Top 10 Oscars Best Actress winners ranked

The performance by Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977). Following in third place is Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Rounding out the top five are Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer's Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent poll had The Godfather (1972) declared as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all time (view the full rankings here).

Our photo gallery below features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 97 performances below.

1. Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (1982)
2. Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (1977)
3. Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
4. Liza Minnelli in Cabaret (1972)
5. Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
6. Frances McDormand in Fargo (1996)
7. Kathy Bates in Misery (1990)
8. Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964)
9. Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (2013)
10. Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

11. Faye Dunaway in Network (1976)
12. Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944)
13. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)
14. Jane Fonda in Klute (1971)
15. Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945)
16. Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose (2007)
17. Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
18. Helen Mirren in The Queen (2006)
19. Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment (1983)
20. Natalie Portman in Black Swan (2010)

21. Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter (1968)
22. Charlize Theron in Monster (2003)
23. Sally Field in Norma Rae (1979)
24. Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968)
25. Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry (1999)
26. Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001)
27. Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
28. Holly Hunter in The Piano (1993)
29. Olivia Colman in The Favourite (2018)
30. Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

31. Emma Stone in Poor Things (2023)
32. Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
33. Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich (2000)
34. Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)
35. Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953)
36. Emma Thompson in Howards End (1992)
37. Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker (1962)
38. Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934)
39. Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking (1995)
40. Bette Davis in Jezebel (1938)

41. Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950)
42. Sophia Loren in Two Women (1961)
43. Cher in Moonstruck (1987)
44. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
45. Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond (1981)
46. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
47. Jodie Foster in The Accused (1988)
48. Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God (1986)
49. Katherine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
50. Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (2004)

51. Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
52. Brie Larson in Room (2015)
53. Nicole Kidman in The Hours (2002)
54. Sally Field in Places in the Heart (1984)
55. Emma Stone in La La Land (2016)
56. Patricia Neal in Hud (1963)
57. Bette Davis in Dangerous (1935)
58. Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver (1942)
59. Julie Christie in Darling (1965)
60. Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

61. Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
62. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
63. Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady (2011)
64. Julianne Moore in Still Alice (2014)
65. Shirley Booth in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)
66. Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
67. Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo (1955)
68. Frances McDormand in Nomadland (2020)
69. Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
70. Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love (1998)

71. Simone Signoret in Room at the Top (1959)
72. Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (1958)
73. Jessica Lange in Blue Sky (1994)
74. Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda (1948)
75. Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941)
76. Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class (1973)
77. Ingrid Bergman in Anastasia (1956)
78. Grace Kelly in The Country Girl (1954)
79. Renee Zellweger in Judy (2019)
80. Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

81. Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (2005)
82. Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943)
83. Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets (1997)
84. Janet Gaynor in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, Sunrise (1928)
85. Elizabeth Taylor in BUtterfield 8 (1960)
86. Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory (1933)
87. Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940)
88. Kate Winslet in The Reader (2008)
89. Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own (1946)
90. Norma Shearer in The Divorcee (1930)

91. Luise Rainer in The Good Earth (1937)
92. Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (2009)
93. Marie Dressler in Min and Bill (1931)
94. Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
95. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932)
96. Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
97. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1929)