The Best Actress of the 1950s: Marilyn Monroe?

The 1950s witnessed a decline in quality roles for women. The greatest stars of the 30s and 40s-Barbara Stanwyck, Myrna Loyd, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis-all fell victim to age discrimination. In their place Hollywood foisted a number of less than stunning actresses that were, nevertheless, embraced by movie audiences. Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, Sophia Loren and the others all may have a legitimate claim to sex symbol status, but for the most part even their best performances are rather forgettable. It may come as a surprise to most people, but I actually believe that in retrospect the best actress of the 1950s really was Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe has never really gotten the credit she deserves as a talented comedienne. Nor has she fully been recognized for her dramatic abilities put on display in such films as Bus Stop and Niagara. Will I try to make the argument that Marilyn Monroe gave the greatest performance of the 1950s? No. But I will make the argument that those great actresses of the 30s and 40s didn't make it through the decade intact, and that the other glamour girls who got Oscars and recognition gave, for the most part, rather mundane and uninteresting performances in most of their films.