Best Actress Oscar Winners of the 1950s Best Actress Oscar Winners of the 1950s Best Actress Oscar Winners of the 1950s Newcomers, Powerhouse Divas and Stage Actresses By Laurie Boeder Updated March 02, 2016. Actresses new to the silver screen did well among the Best Actress Oscar winners of the 1950s, often beating out established actresses in great roles. As usual, the academy tended to favor women in big, juicy dramatic roles over those in comedies and romances, no matter their caliber or public appeal. In a decade filled with strong roles for women, some great actresses were never recognized. Born Yesterday. Columbia Pictures Buy from Amazon One of the hottest races in Oscar history brought newcomer Judy Holliday her first and only Academy award, playing the girlfriend of a corrupt pol in the charming Born Yesterday, a rare win for a comic role. Bette Davis might have won for her brilliant role in All About Eve , the year’s Best Picture, but votes were siphoned off by her costar Anne Baxter, also nominated.

Gloria Swanson was equally deserving for her courageous out-of-retirement turn as a faded silent screen star in the noir masterpiece Sunset Boulevard . Eleanor Parker rounded out the nominations in the inferior Caged, and Oscar snubbed Katharine Hepburn in Adam’s Rib. Check Amazon rating » continue reading below our video Highest Paid Male Actors Ever A Streetcar Named Desire. Warner Brothers 2. 1951 Best Actress - Vivian Leigh in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' Two powerhouse actresses in truly great films collided in 1951, with Vivian Leigh’s ruined southern belle in Streetcar winning out over Katharine Hepburn’s indomitable spinster in The African Queen . (I’d have given the award to Hepburn, but it was a tough call.) Trailing far behind the two battling divas in the nominations were Shelley Winters as a pregnant factory worker in the melodrama A Place in the Sun, Jane Wyman as a noble nanny in The Blue Veil, and Eleanor Parker as a wife hiding a secret in Detective Story. Come Back, Little Sheba. Paramount 3.

1952 Best Actress - Shirley Booth in ‘Come Back, Little Sheba’ Newcomer Shirley Booth won for the role she created on stage of a dowdy, frumpy housewife whose husband longs to be rid of her in William Inge's bleak play. Also nominated were Julie Harris, recreating her stage role as the young girl in The Member of the Wedding; Bette Davis, again playing a fading actress in The Star; Joan Crawford with her final nomination as a playwright in Sudden Fear; and Susan Hayward in the biopic of World War II entertainer Jane Froman, With a Song in My Heart. Oscar ignored a few serious divas in 1952: Maureen O’Hara’s feisty Irishwoman in The Quiet Man; Grace Kelly's Quaker wife in High Noon; and Marlene Dietrich in Rancho Notorious. Roman Holiday. Paramount 4. 1953 Best Actress - Audrey Hepburn in 'Roman Holiday' Lovely Audrey Hepburn took the honors as a rebellious princess escaping her duties and tooling around on a Vespa in the beloved romance Roman Holiday.

She knocked out Deborah Kerr’s steamy performance in the Hawaiian surf in From Here to Eternity, the year’s Best Picture, and adorable French actress Leslie Caron in the bittersweet musical Lili. Also defeated were gorgeous Ava Gardner in the racy tale of a love triangle, Mogambo, and Maggie MacNamara in The Moon is Blue. Oscar failed to nominate costars Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell for their crowd-pleasing escapades in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The Country Girl. Paramount 5. 1954 Best Actress - Grace Kelly in 'The Country Girl' The luminous Kelly played against type as a the dowdy, bitter wife of an alcoholic singer, certainly not her best role. She bested Judy Garland’s heartbreaking comeback turn as the wife of a fading, alcoholic actor in a remake of a A Star is Born, as well as the first black woman to be nominated for Best Actress, Dorothy Dandridge as factory worker Carmen Jones. Also nominated were Jane Wyman, playing a blind woman in the soap opera Magnificent Obsession, and Audrey Hepburn, as the chauffeur’s daughter in Sabrina .

Kelly should have been nominated as the plucky fashion editor in Rear Window , and Oscar ought to have given a nod to Judy Holliday for the delightful It Should Happen to You. The Rose Tattoo. Paramount 6. 1955 Best Actress - Anna Magnani in 'The Rose Tattoo' A relative newcomer again beat veteran actresses with multiple past nominations, as Magnani won for her sultry widow tempting a dim truck driver in The Rose Tattoo. Katharine Hepburn was more deserving as a spinster having a fling with a gorgeous Italian in Summertime, her sixth of 12 career nominations. Susan Hayward lost her fourth bid as an alcoholic singer in I’ll Cry Tomorrow; Eleanor Parker lost her third of three failed bids in the biopic of an Australian opera singer, Interrupted Melody; and Jennifer Jones lost the last of her five nominations as a doctor in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. Oscar snubbed Doris Day as a singer with a gangster husband in Love Me or Leave Me. Anastasia. 20th Century Fox 7.

1956 Best Actress - Ingrid Bergman in 'Anastasia' Bergman came galloping back to the Oscars some years after her scandalous affair with director Roberto Rosselini damaged her career. She won for her role as a guttersnipe trained to masquerade as the missing Russian princess. She beat Katharine Hepburn’s poignant outing (again as a spinster) in The Rainmaker; Deborah Kerr as the English teacher in the popular musical The King and I; Nancy Kelly recreating her stage role as the mother of a sociopathic tot in The Bad Seed; and Carroll Baker in the creepy Tennessee Williams story Baby Doll. Oscar snubbed Doris Day again in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Marilyn Monroe’s touching turn in Bus Stop. The Three Faces of Eve. 20th Century Fox 8. 1957 Best Actress - Joanne Woodward in ‘The Three Faces of Eve’ A newcomer won again in 1957: elegant Joanne Woodward with her extraordinary portrayal of a real-life woman with multiple personalities.

Her compelling performance bested Elizabeth Taylor in the film of the bestselling Southern novel Raintree County, and Anna Magnani as a mail-order bride in Wild is the Wind. Lana Turner lost her first and only nomination as a sexually-frustrated widow in the soaper Peyton Place, and lovely Deborah Kerr lost her fourth of six failed career nominations as a shipwrecked nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. Oscar unjustly bypassed the superb Marlene Dietrich for her title role in Witness for the Prosecution . I Want to Live. United Artists 9. 1958 Best Actress - Susan Hayward in 'I Want to Live' Hayward finally won her fifth nomination, as a woman on death row in San Quentin. She was good, but for my money, Rosalind Russell’s irresistible Auntie Mame should have won. Poor Deborah Kerr lost her fifth nomination, as a lonely spinster in love with a retired military blowhard in Separate Tables; Elizabeth Taylor lost as the sexually ravenous Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; and Shirley MacLaine lost her first nod, as a working girl in Some Came Running.

The snubs were rampant -- no nod for Kim Novak in, essentially, a dual role in Hitchcock’s Vertigo ; and Ingrid Bergman was ignored for both Indiscreet and Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Room at the Top. Remus 10. 1959 Best Actress - Simone Signoret in ‘Room at the Top’ Frenchwoman Signoret won as the victimized mistress of a manipulative social climber in the British film Room at the Top, defeating Audrey Hepburn turning her back on her vows in A Nun’s Story. Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor may have canceled each other out, both nominated for the controversial Suddenly Last Summer, a bizarre Tennessee Williams story. Doris Day received her first and only nomination for Pillow Talk, the first in her popular series of light-hearted romances with costar Rock Hudson. Unforgivably, Oscar snubbed Marilyn Monroe for her defining role as Sugar in Some Like it Hot , along with Lee Remick as a nasty little tart in Anatomy of a Murder. Best "Best Actress" of the 1950s Follow DL on Best "Best Actress" of the 1950s Who do you think was most deserving of the prize?

The winners:%0D %0D 1950: Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday"%0D %0D 1951: Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire"%0D %0D 1952: Shirley Booth in "Come Back, Little Sheba"%0D %0D 1953: Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday"%0D %0D 1954: Grace Kelly in "The Country Girl"%0D %0D 1955: Anna Magnani in "The Rose Tattoo"%0D %0D 1956: Ingrid Bergman in "Anastasia"%0D %0D 1957: Joanne Woodward in "The Three Faces of Eve"%0D %0D 1958: Susan Hayward in "I Want to Live!"%0D %0D 1959: Simone Signoret in "Room at the Top" by Anonymous Love me some Judy and some Vivien, but Shirley is the clear winner here.

by Anonymous reply 2 01/21/2011 The actual winner is Judy Garland, but she was robbed of the prize by a puritanical academy that wanted to punish her for her perceived misdeeds. by Anonymous i've never seen room at the top. by Anonymous reply 4 01/21/2011 r4, it's a great British soap opera with a magnificent performance by Signoret as a lonely married woman who has an affair with ambitious, on-the-make Laurence Harvey. by Anonymous reply 5 01/21/2011 Actually, I think Grace Kelly was the only egregious mistake for The Country Girl, a performance that was only distinctive in its miscasting. %0D %0D Some might quibble with Judy Holliday and Audrey Hepburn as well, who both won mainly because it was the first time moviegoers had ever seen them and they were truly unique. by Anonymous who do you think should have won those r6?

by Anonymous reply 7 01/22/2011 I'm not R6, but Judy Holliday, who WAS wonderful in Born Yesterday, beat out Bette Davis for All About Eve and Gloria Swanson for Sunset Blvd. by Anonymous Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson should have tied for Best Actress in 1950. by Anonymous reply 9 01/22/2011 Bette Davis should have won for All About Eve instead of Holliday (who I love!) and Judy Garland should have won for A Star Is Born instead of Kelly.%0D %0D Rereading the list of winners, I realize there are quite a few who were probably seen by most American audiences for the first time in their respective roles: Booth, Signoret, Magnani and Woodward, so my theory doesn't hold much water. by Anonymous I went with Signoret. With the exception of Kelly, I'm fond of all these performances. by Anonymous reply 11 01/22/2011 Davis and Swanson gave astoundingly fearless performances. Holiday winning over them is one of the biggest jokes in Academy history.

by Anonymous It's astounding that Bette Davis did not win for All About Eve. by Anonymous reply 14 01/22/2011 Viv, only because Bette didn't win for one of the top 5 female performances of all time in "All About Eve". by Anonymous Fuck Bette Davis! Fuck her right in the ass! by Anonymous reply 16 01/22/2011 I'm curious about Shirley Booth. I know that she created her role in Come Back Little Sheba on Broadway before making the film version but was she very well-known to audiences before that and if so, for what? And did she make many other films before becoming a TV star as Hazel (over 10 years later)? by Anonymous reply 17 01/22/2011 Shirley Booth reinvented film acting with her raw, honest and heartbreakingly vulnerable performance in SHEBA. It was utterly without artifice and like looking directly into another human being's heart and soul. A triumph unequaled to this day.

by Anonymous reply 18 01/22/2011 In which movie did Simone Signoret have a scene (toward the end of the film) with a really handsome blond man? %0D %0D Any dish on Laurence Harvey? He was a fine actor and quite handsome in an Anderson Cooper sort of way. by Anonymous reply 19 01/22/2011 [quote]In which movie did Simone Signoret have a scene (toward the end of the film) with a really handsome blond man? "Ship of Fools"? reply 20 01/22/2011 Magnani's oscar for Rose Tattoo is not merely the most deserving best actress oscar of the 50s. It's one of the greatest performances of all time.

by Anonymous reply 21 01/22/2011 what strikes me on this list is that they while we can quibble about whether each was the best performance of their respective year, there should be little argument that these ten women were all wonderful actresses and were each remarkable personalities who brought their own particular talent and style - each very distinguishable from the other - to the screen. Also with the exceptions of Kelly and Hayward, two terrific movie stars, they were all renowned and classically trained stage actresses. by Anonymous reply 22 01/22/2011 I thought Shirley Booth gave an awesome performance in Sheba. Then I saw she did the same character in every movie and TV project she did. It wasn't so awesome anymore. by Anonymous reply 23 01/22/2011 well maybe not "classically" trained in all respects, but certainly well trained and true stars of the stage. by Anonymous What an amazing list of unforgettable actresses. Talk about talent! by Anonymous 01/22/2011 Woodward is the only survivor. Any chance she will make another major screen appearance.

She would be sensational in August Osage County, but it appears that's going to Streep. Although the character is said to be younger in the play's stage directions, at other times in the play it's said that she was a member of the greatest generation, which Woodward certainly was, perhaps even younger than that. And she's certainly not too old to have three daughters in their 40s. In fact, I believe she does have daughters in their 40s. by Anonymous reply 27 01/22/2011 I can't stand Magnani's ham acting in Tattoo - but love her in Cukor's Wild is the Wind in 1957, where she is more reined in.%0D %0D Swanson and Davis should have tied in 1950 - but must have split the vote letting Holliday win - but of course Bette and Gloria were seen as old-timers then and were not as revered as they are now (Bette's late 40s films were all dogs).

%0D %0D Same with Judy in '54 - she was a difficult old timer and Grace was the hot posh new girl (like Audrey the year before), so Grace wins for looking dowdy in glasses and a cardigan.%0D %0D Susan Hayward was also sensational in '55's I'll Cry Tomorrow, but at least won in '58.%0D %0D The late 50s saw the rise of european cinema so awards were given to Signoret (for a relatively small part) and Loren in 61. by Anonymous R19..."Ship of Fools" I think. by Anonymous reply 29 01/22/2011 The Oscars were a travesty in 1954. Judy Garland in A Star is Born gave one of the best performances ever. And Judy certainly deserved to win over the bland Grace Kelly in The Country Girl. Come on, Grace Kelly no matter how lovely was boring in that role. by Anonymous reply 31 01/22/2011 I 'discovered' Shirley Booth last winter. I'd never heard of her before and wanted to watch Burt Lancaster in SHEBA.

Man what a revelation. She was brilliant. It is performance that I will never forget. I read that she only did 4 films and was not that interested in Hollywood... by Anonymous Judy should have won for "The Man That Got Away" scene alone. by Anonymous reply 35 01/22/2011 I go with Leigh, though it's a touch race. Leigh was, for a long time, the definitive Blanche because of this film, and she's still one of the best ever. by Anonymous reply 36 01/22/2011 I agree that this list is incomplete without Judy Garland's performance in "A Star is Born" and Bette Davis's in "All About Eve". And to idiots like R30, watch Judy's little nod at the end of "The Man That Got Away". After wrenching our guts out with the song, she shows us Esther Blodgett's professional pride in her performance. Great stuff. Of those listed, I'd go with Simone Signoret--a brilliant job in "Room at the Top".

My next choice would be Joanne Woodward in "Three Faces of Eve"--aside from Signoret's, probably the least mannered of those listed, even when she was portraying Eve Black. And yes, she'd be great as the matriarch in "August: Osage County". I love Ingrid Bergman, but she should have been nominated and won for "Notorious". by Anonymous Anna Mangnani was simply the best ever! by Anonymous reply 39 01/22/2011 I was watching ALL ABOUT EVE last night and it just kills me every time I remind myself that Bette Davis did not win an Oscar for this. It was not only her finest and most perfect performance but one of the all time best female performances in cinema history. The next time it%E2%80%99s on just study her. She%E2%80%99s pitch perfect in every last scene she%E2%80%99s in.

It%E2%80%99s easy to remember the scenes when she%E2%80%99s raising hell but check out the scenes when Margo%E2%80%99s talking to Karen in the stalled car about women and having a career or the scene where Margo and Bill are talking on the theater stage bed prop after their argument and the vulnerability she shows when she really can%E2%80%99t put into words what%E2%80%99s wrong with her. She conveys both insecurity and the sense that she knows something isn%E2%80%99t right. Superb performance! by Anonymous reply 40 01/22/2011 Where is it claimed in A Star is Born that Esther Blodgett is a fresh-faced Hollywood ingenue?%0D %0D Shirley Booth is also revelatory in The Matchmaker, effortlessly showing us what Dolly Levi is truly all about.

Fun film with Tony Perkins and Bobby Morse at their most adorable.%0D %0D In 1954 it was truly unique (and brave!) for a beautiful and glamorous young actress to allow herself to look plain and dowdy, though nowadays it is quite de rigeur. Hard to imagine now what an impact that had on the voters back then.%0D %0D Although Joanne Woodward displayed the fire and spunk to play Violet in August;Osage County in her 50s and 60s film performances, her acting became quite benign by the 70s. Sadly, I think a bravura performance is long past her.%0D %0D By the time of 1959's I Want to Live! Susan Hayward was considered the perennial bad-luck loser, much like Annette Bening today. She gave better performances in With a Song in My Heart, My Foolish Heart, The President's Lady and I'll Cry Tomorrow. by Anonymous Thank you, R20 and R29! by Anonymous reply 42 01/22/2011 Agree compeletly with R40.

Bette Davis's Margo Channing is one of the all-time great performances by an actress. Definitely in the top five. The Academy should have just handed her the Oscar. by Anonymous reply 43 01/22/2011 I agree with the idea that Davis should have won the Oscar in 1950. Personally, I feel she should have won for Baby Jane as well. That performance also leaves me with my mouth open each time I watch it. Talk about fearless. by Anonymous reply 44 01/22/2011 Miss Davis felt she should have won her Oscars for The Letter and All About Eve, and I suspect a third for Baby Jane. by Anonymous reply 45 01/22/2011 For those who doubt Garland's pre-eminent talent, go to Youtube and you can see the 2 alternate versions that Judy shot of The Man That Got Away from A STAR IS BORN. by Anonymous reply 48 01/22/2011 Talk about your sentimental winners....Ingrid Bergman in Anastasia was a hammy performance that doesn't hold up today at all.

%0D %0D It was merely Hollywood's way of saying: "We forgive you Ingrid, please come back!" by Anonymous reply 49 01/23/2011 Katharine Hepburn too in Lean's Summertime in 1955 - which was a Shirley Booth role on stage, but then Kate bagged a lot of Booth's roles, including the play that became Desk Set. by Anonymous reply 50 01/29/2011 1950 would only be perfect if both Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson had tied for Best Actress. What an amazing pair of performances, both iconic, both "the best" in both amazing careers.%0D %0D While Hepburn may not have deserved to win for African Queen or Summertime, these are two of her best performances as well. %0D %0D The other part of this list is thinking of films that wouldn't be made or at least offered to some of these actresses: Shirley Booth from the original Broadway cast instead of someone too young frumping it up on film?

by Anonymous Say what you will, the two most enduring performances of the 50's are Judy and Bette. by Anonymous reply 59 04/09/2013 What people forget now is that Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson were seen as old-timers back then, and not as revered as they are now. Swanson was a silent star not seen in years and Davis had just left Warners after her last films being duds, though they have camp value now of course, but they didnt love Beyond the Forest then! Now of course they are 2 of the best performances of the 50s, perhaps they should have both tied, over Holliday, who went on to other successes. by Anonymous reply 60 04/09/2013 Yes r60 and Judy was seen as an old-timer too and a troublesome one at that - with the stories, real or invented, about the making of A Star Is Born, which it seems Warners lost confidence in and cut to fit in more performances. So obviously the new cool girl in town got the award for looking dowdy in a cardigan - but where is The Country Girl cult today?

its practically a forgotten film but we will always have the restored A Star Is Born. by Anonymous reply 61 04/09/2013 None of the above, OP. The best actress - the greatest performance - of the decade was Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard." The fact she was blackballed by anyone lingering from the studio system doesn't mean we should have to see her in the same company of Holliday or Hayward. by Anonymous reply 62 04/09/2013 Vivien. But then I haven't seen any others. Oh dear. But at least I picked the very best! I have too much shit to watch, Oscar winners or otherwise. I heard Jennifer Jones decimated those other bitches of the 1940s and Ingrid Bergman cried when she saw her performance as she knew she wouldn't get the Oscar. I lucked out there and saw Kitty Foyle. Ugh. by Anonymous Judy totally did NOT deserve an Oscar for that boring one-note performance. by Anonymous reply 68 05/10/2013 I have no problem with Leigh, Booth, Bergman and Hayward winning in their years.

I have no problem with Holiday, but if I had been a member of the Academy, I would have voted for Swanson. I would have voted for Gardner over Audrey Hepburn in 1953, Garland over Kelly in 1954. Deborah Kerr over Joanne Woodward (worst pick of the decade) in 1957. Audrey Hepburn over Signoret in 1959. As for 1955, I thought it was weak year for the performances in the Best Actress category. I would have voted for Susan Hayward. Had Susan Hayward won 1955, I would have voted for Rosalind Russell in 1958. Of Leigh, Booth, Bergman and Hayward, i would say that Bergman gave the best performance in a very tough field by Anonymous reply 69 05/10/2013 I have never understood the praise that Bette Davis gets for All About Eve. I find Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter and Anne Baxter gave better performances that Davis. But again, I am not a drag queen ... by Anonymous Good performances that weren't even nominated; what were they?

by Anonymous reply 73 05/11/2013 Barbara Stanwyck, though her career was fading, gave great performances in The Furies (1950), No Man of Her Own (1950), Titanic (1953) and Executive Suite (1954). by Anonymous reply 74 05/11/2013 Some of the foreign language ones since for whatever reason in those days they didn't nominate foreign language but only the performances - I think some foreign language screenplays made it. I had read after Sophia they decided to let them in? Shame if that was the case. Giulietta Masina in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. Probably some of Magnani's Italiano stuff, Simone Signoret's French stuff? by Anonymous 1950 Academy Awards® Winners and History "Sunset Boulevard" Many Hollywood films and nominees in 1950 had their roots in Broadway, as either their subject matter, or by the fact that the actors/actresses had first created their Academy Award-winning or nominated roles on the New York stage.

The Best Picture race at the start of the decade was a race between five very different films, but one thing was for sure - one of the nominees, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's witty, theatrical, backstage comedy and expose All About Eve was the recipient of a record-breaking number of nominations - fourteen! It was the first most-nominated film with 14 bids in Oscar history. All About Eve received more nominations than any other picture in Oscar history - until James Cameron's Titanic (1997) tied the record 47 years later. The two front-runners in the race, All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard racked up a total of 25 nominations between them. All About Eve won six Oscars - Best Picture (producer Darryl F. Zanuck), Best Director and Best Writing: Screenplay (both for director/writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz), Best Supporting Actor, Best Costume Design (Edith Head again), and Best Sound Recording.

While targeting New York theatre life, the film chronicled the intermingling lives of an aging Broadway stage actress (Bette Davis), a cynical drama critic (George Sanders), a young director, a playwriter (and his wife), a pretty but untalented protege (a bit role for Marilyn Monroe), and an aspiring and talented young actress named Eve (Anne Baxter). [As an aside, the film reinvigorated Bette Davis' career, and introduced her to cast member and fourth husband Gary Merrill.] The film was full of one-liners, including one of the most famous of all time, spoken by Davis: "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" Another Best Picture nominee, director George Cukor's Born Yesterday (with five nominations and one win - Best Actress), was an adaptation of Garson Kanin's Broadway stage-play comedy about an uneducated, 'dumb blonde' mistress (Judy Holliday) victimized by a rough-hewn and rude millionaire junk dealer (Broderick Crawford).

One of the losing nominees was writer/co-director Billy Wilder's black comedy Sunset Boulevard (with eleven nominations and three wins - Best Writing: Story and Screenplay, Best B/W Art Direction and Set Decoration, and Best Dramatic Score by Franz Waxman), a combination horror/film noir that was both a tribute to film-making and a searing film about Hollywood and one of its fading silent screen stars of the past. [ Sunset Boulevard was also distinguished as one of about a dozen films in Academy history which had nominees in all four acting categories.] The other two nominees were the great MGM domestic comedy - director Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride (with three nominations and no wins) about the trials and tribulations of an overwhelmed father preparing for his daughter's (Elizabeth Taylor) wedding, and MGM's epic adventure film about explorers looking for a fabled African diamond mine and a lost explorer-husband - a colorful version of the H. Rider Haggard tales which was filmed on exotic location by director Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton, King Solomon's Mines (with three nominations and two wins - Best Color Cinematography (Robert Surtees) and Best Film Editing (Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig)).

Joseph Mankiewicz, the previous year's twin Oscar winner (for Best Director and Best Writing: Screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives) repeated his two Oscar wins in 1950 as director and screenplay writer for All About Eve . He became the first and only person ever to win writing and directing Oscars in consecutive years. His screenplay was based on Mary Orr's short story titled The Wisdom of Eve. Five of the cast of the Best Picture All About Eve were nominated for acting roles, but only one nominee of its cast was successful - George Sanders. Four actresses in the film were nominated and all lost). The film holds the record for having the most female acting nominees: two as Best Actress - Bette Davis and Anne Baxter two as Best Supporting Actress - Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter The Best Actor race was won by Puerto Rican-born Broadway star Jose Ferrer (with his second career nomination and his sole Oscar win) - he was a versatile, well-known stage actor/director in a virtuoso performance.

He re-created his stage role as the long-nosed, eloquent, 17th century poet-sword duellist who helps his friend win a woman's love in the film version of Edmond Rostand's classic romance directed by Michael Gordon, Cyrano de Bergerac (the film's sole nomination). (Ferrer received his first Oscar nomination two years earlier for his screen debut as the Dauphin - a Best Supporting Actor role in Joan of Arc (1948). His third and last career nomination was for his Best Actor performance as dwarf Toulouse-Lautrec in John Huston's biographical Moulin Rouge (1952).) Ferrer defeated four other well-qualified nominees: Louis Calhern (with his sole career nomination) as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the adapted play directed by John Sturges, The Magnificent Yankee (with two nominations and no wins). (Calhern was better known for his roles in It's A Wonderful Life (1946) , and Anatomy of a Murder (1959)) William Holden (with his first of three career nominations) as the opportunistic screenwriter in Sunset Boulevard (1950) .

(Holden's sole Oscar win was for Stalag 17 (1953) followed by another nomination for Network (1976) .) Holden also starred in Born Yesterday that was nominated for Best Picture. The race for Best Actress was one of the best in the history of the Academy Awards (four of the five nominees were equally deserving). The winner of the Best Actress award was rookie film actress Judy Holliday (with her sole career nomination - and sole Oscar win for her first starring film role) reprising her priceless Broadway role as "dumb blonde" Billie Dawn, the bimbo mistress of a corrupt, rude junk-man tycoon (Broderick Crawford) in Washington DC, who is tutored with culture by a young, sensitive newspaperman (William Holden). (A year earlier, Holliday played a small part in her debut film Adam's Rib (1949) .) It was the only comedic role among the nominees. Bette Davis (with her eighth career nomination) had one of the greatest, most definitive, nominated roles of her screen life as aging Broadway actress Margo Channing.

Anne Baxter (with her second and last career nomination) played the role of a scheming and ruthless younger admirer and aspiring actress Eve Harrington in the same film - All About Eve . Although both Anne Baxter's and Bette Davis' performances as competing co-stars were exceptional, they unfortunately cancelled each other out due to the shared nomination. Interestingly, their competitive tension for an Oscar was a repeat of their rivalry in the film. [Baxter had won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1945 for The Razor's Edge and so her studio 20th Century Fox unwisely placed her in the running for a lead award. She had little chance against her co-star Bette Davis or Gloria Swanson, or even Judy Holliday.

If she had been placed among the Best Supporting Actress nominees, joining nominated co-stars Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter, she might have defeated Josephine Hull, and that would have conclusively given the Best Actress award to Davis rather than Judy Holliday.] Immortal Gloria Swanson (with her third and last unsuccessful career nomination) came out of retirement and was nominated for her performance as a once-famous silent film star Norma Desmond plotting a comeback in Sunset Boulevard , one of the best films about Hollywood ever made. Another nominee was Eleanor Parker (with her first of three unsuccessful career nominations) for her hardened wife and woman-in-prison role as Marie Allen in director John Cromwell's prison drama Caged (with three nominations and no wins). George Sanders (with his sole career nomination - and Oscar win) won for his Best Supporting Actor role as the skillfully, manipulative, conspiratorial and ascerbic-tongued drama critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve . The other nominated Best Supporting Actor roles that didn't win included: Sam Jaffe (with his sole career nomination) as Doc Riedenschneider - the criminal mastermind of the safecracking job in director John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle .

(Earlier in Jaffe's career, he had played the High Lama in Capra's Lost Horizon (1937) and the title role in the classic adventure tale Gunga Din (1939)) Erich von Stroheim (with his sole career nomination) as the ex-director/valet-butler Max Von Mayerling who faithfully serves former wife/silent film queen Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard .

(Earlier in his acting career, he appeared in Grand Illusion (1937), and his directorial masterpiece was Greed (1924) ) [Reportedly, von Stroheim was insulted by his supporting nomination and threatened to sue Paramount] Jeff Chandler (with his sole career nomination) as pacifist Apache Indian leader Cochise in director Delmer Daves' Broken Arrow (with three nominations and no wins), a pro-Indian western starring James Stewart Edmund Gwenn (with his second and last career nomination) as a benevolent counterfeiter named Skipper in director Edmund Goulding's comedy Mister 880 (the film's sole nomination) Josephine Hull (with her sole career nomination - and Oscar win) won the Best Supporting Actress award for her re-created role (from Broadway) as Stewart's exasperated, distraught, long-suffering sister Veta Louise Simmons in Harvey.

(Hull earlier had also re-created her stage role in the un-nominated film comedy about a poison-serving Aunt, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) .) The other Best Supporting Actress nominees included Nancy Olson (with her sole career nomination) as aspiring screenwriter and ingenue Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard , and Hope Emerson (with her sole career nomination) as sadistic prison guard Evelyn Harper in Caged. Two co-stars of All About Eve were nominated: Thelma Ritter (with her first of six unsuccessful career nominations) as Birdie (Bette Davis' maid), and Celeste Holm (with her third and last career nomination) as Karen Richards. As a footnote, rising sex starlet Marilyn Monroe was featured in two nominated films (although un-nominated herself) - as the dumb blonde stereotype character of Miss Casswell ("an actress - a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art") in All About Eve , and in a cameo role as Louis Calhern's mistress in The Asphalt Jungle . She also made her first and only Academy Award ceremony appearance this year, presenting the Technical Achievement Oscar.

Edith Head won two Best Costume Design awards this year, one for a color film (Samson and Delilah), and one for a black and white film ( The last of the big studio bosses received an Honorary Award, MGM's Louis B. Mayer, "for distinguished service to the motion picture industry." Oscar Snubs and Omissions: The most obvious omissions in 1950 involved British director Carol Reed's three-time nominated thriller The Third Man . Although justly awarded the Best Cinematography Award (to Robert Krasker for his striking visuals) and nominated for Best Director and Best Editing, the film was not nominated for Best Picture, or Best Actor or Supporting Actor (for Orson Welles as the evil Harry Lime) or Best Screenplay (for Graham Greene's intelligent and suspenseful script), or for Anton Karas's zither theme music. An odd choice was made for Best Foreign Film -- René Clément's The Walls of Malapaga (Fr/It). Quite a few superb acting performances were neglected this year, including: Marlon Brando as paraplegic WWII veteran Lt.

'Bud' Ken Wilozek in Fred Zinnemann's The Men (with only one nomination for Carl Foreman's Best Writing, Story and Screenplay) Gregory Peck as mustached, aging gunslinger Jimmy Ringo in Henry King's noirish western The Gunfighter (with only one nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story) Clifton Webb (with three previous career nominations in 1944, 1946, and 1948 - all of which lost) as the stern but loving patriarch and "efficiency expert" Frank Bunker Gilbreth in Walter Lang's Cheaper By The Dozen (with no nominations) Alec Guinness in a virtuoso performance as eight different murder victims in an aristocratic clan in Robert Hamer's comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (UK) (with no nominations) Kirk Douglas as jazz trumpet player Rick Martin, Doris Day as band singer and Rick's supportive wife Jo Jordan, and Lauren Bacall as disturbed and self-loathing Amy North in director Michael Curtiz' Young Man with a Horn (with no nominations) Joseph Cotten as pulp writer Holly Martins in Carol Reed's Sterling Hayden as small-town jewel crook Dix Handley in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle James

 Stewart as vengeful Lin McAdam in Anthony Mann's adult-psychological western Winchester '73 (with no nominations) Director John Huston was nominated for the astringent The Asphalt Jungle , but his film was neglected and un-nominated in the Best Picture category.

Two other performances deserved at least some recognition: Nicholas Ray's great film noir In A Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart as a hard-drinking, violent screenwriter and Gloria Grahame as a sympathetic love interest. Although Spencer Tracy was nominated for Father of the Bride , he and Katharine Hepburn were both denied Oscar nominations for their inspired pairing as dueling husband/wife lawyers in Adam's Rib (the film's sole nomination was for its original screenplay). And both John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara were overlooked in John Ford's un-nominated Rio Grande, Ford's third and last in his celebrated 'cavalry' trilogy. Born Yesterday (1950) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A tycoon hires a tutor to teach his lover proper etiquette.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 39 titles created 16 Dec 2012 a list of 25 titles created 19 Mar 2013 a list of 30 titles created 28 Sep 2013 a list of 37 titles created 08 Mar 2014 a list of 30 titles created 2 months ago Search for " Born Yesterday " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 10 nominations. See more awards » Photos Gladys Glover has just lost her modelling job when she meets filmmaker Pete Sheppard shooting a documentary in Central Park. For Pete it's love at first sight, but Gladys has her mind on ... See full summary » Director: George Cukor Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband. Director: George Cukor A businessman shows up in Washington to lobby agendas that are friendly to his construction plans.

His ditsy ex-showgirl bimbo proves to be an embarrassment in social situations, so he ... See full summary » Director: Luis Mandoki The father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, along with the financial and organizational trouble of arranging the wedding. Director: Vincente Minnelli Ella Peterson is a Brooklyn telephone answering service operator who tries to improve the lives of her clients by passing along bits of information she hears from other clients. She falls ... See full summary » Director: Vincente Minnelli Pat is a women's sports sensation unless her fiancé is around. Her new shady manager Mike keeps them apart and develops feelings for her. Director: George Cukor A director hires an alcoholic has-been and strikes up a stormy relationship with the actor's wife, who he believes is the cause of all the man's problems. Director: George Seaton The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal. Director: Robert Rossen In post-war Cape Breton, a doctor's efforts to tutor a deaf/mute woman are undermined when she is raped, and the resulting pregnancy causes scandal to swirl.

Director: Jean Negulesco A chemist finds his personal and professional life turned upside down when one of his chimpanzees finds the fountain of youth. Director: Howard Hawks Edit Storyline Uncouth, loud-mouth junkyard tycoon Harry Brock descends upon Washington D.C. to buy himself a congressman or two, bringing with him his mistress, ex-showgirl Billie Dawn. Brock hires newspaperman Paul Verrall to see if he can soften her rough edges and make her more presentable in capital society. But Harry gets more than he bargained for as Billie absorbs Verall's lessons in U.S. history and not only comes to the realization that Harry is nothing but a two-bit, corrupt crook, but in the process also falls in love with her handsome tutor. Written by Paul Penna <tterrace@wco.com> A perfectly swell motion picture! See more » Genres: February 1951 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia George Cukor instructed production designer Harry Horner to approach the script as if it had never been a stage play.

Instead of the play's one-room set, Horner constructed an entire hotel suite, allowing Cukor to move the action from room to room as the action would have dictated in real life. See more » Goofs In the first discussion between Paul and Billie, the position of Billie's left arm changes between shots. See more » Quotes Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36, 2nd movement (uncredited) Played at the outdoor concert Also played on the phonograph (Seattle, Washington) – See all my reviews One of my favourite films of all time, this Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday, William Holden vehicle was magnificently written by Garson Kanin and superbly directed by George Cukor. Cukor did something that is seldom done with any film: He decided to rehearse `Born Yesterday' as if it were a play (which it was on Broadway and of which Judy Holliday performed the role of Billie Dawn 1,200 times) and had a complete theater built on one of the studio's soundstages and filled it with an audience so he could perfectly time the laughs and the pauses so the movie-going public wouldn't miss a thing.

This bit of directing genius is part of what is responsible for the remarkable film that is `Born Yesterday.' The other part of the equation is the casting of Broderick Crawford as the slimy, junk dealer turned multi-millionaire, Harry Brock. Rita Hayworth was originally slated to star as Billie Dawn but when she married Ally Khan and put her screen career on hold the producers ran through an entire list of potential candidates It was only with great reluctance that they finally decided to use Judy Holliday in the role she created on Broadway  not believing she was a big enough `name' to pull in audiences. Lucky break for them: She went on to win the first Oscar ever awarded to an actress for a comedic role. Her every movement, glance and word is a study in brilliance of the not-so-dumb blonde, Billie Dawn. Unfortunately Judy Holliday's career was cut short when she died of breast cancer just a few weeks short of her 44th birthday  who knows what kind of work she could have accomplished had she only lived.

`Born Yesterday' went on to receive five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, but the only award went to Judy Holliday for Best Actress; she also won the Golden Globe in the same category that year. This is a finely crafted tale of greed, corruption and the ultimate price that must be paid by those that believe they can manipulate the law and the government by for and of the people. It is a brilliant movie and should not be missed. 53 of 61 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Born Yesterday | film by Cukor [1950] | Britannica.com film by Cukor [1950] Born Yesterday, American romantic comedy film , released in 1950, in which Judy Holliday gave an Academy Award -winning performance in a role she had first made famous on Broadway. Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Corporation Born Yesterday, which was based on a play by Garson Kanin , featured Holliday as Billie Dawn, the dumb mistress of low-class tycoon Harry Brock (played by Broderick Crawford), who comes to Washington to lobby congressmen.

He enlists the aid of newspaperman Paul Verrall ( William Holden ) in polishing the manners and common sense of former showgirl Billie. As she improves her education, she realizes how she has been used by the corrupt Brock, and she begins to exact revenge in amusing ways. Ultimately, her best revenge is falling in love with Verrall. Although Holliday triumphed in the stage version of Born Yesterday, Hollywood was not initially impressed. It was only after studio officials failed to sign other actresses for the lead role, including first-choice Rita Hayworth , that they relented and gave the part to Holliday, who went on to win an Oscar for her performance. The part relegated her to “dumb blonde” roles in future films, though she reportedly had an IQ of 172. Production notes and credits Be Careful! Your Hand!: Oscars: Best Actress 1950 - Who Should Have Won? Monday, 21 January 2013 Oscars: Best Actress 1950 - Who Should Have Won? Can you believe that Gloria Swanson's timeless performance in Sunset Boulevard didn't see her picking up an Oscar?

Or that Anne Baxter's name wasn't called out on the night for her role as the ultimate social-climbing bitch Eve Harrington? Can you believe that Bette Davis' triumphant return as Margo Channing in the same film didn't earn her a third Oscar? And why didn't Eleanor Parker pick up her first Oscar for her star turn in Caged? Well, it's because they were all nominated in the same year. You know they always say "there just aren't enough good roles out there for women". Well in 1950, that just wasn't the case. Let's take a look at the list of the lovely ladies who were nominated for Best Actress in 1950 shall we? And remember to read more entries in the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon , which starts on February 1st. Anne Baxter: All About Eve - Eve Harrington. Rumor has it Miss Baxter went all Eve Harrington on the Academy's ass, demanding that she be nominated in the best actress category instead of best supporting, silly billy. Had she settled for the best supporting actress category, she might just have seen her name being called out that night.

Everyone knows an Eve, the character of the ruthlessly ambitious bitch which Anne Baxter played to perfection. Maybe she lived the role a little too much for some though as she didn't even get a Golden Globe nomination for the part, while Judy Holliday got two for playing one role. How did that happen? Awards won for the role: ...awkward. Bette Davis: All About Eve - Margo Channing. Claudette Colbert was already cast in the role of Margo Channing and was due to start filming before she suffered a severe back injury at the last minute, leaving the door open for Bette Davis to replace her and deliver a career best performance. Davis didn't have the best of success throughout the 40s and after a string of flops at the box office, it looked like her career had had it's day, making her amazing comeback performance in All About Eve all the more impressive. Awards won for the role: New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Actress. Cannes Film Festival: Best Actress. Judy Holliday: Born Yesterday - Billie Dawn.

Judy Holliday reprises her role of Billie Dawn, which she played on Broadway, for the film version, despite studio boss Harry Cohn's reluctance to cast a unknown. He needn't have worried. Holliday steals the film as the dumb blonde whose gangsta boyfriend wants her to be a little bit more cultured. It isn't long before she gains the confidence and knowledge to realise that he isn't up to any good and falls in love with her tutor. With a somewhat simple plot that leaves room for the wonderful script to shine, Holliday delivers some brilliant one liners that make this a comedy classic. Awards won for the role: Golden Globe Award: Best Actress - Musical or Comedy. Jussie Award: Best Actress - Foreign Film. Eleanor Parker: Caged - Marie Allen. Eleanor Parker, better known to you and me as the Baroness in The Sound of Music, won rave reviews and critical acclaim for the role of young Marie Allen, who is arrested after a botched robbery with her young husband who is killed. This role sees her grow from an innocent and naive young bride into a bitter and hardened criminal in Caged. She even went as far as shaving off her hair for the role.

In any other year, that Oscar would have had her name on it, but poor Eleanor was up against some stiff competition. Awards won for the role: Venice Film Festival: Best Actress. Gloria Swanson: Sunset Boulevard - Norma Desmond Mae West, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Pola Negri and even Mary Pickford were all considered for the once in a lifetime role of Norma Desmond, that would eventually be given to Gloria Swanson. Sunset Boulevard tells the story of a forgotten silent film star who has become a recluse in her decaying Hollywood mansion. That is until a young writer turns up and promises to help her make a comeback, sorry, her 'return'. This film has it all; black comedy, a tragic love story, film noir, Hollywood satire and Gloria Swansons perfomance, which was universally acclaimed and has gone down in history as one of the most iconic roles of all time. She lived this part and the similarities between the two are eerie. Awards won for the role: Golden Globe Award: Best Actress - Drama. Italian National Sydicate of Film Journalists: Best Actress. Jussie Award: Best Actress - Foreign Film.

National Board of Review Motion Pictures: Best Actress. And the winner is... Judy Holliday: Born Yesterday - Billie Dawn. Holliday's win over Swanson and Davis is widely regarded as one of the Oscars biggest mistakes, but it really shouldn't be. The similar roles of Norma Desmond and Margo Channing seemed to cancel each other out, splitting the vote between them, which left the door wide open for Miss Holliday to claim her prize. In Born Yesterday, Holliday showed her immense acting ability, transforming the role of a generic dumb blonde into a real character with depth and sensitivity. She is sweet with a real genuine likability despite her stupidity and somewhat annoying voice. I think it's completely unfair to say that Holliday didn't deserve the award when she did. In fact, they all did and if there was ever a year that the prize should be tied then this was it. So far, there has only ever been one tie in academy history, in 1968 for best actress, when Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl and Kathryn Hepburn in The Lion In Winter tied the prize. The winner should have been...

Gloria Swanson: Sunset Boulevard - Norma Desmond This could have gone either to Gloria Swanson or Bette Davis and people would have been happy but for me, it's Swanson's performance that really deserved the award. Plus Davis should have won ten years later for her role in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? But I won't go into that now. Swanson's performance was like nothing else; she captured the elegance, grace and style of the silent era, bringing it to life for us all to see and, more importantly, to hear. Swanson was the damsel in distress, the femme fatale, she was even the monster, perched in her chair ready to pounce. This was a once in a lifetime role and Swanson's last chance at Oscar glory. Desmond inspired countless parodies and homages, like Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, which was a clear tribute to the women nominated this year, but none, no matter how good can compare to the incomparable Gloria Swanson. What do you think? Was Swanson robbed? Was Holliday the right choice? Or should one of the other ladies have been given the Oscar?

Let me know what you think and remember to read more entries in the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon , which starts on February 1st. Posted by Best Actress Oscar Winners of the 1950s Best Actress Oscar Winners of the 1950s Best Actress Oscar Winners of the 1950s Newcomers, Powerhouse Divas and Stage Actresses By Laurie Boeder Updated March 02, 2016. Actresses new to the silver screen did well among the Best Actress Oscar winners of the 1950s, often beating out established actresses in great roles. As usual, the academy tended to favor women in big, juicy dramatic roles over those in comedies and romances, no matter their caliber or public appeal. In a decade filled with strong roles for women, some great actresses were never recognized. Born Yesterday. Columbia Pictures Buy from Amazon One of the hottest races in Oscar history brought newcomer Judy Holliday her first and only Academy award, playing the girlfriend of a corrupt pol in the charming Born Yesterday, a rare win for a comic role.

Bette Davis might have won for her brilliant role in All About Eve , the year’s Best Picture, but votes were siphoned off by her costar Anne Baxter, also nominated. Gloria Swanson was equally deserving for her courageous out-of-retirement turn as a faded silent screen star in the noir masterpiece Sunset Boulevard . Eleanor Parker rounded out the nominations in the inferior Caged, and Oscar snubbed Katharine Hepburn in Adam’s Rib. Check Amazon rating » continue reading below our video Highest Paid Male Actors Ever A Streetcar Named Desire. Warner Brothers 2. 1951 Best Actress - Vivian Leigh in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' Two powerhouse actresses in truly great films collided in 1951, with Vivian Leigh’s ruined southern belle in Streetcar winning out over Katharine Hepburn’s indomitable spinster in The African Queen . (I’d have given the award to Hepburn, but it was a tough call.) Trailing far behind the two battling divas in the nominations were Shelley Winters as a pregnant factory worker in the melodrama A Place in the Sun, Jane Wyman as a noble nanny in The Blue Veil, and Eleanor Parker as a wife hiding a secret in Detective Story.

Come Back, Little Sheba. Paramount 3. 1952 Best Actress - Shirley Booth in ‘Come Back, Little Sheba’ Newcomer Shirley Booth won for the role she created on stage of a dowdy, frumpy housewife whose husband longs to be rid of her in William Inge's bleak play. Also nominated were Julie Harris, recreating her stage role as the young girl in The Member of the Wedding; Bette Davis, again playing a fading actress in The Star; Joan Crawford with her final nomination as a playwright in Sudden Fear; and Susan Hayward in the biopic of World War II entertainer Jane Froman, With a Song in My Heart. Oscar ignored a few serious divas in 1952: Maureen O’Hara’s feisty Irishwoman in The Quiet Man; Grace Kelly's Quaker wife in High Noon; and Marlene Dietrich in Rancho Notorious. Roman Holiday. Paramount 4. 1953 Best Actress - Audrey Hepburn in 'Roman Holiday' Lovely Audrey Hepburn took the honors as a rebellious princess escaping her duties and tooling around on a Vespa in the beloved romance Roman Holiday.

She knocked out Deborah Kerr’s steamy performance in the Hawaiian surf in From Here to Eternity, the year’s Best Picture, and adorable French actress Leslie Caron in the bittersweet musical Lili. Also defeated were gorgeous Ava Gardner in the racy tale of a love triangle, Mogambo, and Maggie MacNamara in The Moon is Blue. Oscar failed to nominate costars Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell for their crowd-pleasing escapades in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The Country Girl. Paramount 5. 1954 Best Actress - Grace Kelly in 'The Country Girl' The luminous Kelly played against type as a the dowdy, bitter wife of an alcoholic singer, certainly not her best role. She bested Judy Garland’s heartbreaking comeback turn as the wife of a fading, alcoholic actor in a remake of a A Star is Born, as well as the first black woman to be nominated for Best Actress, Dorothy Dandridge as factory worker Carmen Jones. Also nominated were Jane Wyman, playing a blind woman in the soap opera Magnificent Obsession, and Audrey Hepburn, as the chauffeur’s daughter in Sabrina .

Kelly should have been nominated as the plucky fashion editor in Rear Window , and Oscar ought to have given a nod to Judy Holliday for the delightful It Should Happen to You. The Rose Tattoo. Paramount 6. 1955 Best Actress - Anna Magnani in 'The Rose Tattoo' A relative newcomer again beat veteran actresses with multiple past nominations, as Magnani won for her sultry widow tempting a dim truck driver in The Rose Tattoo. Katharine Hepburn was more deserving as a spinster having a fling with a gorgeous Italian in Summertime, her sixth of 12 career nominations. Susan Hayward lost her fourth bid as an alcoholic singer in I’ll Cry Tomorrow; Eleanor Parker lost her third of three failed bids in the biopic of an Australian opera singer, Interrupted Melody; and Jennifer Jones lost the last of her five nominations as a doctor in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. Oscar snubbed Doris Day as a singer with a gangster husband in Love Me or Leave Me. Anastasia. 20th Century Fox 7.

1956 Best Actress - Ingrid Bergman in 'Anastasia' Bergman came galloping back to the Oscars some years after her scandalous affair with director Roberto Rosselini damaged her career. She won for her role as a guttersnipe trained to masquerade as the missing Russian princess. She beat Katharine Hepburn’s poignant outing (again as a spinster) in The Rainmaker; Deborah Kerr as the English teacher in the popular musical The King and I; Nancy Kelly recreating her stage role as the mother of a sociopathic tot in The Bad Seed; and Carroll Baker in the creepy Tennessee Williams story Baby Doll. Oscar snubbed Doris Day again in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Marilyn Monroe’s touching turn in Bus Stop. The Three Faces of Eve. 20th Century Fox 8. 1957 Best Actress - Joanne Woodward in ‘The Three Faces of Eve’ A newcomer won again in 1957: elegant Joanne Woodward with her extraordinary portrayal of a real-life woman with multiple personalities.

Her compelling performance bested Elizabeth Taylor in the film of the bestselling Southern novel Raintree County, and Anna Magnani as a mail-order bride in Wild is the Wind. Lana Turner lost her first and only nomination as a sexually-frustrated widow in the soaper Peyton Place, and lovely Deborah Kerr lost her fourth of six failed career nominations as a shipwrecked nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. Oscar unjustly bypassed the superb Marlene Dietrich for her title role in Witness for the Prosecution . I Want to Live. United Artists 9. 1958 Best Actress - Susan Hayward in 'I Want to Live' Hayward finally won her fifth nomination, as a woman on death row in San Quentin. She was good, but for my money, Rosalind Russell’s irresistible Auntie Mame should have won. Poor Deborah Kerr lost her fifth nomination, as a lonely spinster in love with a retired military blowhard in Separate Tables; Elizabeth Taylor lost as the sexually ravenous Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; and Shirley MacLaine lost her first nod, as a working girl in Some Came Running.

The snubs were rampant -- no nod for Kim Novak in, essentially, a dual role in Hitchcock’s Vertigo ; and Ingrid Bergman was ignored for both Indiscreet and Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Room at the Top. Remus 10. 1959 Best Actress - Simone Signoret in ‘Room at the Top’ Frenchwoman Signoret won as the victimized mistress of a manipulative social climber in the British film Room at the Top, defeating Audrey Hepburn turning her back on her vows in A Nun’s Story. Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor may have canceled each other out, both nominated for the controversial Suddenly Last Summer, a bizarre Tennessee Williams story. Doris Day received her first and only nomination for Pillow Talk, the first in her popular series of light-hearted romances with costar Rock Hudson. Unforgivably, Oscar snubbed Marilyn Monroe for her defining role as Sugar in Some Like it Hot , along with Lee Remick as a nasty little tart in Anatomy of a Murder. Born Yesterday Born Yesterday (1950) Directed by George Cukor. Judy Holliday, William Holden, Broderick Crawford. 103 min.

Over fifty years ago, Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar in this comic fable, confounding her competition, Bette Davis in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. She plays Billie Dawn, the unruly mistress of millionaire junk dealer Harry Brock. Afraid she'll embarrass him in front of the congressman he is planning to bribe, Harry hires a tweedy tutor (William Holden) to smooth her rough edges.Of course, everyone gets the education they deserve. Comedy heroines can get away with plenty that dramatic heroines cannot. But, unlike the madcap heiresses of 1930s screwball comedy, the wacky behavior of the 1950s dumb blonde is linked to dimness, rather than a liberating eccentricity. Holliday was a comedienne of shrewd intelligence and exuberant talent. Her not-so-dumb blondes enjoy a superior detachment from the world and were a model for the slightly later comic characters of Marilyn Monroe. Holliday's Oscar win is considered one of the great upsets in Academy Award history.

From a modern point of view, it does not seem at all odd that two flamboyant "older" actresses, playing aggressive, sexually voracious women with younger lovers, were rejected in favor of a pretty actress validating the 1950s status quo. Garson Kanin wrote the play, Born Yesterday for Jean Arthur, who dropped out right before opening night. Judy Holliday learned the role in 3 days, and played it on Broadway for 4 years, opposite Paul Douglas. In the play, Harry, the millionaire junk dealer, was a more sympathetic character, and the young reporter was a bit of a stuffed shirt. Broderick Crawford specialized in boorish characters, and was cast in the film because he had won an Oscar the year before for All the King's Men. He is not much of a romantic rival for William Holden's Paul Verrall. Holden had been groomed for stardom much earlier, in 1939, after playing the title role in Golden Boy. He'd spent over a decade playing bland leading men, and after his WWII service, he restarted his career.

Holden's cynical outlook and slightly used pretty boy looks are shown to great advantage in this film, and even more memorably in Sunset Boulevard in the year 1950. Holliday also had a false start in films. As a member of the comedy group, The Revuers, with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, she was hired to appear in a Carmen Miranda movie called Greenwich Village. The Revuers act was cut out of the film, but they can still be glimpsed as extras. One of their nightclub routines was a satire of the early days of talking pictures, which Comden and Green expanded into the brilliant musical Singing in the Rain. In the film, Jean Hagen closely modeled her performance of the screeching diva Lina Lamont on Holliday's performance in the nightclub skit. Harry Cohn of Columbia paid $1 million for the play Born Yesterday intending to star his hottest property, Rita Hayworth. He was forced to shelve the project after her marriage to Aly Kahn. Cohn, a famously vulgar and abusive film mogul, did not want Holliday "that fat Jewish broad" in the part.

Director George Cukor shrewdly showcased Holliday in a pivotal part in the Katharine Hepburn--Spencer Tracy film Adam's Rib and he relented. Holliday was glamourized in classic Hollywood style, with 13 elaborate outfits by designer Jean Louis. She said later, " I love to cook and I love to eat what I've cooked. But when I was doing Born Yesterday for Columbia, I had to diet for months. I had to show up at the studio 2 hours before they started shooting. From 7-8, they worked on my hair. From 8-9, they worked on my face. And, they bleached me every other day." Judy Holliday only made 6 other films. She was called before the House on UnAmerican Activities Committee right after making this film. She mystified the questioners who accused her of Communist activities by answering in the voice and illogical logic of her Born Yesterday character, Billie Dawn. She wasn't officially blacklisted by the HUAC, but her refusal to cooperate cost her at least part of her career. She was a good businesswoman and became rich, but died of breast cancer in 1965 at the age of 43.

No grand mystique clung to her after her death, as it so often does to movie stars who die prematurely. In Born Yesterday, Harry's junk business represents the abuses of capitalism, which must be reformed by the ideals of democracy. This is symbolized by the 1950s agenda of taming Billie's comically rowdy behavior and indoctrinate her with a little middle class virtue and restraint, especially sexual restraint. In many films, hero or heroine are transformed when they take off their glasses. In Born Yesterday Billie puts her glasses on.

Question: Who won the 'Oscar' for Best Actress in the 1950's film 'Born Yesterday'?
Answer: JUDY HOLLIDAY