Top 10 Film Actresses of all-time

1. Katharine Hepburn
2. Meryl Streep
3. Bette Davis
4. Ingrid Bergman
5. Geraldine Page
6. Olivia de Havilland
7. Jane Fonda
8. Jessica Lange
9. Greer Garson
10. Maggie Smith

This is my list of who I consider to be the 10 greatest film actresses of all-time. There are many actresses in this current era of film who are simply too young to have compiled the oeuvre of the actresses listed below (Kate Winslet being the best example - she is probably in the next 10, and is only an oscar win and a nomination or two away from jumping into the top 10). There are actresses who did most of their work overseas, and as such it is very difficult to objectively judge them in comparison with actors who worked in the United States (Liv Ullman being the best example I can think of here). Then there are actresses who are still working, but experiencing a lull in the quality of their work (Jodie Foster is the prime example here - she is clearly in the top 20, and 15 years ago anyone making a list like this would have guaranteed her arrival on it within five years. She is still only one or two great performances away from jumping into the top 10, but she needs to get serious about her acting again if she's going to do it).

I am completely convinced that the top four on this list are the four greatest film actresses of all-time. No one can convince me otherwise. Katharine Hepburn has to be #1. There is no other way around it. Hepburn won 4 oscars, and was nominated for 12 academy awards in all. The most impressive thing about her 12 nominations is that all 12 were for "best actress in a leading role." Meryl Streep may have had more nominations, but not more "leading role" nominations. Go through Hepburn's list of films, her work is mind blowing: "Bringing Up Baby," "Holiday," "The Philadelphia Story," "The African Queen," "Suddenly, Last Summer," "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Those are films she didn't win oscars for. Hepburn is the Sugar Ray Robinson of actresses: she's the best ever and it's difficult to even present an argument stating differently.

Meryl Streep is #2 on my list, although really Streep, Davis and Bergman could be 2a, 2b, and 2c. I gave Streep the nod based on her 14 oscar nominations (11 as a leading lady) and 2 wins (a leading win for "Sophie's Choice" and a supporting win for "Kramer vs. Kramer"). Other classic Streep films include "The Deer Hunter," "Adaptation," and "Silkwood."

Bette Davis won 2 oscars (for "Dangerous" in 1936 and "Jezebel" in 1939) and was nominated for 11 overall. As with Hepburn, all of Davis' nominations were for lead roles. Her best performances were in the classic "All About Eve" and the eery and disturbing "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Ingrid Bergman won 3 oscars (for "Gaslight," "Anastasia," and "Murder on the Orient Express"). She was nominated for 7 in total, 6 in a leading role ("Murder on the Orient Express" was a supporting nod). Her greatest role, however, came in "Casablanca," quite possibly the best film ever made. Throw in a great performance in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" and "Spellbound" and Ingmar Bergman's "Autumn Sonota" and (Ingrid) Bergman is clearly one of the top 4 actresses of all-time.

After Hepburn, Streep, Davis, and Bergman, the list gets a little more difficult to put together. I could see any of the #5-8 group switched around in any order. I could see #9-10 off the list altogether.

I put Geraldine Page at #5 because she was nominated for 8 oscars, won 1, and perservered through 32 years and 7 nominations before finally winning for "The Trip to Bountiful" in 1985. Her performance in Woody Allen's "Interiors" is brilliant. She managed to take average movies like "White Nights" and "The Pope of Greenwich Village" and make them more than watchable. Page also happened to be the best actress John Wayne ever worked with in "Hondo."

Olivia de Havilland is my personal favorite actress of all-time and she quite possibly deserves to be ranked higher on this list than she already is (I purposefully put her as low as I felt was justifiably possible because of my bias towards her). de Havilland was nominated for 5 oscars and won 2 (for "To Each His Own" and "The Heiress"). Her most memorable performances, however, were as Melanie "Gone With the Wind" and Maid Marian in "The Adventures of Robin Hood," two of the best films ever made.

Jane Fonda, #7 on the list, was nominated for 7 oscars, winning 2 for "Klute" and "Coming Home." However (maybe you are beginning to see a trend here), her best roles came in the classic "On Golden Pond" (with Katharine Hepburn) and "The China Syndrome." Of course, who could forget the brilliance of my personal favorite movie of all time, "Barbarella"?

Jessica Lange won 2 oscars, for "Tootsie" and "Blue Sky." She was nominated 6 times, including twice in 1983. My favorite Jessica Lange film is "Big Fish." It was probably not her best performance, but watching the film, one notices the subtleness with which she can portray virtually any emotion. I particularly enjoyed her in "Cape Fear" as well.

Greer Garson won the oscar for William Wyler's "Mrs. Miniver." She was nominated for 7 oscars. Her best role was probably in Mervyn LeRoy's "Random Harvest" as Paula Ridgeway. Garson was also excellent as Elizabeth Bennett in the 1940 version of "Pride and Prejudice" (although Keira Knightley blew Garson out of the water relatively recently). Garson put together a long, solid career, although I wouldn't expect to see her on this list more than 5 years from now. One could probably convince me to take her off the list today (along with Maggie Smith), given a strong argument.

Dame Maggie Smith was in a battle with Dame Judi Dench for the final spot on this list. Smith won out based on a more robust career resume than Dench (although Dench has clearly been the better performer over the last 10 years). Smith won 2 oscars, for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "California Suite." She was brilliant as Desdemona in Laurence Olivier's "Othello" (although I must admit watching Olivier in "blackface," in 1965 no less, is kind of disturbing...also, if one doesn't know that this version is simply a filmed play, they could be very confused). Smith put on another great performance in Robert Altman's "Gosford Park." And who could forget her role as Granny Wendy in "Hook" or Minerva McGonagall in the "Harry Potter" series?

There needs to be a special mention here for Falconetti, a theater actress in the early 1900s. She made only one film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc," but her performance in that film is so brilliant that many critics, including Roger Ebert, have called it the greatest performance in the history of film. Watch "The Passion" and you will understand why.