Best Actress born in the 1940s?

As customary.  RANKED. As I always do. 


The Top 5 are goddesses.   Can give enough superlatives to how much I dig them.

#7-13 are all varying degrees of awesome.  

#6 is Meryl Streep.  I just... blah.  Fuck.  I like this woman.  I've always denied it, but I rewatched Bridges of Madison County, and not even I can bring myself to NOT love her.  Her tender emotional roots of sadness I've no idea where she finds it in her, and it's even overwhelming for this hard as rock soul.  Believe me, I'm fucking hard as rock and I haven't seriously cried in 20 years.  and NEVER over a movie.

#14-21 are actresses who's mostly had positive contributions to films, though there are probably people that like them more than I do.

#22-30 I can take or leave, but some of those I just haven't seen enough.  Most of them I have, but there's always a couple you miss here and there.

#31-33 are mediocre at best.  And shouldn't even be on this list.


1. Jessica Lange
2. Helen Mirren
3. Goldie Hawn
4. Ann-Margret
5. Brenda Blethyn
6. Meryl Streep
7. Barbara Streisand
8. Catherine Deneuve
9. Charlotte Rampling
10. Madeline Kahn
11. Julie Christie
12. Sigourney Weaver
13. Patty Duke
14. Sissy Spacek
15. Susan Sarandon
16. Marsha Mason (she's pretty though)
17. Faye Dunaway
18. Diane Keaton
19. Lynn Redgrave
20. Cher
21. Liza Minneli
22. Glenn Close
23. Linda Hunt
24. Brenda Fricker
25. Barbara Hershey
26. Kathy Bates
27. Sally Field
28. Mia Farrow
29. Bette Midler
30. Mercedes Ruehl
31. Jackie Weaver 
32. Jill Clayburgh
33. Dianne Wiest

It's almost bizarre to me that Glenn Close never ended up as revered as Meryl Streep. In terms of overall ability, there's not much difference between the two, imho.

Susan Sarandon is ridiculously underrated as well. Consistently so good. I feel like most American actresses in or near Streep's generation got unfairly underrated because of the Academy's obssession with her. Not that Streep doesn't deserve to be rated as one of the best, but she ain't nearly 20 nominations better than some of her peers.

Lots of great ones here:

I don't really "like" Glenn Close in the way I do like 10 other actresses here, but I like, respect and deeply admire her....... now I adore Mirren, Christie, Lange, Keaton ......but I can't deny Close has to be top 3 talented here especially across all 3 mediums.

So........Streep obviously..........then Close/Mirren but....... Mirren I can't deny either, I love her AND she may be better than Close anyway - to me is way more likable and relatable and overlaps with her a lot:

Prime Suspect on TV could be a Close role, some of Close's better roles could even have been played by Mirren (Dangerous Liasons with Mirren! ), she has the 3 mediums depth ........... Mirren is sexier, more dangerous and she's funnier to me too and no one aside from Streep has Mirren's level of male co-stars which literally reads like a list of the best US/UK actors ever.

...... and she never, EVER gets out-acted by any of them - she always serves the piece and even though it's not a competition she will badly expose you if you're not careful (Recent example: Ian McKellen in The Good Liar and that was just last year ).

I must say, I don't see Close as distinct. Not sure what you guys are seeing. I think she's the ultimate bitch though - and she knows that character like the back of her hand, but I never was of the mind that she's like a Kidman/Blanchett/Streep/Huppert someone you knew held a class distinction over her peers.  But apparently, I need to reevaluate because she seems like the first actress on lots of people's minds in any discussion or debate.


Maybe I'm stuck to the 1982 mindset where it was Streep vs Lange for domination of Hollywood. Streep lost 3 parts to Jessica Lange. Not 1. Not 2. But 3. And she was rejected by Dino de Laurentiis for not being pretty enough for King Kong, still talking about it even in her 60s. Just saying, it seemed like she was always out-classed and bettered by her big sister Jess in the early 80s. The script began to turn fast, but Jessica was Hollywood first lady like in... 1984 or something. For this reason, Jessica Lange stands out.  Though her peak was kinda brief.

And....like dur, every straight guy knows Lange is hotter.... in 1976.  Lol

Spacek, Bates and Weaver.

The thing about Close, and this did dawn on me when I was watching an old Siskel & Ebert's Oscar episode, where they pointed out that she didn't get nominated for Reversal of Fortune, is that the award circuits branch as a whole seemed to really get tired of her for some reason, to the extent that they never did with Streep. There's also the fact that a lot of the movies she did in mid 90s and 2000s were either too mainstream (101 Dalmatians), or too small and niche (she took a lot of supporting roles it should be noted). I think like a lot of actresses like her, she suffered the dreaded age problem, and it took her taking control of her movie career again (Albert St. Nobbs, Damages), for people, especially the Academy Branch to really start noticing and appreciating her talents again.