An Actors Studio alum and major theatre star, Kim Stanley worked sporadically in film — but when she did, the results were seminal. Her first Oscar nomination came for 1964’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon, for which she won the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress (losing to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins).

Based on the 1961 novel by Mark McShane, the film follows a mentally unstable medium who convinces her husband to kidnap a child so she can help the police solve the crime and achieve renown for her abilities, with not-so-great results. The depth of this role is off-the-charts incredible. She should have won.

Stanley also received a second career Oscar nomination in 1982 as the mother of Frances Farmer, played by Jessica Lange, in Frances. Stanley was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and Lange was (rightly!) nominated for Best Actress. Stanley lost to…Lange, who was also nominated that year for Tootsie.

This article is part of a special year-long series of anecdotes, reflections and thoughts about the Academy Awards.