It is known
that The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress
who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film
released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's
Best Actor winner.
The 1st
Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award
for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are
determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS;
winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting
members of the Academy.
katharine
Hepburn
Katharine
Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in
film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned
over 60 years.
It's no
surprise that Katharine Hepburn holds the record as the actress who has won the
most Academy Awards. Hepburn received four Academy Awards in total for her
roles over a career spanning almost 50 years. She won her first Oscar in 1934
for the romantic drama Morning Glory, about a woman who wants to become an
actress. Her second Oscar was for the iconic drama Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
(1967), in which she plays a mother who discovers that her daughter wants to
marry an African-American doctor.
Only a year
later, Hepburn won another Oscar for the historical drama The Lion in the
Winter where she plays a real-life historical figure, the English queen
Eleanor. Her final Academy Award came in 1982 for the drama On Golden Pond
about marital issues of an older couple.
Ingrid
Bergman
Ingrid
Bergman (29 August 1915 – 29 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in
a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.
She's best
known for her romantic war drama Casablanca (1942), but won her three Oscars
for different roles.
Read more: The first 6 best actress Oscar winners in the history (1929 - 1935)
Meryl
Streep
Mary Louise
"Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often
described as "the best actress of her generation", is one of the
living legends of Hollywood, universally hailed as one of the greatest
actresses who has ever lived. Streep has been nominated for record-breaking 21
Academy Awards for her work and has won three of them, in 1980, 1982 and 2012. Her
first Oscar was for the drama movie Kramer vs. Kramer, where she starred
opposite Dustin Hoffman in a tale about the break-up of a marriage.
Hilary
Swank
Hilary Ann
Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and film producer. She first
became known in 1992 for her role on the television series Camp Wilder and made
her film debut with a minor role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992).
Though
Hilary Swank has appeared in many movies of different genres, both of her Oscar
nominations and wins belong in the drama genre. The first one was for the 1999
movie Boys Don't Cry, inspired by real events. Swank received her second Oscar
for the box drama Million Dollar Baby (2004), which was directed by Clint
Eastwood.
Read more: 6 Actresses were sexually assaulted when they were young with pics
Vivien
Leigh
Vivien Leigh
(5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady
Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best
Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with
the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named
Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in
1949.
Maggie
Smith
Dame
Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an
extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has
appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She was nominated for an
Oscar six times and won two of them.
Smith
received her first Oscar for the drama movie The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
(1969) about an unconventional teacher and her relationships with her pupils
and the people around her. Her second Oscar was for the comedy movie California
Suite (1979), about a group of people who meet in a hotel and all experience
different adventures.
