. Naomi Watts

Actress | Mulholland Dr.

Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she ...

2 Noms.

1. 21 Grams - 2003 2. The Impossible - 2012

72. Barbra Streisand

Actress | Yentl

Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, director and producer and one of the most successful personalities in show business. She is the only person ever to receive all of the following: Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, National Endowment for the Arts, and Peabody awards,...

2 Noms.

1. Funny Girl - 1968 (WON) 2. The Way We Were - 1973

73. Hilary Swank

Actress | Million Dollar Baby

Hilary was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Judith Kay (Clough), a secretary, and Stephen Michael Swank, who served in the National Guard and was also a traveling salesman. Her maternal grandmother, Frances Martha Dominguez, was of Mexican descent, and her other roots include German, English, and ...

2 Noms.

1. Boys Don't Cry - 1999 (WON) 2. Million Dollar Baby - 2004 (WON)

74. Emily Watson

Actress | Gosford Park

Emily Watson was born and raised in London, the daughter of Katharine (Venables), an English teacher, and Richard Watson, an architect. After a self-described sheltered upbringing, Watson attended university for three years in Bristol, studying English literature. She applied to drama school and ...

2 Noms.

1. Breaking the Waves - 1996 2. Hilary and Jackie - 1998

75. Reese Witherspoon

Producer | Wild

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon was born on March 22, 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Betty Witherspoon, a registered nurse & John Draper Witherspoon, a military surgeon. Reese spent the first 4 years of her life in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany, where her father served as a lieutenant colonel in the ...

2 Noms.

1. Walk the Line - 2005 (WON) 2. Wild - 2014

76. Viola Davis

Actress | Fences

Viola Davis is a critically revered actress of film, television, and theater and has won rave reviews for her multitude of substantial and intriguingly diverse roles. Audiences across the United States and internationally have admired her for her work- including her celebrated, Oscar-nominated ...

2 Noms.

1. The Help - 2011 2. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - 2020

77. Marion Cotillard

Actress | La Môme

Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is from Brittany.

Raised in Orléans, France, she ...

2 Noms.

1. La Vie en Rose - 2007 (WON) 2. Two Days, One Night - 2014

78. Natalie Portman

Actress | Black Swan

Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).

Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an ...

2 Noms.

1. Black Swan - 2010 (WON) 2. Jackie - 2016

79. Laura Linney

Actress | The Big C

Laura Leggett Linney was born in New York City on February 5, 1964, into a theatre family. Her father was prominent playwright Romulus Linney, whose own great-grandfather was a congressman from North Carolina. Her mother, Miriam Anderson (Leggett), is a nurse. Although she did not live in her ...

2 Noms.

1. You Can Count on Me - 2000 2. The Savages - 2007

80. Vivien Leigh

Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire

If a film were made of the life of Vivien Leigh, it would open in India just before World War I, where a successful British businessman could live like a prince. In the mountains above Calcutta, a little princess is born. Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is six years old the first time ...

2 Noms.

1. Gone with the Wind - 1939 (WON) 2. A Streetcar Named Desire - 1951 (WON)

81. Sophia Loren

Actress | La ciociara

Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...

2 Noms.

1. Two Women - 1961 (WON) 2. Marriage Italian Style - 1964

82. Natalie Wood

Actress | Rebel Without a Cause

Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.

Wood was born July 20, 1938 in ...

2 Noms.

1. Splendor in the Grass - 1961 2. Love with the Proper Stranger - 1963

83. Luise Rainer

Actress | The Great Ziegfeld

Luise Rainer, the first thespian to win back-to-back Oscars, was born on January 12, 1910 in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family. Her parents were Emilie (Königsberger) and Heinrich Rainer, a businessman. She took to the stage, and plied her craft on the boards in Germany. As a ...

2 Noms.

1. The Great Ziegfeld - 1936 (WON) 2. The Good Earth - 1937 (WON)

84. Gena Rowlands

Actress | The Notebook

Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes ...

2 Noms.

1. A Woman Under the Influence - 1974 2. Gloria - 1980

85. Isabelle Adjani

Actress | Possession

Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school ...

2 Noms.

1. The Story of Adele H. - 1975 2. Camille Claudel - 1989

86. Marie Dressler

Actress | Dinner at Eight

Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on...

2 Noms.

1. Min and Bill - 1930/31 (WON) 2. Emma - 1931/32

87. Jane Alexander

Actress | Kramer vs. Kramer

Angular in features, reserved in demeanor and more-or-less plaintive in appearance, actress Jane Alexander has played down the glamour card for the most part. Her true brilliance has come from the remarkable range and depth of her talent. Heralded as one of the finest 70s actresses to arrive in ...

2 Noms.

1. The Great White Hope - 1970 2. Testament - 1983

88. Leslie Caron

Actress | Gigi

French ballet dancer Leslie Caron was discovered by the legendary MGM star Gene Kelly during his search for a co-star in one of the finest musicals ever filmed, the Oscar-winning An American in Paris (1951), which was inspired by and based on the music of George Gershwin. Leslie's gamine looks and ...

2 Noms.

1. Lili - 1953 2. The L-Shaped Room - 1963

89. Ruth Chatterton

Actress | Dodsworth

Beginning as a chorus girl at age 14, Ruth Chatterton became a Broadway star with "Daddy Long Legs" in 1914. She appeared in such shows as "Mary Rose" and "Come Out of the Kitchen" before moving to Hollywood in 1925. As her film career faded in the late 1930s, she returned to the stage in revivals,...

2 Noms.

1. Madame X - 1928/29 2. Sarah and Son - 1929/30

90. Janet Gaynor

Actress | A Star Is Born

Janet Gaynor was born Laura Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she & her parents moved to San Francisco, California, where she graduated from high school in 1923. She then moved to Los Angeles where she enrolled in a secretarial school. She got a job at a shoe ...

2 Noms.

1. 7th Heaven Street Angel Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - 1927/28 (WON) 2. A Star Is Born - 1937

91. Anna Magnani

Actress | Roma città aperta

Anna Magnani was born in Rome, Italy (not in Egypt, as some biographies claim), on March 7, 1908. She was the child of Marina Magnani and an unknown father often said to be from Alexandria, Egypt, but whom Anna herself claimed was from the Calabria region of Italy although she never knew his name. ...

2 Noms.

1. The Rose Tattoo - 1955 (WON) 2. Wild Is the Wind - 1957

92. Patricia Neal

Actress | The Day the Earth Stood Still

Patricia Neal, the Oscar and Tony Award-winning actress, was born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, where her father managed a coal mine and her mother was the daughter of the town doctor. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended high school. She was first bit by the acting bug...

2 Noms.

1. Hud - 1963 (WON) 2. The Subject Was Roses - 1968

93. Simone Signoret

Actress | Les diaboliques

The face of Simone Signoret on the Paris Metro movie posters in March 1982 looked even older than her 61 years. She was still a box-office draw, but the film L'étoile du Nord (1982) would be her last theatrical release; she played the landlady. Signoret had a long film apprenticeship during ...

2 Noms.

1. Room at the Top - 1959 (WON) 2. Ship of Fools - 1965

94. Liv Ullmann

Actress | Viskningar och rop

Liv Ullmann's father was a Norwegian engineer who used to work abroad, so as a child she lived in Tokyo, Canada, New York and Oslo. In the mid-1950s she made her stage debut and in 1957 made her film debut. She really became successful, however, when she began to work for Swedish director Ingmar ...

2 Noms.

1. The Emigrants - 1972 2. Face to Face - 1976

95. Loretta Young

Actress | The Stranger

Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's Biography (1987) has stated that Young "remains a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in her ...

2 Noms.

1. The Farmer's Daughter - 1947 (WON) 2. Come to the Stable - 1949