by Ticia

Created on: August 20, 2008

Wow what an era the 1940's were as we remember the super performances from women in films such as "Kitty Foyle" which earned Ginger Rogers best actress in 1940; Joan Fontaine in "Suspicion" earning her best actress in 1941; Greer Garson who earned best actress for her role in "Mrs. Miniver" in 1942; Jennifer Jones who received her best actress award in "The Song of Bernadette" in 1943; "Gaslight" in 1944 earned Ingrid Bergman a best actress award; "Mildred Pierce" in 1945 earned Joan Crawford a best actress award; how about "To Each His Own" in 1946 which earned Olivia De Havilland best actress; the beautiful Loretta Young who won best actress in the 1947 film "The Farmer's Daughter"; Jane Wyman earned best actress for her role in Johnny Belinda in 1948; Another win for Olivia De Havilland in 1949 for her role in "The Heiress".

There you have it - the actresses who took to the big screen in the 1940's and earned themselves an Oscar. What a time in the life of the film industry as women progressed to playing such strong roles proving their abilities far beyond imagination. But let us not stop there because there were so many other greats during this time.

I don't think we can say enough about the great Bette Davis. She starred in the 1940 movie "The Letter" by Warner Bros. and was nominated for best actress. Also in 1940, we saw Katharine Hepburn in her marvelous performance in "The Philadelphia Story" along side the great Jimmy Stewart. Bette Davis received another nomination in 1941 for her role in "The Little Foxes" in the company of other great actresses nominated that year such as Barbara Stanwyck for "Ball of Fire", and Olivida De Havilland for "Hold Back the Dawn".

Moving on to 1942, Bette Davis does it again with a best actress nomination for her role in "Now, Voyager" (one of my all time favorites). Also nominated was the great Katharine Hepburn for "Woman of the Year" and Teresa Wright for her role in "The Pride of the Yankees".

In 1943, Jean Arthur secured a nomination for her role in "The More the Merrier" along with Ingrid Bergman for "For Whom the Bell Tolls".

In 1944, we saw Claudette Colbert receive a nomination for her role in "Since You Went Away" and Greer Garson in "Mrs. Parkington" along with Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity". You'll never guess who was also nominated for best actress in 1944.........yes the great Bette Davis for her role in "Mr. Skeffington".

1945 brought us some more great performances by women such as Ingrid Bergman in

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