By Gil Mansergh
For over fifty years, the roles that most frequently earn a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination are those of prostitute, adulterer or rape victim. I discovered this while picking movies for the presentation “A Movie Watcher’s Guide to Visual Literacy,” I’m giving at the Women’s Power Strategy Conference in Marin on March 24th. womenspowerstrategyconference.com
I arbitrarily chose the year 1958 to begin my list because I’m starting off my talk with a clip from “The Vikings,” the culturally significant* film from that year, directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine.
By only looking back fifty-three years, I have excluded some of the juiciest Oscar-winning roles, including Vivien Leigh as the adulterer and rape victim Blanche Dubois in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) and Donna Reed as the prostitute/dance hostess Lorene in “From Here to Eternity” (1953).
I was admittedly generous with my categories. For example, before becoming a lounge singer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, , Michelle Pfeiffer’s character worked as a “paid escort,” which I reclassified as a prostitute. And in the middle of the confirmation process to become the Vice President of the United States in “The Contender,” Joan Allen’s character is only accused of being paid for sex. I was equally broad with the rape victim category, including spousal rape in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” and statutory rape in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” because Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek) got married when she was only 13-years-old.
in summary, over half of the golden statuettes awarded for Best Actress or Best Actress in a Supporting Role garnered over the past fifty-three years were for playing either a prostitute, adulterer or rape victim.
Here are the surprising results:
Roles as Prostitutes, Adulterers and Rape Victims
Earn Actresses Dozens of Oscar Nominations
Compiled by
Gil Mansergh
Codes: Oscar=Best Actress, BSA Oscar=Best Supporting Actress
PRO=Prostitute, ADU=Adulterer, RV=Rape Victim
PRO Susan Hayward Oscar for I Want to Live! (1958)
ADU Wendy Hiller BSA Oscar for Separate Tables (1958)
ADU Elizabeth Taylor in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
ADU Simone Signoret Oscar for Room at the Top (1959)
PRO Shirley Jones BSA Oscar for Elmer Gantry (1960)
PRO Elizabeth Taylor Oscar for BUtterfield 8 (1960)
PRO Melina Mercuri in Never on Sunday (1960)
ADU Shirley MacLaine for The Apartment (1960)
RV Sophia Loren Oscar for Two Women (1961)
PRO Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
ADU Geraldine Page in Summer and Smoke (1961)
RV Piper Laurie in The Hustler (1961)
ADU Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
RV Patricia Neal Oscar for Hud (1963)
ADU Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room (1963)
ADU Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life (1963)
ADU Natalie Wood in Love With a Proper Stranger (1963)
PRO Shirley MacLaine Oscar for Irma La Douce (1963)
ADU Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
ADU Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style (1964)
ADU Julie Christie Oscar for Darling (1965)
PRO Shelley Winters BSA Oscar for A Patch of Blue (1965)
RV Samantha Eggar in The Collector (1966)
ADU Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl (1966)
ADU Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan (1966)
ADU Vivienne Merchant in Alfie (1966)
ADU Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
ADU Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
RV Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark (1967)
ADU Joanne Woodward in Rachel, Rachel (1968)
ADU Lynne Carlin in Faces (1968)
ADU Goldy Hawn BSA Oscar for Cactus Flower (1968)
ADU Maggie Smith Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
ADU Liza Minelli in The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
ADU Glenda Jackson Oscar for Women In Love (1970)
ADU Jane Alexander in The Great White Hope (1970)
ADU Sarah Miles in Ryan’s Daughter (1970)
ADU Carrie Snodgrass in Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
ADU Karen Black in Five Easy Pieces (1970)
ADU Sally Kellerman in MASH (1970
PRO Jane Fonda Oscar for Klute (1971)
PRO Julie Christie in McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
ADU Cloris Leachman BSA Oscar for The Last Picture Show (1971)
ADU Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
ADU Ann Margret in Carnal Knowledge (1971)
PRO Liza Minelli Oscar for Cabaret (1972)
PRO Susan Tyrell in Fat City (1972)
ADU Maggie Smith in Travels With My Aunt (1972)
RV Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
PRO Marsha Mason Oscar for Cinderella Liberty (1973)
PRO Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon (1973)
ADU Glenda Jackson Oscar for A Touch of Class (1973)
PRO Madeline Kahn Oscar for Blazing Saddles (1974)
ADU Ellen Burstyn Oscar for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
ADU Lee Grant BSA Oscar for Shampoo (1975)
ADU Ann Margret in Tommy (1975)
PRO Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (1976)
ADU Marie-Christine Barrault in Cousin, Cousine (1976)
ADU Marsh Mason in The Goodbye Girl (1977)
ADU Jane Fonda Oscar for Coming Home (1978)
ADU Marsha Mason in Same Time Next Year (1978)
ADU Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman (1978)
ADU Jill Clayburgh in Starting Over (1979)
ADU Candice Bergen in Starting Over (1979)
ADU Mariel Hemingway in Manhattan (1979)
RV Sissy Spacek Oscar for Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
ADU Diane Keaton in Reds (1981)
ADU Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
ADU Melinda Dillon in Absence of Malice (1981)
ADU Elizabeth McGovern in Ragtime (1981)
ADU Meryl Streep Oscar for Sophie’s Choice (1982)
ADU Julie Andrews in Victor, Victoria (1982)
RV Jessica Lange in Frances (1982)
ADU Shirley MacLaine Oscar for Terms of Endearment (1983)
RV Judy Davis in A Passage to India (1983)
ADU Meryl Streep in Out of Africa (1985)
ADU Margaret Avery in The Color Purple (1985)
RV Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple (1985)
ADU Jane Fonda in The Morning After (1986)
ADU Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart (1986)
ADU Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in The Color of Money (1986)
ADU Cher Oscar for Moonstruck (1987)
ADU Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987)
ADU Meryl Streep in Ironweed (1987)
RV Jodie Foster Oscar for The Accused (1988)
ADU Glenn Close in Dangerous Laisons (1988)
ADU Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Laisons (1988)
PRO Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
ADU Isabelle Adjani in Camille Claudel (1989)
ADU Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine (1989)
PRO Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990)
RV Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas (1990)
PRO Lura Dern in Ramblin’ Rose (1991)
RV Geena Davis in Thelma and Louise (1991)
RV Susan Sarandon in Thelma and Louise (1991)
ADU Holly Hunter in The Piano (1993)
RV Angela Bassett in What’s Love Got to Do With It? (1993)
ADU Jessica Lange in Blue Sky (1994)
PRO Mira Sorvino Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
PRO Elizabeth Shue Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
ADU Meryl Steep Oscar for The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
ADU Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves (1996)
ADU Kristen Scott Thomas in The English Patient (1996)
ADU Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies (1996)
PRO Kim Basinger Oscar for L.A. Confidential (1997)
ADU Julie Christie Oscar for Afterglow (1997)
ADU Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie (1999)
ADU Annette Benning in American Beauty (1999)
ADU Julianne Moore in The End of the Affair (1999)
PRO Joan Allen in The Contender (2000)
ADU Juliette Binoch in Chocolat (2000)
ADU Halle Berry Oscar for Monster’s Ball (2001)
PRO Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! (2001)
ADU Salma Hayak in Frida (2002)
ADU Diane Lane in Unfaithful (2002)
ADU Renee Zelweger in Chicago (2002)
ADU Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give (2002)
PRO Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights (2003)
PRO Charlize Theron Oscar for Monster (2003)
ADU Natalie Portman in Closer (2004)
ADU Lura Linney in Kinsey (2004)
RV Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace (2004)
RV Charlize Theron in North Country (2005)
RV Penelope Cruz in Volver (2006)
PRO Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose (2007)
ADU Julie Christie in Away From Her (2007)
RV Ellen Page in Juno (2007)
RV Gabourey Sidibe in Precious (2009)
ADU Carey Mulligan in An Education (2009)
RV Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)