Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda, and Diane Keaton. Those are the nine women who have won the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. With yesterday’s announcement that George Clooney will receive the 2018 honor, that brings the total number of men to 37.
See an imbalance?
Clooney is a very worthy honoree. Actor, screenwriter, director, producer, he has two Oscars and a slew of nominations to his credit. He is indeed a star.
But with gender equity in mind, let me get an early start on suggesting who the AFI might think about when next year’s award comes up for discussion. It’s not like there aren’t some pretty good options.
Faye Dunaway
Well, were she to win the award, at least she wouldn’t be the one doing the presenting. That’s a cheap reference to the La La Land/Moonlight faux pas, and Dunaway doesn’t deserve that. From the mid 1960s through the mid 1970s, she was spectacular. As Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967), as Evelyn Mulwray (Chinatown, 1974) and as Diana Christensen (Network, 1976 – her Oscar) – was there ever an actress who could capture such fragile sexuality, such doomed nobility? And then … well, that’s the problem. Despite an interesting role here and there, (her best-known role at this point might be as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest, 1981), there isn’t a lot more to talk about. Perhaps more than anyone else on this list, Dunaway personifies what critic David Thomson referred to as the “helpless example of what happens to star actresses as they grow older.” Fortunately, some of the others appearing below are rectifying that situation. Dunaway might have been better served being born a few decades later.
Lily Tomlin
If we consider television, Tomlin soars up this list. From her wonderful comic work on Laugh-In to her highly decorated turn on Grace and Frankie some 45 years later, Tomlin has been a marvel. That is why she recently got a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. Throw in her stage work, her stand-up comedy, and her comedy albums, and you see why she was a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor in 2014. Tomlin has three quarters of an EGOT. But she is missing the Oscar. Despite being nominated for the award in her big screen debut (Nashville, 1975), and subsequent strong work in The Late Show (1977), All of Me (1984), and Short Cuts (1993), Tomlin’s film career has been far more sporadic than, say, Steve Martin, another comedian who recently received the AFI honor. But Tomlin may not be done. She is 78 now, but she could have easily snagged a Best Actress nomination last year for Grandma.
Sandra Bullock
She has an Oscar, for The Blindside, and another nomination, for Gravity, and is arguably the most commercially significant name on this list in 2017. But despite her ability to effortlessly switch between action, comedy, and drama, Bullock doesn’t yet have the deep resume necessary for the honor.
Glenn Close
She has plenty of depth, along with six Oscar nominations (three for Lead and three for Supporting). From her very first appearance on film (1982’s The World According to Garp), Close has been contributing one strong, unique performance after another. My hesitation to move her higher stems from the entirely subjective thought that – despite her central role in the iconic Fatal Attraction – Close has simply never been a really big star. I could be wrong about that, but my sense is that typical filmgoers simply don’t think of her in the same terms as some of the names that are still to come.
Julianne Moore
All those things I just said about Glenn Close – they might apply here as well. But Moore’s career seems to still be ascending. She won her first Oscar in 2014 (for Still Alice) and has four other nominations to her credit. Her early work in Safe and Short Cuts is brilliant, and she continues to take on intriguing roles, acting for directors as diverse as Kimberly Pierce, David Cronenberg, Rebecca Miller, and Todd Haynes – all within the last four years.
Julie Andrews
She has the hits (the massive musicals Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music), she has an Oscar, and she has some good comedy work with her late husband Blake Edwards. She is a Dame, for God’s sake. At 82, she has not been a relevant actress for many years, but that doesn’t diminish her long run of success. As much as I hate to admit it, I simply have never found Andrews to be a great actress. A wonderful performer, to be sure, but there is too much mediocrity on her resume for me to go higher than this.
Holly Hunter
She has her Oscar (for The Piano) and her multiple nominations. She has multiple stand-out performances for the Coen brothers and is as comfortable moving between serious drama and outrageous comedy as anyone on this list. And with her fine work in this year’s The Big Sick, for which she may just nab her fifth Oscar nomination, she is clearly still going strong. Had Hunter wanted to act in more mainstream movies over the past two decades, she might be at the top of this list.
Sally Field
She has two Best Actress Oscars, one of only three women on this list to be so honored. After early success in television comedies, she proved her serious acting chops in Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984). And she handled the transition into playing age effortlessly as Tom Hanks’ mother in Forrest Gump (1994 – just six years after playing Hanks’ love interest in Punchline). More recently, she has been Mary Lincoln (Lincoln, 2012), and the quirky center of Hello My Name is Doris (2015). It is a long and formidable career, and if I have never found her quite as interesting as some of the names that I have ranked ahead of her, I will entertain the notion that this may say something more about me than it does about her.
Jessica Lange
Remember what I said about Holly Hunter? Well, I have always had the feeling that if she wanted it, Jessica Lange could be the best actress out there. She has the record to back up that assessment. Five Best Actress Oscar nominations between 1982 and 1994, along a Supporting Actress win for Tootsie in ’82, making her one the few performers to get multiple nominations in the same year. Most of her significant work after 2000 has come on television, where she continues to bring her rare power to American Horror Story.
Sigourney Weaver
I will admit right up front that I am surprised I have Weaver this high on my list. As with some of the names already mentioned, I never think of her as a huge star. I do think of her as a remarkably versatile actress, who has been a stand-out in drama (1988’s Gorillas in the Mist, 1997’s The Ice Storm), comedy (1988’s Working Girl, 1999’s Galaxy Quest) and of course, action/horror. The fact that she was at the center of the impactful Alien series is crucial. The fact that she was a key player in Ghostbusters matters. The fact that she continues to produce strong and varied work (poignant and stern in A Monster Calls and simply changing the landscape with her voice in Finding Dory, both in 2016) attests to her longevity. It’s a significant career.
Nicole Kidman
She just turned 50 and was nominated for her fourth Oscar (the first in the Supporting category) last year. Clearly, Kidman will be adding to her legacy for quite some time. That may be the best argument against honoring her now. She has done her share of mediocre movies – what actress hasn’t? – but she is almost always very good. Often, she is the best thing on the screen. (I’m looking at you, Eyes Wide Shut.) I know selections like this don’t come down to one movie and one role, but I can’t think of another performance by an actress that I have enjoyed more in the last 25 years than Kidman’s in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For (1995).
Susan Sarandon
The elephant in the room here is Sarandon’s outspoken political positioning. In short, she has managed to piss off conservatives and liberals alike, and quite frankly, it’s hard to see her getting this type of honor at this particular time. But I refer you to 2014, when Jane Fonda received her award. Sarandon produces mild discomfort next to the burning hatred some felt for Fonda. Time softens, if it doesn’t actually heal, and Sarandon’s time may still be coming. Because when you look at her career apart from the politics, it is full of merit. She was Janet Weiss (dammit) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and just last year she turned in a solid lead in The Meddler. That’s a 40 year span right there, and in between she created nuanced portraits in Pretty Baby (1978) and Atlantic City (1980), as well as the iconic slump buster Annie Savoy in Bull Durham (1988) and the more sensible half of Thelma and Louis (1991). She finally won her Oscar in 1995 for Dead Man Walking, and has continued to work consistently in a wide range of good and bad movies ever since.
Jodie Foster
Foster has two Oscars and a handful of iconic creations. Though just 55, it feels like she has been around forever because she began so young. Her Iris in Taxi Driver (1976) is a miracle. We got to watch her grow up on screen and by the time she won her first Oscar as the tough as nails rape victim in The Accused (1988), it seemed only logical that this was the top actress of the new generation. A few years later, with her iconic portrait of Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs (1991), she cemented that position. Here was a young actress who could occupy the frame with Anthony Hopkins and not disappear. Then – then … not a lot happened. She did make a lot of movies, but none of them shone as bright. What she also did was turn her attention to work behind the camera, both directing and producing. In those areas, her work has been solid, if not spectacular and it is appropriate to give her credit for pushing her way into positions often denied women. But we can’t overpraise the work. So we are left with an excellent actress who has made a serious mark on American film, and who is still young enough to work more miracles down the road.
Julia Roberts
Roberts was the biggest female star of the 1990s, and there was a time when some thought she was more fluff than substance. But you could tell right from the start, in Donald Petrie’s Mystic Pizza (1988) that she was far more than another pretty woman. Following that up with Steel Magnolias and, you guessed it, Pretty Woman, vaulted her into the upper echelons of Hollywood stardom. And though her movies are no longer events, she has only fallen a little bit from those lofty environs. Whether you like those ‘90s movies or not, you cannot deny the box office success. And then, at the turn of the century, she got her Oscar for Erin Brockovich. Her subsequent films have been a mixed bag, but she has continued to do strong character work in August: Osage County (2013) and on television in The Normal Heart (2014). She is the biggest star on this list.
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek gets overlooked so often, I feel the need to remind people that she may be the best American actress of the final quarter of the 20th century. Six Oscar nominations – all for leading roles. That’s more than anyone on this list. Those nominations cover 25 years, from Carrie (1976) to In the Bedroom (2001). And those six do not include her magnificent work in movies like Badlands (1973), 3 Women (1977), and The Straight Story (1999). In recent years, she has been a treat to watch on television in Bloodline, and it is true she has not been as active as some of the other names here. That may cause more people to forget her, and such is the life of the actor. But I will offer up one final reason for why she should get very serious consideration for this honor. Think about the iconic roles associated with these performers – the Erin Brockoviches and Norma Raes. The Ripleys. I dare say other actresses could have done fine jobs had they been given these roles. But no one else could have played the roles Spacek played. No one else could have been Carrie White. (A fine young actress, Chloe Grace Moretz, tried a few years ago and it didn’t stand up to the original.) No one could have so embodied Loretta Lynn (the role for which Spacek won her Oscar). No one else endows authentic American steadiness with that special touch of madness that makes her characters essential. Julie Andrews brought special gifts, and it’s true that no one else could have been Maria Von Trapp. But leave singing out of it, and no one on this list is like Sissy Spacek.
That’s 15 pretty solid women who at least merit consideration for the award. My vote would go to Spacek, but I don’t have a vote. That’s why I write things like this. And while I have still have the floor, I do want to mention one other name. She will not get this honor, and that doesn’t really bother me very much. But she has five Oscar nominations and two wins. She was an enormous star in her day and she embodied the glamor of Hollywood when Hollywood truly was glamorous. And this past year, at the age of 100, she was awarded the title of DBE – Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Olivia De Havilland will not be presented with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award this year – she had virtually retired from acting by the time the AFI was founded -- but she is well worth remembering.
