1920s
- 1927–1928 Janet Gaynor - Seventh Heaven as Diane, Street Angel as Angela, and Sunrise as The Wife - Indre
- 1928–1929 Mary Pickford - Coquette as Norma Besant
1930s
- 1929–1930 Norma Shearer - The Divorcee as Jerry Bernard Martin
- 1930–1931 Marie Dressler - Min and Bill as Min Divot, Inkeeper
- 1931–1932 Helen Hayes - The Sin of Madelon Claudet as Madelon Claudet
- 1932–1933 Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory as Eva Lovelace
- 1934 Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night as Ellie Andrews
- 1935 Bette Davis - Dangerous as Joyce Heath
- 1936 Luise Rainer - The Great Ziegfeld as Anna Held
- 1937 Luise Rainer - The Good Earth as O-Lan
- 1938 Bette Davis - Jezebel as Julie Marsden
- 1939 Vivien Leigh - Gone with the Wind as Scarlett O’Hara
1940s
- 1940 Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle as Kitty Foyle
- 1941 Joan Fontaine - Suspicion as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth
- 1942 Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver as Mrs. Miniver
- 1943 Jennifer Jones - The Song of Bernadette as Bernadette
- 1944 Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight as Paula Alquist Anton
- 1945 Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce as Mildred Pierce Beragon
- 1946 Olivia de Havilland - To Each His Own as Miss Josephine ‘Jody’ Norris
- 1947 Loretta Young - The Farmer’s Daughter as Katrin Holstrom
- 1948 Jane Wyman - Johnny Belinda as Belinda McDonald
- 1949 Olivia de Havilland - The Heiress as Catherine Sloper
1950s
- 1950 Judy Holliday - Born Yesterday as Emma ‘Billie’ Dawn
- 1951 Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche DuBois
- 1952 Shirley Booth - Come Back, Little Sheba as Lola Delaney
- 1953 Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday as Princess Ann
- 1954 Grace Kelly - The Country Girl as Georgie Elgin
- 1955 Anna Magnani - The Rose Tattoo as Serafina Delle Rose
- 1956 Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia as Anna Koreff / Anastasia
- 1957 Joanne Woodward - The Three Faces of Eve as Eve White / Eve Black / Jane
- 1958 Susan Hayward - I Want to Live! as Barbara Graham
- 1959 Simone Signoret - Room at the Top as Alice Aisgill
1960s
- 1960 Elizabeth Taylor - Butterfield 8 as Gloria Wandrous
- 1961 Sophia Loren - Two Women as Cesira
- 1962 Anne Bancroft - The Miracle Worker as Annie Sullivan
- 1963 Patricia Neal - Hud as Alma Brown
- 1964 Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins as Mary Poppins
- 1965 Julie Christie - Darling as Diana Scott
- 1966 Elizabeth Taylor - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as Martha
- 1967 Katharine Hepburn - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner as Christina Drayton
- 1968 Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl as Fanny Brice and Katharine Hepburn - The Lion in Winter as Eleanor of Aquitaine
- 1969 Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as Jean Brodie
1970s
- 1970 Glenda Jackson - Women in Love as Gudrun Brangwen
- 1971 Jane Fonda - Klute as Bree Daniels
- 1972 Liza Minnelli - Cabaret as Sally Bowles
- 1973 Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class as Vicki Allessio
- 1974 Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore as Alice Hyatt
- 1975 Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as Nurse Ratched
- 1976 Faye Dunaway - Network as Diana Christensen
- 1977 Diane Keaton - Annie Hall as Annie Hall
- 1978 Jane Fonda - Coming Home as Sally Hyde
- 1979 Sally Field - Norma Rae as Norma Rae Webster
1980s
- 1980 Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner’s Daughter as Loretta Lynn
- 1981 Katharine Hepburn - On Golden Pond as Ethel Thayer
- 1982 Meryl Streep - Sophie’s Choice as Sophie Zawistowski
- 1983 Shirley MacLaine - Terms of Endearment as Aurora Greenway
- 1984 Sally Field - Places in the Heart as Edna Spalding
- 1985 Geraldine Page - The Trip to Bountiful as Carrie Watts
- 1986 Marlee Matlin - Children of a Lesser God as Sarah Norman
- 1987 Cher - Moonstruck as Loretta Castorini
- 1988 Jodie Foster - The Accused as Sarah Tobias
- 1989 Jessica Tandy - Driving Miss Daisy as Daisy Werthan
1990s
- 1990 Kathy Bates - Misery as Annie Wilkes
- 1991 Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling
- 1992 Emma Thompson - Howards End as Margaret J. ‘Meg’ Schlegel
- 1993 Holly Hunter - The Piano as Ada McGrath
- 1994 Jessica Lange - Blue Sky as Carly Marshall
- 1995 Susan Sarandon - Dead Man Walking as Sister Helen Prejean
- 1996 Frances McDormand - Fargo as Marge Gunderson
- 1997 Helen Hunt - As Good as It Gets as Carol Connelly
- 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow - Shakespeare in Love as Viola De Lesseps
- 1999 Hilary Swank - Boys Don’t Cry as Brandon Teena
2000s
- 2000 Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich as Erin Brockovich
- 2001 Halle Berry - Monster’s Ball as Leticia Musgrove
- 2002 Nicole Kidman - The Hours as Virginia Woolf
- 2003 Charlize Theron - Monster as Aileen Wuornos
- 2004 Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby as Maggie Fitzgerald
- 2005 Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line as June Carter
- 2006 Helen Mirren - The Queen as Queen Elizabeth II
- 2007 Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose as Edith Piaf
- 2008 Kate Winslet - The Reader
