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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
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Spring Byington
Spring Byington (October 17, 1886 – September 7, 1971) was an American actress, best remembered for her seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. Earlier, she was a key MGM contract player.
She was born Spring Dell...
Eve Arden
Eve Arden (April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she is perhaps best remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging high school...
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985), better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as the oversolicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, the eccentric life-loving...
Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth (August 30, 1898 – October 16, 1992) was an American actress.
Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she...
Jean Hagen
Jean Hagen (August 3, 1923 - August 29, 1977) was an American film actress.
Hagen was born as Jean Shirley Verhagen in Chicago, Illinois, to Dutch immigrant Christian Verhagen (10 August 1890 - April 1983) and his Chicago-born wife, Marie (b. 25 May...
Donna Reed
Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 - January 14, 1986) was an American film and television actress.
Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane (née Shives) and William Richard Mullenger. The eldest of five...
Hope Lange
Hope Elise Ross Lange (November 28, 1933 – December 19, 2003) was an American stage, film, and television actress.
Lange was born into a theatrical family in Redding, Connecticut. Her father, John George Lange (1885–1942), was a musician (cellist)...
Cara Williams
Cara Williams (born June 29, 1925, Brooklyn, New York) is a retired American film and television actress.
Born as Bernice Kamiat to an Austrian emigrant father and a mother of Rumanian descent, she began her screen acting career in 1941, and was...
Jan Clayton
Jan Clayton (August 26, 1917, Tularosa, New Mexico - August 28, 1983, West Hollywood, California) was a film, musical theatre, and television actress.
None of her film roles were notable, except for an unbilled role as a singing inmate in The Snake...
Gracie Allen
Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen (July 26, 1895 – August 27, 1964), better known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedienne who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns. For contributions to the...
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918 – 3 August 1995) was an English-American film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her forty-eight year career, she appeared in fifty-nine films, and directed nine others. She also appeared in...
Jane Wyatt
Jane Waddington Wyatt (August 12, 1910 – October 20, 2006) was an American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television series Father Knows Best and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science...
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (born December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the first and only Hispanic female 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...
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality. She was most popular during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 1950s.
After failing singing auditions for the...
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg (October 3, 1898 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress and screenwriter. A pioneer of classic radio, Berg was one of the first women to create, write, produce and star in a long-running hit when she premiered her serial comedy...
Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (born December 14, 1946) is an American actress of stage, film, and television. She was able to make the rare successful transition from child star (winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16) to award...
Mary Stuart
Mary Stuart (July 4, 1926 - February 28, 2002) was an American actress and singer/songwriter.
She was born as Mary Stuart Houchins in Miami, Florida and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she graduated from Tulsa Central High School and attended the...
Award Nominations:
Inger Stevens
Inger Stevens (October 18, 1934 – April 30, 1970) was a Swedish-American movie and TV actress. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
Growing up in Sweden, Stevens was an insecure and often ill child. She was 9 years old when her parents divorced, and...
Irene Ryan
Irene Ryan (October 17, 1902 – April 26, 1973) was an American actress, one of the few entertainers who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television and Broadway.
She is most widely known for her portrayal of "Granny" on the long-running TV...
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE (born 8 March 1943) is an English actress.
A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn Redgrave trained in London, before making her theatrical debut in 1962. By the mid 1960s she had appeared in several films,...
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and...
Paula Prentiss
Paula Prentiss (born March 4, 1938) is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View.
Prentiss first became known as a comedic actress with...
Award Nominations:
Barbara Feldon
Barbara Feldon (born Barbara Hall on March 12, 1941) is an American former model and a prolific character actress of stage who is primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 on the popular 1960s sitcom,...
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman (born April 30, 1926) is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other female performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...
Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1933 – May 18, 1995) was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape...
Carol Kane
Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress, known for her work on stage, screen and television.
Kane was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Joy, a jazz singer, teacher, dancer, and pianist, and Michael Kane, an...
Lee Grant
Lee Grant (born October 31, 1927) is an American theater, film and television actress, and film director who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.
Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal in New York City, the daughter of...
Valerie Harper
Valerie Harper (born August 22, 1939) is an American actress, best known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television show The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and its spin-off, Rhoda.
Harper was born in Suffern, New York at Good Samaritan...
Suzanne Pleshette
Suzanne Pleshette (January 31, 1937 – January 19, 2008) was an American actress, on stage, screen and television.
After beginning her career in theatre, she began appearing in films in the early 1960s, such as Rome Adventure (1962) and Alfred...
Jean Stapleton
Jean Stapleton (born Jeanne Murray, January 19, 1923 in New York City, New York) is an American character actress of stage, television and film. Stapleton is best known for her portrayal of Edith Baines Bunker, the long-suffering, yet devoted wife...
Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin (born October 15, 1937) is an American singer and actress. She is best known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her Broadway performances.
Born in Portland, Maine to musically-talented parents, Lavin has been...
Award Nominations:
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...
Polly Holliday
Polly Dean Holliday (born July 2, 1937; Jasper, Alabama) is an American actress. She has successfully appeared on stage, television and in film. She is best remembered for her portrayal of sassy waitress "Flo" on the 1970s sitcom Alice, and its...
Eileen Brennan
Eileen Brennan (born September 3, 1932) is an American actress of film, television, and theater.
Brennan was born as Verla Eileen Regina Brennen in Los Angeles, California, daughter of Regina "Jeanne" Menehan, a silent film actress, and John Gerald...
Sheree North
Sheree North (January 17, 1932 – November 4, 2005) was an American actress, singer, and dancer.
North was born as Dawn Shirley Crang in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of June, a pearl appraiser and real estate agent. She began dancing in USO...
Katherine Helmond
Katherine Marie Helmond (born July 5, 1928 in Galveston, Texas) is an American film, theater and television actress, who is famous for playing Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, and Debra Barone's mom on Everybody Loves Raymond....
Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Lee Damon (September 11, 1930 – May 4, 1987) was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s.
Born in Seattle, Damon graduated from Tacoma, Washington's historic Stadium High School, moved to...
Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae (born April 22, 1926) is an American character actress, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life (in which...
Bonnie Franklin
Bonnie Gail Franklin (born January 6, 1944) is an American actress, best known for her starring role as a divorced mother in the television series One Day at a Time.
Franklin was born in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Claire (née Hersch)...
Award Nominations:
Nell Carter
Nell Carter (September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress.
Born Nell Ruth Hardy to Horace and Edna Mae Hardy in Birmingham, Alabama, Carter was one of nine children. She overcame adversity...
Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz (born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. Her most famous television...
Mariette Hartley
Mary Loretta "Mariette" Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American character actress.
Hartley was born in Weston, Connecticut, the daughter of Mary Ickes “Polly” (née Watson), a manager and saleswoman, and Paul Hembree Hartley, an account executive...
Joanna Cassidy
Joanna Cassidy (born August 2, 1945) is an American actress, known for her various roles in film and television.
Cassidy was born Joanna Virginia Caskey in Haddonfield, New Jersey, the daughter of Virginia and Joe Caskey.
At an early age, Cassidy...
Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford (August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004) was an American actress best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1975) and The Jeffersons (1975–1985).
Born Isabel Gwendolyn Sanford in...
Susan Saint James
Susan Saint James (born August 14, 1946) is an American actress and activist, most widely known for her work in television during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles, California to a Connecticut family, Saint James was...
Shelley Long
Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress.
Long was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana at 7:00 A.M. on Tuesday, August 23, 1949. The daughter of Evandine, a school teacher, and Leland Long, who worked in the rubber industry before...
Marlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas (born November 21, 1937) is an American actress, who first achieved fame on the TV series That Girl in the 1960s.
Thomas was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Rose Marie (née Cassanti; 1914–2000) and Lebanese...
Jane Curtin
Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedienne.
First coming to prominence as an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975, she would go on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a...
Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern (January 22, 1909 – March 15, 2001) was an American film and television actress with a career spanning six decades.
Sothern was born Harriette Arlene Lake in Valley City, North Dakota, but was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she...
Imogene Coca
Imogene Fernandez de Coca (November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Coca's parents were veterans of the entertainment...
Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur (May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American actress, comedian and singer whose career spanned seven decades. Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude, and as...
Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan (born February 21, 1934) is an American actress, known for her roles as Vivian Cavender Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls.
McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton,...
Blair Brown
Bonnie Blair Brown (born April 23, 1947) is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title...
Delta Burke
Delta Ramona Leah Burke (born July 30, 1956, in Orlando, Florida) is an American television and film actress. She is probably best known for her role as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom Designing Women.
Burke graduated from Colonial High School...
Betty White
Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is an American actress, comedian and former television host with a career spanning over sixty-five years. Her television roles include Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The...
Tyne Daly
Tyne Daly (born February 21, 1946) is an American stage and screen actress, widely known for her work as Detective Lacey in the television series Cagney and Lacey. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in...
Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing (born February 13, 1944) is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for...
Marion Ross
Marion Ross (born October 25, 1928) is an American actress, best known for her role as, "Marion Cunningham," on the TV series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.
Born Marian Ross in Watertown, Minnesota, she lived in Waconia and then moved to Willmar and...
Annie Potts
Anne Hampton "Annie" Potts (born October 28, 1952) is an American television and film actress.
She was born Anne Hampton Potts in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Franklin, Kentucky, where she graduated from Franklin-Simpson High School. She is...
Award Nominations:
Roseanne Barr
MC Roseanne Cherie Barr (born November 3, 1952) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and television producer and director.
Barr won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work on Roseanne. In addition, she has won...
