Geena Davis has had a four-decade career in film and television, and it all began because of the comic way she filled out a pair of underwear in the classic comedy “Tootsie.” Davis was an aspiring model and actress when director Sydney Pollack cast her and she drew huge laughs as Dustin Hoffman’s dressing room mate who doesn’t know he is really a man. She thereby exercises and walks around the dressing room in just a bra and panties causing Hoffman’s character great discomfort.
Davis then turned to television in the cult hit sitcom “Buffalo Bill” for which she even wrote an episode. While beloved by critics and award shows the dark show never found its audience and was cancelled shortly into its run. Davis was then cast as the lead in a sitcom named “Sara” which was supposed to make her the next Mary Tyler Moore. The hype for that series didn’t live up to its potential and it also was quickly cancelled. Davis’ career seemed to be over before it had really gotten started but she managed to reignite interest from movie producers with a small role in “Fletch” and the horror spoof “Transylvania 6-5000.”
Those movies led to a leading role in “The Fly” followed by two Oscar nominated performances in “The Accidental Tourist” (for which she won as Best Supporting Actress) and “Thelma and Louise” (for which she competed in lead against co-star Susan Sarandon). Davis once appeared with Oprah Winfrey describing how she was listening to Siskel and Ebert in the car on the way to the ceremony and the powerful film critics said she was the least likely person to win in that category. Oscar voters felt differently obviously.
Take a photo gallery tour above of her 15 greatest performances, ranked from worst to best.
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15. CUTHROAT ISLAND (1995)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Renny Harlin. Writers: Marc Norman, Robert King. Starring Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Stan Shaw.
Davis and her then husband Renny Harlin tried to make her into an action hero in this lavish pirate adventure film. The film had trouble from the start when the duo had trouble finding a leading man who wanted to star in a female driven action film. (Matthew Modine eventually agreed after more A-list actors turned the film down.) Davis is certainly game and able to pull off the action sequences but the film was a bit of a disaster with critics and the box office.
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14. MARJORIE PRIME (2017)
Image Credit: Jason Robinette/Passage/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Michael Almereyda. Starring Lois Smith, Tim Robbins, Jon Hamm.
Davis had a key supporting role in this science fiction/fantasy film that last year brought some awards buzz for its star Lois Smith. The film is about a futuristic service that reunites people with holograms of their deceased loved ones. The film ended up not making the awards cut but it does feature some interesting actors doing fine work.
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13. THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996)
Image Credit: New Line/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Renny Harlin. Writer: Shane Black. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Craig Bierko, David Morse.
After the disaster of “Cutthroat Island” Davis and her husband Renny Harlin tried again to place her in the center of a high budget action film. Davis plays an amnesia victim slowly starting to remember her past and the danger that she was involved in. Reviews and box office for this film was a bit better than for “Cutthroat Island” but the film was still harmful to Davis’ attempts to be an action heroine and it would be the last time she would headline a major Hollywood film. She and Harlin would also divorce a few years later ending that collaboration.
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12. FLETCH (1985)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Michael Ritchie. Writer: Andrew Bergman. Starring Chevy Chase, Joe Don Baker, Tim Matheson.
Davis had a small role as a wise cracking foil to Chevy Chase’s bumbling detective Fletch in the first of this series of films. After her film debut in “Tootsie” Davis focused primarily on television work. Her appearance in this film would mark her return to the big screen after a three-year absence and relaunch her as a movie actress.
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11. STUART LITTLE (1999)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Rob Minkoff. Writers: M. Night Shyamalan , Greg Brooker. Starring Michal J. Fox, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Lipnicki.
Surprisingly in the years from 1999 to 2005 Davis’ only film appearances would be in this film and its two sequels. Davis plays the mother of a young boy who adopts a mouse that can speak to add to her family. The films are based on the popular book of the same name by E.B. White.
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10. EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY (1988)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Julien Temple. Writers: Julie Brown, Charlie Coffey, Terrence E. McNally. Starring Julie Brown, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey.
A few weeks after she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress Davis was back on screen with what could be labeled as a bit of a surprise follow-up for an Oscar winner. The film had already been completed though prior to Davis’ win. Davis teams with MTV personality Julie Brown as a shallow California manicurist who begins an affair with hairy aliens who have landed on the planet.
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9. HERO (1992)
Image Credit: Columbia/Tri-Star/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Stephen Frears. Writer: David Webb Peoples. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, Joan Cusack.
Davis missed out on a prime opportunity when she turned down Stephen Frears offer to appear in his film “The Grifters” in a role that would earn Annette Bening an Oscar nomination and make her a star. She understandably said yes when Frears came back with another offer to star as a television news woman who survives a major plane crash and makes a “hero” out of the man she believes rescued her and other passengers only to later find out she has the wrong man.
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8. ANGIE (1994)
Image Credit: Hollywood/Scapa Via/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Martha Coolidge. Writer: Todd Graff. Starring James Gandolfini, Aida Turturro, Stephen Rea.
Davis showed an offbeat winning charm in this story of a Brooklyn office worker who becomes pregnant by her loutish boyfriend and decides to have the baby on her own causing scandal among her conservative family. The film interestingly first teamed James Gandlolfini and Aida Turturro who would go on to star as brother and sister on “The Sopranos.”
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7. QUICK CHANGE (1990)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Directors: Howard Franklin, Bill Murray. Writer: Howard Franklin. Starring Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards.
Bill Murray directed and starred in this comedic heist film about a bank robber dressed in a clown suit and his girlfriend (Davis) who rob a bank and manage to get one million dollars. The plot gets complicated after that since even though they have pulled off the heist they are met with constant impediments as the try to escape the city and country.
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6. TOOTSIE (1982)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sydney Pollack. Writers: Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr.
When Davis debuted on film in this acclaimed comedy she was mostly known as the girl in the underwear. It didn’t seem likely at the time that she would rise to the top of her profession and become an Oscar winning actress. Davis plays the dressing room roommate of Dustin Hoffman who is pretending to be a woman in order to gain employment on a soap opera. Davis did display great comedic quirkiness in the film in addition to an underwear body. The physical disparity in height between Davis and Hoffman is a great comic gag and one of the reasons why Davis says she was cast in the film.
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5. BEETLEJUICE (1988)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Tim Burton. Writers: Michael McDowell,Warren Skaaren. Starring Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder.
This film began what would become a great year in Davis’ career. She plays a young married woman who along with her husband are killed shortly after their marriage. The two are forced to haunt their old home where they play tricks to try and scare out the new occupants. The highly inventive film launched Tim Burton into the realm of one of films’ most imaginative and constantly surprising filmmakers.
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4. THE FLY (1986)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: David Cronenberg. Writers: Charles Edward Pogue, David Cronenberg. Starring Jeff Goldblum, John Getz.
Davis’ first dramatic role came in this remake of the classic 1958 film of the same name. The remake from master horror director David Cronenberg features the same plot as the original in which an eccentric scientist accidentally turns himself into a fly while experimenting with teleportation. The Cronenberg version is much darker and grislier than the original and features a very fine performance from Jeff Goldblum in the lead. Davis plays a reporter who becomes involved with Goldblum and she gets to utter one of movies great lines when she says “be afraid, be very afraid.”
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3. A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992)
Image Credit: Columbia/REX/Shutterstock Director: Penny Marshall. Writers: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel. Starring Lori Petty, Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell.
The drama behind the scenes of “A League of Their Own” almost rival the films story. Debra Winger was originally hired to play the lead in the film but when she didn’t show up for a contract signing, she was replaced with Davis who only had a few days to fly to the set and begin her role as the ace pitcher of an all-women’s baseball league. Davis received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for this film that gave us the memorable quote of “there’s no crying in baseball!!!!”
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2. THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (1988)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Lawrence Kazdan. Writers: Frank Galati, Lawrence Kasdan. Starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Bill Pullman.
When director Lawrence Kasdan and actors William Hurt and Kathleen Turner first worked together, they came up with the classic film noir thriller “Body Heat.” They reunited here in highly different circumstances as a terribly depressed couple unable to cope with the murder of their young son in a fast-food restaurant. The third role in the film is Muriel Pritchett an offbeat dog trainer who falls in love with Hurt. Based on an acclaimed novel by Anne Tyler the role of Muriel was highly coveted and every appropriate actress of the day auditioned for the role which a bit surprisingly went to Davis. Davis rallied in the role though and even managed to pull off one of the biggest surprises in Oscar history when she won the Best Supporting Actress award for this film over the heavily favored Sigourney Weaver (“Working Girl.”)
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1. THELMA AND LOUISE (1988)
Image Credit: MGM/Pathe/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Ridley Scott. Writer: Callie Khouri. Starring Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel, Brad Pitt.
Davis found herself in the center of the national consciousness when this controversial film became a massive hit and also a massive topic of debate in 1991. Both she and Susan Sarandon would receive Oscar nominations as Best Actress (which hasn’t happened since in Oscar history) as two friends who go on a road trip that ends in a crime spree as they flee police after Sarandon shoots a man that is trying to rape Davis. While Sarandon has the darker more troubled role Davis perhaps gets to take the greater journey in the film as the awkward and submissive Thelma who gains confidence and even seems to enjoy the gunplay and chases the two become involved in. As Thelma herself says “I think I have a flair for this” and that can be said of Davis too who gave an outstanding performance on so many levels.
