This past week we saw the 93rd Academy Awards give the Best Actress Award to Frances McDormand, again, for the 3rd time in her career. This is just one behind the record holder, Katherine Hepburn, who has 4 Oscars. But are these two the greatest of all time?
Well before you read my list below, let me explain how I judged it.
First, it is NOT by how many awards they won. So chill out, Kate Hepburn and Frances McDormand did NOT make my Top 10 but they did make the Top 20. If it was just Oscars, they would be 1 and 2. Instead, I judged these leading ladies by how consistently compelling they are when they appear on the silver screen. It did NOT matter how many movies they did. To me, it’s more of how they grab my attention when they act. In other words, when I see their name on the marquis do I immediately want to watch the movie just because of the top-billed actress.
William Morgan Brown
William Morgan Brown, 76, of Parkersburg, passed away peacefully at home on December 28, 2020, surrounded by his family and following a courageous 3 1/2 year battle against glioblastoma. Mr. Brown was born July 5, 1944, at Clearwater, FL, the son of Hamlin L. Brown, Jr. and Mildred Rogers Brown.
After graduating from Wahoo High School (Wahoo, NE) in 1962, he attended Clemson University in Clemson, SC, earning a B.S. in Industrial Engineering in 1966 and a M.S. in Engineering from Ohio University in 1969. Several years later, he would serve on the Engineering Advisory Board at Clemson. Bill was a Licensed Professional Engineer in both Wisconsin and West Virginia and served as the Engineer of Wood County for 14 years, until his declining health forced him to retire in early 2018. His career spanned over 30 years of engineering and manufacturing management. In 1999, he retired from industry and joined WVU-P as a professor of engineering technology, retiring after
Top 10 most dislikable characters in fiction
From Tom Wolfe’s ‘master of the universe’ to George Eliot’s vengeful pedant, these are some of the hardest characters in literature to love
‘Proud of his chin’ … Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy and Melanie Griffith as Maria in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd
‘Proud of his chin’ … Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy and Melanie Griffith as Maria in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd
LouiseCandlish
Wed 30 Dec 2020 05.00 EST
Last modified on Fri 5 Feb 2021 12.20 EST
At reader events to promote my novels, I find that one question crops up more often than any other: ‘Why do you write such dislikable characters?’ Well, I usually reply, swallowing my defensiveness, don’t all novelists write characters who are dislikable to