Year
Actress
Film
2003
Charlize Theron
Monster
2002
Nicole Kidman
The Hours
2001
Halle Berry
Monster's Ball
2000
Julia Roberts
Erin Brockovich
1999
Hilary Swank
Boys Don't Cry
1998
Gwyneth Paltrow
Shakespeare in Love
1997
Helen Hunt
As Good As It Gets
1996
Frances McDormand
Fargo
1995
Susan Sarandon
Dead Man Walking
1994
Jessica Lange
Blue Sky
1993
Holly Hunter
The Piano
1992
Emma Thompson
Howards End
1991
Jodie Foster
The Silence of the Lambs
1990
Kathy Bates
Misery
1989
Jessica Tandy
Driving Miss Daisy
1988
The Accused
1987
Cher
Moonstruck
1986
Marlee Matlin
Children of a Lesser God
1985
Geraldine Page
The Trip to Bountiful
1984
Sally Field
Places in the Heart
1983
Shirley MacLaine
Terms of Endearment
1982
Meryl Streep
Sophie's Choice
1981
Katharine Hepburn
On Golden Pond
1980
Sissy Spacek
Coal Miner's Daughter
1979
Norma Rae
1978
Jane Fonda
Coming Home
1977
Diane Keaton
Annie Hall
1976
Faye Dunaway
Network
1975
Louise Fletcher
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
1974
Ellen Burstyn
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1973
Glenda Jackson
A Touch of Class
1972
Liza Minnelli
Cabaret
1971
Klute
1970
Women in Love
1969
Maggie Smith
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1968
Katharine Hepburn*
The Lion in Winter (Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine)
1966
Elizabeth Taylor
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1965
Julie Christie
Darling
1964
Julie Andrews
Mary Poppins
1963
Patricia Neal
Hud
1962
Anne Bancroft
The Miracle Worker
1961
Sophia Loren
Two Women
1960
Butterfield 8
1959
Simone Signoret
Room at the Top
1958
Susan Hayward
I Want to Live!
1957
Joanne Woodward
The Three Faces of Eve
1956
Ingrid Bergman
Anastasia
1955
Anna Magnani
The Rose Tattoo
1954
Grace Kelly
The Country Girl
1953
Audrey Hepburn
Roman Holiday
1952
Shirley Booth
Come Back, Little Sheba
1951
Vivien Leigh
A Streetcar Named Desire
1950
Judy Holliday
Born Yesterday
1949
Olivia de Hailland
The Heiress
1948
Jane Wyman
Johnny Belinda
1947
Loretta Young
The Farmer's Daughter
1946
Olivia de Havilland
To Each His Own
1945
Joan Crawford
Mildred Pierce
1944
Gaslight
1943
Jennifer Jones
The Song of Bernadette
1942
Greer Garson
Mrs. Miniver
1941
Joan Fontaine
Suspicion
1940
Ginger Rogers
Kitty Foyle
1939
Gone With the Wind
1938
Bette Davis
Jezebel
1937
Luise Rainer
The Good Earth
1936
The Great Ziegfeld
1935
Dangerous
1934
Claudette Colbert
It Happened One Night
1933
Morning Glory
1932
Helen Hayes
The Sin of Madelon Claudet
1931
Marie Dressler
Min and Bill
1930
Norma Shearer
The Divorcee
1929
Mary Pickford
Coquette
1928
Janet Gaynor
7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise
*NOTE: Two awards given in 1968