Hollywood leading lady Joan Fontaine earned numerous awards and accolades for her acting spanning 40 years. Working in movies, TV, radio, and the theater, the younger sister of film legend Olivia de Havilland was no slouch in the awards category herself, earning Emmy and Oscar nominations and an Academy Award for Best Actress. Here are six recognitions that highlight Fontaine's career kudos.
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1. 1940 Academy Awards, Best Actress nomination, "Rebecca"
Fontaine played the self-doubting, naïve second wife of a controlling English aristocrat, with her acting inspired, in part, by her director's manipulation.
According to her obituary in The Telegraph, to get Fontaine more into character, Alfred Hitchcock told the young American starlet that her English peers on the film didn't like her and that her famous leading-man co-star, Laurence Olivier, hadn't wanted her cast in the first place.
2. 1941 Academy Awards, Best Actress winner, "Suspicion"
Paired again with Hitchcock, Fontaine was again nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, winning for her role as yet another wife in distress. The youngest actress to win the award at that time, she was also the only actress Hitchcock directed to the award.
3. 1941 New York Film Critics Circle, Best Actress winner, "Suspicion"
Oscar voters in 1941 may have taken their cue from New York City's newspaper and magazine critics writing who first gave Fontaine the top nod for her performance as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth.
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4. 1943 Academy Awards, Best Actress nomination, "The Constant Nymph"
After a one-year absence from Academy Awards consideration, Fontaine returned with a nomination for Best Actress in "The Constant Nymph," a story about the unrequited love of a teenage girl for an older man.
5. 1947 Golden Apple Award, Most Cooperative Actress winner
Fontaine was evidently as well respected off-screen by her peers as she was on it. The Golden Apple award was presented by the Hollywood Women's Press Club to actors and actresses who demonstrated professional excellence in the working relationships. The Club was more than just a polite gathering of well-mannered ladies – they also awarded "sour apples" to those they deemed rude.
6. 1980 Daytime Emmy nomination, Outstanding Guest/Cameo Appearance in a Daytime Drama Series, "Ryan's Hope"
After film parts began to dry up in the 1950s, Fontaine turned to theater and television, with her staying power demonstrated by this 1980 Emmy award nomination.
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