Oscar Win: Best Actress, Network (1977) The rise of American cinema in the '70s gave us a lot of great actors, many of whom are now household names. Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino... back in the day, these actors could do no wrong. And for a ten year period, the same could be said for Faye Dunaway, an actress who broke out in the 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde. Her role as Bonnie Parker received a lot of acclaim and she soon landed leading roles in such films as The Thomas Crown Affair and Little Big Man. Then, for a three year period, Faye Dunaway starred in three '70s classics in a row: Chinatown, Three Days Of The Condor, and Network. Her performance in Network is, without a doubt, her best. In the film, she plays a heartless, ambitious TV network programmer who stops at nothing in order to get what she wants. It's an incredibly difficult part to pull off, yet Dunaway nailed it. Rightfully, she won an Oscar for the performance. And like so many other actresses on this list, Dunaway's career began to fall apart shortly after her victory. At just the age of 36, Dunaway's career would hit a peak that she would never again replicate. She starred in a few forgettable films during the rest of the '70s, but things really took a turn for the worst when her portrayal of Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest was critically panned. The film subsequently became a cult hit, but that does little to repair the damage that it did to Dunaway's career. Don't worry: I'm not just picking on actresses. Look out for my article on Oscar-winning actors which will be posted later this week. Did I miss anyone here? Let me know the comments section below...
