Great Female Performances

Here's who I would have nominated for greatest female performance:

1. Kathy Bates in Misery
2. Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
3. Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath
4. Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull
5. Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night
6. Elizabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas
7. Sharon Stone in Casino
8. Patricia Neal in Hud
9. Naomi Watts in 21 Grams
10. Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment

Even if we aren't doing a contest, it is still fun to see what other people consider the best of the best. I like all of your choices.

Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice
Bette Davis in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane
Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
Claire Trevor in Born To Kill
Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd.
Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire
Kim Novak in Vertigo

Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity


I was considering putting that performance on my list.... Double Indemnity is just such a good movie with several great performances and the snappiest dialogue.

I was considering putting that performance on my list.... Double Indemnity is just such a good movie with several great performances and the snappiest dialogue.Oh I agree and that is one reason I love film noir so much, the great dialogue. Murder My Sweet ,The Narrow Margin, Born to Kill, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Laura, The Dark Corner..the list goes on and on!

I've always been a fan of Helena Bonham Carter's performances in films but I'm not sure which I'd single out. I'd probably say her performance as Marla Singer in Fight Club.

I've always been a fan of Helena Bonham Carter's performances in films but I'm not sure which I'd single out. I'd probably say her performance as Marla Singer in Fight Club.Oh yeah me as well. I loved her in Sweeny Todd.

A top twelve, off the top of my head, because I can't bear to eliminate two . . .

Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde
Anne Bancroft in The Graduate
Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles
Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking
Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinnie
Natalie Portman in Beautiful Girls
Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth
Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction
Tilda Swinton in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Christina Ricci in The Addams Family

Emma Thompson in - well, I could nominate many of her films, but I'll throw out Love Actually based on her one pivotal scene, and because it's Christmastime

And Jodie Foster, for whom I could also name about a dozen films that qualify from her childhood to last year, but I'll go with her performance in Nell.