Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie

This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Award winners

;1950s
*1954: Judith Anderson – "Macbeth"
*1955: Mary Martin – "Peter Pan"
*1956: Claire Trevor – "Dodsworth"
*1957: Polly Bergen – "The Helen Morgan Story"
*1958: "no award"
*1959: Julie Harris – "Little Moon of Alban"

;1960s
*1960: Ingrid Bergman – "The Turn of the Screw"
*1961: Judith Anderson – "Macbeth"
*1962: Julie Harris – "Victoria Regina"
*1963: Kim Stanley – "Cardinal Act of Mercy"
*1964: Shelley Winters – "Two is the Number"
*1965: Lynn Fontanne – "The Magnificent Yankee"
*1966: Simone Signoret – "A Small Rebellion"
*1967: Geraldine Page – "A Christmas Memory"
*1968: Maureen Stapleton – "Among the Paths to Eden"
*1969: Geraldine Page – "A Thanksgiving Visitor"

;1970s
*1970: Patty Duke – "My Sweet Charlie"
*1971: Lee Grant – "Neon Celling"
*1972: Glenda Jackson – "Elizabeth R"
*1973: Cloris Leachman – "A Brand New Life"
*1974: Susan Hampshire – "Vanity Fair"
*1974: Cicely Tyson – "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman"
*1974: Mildred Natwick – "The Snoop Sisters"
*1975: Katharine Hepburn – "Love Among the Ruins"
*1975: Jessica Walter – "Amy Prentiss
*1976: Susan Clark – "Babe"
*1976: Rosemary Harris – "Notorious Woman
*1977: Sally Field – "Sybil
*1977: Patty Duke – "Captains and Kings
*1978: Joanne Woodward – "See How She Runs"
*1978: Meryl Streep – "Holocaust
*1979: Bette Davis – "

;1980s
*1980: Patty Duke – "The Miracle Worker
*1981: Vanessa Redgrave – "Playing for Time
*1982: Ingrid Bergman – "A Woman Called Golda
*1983: Barbara Stanwyck – "The Thorn Birds
*1984: Jane Fonda – "The Dollmaker
*1985: Joanne Woodward – "Do You Remember Love
*1986: Marlo Thomas – "Nobody's Child
*1987: Gena Rowlands – "The Betty Ford Story
*1988: Jessica Tandy – "Foxfire
*1989: Holly Hunter – "Roe vs. Wade

;1990
*1990: Barbara Hershey – "A Killing in a Small Town
*1991: Lynn Whitfield – "The Josephine Baker Story
*1992: Gena Rowlands – "Face of a Stranger
*1993: Holly Hunter – "The Positively True Adventures...
*1994: Kirstie Alley – "David's Mother
*1995: Glenn Close – "Serving in Silence
*1996: Helen Mirren – "
*1997: Alfre Woodard – "Miss Evers' Boys
*1998: Ellen Barkin – "Before Women Had Wings
*1999: Helen Mirren – "The Passion of Ayn Rand

2000s

* 2000: Halle Berry – "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge"
** Judy Davis – "A Cooler Climate"
** Sally Field – "A Cooler Climate"
** Holly Hunter – "Harlan County War"
** Gena Rowlands – ""

* 2001: Judy Davis – ""
** Judi Dench – "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells"
** Holly Hunter – "When Billie Beat Bobby"
** Hannah Taylor-Gordon – ""
** Emma Thompson – "Wit"

* 2002: Laura Linney – "Wild Iris"
** Angela Bassett – "The Rosa Parks Story"
** Blythe Danner – "We Were the Mulvaneys"
** Vanessa Redgrave – "The Gathering Storm"
** Gena Rowlands – "Wild Iris"

* 2003: Maggie Smith – "My House in Umbria"
** Thora Birch – ""
** Helena Bonham Carter – "Live from Baghdad"
** Jessica Lange – "Normal"
** Helen Mirren – "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone"

* 2004: Meryl Streep – "Angels in America"
** Glenn Close – "The Lion in Winter"
** Judy Davis – "The Reagans"
** Helen Mirren – ""
** Emma Thompson – "Angels in America"

* 2005: S. Epatha Merkerson – "Lackawanna Blues"
** Halle Berry – "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
** Blythe Danner – "Back When We Were Grownups"
** Cynthia Nixon – "Warm Springs"
** Debra Winger – "Dawn Anna"

* 2006: Helen Mirren – "Elizabeth I"
** Gillian Anderson – "Bleak House"
** Kathy Bates – "Ambulance Girl"
** Annette Bening – "Mrs. Harris"
** Judy Davis – "A Little Thing Called Murder"

* 2007: Helen Mirren – ""
** Queen Latifah – "Life Support"
** Debra Messing – "The Starter Wife"
** Mary-Louise Parker – "The Robber Bride"
** Gena Rowlands – "What If God Were the Sun?"

* 2008: Laura Linney – "John Adams"
** Judi Dench – "Cranford"
** Catherine Keener – "An American Crime"
** Phylicia Rashad – "A Raisin in the Sun"
** Susan Sarandon – "Bernard and Doris"