TOP 5 FEMALE LEAD PERFORMANCES EVER!

Presenting my Top 5 Favorite Female LEAD Performances of All-Time...
These brilliant actresses made their films something to remember and weren't only incredibly good, but are now film icons that will be remembered for their fantastic work. From hundreds of leading ladies the silver screen had to offer, these are my 5 favorite Lead performances:

1. Vivien Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939)
In her 1st Oscar winning performance, Vivien Leigh plays the lead character of the 4-hour Best Picture epic "Gone with the Wind". Set during and after the Civil War, Leigh plays Scarlet, a young, ambitious Southern Belle who is tangled by the love of her good friend Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), but is forced to hide it when he is engaged to Melanie Wilkes (Olivia de Havilland). The only one who knows Scarlet's bitter secret is the arrogant Rhett Butler (Rhett Butler) whom she thinks is "coarse and conceited". The film takes us into an epic journey of love, betrayal and Scarlet's survival in the crumbled South land that she loves and cannot let go off.

"As God as my witness, as God as my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll be hungry again. No, nor will any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat of kill. As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

2. Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Johnson in The Color Purple (1985)
In her feature film debut, in which she was already nominated for an Oscar, Goldberg adapts Alice Walker's precious character Celie and projects her with brilliance onto the silver screen. Here, Celie is taken from her family in a young age to get married, but becomes only a battered wife who is later turned into a maid. In her years of suffering, Celie makes good friends, like Shug Avery (Margaret Avery). But all she longs for is to be reunited with her dear sister whom she loves the most. The film brings us the inspiring story of a woman and how she gains her independence from the cruel life that was given to her.

"I curse you. Until you do right by me everything you think about is gonna crumble! Until you do right by me, everything you even think about is gonna fail! I'm poor, black, I might evne be ugly, but dear God, I'm here. I'm here."

3. Vivien Leigh as Blance Dubios in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Vivien Liegh's haunting Oscar winning turn as the delusional Blanche Dubios broke the barrier that someone can out shine Marlon Brando in a movie. Liegh's character, Blanche, who has lost everything in her life soon lives with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and her impatient, callous husband Stanley (Marlon Brando). Here, the three discover their true colors. And Stella must now watch her sister deteriorate with craziness due to the behavior and unwelcome attitude Stanley was pressuring upon her. But what does Stellas learn from this? That her sister is crazy? Or her husband is?

"He's like an animal. He has an animal's habits. There's even something subhuman about him. Thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is. Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the Stone Age, bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle."

4. Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The beautiful and sexy Elizabeth Taylor shocked the world when she accepted the controversial and uncanny role of Martha in the racy Broadway-to-Film adaptation of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". Taylor strays from her usual romantic roles and gives us a unforgettable Oscar winning performance of the crazy Martha, who, with the help of her husband George (Richard Burton), loves to play emotional mind games with young couples just because her own marriage had gone down the drain. The performance is sick and haunting...dangerously twisted.

"George, my husband...George, who is out somewhere there in the dark, who is good to me - whom I revile, who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them. Who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy. Yes, I do wish to be happy."

5. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Gollightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Yes, Marilyn Monroe was the first choice for the role of the gold-digging, selfish, crude BUT beautiful Holly Gollightly in the 1961 Truman Capote adapted film. But Hepburn gives much justice to the role with her astonishing portrayal of a woman in denial. In the film, Holly is focused on finding someone incredibly rich to marry and help her brother Fred out of the army. But when a young, handsome tenant named Paul Barjak (George Peppard) moves downstairs, sparks begin to fly and the drama begins...

"I do not wish to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's. That's right. I'm just CRAZY about Tiffany's."