Top 10 Jewish Actresses to Take “Oscar” Home – Thursday’s Top Ten List

Created by Matthew J. Goldberg, tipofthegoldberg.com

This week, we examine the Top 10 Jewish actresses to ever win an Academy Award (popularly known as the Oscar) as a lead or supporting performer.

You may know that since the first Oscars were awarded in 1929, many Jewish performers have been nominated for, and won, this prestigious statuette for thespians. But, did you know either of the following factoids?

The first ceremony (none of the festivities were televised until 1953) was held for 270 guests at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The guests were charged $5 a head. Yes, five dollars, and I think that included dinner; the use of doggie bags was, allegedly, frowned upon.

According to Oscar.org, nobody is exactly sure why the Academy Award® of Merit is called the Oscar. There is an urban legend that the Academy’s librarian and future executive director saw the statuette for the first time and said that it resembled her Uncle Oscar.

(And maybe it did. For that matter, I often thought that the Monopoly man resembled my Uncle Albert.)

Thanks to this website, we do know that Uncle Oscar stands 13.5 inches tall, weighs 8.5 pounds and is lusted after by actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, technical wizards and studio bosses. We also know that quite a few Jewish actresses have picked up Uncle Oscar for the world to see and then taken him home.

What follows is one man’s opinion of the 10 (technically, eleven) Greatest Jewish Actresses to take Oscar Home. We did make room for three ladies who were nominated by the Academy but left the auditorium without that little, avuncular dude.

10 (tie). Winona Rider:  1971—

Winona Rider was born Winona Laura Horowitz, and named after her birthplace—Winona, Minnesota. She grew up in a ranch in California and is credited (thanks to imdb.com) with 47 titles in her filmography.

Winona has not yet won an Oscar, but was nominated twice: as a lead actress for 1994’s Little Women and as a supporting actress for Age of Innocence (1993).

10 (tie) Bette Midler: 1945—

With the given name of Bette Davis Midler, one would think that the Honololu-born singer would sooner or later leave her mark on Hollywood.

Once nicknamed the Divine Miss M, Midler has won multiple Grammy Awards as a singer, but she also has 36 (TV and movie) titles to her credit.

She has been nominated for two Oscars as a lead actress, for The Rose (1979) and (for) For the Boys (1991).

9. Jennifer Connelly:  1970—

More than just a pretty face, this model-turned actress has many serious roles to her credit, both in major studio releases and in independent films. Connelly grew up in Brooklyn Heights, but also spent four early years around Woodstock, New York. She was nominated for a Supporting Oscar, and won, for her portrayal of Alicia Nash (the incredibly loving and understanding wife of Russell Crowe’s John Nash) in 2001’s A Beautiful Mind.

8. Judy Holliday:  1921—1965

This New York City native, born Judith Tuvim, starred on Broadway as well as on the big screen, before passing at age 44 after a five-year bout with cancer.

She was a unique entertainer, and won the 1950 Oscar for Best Actress for her charming portrayal of Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. In winning the award, she beat out three of the most iconic female lead performances of all-time—Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard and both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve.

7. Lauren Bacall:  1924—

New York City’s Betty Perskie is still going strong at age 87, with occasional screen performances to her credit.

Bacall was a luminous, sexy screen presence who was famously married to Humphrey Bogart from 1945-1957 (when “Bogey” passed.) She is also a first cousin of former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

She has been nominated for one film, The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).

6. Natalie Portman:  1981—

Natalie Hershlag was born in Jerusalem, before her family (she is the only child of an Israeli father and American mother) moved to Long Island when she was three.

If you like your women beautiful and brainy (an honors student who attended Harvard) then Natalie may be the actress for you, She was nominated as a supporting actress in 2004’s Closer, and won this past year as the lead in 2010’s Black Swan.

5. Debra Winger:  1955—

There may have been no more popular, “hotter” actress in the early 1980s than Cleveland Heights, Ohio’s Mary Debra Winger.

Winger received back-to-back nominations for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983). For the latter, she lost the Oscar to her co-lead, Shirley MacLaine. By all accounts, there was not much endearment lost between the two actresses…am I sounding like a yenta here? For what it’s worth, I thought both actresses were terrific, but would have given the award to Winger.

Debra was also nominated as the lead, opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins in 1993’s Shadowlands.

4. Barbra Streisand:  1942—

Speaking of Shirley MacLaine, and we kind of were, it is reported that Shirley and Barbra celebrate their joint birthdays (April 24) together each year. The Brooklyn-born Streisand is eight years younger, and she would get my vote over the ultra-talented Shirley “Mac’ to sing ‘Happy Birthday.’

That consideration aside, “Babs” has had an amazing career as a recording artist, stage star, writer, director and actress.

Barbra won an Oscar for her very first film role, portraying Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968). The vote was actually a tie (the only acting deadlock in Oscar’s history) between her and Katharine Hepburn. That is quite a debut.

She was also nominated for her performance in The Way We Were (1973) and has won another Oscar for Best Song (Evergreen) for A Star is Born (1976). “Scattered Pic—tures”….oops, wrong song.

3. Shelley Winters: 1920—2006

This dynamic actress, whose real name was Shirley Schrift, was credited with 159 titles and nominated four times:

1951 – Nominated as a lead in A Place in the Sun (which also starred Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift)

1959 – Won in support as Mrs. Van Daan for The Diary of Anne Frank

1969 – Won in support for A Patch of Blue.

1972 – Nominated in support for The Poseidon Adventure,

Two more things: Winters once roomed with Marilyn Monroe.

She donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank Museum.

2. Luise Rainer:  1910—

Luise Rainer was the first thespian (male or female) to win Oscars in back-to-back years, and she was also the first to win two Academy Awards for acting.

Born in Dusseldorf, Germany to a prosperous Jewish family, Rainer became a sensation on stage in Vienna, Austria before emigrating to the United States in 1935. She received a seven-year contract from Louis Mayer, head of the MGM studio prior to leaving Europe.

Ms. Rainer (who is still living in London, at age 101) won her Oscars for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937). These were the second and third films that she ever made. Some think that she was good in The Great Ziegfeld and great in The Good Earth; I can only vouch for the latter.

Unfortunately, the awards probably ruined her career, as the studio did not really know how to utilize her talents, and she was quite outspoken and critical of the Hollywood studio/star system. She was always more interested in the work, itself, and in making a difference than in being a movie star.

Rainer did not appear on the silver screen between 1943 and 1997.

1. Elizabeth Taylor:  1932—2011

Where does one start with the iconic Liz, born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor to American parents in London, England? She moved to Los Angeles, California when she was seven and became a child star (especially on the strength of 1944’s National Velvet) five years later.

Taylor is known as much for her beauty, humanitarianism, fashion sense and her eight marriages as much as her acting, but in her day, she was also a terrific actress—as well as a leading movie star. Liz was nominated for Best Actress in four consecutive years.

Overall, Liz was nominated for the Academy Award five times in a ten-year period (all as a lead) and took Oscar home the last two times. She was nominated for her work in:

1957 – Raintree County

1958 – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

1959 ­­– Suddenly, Last Summer

1960 ­– Butterfield 8

1966 – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

That concludes this Thursday’s Top 10 list; next week we will look at the Top 10 Actors Who Brought Oscar Home. If you have any observations or suggestions for future lists, please comment below or email me via Matt@tipofthegoldberg.com.

Matthew J. (call him Matt) Goldberg will be presenting a Jewish-style Top Ten list every Thursday on www.jewocity.com. Please send feedback or suggestions to Matt@tipofthegoldberg.com.

For information about Matt’s books, sports columns, speaking events and requests for appearances and custom writing, please visit www.tipofthegoldberg.com, or contact him via email. His new Facebook Fan Page (please “like”) can be found here.