Best Actress Rewind: 1959

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.