Favorite Movie Moms
AMC Movie List

Favorite Movie Moms

These on-screen moms aren't all sugar and spice. Which portrayal of the maternal instinct -- from the Über-protective to the deranged and manipulative -- is your favorite?

rank title points votes your vote
1 M’Lynn Eatenton (Sally Field), Steel Magnolias
M’Lynn is as fierce and protective of her daughter (Julia Roberts) as they come. 40 136
2 Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston), The Addams Family
Who wouldn’t want a mom who dresses like a goth hippie and holds séances? 37 131
3 Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine), Terms of Endearment
MacLaine’s a tough but loving and all-too-human mom, keeping watch over Debra Winger to the very end. 28 114
4 Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts), Erin Brockovich
She's both a mother of three and a smoking hot legal clerk who takes on a major corporation. 22 118
5 Rozalin Focker (Barbara Streisand), Meet the Fockers
Having a sex therapist for a mom is really cool, as long as she's not our mom! 16 122
6 Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Any mother who takes in a hideous baby who ages in reverse gets our praise. 0 106
7 Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway), Mommie Dearest
Dunaway portrays the abusive, manipulative Hollywood mom with perfect intensity. -10 98
8 Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner), Serial Mom
Turner’s cheerful, chilling sociopathic housewife makes this John Waters' satire. -15 87
9 Margaret White (Piper Laurie), Carrie
Hard to say who’s more deranged: Carrie or her mother, who literally stabs her daughter in the back. -15 101
10 Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury), The Manchurian Candidate
Mrs. Iselin's warped maternal instincts include manipulating her son into assassinating a political rival. -24 82