Just when audiences viewed her as a funny TV newswoman, Mary Tyler Moore stunned movie audiences with an Oscar-nominated heel turn as the cold mother in Robert Redford's Best Picture winner "Ordinary People."
Movie moms don't get more memorable than Mrs. Bates, who turned Norman Bates into the ultimate momma's boy, admitting, "A boy's best friend is his mother." Alfred Hitchcock went to great lengths to hold casting sessions for the role, and needless to say, he got it just right.
Sally Field has rattled off movie moms like it's her job, from "Norma Rae" to "Places in the Heart" to "Mrs. Doubtfire." Still, her best is Mrs. Gump, imparting life lessons like "stupid is as stupid does" and "life is like a box of chocolates." As Forrest says, "Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them."
Few movie moms are as twisted as Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson, who seduces young Dustin Hoffman, then forbids him from dating her daughter. It's no coincidence that the song "Mrs. Robinson" plays in the background of Stifler's Mom in "American Pie."
Meryl Streep has brought us many memorable movie moms, from her custody battle in "Kramer vs. Kramer" to shouting "the dingle stole my baby" in "A Cry in the Dark," but her greatest was her harrowing Holocaust decision at the core of "Sophie's Choice."
Long before voicing Mrs. Potts in "Beauty and the Beast," Angela Lansbury was one of the AFI's No. 21 Greatest Villain, hypnotizing her sniper son with the Queen of Hearts, while driving her husband's political career. Meryl Streep reprised the role in 2006.
Melinda Dillon went to Devil's Tower to search for her alien-abducted son in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), but her best mother role came in "A Christmas Story," telling Ralphie, "You'll shoot your eye out," battling the father of a leg lamp and getting Randy to "show mommy how the piggies eat."
Roman Polanski created one of the most disturbing movies of all time, casting Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, who's raped by the Devil and impregnated with the Antichrist. Think of it as a prequel to "The Omen."
Lorraine McFly is perhaps the most bizarre movie mom, a mother who falls for her son after he travels back in time to 1955. What irony as she lectures Michael J. Foxx: "Marty, you're beginning to sound just like my mother." Heavy.
Julia Roberts finally got her Oscar playing the real-life Erin Brockovich, the unemployed single mom who brings down a California company accused of polluting the city water supply.
Darwell's Ma Joad is the backbone of John Ford's Depression epic, following Henry Fonda's powerful speech with the inspirational line: "We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people."
Piper Laurie abused her teenage daughter Carrie to chilling effect, refusing to acknowledge her daughter's supernatural gift until it put them both in the grave -- or did it?
Who can forget the source of James Cagney's prison freakout and his explosive final stand: "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" Margaret Wycherly's Ma Jarrett is cinema's finest example of mother-son crime.
Ruby Dee became a screen icon as the wife of Sidney Poitier in Lorraine Hansberry's classic play adaptation about the poor Younger family grappling with an insurance payment. The role led to her casting as Mother Sister in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing."
While Catherine O'Hara said she would "sell her soul to the devil himself" in order to get home to her son, Ellen Burstyn dealt with the demonic possession of her daughter.
Few childhood moments were as traumatizing as Bambi's mother getting mowed down in a snowy field. The scene helped kids learn to mourn the loss of a mother, just like Mufassa's death helps them deal with the death of a father in "The Lion King."
Steven Spielberg created two great mother roles in 1982, writing for JoBeth Williams in "Poltergeist," and directing Dee Wallace as the single mom of Elliot's E.T. encounter, reminding moms everywhere to keep the kitchen cupboard stocked with Reese's Pieces.
Linda Hamilton's Sarah Conner had the toughest motherly task of them all: birthing the future savior of the human race, and staring down Terminator cyborgs bent on stopping it.
Before she voiced the mom in Pixar's "The Incredibles," Holly Hunter earned an Oscar as the mute mother with a prized piano in 1850s New Zealand. Her stellar performance allowed her co-star, young Anna Paquin, to win one, too.
Everyone remembers M. Night Shyamalan's ghostly twist, but the core of "The Sixth Sense" is the relationship between Toni Collette and her gifted son Haley Joel Osment. Just try not to cry during their final car exchange, discussing her question to grandma: "Do I make her proud?" "Everyday."
Shirley MacLaine won an Oscar as the mother of ill-fated Debra Winger and reluctant girlfriend of Jack Nicholson in James L. Brooks' Best Picture winner.
Sandra Bullock bagged an Oscar as a Southern mother who adopts a young teen and helps him become a football powerhouse in the true story of Ravens lineman Michael Oher.
Beverly D'Angelo's Ellen Griswold was the calm, sarcastic force that kept Clark and company in check, from Wally World to Europe, Christmas to Vegas.
