Nothing says “mom” like screaming at doctors to get your dying child some painkillers — or brainwashing your son into becoming a ruthless political assassin. With Mother’s Day approaching, let’s take a look back at the warmest, most memorable and even the baddest moms in movie history.
Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone in ‘Gravity’ (2013)
After her space-umbilical cord gets broken, Ryan symbolically climbs back into the womb and is finally reborn in a sticky mess, all the while finally letting go of her dead daughter.
Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy in ‘The Blind Side’ (2009)
Leigh Anne’s got so much motherhood to go around that she can afford to take a full-grown man (Quinton Aaron) into her family and teach him that football blocking is really all about pretending petite Southern women are behind you.
Debbie Reynolds as Beatrice Henderson in ‘Mother’ (1996)
In his own movie, Albert Brooks was content to play straight man to Reynolds, who did a hilariously dead-on spoof of aging moms.
Shirley MacLaine as Doris Mann in ‘Postcards from the Edge’ (1990)
MacLaine, as an imperious has-been actress, was spoofing Reynolds in the movie version of the book written by Debbie’s daughter, Carrie Fisher (rechristened Suzanne Vale and played by Meryl Streep in the movie).
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in ‘Aliens’ (1986)
Newt (Carrie Henn) isn’t her kid, but Ripley, the prototypical single lady with a cat, more or less adopts the child. If ever menaced by schoolyard bullies or fangy reptilian creatures, it sure would be nice to find your adoptive mother figure wearing a giant Transformers-like suit of armor and screaming, “Get away from her, you bitch!”
Shirley MacLaine as Aurora Greenway in ‘Terms of Endearment’ (1983)
“Please. It’s after ten. It’s after ten. I don’t see why she has to have this pain . . . It’s time for her shot. You understand? Do something. All she has to do is hold on until ten. And it’s past ten! She’s in pain! My daughter’s in pain. Give her the shot, you understand me? Giiiiive my daaaughter the shot! Thank you very much.”
JoBeth Williams as Diane Freeling in ‘Poltergeist’ (1982)
Never before or since did a mom respond to the complaint, “Mom, there’s something scary in the bedroom closet” with such fortitude. With only an umbilical rope to secure her to this world, she ventures into hell to bring back her daughter.
Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in ‘The Shining’ (1980)
Okay, it was all a misunderstanding, and she probably should have just waited for Child Protective Services when she discovered bruises on Danny. Still, it was pretty cool when she knocked Jack down the stairs with the baseball bat and locked him in the pantry. How was she supposed to know a ghost would let him out?
Cicely Tyson as Rebecca Morgan in ‘Sounder’ (1972)
Holding a family together against dire poverty and racism in the 1930s, Tyson set the standard for screen dignity.
Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ (1966)
Like all the best moms, she spends the entire evening drinking, bragging about her kid and being a royal bitch. It turns out she has no child, but still . . . .
Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965)
Let’s hear it for stepmoms! Although she didn’t quite make it as a nun, Maria certainly turned out to be a mother superior to Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl. The movie, we learn in the end, turns out to have been one long audition for motherhood.
Angela Lansbury as Eleanor Iselin in ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (1962)
The movie was a clever parable about McCarthyism, in which the Red-baiting senator’s wife was actually a communist infiltrator who had her son (creepy Laurence Harvey) programmed to kill the Republican presidential nominee, so that her husband, a vice-presidential pick, could take over. But don’t worry, Frank Sinatra is on the case. And Mommy winds up catching a bullet instead.
Claudia McNeil as Lena Younger in ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ (1961)
Mama’s $10,000 insurance check is the capital that drives the dreams of a Chicago family looking for a better life outside of their impoverished neighborhood.
Anthony Perkins as Mother in ‘Psycho’ (1960)
Wait, sorry, just gave away the ending. You’ve seen it, right? Anyway, if you’re ever in trouble with the law, it’s important to remember the my-mom-did-it-defense. And Mom wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Donna Reed as Mary Bailey in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946)
Without a husband and children, Mary would have been doomed to a life as a spinster librarian in unattractive glasses. Lucky for her, she wound up with a little girl who wouldn’t stop torturing a piano, and a suicidal husband. So it all worked out.
Dorothy McGuire as Katie Nolan in ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ (1945)
As a hardworking Irish mom with a drunken layabout for a husband, McGuire was the essence of perseverance. Then the guy who played the husband won the Oscar, which goes to show you that drunks are more fun.
Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce in ‘Mildred Pierce’ (1945)
Working her way up from nothing to become a successful entrepreneur, she covers for her spoiled-princess daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) every step of the way, even taking a murder rap for her.
Mary Astor as Anna Smith in ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ (1944)
You have to love the way she and the daughters spend the entire movie deceiving Papa until he finally makes the call to stay in St. Louis instead of moving to New York — and is convinced that it’s his idea.
Lucille La Verne as the Evil Queen in ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937)
Vain, duplicitous and murderous, but on the plus side, she did encourage her stepdaughter to eat fruit.