Research in Progress (Jan 17, 2022)
Best Actress Winners: 77 (in chronological order)
Janet Gaynor
Mary Pickford
Norma Shearer
Marie Dressler
Helen Hayes
Katharine Hepburn
Claudette Colbert
Bette Davis
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer
Bette Davis
Vivien Leigh
Ginger Rogers
Joan Fontaine
Greer Garson
Jennifer Jones
Ingrid Bergman
Joan Crawford
Olivia De Havilland
Loretta Young
Jane Wyman
Olivia De Havilland
Judy Holliday
Vivien Leigh
Shirley Booth, No Data
Detailed
Audrey Hepburn
Detailed
Grace Kelly
Anna Magnani
Joanne Woodward
Susan Hayward
Simone Signoret
Elizabeth Taylor
Sophia Loren
Anne Bancroft
Patricia Neal
Julie Andrews
Julie Christie
Elizabeth Taylor
Barbra Streisand
Maggie Smith
Glenda Jackson
Jane Fonda
Liza Minnelli
Glenda Jackson
Ellen Burstyn
Louise Fletcher
Faye Dunnaway
Diane Keaton
Jane Fonda
Sally Field
Sissy Spacek
Meryl Streep
Shirley MacLaine
Sally Field
Geraldine Page, father surgeon-author
Marlee Matlin
Cher
Jodie Foster
Jessica Tandy
Kathy Bates
Jodie Foster
Emma Thompson
Holly Hunter
Jessica Lange
Susan Sarandon
Frances McDormand
Helen Hunt
Gwyneth Paltrow
Hilary Swank
Julia Roberts
Hallie Berry
Nicole Kidman
Charlize Theron
Hilary Swank
Reese Witherspoon
Helen Mirren
Marion Cottillard
Kate Winslet
Sandra Bullock
Natalie Portman
Meryl Streep
Jennifer Lawrence
Cate Blanchette
Julianne Moore
Brie Larson
Emma Stone
Frances McDormand
Olivia Colman
(done, see below)
Renee Zellweger
Frances McDormand
Best Actress Winners: 77 (in alphabetical order)
Andrews, Julie
Bancroft, Anne
Bates, Kathy
Bergman, Ingrid
Berry, Hallie
Blanchette, Cate
Booth, Shirley
Bullock, Sandra
Burstyn, Ellen
Cher
Christie, Julie
Colbert, Claudette
Colman, Olivia
(Done)
Cottillard, Marion
Crawford, Joan
Davis, Bette
De Havilland, Olivia
Dressler, Marie
Dunnaway, Faye
Field, Sally
Fletcher, Louise
Fonda, Jane
Fontaine, Joan
Foster, Jodie
Garson, Greer
Gaynor, Janet
Hayes, Helen
Hayward, Susan
Hepburn, Audrey, studied ballet dance
Hepburn, Katharine
Holliday, Judy
Hunt, Helen
Hunter, Holly
Jackson, Glenda
Jones, Jennifer
Keaton, Diane
Kelly, Grace
Kidman, Nicole
Lange, Jessica
Larson, Brie
Lawrence, Jennifer
Leigh, Vivien
Loren, Sophia
MacLaine, Shirley
Magnani, Anna
Matlin, Marlee
McDormand Frances
Minnelli, Liza
Mirren, Helen
Moore, Julianne
Neal, Patricia
Page, Geraldine, upper middle
Paltrow, Gwyneth
Pickford, Mary
Portman, Natalie
Rainer, Luise
Roberts, Julia
Rogers, Ginger
Sarandon, Susan
Shearer, Norma
Signoret, Simone
Smith, Maggie
Spacek, Sissy
Stone, Emma
Streep, Meryl
Streisand, Barbra
Swank, Hilary
Tandy, Jessica
Taylor, Elizabeth
Theron, Charlize
Thompson, Emma
Winslet, Kate
Witherspoon, Reese
Woodward, Joanne
Wyman, Jane
Young, Loretta
Zellweger, Rene
Olivia Colman
Sarah Caroline Colman was born in Norwich on January 30, 1974, the daughter of nurse Mary (née Leakey) and chartered surveyor Keith Colman.
She was privately educated at Norwich High School for Girls and Gresham’s School in Holt, Norfolk. Her first role was Jean Brodie in a school production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the age of 16. She cites her mother’s interrupted career as a ballet dancer as an inspiration to pursue acting professionally. Colman spent a term studying primary teaching at Homerton College, Cambridge before studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, from which she graduated in 1999.
During her time at Cambridge, she auditioned for the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club and met future co-stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
Colman was a subject of the UK genealogy program Who Do You Think You Are? in July 2018. Although she expected that her family tree would mainly relate to Norfolk, it was discovered that her fourth great-grandfather, Richard Campbell Bazett, had been born on the island of Saint Helena and that he worked in London for the East India Company. Bazett’s son, Colman’s third great-grandfather Charles Bazett, married Harriot Slessor.
Researchers discovered that she was born in the Indian city of Kishanganj, lost her British father when she was aged three, and then made the journey to England alone. Slessor’s passage was paid for by her paternal grandmother. The episode speculated that Slessor’s mother might have been Indian, but did not present concrete proof; after the episode aired, the Berkshire Record Office published the will of Slessor’s mother, which proved that her name was Seraphina Donclere, evidently of European origin, and that she died in 1810.
Colman made her professional acting debut in 2000, at the age of 26, as part of the BBC2 comedy sketch show Bruiser. She has since appeared in roles in many BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 television series, such as People Like Us, Look Around You, Black Books, The Office, The Time of Your Life and provided the voice-over for Five’s poll for Britain’s Funniest Comedy Character.
Colman regularly featured in BBC Radio 4 comedies, such as Concrete Cow, Think the Unthinkable, The House of Milton Jones and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. She was also the voice of Minka, the Polish secretary in the Radio 4 comedy Hut 33, set in a fictional codebreaking hut of the real-life Bletchley Park during World War II. Colman appeared as Bev, alongside Mark Burdis as Kev, in a series of television adverts for AA car insurance. She provided voices for the Andrex “be kind to your behind” adverts and Glade fragrance adverts, where her character is a gorilla.
