LEAST deserving Best Actress Winner - 1980s edition

Halle Berry

Sissy Spacek

Sissy was sensational in her role, what you on about?

We had an imposter start a poll of the 1980s a few weeks ago, so it might be a bit of a rehashed discussion. I don't think there's a bad performance out of the ten, but if you're looking beyond the very top choices, there's not much to generate excitement.

For the 1970s, you could probably put a performance as strong as Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore in the number five slot. Here you'd have to settle for a respectable performance by Jodie Foster or Marlee Matlin. The drop off in quality this decade was quite apparent.

R4 good point, I guess we're moving towards the kind of performances and movies the Academy rewarded more commonly in later years, and less daring. I did notice there was a similar thread recently after I'd started this journey but thought hey ho, this is for consistency in the final result!

Hepburn. I'm surprised she and Jane were even nominated. Henry Fonda dominated every scene he was in and it was a great performance.

If only Frances had been released in 1981 instead, Jessica truly great performance but no one was beating Streep as Sophie

Oh, I hate that I have to admit Cher was probably the weakest link, but it was clearly a make up award for Mask, so I can’t choose her. But I still had no trouble casting my vote for Hepburn…

In a decade filled with so many unmemorable winners, I definitely wouldn't choose Cher as the least deserving. It may not be a traditional Oscar performance, but Moonstruck has stood the test of time in a way that most of these movies have not, and her performance is integral to what makes it work.

I can't imagine anyone other than Cher as Loretta in Moonstruck.

Hepburn playing Hepburn (again and again and again)

Hepburn: Dive! Dive! Dive!

Hepburn really had no business winning anything for that performance. It was soundly serviceable… no more, no less.

A rare decade where I think the Academy got it right for Best Actress winners, for once. Ben Kingsley for Gandi, however...(a wonderful actor, but the movie was a bore).

I guess I would pick Susie Sarandon as the winner over the mannered, “click click click” Hepburn in her year.

R15 is Meryl and not even a good enough actress to hide that fact

Meryl would be my choice. Every role she's played since has been some variation of Sophie's Choice but with a different accent. Jessica Lange was the true winner of 1982 and her performance has stood the test of time. Anthony Hopkins called it the finest performance by an actress ever.

My other choice would be Cher. In no way did she ever need to be an Oscar winner and Holly Hunter or Glenn Close should have won that year.

R17, the worst thing about Cher’s win is the two iconic performances she beat. But we’re not comparing her to Holly Hunter and Glenn Close. We’re comparing her to Sally Field in the movie which she won the Oscar, and I defy anyone to describe what she did to deserve the award. Or to describe the movie. Or to even name the movie without looking back at the poll choices.

I’m mostly joking about her win for Places in the Heart, because on DL we are experts in actresses, the Oscars and the 1980s, but beyond her “You like me” speech, that movie basically no longer exists.

I think Places in the Heart has some great moments. Her describing what she looks like to Malkovitch is so tender and touching. The tornado is riveting.

And Sally has that big Oscar moment speech (which as I've said before I memorized as a little gay kid. "Now you listen to me and you listen good if we lose this place your going back to begging for every meal and Mr. Wheeler they are going to put you in the state home and me I'm going to lose what's left of my family. I won't let that happen and if you do you can go straight to hell.)

[quote]r Hepburn. I'm surprised she and Jane were even nominated.

Yet another CAPRICIOUS act by a CAPRICIOUS industry.

Jessica and Meryl gave two of the greatest performances of the 80’s, but to say one is bad and one is good is not accurate.

Im sorry but Jennifer Lawrence did not deserve her Oscar. Naomi Watts or Quevanzhane Wallis should have won that year.

We're doing the 1980s r22.

Of these, Sally Field. She deserved one for Norma Rae. I don’t know anyone who likes Places in the Heart.

Hepburn is the ONLY correct answer for the 80s. No one deserves four acting Oscars all in the Lead category. Just like Edith Head receiving an insane eight Oscars for costume design. Lord knows Hepburn wasn't versatile enough to warrant that kind of repeated praise. It was a different, less diverse time back then and the fiercer competition was just beginning. No way Katherine would get four Lead acting today. The Academy just kept rewarding her in an effort to get her to attend, but her ego said no, you might lose, which I get.

R22 We're not there yet. This is 1980s. Every week we look at a new decade.

R24 I agree, but that's a slightly different thread which you're welcome to start. This isn't about which actor's Oscar win was better or more iconic than others they received. It's about looking at the decades at large. In general, I don't think actors deserve multiple wins in a Lead category, but that's too strict and there are a few examples where the wins were justifiable (Vivien Leigh, for example).

Generally, there's one performance that stands above the rest of their wins. If Meryl only won a single Oscar it should've been for Sophie's Choice. Katherine Hepburn deserved it for The Lion in Winter above her other three. Frances McDormand for Fargo. Jodie Foster for Silence of the Lambs. Liz Taylor for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Bette Davis for All About Eve (which she lost). Hillary Swank rightfully won both her Oscars, but I'd stick with Million Dollar Baby, because Annette really deserved it for American Beauty.

The Oscars higher cultural profile and the cottage industry around awards season wouldn't really come into effect until the 90s with the rise of Weinstein, Joan Rivers working the red carpet, and ABC making event television out of Oscar night. Before that the Oscars were more of an industry event. Then of course after the acronym EGOT was coined in the late 80s, there was a real push to game the system and collect all the prizes for bragging rights. It's even worse and more shamelessly transparent today.

R19 bless you, was that your dialling a phone with a pencil moment?

[quote] Im sorry but Jennifer Lawrence did not deserve her Oscar.

This is the wrong decade but I agree with you. Emanuelle Riva or Naomi Watts should have won.

I’ll say it: Marlee. Should’ve been either Weaver or Turner.

Was Marlee any good? I've never seen the movie although I'm aware it was a big deal at the time

Siggy deserved either the Aliens Oscar or Working Girl, both terrific

Eh.

" Hillary Swank rightfully won both her Oscars, but I'd stick with Million Dollar Baby, because Annette really deserved it for American Beauty."

Tacky tells.

Hepburn's performance is the least interesting of those on the list. She was just doing what she always did.

I wish somebody would stream or air Places in the Heart again. It seems like it hasn't been on TV since 1987. I remember the movie being better overall than Sally.

You can watch it on Prime, YT, or a number of other streamers, r33.

TCM airs it a lot r33

OK, WHO THE FUCK voted for Meryl Streep? I’m gonna find you, and you’re gonna be slapped and deleted, banned and summarily executed.

Identify yourself.

NOW!!

I have no idea who would do that r36.

us neither r37

It was Mamie acting out again. Sigh.

Click, click, click...

R40 you're leading this poll and would have won the 60s poll too if it weren't for Liz Taylor's Whore Of All Time so stick your click click click up your ass

[quote] Click, click, click...

Oh cram it with your “ Click, click, click...” dead hag.

Shake, Shake, Shake…

I don't get the click click thing. As a casual watcher of old Streep movies as a kid in the 90s (such as Madison County, Out Of Africa, A Cry In The Dark, The River Will, Deer Hunter) I had no idea who she was, she was totally believable in these roles and although I wasn't then or wasn't now any expert on acting, I didn't see any fakery or "click click".

I think when you look at her work as a whole and see her play so many completely different roles it's much easier to say she's done acting machine but that does a disservice to the humanity she brings. Look at this clip and tell me you can read all the emotion playing over her face and body?

Jessica is so overrated. She should never have won for Tootsie or anything else.

R43, I agree with you completely. It’s not just that she is an excellent mimic. I mean she may be the best one around, but even GOOP is a fairly good mimic but she still doesn’t have the emotional range or ability or somebody like Meryl. I’ll die on this hill. Meryl Streep is the best actress of our generation and probably the best film actor, male or female, in history. I love Jessica Lange, I love, Sissy Spacek, I love Kathy Bates, I love most of the actresses that are Oscar winners (except Gwyneth), but nobody is better at what they do then she is.

I really thought she was going to get her third Oscar for Adaptation. It was the perfect blend of drama and comedy and she was so incredible. The scene where she’s high and trying to imitate the dial tone on a phone still cracks me up to this day.

R45 completely agree, I think she came close to winning for Adaptation but CZJ was a worthy winner even at such a young age.

If we're truly looking at the most impressive performance in each year from the 5 nominees and nothing else then she's the best for me in Silkwood, A Cry In The Dark, The Bridges Of Madison County and Doubt as well as for Sophie's Choice.

Everyone thinks Glenn was robbed for Dangerous Liaisons but Meryl as Lindy Chamberlain was phenomenal

Did Randy Tandy get to do a wiggle on Brando's knob when they starred in Streetcar?

Those were all good performances. I couldn't pick a bad one.

[quote] Hepburn playing Hepburn (again and again and again)

Was there some other way she should have played the part?

I’ve never seen Matlin’s film but I’d think neither Cher or Hepburn deserved to win. Who should’ve won in those years?

I thought both Matlin and William Hurt were excellent in "Children of a Lesser God," although the movie itself became pretty formulaic in the second half. In her memoir, Piper Laurie (who received a nomination for playing Matlin's mom) says she thought Matlin deserved the award and felt Hurt should have won over Paul Newman (whom she worked with in "The Hustler 25 years earlier).

[quote]the worst thing about Cher’s win is the two iconic performances she beat.

Two?

What two iconic performances did Cher beat?

As good as Glennie was in Fatal Attraction I would argue it's not her performance that's iconic per se, it's the depiction of a fling gone wrong and the idea of an unhinged sidepiece "bunny boiler".

R43 She’s so fucking good in “The Bridges…” Ultimately, it’s probably my favorite performance of hers.

Incidentally, Streep as Francesca Johnson and Lange as Carly Marshall, both performances I saw as a prepubescent gayling in 1995, were responsible for my gay awakening and ability to pinpoint the malaise that had settled over me at such a young age like a nearly imperceptible silk sheath. “The Bridges…” and “Blue Sky” are really two allegories about being in the closet. And while Francesca symbolizes the strength and dignity of those individuals who, for one reason or another, must stifle and hide themselves in the closet, Carly symbolizes the power and heroism of those brave souls who come bursting out of it, despite the dangers that surround them.

R54 great thoughts, I hope you found it ok when you did come out x