The nominees were ...
- Gladys Cooper in Now, Voyager
- Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons
- Susan Peters in Random Harvest
- May Whitty in Mrs. Miniver
- Teresa Wright in Mrs. Miniver
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Wright was discovered by Samuel Goldwyn in the cast of Life With Father on Broadway and signed to make her screen debut in The Little Foxes, for which she received her first nomination. A year later she became only the second person to receive simultaneous nominations in both leading and supporting role categories; she was also nominated for her role in The Pride of the Yankees. But aside from Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years of Our Lives, her subsequent films were mostly undistinguished. As she began to outgrow ingenue roles, she spent most of her later career in television.
... when it should have gone to ...
Always cast in somewhat vinegary roles, such as the spinster Aunt Fanny in Ambersons, Moorehead had begun her career on radio as a singer and actress. This led to her association with Orson Welles as a member of his Mercury Theater Company, including the notorious "War of the Worlds" broadcast in 1938. She came with Welles to Hollywood to play the small role of Kane's mother in Citizen Kane, and signed a contract with RKO. She received three more Oscar nominations, but never won. In later years, she frequently appeared on television, most memorably as Endora, the mother of Elizabeth Montgomery's character, Samantha, on "Bewitched." Moorehead hated being identified with the role.
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| Agnes Moorehead as Fanny Minafer in The Magnificent Ambersons |
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