From Janet Gaynor to Michelle Yeoh - A list of EVERY Best Actress winner at the Oscars

Martin Macdonald - 10 March 2024, 08:30 Share

The Academy Awards, or Oscars, is an awards ceremony dedicated to celebrating the best of film each year whether it be from an artistic or technical point of view.

It is generally considered to be the most prestigious movie award ceremony in the world and has been running since the first ceremony took place at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929.

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The most coveted awards are for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director though each of the 23 awards given on the night comes with its own degree of prestige.

Each category winner is awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the 'Academy Award of Merit' though it is colloquially known now as simply an 'Oscar'.

In 2002, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood (previously known as the Kodak Theatre) became the presentation's current venue.

Academy Award for Best Actress

The Academy Award for Best Actress is one of the top two awards for on-screen performance at the Oscars ceremony.

The first actress to win the award was Janet Gaynor back in 1927/28 for her performances in 7th Heaven as Diane, Street Angel as Angela and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans as The Wife.

The most recent recipient of the award was Michelle Yeoh for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Year	Winner	Role
2022	Michelle Yeoh	Evelyn Quan Wang in *Everything Everywhere All at Once*
2021	Jessica Chastain	Tammy Faye Bakker in *The Eyes of Tammy Faye*
2020	Frances McDormand	Fern in *Nomadland*
2019	Renee Zellweger	Judy Garland in *Judy*
2018	Olivia Colman	Queen Anne in *The Favourite*
2017	Frances McDormand	Mildred Hayes in *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*
2016	Emma Stone	Mia Dolan in *La La Land*
2015	Brie Larson	Joy 'Ma' Newsom in Room
2014	Julianne Moore	Alice Howland in *Still Alice*
2013	Cate Blanchett	Jeanette 'Jasmine' Francis in *Blue Jasmine*
2012	Jennifer Lawrence	Tiffany Maxwell in *Silver Linings Playbook*
2011	Meryl Streep	Margaret Thatcher in *The Iron Lady*
2010	Natalie Portman	Nina Sayers in *Black Swan*
2009	Sandra Bullock	Leigh Anne Tuohy in *The Blind Side*
2008	Kate Winslet	Hanna Schmitz in *The Reader*
2007	Marion Cotillard	Edith Piaf in *La Vie en Rose*
2006	Helen Mirren	Queen Elizabeth II in *The Queen*
2005	Reese Witherspoon	June Carter Cash in *Walk the Line*
2004	Hilary Swank	Maggie Fitzgerald in *Million Dollar Baby*
2003	Charlize Theron	Aileen Wuornos in *Monster*
2002	Nicole Kidman	Virginia Woolf in *The Hours*
2001	Halle Berry	Leticia Musgrove in *Monster's Ball*
2000	Julia Roberts	Erin Brockovich in *Erin Brockovich*
1999	Hilary Swank	Brandon Teena in *Boy's Don't Cry*
1998	Gwyneth Paltrow	Viola de Lesseps / Thomas Kent in *Shakespeare in Love*
1997	Helen Hunt	Carol Connelly in *As Good as It Gets*
1996	Frances McDormand	Marge Gunderson in *Fargo*
1995	Susan Sarandon	Helen Prejean in *Dead Man Walking*
1994	Jessica Lange	Carly Marshall in *Blue Sky*
1993	Holly Hunter	Ada McGrath in *The Piano*
1992	Emma Thompson	Margaret Schlegel in *Howards End*
1991	Jodie Foster	Clarice Starling in *The Silence of the Lambs*
1990	Kathy Bates	Annie Wilkes in *Misery*
1989	Jessica Tandy	Daisy Werthan in *Driving Miss Daisy*
1988	Jodie Foster	Sarah Tobias in *The Accused*
1987	Cher	Loretta Castorini in *Moonstruck*
1986	Marlee Matlin	Sarah Norman in *Children of a Lesser God*
1985	Geraldine Page	Carrie Watts in *The Trip to Bountiful*
1984	Sally Field	Edna Spalding in *Places in the Heart*
1983	Shirley MacLaine	Aurora Greenway in *Terms of Endearment*
1982	Meryl Streep	Sophie Zawistowski in *Sophie's Choice*
1981	Katharine Hepburn	Ethel Thayer in *On Golden Pond*
1980	Sissy Spacey	Loretta Lynn in *Coal Miner's Daughter*
1979	Sally Field	Norma Rae Webster in *Norma Rae*
1978	Jane Fonda	Sally Hyde in *Coming Home*
1977	Diane Keaton	Annie Hall in *Annie Hall*
1976	Faye Dunaway	Diana Christensen in Network
1975	Louise Fletcher	Nurse Mildred Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
1974	Ellen Burstyn	Alice Hyatt in *Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore*
1973	Glenda Jackson	Vickie Allessio in *A Touch of Class*
1972	Liza Minnelli	Sally Bowles in *Cabaret*
1971	Jane Fonda	Bree Daniels in *Klute*
1970	Glenda Jackson	Gudrun Brangwen in *Women in Love*
1969	Maggie Smith	Jean Brodie in *The Prime of Miss Jean Brody*
1968	Katharine Hepburn Barbra Streisand	Eleanor of Aquitaine in *The Lion in Winter Fanny Brice in Funny Girl*
1967	Katharine Hepburn	Christina Drayton in *Guess Who's Coming to Dinner*
1966	Elizabeth Taylor	Martha in *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?*
1965	Julie Christie	Diana Scott in *Darling*
1964	Julie Andrews	Mary Poppins in *Mary Poppins*
1963	Patricia Neal	Alma Brown in *Hud*
1962	Anne Bancroft	Annie Sullivan in *The Miracle Worker*
1961	Sophia Loren	Cesira in *Two Women*
1960	Elizabeth Taylor	Gloria Wandrous in *BUtterfield 8*
1959	Simone Signoret	Alice Aisgill in *Room at the Top*
1958	Susan Hayward	Barbara Graham in *I Want to Live!*
1957	Joanne Woodward	Eve White / Eve Black / Jane in *The Three Faces of Eve*
1956	Ingrid Bergman	Anna Koreff / Anastasia in *Anastasia*
1955	Anna Magnani	Serafina Delle Rose in *The Rose Tattoo*
1954	Grace Kelly	Georgie Elgin in *The Country Girl*
1953	Audrey Hepburn	Princess Ann in *Roman Holiday*
1952	Shirley Booth	Lola Delaney in *Come Back, Little Sheba*
1951	Vivian Leigh	Blanche DuBois in *A Streetcar Named Desire*
1950	Judy Holliday	Emma 'Billie' Dawn in *Born Yesterday*
1949	Olivia de Havilland	Catherine Sloper in *The Heiress*
1948	Jane Wyman	Belinda McDonald in *Johnny Belinda*
1947	Loretta Young	Katie Holstrom in *The Farmer's Daughter*
1946	Olivia de Havilland	Josephine Norris in *To Each His Own*
1945	Joan Crawford	Mildred Pierce Beragon in *Mildred Pierce*
1944	Ingrid Bergman	Paula Alquist Anton in *Gaslight*
1943	Jennifer Jones	Bernadette Soubirous in *The Song of Bernadette*
1942	Greer Garson	Kay Miniver in *Mrs. Miniver*
1941	Joan Fontaine	Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in *Suspicion*
1940	Ginger Rogers	Kitty Foyle in *Kitty Foyle*
1939	Vivian Leigh	Scarlett O'Hara in *Gone with the Wind*
1938	Bette Davis	Julie Marsden in *Jezebel*
1937	Luise Rainer	O-Lan in *The Good Earth*
1936	Luise Rainer	Anna Held in *The Great Ziegfeld*
1935	Bette Davis	Joyce Heath in *Dangerous*
1934	Claudette Colbert	Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night
1933	Katharine Hepburn	Eva Lovelace in *Morning Glory*
1932	Helen Hayes	Madelon Claudet in *The Sin of Madelon Claudet*
1931	Marie Dressler	Min Divot in *Min and Bill*
1930	Norma Shearer	Jerry Bernard Martin in *The Divorcee*
1929	Mary Pickford	Norma Besant in *Coquette*
1928	Janet Gaynor	Diane in *7th Heaven, Angela in Street Angel* and The Wife in *Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans*