Meryl Streep.
Mods go ahead and close this thread. It’s been answered.
Gena Rowlands.
I was gonna get all researchy on you and looked up who had the most nominations for best actress and best supporting actress and, well, that’s Meryl Streep. Go figure.
Katharine Hepburn was no slouch.
Do you mean “consistent, dependable” from the audiences’ POV, or from the directors’?
Dame Ellen Terry.
Bette Davis
Bernadette Peters. She is multi-talented, could justifiably be a diva supreme, yet is one of the nicest, down-to-earth people you will ever meet.
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I’m not even sure what exactly your criteria are.
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Meryl Streep is most likely a wonderful person but I’ve always thought hat she makes all of her characters larger than life, hence unbelievable, hence I avoid her performances like the plague.
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Helen Mirren
I can’t stand Meryl Streep.
Goo from about 40,000 BCE was very good. When she mimed that forest fire … wow.
Talia Shire.
You didn’t say consistently, dependably good.
Kate Winslet is well on her way.
You could make a case for the three dames,
Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench.
or…Meryl Streep. (And if she were from the UK she’d be a dame as well)
Katharine Hepburn for me too.
Actually, with adjectives like “consistent” and “dependable” my mind goes more to someone like Mary Wickes.
Jane Darwell.
This. I have met her and performed with her, and it’s true. And I’d add “ageless.”
Otherwise, it’s Bette Davis.
Emma Thompson.
Andie MacDowell
Sandra Locke. Consistently, dependably bad.