We’ve already filled out our Oscars ballot as we patiently anxiously wait for the Academy to crown the next set of winners on February 9. In honor of the 92nd annual ceremony, we’ve compiled a list of every woman who has ever won an Academy Award for Best Actress. From Janet Gaynor to Olivia Colman, keep reading to see all the winners.
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Every Woman Who Has Ever Won an Academy Award for Best Actress
By: Greta Heggeness
Published: February 8, 2020
1.
Janet Gaynor
Year: 1929
Role(s): Diane in 7th Heaven, Angela in Street Angel and The Wife in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
6.
Katharine Hepburn
Year: 1934
Role: Eva Lovelace in Morning Glory
7.
Claudette Colbert
Year: 1935
Role: Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night
9.
Luise Rainer
Year: 1937
Role: Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld
10.
Luise Rainer
Year: 1938
Role: O-Lan in The Good Earth
14.
Joan Fontaine
Year: 1942
Role: Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion
16.
Jennifer Jones
Year: 1944
Role: Bernadette Soubirous in The Song of Bernadette
18.
Joan Crawford
Year: 1946
Role: Mildred Pierce Beragon in Mildred Pierce
19.
Olivia de Havilland
Year: 1947
Role: Josephine “Jody” Norris in To Each His Own
20.
Loretta Young
Year: 1948
Role: Katie Holstrom in The Farmer’s Daughter
22.
Olivia de Havilland
Year: 1950
Role: Catherine Sloper in The Heiress
23.
Judy Holliday
Year: 1951
Role: Emma “Billie” Dawn in Born Yesterday
24.
Vivien Leigh
Year: 1952
Role: Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire
30.
Joanne Woodward
Year: 1958
Role: Eve White/Eve Black/Jane in The Three Faces of Eve
31.
Susan Hayward
Year: 1959
Role: Barbara Graham in I Want to Live!
32.
Simone Signoret
Year: 1960
Role: Alice Aisgill in Room at the Top
39.
Elizabeth Taylor
Year: 1967
Role: Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
40.
Katharine Hepburn
Year: 1968
Role: Christina Drayton in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
41.
Katharine Hepburn & Barbra Streisand (Tie)
Year: 1969
Role: Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (Hepburn); Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (Streisand)
42.
Maggie Smith
Year: 1970
Role: Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
43.
Glenda Jackson
Year: 1971
Role: Gudrun Brangwen in Women in Love
46.
Glenda Jackson
Year: 1974
Role: Vickie Allessio in A Touch of Class
47.
Ellen Burstyn
Year: 1975
Role: Alice Graham-Hyatt in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
48.
Louise Fletcher
Year: 1976
Role: Nurse Mildred Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
53.
Sissy Spacek
Year: 1981
Role: Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter
55.
Meryl Streep
Year: 1983
Role: Sophie Zawistowski in Sophie’s Choice
56.
Shirley MacLaine
Year: 1984
Role: Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment
57.
Sally Field
Year: 1985
Role: Edna Spalding in Places in the Heart
59.
Marlee Matlin
Year: 1987
Role: Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God
61.
Jodie Foster
Year: 1989
Role: Sarah Tobias in The Accused
64.
Jodie Foster
Year: 1992
Role: Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs
65.
Emma Thompson
Year: 1993
Role: Margaret Schlegel in Howards End
67.
Jessica Lange
Year: 1995
Role: Carly Marshall in Blue Sky
70.
Helen Hunt
Year: 1998
Role: Carol Connelly in As Good as It Gets
71.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Year: 1999
Role: Viola de Lesseps/Thomas Kent in Shakespeare in Love
72.
Hilary Swank
Year: 2000
Role: Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry
73.
Julia Roberts
Year: 2001
Role: Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich
77.
Hilary Swank
Year: 2005
Role: Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby
85.
Jennifer Lawrence
Year: 2013
Role: Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook
86.
Cate Blanchett
Year: 2014
Role: Jeanette “Jasmine” Francis in Blue Jasmine
90.
Frances McDormand
Year: 2018
Role: Mildred Hayes in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Greta Heggeness
Senior Editor
Greta Heggeness is a California-based editor at PureWow and has been writing about entertainment since 2015. She covers everything from awards shows to exclusive celebrity...
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