Top 50 Actresses: Master List of Reviews and Scores

Here it is, my full list of scores and reviews. The list goes from my favorite to my least favorite. In cases where films share the same score, I’ve listed them based on personal preference. Special weight was given to how I viewed each actress’s performance in her respective film, so these rankings have more to do with that than with how much I enjoyed the film as a whole. For example, the first 4.5 star review you see is my favorite of the 4.5 star performances.

Note: As I was compiling the list, there were some movies/performances that I could no longer recall very well, which led to me placing them lower on the list, even though I may have really liked them when I originally wrote the review. I figure, if I don't remember it, it couldn't have been that great of a performance.

1.  Marlene Dietrich - Witness for the Prosecution, 4.5
2.  Judi Dench - Philomena, 4.5
3.  Halle Berry - Monster’s Ball, 4.5
4.  Judy Garland - A Star Is Born, 4.5
5.  Barbara Stanwyck - Ball of Fire, 4.5
6.  Vivien Leigh - Waterloo Bridge, 4.5
7.  Mary Pickford - Stella Maris, 4.25
8.  Susan Hayward - I Want to Live!, 4.25
9.  Olivia de Havilland - The Heiress, 4.25
10. Shirley MacLaine - What a Way to Go!, 4.25
11. Angelina Jolie - Changeling, 4.25
12. Meryl Streep - Sophie’s Choice, 4.25
13. Joan Fontaine - Suspicion, 4.25
14. Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side, 4.25
15. Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich, 4.25
16. Elizabeth Taylor - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 4
17. Kate Winslet - The Reader, 4
18. Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine, 4
19. Bette Davis - Jezebel, 4
20. Reese Witherspoon - Legally Blonde, 4
21. Grace Kelly - The Country Girl, 4
22. Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight, 4
23. Natalie Wood - Splendor in the Grass, 4
24. Myrna Loy - The Thin Man, 4
25. Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce, 4
26. Carole Lombard - To Be or Not to Be, 4
27. Ava Gardner - The Killers, 4
28. Audrey Hepburn - Wait Until Dark, 3.75
29. Greta Garbo - Ninotchka, 3.75
30. Claudette Colbert - Since You Went Away, 3.75
31. Jean Arthur - The Devil and Miss Jones, 3.75
32. Rita Hayworth - Gilda, 3.75
33. Nicole Kidman - The Hours, 3.5
34. Jane Fonda - Klute, 3.5
35. Katharine Hepburn - The Lion in Winter, 3.5
36. Deborah Kerr - The King and I, 3.5
37. Lauren Bacall - To Have and Have Not, 3.5
38. Doris Day - Pillow Talk, 3.25
39. Mae West - My Little Chickadee, 3.25
40. Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle, 3.25
41. Sally Field - Norma Rae, 3
42. Natalie Portman - Black Swan, 3
43. Sophia Loren - Two Women, 3
44. Marilyn Monroe - The Misfits, 3
45. Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl, 3
46. Jodie Foster - Inside Man, 2.75
47. Diane Keaton - Reds, 2.75
48. Julie Andrews - Thoroughly Modern Millie, 2.75
49. Jean Harlow - The Public Enemy, 2.25
50. Maureen O’Hara - The Quiet Man, .25