Women's Biographies on Film

Inspired by a post on a Turner Classic Movies Facebook fan group that noted it's Women's History Month and asked for readers to send in their favorite costumes worn by women(!), I started coming up with this list of women who have been portrayed in film instead, and it's quite an impressive one: 

Greta Garbo lead the way in Queen Christina (1933). Just the way she runs up the steps for her entrance hooked me. And Katharine Hepburn was a fine Mary of Scotland in 1936. 

Greer Garson played orphans' advocate Edna Gladney in Blossoms in the Dust (1941) and Marie Curie Madame Curie (1943), a role played by Rosamund Pike in the 2019 film Radioactive. Garson was Oscar-nominated for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960); Jean Stapleton played the role in the 1982 TV movie Eleanor, First Lady of the World. 

Bette Davis portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Jean Simmons played the young Queen in Young Bess (1953), as Cate Blanchett did (more realistically) in Elizabeth (1998).

Deborah Kerr starred in a fictionalized account of governess Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1956).  In 1959, The Diary of Anne Frank premiered; Shelly Winters donated the Supporting Actress Oscar she won for the film to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her portrayal of Barbara Graham in I Want to Live. (Jazz, and marijuana, are blamed.) Patty Duke was named Best Supporting Actress for playing Helen Keller in A Miracle Worker (1962).

Cleopatra (1963) starred Elizabeth Taylor, the first actress to make a million dollars for a role. (The Queen of Egypt was also portrayed as smoking something in the 2005/07 HBO series Rome.) Debbie Reynolds played The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964; Kathy Bates played the role in Titanic (1997).  In 1965, Julie Andrews played a version of Maria von Trapp (without the yodel) in The Sound of Music.

Faye Dunaway played outlaw Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), for which Estelle Parsons won a supporting Oscar for role as Blanche Barrow. Barbra Streisand knocked 'em dead as the irrepressible Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968), the same year that Katharine Hepburn starred as the also-irrepressible Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter; the two tied for the Best Actress Oscar. 

Julie Harris played a milquetoast version of the powerful and misunderstood poet Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst (1976). The only thing Harris seemed to have in common with Dickinson was her red hair. Unfortunately, I must say the same about Cynthia Nixon's portrayal in A Quiet Passion (2016).  

Jane Fonda starred as Tokin' Woman Lillian Hellman in Julia (1977), a film well worth seeing. Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft co-starred in The Turning Point, based on real-life ballerinas Isabel Mirrow Brown and Nora Kaye, a movie I would see again any time if I could find it streaming. 

Sally Field won an Oscar for Norma Rae (1979), based on real-life union organizer Crystal Lee Sutton. So did Sissy Spacek, who was exceptional as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), in which Beverly D'Angelo was perfect as Patsy Cline, as was Jessica Lange, who played Cline in Sweet Dreams (1985). Lange gave a powerful performance as Frances Farmer in Frances (1982), the year that Sissy Spacek played Joyce (Beth) Horman in Missing.

Silkwood (1983) stars Meryl Streep as activist Karen Silkwood. Streep also starred in Out of Africa (1985) as Tokin' Woman Isak Dinesen. The acclaimed actress played educator Roberta Guaspari in Music From the Heart (1999), Julia Child in Julie & Julia (2009), and Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) (for which she won the Oscar). She was nominated in the supporting category for playing writer Susan Orlean in Adaptation (2002), a role in which she gets high on a plant powder. 

Isabelle Adjani co-produced the breathtaking Camille Claudel (1988), in which she starred as the sculptor and muse, the same year Sigourney Weaver unforgettably played Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist. 

Judy Davis is wonderful as George Sand in Impromptu (1991). (There's a dejeuner sur l'herbe with herb in it.) Susan Sarandon played Michaela Odone in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), and A League of Their Own is Penny Marshall's ode to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Angela Bassett gives a powerhouse performance as Tina Turner. 

Jennifer Lopez portrays the "Queen of Tejano Music" Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in Selena (1997). Judi Dench took home a Supporting Actress Oscar for her eight unforgettable minutes as Queen Victoria in Shakespeare in Love (1998). She also played the monarch in Mrs. Brown (1997).

In 2000, Julia Roberts won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the title character in Erin Brockovich, and Marcia Gay Harden took the Supporting Actress award for playing Lee Krasner in Pollock. Iris (2001) starred Judi Dench and Kate Winslet as author Iris Murdoch, and Frida (2002) starred Salma Hayek as painter Frida Kahlo. 

Nicole Kidman and her prosthetic nose won an Oscar for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2003). Cate Blanchett took the Supporting Actress prize for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004), winning over Laura Linney as Clara McMillen in Kinsey, and Sophie Okonedo as Tatiana Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda.

Hillary Swank was splendid as suffragette Alice Paul in Iron Jawed Angels (2004). Frances O'Connor co-starred as Lucy Burns, with Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelica Huston as Carrie Chapman Catt. In 2005, Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand co-starred in North Country, based on a landmark sexual harassment class action case, and Catherine Keener played Harper Lee in Capote.

Marion Cotillard was named Best Actress for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007). Carey Mulligan was nominated for her role in An Education (2009), based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, and  Angelina Jolie was nominated for playing Christine Collins in Changeling (2008). Jolie won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1999 for Girl, Interrupted, in which Winona Ryder played author Susanna Kaysen. While playing Maria Callas in Maria (2005), Jolie hallucinates on drugs. 

Helen Mirren won an Oscar for playing (the modern) Queen Elizabeth in The Queen (2006), and played Sonya Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). Reese Witherspoon was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Cheryl Strayed in Wild (2014); she'd won for playing June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2006). Laura Dern was nominated for her role as Barbara "Bobbi" Grey in Wild. 

Tokin' Woman Kathy Bates portrayed Alice B. Toklas's lover Gertrude Stein in Midnight in Paris (2011).  Sally Field played Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln (2012), and Helen Hunt played sexual surrogate Charyl Cohen-Greene in The Sessions. Keira Knightley played code-breaker Joan Clarke in The Imitation Game (2014). 

I was disappointed in the Bessie Smith biopic Bessie (2015) starring Queen Latifah, which should have been great. Queen of the Desert starring Nicole Kidman as Tokin' Woman Gertrude Bell was similarly disappointing. (Kidman did a photo spread in Vogue inspired by her role.) Thankfully, Letters from Baghdad (2016) is a terrific documentary on Bell that was executive produced by Tilda Swinton, who gives voice to Bell in the film. 

Tokin' Woman Susan Sarandon became an Oscar winner for her portrayal of death-penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (2016). Hidden Figures from that year tells the story of NASA mathematicians Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer, who was nominated for an Oscar). 

Emma Stone portrayed Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes (2017), and Margot Robbie played tragic ice skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, for which Allison Janney took home a Supporting Actress award for playing her mother. Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise documented the life of the prominent writer, activist and Tokin' Woman. 

On the Basis of Sex (2018) dramatized Ruth Bader Ginsburg's early career; the documentary RGB explored her life and work. Keira Knightley played the French author in Colette and Amy Adams played Lynne Cheney in Vice. Saoirse Ronan starred in the title role for Mary Queen of Scots, with Margot Robbie playing her sister Queen Elizabeth I. Francis McDormand took the Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, based on events around the real-life murder of Kathy Page. 

In 2019, Kristen Stewart puffed pot in Seberg, Cynthia Erivo portrayed Harriet Tubman in Harriet, and Greta Gerwig's Little Women merges the character of Jo with author Louisa May Alcott. Renée Zellweger gave an astonishing (but sad) performance as an aging Judy Garland in Judy. 

Bombshell (2019) stars Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and Margot Robbie as a composite character, the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. Another Bombshell (2018) is a documentary about actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr. 

The TV series Mrs. America (2020) tells the story of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, played by Cate Blanchett, who co-produced. Also depicted are Jill Ruckelshaus (Elizabeth Banks) and Betty Friedan (Tracey Ullman), with Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, and Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug. Sarah Paulson plays the wide-eyed innocent we see the story through who, undergoes an awakening induced by drugs (as so often happens). 

Jennifer Hudson executive produced Respect (2021), in which she starred as Aretha Franklin. Hudson also portrayed Winnie Mandela in a 2011 film of the same name. 

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021) is a documentary depicting how the singer was targeted by the US Government for her drug use due to her politics. Diana Ross played her in Lady Sings the Blues (1972).  

"The First Lady" series (2022), interweaves the stories of Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis). Jessica Chastain transformed into Tammy Faye Baker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and won the Oscar for it. 

And finally, Annette Benning portrays long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad's record-breaking swim from Cuba to Floria at age 64 in Nyad (2023). Both she and Jodie Foster, who played her trainer Bonnie Stoll, were Oscar-nominated for their roles.

What films have I missed? Tell me in the comments. 

Women's History Month 2026 - Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future

The theme of this year's Women's History Month is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future,” encompassing "financial sustainability, community resilience, leadership succession, and intergenerational equity." 

"Whether developing green technologies, advancing economic justice, strengthening education systems, or building civic power – women are designing blueprints for sustainable transformation," says the National Women's History Foundation. "This theme affirms that shaping a sustainable future means fostering systems that support both people and the planet." 

The cannabis, psychedelics and environmental movements have many women to honor who have advanced sustainability. 

One is Tina Gordon of Moon Made Farms, in Southern Humboldt, California. In her sustainably grown garden, Gordon incorporates "aspects of nature, native soil, and on-site composting, we introduce forest and plant material to our gardens to ensure the best and healthiest product. We want to encourage the genetics, and ultimately epigenetics of the plant to carry through an expression of this unique geographic environment."

Sophia Buggs—also known as Lady Buggs—is an urban farmer, medicine woman, and community leader in Youngstown, Ohio. Through stories, blessings, and reflections, she explores themes of ancestral connection, Indigenous practices, food justice, and the challenges and joys of negotiating community partnerships. Her talk at the Women's Visionary Congress 2023 is both a celebration of cultural heritage and a call to honor the unseen forces and generational wisdom that guide us toward collective healing and empowerment. 

Winona LaDuke (pictured), the Native American activist who ran for Vice President on Ralph Nader's ticket in 1996 and 2000, is growing hemp and other crops in Osage, MN, where she operates a hemp market store and coffee shop. "I want to scale up and join the 400,000 other horse powered farming operations in North America, understanding the sacred relationship between life, power and the future," LaDuke writes. "I would like to live well, I am interested in decoupling food and hemp from fossil fuels, and I am also interested in the quality of life which small-scale farming creates." 

Another who sought a sustainable life is actress Heather Donahue (The Blair Witch Project) who wrote the book GrowGirl about her move to a Northern Californian pot-growing region, where she started a farm in 2008. She wrote, "There are a lot of pretty normal people who've taken to growing as a way to weather this economy and try to carve out a sustainable life with some semblance of autonomy, often in beautiful places that don't have many other jobs available." As she recounted on a recent episode of the podcast "Great Moments in Weed History," Donahue (now known as Rei Hance) has now moved to a town in New England where she lives intentionally small.  

Actress and environmentalist Daryl Hannah urged politicians to legalize marijuana and psychedelics in 2005, and in 2021 she tweeted in objection to "the yearly DEA raids & constant federal charge threats to Ogalala Sioux Covil rights champions - Alex & recently passed heroine Debra White Plume for trying to grow1 acre of industrial hemp." Hannah is the founder of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (SBA), and sits on several environmental advocacy boards such as the Environmental Media Association (EMA), Sylvia Earle Alliance, Mission Blue and the Action Sports Environmental Coalition. 

Stella McCartney deserves a nod for including hemp fabric into her fashion designs. It's been reported that her father Paul is growing hemp on his farm in England. Stella follows in the huge footsteps of Anita Roddick, who was a worldwide pioneer when she added hemp products to her eco-friendly line at The Body Shop in the 1990s. 

Known as "The Duchess of Hemp," Patricia Ann Steward was an activist, entrepreneur, and a key compatriot of Jack Herer (author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy). Born in Phoenix, her parents were two of the original owners of National Car Rental, where she worked as a teenager and honed her entrepreneurial skills. While attending school in Southern Texas, she met Janis Joplin and went with her to San Francisco, where she also befriended Grace Slick and worked "to address the issues of the day." In the 1970s, Patricia opened the Balcony Hall in Scottsdale, AZ, a music club featuring musicians like Donovan and John Prine, and go-go dancers in cages. 

Another hemp pioneer to honor is Christie Bohling, who was reportedly a "major league pot smuggler" in the Southwest when she turned her efforts towards legalization in the 1990s, founding CHA - the Coalition of Hemp Activists. "She was fiercely outspoken, instrumental in the early battles for hemp legalization. Jack Herer considered her an equal," writes High Times photographer Malcolm MacKinnon, who took this portrait of Bohling in the Arizona desert wearing a hemp poncho while standing next to a bale of hemp. 

 WOMEN ENVIRONMENTALISTS

Women's Visionary Congress 2011 presenter Dorka Keehn's book EcoAmazons: Twenty Women Who are Transforming the World chronicles the undertold story of womens' contribution to the environmental movement. Starting with Susan Fenimore Cooper (daughter of the novelist James) who wrote of her time in the woods "where the mind lays aside its daily littleness," Keehn moved to inspiring moderns like Hazel Johnson, Rev. Sally Bingham, and scientist Janine Benyus who coined the term "biomimicry." "If we're going to have a sustainable future, we need to be emulating them," Keehn said.

Another to emulate is Naomi Klein, the brilliant author of The Shock Doctrine and its sequel This Changes Everything. At a standing-room-only event in Berkeley, CA in 2014, Klein said that while The Shock Doctrine talked about the "disaster capitalists" who take advantage of events like Hurricane Katrina to assert their elitist agendas, we now need a "disaster collectivism" to fix the climate change that is destroying our habitat. "We're past the point where radical changes aren't needed," Klein told the crowd. "It isn't enough to resist; you need your own strategy." For one thing, we need a "polluter pays" model that funnels the profits from the oil industry into renewables, she said. Pointing out that renewable energy industries generate 6-8 times as many jobs as do oil industries, she noted that adding jobs will help end the "industrialized racism" of the prison industry. In 2013, along with 174 other prominent women (and men), Klein signed a letter to Obama calling for an end to the injustice of the war on drugs.

We recently lost Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube who was named "the most important person in advertising," as well as one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2015. She served on the boards of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Environmental Defense Fund, and Room to Read, an organization that focuses on literacy and gender equality in education. Wojcicki was an advocate for the expansion of paid family leave, countering gender discrimination at technology companies, getting young girls interested in computer science, and prioritizing computer programming and coding in schools. She also owned a real estate holding company that worked on the sustainable growth of Los Altos, California. 

Chilean botanist, environmentalist, and author Adriana Hoffmann was Chile's Environment Minister in 2000 and 2001. She advocated for the sustainable management and protection of Chilean forests, leading opposition to illegal logging in her role as coordinator of Defensores del Bosque Chileno (Defenders of the Chilean Forest) since 1992. Hoffmann authored over a dozen books on the flora of Chile and 106 botanical names, mostly realignments of species and infraspecific taxa of cactus.

No list of women environmentalists would be complete without the recently, dearly departed Jane Goodall (pictured). She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 to promote wildlife conservation, followed by the Roots & Shoots youth program in 1991, which grew into a global network. Goodall also established wildlife sanctuaries and reforestation projects in Africa and campaigned for the ethical treatment of animals in animal testing, animal husbandry and captivity. 

And the grandmother of them all was Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, which started the environmental movement when it was published in 1962. Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist, and her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a U.S. National Book Award and advanced marine conservation. Although Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. It also inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which today's news reports is being eviscerated. 

GOALS & OBJECTIVES OF WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH:

• Honor: Celebrate the diverse contributions of women who are leading sustainability efforts across environmental, economic, educational, and social justice movements.

• Educate: Raise awareness about the important historical and contemporary roles of women in shaping sustainable change.

• Inspire: Empower individuals and institutions on how to take action toward sustainability, equity, and justice in their own spheres of influence.

• Connect: Build bridges across generations, geographies, and disciplines to foster collaboration, mentorship, and shared learning.

• Envision: Encourage a long-term vision for our future where women’s leadership is central to thriving communities and a healthy planet.

LET'S DO IT ALL! 

 

 

Paul McCartney: Man on the Run

The new Amazon Prime documentary, "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run" charts McCartney's marijuana arrests and their affect on his music, and life. 

Through archival film footage and interviews, the film follows McCartney's musical journey, starting with the breakup The Beatles. Criticized for putting out apolitical albums of what he later called (unapologetically) "silly love songs" with his band Wings—featuring his wife Linda on keyboards—the band and Paul's songwriting gained an edge when he faced jail time for growing five marijuana plants on their family farm in March 1973. 

According to a TV interviewer in the film, it was said in court that, "McCartney had a considerable interest in horticulture, and many of his fans sent him seeds to grow. The cannabis seeds, it was said, came to him in such a way."  He admitted he had knowingly growing the plants, but claimed he didn't know what they were. 

The film does not mention the statement McCartney made in court regarding cannabis's legal status. “I feel that there should be legislation on the use of cannabis," he said. "Drink is a much worse drug to my mind than cannabis.” 

Later that year, Wings hit their stride with the release of their album "Band on the Run." The album was recorded in Nigera, where McCartney said he smoked the strongest weed he ever had in an interview with Marc Maron where he noted that "for the creative process it was required."