Match the Best Actress Oscar Winners - 1990s Quiz

Answer: Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar on her first nomination for her role as Annie Wilkes in "Misery". In the film, which was based on a Stephen King novel, Wilkes was the "number one fan" of author Paul Sheldon (James Caan), and she became incensed when she found out he was killing off her favorite character.

The other nominees for the award were Anjelica Huston ("The Grifters"), Julia Roberts ("Pretty Woman"), Meryl Streep ("Postcards from the Edge"), and Joanne Woodward ("Mr. & Mrs. Bridge").

Answer: Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster picked up her second Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying Clarice Starling in "The Silence of the Lambs". She had previously won the award for "The Accused", and she had a previous nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for "Taxi Driver".

In "The Silence of the Lambs", Starling was an FBI trainee who was tasked with interviewing incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in the hopes of catching another serial killer. The other nominees in the category were Geena Davis ("Thelma & Louise"), Laura Dern ("Rambling Rose"), Bette Midler ("For the Boys"), and Susan Sarandon ("Thelma & Louise").

Answer: Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Actress on her first nomination for portraying Margaret Schlegel in "Howards End". Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film followed the intellectual and independent Schlegel sisters (Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter) and their involvement with the traditional and wealthy Wilcox family in Edwardian England.

The other contenders for the Best Actress award were Catherine Deneuve ("Indochine"), Mary McDonnell ("Passion Fish"), Michelle Pfeiffer ("Love Field"), and Susan Sarandon ("Lorenzo's Oil").

Answer: Holly Hunter

Also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category in the same year for "The Firm", Holly Hunter picked up her first Best Actress Oscar for portraying mute Ada McGrath in "The Piano". She had previously been nominated in the Best Actress category for "Broadcast News".

In "The Piano", McGrath and her daughter were sent to New Zealand with McGrath basically being the mail-order bride for a frigid colonial (Sam Neill); she then became involved with his more passionate friend (Harvey Keitel) while giving him piano lessons.

The other nominees in the category were Angela Bassett ("What's Love Got to Do with It"), Stockard Channing ("Six Degrees of Separation"), Emma Thompson ("The Remains of the Day"), and Debra Winger ("Shadowlands").

Answer: Jessica Lange

Having previously won in the Best Supporting Actress category for "Tootsie", Jessica Lange picked up her first Best Actress Oscar for her role as mentally unstable Carly Marshall in "Blue Sky". She had four previous nominations in the Best Actress category for "Frances", "Country", "Sweet Dreams", and "Music Box".

In "Blue Sky", director Tony Richardson's last film, Marshall was the wife of an Army nuclear engineer (Tommy Lee Jones) who has to deal with his knowledge of a testing mishap and his wife's affair with a commanding officer.

The other contenders for the Best Actress award were Jodie Foster ("Nell"), Miranda Richardson ("Tom & Viv"), Winona Ryder ("Little Women"), and Susan Sarandon ("The Client").

Answer: Susan Sarandon

On her fifth nomination in the category, Susan Sarandon finally picked up her first Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying Sister Helen Prejean in "Dead Man Walking". She had previously been nominated for "Atlantic City", "Thelma & Louise", "Lorenzo's Oil", and "The Client". Based on a true story, the "Dead Man Walking" in the title of the film was an unrepentant convicted killer (Sean Penn) who asked Roman Catholic nun Prejean to help appeal his death sentence.

The other nominees in the category were Elisabeth Shue ("Leaving Las Vegas"), Sharon Stone ("Casino"), Meryl Streep ("The Bridges of Madison County"), and Emma Thompson ("Sense and Sensibility").

Answer: Frances McDormand

With her first nomination in the category, Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in "Fargo". She had previously been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for "Mississippi Burning".

A Coen brothers film, "Fargo" told the tale of a desperate car salesman (William H. Macy) who staged a kidnapping of his wife in order to extort the ransom from her wealthy father only to have things go very, very wrong. The stoic Gunderson was the one who put the pieces of the plot together.

The other nominees for Best Actress were Brenda Blethyn ("Secrets & Lies"), Diane Keaton ("Marvin's Room"), Kristin Scott Thomas ("The English Patient"), and Emily Watson ("Breaking the Waves").

Answer: Helen Hunt

Becoming the first actress to win the Best Actress Oscar in the same year that she picked up a Best Actress Emmy ("Mad About You"), Helen Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying waitress Carol Connelly in "As Good as It Gets". It was her first Academy Award nomination.

In "As Good as It Gets", the crusty Connelly became involved with a misanthropic author suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (Jack Nicholson) after he picked up the tab for her asthmatic son's medical care.

The other contenders for Best Actress were Helena Bonham Carter ("The Wings of the Dove"), Julie Christie ("Afterglow"), Judi Dench ("Mrs. Brown"), and Kate Winslet ("Titanic").

Answer: Gwyneth Paltrow

With her first Academy Award nomination, Gwyneth Paltrow won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Viola de Lesseps/Thomas Kent in "Shakespeare in Love". She was the first member of her entertainment family (father, producer/director/writer Bruce Paltrow and mother, actress Blythe Danner) to receive an Academy Award nomination. "Shakespeare in Love" told the fictional account of a romance between Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and de Lesseps while the Bard was writing "Romeo and Juliet".

The other nominees in the category were Cate Blanchett ("Elizabeth"), Fernanda Montenegro ("Central Station"), Meryl Streep ("One True Thing"), and Emily Watson ("Hilary and Jackie").

Answer: Hilary Swank

Another first time nominee, Hilary Swank picked up the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of transgender Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry". Based on a true story, Brandon Teena searched for a new life in a Nebraska town, but criminal warrants from his old town and his former life as Teena Brandon tragically caught up with him.

The other contenders for the Best Actress Oscar were Annette Bening ("American Beauty"), Janet McTeer ("Tumbleweeds"), Julianne Moore ("The End of the Affair"), and Meryl Streep ("Music of the Heart").