Allison Janney

Allison Janney’s heartbreaking performance as the abusive mother of the American figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya pretty much cleaned up in the 2018 awards season, winning her an Oscar, a Bafta and a Golden Globe. But Allison, 58, has long been on our radar, especially for her role as the quick-witted press secretary CJ Clegg in The West Wing, a role that earned Alison her fair share of statuettes. She stands six feet tall in her stockinged feet, has three Australian cattle dogs – Addie, Sippie and Dutch – and perhaps regrets that she never took up Paul Newman’s offer to ask him a favour any time she liked.