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BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.
Between 1952 and 1967, two distinct awards were given to the best...
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Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, television and stage.
Hepburn holds the record for the most Best Actress Oscar wins with four, from 12 nominations. Hepburn won an Emmy Award in 1976 for her...
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Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born April 24, 1934) is an American film and theater actress, dancer, activist, and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many...
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Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (born December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the first and only Hispanic and one of ten performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony and at the time the second Puerto Rican to win an...
Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress.
Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network (1976) after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and...
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Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft (September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress associated with the method school of acting.
Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Mildred (née DiNapoli), a telephone operator,...
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Katharine Ross
Katharine Juliet Ross (born January 29, 1940) is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and her...
Lynn Carlin
Lynn Carlin (born Lynn Reynolds on January 31, 1938 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actress. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the movie Faces. Her father, Larry Reynolds, was a Hollywood business manager...
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Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946) is an American singer and actress of film, stage and television. She is the daughter of entertainer Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.
After studying at the New York High School of Performing...
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou and, excluding a 15 year hiatus, has appeared...
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Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow (born February 9, 1945) is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model. Farrow has appeared in more than forty films and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe award (and seven additional Golden Globe nominations), three...
Mary Wimbush
Mary Wimbush (19 March 1924, Kenton, Middlesex — 31 October 2005, Birmingham, West Midlands) was an English actress, whose career spanned sixty years from the 1940s to the 2000s. Active across film, television, theatre and radio, she was perhaps...
Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles (born 31 December 1941) is an English theatre and film actress.
She first attended Roedean but at the age of 15 she enrolled at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Shortly after her completion at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,...
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1941) is a British actress. A pop icon of the "swinging London" era of the 1960s, she has won the Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Christie was born in Chabua, Assam, India,...
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Nanette Newman
Nanette Newman (born 29 May 1934) is an English actress and author.
Born in Northampton, England, she was educated at Sternhold College, the Italia Conti Academy stage school and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London.
An actress who made the...
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Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith Cross, DBE (born 28 December 1934), better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 57 years. Considered to be one of world's...
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Dorothy Tutin
Dame Dorothy Tutin DBE, (8 April 1930 – 6 August 2001) was an English actor of stage, film, and television.
An obituary in The Daily Telegraph described her as "one of the most enchanting, accomplished and intelligent leading ladies on the post-war...
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Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson (born December 19, 1933) is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for appearances in the film Sounder and the television specials The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots.
Tyson was born and raised...
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diana Ernestine Earle Ross, March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. During the 1960s, she helped shape the Motown sound as lead singer of The Supremes, before leaving the group for a solo career on January 14, 1970. Since...
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn (born December 7, 1932) is an American stage and film actress.
Burstyn was born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Correine Marie (née Hamel) and John Austin Gillooly, who was a building contractor. She describes...
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Ingrid Thulin
Ingrid Thulin (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɪŋːrɪd tɵˈliːn]; 27 January 1926 – 7 January 2004) was a Swedish film actress.
Thulin was born in Sollefteå, Ångermanland, northern Sweden, the daughter of Nanna (née Larsson) and Adam Thulin, a fisherman....
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Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (pronounced /ˈstraɪsænd/ STRY-sand; born Barbara Joan Streisand, April 24, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, film maker and actress. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony...
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Valerie Perrine
Valerie Ritchie Perrine (born September 3, 1943) is an American actress and model.
Perrine was born in Galveston, Texas, the daughter of Winifred (née McGinley), a dancer who appeared in George White's Scandals, and Kenneth Perrine, a Lieutenant...
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She has won multiple awards from many quarters, including Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award and has also been nominated for an Academy...
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE (born 9 May 1936) is an English actress and politician, currently Labour Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate in the London Borough of Camden.
She was born in Birkenhead on the Wirral, where her...
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Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher (born July 22, 1934) is an American actress perhaps best known for her role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and as Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Fletcher, the second of four children, was born in...
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the muses of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. A winner of the Golden Globe, Ullmann has also been nominated for both the Palme d'Or and twice...
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Sissy Spacek
Mary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek (born December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Her screen debut was in the 1972 film Prime Cut co-starring Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman.
In the 1970s, she began starring in critically-acclaimed films...
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Marsha Mason
Marsha Mason (born April 3, 1942) is an American actress and television director.
Mason was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Edward Marion Mason, Jr., and his wife Catharine Kentwood-Mason. She has a younger sister, Linda (b. 1943). She grew up on...
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Shelley Duvall
Shelley Alexis Duvall (born July 7, 1949) is an American film and television actress. She began her career in the 1970s films of Robert Altman, followed by roles in movies by Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton.
Duvall was...
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Bette Midler
Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress and comedienne, also known (by her informal stage name) as The Divine Miss M. During her more than forty year career, she has been nominated for two Academy Awards; and won four...
Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh (born April 30, 1944) is an American actress.
Clayburgh was born in New York City, the daughter of Julia Louise (née Dorr), a theatrical production secretary for David Merrick, and Albert Henry "Bill" Clayburgh, a manufacturing...
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore (born December 29, 1936) is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms.
Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman...
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jean Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, film director and producer, whose career has spanned more than four decades. Hawn is perhaps best known for her roles in Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Wildcats, Overboard, Bird on a...
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon (born October 4, 1946) is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1970, and won an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She is also noted for her social and political activism for a...
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton (born Diane Hall; January 5, 1946) is an American film actress, director, and producer. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972),...
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Debra Winger
Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress.
Winger was born Mary Debra Winger in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the daughter of Ruth (née Felder), an office manager, and Robert Winger, a meat packer. She was raised in an Orthodox Jewish...
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Jennifer Kendal
Jennifer Kapoor - born Jennifer Kendal - (28 February 1933 – 7 January 1984) was a British actress who married into the Kapoor family.
Jennifer Kendal was born in Southport, England, but spent much of her youth in India. Her parents (she was the...
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Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE (born 22 February 1950) is an English actress and novelist.
Walters was born as Julia Mary Walters in Smethwick, Sandwell, the daughter of Mary Bridget (née O'Brien), a postal clerk of Irish Catholic extraction, and Thomas Walters...
Phyllis Logan
Phyllis Logan (born 11 January 1956) in Paisley, Scotland is a Scottish television actress.
Logan is probably best known for her part in the 1996 Mike Leigh film Secrets & Lies and for her regular role as Lady Jane Felsham in the television series...
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Judy Davis
Judy Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, A Passage to India and in the TV mini series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.
Davis first came to attention for her role as the fiery...
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an English actress.
Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama. A prolific stage actress...
Kelly McGillis
Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress whose movies include Witness, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, Top Gun, and The Accused.
McGillis attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division, where she performed in...
Alexandra Pigg
Alexandra Pigg is a British actress who first came to prominence as Petra Taylor in the TV soap opera Brookside. Her best known movie appearances are as Elaine in Letter to Brezhnev (1985), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award, and as...
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Cathy Tyson
Catherine "Cathy" Tyson (born 12 June 1965 in Kingston-upon-Thames, London) is an English stage, film and television actress.
The daughter of a Trinidadian barrister father and an English social worker mother, Tyson and her family moved to Liverpool...
Glenn Close
Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987). She has been nominated five times for an Oscar, and has won three...
Holly Hunter
Holly P. Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an American actress. Her films include Raising Arizona, Broadcast News, Always, and The Piano for which she won several acting awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress. She stars in the cable...
Emily Lloyd
Emily Lloyd (born Emily Lloyd Pack; 29 September 1970) is an English actress.
Lloyd was born in London, the daughter of Sheila (née Laden), a theatrical agent who was a longtime secretary at Harold Pinter's stage agency, and Roger Lloyd Pack, who is...
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Cher
Cher (pronounced /ˈʃɛər/; born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American pop singer-songwriter, actor, director and record producer. She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and a People's...
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl. She is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, and the wife of actor Antonio...
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. She became well known during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy Pretty Woman opposite Richard Gere, which grossed $463 million worldwide. After receiving Academy...
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (pronounced /ˈfаɪfər/; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. She made her screen début in 1980, but first garnered mainstream attention with her appearance in Scarface (1983). She rose to prominence during the late...
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Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American stage and screen actress. With a career that has spanned thirty-five years and six Academy Award nominations (including two wins), she may be most notable for her performances in Frances,...
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Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was an English stage and film actress.
She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia...
Pauline Collins
Pauline Collins, OBE (born 3 September 1940) is an English actress who is known for playing Sarah in Upstairs, Downstairs and for playing the title role in Shirley Valentine.
Collins was born in Exmouth, Devon of Irish Catholic extraction and...
Stéphane Audran
Stéphane Audran (born Colette Suzanne Dacheville 2 November 1932 in Versailles, Yvelines) is a French film and television actress, known for her performances in Oscar winning movies such as Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972) and Babette's...
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Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American actress. Woodward is also a television and theatrical producer.
Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elinor Gignilliat (née Trimmier) and Wade Woodward, Jr...
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Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist.
Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, USA, the daughter of Lucille,...
Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson CBE (born 30 October 1956) is an English actress of stage and screen.
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevens was born in Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth (née Marshall), a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevens, an army...
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Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve (French IPA: [katʁin dəˈnœv], born 22 October 1943) is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof, mysterious beauties for various directors, including Luis Buñuel and Roman Polanski. Deneuve won two César...
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Tara Morice
Tara Morice (born 23 June 1964) is an Australian actress, singer, and dancer.
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Morice also lived in Sydney, Alice Springs and Adelaide as a child. She studied Australian history and English at the Australian National...
