Best Actress

Best Actress unlike Best Actor tends to skew towards younger winners, of course this is partially due to lack of strong roles for actresses as they grow older. 23 of the winners have been under the age of 30 when they won their prize, compared to the one (Adrien Brody) in the Best Actor category.  Marlee Matlin at 21 is the youngest winner of the lead category with Jessica Tandy the oldest at 80 for Driving Miss Daisy.  Much like the Best Actor category the award has also skewed to performances portraying a historical figure, with six of this years nominees falling into this category.  With Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock as front runners this number should increase to seven. Katherine Hepburn has dominated this category taking four wins, accounting for three of the eight winners to be aged 60+.  Like the Best Actor category it helps the nominee to be from a movie nominated for Best Picture.


 Numbers below

Winner Nominated Film: 53 times 65%
Winner From Best Picture Winner: 11 times 13%
Real Person: 16 times 20%
Average Age: 36.2
Over 50: 8 times 9.8%
Under 30: 23 times 28%
Youngest Winner: Marlee Matlin - Children of a Lesser God
Oldest Winner: Jessica Tandy - Driving Miss Daisy

This year's nominees:

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side (45)
Helen Mirren - The Last Station (64)
Carey Mulligan - An Education (24)
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious (26)
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia (60)

Using recent numbers Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe are at the highest disadvantage by portraying fictional characters, yet yield the advantage of being the only nominees younger than 30. Helen Mirren while portraying a historical figure is also over 60 and won as recently as three years ago in much more heralded picture that was a Best Picture nominee.  Meryl Streep like Helen Mirren is over 60 in a film that missed a Best Picture nomination while portraying a historical figure.  However, Streep hasn't won in close to 30 years and is a Hollywood legend akin to Katherine Hepburn, the rules and conventional wisdom don't apply to someone who even won a nomination for Music of the Heart.  That brings us to Sandra Bullock also portraying a real person in a Best Picture nominee.  Older than the average winner Bullock is still young enough to earn a win in this category.  Bullock also has the star power and pedigree to win, but then again so does Streep.

 Best Actress Chart