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Oscar Nominees:
Doris Day ... Pillow Talk
Audrey Hepburn ... The Nun’s Story
Katharine Hepburn ... Suddenly, Last Summer
Simone Signoret ... Room at the Top
Elizabeth Taylor ... Suddenly, Last Summer
Mazur Nominees:
Dorothy Dandridge … Porgy and Bess
Marilyn Monroe … Some Like it Hot
Simone Signoret … Room at the Top
Elizabeth Taylor … Suddenly, Last Summer
Lana Turner … Imitation of Life
Oscar Winner: Simone Signoret took top honors for her blowsy, strong portrait of a middle-aged woman in a doomed affair with a younger man. The French actress bested some seriously iconic American actresses, including two Hepburns, Doris Day in her single Oscar bid, and Taylor, who was on a very hot streak during this period. Signoret was poignant in the drama, and it is tough to not endorse her win, but this was a very competitive year in which there were several deserving choices, including several other Hollywood legends who weren’t even nominated.
Mazur Winner: After delivering one of the most sexy screen performances of all-time the in a Tennessee Williams classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), legend Elizabeth Taylor did something amazing: she gave an even more incredible performance in another Williams piece the very next year in Suddenly, Last Summer. Taylor knew her way around a Williams story and shined the brightest when speaking his language. This tale of homosexuality, mental illness, money, and cannibalism was, unsurprisingly, a box office hit, but it is also one of Taylor’s best moments as an actress.
