I just tapped these out off the top of my head, and when I get back to Connecticut I’ll probably add several more…I’m just roughing this out as I go along:
There are many, many female characters and performances that I will always treasure, but let’s start with Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty. And then…aww, hell: Carey Mulligan in Suffragette, An Education and She Said. Rachel McAdams in The Wedding Crashers. Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings and Shane. Greta Gerwig in Greenberg and Frances Ha, Amy Adams in The Fighter, Teresa Wright in The Best Years of Our Lives. Katy Jurado and Grace Kelly in High Noon. Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story. Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl and What’s Up, Doc. Sally Field in Places of the Heart. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, Network and Mommie Dearest. Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce and Johnny Guitar. Katherine Ross and Anne Bancroft in The Graduate. Frances McDormand in Fargo, Almost Famous and Nomadland. Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. Charlize Theron in Monster and Mad Max: Fury Road. Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979) & Aliens (1986).
![](https://hollywood-elsewhere.com/wp-content/themes/amory/patreon-banner.jpg)